From Paradise to Misery: A Profound Study of the Book of Genesis Volume 1: Chapters 1-3

By Silvester Paredes

The book of Genesis can invite a lot of questions. Did God create the world in God years, or did he create the world in human days? Is there a discrepancy between the creation story presented in chapter 1 and the story in chapter 2? Does Genesis 3:15 show the triumph of Jesus over Satan on the cross, or does it show something else?

From Paradise to Misery offers answers to these questions using a clear, biblical perspective. Author and pastor Silvester Paredes shows us how many readers and interpreters of Genesis take too much for granted, forgetting that the book of Genesis contains events and circumstances that are happening for the first time in the history of creation. With that realization, we can approach the events of Genesis and creation with innocent eyes, allowing the Word of God to speak for itself in Gods voicenot in our own.

The Bibleand the book of Genesis especiallyhas been misinterpreted for centuries, so it is important for the people of God to rethink our interpretations and revisit Gods opening words to his creation. With Gods guidance and an open, innocent mind, we can better understand creation and the nature of sinand in so doing, better understand God, ourselves, and his purposes for our lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973619550

Silvester Paredes

Silvester Paredes is the senior pastor of Bethany Christian Church in New York, and for ten years he has been teaching courses on Bible doctrine, eschatology, homiletics, and more at a Bible institute. His form of teaching is to let the Bible do the talking and the disciple do the listening. The more a person understands the Holy Scriptures, Pastor Paredes believes, the more this person will be transformed by them and become a doer of the Word.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 Silvester Paredes.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-1954-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-1956-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-1955-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018901614

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/01/2018

DEDICATION

This book is first dedicated to the Lord of hosts who inspired me to write it and be a blessing to many.

I also dedicate this book to my lovely wife Yulissa and my wonderful daughters: Melissa, Yudelis and Esther.

I also dedicate it to my parents Juan and Minerva Paredes and to my siblings Marisol, Thomas, Robinson, Johanna, Juan Miguel, Reagan and Sonia.

To my mother church Siloam Pentecostal Christian Church

And lastly to my Church, Bethany Christian Church

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

My inspiration to write this book

Introduction

Chapter 1   In the Beginning

Chapter 2   Created in God’s Image and Likeness

Chapter 3   The Fall of Humankind: From Paradise to Misery

Summary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my wife and daughters for their continued support and for being my number one fans.

To my daughter Melissa, Thank you for helping me with the translation of the Spanish to English version.

To Brother Jesus A. Castillo, thank you for your help in the narrative of the book.

To my pastors Rev. Anibal Maldonado and his wife Rev. Virginia Maldonado, thank you for being my spiritual parents and nurturing me to become the man of God that I am today.

A special thank you to Yulissa Paredes, Frank, Johanna and Francesca Arias, Manuel V. Rivera, Marisol Rodriguez and Erick Reyes thank so much for contributing to this book.

To the WestBow Press Staff thank you so much, you guys are so courteous, helpful and patient.

I would also like to thank Erick Reyes for his amazing design and Eagleye Photography for the awesome picture of my wife and me.

To Siloam Pentecostal Christian Church, you were my first school, thank you.

Bethany Christian Church, thank you for your prayers.

Lastly, thank you Lord for trusting me with such an important task. I pray that you glorify yourself throughout this book.

MY INSPIRATION TO WRITE THIS BOOK

I’m a third generation Christian. I’ve been going to church my whole life. I came to the United States at age 8 on July of 1982. I was a member of Siloam Pentecostal Christian church for 33 years. Throughout all that time I was exposed to lots of Sunday school and a plethora of Bible Studies.

About 12 years ago, something remarkable happened to me, the bible started making sense; stories started popping out in front my eyes and I started to understand scriptures like never before. I started questioning everything that I was taught. By doing so, I discovered that I just knew bits and pieces of scriptures and not the full story. I understood that in order to comprehend scriptures, I had to look at them as a whole and not as a fraction. In other words the Bible is a historical collection of different events that at a given time actually happened and thus must be treated as history. I learned to allow for the bible to do the talking and I concentrated on listening to what it had to say. I discovered one of the greatest truths of my foundation, the bible explains itself.

The Bible is not some random book that babbles aimlessly. It gives us a full story from the beginning of creation to the birth, death, resurrection and ascension to heaven of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it shows how the apostles took the gospel all around the world; because of the obedience of so many followers of the way, the gospel continues to reach people up until today. The gist of the Holy Scriptures is Jesus Christ.

As I started believing and accepting what the Bible clearly teaches, I noticed that I started to change. My preaching and teaching changed. I noticed that the hardest crowd to often please, my church, was accepting what the Lord was doing in my life. They started respecting me as a teacher and I understood that that’s exactly what the Lord had given me; the gift of teaching.

Then the Lord opened the door for me to start teaching at a Bible Institute where my pastor is the principal. I’ve taught Eschatology, Bible Doctrines, and Homiletics amongst other subjects. Teaching in the institute was one of the greatest things to happen to me because what I already had was multiplied exponentially. I’ve been teaching for a little over 10 years and have had the privilege of teaching and shaping the minds of thousands of students, whose lives I’ve seen change. I know that these students have taken what I’ve taught them and have applied it to their lives and their ministries.

Soon after on August 17, 2015, I started pastoring Bethany Christian Church in New York City. A year and a half later as I slept, I felt the Lord speak into my heart and remind me of the knowledge that He’s given me, then a question resounded in my mind, What are you waiting for to start writing? At that time I got up, it was about 12:30 midnight and started to write the introduction with which the book starts.

Please don’t let the length of the book fool you. This book is very profound. It expands what the Bible says (by looking at the original words) and allows us to clearly see and understand what the Word is doing. So far, this book is one of a kind. The books that mention Genesis never go into the details. However, From Paradise to Misery goes into details, verse by verse.

Writing this book wasn’t easy. When I sat down to seriously write it, it took me about two months to finish. But the whole process took about a year and a half.

When the time came to find a publishing house, imagen how I felt, there are so many publishing houses. I prayed to God and asked Him to tell me which publishing house He wanted me to use. I have hundreds of books in my personal library that I’ve read. I have books from Max Lucado, Randy Singer, Ted Dekker, Lee Strobel to name a few. I picked two books one by Randy Singer, the other by Max Lucado. One was published by Thomas Nelson, the other by Zondervan. Imagine my surprise when I found that these two publishing houses have a publishing house for new writers called WestBow Press. I called them and as you can read we’ve made a partnership.

I firmly believe that when God calls you, He supports you. So far God has provided to cover for the expenses of the book. All I have to do is continue to believe that He will see me through to the end with this project. Thank you Lord, because you’re faithful.

I hope that you not only enjoy this book, but that it may inspire you to look at the Bible in an unbiased and non-prejudicial way, using the tools of interpretation found in this book so that you can fully understand what the Bible narrative is saying. When you