HIS Story Week 1

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FROM THE BEGINNING

Chapter

1

1 GOD

2 HUMAN

Beginning of everything but God God’s claim to our loyalty as the Creator

Made in God’s image and put in charge of all creation

3 SIN

Doubt about God’s goodness results in the fall

4-5 FAMILY

Two brothers, Two ways A millennium in a chapter: Adam to Noah

6-9 CIVILIZATION Complete destruction except for Noah and representatives of the animals

Chapter

11

10-11 BABEL AND NATIONS

Tower of Babel to reach God Another millennium: from Shem to Abram

Week 1: From the Beginning to Babel (Genesis 1-11) Week One Reading Plan 1:1-2:3 Meet the Author 2:4-25 Adam and Eve 3:1-24 The Issue of Sin 4:1-12 Brokenness Caused by Sin 6:5-7:24 Flood of Sin and Noah’s Ark 8:1-9:17 God’s Covenant with Noah 11:1-9 The Need for Rosetta Stone: Tower of Babel

The creation story draws attention to the Creator of all and to Whom we all have a debt of loyalty and thanksgiving. Genesis describes the creation of the world as framed by the power of God’s word. Interpretations of the method God used may vary but the primary focus is that God is the Author of it all. His creative work progressives: 1. The world of matter, 1:3-19 2. The system of life, 1:20-25 3. Humanity, the stewards of His creation, 1:26-27 The world was ideal when God completed it. The first people were placed in a paradise called the Garden of Eden and asked to tend that garden, to build a friendship with God and to follow Him.

Adam and Eve were the first and only earth-dwellers to experience the world as innocent adults. They woke up for the first time able to walk and enjoy God and His creation. Before long they did the one thing God asked them not to do, and innocent adulthood was gone forever. They left the ideal garden, and the life of sweat, labor, pain, and disappointment began. They lost their first two sons to violent, fatal sibling rivalry. It was not a happy time. But Adam and Eve did what we do today. They picked themselves up and dusted themselves off, and with the forgiveness and guidance of Almighty God, they started all over again. The world was changed forever, but their God was still the same. The descendants of the first family disregarded God more and more. The world became a mess. There was one man who remained faithful. God intended to preserve Noah and his family, but He asked for Noah’s obedience. God told Noah to build a very big boat, to which He brought representatives of all the animals. A great flood came, and everything on the earth was destroyed except those on the ark. When it was all over, Noah recommitted himself, his family and this freshly-laundered world to follow the Creator once again. After the flood the world was given a new start. But instead of spreading out and repopulating the earth as God had instructed, they built the great tower of Babel in defiance of God. They thought they could establish a worldwide empire that would be independent of God. The Jewish historian, Josephus, declares that the tower of Babel was built because the people did not want to submit to God. As a consequence, God sent a confusion of tongues and scattered them abroad. And it is here that our readings end this week.

SIX VIEWS ON CREATION Six Views of the Creation Account 1. Young Earth Creationism

The belief that the universe and all that is in it was created by God around ten-thousand years ago or less. Science is considered compatible in light of the concept of catastropheism. This is the idea that world-wide biblical catastrophes explain the fossil records and the geographic phenomenon that might otherwise suggest the earth is old. It is the most literal reading of Genesis 1-11, with an understanding that Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, a communicating serpent and a world-wide flood actually occurred.

2. Gap Theory Creationists

Belief that the explanation for the old age of the universe can be found in a time gap that exists between the lines of Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. God created the earth but then the earth became formless and void. Then after that, God instituted the new creation which begins in Genesis 1:2b. This view allows for an indefinite period of time for the earth to exist before the events laid out in the creation narrative. There are a variety of ideas as to what could have happened to make the earth become void of life. But this understanding can argue for the possibility of a creation prior to humans that then died out. This could include the dinosaurs. This view, too, can have a literal understanding of Genesis 1-11 with an expansion made between the first and second verses.

3. Time-Relative Creationism

This is the belief that the universe is both young and old depending on your perspective. Since time is not a constant (Einstein’s Theory of Relativity), the time at the beginning of creation would have moved much slower than it does today. From the way time is measured today, the succession of moments in the creation narrative equals that of six twenty-four hour periods. But relative to the measurements at the time of creation, the events would have transpired much more slowly, allowing for billions of years. This view, therefore, does not assume a constancy in time and believes that any assumption upon the radical events of the first days/eons of creation is both beyond what science can assume and against the most prevailing view of science regarding time today. This view may or may not allow for an evolutionary view of creation, while also allowing for a literal interpretation of Genesis 1-11.

4. Old Earth Creationists

(also Progressive Creationists and Day-Age Creationists) Belief that the old age of the universe can be reconciled with Scripture by understanding the days of Genesis 1 not as literal 24-hour periods, but as long indefinite periods of time. The word “day” would then be understood the same as in Gen. 2:4 “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.” Usually this view believes the universe and earth are billions of years old, but that man was created a short time ago. With this view, one need not believe in evolution in regards to the origin of humankind. With “day” understood as a synonym for “a period of time,” Genesis 1-11 can be literally interpreted.

5. Theistic Evolution (with a literal Adam and Eve):

The belief that God created the universe over billions of years, using evolutionary processes to create humanity. At some time, toward the end of the evolutionary process, God, through an act of special creation, created Adam and Eve as the head of the human race. This view can posit that God did not use special creation, but appointed already existing humanoids as the representatives for humanity calling them Adam and Eve. This understanding may or may not read Genesis 1-11 literally.

6. Theistic Evolutionists (no literal Adam and Eve)

The belief that God created the universe over billions of years, using evolutionary processes to create humanity. Adam and Eve are simply literary and symbolic, representing the fall of humanity and the ensuing curse and the need for deliverance. One can be a Christian and legitimately hold to any of these views. The best anyone can do is lean in one direction or another. Being overly dogmatic about these issues seems to distract from God’s Story and His Kingdom. Each position has many apparent difficulties and many virtues. This is an issue we should continue to discuss with excitement and hope, rather than letting it fracture Christian fellowship. Above all, the creation account points to Whose we are!