Trusting Genesis and the Gospels: A Defense of Divine Creation, of the Resurrection of Christ, and of Salvation in Christ

By Gary F. Zeolla

This book addresses three vital subjects in regards to the Christian faith.

The first is the reliability of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible and of the Old Testament, and most specifically its teachings about divine creation. That relates to the issue of science and the Bible in general.

The second subject is the reliability of the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament of the Holy Bible, and most specifically their claims about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There is much contention about these two issues. This book will explain and defend the Biblical position on each.

The first, divine creation, is in contrast to atheistic evolution. These two beliefs about the origins of the universe and of humanity are inherently contradictory, and there are dramatic and differing implications from each belief system. As such, a study of them is crucial in deciding upon one’s worldview.

The second, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Upon it, all other Christian doctrines stand, and without it, there is no Christian faith. The evidence for the resurrection and related issues will be addressed in this book.

The preceding leads to the third subject of this book, “Forgiveness and Salvation in Christ.” Since God is our Creator, we are answerable to Him. And we have all sinned against Him. But Jesus’ resurrection demonstrated that God accepted Christ’s death as a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. We can thus be forgiven and saved by trusting in His death and resurrection.

Together, these three sections make this book ideal for evangelism. It will show seekers and doubters there are answers to their questions on these subjects and their need for salvation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9781304401458

Book preview

Book of Genesis and Divine Creation

Ch. 1 – Overview of Genesis

This opening chapter of this book will present an overview of the Book of Genesis. It will begin with a basic Book Introduction of the type that can be found at the beginning of each Bible book in some editions of the Bible. It will then present a short article written by the author many years ago. Finally, it will present an excerpt from another book by the author which provides further details on the issues presented in the first two items.

Introduction to Genesis

The Book of Genesis was written by Moses or possibly translated by him from much more ancient texts before the Exodus of c. 1446 BC or during the wilderness wanderings of c. 1446-1406 BC.

However, liberal scholars deny Moses had any association with the writing of this book or any of the five books comprising the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). They instead claim the Torah is an interwoven compilation of four different documents with at least five different hands on it, with all of these people living centuries after the events. These claims are based on supposed differences within the texts. But those differences are explained just as well by the use of ancient source documents for Genesis and by the other four books being written over a period of forty years, with Moses’ writing style changing over those four decades.

This complex issue and related ones are discussed in detail in Volume One of this translator’s three volume set Why Are These Books in the Bible and Not Others? (see Appendix One).

That said, Genesis records the beginnings of the universe, of humanity, and of sin and death. The creation was created good, but it is now fallen. However, there is a promise of a coming Redeemer and thus hope of a better future.

Genesis then records the narratives of the catastrophic flood of Noah and of the lives of Abram (aka Abraham), of his son Isaac, of his son Jacob (aka Israel), and of his twelve sons and one daughter, especially the second youngest son Joseph. The descendants of the twelve sons of Israel will become the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. It was through the nation of Israel that the LORD revealed His Word, the books of the Hebrew Bible (aka the Old Testament) that are for all peoples.

But most of all, Genesis is about the LORD God. It presents Him as the only true God, Creator of all things, who is a personal Being distinct from His creation and sovereign over it, who is intimately involved with His creation and especially with humanity, the pinnacle of His creation.

The time period covered is from creation to the birth of Abraham in 2166 BC to the death of Joseph in 1806 BC.

Gilgamesh vs. Genesis

The Gilgamesh Epic records a story of a world-wide flood and pre-dates Genesis. Or so some liberals claim. They further claim this invalidates the Genesis record. But P.J. Wiseman presents an interesting theory in this regard in his book Ancient Records and the Structure of Genesis (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1985).

He believes that Moses did not WRITE Genesis but rather TRANSLATED it from ancient stone tablets written in Cuneiform script. The tablets each would have been originally written by eye-witnesses of the particular events or those who received their information from eye-witnesses.

