Genesis 3:1

Genesis 3:1 says, Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  This was not just a serpent that God had created, because God called His creation good.  This was Satan, either in the form of a serpent or having possessed a serpent.  The woman, Eve, was not afraid because at that time there was only peace and harmony between mankind and the animals.  The serpent, or Satan really, was very subtle.  He did not just state the fact that God had declared that there were two trees that weren't to be eaten from, but questioned Eve if that was what God had said.  Satan knows what God has declared is true, so his best hope is to get us to question what God has said.  As long as we stand firm in God's word, Satan is already defeated.  Verse two states, And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: Eve had not been given these instructions, but Adam had.  Eve starts with the truth of God.  They were free to eat of the fruit of the trees, except two.  Verse three adds, But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  Eve said they were prohibited from eating from the tree in the midst, or middle, of the garden, but she added to what God had said.  Sho said that God said that if they even touched it they would die.  If we are to obey God, we must never attempt to add to His word.  If we do, we will find ourselves going astray as Eve did.  Verse four states, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  Satan said that God had lied.  I know that he didn't come out and say this directly, but that was his implication.  Satan will always be subtle in his temptations and will appeal to our carnal nature.  Verse five adds, For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  Satan basically said that God was trying to keep something good from them.  Satan said if they ate of this tree that they would be like gods.  God had created them and given them a perfect world to live in, but Satan said they could have more.  This is always the temptation that Satan leads us to.  He says if we disobey God's laws that we can have more, but this was, is, and always will be a lie.  Verse six says, And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  Eve saw that the tree and its fruit looked good.  I don't believe that we are ever going to be tempted to disobey God by something that looks bad.  I guess God could have made the tree look bad just as He could make all sin look bad, but this would not be a true test of our obedience to Him.  The question will always be whether we will disobey God for the things of this world that tempt us.  Eve ate of the tree and gave some of the fruit to Adam, and he ate also.  Adam, to whom God had given the instructions, chose to follow Eve instead of God.  If we are in a position where we have to follow those closest to us or follow God, we must always choose to be true to God.  Verse seven declares, And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  After they ate, they saw the world differently.  The knew that they were naked, and now it became something that they saw as wrong.  They attempted to fix what they saw as a problem and made themselves aprons of fig leaves.  When we sin, we cannot cover it up or correct it ourself.  We must go to God in repentance and ask His forgiveness.  Verse eight states, And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.  When they heard God, they attempted to hide from Him.  Their relationship with God had changed.  Anytime we sin, our relationship with God is changed, but we must acknowledge that we cannot hide from Him.  We always need to confess our sins so that our relationship can be what God wants it to be.  The more we attempt to hide from God, the worse things will become.

Genesis 2:15

Genesis 2:15 says, And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.  After God created the garden of Eden, He put man in it to take care of it.  Man always had a purpose, and that was to obey God and take care of His creation.  Verse sixteen states, And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  Man was given everything needed to live a life of abundance.  He simply had to enjoy what God had provided, and so must we learn to do today.  We have been promised that God will meet our needs, and we must be content to enjoy what God provides.  Verse seventeen declares, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  This was the first time where we see that man was given free will.  There were only two trees that man could not eat from, and if he did, he would die.  We today are too often tempted to see only what we think God is denying us instead of what He is providing for us.  Verse eighteen says, And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.  God had provided for all of man's needs except for companionship.  Verse nineteen states, And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  I don't believe that this contradicts the order of creation from chapter one, but is simply a statement that God had created the animals and brought them to Adam to name.  Verse twenty adds, And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.  Though God brought the animals to Adam to name, none were fit to be a help mate for him.  The animals were not intellectually or spiritually equal to Adam and could not provide the companionship that he needed.  Verse twenty-one says, And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;   While Adam was in a deep sleep, God removed one of Adam's ribs.  Verse twenty-two declares, And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.  God created a help mate for Adam out of one of his ribs.  God could have easily created any number of men from the dust, but He chose to create a woman out of the rib of man, establishing the unique relationship between men and women.  I believe that this is a relationship that only a man and a woman can fulfill for each other.  The woman was not made to be the servant of man, but to be his equal and his completion.  Verse twenty-three proclaims, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.  Adam recognized the equality of the woman.  She was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh.  Verse twenty-four states, Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  Though not stated by the name, this is God's plan for marriage.  A man shall leave his mother and father and take a woman to be his wife, and the two will become on flesh.  The concept of marriage did not come later on, but it was God's plan from the beginning.  Verse twenty-five declares, And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  Shame at being naked came after the fall of man.  Until sin entered into the life of mankind, there was no shame.

