Brian Cole: Genesis 1:1

As of this week, my weekly column is going to change. Rather than random messages related to everyday topics, I have decided to do a weekly series on the Book of Genesis. I started going through the book of Genesis at the Oaks Church January 1, 2017, and as of this week, we have made it to chapter 9.

I will start from the beginning and give a brief synopsis of what we covered at the service.

I think the Book of Genesis is one of the most important books of the Bible, as it sets the foundation for everything else, and ALL the Bible, Christ, and the Christian faith stands or falls with Genesis.

I understand some do not believe in the Bible, and there are others who claim to but only see Genesis as a “story.” The Bible is true whether you believe it or not, and your unbelief does not change its authenticity! 1 Cor. 1:18 – “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Genesis is included in that clear statement of 2 Tim. 3:16 – “All Scripture is given by God,” or, literally, breathed out by God!

The grammatical structure of Genesis 1-2 clearly falls within the “narrative genre” – a historical record – similar to those found in other portions of the O.T. Genesis is a “Historical Book.”

Genesis 1 is a chronicle of what God was doing for the first 7 days of the universe, and what happened to His newly created world.

Not one human was present when God created anything recorded in Gen. 1. In fact, it is possible that God Himself recorded the account of creation and gave it to Adam who would pass the record down to succeeding generations.

Jesus believed in Genesis as the very Word of God and quoted or referred to it on more than one occasion.

Genesis starts at the beginning, so also does the Gospel of John. John 1:1-4 – “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Jesus Christ not only created all things, but they were created for Him, and “by Him all things consist” or hold together.

Creation is proof of a God! Since there is a world, there must be a world maker. Any sensible man needn’t argue about whether there is a God: “Only a fool, a perverted one, could say, ‘There is no God.,” (Rom. 1).

Genesis should be foundational to every human society because if these truths are ignored, rejected, distorted, or rejected, consequences will occur, as we see happening slowly in America!

There are a few major doctrines taught in Genesis:

• There is a pre-existent God who creates, from nothing, everything.
• God shaped what He created into various inanimate objects, but then created living things like plants and animals, which reproduced “according to their kind.”
• God created man in His own image; thus, man – and ONLY man – bears this designation.
• Man was created in 2 distinct complementary, yet equally defined genders: male and female.
• From this arrangement God, as a creational ordinance for those created in His image, established marriage to be the union of one man and one woman for life.
• The doctrine of sin. Adam and Eve sinned.
• Death. After sin it brought death into a perfect creation.
• Clothing. Why wear clothes? Temporary covering for our sins.
• Work. Ordained by God right from the beginning.
• Jesus Christ (last Adam), if the first Adam isn’t real, what does it tell us about the last Adam?
• Most importantly, the GOSPEL MESSAGE –  Jesus came, died on a cross, was buried and rose again on the third day. Why did He do that? Because God created Adam and Eve in the garden. They sinned, disobeyed God and God brought death into the perfect world, and the shed blood of Jesus Christ is the only permanent solution to the problem.

The GOSPEL MESSAGE STARTS in Genesis. If we have problems with Genesis, we pretty much have problems with everything we believe as Christians.

In fact, if Genesis is not literal history, with a literal “very good” creation and a literal Adam and Eve… then sin did not literally enter the world through their actions, and therefore you and I don’t literally need to be saved.

Yet each one of those things on the above list are the object of intense opposition both in our legal system and our nation as a whole.

Next week we will take a closer look at that foundational list above and what is taking place in our society as we drift further from them, the assaults in America against them, the consequences of falling away from them, and what happened in the past when we have strayed from God’s warnings.