“Even if I wanted to accept part of the Bible, namely the life of Jesus Christ, must I also accept the Genesis account? This seems like a fairy tale.”
I was not raised as a Christian or Bible believer and for that reason, the creation account of the Bible always seemed like a fairy tale to me too. That is, it seemed that way until I sat down, without any pre-conceived bias, and really thought about it. I submit that the Genesis account makes far more sense than we give it credit for. But let’s put that idea on hold for a moment as I respond to another part of the question. Can we accept parts of the Bible and not all of it? What does the Bible itself, say about the Bible?
2 Tim 3:15-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Jesus Himself believed the entire Old Testament was the word of God. In those days, they did not call it the Old Testament because they were not expecting any New Testament. It was called, The Law and the Prophets.
Matt 5:17-19
7 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
Although this sweeping endorsement of the entire Bible should end the discussion, it may still be of interest to point out that Jesus specifically referred to some of the most disputed Old Testament narratives such as the story of Noah (Matt 24) and the story of Jonah (Matt. 12:39-41) He also referred to the death of Abel (Matt. 23:35) and even quoted from Genesis Chapter One directly:
Mark 10:4-9
They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
The Apostle Paul also authenticates Adam in detail and name. The entire doctrine of our sin nature (crucial to an understanding of what Jesus did for us on the cross) is explained by Paul, with Adam being key to the process:
Rom 5:14
14 Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
1 Cor 15:45
45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
1 Tim 2:13-15
3 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Rest assured, one cannot accept the Bible without accepting the Genesis account.
Now then, as for Genesis seeming like a fairy tale, allow me to pose a simple question: Exactly what is it about the story that looks illogical? We are told that God created human beings from the dust of the ground. No detail is given as to how God did it, just that He did. Every mineral in the human body can be found in the ground. The rest of the human body is made up of water.
“How about a snake talking?”
This creature is identified in the Book of Revelation as Satan. “Serpent” is not the snake like creature we are familiar with, although that creature undoubtedly got its name from the description of Satan’s fall since such a description is part of the oldest story handed down to human beings. Satan is an intelligent creature, alien to this world, which exists, at the moment, in another dimension. The idea of life from other worlds may still seem hard to fathom but it is not beyond the range of possibility and there is nothing inherently irrational about accepting such a notion.
“But isn’t the Genesis account contradicted by the theory of Evolution?”
You are correct when you call it a theory. That’s all it is and many scientists to not accept Evolution. That is, they do not accept Macro Evolution. Micro Evolution is accepted even by Christian Creationists. There is ample observation that within its own species, life evolves, but Evolution from one species to another has never been observed, neither do we have any fossils showing such missing links.
“Can one believe in Evolution and God at the same time?”
Many people do. They are called Theistic Evolutionists. Think about it! If things really are evolving from a lower order to a higher order, that would be a pretty incredible miracle. It is Evolution, apart from God, that any thinking person should question. While on the subject of fairy tales, you remember the one about the frog who became a handsome prince? Well, give a frog to an Evolutionist and after a billion years or so, that frog will become a handsome prince too! Evolution, through randomness and chance, makes about as much sense as imagining a computer or any other machine coming into existence without a plan or blueprint. The human body is far more complicated than any machine we have built. It is beautiful too. This suggests that it was created by a master scientist and master artist. Hypothetically, He could have done this through evolution.
Although not a Christian by any means, Albert Einstein is nevertheless an example of a man who accepted both Evolution and some kind of God.
“Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe-a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble.” (Letter to a child who asked if scientists pray January 24, 1936 From the Quotable Einstein Alice Alaprice who translated and published his papers for Princeton press).
Even the big granddaddy of Evolution was not setting out to disprove God’s existence. Charles Darwin still believed in God when he wrote The Origin of Species. It is true that late in life, Darwin had many doubts about the God of the Bible and considered himself to be an agnostic. This belief, however, still maintained that some kind of God might exist. Darwin stopped being a Christian partly because of the death of his daughter and not because of the theory of Evolution alone (Rebecca Stefoff, Charles Darwin and The Evolution Revolution, Francis Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin p. 61, 68-9).
