Genesis 1:1

1. "In the beginning" 
1. The beginning of time
2. The beginning of Creation
3. Not the beginning of God
2. "God"
1. The way this sentence is structured highlights God, not Creation.  What about God?
1. He is timeless.
2. He is eternal.
3. He is creative.
4. He is powerful.
5. He is causeless (not created, not evolved, not born).
6. He is living.
3. "Created"
1. That rules out evolution.
1. It doesn't matter what science postulates.
2. It doesn't matter what "experts" declare.
3. It doesn't matter what revisionists pressure you to accept.
4. God's Word says creation, not evolution. I'll take God's Word over man's any day!
4. "The heavens and the earth"
1. Two spheres (a height and a depth)
2. Figure of speech -- synecdoche -- a part refers to or includes the whole
3. Yes, it means the literal heavens above and the literal earth beneath, but also serves as a summary statement for all of creation (Gen. 1:1ff; Ex. 20:11; Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16-17).