Part 1 of 3
If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything
Motto of
the Fountain of Life
Before proceeding on this discussion of Genesis let us
consider the humble observation of Thomas a Kempis in “The Imitation of
Christ”: “For what would it profit us to
know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers [and I
might add all the sciences], if we live without grace and the love of God?”
Brethren, please join in prayer: Father, in Jesus name, we confess our desire
for your Holy Spirit. We submit
ourselves to your love and authority and ask you to help us in our
surrender. We thank You for that grace
which You have given and which You will continue to give. As we explore controversy, we seek the spirit
of Thomas; we pray that your Spirit will show us more points of agreement than
points of division. We ask this in Jesus
holy and righteous name. Amen.
SPS: To illustrate
the difference when reading the Bible between a focus upon Jesus from a focus
upon questions tangential to salvation.
Our Scripture:
Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith.”
Brethren, the motto of the Fountain of Life Congregation
is, “If it is not about Jesus, it is not about anything.”
In his series on
Revelation, Pastor Todd Crouch has been showing us that John was not writing
about identifying people or nations or setting dates. He was writing about Christ, about choosing
whom do you worship: The beast or
Christ? Likewise it is proper to examine
the first book of the Bible and ask was Moses writing Genesis as a scientific
work or as an introduction to God? Those
are simple questions, yet highly controversial both inside and outside the
Church.
My denomination, Grace Communion International, is not
dogmatic on extra-orthodox issues.
Therefore, this series on Genesis is not trying to tell anyone what they
should believe. Rather, it is to ask and
hopefully answer some honest questions.
What is the purpose of Genesis 1?
Is Genesis relevant today? Are
the first verses of the Bible literal or metaphorical or now just
political? Does extreme awe of God
distort physical facts? Does extreme awe
of Science dismiss biblical truth?
Evolutionists and fundamentalists oppose each other here. The field separating them is very wide and emotionally
volatile at the extreme ends of each position.
At the extreme ends of the field are:
Proposition One: The world was created 4004 B.C. If you don’t believe that, you reject the
inerrant, infallible word of God. Lord,
have mercy on you. (The extremist might say this with smug spiritual
self-righteousness.)
Proposition Two: The world was created 4,000,000,000 B.C.
Proposition Two: The world was created 4,000,000,000 B.C.
If you don’t
believe that, you are not only a fool, but and idiot, a Neanderthal, and a
cretin. (The extremist might say this
with smug intellectual self-assurance.) Brethren, please do not be smug with
your opinions.
THE EMOTIONAL FACTOR:
In his August 1999 Time magazine commentary, “Dorothy,
It’s Really OZ”, Stephen Jay Gould ridiculed the Kansas Board of Education’s 6
– 4 vote to remove evolution from the curriculum. He judged the Kansas Board as having
“narrowly partisan religious motivations.”
His scientific arguments were peppered with general slurs e.g.
“religious Fundamentalists” and “anti-intellectualism.” He labeled creation science “Oxymoronic.”
Science and religion have the ability to breed high
emotion. Respected people entrench
themselves in their beliefs. All too
often, a challenge to entrenched belief generates high emotion. I have found that high emotion often invokes
name-calling.
A local newspaper editorial illustrating this
emotionalism caught my eye. It was an
evolution vs. creation issue under the guise of science vs. religion in public
school.
The Uniontown
Herald-Standard ran a Joan Ryan syndicated column on 10/2/05 concerning a
controversy surrounding the Dover Pennsylvania School Board’s decision to
include a section on intelligent design in their High School Biology class.
Her serious commentary offered some scientific
statements, some references to Genesis, some references to religion, and some
name-calling. It alluded to the folly of
removing evolution from the curriculum, which by the way, was not a Dover Board
proposal. Joan encouraged her
15-year-old son to gain the ability to reason and not to grow up to be idiots
like the Dover PA school board. She also
alluded to the Board with other slurs, such as wing nuts and boobs.
There is irony found here. First:
Evolution was being defended with religious zeal against religion.
Second: Intelligent design is not theology. It is teleology. It is branch of logic used by such diverse men as Plato the Greek, Averroes the Moslem and Thomas Aquinas the Christian.
Third: Aristotle a non-Christian utilized reason and observation as his tools; the same tools used by evolutionary science.
