Studies In Genesis - Introduction

by L. Burrows, Kingston upon Thames | Category: Studies In Genesis | Jan 1973

In a day when the reliability of the Scriptures is widely questioned it is salutary to examine the book of Genesis afresh. Accepted by faith, it provides a clear and authoritative account of creation, the origin of the human race, the entrance of sin into the human heart and God's dealings with men in the dawn of human history. In it are recorded divine judgements on wicked men and grace shown to the faithful, together with the oft-repeated promise of a Saviour who would provide the solution to the awful problem of sin, so that men might find divine favour and ultimate blessing.

The acknowledgement of these historical facts is fundamental to the correct appreciation of our position as God's creatures and members of a fallen race for whom God has provided a Saviour. But it is sad to reflect that most people find difficulty in taking the book of Genesis at its face value. Ordinary folk are being misled by men of superior intellectual ability who, lacking nevertheless the instruction of the Spirit of God, assert that the theory of evolution provides an adequate basis for the interpretation of scientific discoveries in a manner directly opposed to the Scriptures. With supreme self-confidence they reject God's word and in its place they spin a flimsy web of human reasoning purporting to provide, without any acknowledgement of the Creator, details of the development of life and of the origin of the human race, matters about which no man can have cognisance apart from divine revelation. They advance purely mechanical explanations for the infinite variety and wonder of the universe, and pursue their argument to the logical conclusion that God has never been involved in this world's history. Man's successes and failures, the great religious and political movements and much else can be adequately explained, they say, in terms of man's environment and his innate tendencies, dismissing any possibility of divine intervention in human affairs.

Most people who have intellectual difficulties about the accuracy of a record of such antiquity or who question the truth of any events which appear to be beyond the range of present-day human experience are influenced by the sceptical attitude to the Scriptures which has developed over the last 150 years and can be traced to the almost universal acceptance of the theory of evolution. But few who entertain the mechanical view of the universe are confessed atheists, in fact some would consider themselves to be Christians. However, it is not generally realized that the denial of the divinely inspired accuracy of the book of Genesis involves rejection of the whole of the Bible, which is the basis of true belief in God and the source of all. genuine blessing to man. So that, religious leaders who embrace liberal views about the origin of man, undermine the very foundations of Christian belief and strangely enough seem to expect the structure to be strengthened in consequence l It is surely not overstating the case to say that today's violence, drug-taking, crime and lack of respect for authority are in the main attributable to this widespread maltreatment of God's word.

It is not difficult to show that the replacement in men's minds of the Creator by the theory of evolution as e complete explanation of origins not only impugns the book of Genesis but also is a denial of the truth of Scripture in its entirety. A simple study of a Bible with marginal references will demonstrate how closely interlocked every part of Holy Writ is. References to Genesis and quotations from it abound throughout both Old and New Testaments. For instance, creation as a direct act of the Creator is proclaimed in over 60 places in the books of Exodus, Nehemiah, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, Hebrews, James, 2 Peter and Revelation (see list on p.7). Characters are mentioned and lessons are drawn by the Lord and the inspired writers of the New Testament in such a way as to leave no room for doubt that they accepted the historical accuracy of the Genesis record and were not drawing on a stock of Jewish folklore to teach New Testament doctrine. The name of Abraham occurs over one hundred times in the rest of Scripture, and his life and character permeate the whole of the sacred writings as the father of the faithful, the friend of God and the man whose spiritual vision penetrated the ages to see by faith the building of the eternal city (Heb. 11:8-10). The unerring voice of the Master Himself confirms the existence of Abraham as a historical person (John 8:56-59), the creation of Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4,5), the murder of Abel (Matt. 23:35), the guilt of Sodom (Luke 17:28-30) and the judgement of Lot's wife (Luke 17:32). Just as the infallible Teacher alludes in a significant manner to early events now disputed by modern theologians, so the apostle Paul, in his discourse on the certainty of the resurrection of the believer, confirms that Adam was the first man, contrasting him with Christ, the last Adam, in order to show that "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:45-9).

Can the mention of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Joseph in Hebrews 11 be dismissed as references to ancient legends? This passage forms part of one of the deepest theological arguments in the whole of Scripture and such a suggestion is quite out of character with the tone of the letter to the Hebrews. Furthermore it is flatly contradicted in verse 40: "God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us, they should not be made perfect". The faithful in this present age are thus irrevocably associated by divine decree with the godly of Genesis, the very existence of whom the critics think to deny. If the inspired writer of the Hebrews considered the characters named in Genesis to be legendary it would have been out of the question for him to use them in this way to stress the fulfilment of blessing for the faithful of all ages. Scripture abounds with such instances of the confirmation of the literal trustworthiness of the book of Genesis, showing it to be an inseparable part of the Holy Scripture, having the same divinely inspired perfection.