Genesis 2:1

Genesis 2:1 says, Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  Creation was complete.  We can either accept that all things are possible with God or not.  If we accept that God created everything from nothing, then we should have no problem accepting what He said the time frame was.  Verse two states, And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.  We are told that God rested on the seventh day.  This was not because He was tired, but because He was finished.  We are told that we are to set aside the seventh day, or now the first day, or Lord's Day, for God.  Verse three declares, And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.  As just stated above, God blessed and sanctified the seventh day.  After Christ's burial and resurrection on Sunday, the first day of the week, I don't believe that we are wrong to set it aside for God instead of the seventh, or Saturday.  The Jewish people still celebrate the Sabboth, or seventh day, but they do not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah.  Verse four states, These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,  I believe that this is referring to what was stated in chapter one, and that generations means beginnings.  Verse five adds, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.  The plants were growing, but there was yet to be rain, because God had yet to cause the rain to come, nor was there anyone to till the ground.  Matthew Henry points out that this is the first time God is named and that He is the LORD.  Verse six says, But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.  God watered the plants with a mist and sustained them by His power.  Verse seven declares, And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  We were created out of the dust, or dirt, of the earth, and would have no more value than any plant or animal, except that God breathed His life into us and we became a living soul.  This will always separate mankind from any other form of life on the earth.  We were created in God's image and He breathed life into us giving us a soul.  Verse eight states, And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  God created a perfect place for people to live.  Verse nine adds, And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  God planted the trees that looked good and were a source of food, but also the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Verse ten states, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.  A river went out of Eden to water the garden, then it split into four rivers.  Verse eleven says, The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;  Verse twelve states,  And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.  Verse thirteen adds, And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.  Then verse fourteen concludes, And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.  I will not attempt to identify these rivers, though many people do.  I believe that the key is to simply accept that God created this garden and these rivers for the benefit of mankind.

Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26 says, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  People were created in the image of God.  I don't believe that this means that we look like God physically, but spiritually.  We have the ability to reason and to know right from wrong.  People were also created with a purpose.  We are to have dominion over all other creatures.  I believe this means that not only are other creatures there for our use, but we are to treat them responsibility.  We are God's caretakers of His creation.  This is about as far from evolution as you can get.  We cannot believe both, so as with all things, we have a choice.  Verse twenty-seven declares, So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  God created men and women in His image.  We can either believe that life is the result of some cosmic accident or we can believe that it is the result of the creative activity of God.  Verse twenty-eight adds, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.  After being created in God's image, God blessed mankind.  Whether we accept it or not, we are a blessed creation of God.  As already stated, we are to be the caretakers of the earth and all that God created on it.  Verse twenty-nine proclaims, And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.  God said He gave people all the plants for their use.  Though some would say so, this does not mean that we are only to eat plants, since we know God later blessed the eating of meat.  Verse thirty says, And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.  We can either see this as God saying He gave every creature herbs to eat, or we can see it as God saying that He gave all these animals to man to use for food.  Verse thirty-one declares, And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.  God pronounced the creation of mankind as not only good, but very good, and then the sixth day ended and God's creation was finished.   I believe that is one problem with evolution.  Why did it stop with people?  With creation of all things by God we have the answer.  God was finished with creation.

