TPW 35 Genesis As Understood By the Rest of Scripture

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Jesus was a young earth creationist and I've never been able to come up with a good reason to hold to a different understanding of it than Jesus, or to hold to a different view of the
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Old Testament than Jesus and the inspired apostles. If there is no historical
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Adam, why should we believe in the second Adam, the last Adam, Jesus Christ? If he didn't exist and he's not the federal head of the human race and didn't plunge us all into sin, upon what basis do we then tell people, repent and believe the gospel and be saved?
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This is Pastor Patrick Hytes, here at Myrtle Heights Presbyterian Church. Still fighting a cold, the whole family's fighting a cold.
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My voice is pretty shot still, but today I wanted to post the second sermon in the
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Genesis series which is called Genesis and the Rest of Scripture. What I tried to emphasize in this message is, how does the rest of the
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New Testament and the rest of the Old Testament understand Earth's foundational history in Genesis 1 -11?
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How does God himself in the rest of Scripture look at things like the age of the earth?
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Is that even addressed anywhere in Scripture? How does the Bible look at the key issues that are brought up in the early chapters of Genesis?
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And I think that you will find this to be very helpful. I hope that you will look up all these passages, because Jesus and the
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Apostles and the rest of the Old Testament writers look at the events recorded in Genesis 1 -11 as being literal history fulfilled and done exactly as they are stated and would be normally read and understood by anyone.
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And so this is a vitally important issue. Since there have been so many questions raised about the meaning of this passage, according to our own confession, we need to look at other passages that also address the same topic and make sure that our doctrine and our understanding is able to take into account what everything in Scripture says.
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So Genesis and the Rest of Scripture, I hope that you will find this edifying. Our Scripture reading this morning is actually contained in your bulletin insert.
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I would encourage you, instead of having to look up four different passages of Scripture and have you rummage through your Bible, I've just put them in your bulletin.
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I don't normally preach from four different passages, but I want you to see a theme this morning in the way in which the rest of the
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Bible looks at the opening chapters of Genesis. So if you'll take your your bulletin where this morning's passages are printed and I will read them here for us.
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Beginning with Mark chapter 10 verse 6. These are the words of Jesus. This is God's Word. But from the beginning of the creation,
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God made them male and female. In Mark 13, 19 and 20.
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For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which
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God created until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh will be saved, but for the elect's sake, whom he chose, he shortened the days.
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And then Luke 11, 50 through 51. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation.
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From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
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And then finally Exodus 20 verses 8 to 11. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
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Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your
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God. In it you shall do no work. You nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.
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For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day.
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Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. May God add his blessing to the reading of his word.
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Let's pray for understanding. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful to you for the privilege of having the
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Bible in its entirety in our own language in our hands. It's such a great blessing and a privilege.
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A privilege that we will be held accountable to and responsible for. It would help us to understand what you have revealed to us in these passages, especially as they reflect upon the attitude of the
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Lord Jesus and the rest of the biblical writers on the meaning of Genesis chapters 1 through 11.
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We ask in Jesus name. Amen. This morning's sermon I've put under three headings.
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They're there in your bulletin when you were looking at that under those three major headings. The first heading is simply an introduction to the concept of the true and full sense of Scripture which is set forth for us in the
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Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 1. Whenever there is a question about the true and full sense of a passage of Scripture, that passage's meaning is to be sought out by other passages that address the same topic.
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The second point this morning's sermon will be Jesus and Genesis chapters 1 through 11. One of the safest ways to interpret the
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Old Testament is to look at how the New Testament interprets it. How did Jesus and the Apostles and the rest of the
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New Testament writers understand the meaning of Old Testament passages? How did they view the book of Genesis, especially those first 11 chapters?
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And then point number three, the rest of Scripture in Genesis 1 through 11. Obviously we're not going to be able to look at every single passage of Scripture that comes up that addresses
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Genesis 1 through 11, but we will look at a few samples I think will be very helpful for us. So first the introduction.
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The true and full sense of Genesis 1 through 11. One of the great principles that was fully recovered during the
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Protestant Reformation which is set forth in our Westminster Confession of Faith is this. Scripture interprets
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Scripture. Scripture is its own best interpreter. In the opening chapter of the
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Confession of Faith on the Holy Scripture, point number nine of that chapter reads as follows. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the
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Scripture itself and therefore when there is a question about the true and full sense of any
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Scripture which is not manifold but one, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.
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Now as I pointed out in last Sunday morning sermon, there was little to no question at all about the meaning of Genesis chapter 1 or Genesis 1 through 11 for that matter for the first 18 centuries after Christ.
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But in our time, because of the predominance of the idea that the earth and the universe are billions of years old, suddenly there has arisen a question about the true and full sense of the meaning of Genesis chapter 1 and Genesis 1 through 11.
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As I mentioned last week, please hear this. Every person who knows the Bible, everyone who reads and studies it seriously, knows that the historical
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Adam could not have lived millions of years ago. No matter how far you stretch those genealogies, you are not going to get anywhere near a million, let alone billions of years.
