Doctrines found in Genesis
Today I’m just going to share the importance of Genesis chapters 1-11. Many of the core doctrines of Christianity can be found there.
Doctrine of Creation
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 gives us the Biblical doctrine of our origin. In the beginning everything was created by God over a period of 6 literal days.
Doctrine of Marriage
On the 6th day God created Adam (which means man) and Eve (woman which means from man). God created both of them as equals, but with different roles. The man as the head of the household and the woman (as an equal) was created to help him in every way she could, according to Genesis 2:18, “And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” God made Eve from a fleshy rib from Adam and, “Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Doctrine of Sin
Adam and Eve had only one rule imposed upon them. They were literally free to do anything they wanted, except eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan lied to Eve which tempted her to sin, and Adam was right there, failing in his duty as head of the family, and ate of the fruit too. Women, men need a lot of help, which is your role in life. Eve failed, but I know many of you are steadfast at keeping your husbands on the straight and narrow path. This failure ultimately fell on Adam as the head of his household and condemned his family and all the generations to follow. We are not being punished for Adam’s sin, but we inherited a sin nature from Adam and Eve that condemns us all to a sin nature that we cannot resist on our own. We are a fallen people in a fallen world who can only resist sin through the Holy Spirit of God. Genesis 3
Doctrine of Redemption
We ware clothing because before Adam and Eve sinned they were naked yet unashamed. After they sinned they felt naked and ashamed and hid from God due to their sin and shame. This sin required a redemptive sacrifice of blood. God killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve giving us the doctrine of redemption. A price had to be paid and God condemned Adam and Eve to an eventual death and showed them an example of redemption through the death of the animal that God killed to clothe them. Genesis 3
Doctrine of Salvation
God addressed Satan concerning his treachery in the Garden of Eden, and he said, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This describes the relationship between Christ and Satan. Christ was bruised for us through Satan’s leadership of the men that assaulted and crucified Him, but in the end, Christ will crush Satan’s head by providing salvation to all that will accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Doctrine of Why We Die
Sin is the ultimate cause of death. Adam and Eve and all their descendants would have lived forever if sin had not entered the world. Genesis 2:17, 3:3, 5:5 It may be your sin or someone else’s sin that causes your death, but ultimately you die because of sin.
Doctrine of The Total Depravity of Humanity
In Genesis 6:5, God looked at what sin was doing to the people, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This caused God to find one redeemable man, Noah, and then cause a flood to wipe out all of mankind except Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. A total of 8 people were left to rebuild humanity and fill the earth as God commanded.
Doctrine of God’s Righteous Judgement
God sent a flood as judgement for sin in Genesis chapter 7 and he will judge the earth again, but this time by fire, 2 Peter 3:7 and 2 Peter 3:12. God has this right because he made us, we belong to him and he has complete rule over our lives. He gave us free will, but ultimately, we are subject to his perfect will.
Doctrine of God as a Covenant Maker
God has made several covenants (agreements) with mankind, including: God’s covenant with Adam and Eve concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God will never again send a global flood. Humans have dominion over the earth, plants and animals, found in Genesis 9. The Abrahamic covenant that promises Abraham that from him many nations will arise, including the nation of Israel. The covenant that the righteous who are redeemed by God’s grace will live eternally, found in Romans 6:23, 1 John 2:25 and John 3:16. There are also additional covenants, including the Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant. God has steadfastly kept all of these covenants and more.
Doctrine of Nations and Languages
We have a world filled with many nations that speak many languages, and all because of sin. The Jewish-Roman historian Flavius Josephus said that King Nimrod ordered the building of the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11 the Bible says that the people decided to build a tower to heaven. They were arrogant and self-centered and well organized because they were one people with one language and this caused them to disobey God. God told them to scatter and fill the earth. They decided to stay put and build a society that was so full of self-pride that they felt they didn’t need God. So, God said, “let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.” This caused the people to disperse as God originally intended.
According to Answers in Genesis, it can be assumed that there were probably at least 78 languages that were created at Babel. [1] According to Anderson, the latest count is between 40-50 root languages. [2] Yet another “linguistic expert” Jerin Duke, claims that there are 7 root languages that all other languages derived from, which include: Tamil, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chinese, & Egyptian. [3] With the realization that some languages may have disappeared over time, I think I would go with 50-100 distinct languages coming out of Babel with 7-10 root language similarities or clusters. That’s just speculation on my part.
There are many Christian doctrines that come from Genesis 1-11 that make Genesis one of the most important books within the Bible. Knowing full well that all the books of the Bible are important, holy and inspired by God. I hope this blessed you.
References
[1] How Many Languages Came From Babel? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://answersingenesis.org/kids/bible/babel/how-many-languages-babel
[2] Anderson, S. R. (2010). How many languages are there in the world? | Linguistic Society of America. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/how-many-languages-are-there-world
[3] Duke, J. (2017, March 23). What are the root languages of the world? - Quora. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-root-languages-of-the-world