Firm Foundation

Many Christians think the New Covenant completely replaced the Old Covenant and therefore the Old Testament isn’t very important. They look at it like old furniture that is mildly interesting, but old, dusty, and not very useful. That could not be further from the truth.

It is impossible to fully understand the New Testament without the foundation set in the Old Testament. We don’t fully understand God’s holiness, nor His power, until we read and understand the Old Testament. The Old Testament is the foundation for marriage, family, clothing, and even the delineation of all people as male or female.

I’d argue some of the most important passages in the whole Bible are found in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. This is where we learn that God spoke time & space, matter & energy, things seen & unseen into existence. The fact that God created everything gives Him the knowledge to know what is best for us and the authority to tell us how we should live. If He is anything less than Creator, His absolute authority is suspect. His authority would only be due to “might makes right.”

Let’s look at some of what Christians can learn from the Old Testament and specifically the beginning of Genesis.

If we look at our various measures of time, most have a link to astronomical events:

• A year — the time it takes for the earth to circle the sun
• A month — the time it takes for the moon to circle the earth
• A day — the time it takes for the earth to spin around on its axis

Why is a week seven days? There is no astronomical reason for a seven day week. A week is seven days because God created the universe in six days with a day of rest and our week has us work six days with a day of rest. Interestingly, when several atheistic governments tried to change the length of the week, i.e. France & Russia, productivity and happiness went down and they had to switch back to a seven day week with one day of rest after six days working.

In early times, people wondered why it took God six days to create the universe. They rightly believed that God could have created the entire universe in the blink of an eye. Why did it take six days and did He actually need rest after the work of creation? He easily could have created everything in less than a second and He most certainly didn’t get tired. He took six days and rested on the seventh to set a pattern for us. He knew we would need rest because we are not omnipotent like Him. He loved us enough to give us a day of rest.

Today people often try to reconcile the Bible to what the so-called scientific experts say and try to turn the days of creation into the epochs of creation. It is impossible to reconcile the two and ends up destroying the Gospel. It also destroys faith in the accuracy of Scripture.

Ironically, it is usually the least scientifically literate that try to force millions or billions of years into Genesis 1. The truth is that although science can never conclusively prove or disprove God or the Bible, the actual scientific evidence (as opposed to “scientific” conclusions) better fits the explicit descriptions given in the Bible of a young Earth.

When a person tries to fit millions or billions of years into creation, it makes it look like God doesn’t know what He is doing; it makes God look sadistic (creation by death & destruction), and it puts death before sin. The Gospel of Jesus Christ says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) If death came before sin, then the Gospel is a lie.

Anyone that says the Bible must fall in line with “science” and the “experts” instead of saying that science must fall in line with the Bible is calling God a liar. Who is more trustworthy and knowledgeable: created man or the omnipotent, omniscient Creator God? I hope you said God, the only one who was there at the beginning.

Many people try to turn Adam into a archetype or myth instead of the first historical man made by God and enlivened by God’s breath. Even Paul spoke of Adam as a real, historical man.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)

If we say Adam is just a type, but didn’t really exist, can we accurately say that Christ is a real man in history?

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. (1 Corinthians 15:45-49) {emphasis mine}

The Bible repeatedly makes comparisons between Adam and Jesus that make zero sense unless the early chapters of Genesis are taken 100% literally.

Jesus also verified the reality of God creating Adam and Eve.

And He [Jesus] answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 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’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6) {emphasis mine}

Jesus uses what is said in Genesis 2 as His basis for male/female and marriage. A parable or myth is not a valid reason for something. He would only use this reference if He knew it was a historical account.

According to Krisan Marotta at Wednesday In the Word, “There are at least 165 passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least 200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament.”

If Jesus and the writers of the New Testament thought Genesis was so important as to quote it so many times, we should also take notice and study it. If they took Genesis as literal history, so should we.

There is only one reason to allegorize or moralize Genesis, and that is to try to force evolution on it in order to take away God as creator. If God is not our Creator and death came before sin, then the Gospel is destroyed. It is sad to see Christians so worried about approval from fallible man that they destroy the foundations necessary to support the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

May our Creator God give you a hunger for all of His word, help you to understand the truth, and give all authority to God. May He help you with your fears of looking uninformed, leading to putting man’s word above God’s word.

Trust Jesus.

FYI, for those who need more evidence that science supports the Bible and that the Bible requires a literal understanding of Genesis 1-11, check out my series on a literal Genesis . The Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis also have lots of great resources, some free and some paid.

Let me know what you think of the formatting. I am trying out new editors. This was composed on Yakihonne.com