Sermon Tone Analysis

Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the Father.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins) (1Jn 1:9)

 

 

You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.

 

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth," (John 4:24)

 

 

 

Creation, chaos and restoration

 

The book of beginnings

 

       /In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

/(Gen 1:1)

 

       When the first Greek translation, (The Septuagint) was made from the Hebrew manuscripts, the word bereshith, translated “in the beginning” in, (Gen 1:1) was rendered biblos genesis.

This means “history of the origin,” and in that sense is a good title for the first book of the Bible.

The English word, genesis, is simply a transliteration of the Greek phrase.

biblos genesis is found in, (Gen 2:4; Gen 5:1; Gen 6:9; Gen 10:1; Gen 11:27; Gen 25:12-13; Gen 36:1; Gen 37:2 and Matt 1:1) and it is always the same: “These are the generations of...”

       The content of Genesis is the seedpod of the Bible.

The embryo of every major Doctrine is found in this first book of the Scripture: the origin of the universe, the earth, Homo sapiens, dispensations, sin, death, redemption, Divine institutions, the Laws of establishment, nations, civilizations, and the nation Israel.

In Genesis we find two of the four dispensations: the Age of the Gentiles, covered by the first eleven chapters, and the first section of the Age of the Jews, (The patriarchs).

The origin of Israel begins in, (Gen 12:1) and goes through (Gen 50:26).

These chapters present the history of one family: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.

God always places the emphasis on the individual, because salvation and the grace provision are always personal and available to each member of the human race.

The main concept of this book is God’s blessing and provision for man, and man’s failure to appropriate this grace.

Genesis begins with God: bereshith bara elohim --- “In the beginning God created...” (Gen 1:1) And ends with a man’s coffin: ba aron b’mitzrain --- “…In a coffin in Egypt.”

(Gen 50:26)

 

       Also contained in the Book of Genesis are five Satanic attacks: Satan’s distortion of Truth in the Garden; (Gen 3:4-5) Satan’s attack on the Laws of Divine Establishment; (Gen 3:1-24) the attack on Volition through angelic infiltration; (Gen 6:1-5) the attack on the principle of one man --- for one woman, the family; (Gen 2:23) and, finally, the attack on nationalism.

(Gen 11:1-9)

 

       God comes forward with grace, and man goes down by his own volition in the rejection of grace.

(Prov 8:35-36) Genesis reveals the failure, the weakness, the insufficiency of man, and at the same time reveals the love, the stability and the faithfulness of God --- the Wisdom of God and the foolishness of man.

Genesis sets the pace for the entire Bible.

It presents the magnificent grace of God the Father, the celebrity-ship of God the Son, and the sustaining ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

All right, let’s look at the location of Genesis in the Pentateuch.

Genesis is the book of beginnings; therefore, it records man’s first failures before God.

The main theme of the balance of the Pentateuch is as follows: Exodus is the book of deliverance, or man’s being “graced out” --- rescued from his failures by God.

Leviticus is the book of worship, or man’s relationship with God.

Numbers is the book of reversionism, or man’s discipline by God because of carnality.

Deuteronomy is the book of Doctrine, or God’s Laws for mankind.

Moses, the human author

 

       All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God, and is profitable for Doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

(2Ti 3:16-17)

 

       Under the Principle of Inspiration, as stated in, (2Ti 3:16) the human author of this book is of some importance.

The Greek word theopneustos, translated “Inspiration,” is literally “God-breathed,” i.e., inhale and exhale.

The inhale of the believer is God the Holy Spirit’s Communicating information about the unknown past to the human author, Moses, a man with the gift of prophecy and the office of prophet.

God’s complete and coherent message, defining creation and covering human history from its beginning to the time of Moses, is recorded in this book with perfect accuracy.

In the exhale, Moses, as the human author, recorded the information given him directly from God.

Without waiving Moses’ human genius, without waiving his fantastic vocabulary, his personality, or changing his individuality or his personal feelings, God’s complete message to mankind was permanently recorded in the original language --- which is Hebrew, not King James English!

 

       God the Holy Spirit “carried Moses along,” (2Pe 1:20-21) so that the “Mind of Christ” was inhaled through Truth learned by Moses, (The function of Operation Z; http:~/~/thinkingtruth.wordpress.com~/2008~/02~/05~/top-and-bottom-circles~/) and exhaled through Writing!

