Nearly twenty years ago, the series of studies entitled "Fundamentals of

Dispensational Truth" commenced, the first article appearing on Page 1 of Volume 6:

After a few introductory studies dealing with the principle of right division, the meaning

of the "ages" and kindred subjects, the Book of Genesis was opened, and from that time

to this, the studies have proceeded, giving attention to structure and theme, type and

shadow, but of necessity passing over many allied subjects without comment. We have

no intention of discontinuing the series, for we believe nothing can compensate for a

first-hand acquaintance with "all Scripture", and we are sure that these studies have

proved a great help to many. We feel, however, that the time is ripe for using the

material thus assembled; and we can now with freedom select our passages, knowing

that the books as a whole have been analysed, and that the structures are at hand

whenever they are wanted.

Beginning with God as Creator and man as creature, yet made in the image of God, it

is evident that God and His relation to man, and man and his relation to God must be very

near the starting point of all our attempts to apprehend His Word and ways. Arising out

of this relationship, many questions present themselves for consideration, which must be

answered if we are rightly to understand the great doctrines of the faith. The question of

how far God's omnipotence is above or subservient to right, and the question of how far

His omnipotence allows freedom to man, demands an answer. Does foreknowledge

mean foreordination? Can a moral agent be responsible if he is not free? These and

kindred themes arise out of the simple facts and relationships of creation, Creator and

creature. The presence and the problem of sin, the meaning of "good and evil", the

Divine method of the removal of sin and the reconciliation of the sinner, are subjects that

meet us at every turn, in the record of historic facts, in the institution of type and

ceremony, and in the foreshadowing of prophetic word and deed.

Creation being the starting point, let us use what space we have in this article to get a

Scriptural idea of what is meant by the word "create". The popular idea of "something

out of nothing" may be a fit subject for philosophical debate, but if our guide is the

Scriptures we shall be spared the necessity of pursuing this theme, for there is not a single

passage from one end of the Scriptures to the other that raises the question, "Where did

matter come from?" The Scriptures begin, not with the creation of "the stuff of the

worlds", but with the creation of "the heaven and the earth".

While, therefore, modern teaching concerning the atom and the fact that solid objects

are nothing more than "bundles of force", enable one to see that the visible, tangible

creation may after all be but the expression in terms of physics of the mind, will and

power of the invisible God, this theme, though intensely interesting and attractive, finds

little basis in the Scriptures themselves. The same thing is true of God Himself. The