(originally published WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2008)
This is an excerpt from an impassioned email that I wrote to a friend, it's not quite a complete thought, yet, I would love to hear your comments...
-This is all I'm saying. Clearly scientist can show us good evidence that the Earth is billions of years old, that all life on Earth has one ancestor, that the universe is who-knows-how old and started with a big-bang. But what scientists never take into account, even the vast majority of believing ones, is the eye witness testimony of the person who was not only there, but actually did the whole thing to begin with, the person of Jesus Christ.
God said, through the prophet Moses, that He made the whole Earth, and everything on it, including all life, (which of course includes man) in six days. If those words are not to be trusted, then God is useless to me. If I cannot trust the very first words that are shared by God in His Holy Scriptures, then which ones can I trust.
But let us say for a moment that it is not a literal story, but just a story, telling us about God's character and lovingkindness. Well, then you have to make a choice I am not as quick to make, at what point does Genesis become literal?
Clearly, according to this new wisdom, (which is really no wisdom at all) the creation story is not literal. Obviously, this is the very thing in question. But, if chapter one in not intended to be literal, what of chapter two? In chapter two we get a close up account of when God created man. But that took place on day six, so we can assume that that also is not literal. Building on that assumption, Adam and Eve are not literal figures in the history of the world, and with that we write off chapter three as well. If we all descended, or ascended, I guess, which ever, from a common ancestor the concept of a single couple in a special place somewhere is down right irrational. So Adam and Eve were never literally tempted by anyone. Which really up to this point, is not that big of a deal, it's just a story, I can deal with that. But of course, if Adam and Eve are not literal, then neither are their children. Cain, Abel and Seth and such.
What are we up to? Oh yes, chapter six. The flood. Well, we have already ruled out Noah, by extension of genealogy. He was somebody's kid that was somebody's kid, so on and so on who was Adam's son. Which makes our job easy, because that is a long story. Now we are up to chapter eleven, not bad. Who would really believe a story like the flood anyway, it is utterly impossible for water to cover the entire Earth. Where did it come from, where did it go?
So the tower of Babel falls once again, lost in the fact that it was populated by the descendants of Noah and his children. Which leads us up to Abram, the Father of the Chosen Ones of God. Let us assume that up to this point it was just a story that leads us to Abram. I will not go as far to entertain that Abram is not a literal figure, that would be really crazy.
So we are left with eleven chapters of Genesis on the block, by way of rational scientific theory.
We are left with one little problem... Luke. Luke is considered one of the best historians of ancient times, his account of the Gospel is, from a historical perspective, flawless. In his account, around the end of the third chapter he gives a great genealogy that starts with Joseph, Jesus' earthly father and ends with "Seth was the son of Adam and Adam was the son of God."
This is why it is so important to have Genesis as our foundation. A story we can trust and believe in. Genesis is the foundation of all of the Scripture that comes after. If it cannot be trusted there is absolutely no reason to trust anything that follows.
Thank you for reading!
Scott
-This is all I'm saying. Clearly scientist can show us good evidence that the Earth is billions of years old, that all life on Earth has one ancestor, that the universe is who-knows-how old and started with a big-bang. But what scientists never take into account, even the vast majority of believing ones, is the eye witness testimony of the person who was not only there, but actually did the whole thing to begin with, the person of Jesus Christ.
God said, through the prophet Moses, that He made the whole Earth, and everything on it, including all life, (which of course includes man) in six days. If those words are not to be trusted, then God is useless to me. If I cannot trust the very first words that are shared by God in His Holy Scriptures, then which ones can I trust.
But let us say for a moment that it is not a literal story, but just a story, telling us about God's character and lovingkindness. Well, then you have to make a choice I am not as quick to make, at what point does Genesis become literal?
Clearly, according to this new wisdom, (which is really no wisdom at all) the creation story is not literal. Obviously, this is the very thing in question. But, if chapter one in not intended to be literal, what of chapter two? In chapter two we get a close up account of when God created man. But that took place on day six, so we can assume that that also is not literal. Building on that assumption, Adam and Eve are not literal figures in the history of the world, and with that we write off chapter three as well. If we all descended, or ascended, I guess, which ever, from a common ancestor the concept of a single couple in a special place somewhere is down right irrational. So Adam and Eve were never literally tempted by anyone. Which really up to this point, is not that big of a deal, it's just a story, I can deal with that. But of course, if Adam and Eve are not literal, then neither are their children. Cain, Abel and Seth and such.
What are we up to? Oh yes, chapter six. The flood. Well, we have already ruled out Noah, by extension of genealogy. He was somebody's kid that was somebody's kid, so on and so on who was Adam's son. Which makes our job easy, because that is a long story. Now we are up to chapter eleven, not bad. Who would really believe a story like the flood anyway, it is utterly impossible for water to cover the entire Earth. Where did it come from, where did it go?
So the tower of Babel falls once again, lost in the fact that it was populated by the descendants of Noah and his children. Which leads us up to Abram, the Father of the Chosen Ones of God. Let us assume that up to this point it was just a story that leads us to Abram. I will not go as far to entertain that Abram is not a literal figure, that would be really crazy.
So we are left with eleven chapters of Genesis on the block, by way of rational scientific theory.
We are left with one little problem... Luke. Luke is considered one of the best historians of ancient times, his account of the Gospel is, from a historical perspective, flawless. In his account, around the end of the third chapter he gives a great genealogy that starts with Joseph, Jesus' earthly father and ends with "Seth was the son of Adam and Adam was the son of God."
This is why it is so important to have Genesis as our foundation. A story we can trust and believe in. Genesis is the foundation of all of the Scripture that comes after. If it cannot be trusted there is absolutely no reason to trust anything that follows.
Thank you for reading!
Scott
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