Important
Is Genesis Relevant Today?
The first book of the Bible, Genesis, is the foundation to all Christian doctrine. Within the first 11 chapters we learn about:
The Trinity
The origin of all matter
The Nature of Man
The fall of man
The reason for suffering and death
The reason we wear clothes
The basis for marriage between one man and one woman
The reason Jesus came to sacrifice his life for us
and literally all other doctrines of the Christian faith.
If you read the Bible and skip Genesis, you deprive yourself of understanding the reason for why you believe Christian doctrine.
If Genesis is not true, then that casts doubt on the rest of the Bible. If we question Creation, then we question the flood, the Tower of Babel, the Exodus, the Kings, Prophecies, and ultimatley, the very existence of Jesus and his saving grace. God’s Word, from Genesis to Revelation, is true and “is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
Genesis helps with witnessing to others. Suppose you are telling a friend about Jesus and explaining that we are all born in sin and in need of a savior. The Book of Romans tells us that we have sin and need a savior, but it doesn’t explain why. This is why you should start with Genesis to explain how we are all descendants of Adam, and because of Adam’s sin of rebellion we are all born with a sin nature.
Prior to the Enlightenment in the 1700 and 1800s, the biblical teachings of creation, the flood, etc were common and believed as true. After the Enlightenment, philosophers came up with new ideas and caused many to cast doubt on the reliability of the Bible. The church did not want to lose its followers, so they too gave up their teachings on science and adhered to the new teachings on old-earth geology, Darwinian evolution, and so forth. All of those teachings were contrary to Scripture, but the church allowed it and decided to only teach on spiritual things.he Bible does teach on earthly things!
Does the Bible teach science? Yes. It gives the big picture which explains what we see today.
- The Bible teaches on biology when God ordered living things to reproduce after their kind.
- The Bible teaches on astronomy when on the 4th day of Creation, the sun, moon, and stars were made.
- The Bible teaches on antrhopology when the Table of Nations is written in Genesis chapter 10, and the great dispersal at the Tower of Babel in chapter 11.
- The Bible teaches on linguistics when the languages were formed at the Tower of Babel.
- The Bible teaches on geology when it talks about the Great Flood in chapters 6-9, and the flood caused worldwide geologic catastrophe.
This brings us to a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus the Pharisee:
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? (John 3:3-12)
Jesus was telling Nicodemus about eternal life, which of course is a spiritual issue. But Nicodemus could not even understand the earthly (material, physical) things Jesus was talking about. This is why Jesus said Nicodemus could not understand the spiritual issues because he couldn’t even understand the material issues.
The church today has done this very thing. They try to teach the spiritual issues on Sunday morning and leave the teaching of earthly things to the secular schools, media, textbooks, and so forth. When the church gave up the scientific teachings mentioned above, everyone learned it differently through the secular education, which were in complete contrast to the teachings of the Bible. Since people were taught the Bible got it wrong on earthly things, they could not longer believe the spiritual things taught in the Bible. Therefore, the entire Bible was discredited, and God slowly eroded out of people’s lives.
It doesn’t have to be this way though! If the churches start back at Genesis and teaches how science DOES make sense in the light of Scripture, then we can all again understand the earthly things. If the earthly things are again understood as true, then the spiritual things will be true again!