Opening THE Book 3 with Rev John

3rd December 2018
as published by St Andrew's Church in the Gorleston Community Magazine

Rev John Kinchin-Smith
Assistant Minister, St Andrew’s Church

In this third article about the Bible, I’ll be looking at what the Bible says about the universe and creation and why we can trust what it says. I believe that the Bible is the most true and trustworthy book that’s ever been written. Let’s see how that stands up
 
Last week, I mentioned that the first part of the Bible (the Old Testament) actually contains 39 different books written by many different people over hundreds of years. There are different kinds of books in the Old Testament: history books, law books (which include the Ten Commandments), books of wisdom (which include wise sayings or proverbs and lovely hymns called Psalms) and books of prophecy. The books of prophecy were written last and we’ll think about these later
 
The first book in the Bible is called Genesis and contains the oldest stories including the story of the creation of the universe, the story of Adam and Eve and the stories of Noah, Abraham and Joseph (of the Technicolour Dreamcoat!). There are lots of other great stories as well. Many people know that Genesis says that God created the world in six days. “But” they say, “we know that’s not true. Science has taught us that the universe evolved over billions of years. Also we know that life on our planet evolved over millions of years and wasn’t created in a few days like the Bible says”
 
Actually, that’s missing the point! The people who wrote those stories at the beginning of the Bible weren’t scientists. They weren’t trying to give a scientific account. You see, science asks “How?” questions. “How did the universe come into being? How did life on our planet evolve? How does electricity work?” The people who wrote Genesis were concerned with even more important “Why?” questions. Those early stories are to help us to understand why the universe and the world was created, why there is good and evil in the world and what is the purpose of it all. Those stories tell us that the universe was created by an amazing God and that it is very beautiful but that everything has been spoiled by human beings who were created with free will. Next week, we’ll think a bit more about this God, whether he really exists and what went wrong
 

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