The Seven Fundamental Principles of Genesis

The famous Scopes “Monkey” Trial in Tennessee (1926) tested a state law called the Butler Act, which made it unlawful, in any state-funded school “to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The evolution versus creation debate still rages today. There are those entrenched on both sides and those that try to find some kind of middle ground between faith in the scriptures and the faith found in a scientific theory. It is ironic that such a great deal of controversy in our modern American society comes from our understanding of the first few chapters of Genesis. I have come to believe this is the wrong battle for Christians to fight. Genesis isn’t intended to be a scientific treatise on How God created the universe. The message of Genesis is more profound than that. It doesn’t matter if one argues that the first chapters of Genesis are to be taken literally or figuratively. It doesn’t matter if one believes that the earth is six thousand years old and God literally took the dust of the ground and formed Adam with it or if the story refers to an “Adam and Eve moment” wherein, at some point in evolution, God gave His creation a human spirit and the nature of mankind was changed forever. An argument can be made either way. The greatest irony is that some who fight the hardest in asserting the Bible is the revealed Word of God go on to ignore the very principles contained in it. They go on to ignore the principles within those first few chapters that they insist should be read literally. These principles are truths that God has revealed to us in His word. We need to be reminded of them…often…because they lay the foundation whereupon all other scriptural truths rest. The message of Genesis is that we come from God and He cares about us.

The first fundamental principle in Genesis is that God created the universe and established order therein. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word for created here implies perfection; it implies order. This principle tells us plainly that there is an intelligent, creative force behind the scenes. The universe isn’t some kind of immense, three dimensional, billiard table wherein atoms randomly collide with each other and order just, accidentally, appears. The existence of the universe is intentional. Whether it came about in a Big Bang or not isn’t the issue. How He did it isn’t the issue. The issue is that it exists for a purpose…to create, sustain and nurture life. It has a destiny. It came from God. He created laws to establish order in His universe. When those laws are obeyed the order God intended permeates His creation. When those laws are disobeyed chaos and confusion result.

The second fundamental principle found in Genesis is that God created life. We come from God. Humanity is not an accident. Whether God used some form of evolution or literally formed Adam out of the dust of the earth, our existence too is intentional. There is a purpose in our being here. We have a direct connection to God because we come from God. Even those that deny the Word of God sense this on a deep level. Every tribe of man in every age has believed that man is somehow special…that we were meant for something more. Perhaps it is written into our ‘spiritual DNA’. We all sense that we have some greater purpose. We have a destiny because of where we came from.

The third fundamental principle in Genesis is that We are partakers of a part of Gods nature. Here again arguments can be made that we were made in the image of God physically, that we look like God, or that we are like God in our nature. Either way, we are partakers of a part of Gods nature. Modern scientists try to make us believe that we are like just any other species of animal. They tell us that we are only different in degree…not different in kind. The scriptures tell us otherwise. There is something special about mankind. God cares about what happens to us just as any good parent cares about what happens to their child because a part of Him is in us. Later in the scriptures He reveals Himself to us as our Heavenly Father. There are modern ‘Christian’ churches that ignore that revelation entirely and instead refer to God as goddess or some other idol created in their own minds. Anyone calling themselves Christian should look to only one source for understanding God and His nature…the holy scriptures. God reveals His nature to us and it is more majestic than any idol of the mind man has ever concocted. A part of us understands that.

The fourth fundamental principle in Genesis is that We are here to obey God. Our purpose on earth is to obey the will of our Creator. We are to live in harmony with the order that God established in the universe by obeying His laws…both physical and spiritual. That’s how we’ll attain the destiny that a part of us knows awaits us. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden of Eden and only given a few commandments…be fruitful and multiply, replenish-subdue-and have dominion over the earth, and…don’t eat of the fruit of one tree. We have a purpose…and that is to obey God to live in harmony within His creation. Even, so called Christian churches balk at this one…they tell us that we are here only to believe. That’s like the owner of a sports team spending millions to hire the best coach that can be found only to tell the players that they needn’t obey him…just acknowledging that he is the coach is enough! To obey God we have to act; we have to do something. God does not force us to obey Him, He gives us free will to make the choice to do so or not.

