The Amazing Aspects of the Bible (Part 1)
"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).
What is it that attracts people to the Bible despite the many criticisms that skeptics have offered over the centuries? What continually causes people to read and trust in the God Who presents Himself in the sacred Word? The Scriptures serve as a connection between the Creator and the human beings He formed, and it appeals to us on both a logical and an emotional basis. God's appeal has always been, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa. 1:18), but He has equally wanted love for Him and one another (Matt. 22:37-40), with an emphasis on trusting in and following Him (Ps. 23).
People are impressed by the reality in the Bible (its dealing with sin) as well as its devotional nature. Perhaps, one of the most inspiring elements is the hope that it holds out to all the faithful and the fact that God has given us the free will to choose the eternal state we desire to be part of. Of course, approaching the Bible with a negative attitude will probably cause a person to miss or overlook the amazing aspects of the Bible. Some believe that religion is always invented or operated by "priests" who use it to "control" the people. Without question, God wrote the Bible; however some ungodly men have abused the Scriptures in an effort to impose their human will upon others.
Some have been forever negatively impressed by the hypocrisy they have seen in the lives of those who profess to live by the Scriptures. However, there is a difference between those whose lives constantly belie the principles they should be upholding and Christians who sometimes makes mistakes or err out of weakness or misguided motives. Some are quick to categorize any Christian with an imperfection as a hypocrite. Because those who have obeyed the gospel do adhere to a high standard—one set by God—it is possible to fall short. One wonders if those who have low or no ethics ever realize how much easier it is to keep their man-made morals. If the basketball goal were only eight feet tall (instead of ten), everyone could "dunk" the ball.
This discussion acknowledges that we all fall short of God's Divine standard (Rom. 3:23); therefore it will deal with the amazing aspects of the Bible rather than the common deficiencies of human beings. And what better place to begin with than Genesis? But before we consider the amazing aspects of this book, some background information is in order.
The Bible was not written like any other book. No one person sat down and decided on a story line, eventually completed the manuscript, and then went back over it, rewriting it and making revisions. In fact, the Scriptures were written over a period of time by several writers, which makes their unity all the more wondrous. One man, by himself, is oftentimes not consistent. Even if he is, he may change his views over a period of time. To have 40 men write harmoniously would be impossible without God being involved in it (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Moses wrote down the first five books of the Old Testament around 1450 B.C. Some modernist scholars date these later, but it even if they were correct, it would still be more than two centuries before David's psalms and more than 1200 years before anything in the New Testament was recorded. The point is that most of these writers could not possibly have been collaborating with each other.
Moses wrote the book of Genesis by inspiration. Prior to the Flood, nothing needed to be written down. The lifespans of Adam (the first man) and Methuselah (who died the year of the Flood) overlapped by more than 200 years. Everyone on earth had access to the truth about the Creation, but most of them chose to live in defiance of that fact, and God destroyed them. For the next few hundred years, people also knew the truth of the Creation of the Flood. They knew it when they were scattered from the Tower of Babel, also. Then God called Abraham because the world was departing from Him again. By the time of Moses, much of the past had been lost, ignored, or rewritten.
Alternate explanations were now being given for the origin of the world, and it was time for the record to be set straight. People began to wonder then about things that are still on people's minds:
1. What is the true origin of man?
2. What are we doing here on earth?
3. What happens when we go the way of all flesh?
Moses answers the first question in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Moses did not arrive at this conclusion as the result of a committee vote. He did not come to this conclusion as a result of Egyptian wisdom. He did not make this statement as a result of years of studying philosophy. He wrote by inspiration what seems to us a simple and obvious truth, yet it is profound at the same time. It includes no fantastic genealogy of some local or national traditions—no mythical hero known for feats of strength. It begins with God as the source of all things. It presents no myths such as the world being held up on the shoulders of Atlas or being hatched from a giant flying egg.
