Genesis Chapter One describes how God created the cosmos – the seas, earth, firmament, sun, moon, and stars, as well as living creatures. As such, it is of primary importance.
The battle of the ages is being fought over Genesis because, if it can be shown that it is not literally and actually true, then there is no reason to assume that anything else in the Bible is true.
This is why Satan has worked so hard to convince us that the story proposed by those who espouse evolutionary astrophysics is real. If we accept the Big Bang theory and the heliocentric model as reality, we must conclude that the Bible is an archaic fairy tale.
I have conversed with numerous Bible-believing Christians who insist that it is not necessary or even correct to accept that Genesis is literally true. They believe that Jesus rose from the dead. They believe that the gospel message is true and tell me that insisting on a literal interpretation of Genesis is an unnecessary obstacle to people’s accepting the gospel’s claims.
Without fully realizing it, those who reject the literal truth of Genesis have set foot upon the slippery slope of deciding which parts of the Bible are true and which merely contain truth, which is exactly the position of the more liberal denominations which have departed from the faith.
By the way, how can something untrue contain truth? That is the equivalent of saying that God can use a lie to lead us into truth.
Why do any of us who believe the Bible think that it is necessary to reject a literal interpretation of Genesis Chapter One? Is it not because we regard the claims of what is called science to be of greater value than God’s Word?
If we accept the proclamations of theoretical science above God’s Word, we have become idolators who worship at the altar of “Scientism,” which has its own high priests and prophets who tell us what we must believe.
I admit that people come to faith in Christ and his resurrection without believing that Genesis is literally true. I did. But this does not mean that believing Genesis is true is not important. Jesus said the the scripture cannot be “broken,” (John 10:35) meaning that every word of God is true. He said in another place that we are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). People who already believe in Jesus will continue to do so regardless of whether they accept a literal interpretation of Genesis. To them, it is whether Genesis is literally true is non-essential. However, those who are in the process of exploring the claims of the Bible and who read Genesis are faced with a huge obstacle to faith. Everything they have been taught from infancy rejects the creation account of Genesis. They must decide what to do with the Bible. Many decide that Genesis is not true and therefore reject all the Bible’s claims.
The goal of evolutionary astrophysics, geology, paleontology, and biology is to convince us that our universe and all life sprang from nothingness by random chance without any input from a Creator.
We have to admit that Satan’s plan has wonderfully succeeded. He has successfully eliminated the Bible from public education and the halls of what is called science. Any reference to a Creator is rejected as being unscientific. Science must be able to explain everything without any reference to God, using only mechanistic processes. The Bible takes the exact opposite position: in the beginning – God.
Therefore, the best way to combat the lie of evolutionary “science” is by reestablishing faith in the literal truth of Genesis.
Is this too great a leap for those who say they believe in the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus? Have we allowed the world to slice off our faith in Jesus and place it in a little box called “religious truth,” which has no bearing or impact on the “real” world?
It is impossible to accept that the Genesis account is true and arrive at a heliocentric “solar system” in an ever-expanding universe.
Until we are willing to repent for our unbelief in the literal truth of the Genesis account, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Any thinking person who examines the gospel’s claims and sees that we do not think Genesis is true would do well to question why we believe anything in the Bible. Cannot we see that?
But when we come face to face with the truth about the heavens and earth that God made, we can only arrive at one conclusion. There must be a Creator because no matter how truth is twisted, evolutionary processes cannot explain the existence of the solid dome-like firmament.
It is not a far jump to show those who acknowledge the Creator that the one who made everything is named Jesus, the Eternal Logos, who became a man and died for our sins and then arose as Lord of Lords, who will come again in glory when God dissolves the firmament. (2 Peter 3:12)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1–5 (NKJV)