He breaks Genesis into parts according to the phrase These are the generations (KJV; This is the history – NKJV; This the account – NASB; NIV; Gen 2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12,9; 36:1,9; 37:2).

He compares the use of this phrase and the structure of each section to the stone tablets written in cuneiform script. Many of these tablets have been discovered and they date to the third millennium BC.

Wiseman’s theory is that Genesis is translated from individual tablets which would have contained the material before each occurrence of the above phrase. Thus, the narratives of the creation of the universe (Gen 1) and of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2) would have been written on one tablet by Adam as these events were revealed to him by the only Eyewitness of the events, God Himself.

The narratives of the Fall and subsequent events would have been written on another tablet by Adam as an eyewitness of those events. Adam then passed all of these tablets on to his descendant Seth. Seth then recorded the events of Genesis 5 and passed the tablets to his descendant Noah.

Noah then recorded the events of Genesis 6-9 and passed the tablets to his descendant Shem, and so one until Joseph. Joseph then recorded the final chapters of Genesis and placed all of the tablets into the library of the pharaohs. Moses then, while in pharaoh’s court, would have had access to these tablets. He then translated them into his native Hebrew.

The above theory fits with various evidence in the Scriptures. For instance, it would explain such passages as Exodus 6:3: I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name, LORD [YHWH], I was not known to them.

But the Tetragrammaton appears in Genesis, making for an apparent contradiction. However, this problem is easily explained if Moses translated, but did not write, Genesis. While translating, when Moses came across the name for God in the cuneiform tablets, he used the Name which God revealed to him to translate it. Therefore, the Name YHWH was not known to Abraham and other Genesis figures.

Also, note that in the Bible Genesis is never said to be written by Moses, whereas the other four books of the Torah are. For instance, in Matthew 18:4-5 Jesus refers to two quotes from Genesis. He introduces them with the general phrase, Have you not read.... But in verse 8, when referring to a passage from Deuteronomy, Jesus specifically attributes the statement to Moses.

In addition, Wiseman’s theory is consistent with the relationship of Gilgamesh and Genesis. There are some similarities between the two, yet many important differences.

More specifically, if Genesis was translated from stone tablets written by the main characters of the events, then these tablets would pre-date the writing of Gilgamesh. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh was based on oral transmission of the events.

Consequently, the record in Genesis would be the older and accurate record; whereas Gilgamesh would be a somewhat twisted and latter record. Being based on oral traditions passed over centuries, the latter would be expected to keep some of the main points intact but alter many of the details.

Wiseman’s theory also fits with the archeological evidence of the character of the ancient cuneiform, stone tablets as compared to the Genesis narratives. There are many similarities in the writing structure between them. He summarizes all of the evidence on pages 144-148 of his book.

He concludes by stating:

These twenty-four strands woven together make a cumulative muster of evidences, so exceptional both in character and importance, that they establish the antiquity of Genesis as a contemporary record of events upon a sure foundation. This foundation is the internal testimony of the book itself, supported by the external corroboration of archeology.

Gilgamesh vs. Genesis. Copyright © 1999 by Gary F. Zeolla of Darkness to Light ministry (www.zeolla.org/christian).

Historicity of Genesis

Before continuing, it would be good to answer an important question: Did the events described in the Book of Genesis actually occur? Before answering that question, a summary of the book would be helpful.

Summary of Genesis:

The book of Genesis is divided into two parts. The first part is Genesis chapters 1-11. These chapters record the account of creation, including the creation of humanity, the fall of the first human couple and thus of all creation and their descendants into sin and corruption, the growth of the human population after the Fall, the Flood of Noah, the growth of the human population after the Flood, the building of the Tower of Babel, and the scattering of people afterward.

These events are foundational to the theology of the rest of the Bible and are applicable to all peoples as they are the narratives of the beginnings of all human beings.

