Journey Through Genesis- The Fall (Gen. 3:1-19) by: Francis Jackson

      The story of the fall is very important because within defines how our depraved nature came about. Man, in the original state was perfect, but creaturely- meaning they were still inferior to God. In creating mankind, God set up a theocratic form of government in which the chain of command was Man-Woman-Creature (Gen. 1:26; 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:8-9). Knowing this system of government helps us to better understand why Satan came in the form of a serpent. His plan was, and still is to pervert the system in which God set up for Himself. As a result, the woman follows the creature and the man follows the woman, rebelling against God and flipping His system upside down. In bringing this about, Satan came to Eve with the focus on the restriction (Gen.3:1). He also takes the word God uses in reference to all the other trees they could have ,"every," to exaggerate the restriction (2:16). Eve has her own mishandling with words in her response. One, God never said they counldn't touch the forbidden tree but just couldn't eat of it (Gen. 2:17) and two, He said they could eat freely from every other one (v.16). Eve responded leaving out the words "every" and "freely." Satan then brought it home by making the restriction appear as something good God was keeping away from man and twisted the truth to do it (Gen. 3:4-5). They would become like God, knowing good and evil, but they also would die (3:22). Nonetheless, they ate (v.6). Then the most amazing part, God, the wonderful Creator, used their nakedness to expose their sin (2:25; 3:10-11). From there, guilt caused them to blame one another (3:12-13), God issued the punishments (3:14-19), and promised us a Savior (3:15).

Journey Through Genesis- Creation (Gen. 1:1-2:3) by:Francis Jackson

        Genesis can be broken down by 4 events and 4 people- creation, the fall, the flood, and the tower of Babel. The 4 people are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.  There are many views in relation to how the world came about. This topic is covered in more detail in paper that will be posted soon titled "In the Beginning."  How we view the creation of the world and its inhabitants place a big part in how we view God.  Six of the more popular views of creation are the Gap Theory (also known as reconstructive theory), the Day-Age Theory (also known as progressive creationism), Evolution (3 kinds-Atheistic, Theistic, Threshold), and Six-Day Creationism. The gap theory is the view that supports God creating the earth twice.  In this view Satan has fallen in between Gen. 1:1-2 which explains how "darkness was on the face of the deep."  The fallacy in this view is that after God finished creating, He looked and saw that everything was "very good" (1:31). This cannot be so if Satan has already fallen. God cannot look upon sin as being good (6:5-7).  Satan had to have fallen in between chapter 2 and the serpent's encounter with Eve. The day-age theory is built around how the reader interprets the word "day." God gives the connotation of his intent in Exodus 20:8-11 regardless of other legitimate definitions of the word.  Atheistic Evolution excludes God altogether. Those in support of this view believe what is known as "The Big-Bang Theory" that the world came about through some cataclysmic explosion which evolved into all that is created today.  This view falls when confronted by the principle of causality- Every cause has a beginning. Therefore, everything caused had to have been brought into existence by something that has always existed, God.  Theistic Evolution says God created the world using the processes of evolution and not His word ("Then God said").  Threshold says God created but then only jumped in during major parts of time like the flood and the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrah. Six-day creationism takes the biblical account as literal with support from Exodus 20:8-11. This view is most consistent with the truths of the bible.  So where do you stand in relation to how the earth was created? Is it consistent with the rest of Scripture?