Second: Intelligent design is not theology. It is teleology. It is branch of logic used by such diverse men as Plato the Greek, Averroes the Moslem and Thomas Aquinas the Christian.
Third: Aristotle a non-Christian utilized reason and observation as his tools; the same tools used by evolutionary science.
But the emotions run very high in this debate and all too
often the belief of either side becomes more important than any opposing
truth. Now, lest we become too emotional
on either side of the issue to proceed, let us refocus and remember, “If it is
not about Jesus, it is not about anything.”
But how did it, this universe all begin? What did the ancient philosophers say? Ancient philosophers looked at their earth
and up into their sky and asked, “How came it to be?” For example, the Greeks, reasoned by the
visible evidence that there was a hand of power higher than man behind it, but
they could not know who or what that power was and their poets created
mythologies to explain it.
Joan Ryan said the Genesis account was no more valid in
understanding creation than the Norse tradition, which includes melting ice and
a cow named Audhumina that licked ice, which created gods who turned two logs
into humans.
The Hindu
Satapatha Brahmana tradition reads, “Verily, in the beginning this universe was
water, nothing but a sea of water. The
waters desired, ‘How can we be reproduced?’
They toiled,
became heated and produced a golden egg.”
The tradition of
Zarathushtra taught that Ahura Mazhda created the universe, the earth and all
good and instructed men to till it. But
he is only partially omnipotent because Angra Mainyu, who is all death,
counter-created evil and contests good.
THE EVIDENCE:
Around 1962 I read H.G. Wells “Outline of History.” I remember vividly page 70, which sketched
the face of Pithecanthropus. Wells
talked of apes and sub-men, and of Neanderthals. He acknowledged Roman Catholic opposition to
evolution. Later in high-school General
Science, we were taught Darwin and Mendel with his fruit flies. An unbroken fossil record featuring the
little horse Eohippus was offered as strong support for evolution. Erosion and the Grand Canyon were offered as
proof of geological processes that required millions of years to form. This was intoxicating knowledge to a carnal
teenage Christian.
This physical
evidence of science was hard to ignore.
Yet I knew that Jesus lived and died with power on this
earth. He claimed personal union with
that Genesis being who created this earth.
And Jesus’ life is in the history books.
No, I do not mean Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I mean Thallus, Tacitus, Seutonius, Flavius
Josephus, Pliny the Younger, Lucian, The gospel of Truth, The Gospel of Thomas,
and others. History shows His profound
influence on humanity. This historical
evidence of His influence is impossible to dismiss.
OUR EXPERMENT:
“What do you think?”
Do you think there is a God? What
is He like? Why is there evil? Try to answer these questions, but don’t
cheat and use a bible answer. The
question is, “What do you think?” Use
your own reason and observations. But
remember that your answer is no more valid than anyone else's Look up into the night sky.
How do you think
it began? How did life begin? What will guide your universe? Cosmic
Force? Random Chance? Aliens?, Appetites?
Now read Genesis.
You will either intuitively sense a vast difference in scope and purpose
from other traditions or you won’t. This
intuition might be the initial working of Faith or the direct calling of
God. If you cannot sense the difference,
you will continue your search elsewhere.
Perhaps that search will end with a cosmic cow or a god created in your
image and likeness.
Let us go into Genesis.
If it is myth, can we accept with certainty it’s pronouncements
concerning the meaning of life, of evil and goodness, or do we choose what is
right in our own eyes?
If it is literal, can we accept and appreciate the unlimited power, which confutes our
senses, and humble say, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” These are not easy
questions to resolve.
Hidden behind the very first verse in Genesis is the
revelation that before the beginning He was.
That means He did not make the heaven and earth out of pre-existing
material. And it was made from nothing
but His Word. Was our yellow sun made
4000 years B.C. or 4,000,000,000 years B.C.?
Honestly, that question is immaterial, because in either case, before it
was, He was. Can we accept such power
when our minds cannot fathom it? God,
therefore, wrote the Bible in language of accommodation, downward to our level,
to our limited perception.
In six days or perhaps in six eons He created time and
light, fashioned a habitat, which would support life, created man in His own
image. He instructed him how to live and
said, “Do not eat of the fruit of the tree...”