Genesis1:14

Genesis 1:14 says, And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:  This is the creation of the stars, sun and moon.  They divide the day and night and set the seasons.  Verse fifteen continues, And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.  The purpose of the stars, sun and moon were to light the earth.  I know that there is a lot of debate today about life on other planets, but the Bible tells us everything in the heavens was created to support the earth.  We either believe that or we don't.  Verse sixteen adds, And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.  I believe that this was during the creation of the lights in the heavens and not a separate act after the other stars were created.  The sun lights the day, and to a lesser extent the moon lights the night.  Verse seventeen continues, And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,  Then verse eighteen concludes, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.  Once more, God called His creation good.  Verse nineteen says, And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.  Another day of God's creative period had passed.  Verse twenty says, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.  This is the creation of the fish and the birds.  Verse twenty-one states, And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. After the seas were full of life and the heavens filled with birds, God saw that it was good.  The birds did not evolve from the sea life, but were created separately.  We either believe this or do not believe God's word.  Verse twenty-two declares, And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.  God blessed them and said for them to multiply. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.  That concluded the fifth day of creation.  Verse twenty-four says, And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.  This is the creation of all the animals.  Once more, we are not told that the animals on land evolved from the fish or the birds, but they were created.  Verse twenty-five declares, And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  All the animals were created distinctive.  One did not evolve into something else.  We will stop during the sixth day and look at the creation of mankind separately.

Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  We either accept this fact or not.  Some people attempt to totally deny or discredit creation based on science, or the knowledge of people.  Others attempt to explain creation with a combination of God creating, but doing so differently than the Biblical account.  I believe we either accept the Biblical account of creation, or we have to reject God altogether.  We cannot recreate God to suit our own beliefs.  Verse two states, And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  The earth was yet to be formed into its current shape and was void until the spirit of God moved upon it.  The world was dark.  Verse three declares, And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  God spoke light into existence on the earth.  God would later send a much greater Light, Jesus Christ, to redeem people of the world that had fallen into spiritual darkness.  Verse four adds, And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.   God saw that the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness.  Throughout the creating process, we will see that God called it good, so we must simply accept or reject that fact.  Verse five states, And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.  God called the division of light and darkness day and night, and this was the first day of creation.  We can debate whether this was a twenty-four hour period or not, but the implication is that it was.  I know that time has no meaning to God, but we can only accept what His word tells us by faith.  Verse six says, And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  At this point, the earth was covered with water, then God separated the water.  Verse seven adds, And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.  God divided the water below the firmament, or the sky or Heaven, from the waters on the earth.   Verse eight adds, And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.  The firmament above God called Heaven.  This was the second day of creation.  Verse nine proclaims, And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.  Dry land appeared at God's direction.  Verse ten states, And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.  The earth was separated into the land and the seas.  I believe that God will keep them separated as long as the world stands.  Once more we are told that God saw this part of creation as good.  Verse eleven declares, And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.  God created the plants of the world.  Verse twelve adds,  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  This is just a statement that what God called for in the last verse happened, and that He declared it good.  Verse thirteen states, And the evening and the morning were the third day.  This was the third day, and God was halfway through His creative process.

We will review some of what Peter teaches us in his second letter.  We see that God gives us everything we need for salvation and to live in accordance with His will through faith in Christ.  Salvation is God's gift of grace to everyone who will accept it.  We are called to reach out to others with the love of God.  We may hate the actions of sinners, but we are to love them and want them to come accept the salvation of Christ.  We will not do this if we hate them.  We should live at peace in the world, because we are assured of our everlasting relationship with God.  We are changed in our nature, since we are now guided by the Holy Spirit.  Just like Peter, we must always remember the truth that salvation comes from Christ alone.  Peter witnessed the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, and through faith we know this truth as well.  The life of Christ is not a myth or fable but is the truth of God.   We need to acknowledge that scripture, or the Bible, is not just for our own interpretation, but must be interpreted or understood under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  We will never be led to an interpretation that is inconsistent with the teachings of the whole word of God.  We are warned that false teachers will come, as they have throughout the history of the world.  I believe some will be very subtitle, adding little lies to the gospel, and many who were close to salvation will be led astray.   We therefore must know what the word of God, the Bible, really says.  There are many people who would lead others away from the truth of God with promises of material riches or pleasure, but they are no better than animals when they do.  Also, we can be certain of the second coming of Christ.  We are to be at work sharing the gospel until this occurs or we pass from this world.  Christ will return when God says the time is right, and we do not need to spend time speculating on when that will be.