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Easier to view version: https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/why-is-a-literal-interpretation-of-7a7

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Why is a literal interpretation of Genesis Important? Part 3

Defending What We Believe

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series. To get the most out of this article, I recommend reading Part 1 and Part 2 first.

As Christians we are told to be “a light to the world” and to “be separate” and to “tell the truth” and “to be able to give a reason for the hope within us.” So often when we get involved in the culture wars, we make statements that may be true and right, but we do a lousy job of defending them. To outsiders, it seems as if we are pushing our personal opinion rather than standing for the truth set out by the creator God. Although defense of our beliefs can come from any part of the Bible, frequently the strongest basis for our beliefs is from Genesis. It makes me think of the song from “The Sound of Music”:

Let's start at the very beginning

A very good place to start

When you read you begin with

A-B-C

When you sing you begin with Do-Re-Mi

Do-Re-Mi.

When we have a spiritual principle we want to defend, we should start at the beginning: Genesis, which means beginnings.

Marriage

One area in our culture that most Christians rightly feel strongly about is Marriage. Too often, when we are asked why we are being so judgmental or harsh in our definition of marriage, we answer something like “because it’s right” or “because same sex marriage is wrong.” We don’t give a reason. The fact that we believe it or that it is our opinion is not enough. Most of us realize it is more than a personal opinion, but we aren’t very good at articulating why marriage is defined the way it is. When an individual believes marriage should be defined a particular way, that doesn’t have much weight. When the creator God, who created man and woman and created the first marriage, says what marriage is, it has a lot more influence.

The Bible defines marriage as one man and one woman. There are examples of marriages of one man to more than one woman, but you will notice that all of those lead to heartache and hardship. If we go to where God defined marriage, and start at the beginning, we will see it was meant to be one man married to one woman. Genesis 2:18-25 says:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called Woman,

Because she was taken out of Man.”

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

When Jesus is asked about divorce, he refers to Genesis in his answer. Matthew 19:3-8

Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way.

If quoting Genesis was good enough for Jesus, I’d say it is good enough for us and we should imitate Him in this.

Gender

Today gender fluidity and so-called gender affirming care has become rampant and is pushed with religious fervor. As Christians we know this is wrong, but it is not sufficient to just say “it is wrong” and have people agree with us. Why is changing one’s gender or becoming one of the numerous alternative genders wrong?

Genesis 1:27

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God clearly said He created us “male and female”. There are no other genders (or sexes). When God makes something a certain way, we are not to change it. Not only are we created male or female, we are created in the image of God. It is a total affront to God to change his creation in general, but especially His crowning glory, man and woman.

One thing I would add is that those who would change God’s design try to use nice sounding language like “gender affirming care” to make their sin sound loving. Telling someone, especially a kid, that they have to take hormone blocking drugs, cross sex hormones, and have body parts chopped off and/or remolded in order to feel good or have value is not gender affirming. It is abuse. Real gender affirming care is telling someone they have been created in the image of God and that they have value just the way God created them.

Abortion

Once again, we are good at being against the evil of abortion, but to many we come across as judgmental and hateful. We need to better explain why we are against abortion. It starts with Genesis 1:27

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

No one is supposed to kill or damage a human because they are all made in the image of God. Killing is damaging the image of the all-powerful, creator God. He punishes murder harshly as is shown with the first murder. Genesis 4:11-12

He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground. Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.

You may say that this doesn’t prove that an unborn life is the same, but there are many other verses, mostly in the Old Testament, that support the understanding that God considers human life as beginning from the moment of conception. The most explicit and generalized is Psalm 139:13-16

For You formed my inward parts;

You wove me in my mother’s womb.

I will give thanks to You,

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them.

From these verses we can see how tenderly God cares for every person before they are even conceived. He knows us from the moment of fertilization. He personally forms each one of us to be the person He desires us to be. The last thing anyone should do is harm one of these little ones.

Although this verse is not from Genesis or the Old Testament, I’d like to add one more verse here. Luke 17:1-2

He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

If this is God’s response for someone making a little one stumble, how harsh will His judgment be towards those who kill His precious little ones?

There are so many more principles that Christians rightly defend, but we need to do a better job defending them with God’s word. We need to make sure we are communicating the will of God and not our own will. We need to make sure we communicate God’s truth, not our opinion, and to make that clear to any with whom we chose to share.

#jesus #grownostr #bible #genesis #marriage #abortion #gender #christian #debate

https://trustjesus.substack.com/p/why-is-a-literal-interpretation-of-f18

This is Part 2 of a 3 part series. To best understand this post, I recommend you read Part 1 first.Besides the fact that the Bible is not contradicted by either science or archaeology, it is also the foundation of the Gospel.What is the Gospel (the good news)?Romans 5:12-14

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.If we share this verse with someone who has zero knowledge of the Bible, it won’t make much sense. If we know Genesis, but assume it is just analogy, then who is the one man through whom sin entered the world? If there is no real Adam, then is there a real person when the Bible says “in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”? Does this make Jesus just an analogy? Of course He is not, but if Adam is an analogy and the miracle of creation didn’t happen, then why should unbelievers believe in a real Jesus and in His miracles? A literal Genesis is the firm foundation for all that follows, especially the Gospel.Romans 3:23

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,What is sin and why should we care about the glory of God? Genesis 1 tells of the omnipotent, creator God speaking all of time and space, matter and energy, things seen and unseen into existence. Genesis 2 tells of His personal, caring creation and molding of man and woman. This act of creation gives Him the authority to say what is right and what is wrong and to define what sin is. The fall, described in Genesis 3 tells of God’s one rule (at that time) and how Adam and Even chose to disobey that one rule and put themselves above God, the same underlying sin of which man has been guilty since creation. If the God of the Bible is not the creator, then He just has another opinion and there isn’t a good reason that His opinion matters more than yours or mine.Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.Genesis 3 describes God’s first command, the pre-warned, personal consequence of breaking His command (death), and the general worldwide consequences of that sin. It even introduces Jesus, not by name, but with the words from Genesis 3:15,“And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her seed

He shall bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise him on the heel.”Satan bruised Jesus’s heel when Jesus was crucified and killed on the cross, but it was only a bruise, since Jesus was able to rise from the dead three days later. On the other hand, Jesus shall bruise Satan’s head, a death blow, by conquering sin and death on the cross and Revelation predicts the ultimate punishment of Satan.Romans 10:9

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;When we tell an unbeliever that they need to be saved, they need to know what they are being saved from. Ultimately we need saving from the punishment (death) for committing sins (disobedience, idolatry, and self-aggrandizement) against our creator God. The foundation for understanding sin and death is Genesis. In addition to being saved from death, Genesis shows God’s wrath through the flood in Genesis 7-8 and His ability to enforce His will through the confusion of the languages in Genesis 11. We do not want to be under His judgement. We want to be at peace with God.Romans 5:1

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,Genesis 2-3 gives us a picture of the perfect creation and a perfect relationship with our creator God. It gives us hope and a reason to desire peace with our loving God and the Lord Jesus Christ.It is hard to explain the Gospel and even harder to defend the Gospel if we don’t have the firm foundation found in GenesisContinue reading in Part 3, to learn more about using Genesis to defend our beliefs about marriage, gender, abortion, and more.

#bible #jesus #genesis #marriage #abortion #gender #faith #inerrant #jesusisking