A Start - Disciples Path Ministry
Disciples Path Ministry
Genesis
Genesis
In the Beginning…
Jews, Christians, and pagan historians agree that Moses is the author of Genesis and the Book was written to preserve the historical background of Israel as well as making a record of the Creator, creation, sin, redemption, and God’s first dealings with man. They also agree that Moses is the author of the first five Books of the Bible.
Genesis is divided into two major segments: Chapters 1 – 11 cover four major events and Chapters 12 – 50 cover four major people.
What; i.e., the major events and who; i.e., the major people are discussed later. Of course, YOU could open your Holy Bible and see if YOU can figure that out before I cover it!
The Bible is the written Word of God. There are two major sections to the Bible. They are the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). Genesis is located in the OT. There are four divisions of the OT Books: Law, History, Poetry, and Prophecy. The four divisions to the NT Books are Gospels, History, Letters, and Prophecy. I will cover the NT in another section.
There are five Books of Law. Reminder: you really need to know this. Those five Books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Books of Law span a period of some 600 years and were all written by Moses. Yes…the end of Deuteronomy deals with the death of Moses and it is generally agreed upon that Joshua probably added that part in order to round out that section.
Who were the following: the first Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Enoch, Esau, Jacob (Israel), Joshua, Abraham, Issac, and Joseph? Reminder: You MUST have a grasp on the Book of Genesis or the remainder of the OT and especially the NT will be a HUGE stumbling block that takes years to go around and then come back to. That is personal experience speaking!
One cannot rush their biblical study trying to speed up spiritual maturity. I believe that God has an incredible reward for those that are willing to seriously embark on their spiritual journey and then stick with it! Reminder: the spiritual personal journey is why we are here and why we were created to begin with. Study all you can find on Genesis and not simply what someone has told you or trained you to think. A deep study of Genesis will help you never question again why you were born and for what purpose you are on this huge spinning rock out in space!
Reader and fellow disciple, please pray with me.
We thank you Lord by whose Word everything comes to be. Amen.
Continuing our discussion of the Book of Genesis I would be remiss if I did not write that I refuse to argue Creation vs. the theory of evolution, does God exist, is the Bible truly the inspired Word of God, and all the other worn-out arguments. As we continue, one will uncover the truth that knowing by science and mathematics is no more real, objective, or certain than knowing by spiritual faith! God created science and scientist. Borrowing from Jeffrey Tomkins, PH.D, "The hypothetical naturalistic origin of life and its most basic biomolecules from non-living matter is called abiogenisis. This paradigm lies at the very foundation of biological evolution, but the immensity of its naturalistic improbability is often brushed aside by evolutionists, who prefer to focus on other facets of evolution that seem less daunting.
While virtually all of the evolutiomary story lacks empirical support, its greatest impediment is the fundamental problem of how life first arose. Ultimately, life requires DNA, RNA, and protein in a system in which each molecule is dependent on the other two to both exist and function in the cell" (Acts&Facts, March 2018 p. 11).
If Genesis is not true, and accurate, then “chance” is our creator and the brute beasts are our ancestors. I have risen above that level of thinking and have concluded that God need not be explained. What has to be explained is everything else!
Dr. Morris, CEO of the Institute for Creation Research purported, “Genesis 1 – 11 provides the foundation for the rest of Scripture. Without those insights to the beginnings of history, we would be unable to accurately understand much of the ‘what’ and most of the ‘why’ of the world. The efforts of man to exclude God from history have produced the chaos of evolutionary philosophy and the horrific cultural results that plague our world today. The only solutions to this and to those who are lost is the creation salvation that comes from God” (Morris, H., Acts & Facts October 2017).
This will be our starting point. Remember as we journey here that one MUST keep an open mind, restrain the ego, intellect (?), and all preconceived judgment and notions. Should my Doctoral mentor (chairperson) happen upon this website – please overlook the established rules of scholarly writing. Also, I told you I preferred the narrative and still believe the Holy Bible to be a scholarly source. That being said, one must be constantly aware that Satan will be desperately trying to get everyone off course! Borrowing heavily from David Pawson’s lecture on Genesis 1 & 2 (http://www.Davidpawson.org) there are two Books in the Holy Bible that Satan will try his best to confuse you with or keep you from. Those are Genesis – because the Book tells of his entrance into this world and the other is Revelation because it tells of his undignified exit from this world. Reminder: The Book of Revelation is many times just incorrectly called Revelation. You may find it helpful to remember that the Book is named The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Satan will do everything possible to confuse you and persuade you that Genesis is a myth and The Revelation of Jesus Christ is mystery hoping we will leave them alone and not STUDY them for ourselves.
When this Book (Genesis) was translated from Hebrew בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ i.e., the earth and the heavens God created in the beginning to the Greek, some 250 years before Christ Jesus, the Greeks took it upon themselves to change the name of the Book from In the Beginning to Genesis Γενεσισ. I want to direct you to the discussion by Dr. Schroeder (http://Geraldschroeder.com) as “In the Beginning is so loosely translated that it is actually incorrect. The Hebrew title Bereshith (Be’rai’sheet) loosely translated means, “In the Beginning” (NKJV).
Genesis 3:15 reveals to us that we all live in two worlds. One is the physical world that we see with our eyes and the other world is a spiritual one that is as real as the physical world yet we cannot see with our physical eyes. We all have a soul/spirit, which is part of the spiritual world. Borrowing from David Pawson, “The subject of Genesis is not so much creation as it is The Creator” (Pawson, D.)
Genesis is The Beginning but also The End! huh?
You MUST receive the Book of Genesis in your heart, soul, and mind or the rest of the Holy Bible will not make any sense to you!
"We must, and need to understand that death is an intrusion in our world. You notice that in explaining why Jesus died, Paul went to the Book of Genesis and its account of Adam and the Fall. In other words, one cannot really understand the good news in the New Testament of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and thus payment for sin, until one understands the bad news in Genesis of the fall of man, and thus the origin of sin and its penalty of death. Far too many, young and old, people today have little or no understanding of what is meant by sin or of its consequences (remember: death and suffering are intrusions—results of sin). The young and impressionable are growing up in a culture that teaches them they are just evolved animals and that there is no Creator God to whom they are accountable. Far too many "adults" just won't make time to study the Word of God. For them ‘truth’ is relative. Logically then, for them, there is no basis for absolutes (which of course is their absolute!). Everyone has a right to their own opinions, I get it! There must be a tolerance of all views (although Christianity is considered intolerant, because it is exclusive—Jesus Christ is the only way). If one preaches the gospel without the message of the Creator, and the origin of sin and death, then one preaches it without the foundational knowledge that is necessary to understand the rest of the gospel. There is death, sickness, and suffering all around us. However, we need to understand that death, the result of sin, is an intrusion in our world.
Disciples Path Ministry - St. Augustine, Florida
U.S.A.