At The Beginning

The Hebrew word, and the title of the Book of Genesis is Beresit. This word is translated into the initial phrase stated in the first verse of Genesis. The Definition is as follows:

“in the beginning”

Here is an overview of the Book of Genesis.

Genesis is the book of beginnings; it provides a dramatic account of the origins of mankind and his universe, the intrusion of sin into the world, the catastrophic effects of its curse on the race, and the beginnings of God’s plan to bless the nations through His seed.

Most of the books of the Bible draw on the contents of Genesis in one way or another. Apart from this, however, Genesis’ subject matter and the unembellished way in which it is written have captivated the minds of biblical scholars for ages.

As with biblical truth in general, this book has been a stumbling block for many who have approached it with preconceived notions or anti-supernatural biases. But for those who recognize it as the Word of God, whom they seek to serve, Genesis is a source of comfort and edification. And by them, the questions and difficulties of the book are approached differently.

Ross, A. P. (1985). Genesis. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 15). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Wellhausen divided the Pentateuch into four literary sources, represented by the letters, J, E, D, and P.

Ross, A. P. (1985). Genesis. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 15). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

There are several in the past 200 years who have tried to analyze Genesis on the basis of a non-theistic account of collections from several human authors. They deny the sufficiency of the scriptures and deny the traditional position of the church that Moses wrote the Pentateuch. They developed a theory, which has been disproved over and over again, that there were at least four authors and that the Pentateuch was written later that traditionally claimed. The most infamous of these theories is known at the J, E, P, D theory. Briefly because the word Elohim is used extensively in Chapter 1 an editor “E” wrote this portion and the word Yahweh (Jehovah)”J” in the remainder of the book wrote other sections emphasizing Jehovah. They assert that the second chapter is a new rendition of the creation; as such, the book must have had several authors. The “D” source is from a third source (the Deuteronomistic author) and finally it was all compiled and edited by a priest “P”. What this does, is takes the miraculous out of the scripture. Apparently, these scriptures were written and edited in 850 and 750 BC. This then allows the critics to say that the miraculous was written in after the history had happened.

source is from a third source (Ezra) and finally it was all compiled and edited by a priest.

This theory has since been debunked, yet it still persists. The theory is fraught with problems: lack of unanimity concerning the four sources, subjectivity and circular reasoning. Archeological discoveries have shed light on the assumptions utilized within this hypothesis and they have proven the theory to be what it is, a sham. Men reject the authority and sufficiency of scripture and will try to bend the scripture to match something that appears to be true or have an effect. This is because men’s hearts are wicked----- and they love darkness rather than light-----.

The traditional view of Genesis is that Moses compiled the book while on the border of the Promised Land. He compiled the books of the Pentateuch in the year 1440 BC, just before they entered the Promised Land. This was a reminder to the Israelites of their journey and God’s provision throughout. It also was meant to remind the people of why the Canaanites were to be wiped out, men, women, children and animals. Nothing was to remain of the Canaanite culture.

Introduction to the Pentateuch Chapter 1: What Is the Pentateuch?

The Pentateuch has always been an essential part of Holy Scripture, recognized as such by Jews and Christians alike. For the Jews, whose name for it is “the Torah,” it holds the first and most authoritative place in their Scriptures, being traditionally regarded as the work of Moses. As the only person who spoke with God face to face (Exod. 33:11; Deut. 34:10), Moses was God’s most authoritative spokesman, communicating the will of God to his people. For Christians also the Pentateuch is, together with the rest of the Old Testament, an essential part of the Holy Scriptures. In the Gospels, Jesus is represented as quoting or alluding to the authoritative teaching of “Moses” (i.e., the Pentateuch) more frequently than to any other Old Testament book; and references to it by the other New Testament writers are even more numerous.

The Pentateuch has always been an essential part of Holy Scripture, recognized as such by Jews and Christians alike. For the Jews, whose name for it is “the Torah,” it holds the first and most authoritative place in their Scriptures, being traditionally regarded as the work of Moses. As the only person who spoke with God face to face (; ), Moses was God’s most authoritative spokesman, communicating the will of God to his people. For Christians also the Pentateuch is, together with the rest of the Old Testament, an essential part of the Holy Scriptures. In the Gospels, Jesus is represented as quoting or alluding to the authoritative teaching of “Moses” (i.e., the Pentateuch) more frequently than to any other Old Testament book; and references to it by the other New Testament writers are even more numerous.

Introduction to the Pentateuch Chapter 1: What Is the Pentateuch?

