I love this first book of the Bible. There is a lot of debate about the first 11 chapters (which I will get to on the next note), and I won’t be able to cover everything on here, since I know you can just look into a study Bible you have that works, so, ‘nuf said.
Anyway, the evolution and Big Bang theories you’ve heard about… they don’t appear here or anywhere else in the Bible. Thank God that such beliefs are not unforgivable, though. There is a lot of fierce oratories about creationism, and most of them are very unforgiving, since, if I’m not mistaken, we’ve all believed something unbiblical about this book at one point or another. I won’t talk about atheism right now, though, for I’m not a fan of such belief systems. I myself have never been interested in atheism, since, as you are probably aware, many people who openly believe it do depraved stuff. I don’t want to talk about it now, though. Instead, I’d like to point out that much of what the Old Testament which was written, seeing that we now recognize as Scripture (this is the first book of the Pentateuch, by the way; it’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, in that order) — much of it was spoken orally. Moses wrote a majority of these five books, but he may not have been the only one composing them. There is a good outline for this and each of the other books in the Amplified Bible. But I think of Jacob’s story being in chapters 27-36 (concluding with Esau and his family) and Joseph’s story being in chapters 37-50. And all the Bibles I am using for this multi-translation project each have this book being on page 1.
Again, I do not claim being an expert on anything, nor do I wish to. I believe that when someone does this, believing they have all the answers mirrors the reality of Romans 1:22, “Claiming to be wise, they became fools” (NASB) — though I have said things like this once or twice, but didn’t believe the lie of knowing everything. That truth, knowing everything, belongs to God alone (1 John 3:20). But I don’t plan on dividing any book into certain sections as to how it “should be,” each book, chapter, or even verse can be written in parts, no matter how small or big. I’m also not using any traditional study Bibles for this, yet I do respect the people’s work. Still, not everything in the comments on the chapters and verses of each book may be true. In fact, some can be so obscene they make you want to fire up your car, drive as fast as you can to the editor’s house, and crash through their bedrooms! But I don’t encourage doing that — the Holy Spirit doesn’t condone or encourage violence. Yet just by me saying this, you’d think, “Well, Ron, why then did God do so many brutal acts across Scripture?” Well, I can’t give a concise answer for that. But this much I know: wrath is not God’s heart. Instead, He loves everybody. I do recognize the need to pursue holiness along with peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14), though.
As I write, I listen to the rain falling down on the house I pay my friend, Jonathan, to live in. I love a good rainfall, for I live in a desert, and Genesis begins with creation and God saying that it is good, especially when He brings humans into the picture (Genesis 1:31). I rest my case.
See my next post for more about chapters 1-11 (at once)!
Ron And His Stories 