Well, we finally managed to get the family packed up for a trip to the Creation Museum. If you can go on a Monday in November, you will have a great opportunity to experience the exhibits without having to peer over someone's sholder. With a few exceptions, such as the Stargazer Planetarium and the Special Effects Theater, we had our pick of seats, and the lines were non-existent, giving us the opportunity to take as much or as little time as we needed. After a handful of guests stopped and talked to Dr. Georgia Purdom after her talk, my wife and I had her all to ourselves in the Dragon Hall bookstore, as we peppered her with questions on how to evangelize, how to get a church fired up over this issue, etc. Dr. David Menton's "Microscarium" presentation where we used a flat screen tv to view what kinds of God's creatures could be seen by peering into a drop of water from the pond outside, was an impressive look at just how complex a "simple" single celled protozoa can be as we watched them twirl like tops to gather their food.

Despite having the whole museum pretty much to ourselves, we had to scramble to see everything in one day, and in fact missed quite a bit. The kids didn't get to partake in the two Dino Mite Readers programs, I missed a talk, as well as a second Planetarium exhibit on the planets. You could easily spend over a day there. It was almost too cold to visit the petting zoo, but that, feeding the fish off of the deck, and the maze, all outdoor activities, were some of the favorites on their list. The kids also enjoyed the entryway, with the exhibits and live animals, tremendously, along with the Dinosaur Den, and the treasure hunt. The more things that can keep the kids captivated, the better the family experience will be.

It was great to see the Museum completed, since the last time I was there it was under construction. While in town, we talked up the Museum as much as we could. We were amazed to find out how few locals have been there, despite the Museum breaking all projected attendance estimations. While some have never heard of it despite living 20 minutes away, others complained that it was too expensive. We urged them to go regardless. The Museum is top notch, and of the highest quality, and I have no doubt the operating budget is immense. I'm sure any financial barrier that could be removed, has been, so that more people have a greater opportunity to experience the Truth at this unique institution.

It was a great trip. I hope to do this once a year, and would like to organize a church trip, though coordinating a weekend trip to a destination five hours away and getting back back for Sunday Morning Service would be quite a challenge.

Scandalous! The next book of the Bible that the Bible Study will cover at my church prior to the Sunday service will be Genesis. As far as I know, the class materials, which are published through the Nazarene church, generally, if not as a rule, cover an entire book of the Bible at a time, not just a selection. Which is why this next study is even more bizarre and telling: They're starting at Genesis Chapter 12.

Now, the two leaders of this study laugh it off, because they've both taken my class which covers Genesis 1-11, and they have joked to their class that no one should worry because I've got the first 11 chapters covered.

While it is great that both leaders have expressed the importance of Genesis 1-11, it is troubling that the church organization is not standing on the foundation of the Bible. They're just skipping right over it. Genesis 1-11 covers just about every major doctrine of Judeo-Christianity, along with over 2000 years of history, including Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, and Confusion. It tells us everything about who we are as people, and why we need a saviour. An understanding of Genesis 1-11 gives us the ability to be ready to answer any question about the hope we have.

But we'll skip that part. Maybe no one will notice! Well, we noticed. We noticed that if you don't stand on the solid foundation of God's word, what's left of your faith?

"If the foundations crumble, what can the righteous do?"

I am a fan of the modern mma, including Pride, IFL and UFC. Many people have, at the very least, questions about Christians liking a violent sport. What about Christians participating in such a sport?

There are two mixed martial artists whose career paths I follow closest: Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin. Both have web sites, and both have Bible verses prominently displayed on their site. Matt Hughes has a forum with very active participants engaging in theological debates. Sometimes questions are asked that center around whether such fighting is Biblical.

The answers are easy - no one is trying to kill another, and even if that were the case, the matches are very closely refereed. As one poster noted, "It is not violence for violence sake." This individual goes on to say:

The UFC is a professional event where professional athletes go to compete in a controlled environment. It's not a bunch of street thugs ambushing unsuspecting people on the street. So, I don't see how it is any different from football or boxing in that sense.

Then he goes on to make this point: God was involved in a wrestling match, whereby he ended up permanently injuring Jacob's hip! The argument continues: since God can do nothing unholy, and God very much participated in a wrestling match, wrestling can be considered the only holy sporting event!

Well, we made it through the first verse in our study of Genesis, which is, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth, and so it is time for our first man-made compromise, the Gap Theory. This theory states that The Gap, a popular retail store, was where God got the clothes to dress Adam and Eve up in after they sinned. Several alternate theories have since arisen, including the Old Navy theory and the Kohls Sale of the Season theory.

The gap theory tries to place an indeterminable amount of time between the first and second verses in the Bible. However, this undermines the Gospel because it allows for death, bloodshed, disease and suffering before sin. It has been accepted because of the supposed proof found in the fossil record. These outside (of the Bible) ideas open the door to further compromise.

Where did the gap theory come from?

One of the most prolific writers on the gap theory was G.H. Pember. Pember was actually a conservative Christian, and defended the authority of Scripture. He was adamant about starting from Scripture alone, and not bringing ideas to Scripture! Oh, the irony. Pember did not believe in evolution, and he also believed in a literal 6 days (though the gap theory is obviously inconsistent with the gap theory - but the theory calls for, in Pember's words, "another world and a sin-stained history"). This should warn us that no matter how great a theologian we may be, or how respected and knowlegeable a Christain leader, as finite sinful beings we cannot empty ourselves or preconcieved ideas. These ideas are called presuppositions, or axioms, upon which our opinions and interpretations are based. Such is the ingrained nature of "long ages."

