Is the Genesis Account Literal?
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Is the creation account recorded in Genesis literal or poetic? Is it an account of literal creation or a metaphor or allegory of some form?
Watch this clip form a conference in Brisbane, Australia. Jeff Durbin, of Apologia Radio/TV/Church, answers a question about the Genesis account during the question and answer period.
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- 00:00
- So, I would just say briefly to it that I think we're running into very serious problems of interpretation and that flood into the rest of the biblical narrative when we say that it's a poetic narrative and it's not literal creation story.
- 00:14
- I think we should take Jesus' view of the Old Testament. I think that we should have his same view in terms of the history of the
- 00:21
- Old Testament, what he believed about the Word of God. And when you see Jesus speaking about creation, it's in terms of literal creation.
- 00:28
- In Matthew chapter 19, when Jesus gives the distinctions between male and female that come together to become one, he's speaking about the creation account, and that's a literal account for him.
- 00:39
- If we say that the creation narrative in Genesis 1 and 2 is poetic and it's not truly literal, then is that true also for Genesis 3?
- 00:49
- Is it true about the fall? Is it true about our first parents? And if so, if we say, well, that's also up for grabs, maybe it's not a literal
- 00:58
- Adam and Eve, well, then we now lost Romans 5. Romans 5, there is a representative
- 01:04
- Adam and a representative Jesus. So you see, it's absolutely true. If you destroy
- 01:09
- Genesis, you've destroyed the entire narrative of the scriptures, and therefore you've destroyed the story of redemption.
- 01:16
- And so, just a quick resource, apologyorradio .com. About four weeks ago, we had
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- Dr. Kenneth Gentry on, talking about his book, As It Is Written. It used to be called
- 01:27
- Half God Said. As It Is Written is Genesis literal or literary?