And then transcending the important physical things He
bestowed the awesome and terrible gift of freedom to choose. He gave the man, Adam, a garden to tend and
He gave a wife, Eve as companion. Satan
told Eve, “You will not surly die, but you will be like God, knowing good from
evil.” Facing a paradox to what God had
said, Eve exercised her precious freedom to choose and did not choose faith.
And Eve disobeyed God. And Adam likewise
disobeyed. And both ate the fruit. And then transcending the important physical
things, sin and evil entered into the world through disobedience through lack
of faith.
Genesis does not add uncertainty. The power of Genesis is that it removes the
uncertainty. In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth. Here
the unknowable reveals Himself, not as a force or process of nature or an
accident, but as a being with purpose and power and goodness. The God of Genesis introduces Himself as an
omnipotent being who is self-sustaining and caring. This knowledge is independent of
science. And Genesis reveals more. “By
His Word it was created.” The “it” is
matter, gravity, electromagnetism, Higgs boson particles, life, you, me, us:
everything. Without these revelations,
we must create myths and fables to explain what we see.
Genesis says
simply, “Hello child, I am He whom you seek to know.”
PREEMINCENCE OF SCIENCE or CHRIST
I have met Christians who hold that evolution is false
and the earth was created in 4004 B.C.
But their reasoning is
this: If evolution
is true then Genesis has to be wrong.
If Genesis is
wrong, our whole foundation is false. In
effect the point is, “If evolution is true, God’s word is false.” This argument unconsciously bases its belief,
not on the power of God’s word, but ultimately, upon power of evolution.
Instead of stating, “God’s word is true therefore I
believe.” We find their argument
actually saying, “Evolution is false therefore, God’s word is true therefore; I believe”.
The truth or falsity of
evolution is elevated to arbitrate over the truth of
God’s word. Jesus called us to become as
little children who trust. But we are
carnal adults who want date/time stamps before hope, carnal guarantees before
trust, and physical proof before faith.
There is no room for the spiritual in this mind set.
Although our human reason can comprehend that God exists,
it cannot tell us who He is, or what He expects of us. Regardless of any
controversy that we will encounter knowing God, without Genesis, we are without
a foundation.
Without Christ we
are without direction. Without a
foundation we cannot build a solid house.
Without Christ, we have no directions to the door of that house.
CONCLUSION
METAPHORICAL OR LITERAL
Are the six days of creation metaphorical or
literal? How old was Adam biologically
at the precise instant he was created?
Was he one second old, or was he 25 years old, a sexually mature
adult. How old geologically was the
first 14,000-foot high mountain? Was it
one second old or was it 700,000,000 years old?
In terms of raw naked power, if God can create matter out
of nothing, if He can create life out of nothing, then He can create a 6000
year-old universe as easily as he can create one 4,000,000,000 years old. In reading this Christian Bible, we will find
many such controversial questions. When
they arise, a suggested guideline is to ask which of these questions is a “nice
to know issue” a “need to know issue” or just a “my curiosity is obsessed to
know issue.” Next ask “Does the answer point to Jesus as the Author and
Finisher of our salvation or no.” By the
way, we have help to sort through these issues.
The orthodox “need to know issues” are codified in the Apostle’s
Creed. To a great extent most
non-orthodox issues are just “nice to know” and should not rise, must not rise
to the level of division.
Brethren, the age of the earth does not affect the grand
themes of the bible. Can we see that the
world of Genesis
1 was not created to measure biological or geological
time? It was created to provide a
suitable habitat for the first created life forms, specifically, for man. The
bible’s purpose is not to support or falsify theories of geology or, for that
matter, to support or falsify speculative end time prophecy, but to point to
Christ and Salvation. Please let us not
look to and focus upon and divide over 4000 B.C. vs. 4,000,000,000 B.C. or over
Pre-Tribulation vs. Post Tribulation or over immersion vs.sprinkling.
Let us, rather, look to the author and finisher of faith and unite under grace under Jesus.
Let us, rather, look to the author and finisher of faith and unite under grace under Jesus.
Remember brethren, “If it is not about Jesus, it is not
about anything.”
May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all.
__________________________________
"Over the Rainbow"
Part 2 of 3
If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything
Motto of the Fountain of Life
Brethren, please join in prayer: Father, in Jesus name,we confess our desire for your Holy Spirit. We submit
ourselves to your love and authority. Please help us to examine certain themes in Genesis with civility and
respect. We pray
that your Spirit will show us morepoints of agreement than points of division. We ask this
in Jesus holy and righteous name. Amen.
