Genesis 1-3
Thru the Scriptures—Chap 1-3

Contents

Quick Facts……………………………………………………...2

Daily study………………………………………………………3

Genesis—book of beginnings…………………………………...4

Quick Definitions………………………………………………..5

Chapter 1 Highlights and Helps …..…………………………….6

Chapter 2 Highlights and Helps …..…………………………….7

Chapter 3 Highlights and Helps …..…………………………….9

Creation Issues: Carbon Dating by Kent Hovind ……………...11

Creation Issues: Fossils by Bruce Malone……………………...13

10 Best Evidences for Creation by Nutting and Korow………..15

Further Research Sources…..…………………………………..18

 

 

Genesis is the book of beginnings.

We get the word “Genesis” from the first word in the Hebrew text, “beginning”. In the Greek language the word “beginning” is the word “Geneseos”, or “Genesis”.

Everything begins in Genesis, the universe, the solar system, the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, life, man, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, religion… even God’s chosen people. In fact, in Genesis we have the origin of every major Bible doctrine. It’s been said, “Vast forests of Scripture start in Genesis as seedlings.” Genesis is the foundation on which the other 65 books of the Bible are built.

This is why the enemies of God have tried so vigorously to falsify the account of Genesis - yet they have tried in vain. The more we learn of valid, verifiable science, and archeology, the more confidence gain in the Genesis account.

Always remember, no less an authority than our Lord Jesus considered the Genesis record as historically reliable and scientifically accurate. Jesus quoted frequently from the first 11 chapters of Genesis. He considered it factual. He believed in a literal Adam and Eve. He ascribed Moses as its author. Jesus Himself held to a literal interpretation of Genesis… and so should we!

Quick Definitions

Genesis is the Greek word for “beginning”.

God (v.1) is the Hebrew word “Elohim” It is the Plural of the singular word for God—El. Yet, fascinatingly—it us used in a singular clause in the sentence. It is a wonderful allusion to the Trinity—three and yet one.

Created in v.1 is the Hebrew word “bara” and it literally means to create out of nothing.

Eden in Hebrew means “delight”.

Helper in 2:18—means suitable, a counterpart, a partner, one at ones side, to complete. In John 16, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is our helper in similar fashion. So helper is not a devaluing word, sense God uses it of Himself—but helps us see the role, the help that is brought to man in marriage.

Man, Woman—the Hebrew word for “man” is “Ish”, while the word for woman is the feminine form of “Ish” or “Ishah”.

Chapter 1 Highlights and Helps

As you begin this chapter, there is no date, just “in the beginning”. It does not say in the beginning of God - God had no beginning!

1Chronicles 16:36 says, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting.” As hard is it is for our minds that are stuck in a linear time to grasp—God has always been, and will always be. He exists outside time...and always has, is and will be!

Obviously, these 10 words don’t tell us all we’d like to know about creation, but they do tell us all we need to know. In fact, if you believe in Genesis 1:1 you’ll have no problem believing the other 31,173 verses in the Bible. If God created the universe, and set its laws in motion, then He can intervene or interrupt those laws if He chooses. He can part the Red Sea, and cause the sun to stand still, and walk on water, and more. In fact if God created the universe the problems you’re facing in your life today are really no problem.
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Ten times in chapter 1 God says everything was created, “according to its kind”. God created in the genetic make-up of life a degree of flexibility. Living things can adapt to environmental changes – we call these adaptations, “mutations”. But there are limits to these adaptations. The genetic structure of living things has been fixed by God so that life reproduces only within its natural family or “kinds”. Mutations are possible, but not transmutations. A fish doesn’t become a bird.

The lie of evolution says that things change outside its kind—i.e. that a fish can become a bird. But all the examples that evolutionists point to are changes within a species—a dog, becomes a different type of dog. Biblically and scientifically things can and do change within their kind...but not into a different kind.

Thank the Lord for mutations. All my kids turned out better looking than me… but they’re all still Suttles’. Granted, at times they act like monkeys, but they’re still Suttles’, and they’ll reproduce Suttles’. Each generation “according to its kind”.

It’s this phrase “according to its kind” that drives a nail into the coffin of evolution. The theory is totally incompatible with nature, and more importantly with the Bible.
Chapter 2 Highlights and Helps

Why did God place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden? This is not a complete answer—for many of God’s ways are beyond us. But practically, think about this. God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil within Adam’s reach as a way for Adam to demonstrate his love for God.