Although I, myself, do not believe in the theory of evolution, it should still be pointed out that Genesis was not written as a science book, but rather, as a history of the people of Israel. The Book of Genesis is 50 chapters in length. Only the first three chapters talk about the creation of the world and the fall of human beings into sin. This tells us something about the priority of the writer. He was obviously giving a quick review of an oral tradition already known to the people. I would gladly trade 20 chapters of Leviticus for more information on how God created the world but we must accept Genesis as it was written. Only when Abraham comes on the scene in Chapter 12, does the narrative slow down and provide intricate detail. At that time, we learn about Abraham’s money and livestock, even his sex life! Genesis is a history of Abraham’s people and a prologue for the rest of The Torah (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) Genesis is, to the story of Moses, what The Hobbit is to The Lord of the Rings. We conclude that specifics about creation were not the writer’s intention.
The first chapter of Genesis is written in a style of writing known as Hebrew Poetry. It is not seeking to give any kind of order to creation, as evidenced by the fact that the world exists with water and vegetation prior to the creation of the sun (Gen 1:14). The word for day (yom) is a Hebrew word that did not have to mean a literal 24 hour day, but could also be referring to an event (Joel 1-3). This poem then, could simply be God’s way of discussing different events in the stages of creation.
“Does this mean that one can accept Genesis without accepting a literal six day account?”
Let me answer this question as carefully as I can. First of all, I have no problem with God’s abilities here. He could have created the Earth in six days, He could have created the Earth in six seconds! I am not a scientist and not the best person to debate the questions associated with geology. I have had the pleasure of meeting several people from The Institute For Creation Research. They give some compelling arguments for a young Earth and a literal six day account. I think everybody should hear them out and ponder what they have to say.
Still, for myself, I tend to think of this in a different way: The Bible portrays God as being completely removed from time ( 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 13:8). Time is a human limitation. When we ask whether it took God six days or six million years to create the world, the question is irrelevant. In fact, it took God no amount of time at all to create the world because God does not exist in time. To speak at our level, God is using language we will relate to. Since we live in time and space, it is possible that a very long process over the years (as we understand years) created the world and slowly brought about different forms of life.
Genesis then, leaves room for the theory of Evolution or perhaps a better theory. I personally would put my emphasis on the words “perhaps a better theory” but for now, belief in an old earth along with Darwin’s theories do not contradict the Bible in any way.
“But there are other things about this story that do not make sense. For example, Cain, when banished by God, was fearful of all the people he would encounter. Where did these people come from if Cain was the third human being?”
I do not believe Cain was the first child of Eve. I believe he was the first child of Eve born mortal. When the Bible says that Adam was 800 years old, the reckoning may have begun after his fall into sin. Chances are, none of his days in the Garden of Eden would have been counted, for he was not living a mortal life in Eden. Eden was somehow connected to heaven and eternity. Who knows how long Adam and Eve were in the garden by our reckoning of time? It could have been thousands of years. It could have been millions of years! What we do know is that while in Eden, he and Eve were given the command to procreate and there is no reason to think they did not obey this command (Gen 1:28). It takes five minutes to read the first three chapters of Genesis but that does not mean Adam and Eve were only in the garden for five minutes. Indeed, an entire community of people (their children) may have been banished from the garden right along with them after the fall into sin.
But there is another element to the creation narrative, namely that it explains the world around us. Genesis is the story of how man lost paradise and this is the exact picture we see today. Paul describes the picture as follows:
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom 8:19-21).
On one hand, life around us is a paradise but this paradise has been invaded. In nature, we see sunsets, seashores, and snow capped mountains. But we also see earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves and disease. This dichotomy is also apparent in human nature. Humans are capable of music, poetry and love. There is nothing like the love of a man for a woman or the love of a mother for her children. And those who have friends feel a warmth and fellowship that makes them grateful to not be alone. But human beings are also capable of crime, racism, murder, rape and all kinds of other horrors. Both the nature of the world and the nature of the human being appear to be invaded by evil.
We can dismiss the Garden of Eden narrative if we wish, but while speculating as to why a loving God would have allowed His creation to turn so sick, we would be forced to suggest something similar anyway.
Human beings were once a part of paradise but they did not appreciate it. The original humans were curious to know what evil was and they found out. As descendants of Adam and Eve we were born with a sin nature.
