In these “word from scotland” pieces, i want to do something quite different. The bible is not one book but 66 books. Creation is not a secondary doctrine.
Creation is fundamental to marriage – to clothing – and to the gospel of jesus christ. All fundamental doctrines are dependent upon genesis. Ephesians and romans and the gospels refer back to genesis – all the later writings have no problem with genesis.
Who cares if we take genesis literally? jesus cares. He refers in john to the writings of moses. Paul cared – he quotes from these writings frequently.
Man was created in a perfect environment – and things went wrong. We hear it said today that if only we can improve man’s environment, we will improve the way man acts and behaves. That is not true.
We have the beginning of nations – languages – the people of god, the jews – israel – and from that people comes jesus christ, our saviour and lord. We have here the answers to many and various questions. Where did cain get his wife? genesis 5 verse 4 tells us.
The race was so pure at this time that there were as yet no degenerative genes – and of course the law does not come along until the days of moses. There then arose a genetic reason. We can defend the authority of scripture from the very first verse.
There was a curse – and our brains and bodies have suffered 6,000 years of the consequence of the curse. Other favourite questions are – are dinosaurs mentioned in the bible? is there a god? was the flood not just local? how long were the days in genesis chapter 1? but then things did begin to degenerate fast – and we come to one of the saddest verses in the bible – genesis 6 verse 6. This is always god’s way.
He looks for a man and calls a man and works through that man to rescue and save and bless. There was a flood – it was universal – everything was lost – except the eight aboard the ark – and the animals which were brought to noah. We know roughly what this tower looked like from others which were built around that time – and the european parliament is built on this model – and european man has said, “we will complete what they began.
We have economics and money and banks and the power of political argument and debate. But none of that is effective when man faces a tsunami – aids – earthquakes – and other disasters. God came down and confused their languages – chapter 11 – until they could no longer communicate with one another as they had been doing.
They babbled, and they were scattered. He called a man by the name of abraham – end of chapter 11. Now – we have covered some 2,000 years since the time of creation.
There are answers to every relevant question. Enable us to understand the bible. You gave the bible so that ordinary men and women could understand and be rescued and saved by jesus christ, your son, our saviour and shepherd and lord.
Help us at this time to enjoy that deeper and deepening communion and fellowship with you – and with one another – in jesus name.