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But because the pressure to conform to man's ideas based on man's assumptions and man's fallible techniques to measure the age of the earth and universe, the simple and straightforward passage, the simple and straightforward meaning of Genesis 1 through 11 is now being questioned by the church.
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And I want to tell you that the position I take and our presidentary takes has become the minority. What used to be a rock -solid conviction is not a rock -solid conviction any longer.
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So there is now a question about the true and full sense. What does Genesis 1 mean? What is Genesis 1 through 11 about?
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Is it mythology or is it to be taken as actual history? Because there's a question about its meaning, we should go and look and say, what does the rest of the
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Bible say about it? How does Jesus look at Genesis? How do the apostles look at Genesis?
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How do the prophets and the psalm writers look at Genesis? This past week, I've listened in the past couple weeks,
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I've listened to hours and hours and hours of debates about the age of the earth and the book of Genesis and so on and so forth.
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And one of the clips I listened to was an interview with a very well -known popular Christian apologist named
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William Lane Craig, who said, and I actually listened to this twice and went back and transcribed it because I want you to hear what he said, quote,
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I've seen a statistic that says that over 50 % of evangelical pastors think the world is less than 10 ,000 years old.
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Now, when you think about that, that is just hugely embarrassing.
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That over half of our ministers really believe that the universe is only about 10 ,000 years old.
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That is just scientifically, it's just nonsense. It is really just shocking when you think about it.
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And then Dr. Craig's co -host said, quote, the young people in those congregations are just not going to buy that.
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And a lot of thinking people aren't buying it either. And many of them are going to be better informed than their pastor if they've studied this area.
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And Dr. Craig responded, and because they're convinced that the pastor is right and that the Bible actually teaches this, but they're convinced by their geology or their earth science teachers that the earth is older than that, then that is going to mean to them, walk away from the
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Bible and the Christian faith, end quote. What's his assumption? Well, of course, their geology teacher and earth science teacher are infallible and correct.
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Amazing. We are, if you believe the earth is young, hugely embarrassing. Hugely embarrassing to this man.
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And here's their great conclusion at the end of this interview. Here's the conclusion. Here's what you've got to become convinced of in order to have a place at their table.
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Here's what it is. To protect the Bible, we need to become absolutely convinced that the
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Bible does not take a position on this topic. That way, it can't be damaged by scientific evidence of the geological age of the earth or the age of the universe.
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We have to become firmly convinced and have as a conviction that the Bible doesn't address the topic at all. And that seemed to be the thrust that I got all the way through my seminary education, all the way through the books and everything else that I was reading, is you've got to embrace this idea, the
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Bible not even concerned about the question of the age of the earth or really even the meaning of the word day in Genesis one.
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Because if you throw that aside, you are now safe from having to deal with the so -called findings of science.
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The problem is, is we're going to see this morning, and I hope I can convince you, Jesus was a young earth creationist.
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And I've never been able to come up with a good reason to hold to a different understanding of it than Jesus or to hold to a different view of the
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Old Testament than Jesus and the inspired apostles did. As I said, that seems to be the goal of all the new interpretations of Genesis one.
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Protect the Bible, protect the Bible from having its credibility damaged by science. Sadly, in the name of protecting the
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Bible's authority, they have effectively destroyed it altogether. In the name of protecting it, they've destroyed it.
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Again, please hear me. The problem is this. The clarity of Scripture is decidedly against an old earth interpretation of it and decidedly in favor of a younger interpretation of it.
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The Bible is simple in its language and meaning. Anyone can read it and know what it is saying. Anyone reading it knows that there is no possible way to reconcile millions and billions of years with a simple, straightforward reading of the text of Genesis.
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And I also firmly believe that when the unbelieving world hears us, hears professing
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Christians defending and setting forth interpretations of Genesis one that allow for millions and billions of years, that they roll their eyes and say to themselves, they don't believe their own book.
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The problem is, it's just way too clear and everybody knows it, except sadly, those who should know it best, the church.
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But what about this claim that the Bible does not take a position on the age of the earth? What about those who claim that they're doing consistent interpretation of Genesis one and coming up with millions and billions of years?
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I've heard many people say that. We start with the text and that's the only thing we're going with is just the text and we think there's millions and billions of years in each one of those days.
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Since they are raising the question about the meaning of Genesis and its true and proper sense, let us practice
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Sola Scriptura. Let's practice Sola Scriptura as it is set forth in the Westminster Confession.
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Let's see what the rest of Scripture says about it. How do the portions of Scripture that cite from and allude to what is described in Genesis 1 to 11 treat it?
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Do they treat it as poetry? Do they treat the days of Genesis 1 as indeterminately long periods of time?
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Was the flood of Noah a slow and tranquil event? That's something I learned this past week. Some people think it was real gradual, real slow, tranquil flood that covered the earth.
