Douglas Reformed Church

In Genesis 3, we witness the first sin. We call this sin Original Sin, and it resulted from humankind's nature--which was good according to God. The serpent, a symbol appropriated from other Ancient Near East Literature, appears on the scene. The world falls under the federal lordship of Adam.

In Genesis 2, God creates the woman from the man's rib. They are naked and unashamed.

In Genesis 2, we see a different order of creation than we do in Genesis 1. Or, do we? Genesis 1 and 2 are coherent and correspondent. Moses is satirizing Ancient Neat East legends in order to share the truth about God, people, and origins.

Closing out creation week, we see God's design for humanity. We were created according to His king, in His image--male and female. Unlike in the ANE mythologies, Moses claims that people were created to multiply and rule.

On days four and five, God reveals the source of all light, which fills the cosmos. He fills the waters with fish and the sky with birds. From the beginning, God fills His creation. He is not absent. In the end, His Earth will be full and thriving.

On a second day, God made the sky. On a third day, He extracted the land from the waters and created plant life. Moses is satirizing the mythologies of his day in order to speak truth into societies wrought with made-up stories about gods, chaos, otherworldly creatures, and made-up origins.

Authorship of Genesis 1-11 is attributed to Moses.

Genesis 1-11 was most likely written shortly following Israel's exodus from Egypt (c. 1445 B.C.)

Genesis 1-11 are one unit with Genesis 12-50.

Genesis 1-11 were written as history with Genesis 12-50.

Along with history, Genesis 1-11 also fit into the "myth" genre as a story of origins ("myth" does not speak to veracity, don't misread or read too much into that category)

God is creator and revealer.

There was a beginning.

God transcends spacetime

In today's passage, Paul describes the difference between the bodies we have now and the bodies we will have in the resurrection. What is the nature of the resurrected body? Is there a soul sleep? Will billions of saints crawl up from their graves? What about those bodies that have been cremated or decomposed?

Today, we continue through 1 Corinthians and conclude Paul's argument in favor of the Resurrection. We talk about baptism on behalf of the dead and what it means that "bad company corrupts good morals." It may not mean what you were taught growing up.

What will the end be like? Will it be a day of destruction or renewal? Will Christ begin to reign for 1,000 years or will He hand the kingdom over to the Father?