How Should Christians Read Genesis?

As our upcoming Genesis sermon series approaches, Pastor Charlie lays the foundation for how Christians should study one of the Bible's most fascinating and debated books. Instead of chasing speculation or assuming we have every answer, this episode explores why humility, faith, and careful attention to Scripture are essential when reading Genesis.

Whether you've studied Genesis for years or are opening it for the first time, this conversation will help you prepare to engage God's Word with an open mind and a deeper appreciation for what the Bible actually says.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of the QA with Pastor Charlie podcast. Um recently we've gotten a few questions about what's going on in the beginning of Genesis, which was good timing because we're soon going to start a whole sermon series over Genesis and what it all is going on there. So let's just talk a little bit about what we're going to be getting into.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Okay. Well, spoiler alert for those of you who are listening, we're not going to answer these questions just yet because in the next several weeks, uh, we're planning on starting a new series where we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter one through 11, uh, that creation narrative, the things that happened in the beginning. And so I think some of these questions that uh are asked, maybe some of these answers will come out as we're we're studying that book together. Uh as we're getting ready to approach a study of the book of Genesis, I do think it's important for us to be mindful of some things going into it. And I kind of want to use this time just to maybe help our church get a framework in our mind as we get prepared to study this book. Uh I'll tell you this: you know, I've spent a lot of time over the years studying Genesis. And I would say in the last six to eight months, I've spent a lot of time knowing that we're getting ready for the sermon series. And I sometimes feel like I'm less confident today about some things in Genesis, maybe than I've ever been before. Uh, because I think there's a lot of supposition, a lot of speculation, a lot of things that we do as we're trying to understand this book, uh, that really, in some ways, is very easy to understand because there's parts of it that I think by faith we just take and say, yeah, that's what it says, that's what it means. And then there's questions that stem from that that we try to get the answer to, that all of a sudden we make it far more muddied and far more difficult. And I go back to what the author of Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter 11, it's by faith that we believe that God created out of nothing this world that we see. And so there's a part of me that acknowledges as we we we wrestle with some of the a lot of passages in the Bible, but specifically this Genesis narrative, there is an element of faith that we have to have. Now, before those who are scientifically minded want to say, well, that's not good enough, I do think we have to acknowledge that in anything that we're trying to understand about the beginning, the beginning of this world, there's a faith element involved. There's a there's a religious, there's theoretical things that we are kind of attached to it, because I mean, even if you want to take evolution, the Big Bang, things of that nature from secular society, there's still questions that are not answered. We don't know where the supposed gases came from that created the Big Bang. Well, well, theoretically, we can say, well, they just always existed, but is that really an answer? I don't think so. And so with any of it, there's an element of faith that's that's attached to it. And so before we just treat anything like we know all of the answers, I think we need to walk with some humility. And that's the first thing I think that I would say as we get ready to approach Genesis, we need to be humble as we walk into it, as there's differing views, differing interpretations of certain things. And we need to say, you know what, I don't know everything. No one knows everything and concerns of how the world came to be, this first man and woman, and all of the events that are unfolding really in very short chapters. I think sometimes if we're not careful in our mind, we we think there's like some CCTV footage of what happened in that garden. And then Genesis is supposed to tell us that. And it's just not there. I mean, there's so many gaps and holes in the story that the author didn't feel were important to get across to us what really is going on. And so we just need to walk with some humility about what we know, what we don't know, what we think we know versus what we really do know. And I think we need to be mindful as we study this book together in that. The second thing I think we need to be careful of is beware of too much speculation. So there's a lot of speculating we do. And part of it, I think, comes from pictures we've seen over the years and conclusions we draw about this story based on some of these images. And as I've been reading it, I'm like, how much of my interpretation of this has been shaped, not by what the passage actually says, but by what I think or what someone else thinks have has happened, or like some picture I've seen that's caused me to read into the narrative something that's not there. And speculation's fun. I mean, it's fun to sit there and talk about things that could be, might be, what if it happened this way? And there's a difference between speculating, assuming things uh versus what does the Bible actually say? And so I do know this. God has given us everything in these first chapters of the Bible that we need to know. And he's not given us everything that went on, but he's not revealed some things that he didn't feel like we needed to know. And