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Or is it described in Scripture as a sudden catastrophe? Thankfully, the rest of the
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Bible says a lot about Genesis 1 through 11 and since questions have been raised in our day about its true and proper sense, let us allow the true and proper sense to be, quote, searched and known by other places that speak more clearly, end quote, as our confession tells us to.
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So let's be good Bereans. Let's look at what the Scriptures say. Let's look at point number two, Jesus and Genesis chapters 1 through 11.
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The Lord Jesus's view of both the authority and interpretation of Scripture is of vital importance to this particular issue.
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In a collection of essays published by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, under the very catchy title
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Inerrancy, contains an excellent article by a scholar named John Wenham called Christ's View of Scripture.
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And I seriously, the book is worth its price just to read that one article. Christ's View of Scripture. Listen to these two paragraphs of what
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John Wenham says about Jesus's view of Scripture, quote, Jesus consistently treats
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Old Testament historical narratives as straightforward records of fact. He refers to Abel, Noah, Abraham, the institution of circumcision,
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Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot, Isaac and Jacob, manna in the desert, the snake in the desert, David eating the consecrated bread,
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David as a psalm writer, Solomon, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and Zechariah. The last passage brings out
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Jesus's sense of the unity of history and his grasp of its wide sweep. His eye surveys the whole course of history from the creation of the world to this generation.
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He repeatedly refers to Moses as the giver of the law. He frequently mentions the sufferings of the true prophets and comments on the popularity of the false prophets.
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He sets the stamp of his approval on such significant passages as Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
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These quotations are taken by our Lord more or less at random from different parts of the Old Testament and some periods of its history are covered more fully than others.
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Yet it is evident that he was familiar with most, if not all, the Old Testament and that he treated all parts of it equally as history.
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Curiously enough, the narratives that are least acceptable to the modern mind are the very ones he seemed most fond of choosing for illustrations.
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End quote. He's right. So let's look at some of these passages.
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I've got them there in your bulletin. Let's look at Mark chapter 10 verse 6. Mark chapter 10 verse 6. It's right there under point 2 in your outline.
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Mark 10 verse 6. But from the beginning of the creation, this is Jesus speaking, from the beginning of the creation
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God made them male and female. First, it is very clear in this text that Jesus is quoting from Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
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He is citing the creation of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1, 27 we read, so God created man in his own image.
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In the image of God he created him male and female. He created them. Now the key phrase in Mark 10, 6 is that phrase, from the beginning of creation.
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From the beginning of creation. What does that phrase refer to? Well, the exact same phrase in Greek is also used in Mark 13, 19, which we'll examine here in a moment.
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But it's also used in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 4, which I'd like to read to you. In 2
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Peter chapter 3 verse 4, we have the scoffers talking here, being quoted, which says, where is the promise of his coming?
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For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
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Clearly in 2 Peter 3, 4, the phrase from the beginning of creation is the beginning point of the existence of the cosmos.
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From the beginning point of the existence of the created order that God made. Not the beginning of the human race, or something like that.
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It is the beginning of the existence of the created order itself. The beginning of creation.
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And Jesus said, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
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The synoptic parallel in Matthew 19, verse 4. Hear this, Matthew 19, 4, the very same passage in another gospel.
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And he answered and said to them, have you not read that he who made them at the beginning, made them male and female?
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Though the Greek phrase differs slightly at that particular point, they obviously have the same meaning. I'd like to give you those
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Greek phrases, just so you hear the difference. In Mark chapter 10, verses 6 through 8, the phrase is ap arkeis kithetaos.
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Ap means from, arkeis means the beginning, and kithetaos means creation.
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Jesus is saying, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
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And in Matthew, it's simply ap arkeis, meaning from the beginning. Both refer to the same thing. From the beginning of creation, i .e.
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creation week. That's what that means. From the beginning of creation, creation week. Another point about the various phrases in Greek, which are translated as from the beginning, from the beginning of creation, at the beginning, etc.
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Please hear me, not one of them ever refers to the beginning of the human race, or the creation of the first marriage on day six, or anything like that.
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What Jesus is referring to in Mark 10, 6, is simply the same beginning of creation that is referred to in Genesis 1, 1.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So, Jesus puts the creation of man and woman at the beginning of creation.
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Now, I want you to think about the timeline that is proposed even by individuals like Hugh Ross, who is a staunch old -earth creationist.
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In fact, he's got it down to four decimal places. The earth is 4 .6662 billion years old. Now, he himself admits there is no possible way that Adam lived more than a hundred thousand years ago.
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So, if each one of those days is billions of years long, I want you to think about this. Here you have the entire span of human history from an old -earth perspective.
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Here you have the beginning. Here you have billions of years later. We're at the present. Where does Adam and Eve come on the timeline here on an old -earth chronology?
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Right over here. In the tiniest little sliver of time, at the very end, at the tail end, it was the very, very, very last thing that God did on day six.
