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发帖数: 152 | 1 3. We come to the Bible knowing the copies we have in our hands are reliable
duplicates (though not perfect duplicates) of the exact writings, which God
perfectly inspired.
a. We can know this about the Old Testament by seeing the incredible
care and reliability of the ancient Jewish scribes, demonstrated by the Dead
Sea Scroll discoveries.
b. We can know this about the New Testament by knowing that because of
earlier manuscripts, and a greater number of ancient manuscripts, the New
Testament is by far the most reliable and exhaustively crosschecked ancient
document we possess. Really, no more than one one-thousandth of the New
Testament text is in question.
4. We come to the Bible knowing the unique importance of the Book of Genesis.
a. The Bible would be incomplete and perhaps incomprehensible without
the Book of Genesis. It sets the stage for the entire drama of redemption,
which unfolds in the rest of the book.
b. Almost all important doctrines and teachings have their foundation in
the Book of Genesis: the doctrines of sin, redemption, justification, Jesus
Christ, the personality and personhood of God, the kingdom of God, the fall
, Israel, the promise of the Messiah, and more.
i. Genesis shows us the origins of the universe, order and
complexity, the solar system, the atmosphere and hydrosphere, the origin of
life, man, marriage, evil, language, government, culture, nations, religion.
It is precisely because people have abandoned the truth of Genesis that
society is in such disarray.
c. Genesis is important to the New Testament. There are at least 165
passages in Genesis either directly quoted or clearly referred to in the New
Testament; many of these are quoted more than once, so there are at least
200 quotations or allusions to Genesis in the New Testament.
i. Jesus declared the importance of believing what Moses wrote: “For
if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if
you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:46
-47) We can’t say we believe in Jesus if we don’t believe in the Book of
Genesis.
d. “I beg and faithfully warn every pious Christian not to stumble at
the simplicity of the language and stories that will often meet him there [
in Genesis]. He should not doubt that, however simple they may seem, these
are the very words, works, judgments, and deeds of the high majesty, power,
and wisdom of God.” (Luther, cited in Boice)
5. According to the New Testament, Moses wrote the Book of Genesis (Luke 24:
27, Luke 24:44). We can surmise that he did this with help from actual
written records from the past God had preserved. There are indicators of
where these records begin and end. Note the phrasing of Genesis 2:4, Genesis
5:1; Genesis 6:9; Genesis 10:1; Genesis 11:10; Genesis 11:27; Genesis 25:12
; Genesis 25:19; Genesis 36:1; Genesis 36:9; Genesis 37:2.
a. “Thus it is probable that the Book of Genesis was written originally
by actual eyewitnesses of the events reported therein. Probably the
original narratives were recorded on tables of stone or clay, in common
practice of early times, and then handed down from father to son, finally
coming into the possession of Moses. Moses perhaps selected the appropriate
sections for compilation, inserted his own editorial additions and comments,
and provided smooth transitions from one document to the next, with the
final result being the Book of Genesis as we have received it.” (Morris) |
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