The remainder of the creation is also told in a matter-of-fact way. It is simply stated that God made the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the stars, also. Nothing here is fancy or symbolic or makes the reader incredulous. All of it made sense as it is written. The earth brought forth the vegetation that God had planned, and the animals were made to dwell in the sea and on the land. One reads nothing absurd, such as, "After God made the lion, He still had some fur left over; so he made a cat." He simply formed them out of the ground.
Man also came out of the ground—the dust of the ground. One might wonder why God made everything from the ground. Did Moses just make that up? No, it is the way it was done, but it makes sense when one thinks it over and reads: "For dust you are, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). Certainly, that is the case, is it not? The physical body returns to the dust from whence it came.
But man is more than a physical being, which we learn throughout the Bible. Man was created to glorify God, which ought to be a natural response. Although dealing with another matter entirely, John records this fact 1,600 years later in Revelation 4:11, as he relays what the twenty-four elders said when they cast their crowns before the throne: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created" (Rev. 4:11). It only stands to reason that the One Who created all things, by Whose genius we became thinking, rational beings, capable of expressing our own will, is worthy of our praise, honor, and glory. The Bible teaches, in answer to the second question asked above, that we are here on earth to do God's will. He has given us commandments that we ought to obey.
The answer to the third question is also provided in various passages throughout the Bible. Genesis only talks about the body returning to the dust but does not discuss man's eternal choice of homes. The reader of Genesis does find the seeds of the answers to that question, however. He can learn that, without a doubt, God punishes sin. The Lord expressed His anger toward sin, rebellion, and people's decisions to live life without Him by bringing the Flood upon the whole earth (Gen. 6-9). Later, we learn that there was a place created for the devil and his angels that is referred to as Hell (Matt. 25:41), or the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10). All of the wicked shall also be there for eternity (Rev. 20:11-15).
Though God punishes sin, He also provided hope for Adam and Eve when they sinned. There is a prophecy in Genesis 3:15 which foretells the seed of woman defeating the seed of Satan. We do not have all the details in this small prophecy, but more is added in the Old Testament, and we see the fulfillment in the New. For how long did God's people wonder what that verse meant? Who was the seed of woman being referenced—a son of Eve? More than 3,000 years went by before a more detailed prophecy of the virgin birth was given in Isaiah 7:14. It then became clearer why this One Who would defeat the serpent was called the seed of woman. He would not have an earthly father. In another 700 years Jesus was born of a virgin, and He did overcome both Satan and death, just as foretold.
It is amazing that people drool over the predictions of Nostradamus, many of which have failed, yet they have yawned over that which took 4,000 years to fulfill. Moses, Isaiah, and Matthew lived too far apart to have conspired on this point. The only thing they had in common was that the same Holy Spirit inspired them to write what they did. Can anyone name any other work with just this fabulous feature? Even if we took only the prophecy from Isaiah, we know that it was translated into the Greek language about 275 B.C.—long before Jesus was born. Who else can point to a prophecy foretold so long in advance? What other work is like the Bible in this regard?
In the Genesis 3:15 prophecy, we see that the serpent will be defeated at some time in the future. What does this statement imply, if not salvation and heaven? Who was the source of the problem that enticed Eve to sin? Satan. And he would be defeated by the seed of woman. If the source of the problem is conquered, then there is hope for mankind. None of the details are spelled out in this powerful prophecy; the details will be unfolded and explained later by other inspired writers.
God made three promises to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3), none of which was fulfilled in his lifetime. The nation promise was fulfilled at the time that Israel left Egypt; at the time of Moses' death; the land promise was about to be fulfilled, but the spiritual promise did not come to fruition until the time of Christ. How could a merely human author have possibly calculated these wondrous future facts?
Genesis answers the question, "Which came first—the chicken or the egg?" God created everything full grown, capable of reproducing. Evolution remains perplexed because the theory requires that males and females evolve at exactly the same time. While reproduction continues to plague evolutionary theory, the Bible has no such difficulties. God designed the female to give birth. In humans, it only became painful because of sin (Gen. 3:16).