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Does it make any sense to say, as Jesus says, from the beginning of creation, he made them male and female, when, if, in point of fact, they were created at the end of a creation week that was billions of years long?
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Jesus makes no such qualifications. Adam and Eve are there when? From the beginning. Not at the end of billions and billions and millions of years.
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You see the point? From the beginning, he made them male and female. From the creation week, creation event, he made them male and female.
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The second passage, let's look at Mark 13, 19. For in those days there will be tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which
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God created until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake, just whom he chose, he shortened the days.
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Just like Mark 10, 6 above, that we just looked at, this passage uses the exact same phrase, aparches kteseos, from the beginning of creation, except this passage adds, which
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God created. From the beginning of the creation which God created. And the tribulation that is being spoken of here, please hear me, is human suffering.
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The tribulation that is spoken of in the Olivet Discourse, which is what Mark 13 is about, is suffering undergone by human beings.
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And he's saying that this suffering will not be equaled from the beginning of creation until today, or ever shall be.
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So please remember this. It is appropriate to say that humans were at the beginning of creation in order for Jesus's timeline here to make sense.
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Dr. Terry Mortensen, his comments are outstanding on this particular passage. Please hear what he says, quote, if there were no humans in existence from the beginning of creation, supposedly billions of years ago, according to conventional thinking, until the relatively recent past, what would be the point of saying that there will be a time of human suffering unsurpassed by any other human suffering since the beginning of the cosmos, when no humans existed, according to old earthers, until the very end?
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Jesus could easily have said, since the creation of man until now, or since Adam, if that is what he meant.
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His choice of words reflect his belief that there was man there at the beginning, and human suffering commenced essentially at the beginning of creation, not billions of years after the beginning, end quote.
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Do you hear Dr. Mortensen's point? As I said, if the timeline is really billions of years old, and remember the only place you can put all these years is in the days of creation, because I don't care who the old earth person is that claims to believe in biblical authority, they know
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Adam did not live millions of years ago. Even if you put a hundred generations between every single name and every genealogy, you're not going to get anywhere near a million years, let alone a billion years.
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The staunchest old earth creationists in the world recognize that you cannot possibly believe that Adam and Eve existed millions of years ago.
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Thus, in the old earth scheme, Adam and Eve did not exist anywhere remotely close to the beginning.
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In fact, they exist, as I said, in the tiniest sliver of time imaginable, right at the very end of the earth's timeline.
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In fact, you'd have to say that if day 6 itself was billions of years long, that creating
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Adam and Eve was the very last thing God did that day. If you had to parallel the billions of years of day 6 to an actual 24 -hour day, you'd have to say that God created
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Adam and Eve on day 6 at 1159 and 59 .999999 seconds that day.
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And yet, the Lord Jesus' own understanding of Genesis chapter 1 and the creation of Adam and Eve is that he made them from the beginning of creation, which
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God created. Here again, the passage, Mark 13, 19. For in those days there will be tribulations such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which
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God created until this time nor ever shall be. And one of the great things that Dr. Mortensen, who's on staff with Answers in Genesis, wrote a marvelous book,
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I highly recommend it. It's fairly lengthy, it was his doctoral dissertation, but he points out that the the rise of all these other interpretations of Genesis 1, he parallels it and demonstrates clearly that it came about as a result of geology.
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The new interpretations came into existence because Christians were intimidated by the so -called findings of geologists, but there was always a remnant of Christian ministers, pastors, and scientists who resisted, and Mortensen calls them in his book the scriptural geologists.
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I want to read to you a quotation from one of those fine men of God from 1834, right at the time when these old ages for the earth were just starting to really engulf geology.
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Listen to what this scriptural geologist, Henry Cole was a geologist. Back then, you weren't just a divinity student, you also usually were a scientist of some kind.
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You had some other field that you were an expert in. Henry Cole was a geologist. Listen to his comments on Mark 1319 from 1834, quote, now is there a geologizing mortal upon earth who will assert that the
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Redeemer is here speaking of tribulations experienced by a world of creatures who lived in a mighty space between the beginning and the present race of mankind?
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You see what he's arguing? He's arguing exactly what I was just arguing, that you would have to have Adam and Eve at the very, very end of this massively huge, billions of years long creation week, and yet he sees that Jesus is talking about the tribulation of humans from the beginning, not a tail end, from the beginning.
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He continues, will any geological skeptic, we repeat, dare aver that our
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Lord is here referring to a race of beings of whom his disciples have never heard and whose existence was never known to men or saints so discovered by wondrous geologians of the 19th century?
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Must not every scientist, unless he violate every remnant of natural understanding, honesty, and conscience, confess that the
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Savior is here speaking to sons of men of the tribulations of the same sons of men which have been from the beginning of the creation of this world?
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Then, here is the creation of man immediately, manifestly, and undeniably connected with the beginning.
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End quote. These scriptural geologists are fantastic to read, and that's another thing.
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Get Terry Mortensen's doctoral dissertation and look. These guys are saying, no, we cannot go this direction.