Genesis 12-50 then record the call of Abram (later renamed Abraham), various exploits by Abraham and God’s promise to him to make him into a great nation, the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, his life story, the birth of Jacob (later renamed Israel), his life story, including the birth of his twelve sons, whose descendants would become the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel, the story of Jacob’s second-youngest son Joseph, and the entrance of all of Israel’s family into Egypt.

These events are foundational to the Jewish religion and nationality, and consequentially to all peoples, as Israel was to be a beacon to all nations, witnessing to the glory of the one true God. It was also through Israel that the LORD revealed His Word, the books of the Hebrew Bible that are for all peoples.

Important Question:

But did any of this happen? The answer to this question involves both scientific and archeological issues.

Scientific Issues:

The first major issue to be considered is divine creation versus atheistic evolution. This debate involves both the origin of the universe in general and the origin and development of life on earth. Atheistic evolution (both cosmic and biological evolution) is what is taught today in public schools and in the popular media. It is presented as an absolute fact, as if there were no doubts about it. But there are many doubts, and there are many qualified scientists who do not believe in atheistic evolution.

However, there are different viewpoints among these scientists who doubt atheist evolution. The first viewpoint is young-earth/ young-universe creationism. It asserts that the universe and the earth are only about 6,000 years old. This dating is based on calculations by Bishop James Usher in the 1600s, who, using the genealogy lists and other information in Genesis, arrived at a date of 4004 BC for Creation.

But it is difficult to calculate an exact date for Creation based on the Biblical evidence given the rounding off or ratcheting of numbers, textual variants, and other confounding factors. Allotting for all of the variables, the range for the date of Creation would be 3822 to 5665 BC. But using the simplest calculations and the standard Hebrew text, the date would be 4220 BC. This dates Creation to 6,244 years ago at this writing (Creation in the 21st Century; 10/16/16, updated to 2024 for the time calculation).

This viewpoint interprets the days of Genesis chapter one as referring to literal, 24-hour days. It does so based on such being the most natural meaning of the text, especially given the evening and morning phrase. Life on earth thus began very quickly, with all of the variations of life seen today and throughout history developing from the kinds that were created during creation week.

Central to this viewpoint is a belief in the Flood of Noah as having happened just as described in the Bible of being a worldwide flood. It is this flood that is mostly responsible for the rock layers. This viewpoint interprets the early chapters of Genesis in a strictly literal manner.

Notable scientists promoting this viewpoint are Dr. Duane Gish, Dr. Ken Ham, Dr. Marcus Ross, Dr. Robert Carter, and many others. Organizations and websites that promote this viewpoint are: Answers in Genesis (answersingenesis.org), Institute for Creation Research (icr.org), Creation Ministries International (creation.com), Creation Wiki (creationwiki.org), and Creation Today (creationtoday.org).

In other media, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) airs a radio show called Science Facts on Sunday mornings at 6:00 am. It airs on Bott Radio Network, which is available on the iHeart app and on Bott’s own app. The long-running TV show Origins broadcast on this writer’s local Christian TV network WPCB in Pittsburgh, PA also promotes this viewpoint. Dr. Ray Heiple is the host, with various creationist scientists as guests. Another TV show is TBN’s Creation in the 21st Century, hosted by David Rives, with again, various creationist scientists as guests (www.DavidRives.com).

A second viewpoint is called old-earth/ old-universe creationism. It accepts the idea of atheistic evolution that the universe is about 13 billion years old and the earth about 4.5 billion years old and that life has existed on earth for millions or billions of years. It also accepts the idea that the rock layers were laid down over eons of time.

This viewpoint interprets the days of Genesis one as referring to long eons of time. It does so by recognizing the Hebrew word (yom) does not necessarily mean a 24-hour period, but it is used for a long period of time elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Ps 23:6 [forever is literally length of days]; Psalm 90:4, For a thousand years in Your eyes [are] as the day.). Moreover, all of the events of day six could not have occurred in 24 hours. However, this viewpoint asserts, "God miraculously created the universe from nothing (ex nihilo), created life from non-life, and progressively intervened in history to supernaturally create new species of life (God and Science.org A Biblical Case for Old-Earth Creationism").

