Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles Well now, the Bible is not one book, but many. The word Bible comes from the plural word biblia which means library and the Bible is not one book but 66 books and together these books form a history book, the history of our universe. But the Bible begins earlier, and it ends later than any other history book because it begins with the very beginning of our universe. It goes right through to the end of our universe and even beyond. But it's history written from God's point of view. Therefore, he selects what is important for him; that makes it quite different from a political history or a physical history of our universe, or a cultural history of our society. God selects very carefully the things that matter to him; the events which affected him most deeply. Therefore again, it's quite different from every other history. Now there are two themes in the Bible. Number 1 - what has gone wrong with our world? And Number 2 how can it be put right? I think everybody agrees our world is not a good place to live in. Something has gone terribly wrong with it and the book of Genesis tells us exactly what. But the rest of the Bible tells us how it's going to be put right, or rather how God himself will put it right. Only God could solve a problem the size of our world and he's going to do it by rescuing the human race from itself. For that's what we need to be rescued from - ourselves. That's what the word redemption actually means, to be rescued; and we need to be rescued from ourselves. So all 66 books form part of one great drama which I'm going to call the Drama of Redemption and the book of Genesis introduces us to the stage, the cast and the plot of this great drama, and without the first few chapters of Genesis, the rest of the Bible would really not make any sense. The Hebrew title for this book is simply In the Beginning, that's because the Hebrew scriptures were in the form of scrolls all rolled up and they would simply give each scroll the name of the first word or phrase in it so that just unwrapping the first bit of the scroll, they could identify which book of their scriptures it was. So they simply call it In the Beginning. When the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek about 250 years before Jesus was born, they changed the name to Genesis, which means 'origin' or 'beginning' and that's a very appropriate title because here we have the origin of our universe - of the sun and the moon and the stars, of planet earth on which we live. Here we have the origin of plants, birds, fish, animals, humans. Here we have the origin of sex, of marriage and of family life. We have the origin of civilisation, of government, of culture, both arts and sciences. We have here the origin of sin and death and murder and war. We even have here in this book the origin of sacrifice, both animal and human. So, it's a remarkable book, just one small book - 50 chapters - and yet it covers the origin of all that. And it deals with ultimate questions like Where did our universe come from? Why are we here? And even more personal, Why does each of us have to die? - something we rebel against, something we don't talk about or think about, something we dress up like a horticultural show to try and disguise the horror of it. But we all have to die. Why? Now these are ultimate questions of life and we need answers to them or else we just drown these questions in busyness and forget them. But they can't be answered by any human being. The historians can't answer these questions, they can't tell us how it all began because no historian was there either to observe or record how it happened. Scientists can't tell us about the beginning of our universe. They can go back to the beginning, but they can't go beyond that. They can't observe anything beyond that. So they can't tell us how it began and therefore much more, they cannot tell us why it began. Science cannot find a purpose for this universe coming into being. They can tell us some details of how it came about, but certainly not why. Philosophers can't answer these ultimate questions, they can only guess. It is speculation when philosophers try and tell us for example the answer to the question that occupies most of them, the problem of evil. Where did evil come from, why is there so much evil in the world? Philosophers have strained their brains to try and give us an answer, but it is all guesswork, nobody really knows. There is only one person who could really answer these questions for us and that is God himself. So when you open the book of Genesis you are immediately faced with a question. Are you reading the results of human imagination or divine inspiration? Does the book of Genesis just give us another series of guesses from human speculation about these things? Or does it actually tell us the answer, give us the answer from the only person who was there when it all began, and indeed the person responsible for it? There are other accounts of creation in the world. There's one widely known one called the Babylonian Epic. It's far more complicated and far less credible than what you have in Genesis but it's only one of other sagas which are supposed to tell us how it all began. You should read some of them just to compare them with the sheer simplicity and convincing nature of Genesis 1. But you must decide when you read Genesis - are you reading the product of a human imagination or a divine inspiration? So, you've got to take a step of faith before you open the book. But actually, science is based on steps of faith. I've got a science degree and I know that in science you produce a hypothesis, a working theory and then you test it to see if it fits the facts. That's how science progresses. It's built on such leaps of faith, so you leap in faith into a theory and then you test it with the facts. And therefore I believe that the approach of faith is scientific from that point of view and I say, take a step of faith in Genesis, assume it is God's answer to these questions and then see if it fits the facts, And there are two big facts that stare me in the face which are perfectly explained by the answer in Genesis. Fact number 1, what a wonderful world we live in. Isn't it incredible? The universe is amazing, but this planet is the most interesting thing in the universe. It's got more variety in it. Well, it's got life in it. We live in a wonderful world and the more you watch nature programmes on television the more wonderful it appears to be and the wonders of modern photography are revealing so much to us. Do you like watching those programmes? What a wonderful world we are in and the other fact is this. It's been ruined by those who