SOCIAL NAVAGATION
Conventional wisdom says never discuss religion or politics. So here
we are, discussing some controversies
in Genesis. How
can we do that? Respect is the answer. Bob was a
co-worker who became a friend. He had a reputation as being argumentative and opinionated. He believed that Jesus existed, but he was “not into that
God stuff.” We talked
of Gore vs. Bush, Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Pirates, the Steelers and the Penguins; of ancient aliens, of death of life. Yet we never were at each other’s throats.
Respect was the key. Interrupting to make a winning point was never as important as understanding the reason for the other’s position. Shouting down the
other’s belief was never as important as understanding the other’s position. We discussed.
We did not confront.
Granted, this is not always easy, however, it is a goal to pursue in any relationship. And honestly, Christians have help. It is the Holy Spirit.
OUR GUIDE
Our Scripture guide in this Genesis series is Hebrews
12:2 – “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” The
Genesis message is resplendent with distractions. Is
it an old earth or a new earth? It is creation out of nothing or out of pre-existing
matter. Isthe Flood real or a myth, etc.? This reminds me very much of Reverend Todd Crouch’s series on the book of Revelation. There
are many distractions there too. Who is the Beast? Who
is the Antichrist? Is the Rapturepre-tribulation or post-tribulation? The amount of books supporting one position or another number into the hundreds. But Rev.
Crouch has focused on Jesus and not on events or people.
He points out that the chapters in
Revelation show that
after a judgment is sent on earthly beings, the scene always shifts back into heaven
where…the heavenly beings worship God. On earth, the people are offered a choice whom to worship, the Beast or the Lamb. Pastor Todd
continually shows that Revelation is about revealing Jesus to the world. It points to Jesus. Genesis is so
similar. It has many controversies but
its underlying message points to Jesus, not to biology.
Several of my un-churched friends and even some of my family hold that the bible is just a book of stories,
myths and legends made by men. In the same way that L. Frank Baum wrote about Oz, the Great and Powerful, Moses wrote about God the Almighty. The Bible is a nice book, but many believe that no book written by men can hold either behavioral or moral authority over their lives.
They staunchly
believe that stories such as a universal flood are in contradiction to natural laws of geological
formation and prove the inaccuracy of the biblical
account and prove that men, not a divine being were involved in the authorship.
They are right that no book written by men should hold spiritual authority over their
lives. But are they right about the Genesis flood being a Hebrew myth? If they are
right what does that mean to believers?
In our Genesis series Part 1 of 3, we saw that God
created the universe out of nothing, created light and life out
of nothing and created time itself. He exhibited examples of the creative process, the creative forces. The salient point for this discussion is that the creative process needs no time. Of
course many sincere, intelligent and educated people do not believe this.
UNIFORMITERIANISM
The Present is the Key to The Past
Therefore it is useful here, and honest for me a
Christian pastor, to introduce Sir Charles Lyell (1797 – 1875), whose writings championed Uniformiterianism and greatly influenced Charles Darwin. The textbook “Essentials of Earth History” provides this defination, “…Uniformitarianism explains the past by appealing to known laws and principles acting in a gradual, uniform
way through past ages.”
Lyell’s writings exhibited examples of natural processes relying on natural forces.
A key mechanism is that this natural process works very gradually through the vast amounts of time. And it
continues its slow work today.
An example is the Grand Canyon. The layers in the canyon walls are the evidence of the natural process of
sedimentation. The
action of water is the natural force, working over time, depositing the layers. Natural process needs time, much time.
Sir Leonard Woolley, “Excavations at Ur” 1954, actually found an eight foot flood stratum. But the argument persists that a worldwide Genesis flood could not happen under present natural processes. What to believe? Many attempts have been made to harmonize the Genesis Flood with science.
Lyell himself proposed “The Tranquil Theory” in which the flood was very gradual. Baron Georges Cuvier proposed “Multiple Catrastrophism.” John Pye Smith did not deny the flood but proposed a smaller one in “The Local Flood Theory.”