Notable proponents of this viewpoint are Dr. Hugh Ross and Dr. Stephen C. Meyer (author of Darwin’s Doubt). Websites that promote this viewpoint are God and Science (www.godandscience.org), Reasons to Believe (www.reasons.org), and Old Earth Ministries (www.oldearth.org).

Another resource that provides evidence for this viewpoint is the John Ankerberg TV show seen on various Christian TV networks, with audio replays available via his smart phone app and website: JAShopw.org.

An intriguing viewpoint combines these two and asserts a young earth but an old universe. How this can be is very complex, so it will not be pursued here. But this viewpoint has been mentioned on Ankerberg’s TV show.

A variant of the old-earth/ old-universe viewpoint is intelligent design (ID). It asserts the universe and life could only have come about due to an intelligence behind it, as they are far too intricate to have developed without divine intervention. But this viewpoint does not necessary assert this intelligence is a divine being, let alone the God of the Bible. However, some scientists who call themselves by this name would assert this intelligence can only be the God of the Bible and thus would more be classified as old-earth creationists. It would thus be hard to separate proponents of these two viewpoints.

Moving further from a purely creationist viewpoint is theistic evolution. This viewpoint accepts most of the tenets of atheistic evolution, except it claims a divine Being must be involved for the whole system to work.

Young-earth/ young-universe, old-earth/ old-universe, and young-earth/ old-universe creationism are all compatible with a belief in the inspiration and reliability of the Bible. All these viewpoints have many adherents, both among scientists and among lay Jews and Christians. The other two are compromise positions that try to accommodate the teaching of the Bible with that of atheistic evolution and thus would not be fully compatible with a belief in the integrity of the Bible.

This is a complex issue, but one which this writer would encourage the reader to keep an open mind about and to pursue the aforementioned resources. I personally have studied this issue sufficiently to know I do not agree with atheistic evolution, but I have not come to a decision between the different creationist viewpoints.

Simply put, to believe in atheistic evolution, you must believe something can come from nothing, order can come from disorder, life from non-life, complexity from simplicity, information from non-information, intelligence from non-intelligence, personality from non-personality, and morality from amorality. To me, such is incredulous.

It makes much more sense that all of these came from the almighty, eternal God, who exists outside of time and who is intelligent, personal and the source of right and wrong, and thus can form matter, order, complexity, and information and human beings in His image as intelligent, personal beings with a sense of right and wrong.

Archeological Issues:

Once you get past the first major section of Genesis and come to the second, the question of whether these events actually happened becomes one of a debate about archeological findings. Over the years, I have heard and read of many archeological findings that are said to support the Genesis narratives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. But I have heard just as many people claim archeological evidence does not support these narratives.

To be clear, it is very unlikely that any evidence would be found directly supporting any specific narrative. The time period of these events is from 2166-1806 BC. That is a long time ago, and records of any specific events would be hard to find. This is especially the case since, with the exception of Joseph, none of these characters were kings, pharaohs, or other highly ranked government officials for which records would be kept. But what archeology can do is show the general culture as described in Genesis fits with what archeological shows the culture of those times was like. But even then, debates abound as to if archeology supports or contradicts the Biblical narratives. Simply put, two people can look at the same evidence and draw two completely different conclusions.

As an example I will address something that was mentioned in passing in an episode of The Big Bang Theory TV show in 2014. In it, Sheldon, on his way to his mother’s home (who is a fundamentalist Christian) remarks that maybe he should bring up with her that archeology has proven the Bible false as there were no camels in Mesopotamia at the time of Abraham. What he was referring to is the following:

Professors Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen, archaeologists from Tel Aviv University in Israel, recently published a study after radiocarbon dating camel bones uncovered during excavations in the Aravah Valley – an area on the border of Israel and the Arabian Peninsula, and one of the most logical spots where camels would have first been introduced into the country. Excavations uncovered the oldest camel bones yet found in Israel, and these dated no earlier than 940 BC – at least 500 years later than when they are described in the Bible (CNN; Do camel bones discredit the Bible?).