Whybray, R. N. (1995). Introduction to the Pentateuch (p. 1). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

The whole problem with the Genesis account is that Christians have always tried to conform the scriptures to the thoughts of man. In each situation, this has lead to significant problems. An example of this is the way Augustine interpreted scripture in an allegorical manner. This has lead to all sorts of problems and division in the church. Instead of reading and interpreting the scriptures as you would any piece of literature, taking into account puns, and figurative language when it was obvious, Augustine interpreted the scripture as allegorical throughout. This is especially true with prophecy, Israel, the church and the covenants.

Because of this fallacious way of interpretation, we have the rise of covenant theology, post tribulation, post millenium and Preterits prophecy. These are all interpretations that confuse the issues and change the word of God into something that it never was meant to be.

Why am I going on so? It is because of this reason, in our daily life we have two choices and only two choices. The first is to rely on what the literal word of God is and trust Him to bring you through. The other choice is to rely on human viewpoint thinking and ignore what is revealed through the Bible and get through life on your own. To become like god and work on your own devices.

Why

One of the biggest battles waging in Christendom is over the creation account. We are trying to bend the Bible to conform to the worlds way of interpreting the creation account - evolution/atheism. I find it incredible that we have no problem with understanding the rest of scripture, but fudge on the creation account.

Because our leaders (theologians, pastors and Biblical scholars) have not relied on the scriptures in their purest forms, we are stuck with a generation that doesn’t recognize the sufficiency of scripture. I think that it is because these leaders in the Christian community don’t trust in the scriptures as being sufficient in all things. Because they don’t practice faith (trust in God’s Word), in their daily lives they don’t trust God or His Word - the Bible. These people need to do the rest of Christendom a favour and leave.

God has made His will evident to us through His Word. When God told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge He was revealing something to Adam that Adam could never have realized using rational thinking or empiricism. Only by understanding God’s revelation could he know the consequences of his actions. So, when God reveals to us how the earth and universe was created in such plain language, we need to trust Him and place our faith in His revelation. To not do this, is to be relying on human view point thinking and not divine view point thinking something that we are not to do. states :

Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I want to point out a couple of points here which verifies my point: First, there is a point of sacrifice that we must be ready to be determined to seek. We are to act on what is mentioned in the second verse. We are to present our bodies. Why our bodies? Because that is how we reveal what doctrine is set in our minds. Without bodies we can’t express our thinking. Our actions reveal what we are thinking in our heart (the core of our minds). It is how we express ourselves. As we rely on divine view point (our sacrifice) we are set apart (set apart to do the thing we were created to do, to function as God intended in the beginning), this is acceptable (well pleasing) to God.

Then God reveals something else. Now he turns to our minds. Do not be conformed to this world (evil age). What happens in our life? As we go through life, everyday, we are being inundated with the worlds thinking, its solutions, its patterns of behaviour. It is our responsibility to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. This takes work. It takes memorization, meditation, listening to biblically based sermons and asking God to renew our minds. It doesn’t happen via osmosis. When we do transform our minds, then we become obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit through God’s revealed truth, if we act according to this revealed truth; finally, we are presenting our bodies in obedience to the Holy Spirit through the revealed word of God.

When we are obedient to divine view point then, and only then, when we are tested and we can see how much we have been and are relying on God in each of life’s trials and testings. As we pass these tests by relying on God’s word we are refined by fire and build up our spiritual endurance (). Then we can discern God’s will - what is good, acceptable and complete.

We have been hoodwinked by our leaders. They have bought into human viewpoint thinking and have ensured that we conformed not to the revealed word of god, but to Atheistic Evolution theory. This has had the effect of allowing our youth to think that if you (our leaders) don’t take the Word of God as literal, then we can’t trust any of it. This thinking has had a negative effect on our church and particularly our youth. We wonder where our youth have gone, they have abandoned the church. We need to dismiss these leaders and find real Christian leaders who believe in the scriptures from lid to lid and give answers to the world point of views that are inundating our youth and all of us.

I needed to state these things at the beginning before we even get into the book of Genesis, because their is so much confusion foisted on Christians by these hypocrites. In this study I’m not asking you to believe me, but the one who was there and revealed to us how the earth, the universe and all in it was created. I will try to give some proofs regarding the reasons why I believe the account as revealed in God’s word, but even if I can’t give proofs for somethings, we are to live by faith and not by sight. The faith we are to live by is on God Himself His character, by His revealed Word. This isn’t faith in faith, but faith in God and His character.

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