In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1:1-5 NKJV)
With these words, the greatest of all books begins. These words are the foundation upon which everything else in the book is based. If these words are true, then everything else stands on its foundation. If these words are false, then nothing else said in the book matters because it begins with a lie.
There are many today who want to claim the opening sections of Genesis are nothing more than legend, bearing no more sense of reality than any other origin story out there. Many, even while stating that they believe in God, will argue that these opening chapters aren’t all that important, can’t be trusted, and what we should really focus on is Jesus.
However, what they don’t understand is without this account, the rest of the Bible falls apart. Without the creation, there is no Creator of all things to come and save us from our sins (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-17). Without the creation, it is Jesus, not Satan who was a liar from the beginning and the father of all lies (John 8:44). Without the creation, there is no hope, for there can be no trust (Hebrews 6:17-19).
Genesis 1 is the core of everything. We believe in the evidence for God, and we believe the evidence for Jesus. Do we believe their claims or not? The answer is of eternal consequence.
[Editor’s Note: Doubtlessly, the masses in the world are anxious to lay aside not only the foundational doctrines of Genesis but also the entirety of the Bible. For you see, without a Creator from Whom mankind came forth, but additionally the One Who makes the rules by which humanity is expected by Him to live, there is no universal recognition of authority – no acknowledgment of even the existence of sin. Without God Who created all things, anything and everything is allowed. Glancing at or listening to media – or even looking to one’s own community – we see that godless theory played out daily – and it’s not a pretty picture. God did a reset once with a universal flood, and He plans on another, but final, universal, worldwide catastrophe (2 Peter 3:10-13). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
