Genesis

Before we leave the Patriarchs, an important clarification

January 22, 2016 by untilfulllight

This week you are going to finish up in your reading the story of the formation of the Jewish people as God’s chosen people as you follow Abraham’s line through Issac, Jacob, his 12 sons, the story of Joseph and how God providentially moved a family to Egypt where it grew into a nation.

But before we move ahead, I wanted to share an important clarification about Abraham. This is important because Abraham is a primary person not only in the Christian faith, but he is also in the Jewish and Muslim faiths. We often hear these three faiths described as “Abrahamic faiths” and based on that, there is often an unspoken assumption that we all believe the same things at our core.

Sounds good doesn’t it? But is it true?

Look at the real history, to find out the truth of the assumption

It’s very important that you understand that there is a VERY BIG difference between what Muslims and the Koran believe and teach about Abraham and what the Christian Bible teaches.

The Koran, written over 2,000 years after the Old Testament accounts of Abraham presents a fanciful, mythological life filled with blatant historical errors. This Abraham has little in common with the Biblical Abraham other than his name. The lesson below illustrates this and you’ll understand what I mean by quickly going through the full size slides (just click on the image and they will come up).

The lesson also goes on to illustrate what the Koran says about Jesus–which, again though they use the same name, has nothing to do with the historical person of Jesus.

Showing that the history of a certain religious belief system is either true or false is a long way from trusting Jesus as personal savior–but we must be clear that the Christian faith is verifiable in true history and the Muslim faith is not.

Abraham, the chosen people, and the real hero of the stories

January 17, 2016 by untilfulllight

As we begin reading the story of Abraham and the early history of his chosen people, we must always keep in mind the real hero of the stories that follow. None of the individuals we are about to read about are included because they were great people. They were included because they are part of the story of our great God.

We need to be reminded of this because it goes against our human nature

We humans have such high opinions of ourselves. Not only of do we think highly of ourselves, as when we silently affirm: “Oh, I’m not really all that bad” or “At least not nearly as bad as…..”, but we are also fond of constructing celebrities. We like to put people on a pedestal, whether they are movie or music superstars or heroes of the faith.

As we move back into Genesis, we find the story of one of the first heroes of our faith Abraham. We know he was the father of the Jewish nation from whom came the Messiah. We know that “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness (Gal. 3:6).”

But now we get to read his story and that of his immediate family, and if we read it without preconceptions, it isn’t a pretty one.

On Genesis 6: Did demons or fallen angels father children on earth?

January 8, 2016 by untilfulllight

People love sensational stories and sadly sometimes look for them in all the wrong places. Genesis 6 is one of those places where from a brief text, some people have come up with all sorts of fanciful stories about angels, demons, and their supposed offspring. But on careful study, these stories are more suited to the Sci-fi channel than careful Bible study.

Here are some useful commentaries on the passage:

The following excerpt is from: http://www.equip.org/bible_answers/did-demons-have-sexual-relations-with-women-in-genesis-64/

Genesis 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Genesis 6:4 one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. As with any difficult section of Scripture, it has been open to a wide variety of interpretations. It is my conviction however, that those who hold consistently to a biblical worldview must reject the notion that women and demons can engage in sexual relations. I reject this interjection of pagan superstition into the Scriptures for the following reasons.

First and foremost, the notion that demons can “produce” real bodies and have real sex with real women would invalidate Jesus’ argument for the authenticity of his resurrection. Jesus assured his disciples that “a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have” (Luke 24:39 nkjv). If indeed a demon could produce flesh and bones Jesus’ argument would be not only flawed but also misleading. In fact, it might be logically argued that the disciples did not see the postresurrection appearances of Christ but rather a demon masquerading as the resurrected Christ.

Furthermore, demons are nonsexual, nonphysical beings and as such are incapable of having sexual relations and producing physical offspring. To say that demons can create bodies with DNA and fertile sperm is to say that demons have creative power—which is an exclusively divine prerogative. If demons could have sex with women in ancient times, we would have no assurance they could not do so in modern times. Nor would we have any guarantee that the people we encounter every day are fully human. While a biblical worldview does allow for fallen angels to possess unsaved human beings, it does not support the notion that a demon-possessed person can produce offspring that are part-demon, part-human. Genesis 1 makes it clear that all of God’s living creations are designed to reproduce “according to their own kinds.”

Finishing Job, back to Genesis 1

January 8, 2016 by untilfulllight

This week you will finish up Job and then pick back up again with the story of Abraham. Next week I’ll have more on Abraham and how different the Muslim view is of him. When people talk about both Islam and Christianity having a common father in Abraham, you’ll see that the only thing in common is the name—they are talking about a very different person. Only the Christian view of Abraham can be historically verified.

Before we leave Job, please read this post I wrote on it as it will help answer one of the biggest questions in the book: With Job, we ask: What should we do when God disappoints and what does it really means to prosper

To go back a bit in Genesis. . . .

I wanted to link you to a question many people have about Genesis 6, where some people think angels or fallen demons are able to have sex with humans. That is not what the Bible teaches and this brief post helps explain it. http://www.untilfulllight.com/on-genesis-6-did-demons-or-fallen-angels-father-children-on-earth/

Application to this week’s readings:

As you finish reading Job this week, take some time to think through if you have fallen into the false belief that in this life you are promised only good things.

Journal where you have had wrong beliefs along the way and how after reading Job, how God wants you to look at difficulties.

We will all have a happy ending to our story, but like any good adventure story (think about the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars or any great adventure) there were always challenges along the way. For some we get a taste of the good ending in this life; for others we wait to see it in its fullness, where it will be far more glorious than our feeble dreams can imagine.

Overview of Genesis and Job, foundations for answers to the big questions of life

December 30, 2015 by untilfulllight

Asking questions seems to an intrinsic part of what it means to be human. From children’s perpetual “What’s this?” “Why?” “Why not?” to the philosopher’s “Where did we come from?” “Why are we here?” “Is there any purpose to our existence?” questions fill our minds.

We may not be a child or a philosopher and we may not speak our questions out-loud, but we all have them: “Why did this happen or not happen to me?” “Why did I deserve this wonderful or awful, incredible or dreadful thing?” “Is there a God and does he care?”

If we are a Christ-follower, the questions don’t necessarily stop. In reality they often become more complex when our everyday experience of the Christian life does not line up with our expectations of what it is supposed to be. Much of the modern religious message is that if you are a Christian, tithe, and vote the right way, life will be wonderful, you’ll have plenty of money and never get sick. Sounds great and those rules are easy to follow.

Well, maybe the tithing isn’t—but if you are above a certain income level, a tithe is far from a sacrificial part of your income and you can congratulate yourself by giving it and rationalize you don’t need to give more. Few churches today would challenge you on that assumption.

But what happens when reality intrudes and you lose your job, health, or a loved one? You assumed you followed all the rules. It seems like God didn’t keep his part of the bargain. At these times the questions without easy answers bubble up.

Where do we find answers?

Video: Job and Genesis, Foundational Answers to the Big Questions of Life

December 30, 2015 by untilfulllight

These are the first two books of the Bible that we are reading in our chronological reading through the Bible in a year. In this video we’ll talk about why we read Job in the middle of Genesis and how these two books help answer some of the big questions of life.

If you want to just listen to the audio, it will make sense without having to look at the images.

CLICK on the image to download the notes that go along with the video. Anyone may use and copy them for any Bible teaching situation.

Click on the image to download a PDF of the NOTES and DISCUSSION QUESTIONS for this video.

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