Jesus and Genesis

Introduction

This section is meant to show clearly the importance of a literal interpretation of Genesis to the central message of the New Testament. Understand that I DO NOT believe that one must be a young earth creationist to be a Christian. However, I do believe that a great deal of uncertainty and confusion abounds when trying to reconcile the belief in an old earth with the Gospel message.

Christians recognize that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. The Bible clearly states:

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23

And,

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23

The sin/death relationship is further explained in Romans 5:12:

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…"

It's clear that physical death is one of the consequences of sin. It's equally clear that spiritual has also come about through sin. In one instance (physical death) the spirit is separated from the body. In the other (spiritual death) the spirit is separated from God:

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." John 5:24

The Gospel message (the good news), of course, is that Jesus suffered the death sentence on our behalf. Like the first Adam, Jesus first experienced spiritual separation from God, then physical death afterward. Throughout His ministry, even during His horrific execution, Jesus maintained fellowship with God, addressing Him as "Father." Just before He experienced physical death, fellowship with the Father was severed. Jesus could no longer address God as Father. In Matthew 27:46 we read:

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani' that is, 'My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?' "

This is not to suggest that Jesus was having doubts about Himself or His mission (as some have mistaken) but a confirmation of is trust in God and in His word. This cry, you see, is a direct quote from psalm 22, recorded more than 900 years before Christ and preserved in our Old Testament. At that moment, Jesus was truly alone in the universe. God no longer saw the righteousness of His Son, but regarded Him as being guilty of all the world's sin:

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God."

2 Corinthians 5:21

Moments later, Jesus experienced physical death as well, paying in full the price of our sin:

"So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."

John 19:30

The New Testament is absolutely replete with texts affirming that physical death is the result of sin, which is why Jesus suffered physical death on the cross:

"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

Colossians 1:13-14

"And you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His sight."

Colossians 1:21-22

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace."

Ephesians 1:7

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"Inasmuch as then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil."

Hebrews 2:14

This is not the end of the story. Because absolute obedience to the perfect will of God has the reward of eternal life, death could not contain Jesus, for He was perfectly obedient to the will of God the Father to the end. Hence, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead:

"…whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that possible that He should be held by it."

Acts 2:24

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is paramount. It was the main focus of all the sermons given by the apostles in the book of Acts. The resurrection is a testimony that mankind's most feared enemy - death - has been defeated. 1 Corinthians 15 is entirely focused on Christ's physical death and resurrection and the implications of these events:

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,"

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

"O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Corinthians 15:55-56

There are many within the Church who see no contradiction whatever with the evolution story and the Gospel message. Sadly, it appears that the atheist has a better grasp of the situation than many Christians:

"Christianity has fought, still fights, and will fight science to the desperate end over evolution, because evolution destroys utterly and finally the very reason Jesus' earthly life was supposedly made necessary. Destroy Adam and Eve and the original sin, and in the rubble you will find the sorry remains of the son of god. Take away the meaning of his death. If Jesus was not the redeemer who died for our sins, and this is what evolution means, then Christianity is nothing!"

G. Richard Bozarth, "The Meaning of Evolution", American Atheist, February 1978, pp. 19, 30

Refuting the Other Interpretations of Genesis

The straightforward interpretation of Genesis one is that God created the universe in six literal days.

"It is apparent that the most straightforward understanding of the Genesis record, without regard to all the hermeneutical considerations suggested by science [emphasis added], is that God created heaven and earth in six solar days, that man was created in the sixth day, that death and chaos entered the world after the Fall of Adam and Eve, that all of the fossils were the result of the catastrophic universal deluge which spared only Noah's family and the animals therewith." Dr. P.T. Pun (Professor of Biology at Wheaton College), Journal of the American Scientific Affiliation, Cited by John Morris, The Young Earth, 9th ed., 2000.

Gleason Archer is world renown for his command of the biblical languages. Although he rejects a literal meaning of Genesis one, he does admit that this is what a straightforward reading would indicate ("A Survey of the Old Testament", 1964, 15th printing, 1980, p. 181):

"From a superficial reading of Genesis 1, the impression received is that the entire creative process took place in six twenty-four hour days. If this was the true intent of the Hebrew author (a questionable deduction as will be presently shown), this seems to run counter to modern scientific research, which indicates that the planet Earth was created several billion years ago."

Note the flawed reasoning. Instead of using the Word of God to interpret what we see in nature, Archer has chosen to use man's flawed interpretation of nature to interpret the Word of God.

Since the late 1700's, scientists have worked very hard to convince us that the earth is much older than the biblical record reports. In fact the age of the earth as doubled at a rate of about once every twenty years! In order to reconcile the biblical record with popular scientific theory, many have suggested that the days of creation spoken of in Genesis one were in fact long periods of time. Men like Hugh Ross have suggested that each "day" was actually several hundred million years in duration.

There are many problems with such an interpretation, the first of which is the total lack of linguistic support. John Morris gives us the breakdown on the meaning and usage for the word "yom". (The Young Earth, 2000)

The word "day" (Hebrew yom ) can have a variety of meanings.

A solar day

Daylight

Indefinite period of time

• Occurring 2291 times in the Old Testament, it almost always means a literal day.
• When used in the plural form yamim (845 times), it always refers to a literal day.
• When modified by a numeral ordinal in historic narrative (359 time in the Old Testament outside of Genesis 1), it always means a literal day
• When modified by "evening and/or morning" (38 times outside of Genesis 1) it always means a literal day.
• Context of Genesis 1 is a tight chronology.
• Forms the basis for our workweek of 6 literal days (Exodus 20:11).
• Proper interpretation is a solar day, not an indefinite time period.