For love to be meaningful it has to be volitional. If you love me, but
have no other choice it’s a hollow love. If your wife said “I do” with a shotgun in her back you’d always wonder. Adam therefore could have demonstrated his love and loyalty for God by staying away from that tree. For love to be love, for freedom to be freedom—there has to be a choice.

But Adam failed the test, and as God forewarned, he died both spiritually and physically. Spiritually, he died instantly. Sin separated him from God. Physically, he died slowly. His body began to deteriorate.
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Its not Evolution...be devolution...not evolving but devolving. Science calls this “Entropy” , the process of decay, began to effect not only Adam, but it permeated all the physical universe. As Paul said in Romans 8:20, “the creation was subjected to futility”. God’s world became marred by randomness, disorder, arbitrary cruelties. It is important to understand, that this is now how God created the original creation, but what sin did to mare and mess up that creation. As we see pain, death, suffering...that was not a part of the original.
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Devotion Thought - Why Day 6?
Since God made man on the 6th day of Creation, Adam’s first full day was spent at rest with the Lord. Adam began his life resting with God. There’s a profound lesson here.

Before we do anything for the Lord we need to learn how to fellowship with the Lord. Before we serve we first need to sit. We need to learn how to rely on God’s strength, and rest in His wisdom.
Marriage as it was meant to be

Adam called her Eve. Actually, the naming of the woman is one of the most beautiful and romantic passages in Scripture. Remember, the privilege to name was a function of dominion and authority. The fact that Adam was allowed to name the woman tells us God had placed her under Adam’s authority, but here’s what I want you to see…The Hebrew word translated “man” is “Ish”, and the word translated woman is the same word in the feminine form, “Ishah”. Adam had authority over Eve, but instead of asserting it he treats her as an equal. He gives her his own name.

Matthew Henry commented, "The woman was taken from Adam's side - not from his head to rule over him - not from his feet to be trampled on - but from his side to be equal with him, from under his arm to be protected, and from close to his heart to be loved."

Guys and gals, it’s not good for man or woman to alone. That is how God created it to be—and this is in a perfect creation, before sin messed it up!

If you are single and reading this—know that unless God has given you the gift of singleness (1 Cor 7) - He does not want you to be alone and has a spouse for you. Now, if you have the gift of singleness—you know it—the desire for marriage has been removed and replaced with a single passion for the Lord. Don’t fear and fret that God has you to be single—unless He has also given you the desire to be single.

So, if you are single, how do you find that right person, the one God has for you? I don’t mean to be to simplistic about this—but personally I find it wonderful to note that God brought Eve to Adam...and I have the solid sense, that He is still in the match making business and the best one at it...if we will just get out of the way and let Him. Develop your relationship with God, and in His time He will bring you a helper. Learn to trust Him!

Five Keys from the First Marriage
Leave - bye-bye mom and dad
Cleave - until death do us part
Weave - work at oneness
Stop the hiding.... practice humility and honesty
Stop the hurling… don’t play the blame game

Chapter 3 Highlights and Helps

Notice how satan works as he leads Eve into the first sin of mankind. Satan’s ways have not changed...they worked then and sadly they still work now.

Satan makes God out to be the bad guy. He tells her, “God just wants to keep you hemmed in – deprive you of your freedom – stunt your growth – to really find yourself you need to do your own
thing!” He tells her that what God has for her life is somehow less, less fulfilling, less fun, less pleasurable...it was a lie then and it is now.

Guys, that line of thinking is the seed thought behind every sin and
temptation. Satan causes you to doubt two truths - God’s Word and God’s love. Always remember what God says is true, and why He says it is because He loves you.
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Three things appeal to Eve about this and they are best articulated by John in his epistle.
For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. (1 Jn 2:16)

For further study—see if you can pick out each of these three areas of the temptation. Then, go to Matthew 4—and notice that satan had three temptations for Jesus. How are the temptations that Jesus faced the same Even face—or how do they fit these three categories? How did Jesus overcome? Why did Eve not?

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As Adam and Eve deal with their sin—what is the first thing that they do? How does their sin effect their relationship with God? Does this still happen today as we sin? Why?

Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin with fig leaves—large leaves...that are sticky and very itchy. How is that a good picture of our inadequacy in dealing with sin? How does God cover their sin? How is this a foreshadowing of what Jesus would do for us?

Notice the results of sin.

First—pain with children. Physical pain was introduced into the world. Yet, as we read this passage, we can easily see in it that the pain referred to goes far deeper than the physical. Any parent can tell you that the pain of the first was nothing compared to the agony and pain of raising children and dealing with rebellion in their hears. Sin brought in sorrow to the parenting relationship.

