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Ultimate Questions and
Ultimate Answers

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). These are words of great familiarity but also words of incredible profundity. Within this one sentence lies the answer to the longing of many, dare we say virtually all, souls throughout history. It certainly deals with a longing of mine and likely in some fashion, a longing of your soul as well. For in these words is answered the basic question each of us yearns to have an answer for: “Where did I come from?”

Beyond this most fundamental question are the follow-on questions in the minds of most humans: 2) Why am I here? 3) Where am I going?

Amazingly, the first two and the last two chapters of the Bible clearly answer these three universally asked questions. It seems too simple. It seems too glib. It seems like there should be so much more. And indeed, it is so simple, yet…there is so much more. It is the confidence that comes from believing and understanding both the remarkable simplicity and the “so much more” of the Bible, the revealed word of the Creator God, that we seek to explore in this Book.

In this first chapter, we will broadly overview the first two and the last two chapters of Scripture to establish the simplicity of the answers to the questions above. We will also receive splendid glimpses of just a bit of the “so much more” of scripture that promises the thrill of deeper understanding that provides the solidly rooted foundation of lives built upon the purposes of the Creator God.

This Book is not intended to be an Apologetic—that is a defense of, or arguments for, the beliefs we’ll be discussing from Scripture. But it certainly seeks to be an encouragement directed toward an acceptance of and submission to the Creative Purposes of the Creator God revealed in the Bible. Not every one of your questions will be answered. Not each one you’d like to ask will be addressed. But we will let the broad, vibrant, and colorful palette of the word of God reveal some of those broad as well as some of the fine brushstrokes of the remarkable masterpiece of revelation that is the word of God. These magnificent brushstrokes are masterfully painted onto the broadest of canvases spanning all of history—all in words and story that burst forth with the color and splendor displayed by the Master Painter.

The first, bold brushstroke laid down in words of power, magnificence, and the simplicity of the genius of the Creator God is the brashly bold and stunningly revealed answer to our first question, “Where did I come from?” That amazing first brushstroke of words is, to repeat, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” You, I, all that is, and ever has been, or ever will be anywhere in the universe (or created spiritual realm that we don’t see) are the results of the creative work of God. We “came” from the creative action of the Creator God…in the beginning.

This is a simple, yet profound truth that has never been accepted by all of humankind. Why that is so will be a part of what we learn concerning the “so much more” that we have alluded to. But the “so much more” will come later.

Our second question, “Why am I here?”, is answered in the latter portions of Genesis 1-2. In Genesis 1:26, God says concerning mankind, “let them rule over…” and in verse 28 He also says to mankind, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and su