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You are completely overthrowing biblical authority if you try to dump millions or billions of years into the text.
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They're not there. Jesus doesn't believe they're there, and we need to hold the same view of Genesis that he did.
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Adam and Eve are there from the beginning, from the beginning, not the end, the beginning of creation.
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Third point, Luke 11, 50 and 51. Jesus says that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world, there's the key phrase, may be required of this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple.
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Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation. Now, in this passage, we have the phrase from the foundation of the world, and the
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Greek of that is apah, meaning from, kathobolos means foundation and kosmou, world.
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From the foundation of the world, all the righteous blood that's been shed on earth. Now, the same phrase is also used in Hebrews 4, 3 and 4, and it sheds some light on the way
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Jesus is using it here. Please hear this passage. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as he said, so I swore my wrath, they shall not enter my rest, although, and here's the key part, the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
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Now, what is the writer of Hebrews saying there? What is the works were finished from the foundation of the world?
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That phrase, the foundation of the world, means creation week. Okay, that's what it means. Creation week, the whole week of creation.
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That's the foundation of the world. The next verse in Hebrews says, for he has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works, and what were all those works?
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The foundation of the world, creation week. The statements, the works were finished from the foundation of the world, and God rested on the seventh day from all his works, are clearly synonymous.
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They're clearly synonymous statements. God finished and rested at the same time, and again,
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Dr. Mortensen's comments are very helpful here. He says, quote, this implies that the seventh day, when
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God finished creating, was the end of the foundation period. So, the foundation does not simply refer to the first moment or first day of creation week, but to the whole week.
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Now, look at the passage in Luke 11 again, Luke 11 50, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple.
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Jesus believed in a literal six -day creation a few thousand years ago, and he marks the creation of Adam and Eve at the beginning of creation, and he also puts
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Abel right there at the beginning of creation. Abel is very shortly after the foundation of the world.
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Abel is right next to that, so that Jesus can put them there and say, all the righteous blood that's been shed from the foundation of the world, from Abel to Zechariah.
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Abel is right there at the foundation, right at the end of it. The creation is the creation event, the week of creation, in which
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God created all things. The tribulation that will come upon Jerusalem, outlined in Mark 13, all that discourse speaks of tribulations such as such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which
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God created until now. The tribulation spoken of is that of human beings, and human beings were right there at the beginning of creation, which
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God created, not at the tail end of billions of years later. And the murder of Abel by Cain were very near, was very near the foundation of the world, which scripture clearly identifies as referring to the whole of creation week.
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Jesus's own understanding of what was right next to the foundation, the beginning of creation, from the foundation of the world at the beginning, fits our perspective, not the
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Old Earth one. And the fact is almost anyone reading the text can see it. If you just open the
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Bible and read it, and again I'll tell you on one autobiographical point, I praise
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God for his help in my life, but when I was given these other interpretations, when I was given the idea of millions of years fitting into the days, the framework hypothesis, when you listen to individuals monologue about those types of interpretations, you can't help but be taken in a little bit by it and think, man, the guy knows
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Hebrew and Akkadian and Ugaritic and all these ancient languages, must be something to what he was saying. But then I would go back to my room and open up Genesis 1 and read it again and go, no, that's not what it says.
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So I would encourage you, stand on what it clearly says. Just a couple of additional passages from Jesus on Genesis 1 to 11.
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These are not in your outline. As we saw, Jesus affirms the historicity of the murder of Abel from Genesis chapter 4 by Cain.
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Jesus also believed in a sudden, catastrophic flood. Not a slow, gradual, tranquil one, but a catastrophic flood.
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In Matthew 24, 37, Jesus said these words, But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the
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Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and given in marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will be the coming of the
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Son of Man. What does Jesus believe? In Noah's flood, Noah's ark. And he also believed that people were partying and giving in marriage and going about their business until the flood came suddenly and took them all away.
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Not a slow, gradual, tranquil, hey, there's water creeping up here slowly. No, it was a sudden, catastrophic event.
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At least Jesus thought it was, and it would behoove us to agree with him on that. Finally, thirdly, the rest of Scripture in Genesis 1 through 11.
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The rest of Scripture in Genesis 1 through 11. Several points here. Number one, the days of Genesis 1 are 24 -hour -long days.
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You see Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11? Let's look at that again here. Remember the
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Sabbath day to keep it holy. In verse 9, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the
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Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work. You know your son, know your daughter, know your male servant, know your female servant, know your cattle, know your stranger who is within your gates.
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For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.
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Therefore, the Lord blessed the day, Sabbath day and Hallowe 'en. One of the most important rules of biblical interpretation is to put yourself into the shoes of those that have this originally read to them.
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Put yourself into the shoes of Jews standing at the dedication of the second temple in the book of Ezra. When Ezra stood up and read from the law, he read this passage to them.
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When the Levites stood up and read the law to the people of Israel in Nehemiah chapter 9 at the dedication of the wall when they were confessing their sins, here's my question.