Second—messed up marriages. What had been a beautiful union of oneness—sin has now messed up. Notice what v.16 says:
The woman’s desire will be for her husband. This is not something natural, but a result of sin. The Hebrew word speaks of a desire to devour or control. The result for a woman, is instead of being the helper that God created her to be– now in a sinful way would seek to control, dominate and manipulate.
The man would now seek to rule over her. The Hebrew word used her for rule speaks of a domineering, a crushing, to treat her as conquered...a possession. What had been a love that Adam originally treated her as an equal, giving her his name...now would be something quite different and horrible.
Every marriage from then to now has now experienced these consequences. In most marriages, one of these has become dominant—either she is controlling or he is domineering. What had been a union of oneness—sin messed up. Only in dealing with sin, only in Christ—can these things be put away and a marriage return to what God intended it to be—oneness.

Third—work and life became hard. Notice, work was not the result of sin. We were created to have purpose, to work, to have a place to have meaning. But now, because of sin it became hard. God says to Adam in verse 19, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat
bread…” Before man sinned work was no sweat, but no more. Because of his sin man would never again get out of his job all that he would put into it. Whenever he went to work he would always
leave a little something of himself on the job until he had literally worked himself to death.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (Jn 10:10)
 Creation Issues
Carbon Dating
Does carbon dating prove the Earth is millions of years old? Dr. Kent Hovind

Whenever the worldview of evolution is questioned, this topic always comes up. Let me first explain how carbon dating works and then show you the assumptions it is based on. Radiation from the sun strikes the atmosphere of the earth all day long. This energy converts about 21 pounds of nitrogen into radioactive carbon 14. This radioactive carbon 14 slowly decays back into normal, stable nitrogen. Extensive laboratory testing has shown that about half of the C-14 molecules will decay in 5730 years. This is called the half-life. After another 5730 years half of the remaining C-14 will decay leaving only ¼ of the original C-14. It goes from ½ to ¼ to 1/8, etc. In theory it would never totally disappear, but after about 5 half lives the difference is not measurable with any degree of accuracy. This is why most people say carbon dating is only good for objects less than 40,000 years old. Nothing on earth carbon dates in the millions of years, because the scope of carbon dating only extends a few thousand years. Willard Libby invented the carbon dating technique in the early 1950's. The amount of carbon 14 in the atmosphere today (about .0000765%), is assumed there would be the same amount found in living plants or animals since the plants breath CO2 and animals eat plants. Carbon 14 is the radio-active version of carbon.

Since sunlight causes the formation of C-14 in the atmosphere, and normal radioactive decay takes it out, there must be a point where the formation rate and the decay rate equalizes. This is called the point of equilibrium. Let me illustrate: If you were trying to fill a barrel with water but there were holes drilled up the side of the barrel, as you filled the barrel it would begin leaking out the holes. At some point you would be putting it in and it would be leaking out at the same rate. You will not be able to fill the barrel past this point of equilibrium. In the same way the C-14 is being formed and decaying simultaneously. A freshly created earth would require about 30,000 years for the amount of C-14 in the atmosphere to reach this point of equilibrium because it would leak out as it is being filled. Tests indicate that the earth has still not reached

equilibrium. There is more C-14 in the atmosphere now than there was 40 years ago. This would prove the earth is not yet 30,000 years old! This also means that plants and animals that lived in the past had less C-14 in them than do plants and animals today. Just this one fact totally upsets data obtained by C-14 dating.

The carbon in the atmosphere normally combines with oxygen to make carbon dioxide (CO2). Plants breathe CO2 and make it part of their tissue. Animals eat the plants and make it part of their tissues. A very small percentage of the carbon plants take in is radioactive C-14. When a plant or animal dies it stops taking in air and food so it should not be able to get any new C-14. The C-14 in the plant or animal will begin to decay back to normal nitrogen. The older an object is, the less carbon-14 it contains. One gram of carbon from living plant material causes a Geiger counter to click 16 times per minute as the C-14 decays. A sample that causes 8 clicks per minute would be 5,730 years old (the sample has gone through one half life), and so on. (See chart on page 46 about C-14). Although this technique looks good at first, carbon-14 dating rests on two simple assumptions. They are, obviously, assuming the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere has always been constant, and its rate of decay has always been constant. Neither of these assumptions is provable or reasonable.