The fifth fundamental principle in Genesis is that only God can decide what is right and what is wrong. Only He knows what must be done to live in harmony within His creation. Adam and Eve chose to disobey God and ate of the one tree whose fruit was forbidden to them. Adam and Eve took of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. They chose to take to themselves the right to decide what is good and what is evil. Our ancestors took to themselves the right to decide what only our Creator can really know. It is in our nature to do the same thing. We can disobey the will of God and take to ourselves the right to decide what is good and what is evil, we can live solely by the dictates of our own hearts…or we can return to God and believe His word. The only way to truly live in harmony in Gods creation is to do it His way, to obey His will.

The sixth fundamental principle in Genesis is that Satan exists and he will do anything, use any deception, to entice us away from God. This principle is completely missing from modern human psychology. The human condition can never be fully understood without this piece of the puzzle. There are spiritual beings intent on enticing us away from living in harmony with God and His creation. It is a misunderstanding of scripture to think that Satan is some kind of ‘equal but opposite’ force from God. Satan is a created being and is allowed by God to exist. God allows Satan to tempt mankind for Gods own ultimate purpose. God could have kept the serpent out of the garden but instead He allowed it to be there for His purposes. Later in the scriptures we learn that this is in fact Satan’s world until Christ returns.

The seventh fundamental principle in Genesis is that Only God can decide how He is to be worshipped. When Cain and Able brought their offerings to God…their form of worship…one was accepted and one was rejected. God made that decision. Instead of Cain repenting and returning to obedience…he became bitter and went off on his own. Ever since that day the children of men have devised more and more of their own gods and forms of worship. Instead of simply doing as God commands, it is in our nature to do what we think is right. This is yet another way to deny where we came from. Over and over in the Hebrew scriptures God warns His people NOT to do as the heathen nations, not to worship Him as they worship their gods. Modern Christianity is full of such practices. They have ignored one of the fundamental principles found in the first few chapters of the writings they claim to believe in. Those that diligently seek God should take note here. The only forms of worship God accepts are those He commands. We should make every effort to root out of our lives those spiritual practices man has created to worship the gods man has created.

It isn’t difficult to see that the world rejects all these principles. All the great intellectual movements in our world are contrary to them. The world has come up with it’s own ideas about religion, government, and the sciences…The prevailing ideas in all these fields, and many others, are in complete denial of Gods principles. We are enticed away from them by very powerful spiritual forces. In addition, the human heart wants to do what it wants to do. It doesn’t want to live in harmony with Gods will. But, there is that spark in those that God calls for His purpose. Those that hear His voice need to follow it.

God hasn’t left us in the dark. He has left of a record of His will. He has left us a light in the darkness so that we can decide to return to obedience. The Bible is the ‘Revealed Word of God’… It contains His principles and laws that we couldn’t find any other way. It’s also a record of Gods dealing with mankind. It contains a history of what happens when we obey God and what happens when we disobey Him. Additionally, it contains prophesies of what will happen if we choose to obey or choose to disobey God.

In a sense the Bible is like a first grade primer. Like the stories about Dick and Jane that we older folks remember, it is a way for the Creator of the universe to impart to mortal beings with three pound brains His ultimate truths. God isn’t concerned with animal sacrifices…they were merely a way to teach us about the seriousness of breaking God’s spiritual laws. His son isn’t really a lamb…that’s an image that He uses we can understand. The scriptures are full of such imagery. God uses images of things that we can understand to teach us His truths beyond anything in our experience. Without understanding these principles human beings can never understand this mortal existence. It is our understanding of Gods word that teaches us we have a purpose and a destiny, that history has a beginning, a purpose and an ending. The universe has a beginning, a purpose and a destiny.

The very fact that the scriptures exist is proof of the greatest principle in the scriptures…God loves us. He cares about what happens to His children. Gods law is proof of His love for us in the same way that any parent who loves their children gives them rules to teach them and to protect them. And, finally, possibly the one scriptural principle known to all the Christian world…”God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but should have everlasting life…” Amen.