Regardless if we believe the Flood happened or not, something made an imprint on the cultural memory of
mankind. The
world’s mythologies are filled with flood stories. The
arguments on all sides are frightfully
interesting. But they miss the critical need-to-know focus.
THE FLOOD MESSAGE
Let’s change our focus from Noah’s floodwaters and go to pre-Oz Kansas.
Little Dorothy is desperately unhappy with her dull drab existence.
Listen to her wonderful words of hope and possibilities.
“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue.
There, the dreams that you dare to dream
really can come true.”
Somewhere, there is a better place than our world here and now. Dorothy dreams it.
The world hopes it.
But the world wants that better place now. And we want
it through science, technology, civil legislation, moral legislation, education, and economic programs. Humanly
speaking we believe that we have the power and we have the knowledge; therefore, we will make this world a better place!
And here is the harsh reality. We have a bad world and have no power to make it better; we are making it worse. That was God’s
message to Noah. Gen 6:5 states, “and
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually".
Jesus says in Matt. 24:37, “When the Son of Man appears, things will be just as they were when Noah lived.”
How bad were they then?
How bad are we now? Read Timothy 3:1-5 or you newspaper.
“But know this, that in the last
days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers,disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.”
The Holy Spirit did not give the flood story to prove or disprove geological theory, but to reveal that the heart of man was on evil continually and we sorrowed God that
he made us. And the
first great practical lesson of salvation is here.
Gen 7:1, “And the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy house into the Ark.” Here, God
invites us to accept His protection. He invites us into the Ark. God gives
Noah salvation through grace. Noah went into the ark and it was God’s hand that closed the door behind him and sealed him in safely. God makes the covenant of the rainbow for us to see and remember. The promise is not sometime later and somewhere over the rainbow. The
promise is in the rainbow and it is now. The power of the
Word of God rests on the bedrock of the Word of God, not the bedrock of geology. That statement implies faith, and faith will point later to the story of Abraham and Moses and David and they all point to Jesus.
FUN WITH SPECULATION
The person of Jesus and our relation to Him is more important than an argument whether the Bible stories are
myth or literal or metaphorical. If that truth is inculcated fully into our heart, then and only then are
we
free to speculate.
Let’s do so now.
FOSSILIZATION
Under ordinary processes of nature as now occurring, fossils (especially of land animals and even marine
vertebrates) are very rarely formed. The only way they can be preserved long enough from the usual processes of decay, scavenging and disintegration is by means of quick burial in aqueous sediments.
Nevertheless it is remarkable that so vast an amount of fossils are imbedded in the rocks. KDKA Radio reported this interesting news a few years ago. A Colorado rancher deeded 4500 acres to University of Pittsburgh. The report said that “Fossils are virtually protruding from the ground.” That
needed a lot of water in Colorado.
THERMOSPHERE
If there were a firmament (Genesis 1:6) there would be no rainbow. There
would be a constant temperate climate without rain. The
firmament would act as a filter against cosmic radiation, perhaps contributing to longer life.
Could there have
been waters in and above the firmament, up in the sky? On
earth, the hotter it is the more water vapor can be held in the air. That is humidity. High above the sub-zero stratosphere is the thermosphere. It is a band of earth’s atmosphere lying between 50 to 300 miles above the surface.
Temperatures in its upper region range from 400F at night to 2690F during a day with high solar activity.
Perhaps all the water necessary to rain 40 days could be naturally stored there above the firmament, just like Genesis says.
PRESSURE GRADIENT
All aviators know that the effects of alcohol impairment increase with altitude.
With less pressure, alcohol
enters the blood stream more rapidly. The axiom is that “The higher you get, the higher you get.” Does this scientific fact of this pressure gradient remove any
stain on Noah’s recorded drunkenness? If the firmament did exist with all that water vapor, the pressure on earth then would have been much higher than today. Perhaps it took 40 days for Noah to decompress in order to live in the new world of 14.7 psi. Perhaps any wine that he consumed pre flood had little effect on him. Perhaps the wine consumed for the first time in the new world went right to his head and came as a great surprise.
There are so many questions that we could explore in Genesis. And so
many are really interesting and it is not incorrect to pursue answers for them. It is correct and imperative to understand the difference posed by the questions. We may
question who were the Nephilim? We may ponder does God offer grace? Which question is nice-to-know, which is need-to-know, which leads to
Jesus? Again, the
Apostle’s Creed is recommended to sort out the nice-to-know from the need-to-know questions.
