Genesis by Dr. Abidan Shah

GENESIS by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC

Introduction:  How many of you had a friend or knew someone growing up who was very good at telling tall tales? I knew a kid like that in elementary school. We would all crowd around his desk between classes because he told the best stories of finding hidden treasures in his backyard, how his uncle was a spy, and how he was building a rocket ship. He would even bring little objects from home and tell us that they were developed by the military. Looking back, they were probably just small parts from his dad’s car or truck. The point is that he was making these things up just to impress us and make us flock around him. Sometimes, people think that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of tall tales meant to make us flock around the church, especially the first few chapters of Genesis. Nothing could be further from the truth. As you know, we are in our series on Apologetics called “Contend,” and we are turning our attention to the book of Genesis because of some of the questions that we received – #1 Is the Genesis account of creation meant to be taken literally? #2 Aren’t there other ancient myths and legends of creation? #3 Did the Bible borrow from other myths and legends? #4 Doesn’t science contradict the creation account in Genesis? Main Point: If there is one book in the Bible that has been a target of attack more than any other, it is the book of Genesis. That’s because it is both the account of our origin and our fall. In other words, it tells us how we got here and what happened to us. To get this wrong will eventually cause us to get the gospel wrong.

Genesis 1      1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Context: Most of us have no questions or qualms in reading that passage. That’s what God’s Word says how this world began and that’s what we should believe. Unfortunately, that’s not how everyone thinks about that passage or the first eleven chapters of Genesis, or even just Genesis 1. It may surprise some of you that there are 4 different ways that people have taken this book or these sections, especially Genesis 1-11 (Todd Beall): 1. Not historical, just a myth. 2. Not a myth, just figurative. 3. Not a myth, but partly figurative and partly literal. 4. Literal (Plain-view). I hold to the 4^th view. Don’t misunderstand: This does not mean that we don’t consider the different genres in the Bible like poetry, wisdom, parables, etc. We understand that sometimes the biblical writers used metaphors like in Psalm 104     2 “…Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. 3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters.” The more you study Genesis, especially the first 11 chapters, it is a narrative and not an extended poetic metaphor. None of the elements of Hebrew poetry like schema, metaphor, and other tropes are found.

Here’s a reminder: There are people who don’t take the fourth view like I do, but before I call them unbelievers or pass judgment on them, I must examine how what they believe about Genesis 1-11 impacts the first rank doctrines – the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture. Here are some things that affect the first rank doctrines with regards to Genesis 1-11:

• God and the creation are separate, and he made the creation out of nothing. That’s his aseity (independence and eternality).
• The world was perfect before sin came in.
• Adam and Eve were real historical individuals who were created in the image of God but chose to disobey God and fell into sin.
• With them all of us are also sinners (original sin) and we need redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

There are issues that are placed in the secondary or even tertiary category – the age of the earth and the length of the days in creation, etc. We need to be careful here because these issues do impact the Authority of Scripture, which is a primary issue. If I say that a part of the Bible is just a myth, legend, or figurative, then what happens to the other parts? Can I truly then say that “All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God?”

Why do I believe that the Genesis account should be taken literally? 3 major reasons (Beall and James K. Hoffmeier):

1. No Division in Genesis

There are people who will say that Genesis 12-50 is literal, but not Genesis 1-11. Keep in mind that we divide the Bible into chapters and verses, but that’s not how Moses wrote it. For those of you who may not know – Chapter Divisions were put into the Bible by Stephen Langton (1150-1228), the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Verse Divisions were put in by Robert I. Estienne or Robert Stephanus (1503-1559), a printer/ scholar in Paris. By the way, the Red Letters of Jesus’ words were put in by Louis Klopsch (June 19^th, 1899). He was the editor of the Christian Herald magazine, and he asked his mentor T. De Witt Talmadge (Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle) to help with that. The point is that all these breaks came much later.