An illustration may help: Imagine you found a candle burning in a room, and you wanted to determine how long it was burning before you found it. You could measure the present height of the candle (say, seven inches) and the rate of burn (say, an inch per hour). In order to find the length of time since the candle was lit we would be forced to make some assumptions. We would, obviously, have to assume that the candle has always burned at the same rate, and assumes an initial height of the candle. The answer changes based on the assumptions. Similarly, scientists do not know that the carbon-14 decay rate has been constant. They do not know that the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is constant. Present testing shows the amount of C-14 in the atmosphere has been increasing since it was first measured in the 1950's. This may be tied in to the declining strength of the magnetic field.

Fossils
Fossils Do Not Prove Evolution Bruce Malone

Fossils. The very name brings to mind images of untold ages past. . . dinosaurs roaming ancient swamps. . . slow but steady progression as simple sea life was transformed into today's complex variety. Is this an accurate reconstruction of the past of the past or is a worldwide flood the correct explanation of the fossil record?
This article is one of many found within Mr. Malone's excellent book, Search for the Truth.

Fossils are the preserved evidence of past life. They are found in every part of the world, including the tops of the highest mountains. They may be as simple as a seashell which has left a permanent impression in sandstone or as grandiose as a giant plesiosaur whose bones have turned to rock after rapid burial. The fossils themselves tell us neither their age nor how they became encased in the rock layers. Rather, they must be interpreted within some view of earth history. Many people have been led to believe that the existence of fossils proves that millions of years have passed. In reality, fossils can form quite rapidly. Heat and pressure from rapid burial can accelerate the fossilization process. Geologic conditions following a worldwide flood would have exceeded anything imaginable today and must have led to the rapid fossilization of the plants and animals on a massive scale.

Fossilization can happen rapidly under the right conditions, but it is a rare event today. Yet there are mass burial sites throughout the world that are tightly packed with millions of fossils. Apparently, billions of organisms were washed together by the mass destruction of the worldwide flood, completely buried, and rapidly fossilized. These massive and extensive fossil graveyards would be the predictable result of a worldwide flood, but would of a worldwide flood, but would hardly fit the slow accumulation model which continues to be taught as the primary explanation of the fossil record. Something dramatically different must have happened in the past to have caused the wide spread fossilization which we find all over our planet. Noah's flood would have been this event.

Geologists and paleontologists operating from a Christian worldview acknowledge the possibility that a worldwide catastrophe buried unimaginable amounts of plants and animals. This was the disaster documented in the first book of the Bible. It lasted at least one year and had reverberations which lasted for centuries. Sea creatures would have been buried first (the salinity and temperature of the oceans would have changed during the catastrophe, wiping out massive numbers of these sea creatures). Even after the flood, plant and animal extinction would have been common as many types of creatures failed to adapt to dramatically changing conditions.

Although any order of burial in a flood would be possible, the general tendency would be for sea life to be buried in the lower rock layers and land animals to be buried in different rock layers corresponding to their ecological niche. This tendency is generally found.

Creation geologists (and there are many of them) believe that the majority of the geologic record is a result of geologic activity during and subsequent to the year-long worldwide flood. This flood would have been an incredible complex event.

Geologist and paleontologists operating from an evolutionary world view acknowledge local catastrophes, but do not allow consideration of a worldwide flood. This would wipe out the "slow change over eons of time" interpretation of the fossils which is needed to continue believing in evolution.

Only one interpretation of the evidence can be correct and only one interpretation of the evidence agrees with what the Bible claims is the history of our planet.

10 Best Evidences for Creation
by Dave & Mary Jo Nutting and Dan Korow

The Fossil Record.
The fossil record provides evidence for a complex, instantaneous creation. Why? A: The lower geologic layers reveal a sudden proliferation of complex life forms with every phyla represented. This Cambrian Explosion or “Big Bang” of life is preceded by no simpler forms. B: Today’s living forms show no change from their supposed ancient ancestors. C: There are large and systematic gaps between the different kinds of fossils rather than gradual, evolutionary changes.

2. Irreducible Complexity
Prepackaged, highly engineered systems exist in our bodies that are so complex they defy evolutionary explanations. These systems involve integrated multiple parts and reactions that work together only as a whole. If you eliminate any one piece, none of the system works at all. Evolution supposedly operates by natural selection perfecting less developed systems. However, natural selection requires something working and in place to perfect! Examples in the human body are the immune system, blood clotting, and any one of hundreds of biochemical pathways.

