Kevin Horton - The Foundation of Everything: Genesis

T HE F OUNDATION OF E VERYTHING

T HE F OUNDATION OF E VERYTHING

Genesis 1-3

Kevin Horton

2018 Kevin Horton

The Foundation of Everything

Genesis 1-3

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946231

ISBN 978-1-595557865 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-595558121 (Hardbound)

ISBN 978-1-595558152 (eBook)

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C ONTENTS

T he first pages of the Bible cause great turmoil in the minds of many well-educated people because the words of this book are contradicted by much of what we have been taught in twenty-first-century education. Geology teaches us that this world is billions of years old (deep time). Biology makes use of deep time to allow for the evolution of life. Evolution teaches that it is through death and struggle that life continuously improves and advances. In evolution, death is a vital selection mechanism in the removal of less evolved life forms. This death-selection mechanism is imagined as the means in which random changes in DNA is filtered to advance higher life forms.

When one opens the Bible, you are given a totally different scenario. Life was specially created on this earth and not very long ago. The creator of life is not death and struggle as Darwinian evolution teaches. Rather the Creator is an all-powerful intelligent Being. He willfully created the universe, the planet Earth, and all life therein. God imposed death upon all living creatures as a result of the original sin of the first humans and is a curse, not a creator.

People of faith and those struggling to discover faith are challenged by this battle between science and the Bible. Many Christian believers have decided to consider the first pages of the Bible to be a myth and not to be taken literally. Who is to say, per this view, that God did not simply use evolution to bring about life? Yet when we stop and are honest with ourselves, this compromise causes an ever-present doubt about the validity of the Bible. After all, if it is not correct on the first page, dare we trust the rest of it?

There is much more at stake. There exist issues, questions that people want to ask God, which cannot be answered if the first pages are simply myth. In contrast, these questions are answered when the Bible is allowed to mean what it says; let me explain this further: when people of the twenty-first century approach the first three chapters of Genesis, they are tempted to explain away the clear meaning of the original Hebrew text in order to make the text fit into our cultural understanding of origins. But when we allow the Bible to speak for itself following standard rules of Hebrew grammar, it is amazing how much it addresses seminal questions of life. It is then that a person will build a solid foundation for a jubilant life of faith. The first pages of the Bible lay the foundation for all that follows. You might well say that the first pages of the Bible inform us of how everything came to be and forms the true foundation of everything! If a person can get a solid grasp on these pages and the issues that are solved therein, you will be building a formidable strength into your life. Your life of faith will become immovable because it is built on a true foundation.

This book is designed to face the skeptics of the twenty-first century head-on and answer questions about science and the Bible. Building up from there, we will clarify issues like gender design and differences, the value of human life, and why your life is significant. We will consider the atheists key question, Explain to me, Christian, how your good, all-powerful, loving God could create a world like this onefull of pain, suffering, and death? In doing so, we will follow the Bible text carefully.

Genesis chapter one begins with creation of everything, so part one will face the science questions surrounding origins. Building upon the answers we discover and the freedom to believe that the Bible is true, we will enter part two, the practical portion of this book. Here we will find answers to key questions of life. This second part will cover major topics in Genesis chapters two and three. This work is not intended to be a word-for-word Bible study. Rather it is a theme-by-theme book. It is intended to help people develop solid foundational concepts of living found in these chapters of Genesis. When a person starts to understand and believe the Bible from the very beginning, they will be building their life of faith on a solid foundation resulting in an immovable faith. Let the construction begin!

I would like to thank the people who gave me editorial advice and work on commas and all the things I should have learned in high school English class: thank you, Jenny Harrold, my sister, Missy Murphy, and my final editor, Susan Thomas. This is now much more readable. I am also indebted to my computer spell checker. Science majors are not noted for their spelling bee awards. I would also like to thank Melanie Richard for her overnight work on the human embryo drawings. Special acknowledgement is due to the first class of the Big Sky Bible Institute who first put the bug in my ear to write this work.

To my family, thank you for staying with me and loving me through the losses and trials of this life. Tatjana, my best friend, I would never have finished seminary without your love and support. Remember when it was -200, the furnace quit, and I was in Chicago? You still sent me back again and again encouraging me to complete my degree. Chris, Andrew, Aaron, Coleman, and Emma, you always brought out the playful side of me and filled my life with joy. Squirky and Cuckoo-bird live on!

P RELIMINARY F OUNDATION :

Where do we start?

How can we begin an investigation into everything?

What are the trusted sources?

Science?

OR

The Bible?

OR

Both?

In the age of science:

Are we just kidding ourselves when we evoke God as the Creator?

K evin, do you still believe in that creation stuff? inquired a veterinary colleague at a continuing education meeting. She had a point. The clear majority of scientists overwhelmingly espouse evolution as the origin of life. So, are we just kidding ourselves when we invoke God as the Creator? Are we just perpetuating superstitions of ancient man that we are now beyond? Are the people of the Christian faith blinded or is it the other way around?