Genesis BIBLEI think it is safe to say there is not a book of the Bible more scrutinized, more criticized, and more railed against by the enemies of God than Genesis, mostly because so much of what this book deals with predates modern history.

In Genesis, Moses writes about things that no other work of literature attempts to explain – or at least explain with a straight face. Because of that, and because there are those who refuse to accept the reality that there is a God over this universe Who communicates with us through His word, the enemies of the Bible attack Genesis.

They call it science fiction

They call it a fairy tale

They call it the collected works of half-baked grammarians

For those of us who accept reality, we know not only is the majority of the Bible true and accurate

but the entirety of the Bible is accurate, and that include Genesis.

It also, therefore, includes the most attacked segment of Genesis, the opening three chapters. The opening of Genesis and the information therein is so well known, it’s easy to kind of gloss over the text and think: well I already know all of this:

1. God makes man
2. Man marries woman
3. Man and woman disobey God
4. God promises a Savior

That’s basically the first three chapters of your Bible in a nutshell. That basically is “the Bible’s introduction.” But if you understand those four things, you understand what the so-called scholars of this world do not. Because they don’t accept the truths these chapters teach, they are always in the dark, left to theorize and wonder about the things for which those who accept the word of God already know.

Genesis’ opening three chapters, written thousands of years ago, answer fundamental questions that we face today:

Is man simply an accident?
Is marriage basically obsolete?
Is sin just a mistake?
Is Jesus really the Savior?

Without Genesis 1-3 there’s no way to know. But with God’s word, we can…

 

 IS MAN SIMPLY AN ACCIDENT?

By rejecting the logical truth that there is an all powerful Creator, the atheist is left to conjure up wild and ridiculous theories to explain just where we came from. These theories are big and elaborate; they have many different parts to them and they’re so long in their explanations that entire books are written about them.

I find that funny because the Bible deals with the subject of, not just man’s creation, but of the creation of this universe, this planet on which we live, every living thing on this planet, AND man’s creation…all in about a thousand words.

God told you everything you need to know about where you came from, how you got here, and who made you and everything that you can see (and everything else for that matter)…all in about a thousand words. That’s amazing. Scientists have books and books and books, hundreds of thousands of words long, describing the formation and makeup of just one galaxy. They write manuscripts that win major awards – dozens of pages long — that describe the birth of just one star.

Meanwhile your Bible simply says

…and He made the stars also

Genesis 1:16

As if to say, “Oh by the way, those little specs in the night sky? Those little white pin pricks in the velvety black blanket above us? Each one of those stars as big as our sun, many of them thousands of times larger…yeah, He made those too.”

You – the human being – are either the product of millions of tiny little accidents and hundreds of millions of lucky breaks and random chances along the way for you to go from a puddle of goo to the dominate species on planet earth

OR

You are made.

It doesn’t have to be a secret; It doesn’t have to be a mystery. Is man simply an accident?

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:26-27

The evolutionist says that something came from nothing. I call that stupidity: if you walk out of a room that contains an empty bowl on the table, and you come back – whether its 5 minutes or 5 years later – and that same bowl now has M&M’s in it, what do you know?

You know someone put the M&M’s in the bowl. The emptiness of that bowl didn’t just get busy one day and force M&Ms into existence. They didn’t slowly form and evolve from the nothingness that was in the bowl. If there’s nothing, there’s nothing to evolve from. If the bowl is empty, then on its own the bowl will always be empty.

The evolutionist says we are alone, that there is no God above us, no creator who made us, etc. Well then where did we come from? If this universe was once empty then without help it would still be empty.

I exist. I prove the existence of a creator. I am not simply an accident. My reason for being is not random chance.

I was made to serve the Creator who made me.

We live in a very self-sufficient culture. We teach self-sufficiency, and to an extent that’s good. In fact, one of the big debates in our country is how much should we rely on ourselves vs. how much should we rely on “big brother” in the Government.

But you can take the virtue of self-sufficiency too far; and that’s the reason why you have people reject Christ. It’s not because they don’t want to submit to God; it’s because they don’t want to submit – period. They want independence while God demands dependence.

Someone says “Well I want to just ignore God and do my own thing!”

You’ll go to hell!

“Well that’s not fair!”

Yes it is…God made you! You are not simply an accident!

You read Genesis and you see that God made man to serve Him; He gave man a peaceful garden to tend; He gave man all the food and shelter he needed. It was MAN that chose to rebel, and thus God punished man, removing him from the comforts of the garden while still demanding obedience.

Is man an accident? No. We have a purpose.

 

IS MARRIAGE BASICALLY OBSOLETE?

Our society, I don’t think, is so far gone that any value in marriage is rejected. If it was, we wouldn’t have so many fighting for marriage rights to be granted to those who presently are denied them.

Having said that, there is a belief out there that says “marriage is basically obsolete anyway…it’s really an antiquated notion in the 21st century.”

A hundred years ago, before the age of high speed transportation and high speed internet, most people lived and died in the same 100 mile radius in which they were born. People had a bubble that they knew and rarely ventured beyond it. It made sense in those days to settle down and find someone to spend your days with, have children, grandchildren, maybe great grandchildren, and then fade away into the sunset.

Today, people have shorter attention spans, broader horizons, and the idea of settling down with just one person for life is called “antiquated.” The value in it has expired for many people.

To many marriage just isn’t that important, and that’s why those who think that way are pushing to change laws concerning marriage. If it’s not sacred, it should be open for any and all to participate.