live in it. Now these are two facts we all have to live with and we're becoming more and more conscious of the environment and what we are doing to it. 100 different species are becoming extinct every day. We're destroying the world we live in. Now these two facts are extraordinary. What a wonderful world we live in; and why are we destroying it? Well I believe that the facts fit Genesis perfectly and I believe it's a scientific approach. Now let's look at the place of Genesis in the Bible. It's not just the first book in the Bible it's the foundational book for the whole Bible. Most, if not all, biblical truths are here in the book of Genesis in essence, that's why it's been called the seed plot of the Bible. The seeds of Genesis come to fruition later in the Bible, but they are all there in embryo. This book is in fact the key that unlocks the rest of the Bible. Have you ever wondered what the Bible would be like if it began with Exodus instead of Genesis? Supposing this book was missing. I think as soon as you began to read the Bible without it you'd say, well I'm not interested in a bunch of Jewish slaves in Egypt. Why should I study their history and religion? Only if you had a particular academic interest in it would you read any further. But because Genesis is there, you're reading about yourself, about your life. You understand what makes you tick and why you can't be a better person and the person you wish to be in your best moments. Have you ever wondered why life is such a moral struggle? Most people want to be better than they are but fail, why? Well Exodus wouldn't help you to understand that; Genesis does, because you are reading about your ancestor, a man called Adam and when you read about him it's like looking in a mirror and seeing yourself. The Old Testament is built on the book of Genesis, there are many references all the way through the Old Testament to people like Adam and Noah and Abraham and Jacob who changed his name to Israel. The whole of the Old Testament builds on the book of Genesis. But it's the New Testament that builds on it even more. Surprisingly, Genesis is more quoted in the New than in the Old Testament, would you believe it. All the first six chapters - one, two, three, four, five, six - are all quoted in detail in the New Testament. All the major writers of the New Testament, eight of them, all refer to the book of Genesis and Jesus himself did of course. For Christians, Jesus' attitude to Genesis settles all questions. Because if we follow Jesus then we trust him, we believe he spoke the truth and it's interesting that Jesus regarded all the characters of Genesis as real historical figures, not legends. He regarded Noah and the flood as an historical event and if Jesus did then I do, whatever other difficulties there may be, and we'll look at them as we go along. Nevertheless, if Noah was real for Jesus then he is real for me. Not only that, but Jesus claimed to be on personal acquaintance terms with Abraham. And he said, before Abraham was born I Am and he was glad to meet me, and the Jews listened to Jesus saying this and said, you're not 50 years old and you claim to know Abraham. But Jesus is saying I was there, I was there. Do you trust Jesus? Then that's the truth. So Jesus was constantly endorsing the book of Genesis. When he was asked about divorce and remarriage, what did he do? He took them right back to Genesis chapter 2 and said, you'll find the answer right there. So you can see that the book of Genesis really underlies the whole Bible, provides the key to the rest. Without it, the rest would not make sense. To give you just one example, you will not understand the cross without the book of Genesis, would you believe it? Because Paul says this is what happened at the Cross: just as one man's disobedience brought death to the human race, one man's obedience brings life. Now that's the heart of the cross. But he's talking about Genesis chapter 3. So I think I have established my case. Therefore, if you don't believe the book of Genesis you can't rely on the rest of the Bible. If Genesis is proved mistaken, then the rest of the Bible is shaken. If Genesis is not true, then chance is our creator. And the brute beasts are our ancestors if Genesis is not true. And therefore, it is not surprising that this book has been more under attack than any other book in the entire Bible. There are two prongs to the attack. One is scientific and we're all aware of some of the problems there. I'm not going to have time to deal with them all in full, but we will refer to them and there are other tapes that have been made and videos that deal with them more fully. But we have to be aware of them, especially young people are aware of what they've been told in school, biology classes, and they come with that background to read Genesis and they have real problems. And we must be honest about them. For example, science has questioned the order of creation, the speed of creation and the method of creation. Science has questioned the age of the earth, the origin of man, the extent of the flood, the age of people who lived before the flood and many other things. But behind that attack, I believe there is a satanic attack. The devil hates two books in the Bible, Genesis and Revelation. And he hates the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapters of Revelation, particularly because the one describes his entrance into our world and the other describes his undignified exit from our world and so he likes to keep people out of the early chapters of Genesis and the later chapters of Revelation. He wants to persuade you that Genesis is myth and Revelation is mystery, so that you leave them alone. Because he knows perfectly well that if you can destroy people's faith in Genesis then you have, in fact, destroyed the foundation of the whole Bible. So it is not surprising that there's been such a lot of argument about Genesis. If you distrust this book, you tend to discard the rest. Now how did Genesis come to be written? It's one of five books which form a unit, not so much in our Bible but in Jewish scripture most certainly. These five books form together the Pentateuch, 'penta' means five, there's a big five-sided building in Washington DC called the Pentagon, well it's the same word – Pentateuch - the five books. And they are often called by Jews the Torah, which means 'instruction' and they believe that these five books together form the Maker's instructions. And it is very wise - since the Maker gave us these instructions to get the most out of life - to become familiar with them. So the Jews read through the first five books of the Bible every year, on a lectionary. Every week they read a bit more,