The Mind of Christ is the Word of God! (1Co 2:16; Psa 138:2) Since only God was present at creation, this passage is His Eyewitness account which He Communicated to Moses and also to other writers of Scripture.

(Job 38:1-41; Prov 8:21-36; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12; John 1:1-3; Heb 11:3) I hasten to add that science was not present at creation.

Science knows nothing of the origin of the universe and becomes philosophical when it begins to speculate on the origin of the earth and the universe.

Philosophy is never an exact science: philosophy is speculation!

Exact science must be mathematical in its precision; therefore, science is not qualified to present any facts on how the universe originated.

This is no way neutralizes academic science nor discredits any of the great scientists.

It merely points out that some scientists have become speculative in the field of evolution, and their conclusions are no more valid than their premise.

Therefore, we are not interested in the speculations of science, but only what God communicated to Moses concerning the events of creation.

“In the beginning ...”

 

       The outline of Genesis, Chapter 1 is threefold:

       1.

Creation - Verse 1.

       2.

Chaos - Verse 2.

       3.

Restoration - Verse 3 and following.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

(Gen 1:1)

       This is an approximate translation from the Hebrew, but for the sake of correct interpretation, it is not complete.

When you have a summary of the origin of the entire universe in one short phrase, great accuracy must be observed.

It was not God’s intention in, (Gen 1:1) to go into a detailed account of how the universe came into existence, but to merely provide sufficient information for man’s understanding of God’s power in creation.

The Hebrew prepositional phrase bereshith is made up of the preposition be, meaning “in,” plus the object of the preposition, the noun rishah, feminine singular, meaning “beginning.”

Now, what is remarkable about “In the beginning”?

There is no definite article in the Hebrew; therefore, it is the exact equivalent of the phrase that John used in, (John 1:1) en arche!

      

       /In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God! /(John 1:1)

 

       en plus the vocabulary form of arche in the locative case means: “In a beginning which was not a beginning.”

The absence of the definite article from both bereshith and arche means “eternity past.”

Now, bereshith does not mean “in the beginning,” but it means “in eternity past something began.”

Both passages, (John 1:1) and (Gen 1:1) refer to a segment of time in eternity past.

John talks about the existence of God in eternity past, and Moses talks about the creation of the entire universe in eternity past.

(Gen 1:1) is the only verse in this passage that presents the creation of the universe.

That is why it is so important to understand the interpretation based on Hebrew exegesis.

There are not six or seven days involved in creation.

Creation of the universe was instantaneous and occurred long before man was created, again, we have: “In a beginning which was not a beginning, in eternity past.”

The Four Beginnings

http:~/~/thinkingtruth.files.wordpress.com~/2008~/02~/the-four-beginnings.jpg

The chart represents the arche span, or eternity past.

The second line indicates time after the point of creation.

The arche span for God is continuous: there never was a time when God did not exist; there never will be a time when God will not exist.

There is no point of creation for the God-head --- therefore, the Trinity is not limited by time.

There was a time, (FOR ANGELS AND MAN) when the universe did not exist; (But has always existed for God; BECAUSE GOD IS ETERNAL) --- we have learned from the word bereshith that in a beginning which was not a beginning, the universe was created, including the planet Earth.

In eternity past, there were no angels; but at a point in eternity, angels were created.

Time began for the angels --- time is still going on for the angels, elect and fallen, thanks to the creation of man.

There was an indefinite period of time between the creation of angels and the creation of man.

During that period of time, the earth became chaotic due to events that occurred among the angels.

(Isa 14:12-17) Now, look at the chart again.

Before the creation of man, the earth was restored by God, as we will see in, (Gen 1:2).

The last line on the chart indicates the creation of man.

And during the time that these creations were taking place, eternity went right on for God.

Notice the top line --- this is eternity.

The concept of time does not apply to God.

The order of beginnings

 

       There are four “beginnings.”

Each beginning is in the arche span.

arche is used to mean “eternity,” but eternity is going on while time is going on.

First, there never was a time when the Members of the God-head did not exist: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each have identical essence, coequal and coeternal.

Second, in the eternity past span, angels were created.

(Job 38:6-7) Third, in a segment of eternity past, God created the heavens and the earth and original animal and plant life.

And fourth, man and woman were created.