so through his speaking through Moses, and what I believe, I think Moses is the ultimate author of the Pentateuch. I think it was compiled over a period of time. And so I don't know that Moses sat down and compiled all of it. I think there's some some church history that would tell us, or not church history, but some history that would tell us that, you know, while he was probably the author, maybe it was compiled by some others and later where they were they added to, and not when I say added to, not to the word of God, but compiled it, put the things in place that needed to be. But all of that being said, God spoke through Moses to tell us what he wanted us to know about these things. So let's let's be aware of too much speculation. Third thing I would say is we need to make sure that we focus on what the text says more than what it doesn't say. And so here's where we love to get into speculative arguments. Well, what if, or maybe, well, the Bible doesn't say that, so we can't speak authoritatively. We can try to understand, we can try to connect dots, we can try to plausibly with science and all of these other things that we have, knit these things together. But I find personally that the majority of times, and I see this with the end times also, so it's kind of interesting that in the Bible, the beginning and then the end seems to be the things that people want to focus, spend so much time and energy on what the Bible doesn't say at the expense of what it does say. And so, all right, well, what is here? What is God saying, and what do we need to take from that versus how much time we're spending trying to figure out what it doesn't say? Another thing I would say is be open-minded and sensitive to other people's views who might be different than yours. Now, that doesn't mean that we need to be okay with heresy, and I don't think anybody's suggesting that. What I'm saying is there are a lot of different interpretations to the opening chapters of Genesis than what many of us believe. And so, whatever you were taught, in whatever way that you've interpreted it, in your mind, that's the traditional way that it should be read. Well, that's not the way it's always been taught. And if you go back and look historically, I mean, there's variations within church fathers and even Jewish writers early on in Jewish history who interpreted different things differently. And so we have to be open-minded enough and sensitive enough to others that we don't think we've formed the market and coined the market on. We know what happened in this story and exactly how it unfolded and what went on there. And so before we accuse people of being heretical, or we like to throw this word around liberal in their interpretation and things, uh, and I'll just give you an example that one of the things that's that's come to my mind in recent years of studying Genesis, I mean, you just take that first verse, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Well, you read it that way in English and you come up with one picture in your mind, especially based upon our modern day society where we have more knowledge of space and things than ever before. Well, if we take into mind that that passage could also very literally and more literally read, in the beginning, God created the sky and the land. Well, does that change your interpretation of it? And then you have to think about in terms of how the original Jewish readers would have heard this. So, so what did they hear when think when they heard sky and land? Well, then there's this part that it's very possible that in the beginning God created the sky and land is a Hebrew merism, which is a they didn't have the word for universe, and you'll see this in some footnotes of some translations where it says, in the beginning, God created the universe. Well, all three of those different ways that you read that can create different thoughts and different understanding in your mind, and they're all true, but just because some people might interpret those a little bit differently doesn't mean we're automatically wrong and that you know exactly how it unfolded. And so I think the other thing that kind of connects with that is as we study Genesis, you need to be open-minded and read and study other opinions, views, interpretations rather than just the one that you feel comfortable with. And that doesn't mean that your mind will automatically change. What it means though is you've got to be intellectually honest enough to say, okay, well, I might see it this way, but there are other people who love God, who believe in Jesus, who want to serve Him and follow Him, who have interpreted it differently. And so I need to be careful that I don't automatically just say someone's wrong or they don't know what it means because it doesn't align with what I believe. So that being said, even though I didn't really answer, I didn't answer a question today, and we didn't give a specific question, we're getting ready to unpack some things that are going to create a lot of questions. And I'm very open with the Q ⁇ A moving forward after this sermon series starts, like to try to wrestle with some of these things and speculate a little bit on it as we we talk about it and some of the QA stuff. But I just want to kind of help people get a framework and a mindset as we study Genesis and come into it, you know, to come into it appropriately and just be ready to think through and wrestle with the passage a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Yeah, good. I'm excited for this new sermon. I can't wait coming in like three weeks, I think.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

So starting in August.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

So y'all tune in for that and send us in any questions you have as we get going. You can send us to questions at firstmore.com, and we'll see you guys next Friday.