Problems with the gap theory

In Exodus 20:11, it says, For in 6 days the LORD made the heavens, and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them"

In Romans 5:12, we read, "Therefore, even as through one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin, an so death passed on all men inasmuch as all sinned." There could not have been human sin or death before Adam.

Genesis 1:29-30 teaches us that all animals and man were originally created vegetarian.

Romans 8:22 tells us that "we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now."

The gap theory is logically inconsistent because it explains away the supposed evidence for an old earth - uniformitarianism - and yet at the same time tries to accommodate it by incorporating long ages!. Their dilemma is that they accept a "literal" view of Genesis, but cannot accept the conclusions of evolution and millions of years.

In our study, we've made it up to the 5th word in the Bible, as in "In the beginning, God created.

No other place/cosmogony/theory/religion/philosophy can you find a concept of the special creation. It is unique to Judeo-Christianity. Others begin with a space/time/matter universe and then attempt to ascertain how things evolved out of nothing - i.e. in a "big bang." Pagan patheism also begins with elementary matter evolving into various complex forms by the forces of nature. No, there's nothing like the Bible's claims that God created.

What is so cool is that this verse records the creation of space ("the heaven"), of time ("in the beginning"), and of matter ("the earth") - the space/time/matter "tri"-universe which makes up our physical environment, made by my triune God.

Scientifically, there are two basic principles of nature discovered by scientists that confirm the need of a primeval special creation and the existence of a transcendent Creator:

1. The law of causality, that no effect can be greater than its cause. Our universe filled with a vast but limited amount of intelligible and complex effects inculding you and me, is itself proof of a complex, living, conscious Person as its Cause;

2. The laws of thermodynamics, which are the most universal and best-proved generalizations of science, applicable to every process and system of any kind. The first law is that no matter or energy is currently being created or destroyed. The second law is that all existing matter and energy is proceeding irreversible toward ultimate equilibrium and cessation of all processes, i.e., the universe is "winding down."

Therefore, the universe had a beginning. The universe must have been created, but the First Law precludes the possibility of its self-creation. The big bang contradicts both of these laws, while special creation follows them. There is also a firmly established law in science called the "biogenetic law." It states that life does not come from non-life, something which molecules-to-man evolution demands.

What does this all mean? It means that you can have a logically defensible faith that can stand up as a valid (and the best) interpretation of the findings of operational science. Isn't it exciting to be a Christian?!

With the formalities out of the way, we can now examine Genesis. This will be the text we'll be focusing on in this post:

"In the beginning God"

Yes, that is all we're looking at for now. Yes, it is going to be a long study.

This opening verse is unique to all religions. It puts God as the Creator. It is the foundation of history, and probably the first words ever written down. Our God, the omnipotent, outside of time and space. Nothing is impossible with Him. He alone gives meaning to it all. No attempt here is made to prove God, because no one in the beginning doubted God. *Sigh.* Those were the days. Literal, 24 hour days.

Until about 200 years ago, the consensus was that Moses wrote it. Then it started. At the dawn of Darwinism (coincidence?), a french physician argued that there were two authors - based on the different names for God used in Genesis 1 and 2. Later it was developed into a full blown elaborate documentary hypothesis involving at least four different authors (J,E,D, and P). Though JEDP is still taught in liberal bible colleges, it has been thoroughly discredited.

The unique aspect of Genesis, unlike the other four books of the Pentateuch (Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), it seems very likely that Moses compiled and edited a number of earlier documents, written by Adam and other ancient patriarchs (including Noah), under the Holy Spirit's direction. After all, Genesis was written well before Moses' birth, unlike the other four books. There is evidence that these patriarchs' "signatures" are evident in the text of Genesis ("These are the generations of [Adam]...," etc.)

We can be absolutely confident that what we are about to read is from my main man Moses, the red sea parter, the fire starter. They are in no way merely ancient legends or religious symbollism, but rather the actual eyewitness accounts of the places, events, and people of early earth history, who were written by men who were there, then transmitted down to Moses, who compiled and edited them into the permanent record we are about to view. How sweetly unique is that?

In this blog, am going to go through the first 11 books of Genesis referring to the notes from Dr. Henry Morris' New Defender's Study Bible. I will proceed fairly quick;y; it should only take me at least a year :-) Hope you enjoy it. It will be an awesome journey. Here's why:

The book of Genesis, in a very real sense, is the most important book in the world, as it is the foundation upon which the remaining 65 books of the bible are based. In fact, all Christian doctrine - sin, atonement, grace, justification, salvation - is either directly or indirectly based in Genesis 1-11. We'll see that biology, chemistry, physics, astrology, cosmology, geology, and of course true history are revealed in God's word.

Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the greatest attack on the Bible has been of Genesis. Since evolution - the ability for all complex forms of life can somehow be created on its own without God - is the only alternative to special creation, this is where the fight begins against the integrity and authority of the word of God.

When Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, gave a key Bible study to His disciples on the way to Emmaus, He began with Genesis (LK 24:27). We should do well to follow His example. If we want to understand Jesus, we need to understand Genesis.

You may want to grab a copy of New Defender's Study Bible or grab any ol' bible and chime in as we go along.

And so we begin...