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Is there any reason in the passage to believe that the days that are spoken of in verse 11 are different from the days in verse 9?
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In six days you shall labor and do all your work. In six days you shall labor and do all your work.
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In verse 11, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them. Do you think any
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Jewish people, any Jewish children looked at their father and said, do you think those days are the same length? Of course not.
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Why? Because this is a direct analogy to the two things. I remember asking a professor, a proponent of the framework hypothesis, are you saying that the
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Jewish people thought these were different length of days and that these are just poetic figures? And his response shocked me. His response was, yeah, they're six days in literature, just not in reality.
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Is there any reason to think that that's what was going on in the minds of those who heard this? The answer is no. No. What did they think these were?
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Six days. Why? Because it says six days. Why? Because we have a six -day workweek. Do we work for six million years and then rest for a million years or a billion years?
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Wouldn't that be great if the kids could say that? Well, I'm in my billion -year Sabbath. Mom, I can't do my homework.
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No, there's six days. We work for six days. God created six days. That's why the week is what it is. Secondly, from Genesis 1 to 11, the fall of Adam.
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The fall of Adam is affirmed and believed by Job, Isaiah, Hosea, Paul, and all the other apostles.
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Please hear these passages. Job 31, 33. Job says, if I have covered my transgressions as Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
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Job believed in a literal and historical Adam. Isaiah 43, 27. Your first father sinned and your mediators have transgressed against me.
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Isaiah affirms the historical Adam. Hosea 6, verse 7. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant.
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There they dealt treacherously with me. Hosea affirms the literal historical Adam. Romans chapter 5, verse 12.
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Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death for sin and thus death spread to all men because all sin.
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Paul affirms the historical Adam. 1 Corinthians 15, 22. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
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2 Corinthians 11, 3. But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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And then finally, 1 Timothy 2, 14. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression.
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You see how foundational these things are? That there was a literal and historical Adam and Eve?
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There are many who try to write off Genesis 1 to 11 as being mythology and they do that because they're intimidated by the so -called findings of science.
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And yet they're foundational to everything else that we believe. If there is no historical Adam, why should we believe in the second
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Adam, the last Adam, Jesus Christ? If he didn't exist and he's not the federal head of the human race and didn't plunge us all into sin, upon what basis do we then tell people, repent and believe the gospel and be saved?
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Thirdly, Cain's murder of Abel is affirmed by the rest of the Bible. Cain's murder of Abel in Hebrews 11, 4.
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By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous and so on.
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And then in 1 John 3, 12, John the Apostle says, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother.
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What do all these men believe in? That this is real history, that these things actually happened, that these things are foundational to our understanding of everything else that the
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Bible teaches. Fourthly and finally under this heading, the Genesis flood. The Genesis flood is cited from and quoted over and over and over again throughout the rest of the
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Bible. We can't look at all the passages, but here are a few key ones. Isaiah 54 verse 9 says, for this is like the waters of Noah to me.
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For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so I have sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you.
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One of the things that I've been introduced to, more so than even when I was a seminary this past week from Washington base, is the prevalence of the idea that the flood was a local flood.
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That it wasn't a global flood that encompassed the whole earth, but that it was just a local flood that wiped out all the humans up to that point.
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The problem of course with that, and we'll look at this in more detail when we get to Genesis 6 through 9, is that the text of Scripture says that the water was a highest mountain.
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Now picture what that would look like if it was a local flood. How can you have water standing above the highest mountain without it spilling over the mountain?
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Doesn't that make sense? Local flood, very popular, very popular, very widely held, and we're often mocked for believing in a global flood.
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Hebrews 11 7 says, by faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
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What does the author of Hebrews believe in? Noah and the ark. He believed in Noah and the ark, and we're going to talk about the ark later on.
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The ark was a magnificent, incredible structure. So far from being a little boat with an elephant sticking his head out the top, or a giraffe that could be knocked over by a three -foot wave, this is a massive boat that held two of every kind of animal on the earth and had plenty of room to spare.
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Plenty of room for people to get in there. Plenty more room, as Noah was out telling people, it's coming, there's a flood coming.
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Nobody believed him. Nobody would go in. There was tons of extra room in there. Didn't even need all the room for the animals. 1st
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Peter 3 20, which says, when once the divine long -suffering waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared.
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What does Peter believe in? The historical reality of Noah and the ark. 2nd Peter 2 5, and did not spare the ancient world but save Noah.
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Again, and then one final passage, 2nd Peter 3 6, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
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What do all of the Apostles, what do all the prophets, all the biblical writers affirm? The historical integrity and the nature of it as historical narrative.
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Not as poetry or mythology, but historical narratives. Genesis chapters 1 through 11.
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Since there's a question about his true and proper sense, what does the rest of Scripture say? That it's real history, that it is to be taken at face value.
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From the fourth commandment, to the prophets, to the Apostles, to the Apostle Paul, to everyone else that addresses these topics, they look at it as historical fact.
