Genesis Notes

IT ALL BEGINS WITH GOD

Philips: It is a book of facts, a book of firsts, a book of faith, a book of fore-casts, a book of funerals. It has been called "the seedplot of the Bible" because all the vast forests of Scripture start there as seedlings. It is said to give us the beginning of everything except God. It is the book of Genesis.

Genesis is the opening crescendo of Scripture, for God does not begin the book with a timid, tentative note or two. He begins it with the thunder of drums as worlds leap out of nowhere to populate the skies.

He begins it with the crash of cymbals as the human race falls into sin.

He begins it with the blare of trumpets heralding the inundation of a world.

How shall we approach this vast book? With simple faith to begin with, for the facts it sets forth are to be believed, not to be bandied about at the whims of the world. With increasing interest, as its heroes march across the page before us, as nations rise and fall, as the Hebrew people emerge thereafter to dominate the Bible to the end.

Metanarrative: The Consummation of All Things, Genesis v. Revelation

THE GOD WHO IS THERE AND NOT SILENT:

ILL. everything has a cause

Francis Schaefer in his book He is there and he is not Silent says that something is there, so we have to contend with it:

everything that exists has come out of absolutely nothing In order to have nothing, you have to have something; but the argument is that there is nothing nothing— it cannot be something nothing or nothing something— nothing nothing. No energy, no mass, no motion, no personality

all that now is had an impersonal beginning Impersonality may be mass, motion, energy. In this arrangement, it means nothing which came first. The nature of this view is pantheism— God in everything and everything God. Yet, this, too, is a false argument because the root is theism and speaks of personality.

the third possible answer is to begin with a personal beginning. “That which is personal began everything else.” Schaefer argued that the term g-o-d is irrelevant in and of itself, for it is a word which conveys absolutely opposites. He says, “The word god as such is no answer to the philosophic problem of existence, but the Judeo-Christian content to the word God as given in the Old and new Testaments does meet the need of what exists— the existence of the universe in its complexity and of man as man. He further calls God the personal-infinite. Gives example of preaching the gospel of grace to modern man. If man does not believe in the personal-infinite, how can he be persuaded that God entered time and human reality, dying in the flesh? He must be brought to the reality of a personal-infinite in order to be saved. “On the side of God’s infinity, there is a complete chasm between God on one side and man, the animal, the flower, and the machine on the other. ONE THE SIDE OF GOD’S INFINITY, He stands alone. He is the absolute other. He is, in His infinity, contrary to all else. he is differentiated from all else because only He is infinite.

GOSPEL RESET- Ken Ham

first sermon- Peter on Pentecost

2:16- prophet Joel

presupposes divine revelation

presupposes nation of Israel and national promises

2:17- pouring out of Spirit

2:21- connects prophets to the gospel

2:22- Jesus

2:23-29- shared three-fold gospel

second sermon- Paul on Mars Hill

17:22- overly religious- more religious than others

17:23- began with an unknown identity for God

17:24- God made the world/Creation

17:26- nationalism/culture

17:27- personal

17:28- quotes a pagan prophet in order to prove a scriptural principle

17:32- when they heard of the resurrection, they mocked (chleuazō)- to throw out the lip

WHAT HAPPENED BETWEEN PETER’S SERMON AND PAUL’S? The culture changed— congregational exegesis was needed.

What people may no longer believe:

the origins of mankind

the origins of sin

the explanation of God’s existence and nature

the origins of marriage/family

The consequences:

abortion

family break-up

same-sex revolution

societal violence

So, maybe we didn’t tell the story of Genesis very well. Or maybe the society changed so drastically under our feet that we missed the philosophical moment. What, then, do we do? WE RESET.

The good news is that Genesis defeats the -isms!

atheism, because the universe is created by God

pantheism, because God is transcendent to what He created

polytheism, because one God created all things

materialism, because matter had a beginning

dualism, because God was alone when He created

humanism, because God, not man, is the ultimate reality

evolution, because God created all things

ALL OF THESE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS OF EXPRESSING UNBELIEF, BUT GOD PUTS IT RIGHT IN OUR LAP. ACCEPT IT OR REJECT IT. But neutral you cannot be. In the beginning, God. THE PERSONAL-INFINITE.

The Names of God

God- Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Elohim- אֱלֹהִים- the form is a grammatical plural, the meaning is singular and many sources think it implies a majesty or stateliness

-im is the Hebrew plural

Psalm 96:5 “For all the gods of the nations are idols: But the Lord made the heavens.”

Bunyan Towery- a plural of majesty

 the fullness of deity

He is omni——- omniscience—He knows everything; omnipotence—He can do anything; and omnipresence—He’s everywhere). The God of the Bible can do what it takes hundreds, even thousands of gods from Mount Olympus, or from Asgard, or from Hollywood’s Pixar Studios to do. This makes better sense to me that the plural of majesty. Elohim is all about effulgence and aseity (self-sufficiency).

Henry Morris: “Elohim is a plural name with a singular meaning, a uni-plural noun.”

LORD- יהוה (2:4)

with its introduction, it is combined with God— the LORD God

the covenant name of the God of Israel

tetragrammaton

yod

he

vov

he

unpronounced

except with vowel points

Means, “The existing One.”

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Lord- first mention Genesis 15:2 “And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?”

El-Elyon

Genesis 14:18 “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.”

From what we can see, the name “El Elyon” appears in three verses. The first verse realizes a direct connection between Melchizedek and Jesus, the first being the typos, the second, the prototypos. In the second verse, Melchizedek praises the Lord as the Creator of all by admitting that He created heaven and earth.[15] Finally, by interceding to God on behalf of Abraham, he once again embodies the Son of God, who blesses us through his requests to the Father in our name.[16]

El Shaddai (Gen 17.1; 28.3; 35.11; 43.14; 48.3)

Genesis 49:25 “Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lieth under, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:”

THE IDENTIFY OF GOD

CREATIVE ORDER

-DAYS OF CREATION-