For all the thinking I have done on Genesis, is it possible that we are all trying too hard? That the Genesis account is simply a story to give Humans a rough idea? A parable? God often used them to help us see. Is it also possible that Paul is just using this story/parable to help us see?
He states that sin entered through one man, well, there is no doubt that a first sin occurred, as Humans were not always around. Sin had to start somewhere…
I may never know the answers to my questions, no matter how they burn.
For all of my negative accusations, rebellion and angry thoughts. For all the ways the Bible can be interpreted, the base message is clear, and Christ’s teachings are perfect. Live by them and you will do no wrong. Even if the Bible was one day discredited, I would still love and desire to hold onto them.
My life… Our lives might be dark and uncertain, even horrifying… But there is one hope for us. One tiny light in the darkness we can hold onto, and that hope is Jesus of Nazareth.
I don’t know how anyone can live this life without that.
We may interpret same thing wrong; however, God’s Word remains eternal, both His Son and the written word. There is no conflict between science and God. There is no defeat in Christ Jesus, and it is no sin to accept revealed science. They go hand in hand.
Augustine on Genesis 1: " Let ach one, then, take it as he pleases; for it is so profound a passage, that it may well suggest, for the exercise of the reader’s tact, many opinions, and none of them widely departing from the rule of faith."
Even Augustine, I suppose, would concede that there are possible interpretations that do depart from the rule of faith, but the underlying point is that Genesis was written to bring us closer to our Lord, and not to drive us further away from him.
And as you so rightly say, the whole is summed up in Jesus, born, crucified and raised acoording to the Scriptures, for our salvation.
I would like to recommend to you the book entitled “Origins” written by the Drs. Haarma. It is both a good back in science and in faith. Dr. Ray Lewis of Wheaton College in Illinois recommended it to me. It is a good read.