“But is sin really our fault? Isn’t this something we are born with? Isn’t this something we can’t control? If so, how then can a loving God condemn us?”
It is true that people are born with a sin nature. Human beings do not follow their consciences nearly as much as they should. Although we can change our actions, we cannot change our thoughts and motives. I may hate feeling jealous or bitter or angry or lustful, but there is no button on my side that I can push to make those feelings go away. I may have good feelings as well, but if I am half clean and half dirty, I still need a shower.
Paul did an excellent job of describing this condition.
We know that the law is spiritual: but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no the evil I do not want to do, this I do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it (Romans 7:14-20).
What exactly is this sin nature? Is it some kind of curse or whammy God physically puts on babies at birth? No. Our sin nature is our separation from God. People are composed of body, soul and spirit. The soul is yourself, your will and your personality. The spirit is a part of your soul, that part which is in tune with God and His morals through the conscience (Heb 4:12, Romans 7:22). The very first human beings were created sinless but with an ability to choose right from wrong. For all intents and purposes, they were born into fellowship with God. Another way to say it is that they were “plugged into God.” They were spiritually connected with Him. When they later turned from Him in disobedience, God unplugged Himself from people and from the world (Romans 8: 20-21).
You will recall that God warned Adam and Eve that they would die on the day they ate the forbidden fruit (Gen 2:16-17). You will also recall that they did not actually die, at least not physically. But all kinds of sudden internal changes took place as Adam and Eve experienced a shame they had never felt before (Gen. 3:10). What happened, of course, is that they died spiritually; more specifically, their spirits died while their souls and bodies remained alive. As children of Adam and Eve, we are all born “unplugged.” That is, our spirits exist but in a “dead” or “malfunctioning” way. Although we still have a sense of God (the conscience), the separation keeps us from submitting completely to the influence of His Spirit. As a result, men and women run their own lives, something God never intended for them to do. Consequently, we develop many sinful habits. That, along with the absence of God within, is what the Bible means by a sin nature.
“But if I really inherited this nature from Adam, then God should not blame me. This wasn’t my fault. Why should I pay for what some idiot did years ago? Who knows, if I had been there in the garden, I might not have eaten the forbidden fruit.”
First, of all, Christ is the only one who paid for the “idiot” and as a result, you need never pay. It is true that you and I were born with a sin nature, but it is not true that we would have acted contrary to Adam, had the world only been fortunate enough to have one of us as the first human being. Adam acted on behalf of people as a species, doing what God knew any of us would have done. If it hadn’t been him, it would have been me (Romans 5:12).
“Oh come on. That’s a very convenient thing to say. But I guess we’ll never know, will we?”
Yes we will. God has proven the point by giving us His law.
The law was added so that the trespass might increase (Romans 5:20).
Although my sin nature contains thoughts and feelings I cannot change apart from a supernatural working of God’s Spirit, I am nevertheless, painfully aware of many occasions, where, without being compelled, I sinned anyway. This has even been true in my Christian life in spite of the Holy Spirit who can teach me to turn away from sin if I will only let Him (I Cor 10:13). Adam’s trespass has been repeated time and time again. Therefore, although people are sinners by nature (thanks to Adam), they are also sinners by choice (thanks to themselves).
Certainly things are now rearranged. Adam was surrounded by good and he had one path to evil, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Today, we are surrounded by evil, a “negative Garden of Eden” with one path back to God, Jesus Christ. What is the difference between being with God and leaving Him or being away from God and refusing to meet Him?
So then, I am responsible for the sins I choose to commit, but I am not responsible for having been born with a sin nature. That, I did not deserve. But neither did I deserve to be completely free from all sin (inward and outward) as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross. This too is undeserved. As you can see, things even out.
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous (Romans 5:18-19).
Many years ago, the famous evangelist, Billy Graham was a guest on the Donahue show. In a tongue and cheek fashion, Donahue expressed displeasure over the Christian doctrine of an inherited sin nature and said something to the effect of, “I am unhappy about the way I was born. What can I do about that?”
“What you can do,” said Graham, “is become born again.”
Note; For a fuller discussion of this topic, see my book, I’d Like To Believe in Jesus, But…available through Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com.
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