re-Ver(sing) Verses

Genesis 1:1 | NIV (1984) | Other Versions | Context

Brief

Genesis 1:1 is the very first verse of the entire Bible, and with that comes a lot of significance. Theologically speaking, the very first line of the Bible already established the foundation of the whole Bible and this faith; while at the same time it acts as the main fuel of theology and deflects some theories. I am no theologist, and even if I exhaust my entire lifetime I doubt I can ever present to you Genesis 1:1 in a flawless manner – so bear in mind that this study will be flawed – as I put my focus of this discussion on faith.

Analysis

There are a lot of hard facts throughout the entire Bible which are challenging for modern Men to accept. Yet, if you fail to accept and believe Genesis 1:1 with all your heart and all your mind, then your entire religion can be dubbed as false. If you don’t even truly believe Genesis 1:1, there is no point in believing in Jesus, believing in resurrection, believing in eternal life. Harsh, but true. Often, we Christians take Genesis 1:1 for granted. In one short statement, it explains the entirety of world history. Yet, we do not learn this in our history or science classes. How many of us have truly pondered over Genesis 1:1 and made the conscious decision to place faith in it, despite the claims of modern science?

I should also state herein that I do not believe in the theory of the Genesis Gap between 1:1 and 1:2. The Gap Theory argues that the world was destroyed and millions of years passed between 1:1 and 1:2, and in 1:2, God recreated the world. This serves largely to explain the historical disparity of time between the Bible and modern Science (I suppose?). I’m not a scholar, I never did study Genesis that intensely, but going back to the Bible, I have been unable to find sufficient evidence for that. We will discuss more on this when we go into Genesis 1:2.

When you claim to believe in Genesis 1:1, what do you mean?

1. You believe that God exists, as a higher being than us, as an almighty force that transcends time and space and has the power to create. (God/Elohim)
   • Hence, you do not support atheism (the disbelief in the presence of any god) or agnosticism (the belief that the existence of any supernatural/metaphysical being (gods) is unknown and unknowable)
2. You believe that God exists before time: God has no beginning and no end. (In the beginning)
3. You believe that God never lies and will always keep His promises (Elohim: Convenant-keeping Creator)
4. You support Creationism and not the Theory of Evolution (Darwinism).
   • The later part of Genesis 1 will provide more evidences for this, but the phrase ‘God created’ alone is sufficient to deflect the theory of Evolution.
5. You believe in the existence of Heaven and Earth.
6. You believe that substance and material are created by God.
7. You reject the Theory of Materialism, which states that the only thing that exists is matter/material, substance is the most important and eternal, and there is no presupposed divine entity.

Conclusion

The Old Testament is the foundation of the New Testament. Genesis is the foundation of the Old Testament. Genesis 1:1 is the foundation of Genesis. It should be understood that it takes more faith than knowledge to accept and believe in Genesis 1:1. Can the same not be said of our religion? The most learned of men will struggle to believe, but a humble man with simple faith will revel.

Do you believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth? If you do not, then pardon me, but I think there’s seriously no point in you reading the Bible.

God bless.
Z.