The fundamental question is: Who are we – where do we come from ? Our family and our nationality tell us so much about ourselves. They help give us a sense of identity as human beings.
We have all heard of adopted people who seek out their original, natural parents. It is a fundamental instinct to know where we come from, and to know about the people from whom we originate.
But we also need to know where the human race comes from. In order to fully understand who we are, where we are, and how things really work. We need to position ourselves in the overall scheme of things. We need to answer the basic question, WHY ? What is the purpose of it all ?
So, I would like to commence a series of teaching on the book of Genesis in the Bible. Genesis means “beginning” or “origins”. In fact the first 3 words of this book and therefore the very first words of the entire Bible are these:
IN THE BEGINNING
The Bible starts with an explanation of who we are and where we are. Just as you would expect from a book which claims to tell us the Truth about ourselves and about the meaning and purpose of Life.
That meaning is encapsulated in the very first sentence of Genesis. The very first words of the entire Bible are:
IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH
The holy book of the Christian faith asserts that it all starts with God – not with man. We live today, of course, with a completely different conception of the world. A conception which says there is no Spiritual; there is no God; there is only the Material world about us; there is only mankind. That means that man must rule according to his own ideas; it means that mankind must find all the answers in order to survive into the future.
But the Bible tells us that God rules; that God knows the answers; that God made us; and that God knows best for us. He made the Universe, so he alone knows how it really works. Yes, scientists have worked out so much about how the universe works in the physical realm. They can often explain the HOW – but they have no answer at all to the question, WHY ?
The Bible, however, answers the question: Why ? And without the right answer to that question, we can never adequately and realistically explain this life; we can never therefore live our lives in the right way. We can try; we can take up this philosophy or that religion, but we will never come to the answer God provides in the Bible.
GOD HIMSELF !
Christianity 