To the contrary, the entire book is connected by a phrase that is repeated – “eleh toledoth,” meaning “these are the generations of” or “this is the history of”:

• Genesis 2:4 “This is the history of the heavens and the earth”
• Genesis 5:1 “This is the book of the genealogy of Adam”
• Genesis 6:9 “This is the genealogy of Noah”
• Genesis 10:1 “Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah”
• Genesis 11:10 “This is the genealogy of Shem”
• Genesis 11:27 “This is the genealogy of Terah”
• Genesis 25:12 “Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son”
• Genesis 25:19 “This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son”
• Genesis 36:1, 9 “Now this is the genealogy of Esau”
• Genesis 37:2 “This is the history of Jacob”

Each time that phrase comes up, it narrows the focus to a particular group of people. These names are not fictitious but real historical people. The historical references are not just in Genesis 12 onwards but also in the first 11 chapters – 66 geographical names, 88 personal names, 48 generic names, 21 items like gold and other precious metals (Walter Kaiser). He even adds that Genesis 10 has 5 times more geographical information than the entire Quran. In conclusion, the first 11 chapters are setting up for the historical call of a historical person named Abram in chapter 12.

2. No Dependence in Genesis

There are people who claim that the opening chapters of Genesis resemble Babylonian, Canaanite, and Egyptian myths and mythologies. Of course, there may be some parallels, but there are far more differences. For example: some point to the similarities between Enuma Elish (Babylonian creation myth) and Genesis creation. The only clear parallel is where the god Marduk splits Tiamat into 2 spheres of water, which is like God dividing the waters in the firmament on day 2. What many don’t consider is how Enuma Elish is different from the Genesis account. There the god Marduk is being portrayed as superior to other gods and the universe coming into being after a big battle between the gods. Also, not much about the creation of light or the plant and animal beings. In the Canaanite myths, it is the conflict between the storm god Baal and the sea god Yam. So also, in the Egyptian myths, the focus is on the creation of the gods and the cosmos. Even there, these gods are made in all sorts of ways – Ptah speaks the world into being, Atum’s semen and fingers are used in creation, even his spit. Finally, the world is cyclical, where the sun is born every day and the Nile recedes each year. Finally, the gods are themselves a part of nature. This is nothing like the Genesis account of creation.

To the contrary, there are 4 things that stand out as evidence that the events in Genesis 1-11 are to be taken literally:

1. Garden of Eden

Genesis 2     10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Tigris and Euphrates are clearly identifiable. Gihon – through the land of Cush, cental Mesopotamia could have been known as the land of Cush, after the Kassites. Pishon – possibly the river discovered from the Shuttle Imaging Radar technology that flowed east from Saudi Arabia.

2. Sons of God and Daughters of Men

Genesis 6     1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

We will look at this in detail further down. For now, think of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh which depicts a hero holding a lion in his arm. His name appears on the Sumerian King List as the 5^th king of the first dynasty of Uruk. This is dated around 2750 BC. Bottom line: History is stranger than fiction!

3. Global Flood:

Genesis 6     13 And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 15 And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

Compare this with Epic of Gilgamesh where a man Utnapishtim recounts the flood story. The sky god Anu decided to send a flood because people were making too much noise. The god Ea decided to reveal the plan to Utnapishtim, and he built the ship. When the floods came, the gods cowered like dogs outside and the goddess Ishtar screamed like a woman in childbirth. When the flood was over and he offered sacrifices, the gods crowded around the food like flies!

4. Tower of Babel

Genesis 11       1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

More and more evidence support that our languages had a common beginning. The Sumerians had myths about a period when there was only one language.

3. No Doubt Regarding Genesis

At least 25 passages that talk about Genesis 1-11. Here are just a few:

Matthew 19      4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

Matthew 24     37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Conclusion: We have a real problem that stems from a real event that took place in a real garden to 2 real people. God knew that when he created the world that he would also have to come to save it. He did 2000 years ago by sending his Son to die on a real cross on a real hill called Calvary. There is a real judgment coming where if you don’t receive him, you will be cast into a real lake of fire which was prepared for a real Satan and the fallen angels. You don’t have to go there. Instead, you can go to the real new heavens and the new earth by receiving Christ as your Savior and King.

Invitation: Genesis is true, and the Gospel is true. Are you saved?