The Relevance of Genesis

Two options: there is a Creator or we evolved.

Any lie that takes away glory from God is monstrous.

The book of Genesis is the seed-bed of the Bible.

The wrong diagnosis leads to a wrong prescription. Thus, the Bible rightly diagnoses man’s problem— and man’s problem is sin.

Errant Diagnoses:

Sigmund Freud- man’s problem is that his standards are too high; man faces guilt because of unreasonable expectations, thus the solution to man’s problem is to lower the standards

BF Skinner- man’s problem is that he is a product of his environment; simply change man’s environment and he will improve

Carl Rogers- the problem with man is that he needs encouragement and motivation; motivate through encouragement and affirmation

However, man’s real problem is found in the book of Genesis. God created man, gave him one standard, man broke the standard, and SIN is his problem. Secondly, man was created in a perfect environment. You were created to have fellowship with God!

Man only has three problems: sin, sorrow, and death. (Adrian Rogers)

What people may not 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 marriage

school violence

Isaiah 58:12: “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; And thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.”

Evolution: death (millions of years)- suffering, disease, bloodshed

Creation: Man’s actions led to death

Romans 5:12: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Reinterpretations of Genesis:

local flood- Noah?

theistic evolution- God created material world but allowed evolution to take over

day age- ordinal numbers or cardinal numbers

Yom- modified by a number- 24-hour period

progressive creation- God created over millions of years

gap theory- Genesis 1:1- Genesis 1:2- earth, 20,000 years old...

inconsistent with Genesis 1:31: “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

it puts death, disease and suffering before the fall. corruption before Adam. Romans 5:12, however, states, that death came by sin.

you would have evolution before man’s existence

poor hermeneutics

Huxley, friend of Darwin: Christianity rises or falls on the Jewish historical scriptures.

framework hypothesis

“It becomes clear now that the whole justification of Jesus’ life and death is predicated on the existence of Adam and the forbidden fruit he and Eve ate. Without the original sin, who needs to be redeemed? Without Adam’s fall into a life of constant sin terminated by death, WHAT PURPOSE IS THERE TO CHRISTIANITY? NONE!” -Richard Bozarth, “The meaning of evolution,” American Atheist.

If Genesis is not true, we do not need the gospel.

“If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive type, comparable to the profound Promethean mythus, what value has Paul’s dialectic?” -Thomas Huxley

Romans 5- Paul treats the story of Genesis as historical fact. The doctrine of sin is based upon a literal interpretation of Genesis.

Creation- laws, marriage, standards, meaning of life

Abortion- lawlessness, marital breakup, anarchy, suicide

Anglican- Garden of Eden is a myth- the myth contains great truths

“In no case could one person suffer every man’s punishment.”

CREATION EVANGELISM- evangelism which starts with the Creator God and the book of Genesis

Creation- Corruption- Catastrophe- Confusion- Christ- Cross- Consummation

REASONS WHY I REJECT EVOLUTION:

The worst expression of man’s depravity and rebellion against God

Romans 1:21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Darwin: “I am determined to escape from design and a personal God at all costs.”

“Huxley: August 8, 1860: “my good and kind agent for the propagation of the Gospel— the devil’s gospel.”

makes a god out of chance

“Man is alone in the universe’s unfeeling immensity, out of which he emerged by chance…chance alone is at the source of innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind.” Jacques Monod

they have made chance a force in the universe…i.e. in daily life

devalues human life

if man was not created in the image of God, then we are all products of that single-cell philosophy

if evolution is true, there truly is no meaning for your life

racism is an evolutionary idea

it is unscientific and irrational

“If the universe is a product of chance, then the scientific method could never be relied upon; the results of an experiment could vary from time to time. The scientific method depends upon a personal belief or faith in underlying principles for which the evolutionary theory of time + matter + chance does not allow.” -Dennis Gordon Lindsey, The Origins Controversy

science is based upon unchanging laws, which presupposes a God of order which gave these laws to the universe

evolution is irrational= ignore the scientific facts

Stephen Hawking: “The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. But finely adjusted by whom— if not by God?”

Isaiah 45:18: “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.”

This universe was made for man to live in. It’s a very theistic design.

it is contrary to all of scripture

couldn’t God use evolution? Yes, but why would he need to? And, He did not do it nor claim to do it.

Scofield- relegate the fossils to the primitive creation, then you have no problem.

SIX DAYS OR SIX AGES?

We need Jesus because a literal Adam fell.

Non-Christian worldview vs. a Biblical Worldview

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

yom- may mean an age

God- day one- forming-

God- day four- He fills

God- day two- forms atmosphere

God- day five- fills sea

day four- forms land

day six- fills land

day six- forms and fills man

forms atmosphere and then fills the same

Plainest reading of the Bible-

science- the method through which man conceals his ignorance- CHS

There was a day when theology was the queen of the sciences.

Objections to the day theory:

day can be mean a long period of time- yom- the day of the LORD for example (an era of God’s work in this world)

when a day it modified by a number, it always means a 24-hour period

410x always has this idea

evening and morning with day- 38x

evening with night with day- 28x

God told Moses that He created the world in 6 days; sabbath day is equivalent to the other 5 days

there are words in the Hebrew which would allow for long periods of time- olam, qadem

when do we start reading literally if we read chapter one figuratively?