The first eleven chapters of Genesis tell about the first few thousand years of human history. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings. Genesis sets forth the beginning of the heavens and the earth; the beginning of human life and of sin; the beginning of salvation and of punishment. Genesis is the seed plot of the Bible. Almost every teaching of major importance has its roots in the book of Genesis.
It is safe to claim that Moses was the writer of Genesis. He was trained in the wisdom of the Egyptians; he spent long hours in communion with God on Sinai; he had plenty of opportunity to receive direct revelation from God. Some say, “But how did Moses know that God created the earth in six days? Surely Moses wasn’t there; he didn’t see God create the earth.” We say, in response, “If God could reveal to the prophets details about the distant future, surely He could reveal to Moses details about the remote past.” Jesus obviously accepted the book of Genesis as historical and trustworthy and divinely inspired. He quoted from it frequently and never once did He indicate that anything in Genesis was unreliable.
Some of the sharpest attacks against the Bible have been leveled against the early chapters of Genesis. The devil knows that the best way to demolish a building is to strike at its foundation. If a person can be persuaded to pull out the first pages of the Bible, the last pages will fall out too, and soon not much will be left.
The Bible begins with the simple and yet profound statement that God is the Creator of all things. The entire story of the creation of the universe is told in just ten words, “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” The Bible makes no attempt to prove the existence of God, nor to describe His origin. God has spoken and acted, and of course if God has acted to create the universe, then God exists.
The word “created” in Genesis 1:1 is the Hebrew word “bara,” a word which means “to call into being something that never previously existed.” A human craftsman can build a skyscraper or a bridge to Span a mighty river, but in all his building, he must use materials which are already here. By way of contrast, God simply spoke the word, and nothing became something! The material universe and all that we see about us did not come into being by long, slow, gradual processes. It is impossible to be a genuine Christian and an evolutionist at the same time.