Some might say that God creating woman out of a rib of man begins to sound a little like a fable, but there actually is some symbolism in this method. Of course, God could have created her out of dust as He did Adam, but He chose to do it this way for a purpose. In the first place, she still retains the same nature as the man, as evidenced by the way she returns to dust, also. By choosing A RIB, God indicated the position of man and woman—side by side. But Paul writes concerning the matter that just as the man comes from the woman by birth, originally, the woman came from the man (1 Cor. 11:12).
Although there is an inter-dependency of the two, nevertheless, God created Adam to exercise leadership. "Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man" (1 Cor. 11:9). Paul cites this order in the creation to prove that man is to exercise leadership in the church (1 Tim. 2:11-14). Man also must exercise leadership in the home (Eph. 5:22-25). God knew that, without His legislation on this matter, there would be a constant conflict between the genders; so He resolved possible future conflicts with the very order of creation.
Another possible area of trouble regards marriage. The following questions are all answered briefly and succinctly in Genesis 2:18-25.
1. What is marriage?
2. After God, who is the primary person in one's life?
3. Whose idea is marriage?
4. How many individuals may be in a marriage?
5. What genders must those who enter into marriage be?
6. How long should marriage last?
7. Who are the only ones authorized to be intimate?
God established a pattern. He invented marriage for one man and one woman for life. Marriage is a leaving from parents or any other family or friends and a cleaving of husband and wife together. Sexual intimacy is relegated only to a couple married to each other. He made no provision for divorce initially, but Jesus later allowed it if one partner had violated the sanctity of that relationship by committing adultery. In this brief passage in Genesis, God clarified that polygamy and other perversions of marriage were wrong.
The Tower of Babel explains specifically the origins of the world's languages (and the races indirectly). No race is ever deemed inferior; Paul would later write that God made "from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Acts 17:26). God never condemned an individual race, but He did condemn various nations when they rebelled against Him. God's love for the world transcends race; prejudice could have been avoided if men had understood the Bible better.
In the very first book of the Bible, all of these issues are addressed (gender issues, race issues, marriage, the origin of all things). Yet none of these things are written as a treatise on those subjects; they are all discussed within the framework of the context. Furthermore, we see the origin of sin as early as Genesis 3. We do not have a Pandora's box explanation, but instead are presented with a truth with which we are all too familiar. Human beings at times make bad decisions. Instead of listening to God, we listen to Satan. This text tells us that 1) listening to the devil means listening to a lie, and that 2) sin brings with it punishment. How many psychological studies have been done to try to explain behavior? Sin explains a great deal. It causes us to believe that what we know is wrong (because God has told us) is somehow all right, after all.
We can all identify with what Eve did because we are all been duped by Satan periodically. How wondrous it is that all the great issues that mankind grapples with are all dealt with in the first 11 chapters of Genesis. And yet the book is simply told in narrative form, just as God directed Moses. Furthermore, the prophecies embedded within add even more to the glory of the work.
The doctrine of God's providence is introduced in Genesis 22:8, although God began providing for man in the Garden of Eden. The idea is further developed in the life of Joseph and his brothers. In this instance, God not only provided, He provided in such way as to bring good out of evil (Rom. 8:28). Joseph's brothers meant him harm, but God used their actions to put Joseph in a position of authority in Egypt to preserve his family alive when the great famine occurred (Gen. 50:20).
The Flood not only demonstrated God's attitude toward sin, but sets the stage for the final judgment to occur at the end of the world. Peter compared the end of the world by water, with its termination by fire (2 Peter 3). After the Flood was over, God promised to never again use water to destroy the world, and the rainbow serves as a reminder of God's promises.
Finally, however, the Flood serves as a figure of the way God chose to save all mankind—through baptism (1 Peter 3:21). Eight souls were saved by water during the Flood, and all may be saved today by water if they believe in Christ and repent of their sins first. These are just a few of the things that inter-relate to other books of the Bible written more than a millennia-and-a-half later. Genesis is a foundational book, but it fits in well with the rest of the Word that follows after it. All the other books agree with and complement it.