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So in summary, we've seen Jesus in Genesis 1 to 11, the rest of Scripture in Genesis 1 through 11.
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I want to make a final conclusion to you and I want to read it to you exactly as I wrote it. For the majority of church history,
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Christians spoke with near unanimity about the meaning of the creation days of Genesis chapter 1, and nearly one voice about the approximate age of the earth.
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A passage of Scripture which has was long regarded as having a very plain and simple true and full sense, has in the last 200 years been put into question.
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Where the majority of Christians once spoke with conviction and certainty, has become a place where skepticism and agnosticism now reign supreme.
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Doubt, uncertainty, agnosticism, and the phrase, I love this phrase, epistemic humility, have replaced the once rock -solid conviction that the days of Genesis 1 are 24 -hour days, and that the earth and universe were created thousands and not billions of years ago.
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You see, that is the the false way of looking at this today. If you take a position on this, you're seen as being arrogant and foolish.
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To say, we don't know, I don't know, I don't know how old the earth is, I don't even know even anywhere close how old the earth is, and you know, we just need to be agnostic about this, that is seen as humble.
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And I say it's just the opposite. It's arrogant to deny the clarity of Scripture. It's arrogant to look at what is so simple and so straightforward and say, we don't know what it means, we're agnostic about it, we're not sure, what is at stake in all of this?
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Allowing secular theories of origins and of the age of the universe to push us back from a straightforward reading of the
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Bible, especially its own account of the creation and history of the universe, and of the origin of man and animals, please hear me, has destroyed the moral foundation upon which this nation was built.
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Generations of people have been taught as facts that the earth exploded into being out of nothing, that man is the accidental byproduct over millions of billions of years of impersonal physical laws and chemical processes that have no purpose or design, and that human history is utterly meaningless and destined to ultimately die a massive heat death, described by atheist
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Bertrand Russell in these words, quote, that man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving, that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs are but the outcome of the accidental collocations of atoms, that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave, that all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the vast depth of the solar system, and that the whole temple of man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.
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All these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand, and then listen to this final sentence, it's a hammer blow,
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Russell says, only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair can the soul's habitation be safely built.
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Unyielding despair. There's your foundation. If you reject the foundation
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God's given us in Genesis 1 through 11, it's no wonder that the philosophers that came after Russell, like Jean -Paul
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Sartre and others, Albert Camus, said that the biggest question facing every man, woman, and child on this planet is, why shouldn't we all just commit suicide?
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If everything we ever do has no purpose, no design, no dignity, all of our good deeds, everything that we live for, there is no accountability, no purpose, we are the accidental byproduct of forces that never had us in mind, everything is ultimately utterly meaningless, why would we want to build our lives upon anything at all in the first place?
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Let alone the foundation of unyielding despair. Now enter into this mix, where Russell's view has become the dominant one.
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Enter into this, here's the poor benighted Christian with his Bible, with the Word of God in his hands, who says, man couldn't have evolved, he's only been here for 6 ,000 years.
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God's Word says, dot dot dot, to which the world of unbelief that has captured the educational institutions, the media outlets, and the reigns of power simply reply by patting us on our heads and telling us how scientifically illiterate and foolish we are.
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Instead of standing our ground upon the firm foundation of the infallible truth of God's revealed Word and fighting this, the majority of Christians have chosen instead to either compromise their views of the history of the universe and the origin of man in order to gain the approbation and respect of the world, or they have chosen to retreat into a
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Christian ghetto and subculture. The moral anchor of the Word of God that once gave this culture its moorings for economics, politics, freedom, has been drawn up, cut, and thrown overboard because the trustworthiness of that Word has been severely undercut by the worldview of philosophical naturalism, which demands an explanation for the rise of the universe, for life, for the earth, for mankind, without God.
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And they know that the chronology given in the Bible makes such an explanation impossible.
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You see, for the evolutionist, for the committed philosophical naturalist, time is magic. Time is magic in a foolish way to the evolutionist.
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If you hold up an earthworm and say, tomorrow this will be a human being capable of writing a novel, you'll be laughed at scorn.
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But if you hold up an earthworm and say, in 350 million years this will be a human being capable of writing a novel, you'll be handed a department chair at the biology department in an
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Ivy League school because the church has made a catastrophic error with regard to geology.
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By bowing to and accepting the speculation of millions of years, we have undercut the very foundation upon which the rest of the
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Bible rests, thereby undermining everything else it says. The church has effectively sawn off the tree branch it was sitting on.
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We should be thankful that in recent times God has raised up various creation science ministries where faithful and dedicated biologists, astrophysicists, astronomers, and Bible scholars have worked hard to answer the challenges of philosophical naturalism of millions and billions of years in evolution that the church has sadly compromised so badly on.
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My final word to you is this. What is remarkable is that the Word of God foretold this day in frightening accuracy.
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When Earth's obvious history would be denied by scoffers. Let us close with that great passage.
