- Series:History, Transcript English
Genesis 12:3
“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Genesis is one book. That might seem pretty obvious to many of you, and yet sometimes we have given the impression that it is two books. The first book runs from chapter one through chapter eleven. The second is from chapter twelve onward.
In Genesis 12, we are introduced to Abraham – although he has been briefly mentioned in Genesis 11. Abraham is our great example of faith and righteousness, and most Christians trace the biblical life of faith back to him and, therefore, read everything about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as historical narrative. But many Christians, and even many pastors, take an allegorical approach to the first eleven chapters because they cannot face the implications of those first eleven chapters being literally true.
As creationists, we have understandably concentrated on refuting the allegorical interpretation of the beginning of Genesis, and, consequently, a lot of our effort is aimed at those first eleven chapters. In doing so, we have neglected everything after chapter eleven and reinforced the appearance of two books.
It is my contention that Genesis is one book – a unified whole. Francis Schaeffer strongly supported this viewpoint when he said, “God… gave us religious truths in a book of history and a book that touches on the cosmos as well. What sense does it make for God to give us true religious truths and at the same time place them in a book that is wrong when it touches history and the cosmos?”
To have full confidence in the biographies of Abraham and his descendants, we need equal confidence in the unity of the whole.
Thank You that we learn so much from every part of Your word. Teach us to draw closer to You, please, Lord. Amen.
Author: Paul F. Taylor
Ref: Schaeffer, F. A. (1975), No Final Conflict, in The Complete Works of Francis Schaeffer Volume 2, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books), p. 124. Image: Adobe Stock Images, licensed to author.