3. Gaps in the Living World
If isolated members of a species change by evolutionary processes, the main population group can still continue. We should be able to read the history of the evolutionary progression right across the very top of the evolutionary branching tree. We can’t! Just as the fossil record contains large systematic gaps, the living world does too. We see evidence for creation of distinct kinds — not one kind changing into another.

4. Laws of Probability
The odds are enormously great against the successful occurrence of each of the myriads of needed evolutionary changes! Even the probability of 1 small protein occurring by accident is 1 chance out of 10260. Since we have thousands of even larger proteins, it is inconceivable they all happened by chance. Coupling that with intricate structures like eyes, wings, hearts, lungs, etc., the laws of probability scream out, “Creation!”

5. Law of Cause and Effect:
The Law of Cause and Effect is one of the best documented principles of science and of everyday experience. Every event must have a sufficient cause. Since the origin of the universe and the origin of life are events, they too must have a cause. The physical universe consisting of time, space, energy, and matter must all have a cause outside themselves. Likewise, life must have a living Cause. Following this reasoning to its logical conclusion, leads to an infinite, eternal, powerful, intelligent, living First Cause--our awesome Creator!

6. Chicken or Egg Principle
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This question has plagued philosophers for a long time. The question is even deeper, however. Chickens have many proteins. Each protein is coded for by the DNA/RNA system. However, many specific proteins are needed in order to manufacture DNA/RNA. So which came first: proteins or DNA/RNA? The logical explanation is that they were both created.

7. Intelligent Design
Intelligent Design demands an Intelligent Designer. The airplane, computer, and digital camera originated not by random, undirected, chance processes, but by engineering genius. Such sophisticated achievements however, pale in comparison to the extremely complex, systematically ordered, precision regulated systems of living tissue. The superior flight of the dragonfly, the mind boggling information mega-processor of the human brain, and the eye as a self-focusing, fully-automatic, high resolution, 3-D motion picture camera are the natural prototypes for our acclaimed tech marvels. It is scientifically inconceivable, unreasonable and illogical to credit blind, brainless chance as their maker. God alone is wise without limits, and deserves the Glory.

8. The Anthropic Principle
The Anthropic Principle observes that the universe, including our beautiful, blue planet appears to have been specifically designed for man to inhabit (just as Isaiah 45:18 says). Without the delicate balance of multitudes of physical properties, life would be impossible. Examples include the strength of the four basic forces in the universe (gravitational, electromagnetic, strong and weak nuclear forces), the size and shape of the earth, the distance from earth to sun, the tilt of the earth’s axis, the concentration of atmospheric gases, and the presence of abundant liquid water. It couldn’t just happen.

9. Information Theory
Information has intelligence as its source, not haphazard chaotic chance. A computer programmer instills purpose, plan, and design by implementing and organizing recognizable bits of data into an understandable language framework. In biological systems, information is encoded as DNA, the programmed software of cells. As evolutionist Dr . Micheal Denton says in his book Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, “The capacity of DNA to store information vastly exceeds that of any other known system; it is so efficient that all the information needed to specify an organism as complex as man weighs less than a few thousand millionths of a gram.” Since raw organic molecules have no intrinsic cognitive capacity, who injected the information into the DNA? God alone is able.

10. Extreme Complexity
Complexity beyond comprehension characterizes all life forms, including the so-called “simple cell.” As Dr. Micheal Denton states referring to the cell, “...we would find ourselves in a world of supreme technology and bewildering complexity...beyond our own creative capacities.” Everything, from atomic structures to cells, organs, organ systems, and living creatures speaks of incredible order, balance, and unity as a whole.

and most of all—GOD SAID IT!!!
It is really hard to argue with the only One who claims to have been there when the universe and life began. He said He created everything to reproduce “after its own kind” — not one kind changing into another.

Further Research Sources

http://www.answersingenesis.org/
Ken Ham’s Website. Great resources, articles. Also a great source for books and videos you can get a hold of. (we have these in our library too)

http://www.drdino.com/
Kent Hovind’s website. Another great site, with lots of answers, and another great video series you get get a hold of. (We also have these in our library)

http://www.creationscience.com/
Walt Brown’s website. Very helpful, detailed, but not to hard for a non-science major to read. Has a book you can order that has all that is on this website if you prefer it in your hands.

http://www.discovercreation.org/
The Alpha Omega Institute’s website. This institute is dedicated to teaching the Biblical and scientific evidence of creation throughout the world.

http://www.icr.org/
The Institute for Creation Research.