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I want to read it to you. You might want to write this reference down. I would encourage you to read this to your family. Read this to yourself. Meditate on this this afternoon.
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2nd Peter 3 1 through 7. 2nd Peter 3 1 through 7. 2nd
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Peter chapter 3 verses 1 through 7. Please weigh this carefully. Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle in both of which
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I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the
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Holy Prophets and of the commandment to us the Apostles of the Lord and Savior knowing this first now please hear this carefully that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation there you have the belief uniformitarianism that word means everything's always been exactly the same there never was anything catastrophic in the past man just exists he wasn't created looking for inverse 5 for this they willfully forget two things please weigh this carefully for this they willfully forget one that by the
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Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water they willfully forget that God is the creator of the universe that God created the earth it was covered with water it was not a molten blob of lava for billions of years until it cooled off and was covered with water later it started out covered with water how do
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I know that because Genesis 1 1 through 3 says that in number 6 the second thing by which secondly the second thing they willfully forget the world that then existed perished being flooded with water the global flood is denied today everything's always continued the way it always has from the beginning of creation never been any global catastrophes of any kind God through Peter warned all future believers of the importance of the foundational history of Genesis 1 through 11 he said scoffers will come and deny that God created this and deny that God judged the entire world
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I want to encourage you when you read Genesis 6 through 9 the account of Noah that is one of the most terrifying passages in the entire
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Bible God killed every man woman and child on this planet except eight that he saved in an ark every single person on this planet was killed by God in that flood and that's why as I said you are not doing your children any favors by showing them pictures of Noah's Ark that looks like a little boat in a bathtub that's not what happened this was a majestic ship a huge vessel built in such a way that it was almost impossible for it to be capsized by the incredible waves of water and everything else that God was using to destroy mankind the evolutionary naturalistic beliefs that dominate our culture and sadly dominate the church deny those very things the creation of the world out of water and in water and deny the global flood why would they do that why does
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Satan so often have his guns aimed at the foundational history of Genesis 1 through 11 the answers are simple there's two of them one because if man can deny his creation by God he can free himself from obligation to his creator and that's what many evolutionists have been very forthright and saying we don't want
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God to exist because it frees us to pursue whatever we want secondly because if man can deny the global flood he can quiet his conscience and continue unfettered in his pursuit of his lust and sins the global flood that we see evidence of all the way around the earth as Ken Ham likes to say what do we see in all over the earth billions of dead things laid down in rock layers buried by water all over the earth why because there was a global flood that killed it all where all these fossils come from why are these huge deposits of fossils all smashed together why do we have fossilized fish with other fish in their mouth that they were in the process of eating why because it was very sudden and they were buried and smashed down and fossilized but rejecting that enables man to say there's no judgment coming you see the global flood the
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Genesis flood is a fearful warning of God's judgment and God's hatred against him Genesis 1 to 11 is a battleground it is our foundational history let us stand firmly upon a simple and straightforward reading of it as the
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Lord Jesus did as the prophets did regardless of how people may mock us for doing so why should we do this because of the very last verse of that passage
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I just referenced 2nd Peter 3 listen to verse 7 but the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men the world needs to know where they came from the world needs to know that God was so angry with us once that he killed every person on this planet except eight in an ark the world needs to hear that that they would be called to repentance and faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and be saved from the day of fire and judgment that is coming and until we recover our foundational history in those chapters the world's not going to listen to what we have to say let's pray father in heaven we thank you for giving us a clear revelation
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Lord forgive us forgive your church for compromising it for fear in the face of man for seeking man's approval instead of yours for denying what is what has always been regarded even before the
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New Testament was written as a very simple account of what happened in our foundational history prior to the call of Abram and the establishment of the
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Jewish nation well we know that our adversary the devil has enjoyed the fact that he has severely undercut the confidence of many believers in those chapters
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Genesis chapters 1 through 11 but help us to fear no man to fear the face of no one except you and to believe what you have said and to stand firmly upon it that we might be able to present a consistent biblical gospel message to this world that they might know that they were created by you that they didn't evolve that they were created by you that they are in a covenant with you that you have shown this world at one time that you destroyed every man woman and child on this earth in that global flood and just like the ark that Noah pleaded with people to get him we need to plead with people to come to Jesus the ark of our salvation the one in whom we stand and will be saved from the deluge of fire that's coming father make us faithful help us to be equipped with answers to face these issues head -on and to do well as faithful expositors of scripture and as those who stand firmly planted upon your word and it's infallible truth we ask in Jesus name amen this is
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Pastor Patrick Hines of Brittle Heights Presbyterian Church located at 108 Brittle Heights Road in Kingsport Tennessee and you've been listening to the
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Protestant Witness podcast please feel free to join us for worship any Sunday morning at 11 a .m. sharp where we open the
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Word of God together sing his praises and rejoice in the gospel of our risen Lord you can find us on the web at www .brittleheightspca
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.org and may the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you the