Well nuts to that. It IS important, maybe not to some, but to God:

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Genesis 2:22-24

What you have in these three verses is two statements of divine commentary separated by one statement of human understanding.

The human understanding comes from Adam in v23, who recognizes that since Eve came from him, she belongs to him. Not “Belongs” in a sense of “ownership” but instead in the sense that they were made for each other – literally.

The divine commentary is provided by Moses – the inspired writer – who described the scene. He writes how that God made a WOMAN – not another man, how that God made woman from Adams SIDE – not from his head, for her to rule over him, not from his feet for him to walk all over her, but from his side, so that side by side they would walk together.

Moses describes in v22, how God introduced man and woman. Their meeting was not random chance. Adam didn’t whack Eve on the head with a club, like cavemen are depicted as doing. God brought her to the man. Why? Because marriage is a DIVINE institution. Marriage takes three: man, woman and God.

By the way, if you stand up for the truth about marriage, someone will eventually argue, and say “just because the Bible talks about Adam and Eve being married doesn’t mean that’s supposed to be the template for marriage.”

And that’s just flat out not true, because in v24 God talks about marriage in general, not about Adam and Eve specifically.

How do I know that? Because God says “a man should leave father and mother…”

Who is Adams father and mother? He doesn’t have one – not in the physical sense. But everyone who is married after Adam and Eve will. Thus the marriage of Adam and Eve is exactly a template.

It is a template that describes leaving father and mother and going out on your own. That means being mature enough as adults to go out on your own. It describes cleaving to your spouse. The word means “to stick to like glue – to hold tight and not let go.” Marriage isn’t a fling, it’s not a “until we get bored” or “until we get sick of each other” kind of thing. Marriage isn’t “I do it my way, you do it your way, and lets try and stay out of each others way” kind of arrangement.

Marriage means taking hold of your spouse and not letting someone or something pull you apart.

Is marriage basically obsolete? No – not if God’s Word is understood, respected, and followed.

 

IS SIN JUST A MISTAKE?

Why is it so hard to just apologize today? People often frame their apologies like this: “I’m sorry…but you know…” or “I’m sorry but let me explain…”

In other words, rarely will you find a person totally own up to doing wrong. A person must always hem and haw and soften the blow, to come out looking as good as possible considering the bad light he put himself in.

That kind of attitude has crept into our religion as well. We’ve convinced ourselves that a sin is really just a mistake; it’s just something we stumble into and “poor us now we need help getting out.” Now its true that it is possible to accidentally sin. It’s harder to do that than you think though, because sin–at its core–involves a willful disregard for God or His commands. Sin involves the intent to disobey, in the same way that true worship and service to God requires an intent. You cant just accidentally do good in the sight of God; its just as much a mental thing as it is a physical action.

So it is with sin: When you go to the Bible’s introduction you see Adam and Eve in the garden. They are in perfect harmony with God. They walk with God in a way that we cannot until we get to Heaven. We can enjoy a taste of it as saved children, but we still deal with temptation, and we still sin from time to time. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were sinless. They had never known life any other way than in harmony with God.

But you know what happens. Satan tempts Eve who sins, Eve tempts Adam who sins, then God comes knocking…

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

Genesis 3:11-13

It’s funny that the only one who doesn’t pass the buck is the liar, Satan. God accuses Adam of sinning, so what does he do? “It’s Not my fault! it was the woman YOU gave me!” So God turns to Eve, and what does she do? “Don’t look at me, it was the snake!” And when God accuses the snake the snake doesn’t argue. I guess it’s because he knows better than they do that it does no good lying to God.

Adam and Eve foolishly try to pass the buck. They can’t deny that they did wrong, so they try to take their wrong and water it down, make it not so bad. “Yeah I sinned, but she…” or “Yes I sinned, but the snake…”

Sin is not just an accident. You don’t OOPS your way into a sin. Eve was tempted, but she didn’t have to eat the fruit. Adam was tempted, but he didn’t have to eat the fruit.

Is sin just a mistake? Not at all. It is a conscious decision people make to disobey God

On this occasion it cost Adam and Eve a life in Paradise.

That takes us very naturally to the last point…

 

 IS JESUS REALLY THE SAVIOR?

What we have in Genesis 3 is something that is old hat to us now. Man has been sinning and needing a savior for thousands of years, but here it is brand new. Man has never needed a Savior before this moment, and yet God knew that man eventually would, and thus God was prepared.

So its more than just appropriate that, moments after man’s first sin, you have the first promise of a Savior. It’s more than appropriate, it’s also needed: Mankind needs to know that all is not lost, that hope is not dead.

Today, there are thousands and thousands of religions, and religious movements, many of which teach about some version of salvation. If you’re starting your journey to salvation today its very confusing, there’s a lot of choices to choose from.

So why not start at the beginning?

What’s interesting to me is that God makes this promise of salvation, not to the people who sinned but the enemy of man, Satan:

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Genesis 3:14-15

And with that you have the first of many promises of a Savior. God’s only going to promise one, just one. Not one for every different culture or one for every race or nation. He offers one Savior for all.

is Jesus really the savior?

He has to be. From Genesis 3 you can follow the list of prophesies all the way to a manger and a little baby boy who would grow up to die on a cross for us. Jesus is that Savior, no one else offered the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

 

That may not be breaking news to you, friend, but it is an important point never to forget. It’s the foundation of life and it’s all contained right there in the opening pages of the Good Book.

Have a great day!