CONCLUSION
Thomas a Kempis has been with us throughout our miniGenesis series.
Let’s remember his advice. It is
better to please God than to know all the facts about science, politics, culture, religion, theology etc. Brethren, we please Him when we acknowledge that if it is not about Jesus, it is not about anything.
Revelation 22:20-21:
“He which testifieth these thing saith, ‘Surely I come quickly. Amen.’
Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. Amen.”
______________________________________________
Part 3 of 3
"Genesis - Who Married Cain?"
“If it is not about Jesus, it is not about anything.”
Motto of the Fountain of Life
Dear Brethren, please join in prayer. Father, in Jesus holy and righteous name, we
submit to your love and authority. We
thank you for that grace which you have given and freely give. As we explore an interesting question from
Genesis, we pray for wisdom, knowledge and understanding.
SPS: To illustrate
the difference when reading the Bible with a focus upon Jesus from a focus upon
biblical questions tangential to salvation.
Our guiding scripture:
Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith.”
Brethren, what do we seek when reading the Bible? Do we seek answers which fit into our
preconceived world or religious views?
Preconceived is an interesting word.
By default preconceived becomes the standard upon which we judge
everything. Preconception even guides
the direction of our questions. Starting
in Genesis many see things which don’t fit into a preconception of a 4 billion
year old earth. Therefore they question
the seven days of creation and as a consequence question the truthfulness and
authority of the Bible. In our example
today, many see Cain marrying a strange woman.
She is strange because she is not introduced anywhere in the Genesis account
of creation.
It is as though she appears
out of nowhere, quite apart from Adam and Eve and was found by Cain. They ask the question, from where did she
come if God did not create her? And if
God did not create her, the truth and the authority of the Bible are
denied. Things which are in dissonance
with our preconceptions automatically create question, and we demand answers
that satisfy our preconceptions.
Preachers from Paul through Martin Luther through
Jonathan Edwards have shown that our carnal preconceptions are not godly. That does not mean that they are wrong or
evil, it means that the things to which we humans are inclined and in which we
are interested are physical, not spiritual.
Physical questions
requiring physical answers miss the point that the Bible is a spiritual
book. When our questions of the Bible
are generated by physical phenomena such as a universal flood our answers
remain physical unless and until the Holy Spirit begins acting upon our
perception of those phenomena. Then
something different happens. The
ministry of the Spirit is to magnify Jesus.
When our questions
of the Bible are guided by the Holy Spirit our answers enter into a
non-physical dimension which philosophers term as transcendent or noumenal or,
if I may add, spiritual. This is in
opposition to the physical dimension which is termed as immanent or
phenomenal. In other words, the
spiritual understanding cannot be accessed by unaided physical perception.
The motto of the Fountain of Life congregation puts it
this way: “If it is not about Jesus, it
is not about anything.” Perhaps you find
that motto somewhat myopic in the post-modern 21st century. Please be assured, as you study Jesus, you
may actually discover that the entire scope of transcendent and immanent
reality fits very nicely in the palm of His hand. In fact a very close undistracted look at
Jesus is what pastors desire to encourage.
Let’s look now to an interesting physical marriage. Adam and Eve ate the fruit and God drove them
from the Garden.
But they were not
without hope. God promised a seed to
follow who would wipe away the sin. Cain
and Able were born and Cain slew his brother Able.
The famous 1920 “Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee” inspired the fine 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind.” Spencer
Tracy’s character, Henry Drummond, was patterned after famous defense attorney
Clarence Darrow. His antagonist was
Frederick March, whose character Matthew Harrison Brady, was patterned after
the more famous William Jennings Bryan.
There was a great scene. In a
heated exchange about evolution and Genesis, Drummond asked, what happened to
Cain after the murder of Able? Brady
quoted scripture and said, “He left the presence of God and dwelt in the land
of Nod, knew his wife and had children.”
Drummond
aggressively asked. “Who did he marry?”
The stifling heat in the courtroom was near 100 degrees and the silence
awaiting Brady’s reply was deafening.
The camera focused upon Brady’s troubled and sweat drenched face. He had no answer.
Great drama!
Drummond, the atheist, had a myopic physical focus on the facts of the
Bible and asked a related question.
