Is The Book Of Genesis Trustworthy? Series

Is the Book of Genesis Trustworthy?

Rev. Brian Bill

May 18-19, 2019

During my early morning prayer run last Sunday, I listened to a podcast about the alarming state of our society and how we must stand on Scripture or we’ll get swept away. When I got home I continued listening while getting ready to take a shower. All of a sudden I heard the sound of a piercing alarm coming from my phone. When I looked down at the screen it said, “Emergency” and I could see I had inadvertently called 911. I tried to stop the call but it wouldn’t disconnect. When the dispatcher answered, she asked, “What’s your emergency?” I told her I didn’t have an emergency and I had called by mistake. I don’t think she believed me because I was winded from my run and still breathing hard. Then she said, “Sir, are you safe?” I assured her I was fine and apologized again for calling. I half expected a squad car to show up.

Brothers and sisters, there is an alarming emergency in our culture today. Since we have disconnected from the Bible, we are in societal free-fall. Wrong is now right and what is right is now called wrong. Lamentations about abominations in the past have been replaced with much celebration in the present. I’m reminded of Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

Brothers and sisters, we are only safe when we anchor our lives to Scripture. We’re continuing in our series called, “Glad You Asked.” Last weekend we asked and answered this question: “Can we really believe the Bible today?” We looked at 10 proofs and 10 purposes of the Bible and established this truth: What you believe about the Bible will determine your beliefs and your behavior.

Our question today is, “Is the Book of Genesis trustworthy?” Here’s what we’re going to discover: If you want a good ending, begin with the beginning.

Here’s my short answer to the question. We can trust the Book of Genesis because, as we learned last weekend, “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” Moses was the human author and the Holy Spirit was the divine author. At the turn of the 20th Century, many liberals believed Moses could not have written the Pentateuch (the first five books). It was believed primitive Jews did not have the capacity to write back then. Not surprisingly, this has since been refuted by archaeology, which has conclusively proven that writing was a part of their culture.

Here are some additional reasons you can trust Genesis.

1. The Bible doesn’t begin like a fairy tale, “Once upon a time…” but with a factual statement, “In the beginning God…”

2. Genealogies in Genesis give the names of actual people who lived in specific times of history. In the fact, the entire framework of Genesis is built around genealogies (See chapters 4, 5, 10, 11, 22, 25, 29-30, 35-36, and 46).

3. Jesus Himself confirmed Moses as the author in John 5:46-47: “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

4. The scribes and Pharisees referred to Moses as the author of the first five books in Matthew 22:24: “Teacher, Moses said…”

5. Jesus quoted from Genesis 2:23-24 in Matthew 19:4-5 when referring to marriage.

6. Jesus acknowledges Noah and the flood in Matthew 24:37: “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”

7. The Apostle Paul affirms Adam and Eve as real people in 1 Timothy 2:13: “ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.”

8. Paul also holds up Abraham and Sarah as models of faith in many of his letters as seen in Galatians 4:22: “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.”

9. The Apostle Peter refers to a literal worldwide flood in 2 Peter 3:6: “…the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”

10. One commentator has found at least 165 passages in Genesis that are either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New Testament.

Let me lay it out clearly. There is ample evidence the human author of Genesis was Moses and it is the first book of the Bible. Therefore we must accept what it teaches, regardless of what society, sociologists or secular scientists might say. Actually, we must do more than just accept Genesis, we’re called to contend for our faith so that apostates don’t turn the grace of God into a license for sensuality according to Jude 3: “I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”