Genesis Foreword
Back to Through The Bible
The book of Genesis was written by Moses. Genesis is the book of beginnings: the beginning of creation, the beginning of man the beginning of sin, and the beginning of God's plan for the redemption of sinning man.
CHAPTER 1: CREATION
v.1 "In the beginning God" The subject of the Bible is God. The purpose of the Bible is to bring us to the knowledge of God and His love for us. Doesn't nature reveal God to us? Why do we need the Bible to know Him? Nature reveals God's power, greatness, and wisdom, but this revelation is not complete. We need the Bible to provide us with a unified body of knowledge concerning God. God is the creator of all things, the object of creation, and the sustainer of creation. "God created the heaven and the earth". Men who do not accept God as the creator must find other explanations for our existence.
Problems with the theory of evolution:
1. No new creation taking place.
2. Matter is constantly changing but the trend is downward (deterioration), not upward.
3. The earth would have to be much older than it is to provide time for simple cells to evolve to the complexity of the cells we see today.
A. Complexity of cells is not synonymous with higher life forms. Frog cells are more complex than human cells.
4. The dating of fossils is often inaccurate.
5. Mutations occur within a species but do not cross over to another species.
6. The population of earth would be greater if man were as old as the evolutionists claim.
7. Suggested reading: Evolution: The Fossils Say No by Duane Gish and Twilight of Evolution by Henry Morris.
The Hebrew word for God in verse 1 is "Elohim" which is plural. This indicates that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit acted together to create the world.
v.2 There could be a gap in time between the first verse and the rest of the chapter. In the first verse, the Hebrew word translated "create" is "bara" meaning "to make something out of nothing". Thereafter, the word "asah" is used, which means "to assemble existing materials into an order". "But the earth became wasteful and desolate" is another reading of the second verse.
v.3 Light is needed for life.
v.6-8 The blanket of moisture that surrounded the earth protected men from cosmic radiation and cell damage so that lifespans were much longer.
v.11,12 God created plant life that can reproduce itself.
v.20-25 God created the families of living things, the species.
v.26-28 Man is created in the image of God. The order to "replenish the earth" could indicate a pre-existence upon the earth.