Brady, the Christian apologist, also had a myopic physical focus on the
Bible and relied upon literal physical answers that were inadequate. But in reference to salvation was Drummond’s
question, “nice to know or need to know and did it point to Jesus Christ or
not?”
Brady did not
know. We previously read in “Genesis
Part 1 – What Do You Think?” that God possesses the power to
create time and life and matter. He
commanded the man whom he had created to populate the earth. Reflecting on all His power previously
revealed in Genesis, does the Bible have to say where, when and how He provided
a mate specifically for Cain in order for it to be true?
Another physical point to consider is that we also read
that Adam lived 930 years. His son Seth
lived 912 years.
Seth’s son Enos
lived 905 years etc. Does it have to be
written to know that they all had daughters along with sons? God made the first humans perfect. Dr. Henry Morris received his Ph.D. from the
University of Minnesota. He taught at
university level for 28 years and for 13 years was chairman of the civil engineering
department at the Virginal Polytechnic Institute and State University. In his book, “The Genesis Record” he studied
the physical phenomenon surrounding the feasibility of creation from an
engineering point of view. He also made
an interesting observation that all first generation marriages were probably
between brother and sister. Then there
were no genetic prohibitions, no danger of genetic harm, and there was no
injunction against close marriage until Moses’ time, in Leviticus.
The conclusion is that at that time close marriage was not sin, therefore, just as Abraham with his sister Sarah, Cain could have married his own sister.
The conclusion is that at that time close marriage was not sin, therefore, just as Abraham with his sister Sarah, Cain could have married his own sister.
However, brethren, the question, “Who married Cain?” is a
peripheral issues. The answer is nice to
know, but it points to nowhere. The
identity of Cain’s wife adds nothing; detracts nothing. Viewing Genesis through the lens of Jesus
Christ points to the chilling revelation that evil entered the world of
Adam. The evidence of the murder of his
brother Able proves that evil was multiplying in the world of Cain. And the
need for a savior was growing. We can
begin to trace two starkly divided histories.
One is the history of the righteous seed of Adam who will crush the evil
serpent’s head. This history is traced
through the belief of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Ruth and Boaz, and David. The other is the history of unbelief, of
voluntary evil that continued to grow and spread from Adam, Cain, Lamesh who
took two wives and killed a man and, others and resulted in the Great Flood. Unbelief and evil continued with Nimrod unto
the division of mankind. And the
unbelief and evil still continued.
The side points are very interesting; they easily capture
our curiosity and, unfortunately; they can become a religion unto themselves,
perhaps not unlike addiction to video games.
The purpose in Genesis is not to align itself with biological science
and identify hereditary gene markers going back to the first human named
Adam. It is to point to Jesus, the
righteous seed of Adam, not to Cain’s wife or the extent of Noah’s flood etc.
It is interesting to note that offering answers to the
non-essential question took three times the space as pointing out the spiritual
focus. That is why we must be on guard
and ask, “Is it nice to know or need to know and does it point to Jesus?”
Where do questions about physical things or issues
ultimately lead? What does a focus upon
only the physical reveal? Perhaps
Stephen Jay Gould unintentionally answered that. He wrote this, “We are here because one odd
group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for
terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice
age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a
million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may
yearn for a ‘higher answer’– but none exists”
Where do Holy Spirit guided questions ultimately lead? What does a focus
upon the spiritual reveal? The answer to
both questions is, Jesus. Brethren Jesus
is the higher answer. Hope exists!
How may Spirit lead Christians deal with questions like
these? Those questions are not evil in
themselves; however, practically speaking we have seen how the unbridled
pursuit of knowledge has the power to divide congregations and
denominations. There are three guides
which we may incorporate into our studies:
1. We must
honestly ask ourselves, “Do we read the Bible to change our lives for Jesus or do we read to find
excuses to support or excuse our behavior?”
2. Do we have
honest curiosity to know or do we desire to know to in order acquire the power and prestige of
knowledge?
3. Using Jesus as
the focus, we can identify what path the
question will take and identify what is nice to know
knowledge from what is need to know.Brethren,May the grace of God our Father and the peace of His Son, our Lord Jesus be with you and your families. Amen
Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor
Fountain of Life Church, Washington, PA
A congregation of Grace Communion International
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