Genesis knows nothing of the popular conception of a slow struggle by primitive man to overcome the difficulties of his environment and to develop the skills of civilisation. The Bible depicts Adam as a highly intelligent being, able to give names to all the animals (Gen. 2:20), which was no mean achievement. His grandson Enoch built a city (4:17). During the first millennium there were men who smelted brass and iron and forged them into implements, and there were others skilled in the use of musical instruments (4:21-22). No mention is made of cave-dwellers until the days of Abraham, when his nephew Lot left the city of Zoar in fear of the judgement of God to live in a cave with his two daughters (19:30). Another serious error widely held is that man at first worshipped many gods, but gradually acquired a truer knowledge of the one God. It is quite clear from Scripture that Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel had direct dealings with God, and in the days of Seth, son of Adam, men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Polytheism, like cave dwelling and savagery, was a later development arising from man's departure from God.

Genesis is therefore not the beginning of man's search after God, as some would have us believe, but the beginning of God's revelation of Himself to man. Although it is factually accurate, its purpose is not to teach history or any other branch of human knowledge but, as the introduction to God's written revelation, to impart spiritual instruction to the reader. It is sometimes called the seed-plot of the Bible because in it can be found in germinal form the main lines of spiritual teaching contained in the Scripture. Attention will be drawn to some of these during 1973 as various contributors develop selected themes from this important book. It is our earnest prayer that this series will stimulate interest in what God has caused to be written in His Book for the people of today about creation and the early history of mankind. Although thousands of years have gone by, human nature has not changed, and the spiritual experiences of a man like Jacob can be shared by believers who seek to do the will of God in this present godless age.

References to creation outside Genesis (62 in all):

Exod. 20:11. Neh. 9:6. Job 10:8,9; 26:7-14; 33:4; 38:4-38.

Psalms 8:3-9; 19:1-6; 24:1,2; 33:6-9; 74:16,17; 89:11,12; 90:2; 95:5; 100:3; 102:25; 104:5-27; 115:15; 119:73; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 136:5-9; 146:6; 148:4,5.

Proverbs 8:22-31; 16:4; 17:5. Eccles. 3:11; 7:29; 11:5.

Isaiah 40:12,22,28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7-9; 64:8.

Jeremiah 5:22; 10:12; 31:35; 51:15,16. Zec. 12:1.

Matt. 19:4. Mark 10:6. John 1:1-4,10.

Acts 4:24; 7:49,50; 14:15; 17:24-28.

Rom. 1:20. 1 Cor. 8:6. Eph. 3:9. Col. 1:16,17; 3:10.

1 Tim. 4:3,4. Heb. 1:10; 2:10. James 3:9. 2 Pet. 3:5.

Rev 3:14; 4:11; 10:6; 14:7.

"It is written"

"The attitude towards Holy Scripture of a vast deal of cultured thought and responsible teaching at present offers assuredly a problem which it is idle to dismiss as of it were not portentous. By whatsoever process it has come to be, teachers far and wide now regard the Old Testament from an angle totally different from that taken by our Lord Jesus Christ, alike before and after His resurrection from the dead. To Him, tempted, teaching, suffering, dying, risen, 'it is written' was a formula of infinite import. The principle this expressed lay at the heart of His teaching. It is not too much to say that it belonged to the pulse, the vital breath, of His message to others and to His certainty about Himself. But it is now openly or tacitly taken to be out of date, to be narrow, to be uncultured, to make much of 'it is written'; as if it were a thing discredited and to be given up."

These words of Dr Handley Moule, written over 60 years ago, measure the challenge of those who discredit the authority of the Old Testament writings. And he goes on to expose the crucial issue of the controversy in these words: "The conclusion, if true, is a confession that on a matter central in His message our Master was much mistaken, ...with that sort of ignorance which profoundly impairs His whole value as a teacher. Such a fallible Christ lies open to the suspicion of fallibility on other matters than the nature and integrity of the Old Testament". The decisive question in this controversy is, Christ or modern criticism?

L. Burrows, Kingston upon Thames | Jan 1973
Studies In Genesis