Understanding Genesis 1 & 2

1. God exists 2. God is the Eternal Creator 3. God is distinct from creation 4. God is personal 5. God is a fellowship 6. God has a goal in creation 7. God creates by his word 8. God is the source of light 9. The goodness of creation

Understanding Genesis 1 & 2

“Gen 1:1–2:3 is a polemic against the religious concepts of the ancient Orient. God created the whole universe, by implication out of nothing, this is a rejection of the common notion that matter preexisted the gods’ work of creation. The concept of man here is markedly different from standard Near Eastern mythology: man was not created as the lackey of the gods to keep them supplied with food; he was God’s representative and ruler on earth, endowed by his creator with an abundant supply of food...”

(Wenham, G. J. (1998). Vol. 1: Genesis 1–15. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word).

Genesis and Science

1. 4th Century BCE, Aristotle, the iconic Greek Philosopher taught geocentricism. Fully developed by Claudius Ptolemaeus in the 2nd century AD- accepted model in secular academy and church for over 1000 years. 2. In 1543 Nicolas Copernicus caused great controversy when he published On the Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs, which proposed a heliocentric view; that is, the sun was fixed and the earth orbited it. 3. In 1632, Galileo published Dialogue Concerning Two Chief World Systems. Pitched in recent times as a great controversy between science and religion, it was in fact a conflict between Galileo and science and religion. That is, those to first attack Galileo and his theory of an earth that moves were Aristotelian Philosophers. The Roman Catholic Church joined in too, for it supported Aristotle’s fixed earth view.

Genesis and Science

And Galileo was no Dawkins-like atheist, he deeply held that the Creator

““endowed us with senses, reason and intellect,” [and] intended us not to “forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.” Galileo held that the laws of nature are written by the hand of God in the “language of mathematics” and that the “human mind is a work of God and one of the most excellent.” (This and most of the following draws from the work by John Lennox, Seven Days that Divide the World)

Genesis and Science

No one now believes in geocentrism- even though at the time many in the church thought it threatened the authority of the Bible. What is being suggested and proposed here is that an old earth/ancient universe position can be held on the basis of reading Genesis 1, and that is in no way undermines or refutes the testimony of the Bible.

Genesis and Science

Two errors we can make: 1. Tying biblical interpretation too closely to

science so that if the latter changes the former fails.

2. Or, ignoring scientific findings out of fear and ignorance and thus present Christian faith as anti-intellectual.

Augustine of Hippo

A non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens.., and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking nonsense on these topics;... If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of" the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven…?

Two Main views of the Universe

1. It is very, very old (Billions of years) 2. It is around 6000 yo with the ‘days’ in Gen 1

normal 24hr days (Young-earth creationism)

Three Views of Genesis 1

The 24-hour View Seven 24 hour days of one earth week,

6000 years ago

The Day-age View The days are in chronological order

representing an unspecified length of time

The Framework View The days exhibit a logical rather than

chronological order

1. Gen 1:5 uses yom not denoting a 24hr day but daylight as contrasted with night-time. 2. Gen 1:5 uses yom to mean a 24hr day (morning and evening) 3. The use of yom on the seventh day is different from the others in that it is not qualified by the phrase “evening and morning”. On the seventh day God rested, but the sense is that the day continues; that is, it refers to an age or an epoch of time, rather than a 24hr day. 4. Gen 2:4, “When God created…” translates the Hebrew which means “In the day…”. “In my day, there was one day when during the day, before night came, we dreamed of a day when peace would come.”

How Old is the Universe?

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

How much time exists between God creating the Heavens and the earth (vv. 1-2) and God’s creative activity on the earth over the 7 days of Gen 1 (v. 3cf)?

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light….And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

One of the really sad things about this debate is it has locked some Christians into untenable positions, and kept some from the faith because they are led to believe they have to believe in a 6000 yo earth to be a Christian. You can, but you don’t have to. The text of Genesis 1 can be rightly interpreted to allow an old earth/universe. This has nothing to do with evolutionary theory, though that theory does require billions of years to work.

