I want to pull a few threads together here, because the more I sit with this, the more connected it all becomes.

Earlier this week, I read a ScienceDaily write-up discussing new research on the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. The article quoted Dr. Ben Pennington, who suggested that the temple’s location was intentionally chosen to reflect an Egyptian creation story—specifically the idea of land emerging from the waters of the Nile, mirroring their belief about how the world began. The flooding waters would recede, high ground would appear, seeds would sprout, and life would follow. Their sacred space was designed to reenact creation itself.*

What struck me wasn’t simply that their creation story was incorrect—of course it was. What struck me was how important creation was to them. They didn’t treat origins as an abstract myth or a philosophical curiosity. Creation shaped their worship, their architecture, their geography, and their identity. They quite literally built their world around their origin story.

That observation sent my mind straight to Acts chapter 17.

When Paul stands in Athens, he finds himself in a culture just as saturated with competing stories about reality as ancient Egypt was. Philosophers, altars, gods everywhere. And yet, Paul doesn’t begin with Jesus. He doesn’t begin with ethics. He begins with creation.

“The God who made the world and everything in it…”

Paul deliberately starts at the foundation. He labors the point that God is Creator—that He doesn’t dwell in temples made by hands, that He isn’t dependent on human service, and that all nations come from one man by His design. Paul is doing worldview work. He knows that if their understanding of origin is wrong, everything downstream will be wrong too.

And then—and this is key—Paul connects creation directly to Christ.

He moves from God as Creator to God as Judge, and from there to the resurrection of Jesus as proof that God has acted decisively in history. Creation establishes God’s lordship and authority. Resurrection establishes accountability and hope. Origin and remedy are inseparable.

That’s something we’ve largely lost in our modern conversations.

Today, we talk endlessly about meaning, identity, justice, and purpose—but we rarely talk about creation. It’s almost as if we collectively avoid the subject. And I don’t think that’s accidental. If we acknowledge a Creator, then we also have to acknowledge that we are created. And if we are created, then we are not self-defined. This past week, with all the warring ideologies we have seen in the world, we need a healthy dose of God’s sovereignty over His creation.

That’s the real tension.

Scripture tells us plainly that God created all things by His word. Hebrews 11 reminds us that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Genesis opens with a singular, uncompromising claim: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Not many gods. Not eternal matter. Just God—self-existent, sovereign, and free.

Ironically, even modern science has backed its way into this conversation. Within the last century, the idea of an eternal universe has collapsed. The evidence points to a beginning—a starting moment. Science may not agree on the cause, but it no longer denies the question.

And yet culturally, we still resist what that question implies.

Because if God is Creator, then everything belongs to Him. As Calvin said, we are His by right of creation. That truth confronts our desire to define ourselves on our own terms. It confronts our instinct to be autonomous.

But when Christ renews our hearts, something changes. We stop trying to rewrite our origin story. We stop being allergic to the idea of God as Creator. Instead, we embrace it with gratitude. We recognize that the same God who spoke the universe into existence has also raised Jesus from the dead—and that changes everything.

Paul understood this. That’s why he started with creation and ended with Christ. And if we want to work seriously on our worldview today, we need to recover that same starting point. Creation isn’t optional. It’s foundational.

Notes:

ScienceDaily, “Egypt’s Karnak Temple May Have Risen from Water Like a Creation Myth,” ScienceDaily, January 4, 2026.