What is being asserted here is there is evidence of camels being in Mesopotamia in 940 BC, but there is no evidence of camels before this time and thus at the time of Abraham. As such, it has been claimed this proves Abraham could not have owned camels as Genesis asserts (12:16; 24:10).

However, an often-used truism applies here: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. In other words, just because there is no evidence for something does not prove that something is not true or does not exist.

In this case, the absence of evidence of camels in the third millennium BC in Mesopotamia actually supports the Biblical narrative. Elsewhere, the article from CNN correctly points out that camels represent great wealth. Abraham first acquires camels when he is in Egypt. They are given to him by Pharaoh and his princes, people of great wealth (Gen 12:14-16). Then when Abraham sends his servant to attain a wife for Isaac, he sends him off with camels to show prospective women and their families his and thus his son’s great wealth. And it works. This impressive display figures prominently in the servant returning with just the right woman for Isaac (Gen 24:1-67). I discuss this narrative in detail in my book The LORD Has It Under Control (see Appendix One).

The only other mention of camels in Genesis is when Joseph has been thrown into a pit by his brothers. As they are deliberating what to do next, the following happens:

²⁵Then they sat down to eat bread; and having looked up with their eyes they saw. And look! Ishmaelites travelers were coming from Gilead [LXX, Galaad], and their camels were filled [or, heavily loaded] with spices [or, incense] and resin and oil of myrrh; and they were going to bring [them] to Egypt. (Genesis 37:25).

Given the description, these Ishmaelites travelers were obviously very prosperous, as the mentioned items were very expensive. This is why myrrh was given to Jesus at His birth, along with gold. The one was as valuable as the other (Matt 2:11).

The point is, if only the very rich had camels, then their number would not have been near as great as if they were pack animals owned by the common person, as the rich were very few in number but the poor very great in number. Therefore, with just a few rich people having just a few camels, it would be expected that no remains of these animals would be found, but it would be quite astonishing if any remains were found. Thus, the claim of disproof of the Bible due to the lack of evidence of camels by Sheldon and others in this regard is unwarranted and in fact the exact opposite. It supports the Biblical narrative.

That said; there have been many archeological findings that could easily be interpreted as supporting Biblical narratives, including those in Genesis. I give short descriptions of many such findings in Scripture Study #3, The Reliability of the Scriptures in my Scripture Workbook: Third Edition (see Appendix one).

Otherwise, a couple of resources for study of this issue is the Biblical Archeology Society (biblicalarchaeology.org), which publishes a bi-monthly magazine and numerous books, and Associates for Biblical Resource (biblearchaeology.org), which also publishes many books. Other Jewish and Christian websites regularly present articles about archeological findings and can be found with some Googling.

The point is, as with creation versus evolution, keep an open mind and take the time to do some research. And most of all, don’t believe everything you hear in the popular media. There is much evidence supporting the historicity of Genesis. You just have to look for it.

References:

CNN. Do camel bones discredit the bible?

Creation in the 21st Century. TV show seen on TBN. 10/16/16.

God and Science.org. A Biblical Case for Old-Earth Creationism.

Why Are These Books in the Bible and Not Others? Volume One: A Translator’s Perspective on the Canon of the Old Testament. Copyright © 2016 by Gary F. Zeolla (www.Zeolla.org).

A more recent and detailed resource would be the 2022 106-minute video documentary Is Genesis History? found on Amazon Prime Video.

Ch. 2 – Questions on Divine Creation: Part One

This four-chapter discussion will study the science of divine creation by answering a dozen questions that are commonly asked in this regard. These twelve questions