Back to the Science

“Here, then, is the Genesis Enigma: The opening page of Genesis is scientifically accurate but was written long before the science was known. How did the writer of this page come to write this creation account?... I must admit, rather nervously as a scientist averse to entertaining such an idea, that the evidence that the writer of the opening page of the Bible was divinely inspired is strong. I have never before encountered such powerful impartial evidence that the Bible is the product of divine inspiration.” Andrew Parker, The Genesis Enigma. (Research Director at London’s Natural History Museum and atheist evolutionary biologist)

Creation Care

“God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (1:28–29).

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (2:15).

Creation Care

• Christians have a biblical mandate to care for the earth and its creatures. Regardless of the political impasse around Anthropogenic climate change, Genesis 1-3 exhort and command humans to tend and care for the earth as good, faithful and wise stewards of God’s good and bounteous gifts of the earth, its creatures and ecosystems.

Creation Care

• Managing resources well and wisely • Nurturing and protecting ecosystems • Taking real steps to preserve endangered plant and

animal species • Being careful with the amount of pollutants we

release into the earth. • Valuing and caring for God’s earth- being in awe of

God’s handiwork • Not being greedy and wasteful • Advocating for public policies that enable the earth

and its creatures to flourish

Human Identity

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness… So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ” (1:26-27).

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (1:31). Understanding of human identity has direct bearing and consequence on the human community. Genesis proclaims humans are unique and special.

What is a human being?

Not everyone agrees: “Whatever the future holds, it is likely to prove impossible to restore in full the sanctity-of-life view. The philosophical foundations of this view have been knocked asunder. We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation made in the image of God, singled out from all other animals, and alone possessing an immortal soul. Our better understanding of our own nature has bridged the gulf that was once thought to lie between ourselves and other species, so why should we believe that the mere fact that a being is a member of the species Homo Sapiens endows its life with some unique, almost infinite value?” Ethicist, Peter Singer

What is a human being?

T

“It’s morally wrong to kill sharks!

What is a human being?

Sign says: “Femme sharks are gonna have as many abortions as

we want/need to.”

“It’s morally right to kill unborn babies!”

Male and Female He Created Them

1.Agender 2.Androgyne 3.Androgynous 4.Bigender 5.Cis 6.Cis Female 7.Cis Male 8.Cis Man 9.Cis Woman 10.Cisgender 11.Cisgender Female 12.Cisgender Male 13.Cisgender Man 14.Cisgender Woman 15.Female to Male 16.FTM 17.Gender Fluid 18.Gender Nonconforming 19.Gender Questioning 20.Gender Variant

21.Genderqueer 22.Intersex 23.Male to Female 24.MTF 25.Neither 26.Neutrois 27.Non-binary 28.Other 29.Pangender 30.Trans 31.Trans Female 32.Trans Male 33.Trans Man 34.Trans Person 35.Trans Woman 36.Trans* 37.Trans* Female 38.Trans* Male 39.Trans* Man 40.Trans* Person

41.Trans* Woman 42.Transfeminine 43.Transgender 44.Transgender Female 45.Transgender Male 46.Transgender Man 47.Transgender Person 48.Transgender Woman 49.Transmasculine 50.Transsexual 51.Transsexual Female 52.Transsexual Male 53.Transsexual Man 54.Transsexual Person 55.Transsexual Woman 56.Two-spirit 56 genders, and rising, that are now available for people to identify with

What is a human being?

“Belgium became the first country to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children of any age when its lower house of parliament passed new "right-to-die" legislation by a large majority…Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders denounced the law before the vote in a rare joint declaration…” (Sydney Morning Herald)

Human Identity

Genesis 1 & 2 bestow special status upon human beings as the apex, the pinnacle of God’s creative work. Put simply, only humans bear the very image of God. The ramifications of this are many. One main point can be made: humans have innate worth and value, and inalienable rights bestowed upon them by their Creator.