Genesis and Creation, the facts!

In previous newsletters, I have allowed myself the luxury of recommending books I have enjoyed. May I have the luxury of doing the same here? Because I would like to tell you of what has been, for me, a voyage of real discovery.

Some years ago I encountered the book “In Six Days” (edited by John Ashton) in which 50 scientists explain why they each personally believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. One section, written by a biologist, showed through elementary probability theory, that even the chance of the 206 main bones of the skeleton being connected together in the correct general position is rather less than one in 10³⁸⁸ (or one in 10 followed by 387 zeros). I could see that this probability is so vanishingly small as to be essentially impossible, and if this simplest thing is so impossible, what about all the other things being correct? So I saw that evolution (from goo to you) could not happen.

From there I discovered that if you follow the chronology of Adam to Christ, as given in Genesis and other historical books of the Bible, the universe was created a little over 6,000 years ago. “A Concise Chronology of the Bible” (John D Brand, Edinburgh Bible College) sequences all the main Bible events and is a mine of useful information.

“The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis” (Bill Cooper) establishes the historical super-accuracy of Genesis in painstaking (academic) detail, while “After the Flood" (Bill Cooper again) connects the table of nations in Genesis 10 precisely and seamlessly with European history.

“Why do we not all believe the historicity and accuracy of Genesis?” I asked a friend. He replied “Because people choose not to believe what God has said”.

But the book I would especially commend is “Genesis for Today” (sixth edition, Andy McIntosh) which expands the thesis that “all Christian doctrine, directly or indirectly, has its basis in the literal events of the first eleven chapters of the Bible”.

This journey has thrown light on the Bible in an astonishing way. What a lesser understanding I tolerated for all these years, though I have always believed the Bible to be the “word of God”. Now I see that the Bible, written by God for our understanding and help, towers above all the thoughts of man, and that all else is defined by it, and not the other way around. Incidentally it also sweeps much that at present passes for science into the trash.

We know that all history is produced by the winners (kings do not write about the battles they lose) and is then reinterpreted regularly to reflect the current view. Egyptian priests inserted the names of non-existent rulers by the dozen into their records to show the antiquity of that dynasty,  just as the Vatican established a department dedicated to the forging of documents to confirm its own authority.

We live in an age of unsurpassed access to information, much of which is grossly inaccurate or just plain lies. The ancients misrepresented their history just as we do today.