Belief in God’s Word – A Pastime or a Passion?
Dr. Roger G. Ford, Ph.D., P.E.
dr-ford.net

One of the most intriguing, mysterious verses in the Bible is Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Did God really say…?’”

There are several things that come to mind concerning this verse. First, we get the direct message from God that animals that God made, not man, can be cunning in their ways. I believe that most of us would agree that a tiger or a feral cat both must have cunning in order to catch and consume their food consisting of other animals that do not want to be eaten.

Second, from the context, we hear that the serpent can actually speak. Animals make noises, even noises that have meaning to others of their species. But, talking to a human in an understandable speaking voice is a big leap.
And, third, playing around with perception of what one being says to another seems to be completely “out of bounds” for any animal we have ever seen or been exposed to. Yet, there it is, in black and white, on the printed page, straight out of the Bible, a serpent reasoning in understandable language with the first woman, Eve, in the Garden of Eden, a perfect, sinless location made by God, kept and maintained by God, unimaginably beautiful and bountiful.

The circumstances of this conversation are astounding from our 21st century perspective for the above reasons, plus, those same circumstances make some people, in fact many people in today’s society have doubts as to the believability of the incident. Never mind the consequences of the serpent’s deception of Eve, Adam’s sin of eating the forbidden fruit, the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden because of their disobedience, and the impact of sin on us some 6,000 years later.

So, the question arises, is what the Bible says to be trusted as the truth? Did this serpent in the Garden of Eden really speak to Eve and tempt her? The answer lies in each individual’s acceptance of the Word of God in its entirety, every single word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, page, book, testament; every thought, destiny, doctrine, precept, law, event, person, prophet, king, action; every piece of wisdom, every warning, every promise, every assurance, every act of God, every praise, every condemnation, every punishment, every prophetic utterance? Is the Bible authoritative, infallible, inerrant, and trustworthy from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21?

Jesus said to Nicodemus when he came to the Lord at night, in secret, to inquire about the obvious fact that God was with Jesus and that Jesus had, indeed, come from God, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Jesus was saying to Nicodemus that He was speaking of things He knows and He has seen because He came down from Heaven to save the world through Himself and His Word. In other words, if Jesus was telling lies or misleading in any way, He would not be fulfilling His mission of saving the world. Therefore, if we believe that Jesus came to earth as Savior and Lord, then we must believe what He has taught us in His Word completely, thoroughly, comprehensively, totally – every single word of the Bible.
Now, that brings us to Genesis 1:1, probably the most important verse in the Bible. Why? Because it sets the standard upon which all the rest of the Bible rests. That Almighty God is exactly Who He says He is, the Creator of everything. Probably the most ridiculous statement that man could ever come up with to answer Genesis 1:1 is that “everything came out of nothing!” That is essentially the lesson of evolution and the Big Bang Theory, the very weak and indefensible wild stab at an alternative for God. All that is, all that exists, all the complexity, the great beauty, life itself just came into existence some 14 Billion years ago, and it all just appeared as if by magic. Poof, and we have a universe.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In that simple beginning declaration, we find time (“In the beginning”), force (“God”), energy (“created”), space (“the heavens”), and matter (“and the earth”). Time, force, energy, space, and matter were determined to be the “fundamental” components of all natural phenomena. In fact, in 1882, staunch evolutionist and agnostic Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher, biologist, and sociologist recognized “likenesses and un-likenesses among phenomena…, which are segregated into manifestations…, and then into space and time, matter and motion and force…”. This intelligent scientist spent his entire life determining what was revealed in Genesis 1:1 which pre-dated him by three and a half millennia. Ever since Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, some 14 to 15 hundred years before Christ, we have had a direct message from God that He is the beginning, He is the Creator, He alone made the universe and everything in it.
Genesis chapters 1 to 11 covers a lot of ground, but those eleven chapters are the very foundation for the rest of the Word of God, the Bible. In those essential chapters we find creation of the universe, creation of all life including man, the establishment of the seven-day week and a day of rest, the fall of man into sin, the first murder, the genealogy of Adam to the Flood of Noah, the reason for the Flood of Noah, God’s promise to Creation after the Flood, God’s promise to Noah, the descendants and nations that came from Noah, the Tower of Babel, and the setting up of the line that would become the Chosen People, the Jews, the people who would bring forth the Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Belief in what the New Testament says is pre-requisite for becoming a believer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. However, belief in the New Testament has a pre-requisite as well – belief in the Old Testament! Why? Because, to completely and thoroughly understand what Christianity is, why the Savior had to come as a real man and live a perfect, sinless life, what our responsibilities are as Christians, why belief in Christ is the only way to eternal life, we must know, grasp, and defend the history, the reasons, the explanations, the foundations of our faith – all of which lie in the Old Testament.

When we try to correlate Creation with modern scientific explanations for the existence of everything, we add to the Bible and God’s explanation of Creation. Proverbs 30:6 tell us, “Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar.” If being found a liar is not enough to stop adding to God’s Word, then Revelation 22:18, 19 says, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” It really does not get any clearer than that. Read it, believe it, study it, be it.

The church in America in the early 21st century is a hodge-podge of varying beliefs ranging from doctrinal and theologically sound churches to places of gathering to hear what itching ears want to hear. The appearance of “inclusion”, of “replacement theology”, of the “prosperity gospel”, of “tolerance”, of “social gospel”, of “entertainment”, of “inoffensive preaching”, etc., has ruined many churches for the sake of numbers and money. Anti-Semitism in the form of replacement theology or secessionism is becoming widespread adding to the teaching of Revelation that the End Times church will be Laodicean or luke-warm, disgusting to the Lord so that He will spit them out of His mouth (Revelation 3:17). A significant component of the modern Christian church is their reluctance or just plain refusal to cover prophecy, to preach on it, to even acknowledge it at all.

Alongside the reluctance to read or even believe Genesis Chapters 1 to 11 because of the so-called “difference” between Scripture and the “fact” of evolution or pseudo-science, there is the absence of any teaching or encouragement to read or even know prophecy. Some of the mainline mega-churches encourage the abandonment of prophecy and End Times teaching. There is a disturbing and prevalent even catastrophic result of not believing or accepting Genesis 1 to 11 and biblical prophecy – exodus from the church. Church attendance is dropping because of unbelief in the fundamentals of our faith, belief in a majestic, transcendent, and omnipotent God, and the teaching of pseudo-science in the form of the godless explanation of our existence – evolution. If we know our Bible, and we believe it as infallible, then we are firmly planted in the Truth, God’s Truth, the only Truth. Otherwise, we are blowing in the wind of man’s wisdom. The middle verse in the Bible is Psalm 118:8, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” That pretty much says it all.

Besides, whenever the Bible speaks of anything scientific, The Bible is always proved to be true. Consider just this short list of scientific statements from God’s Word that have been proven to be true:

Genesis 22:17, “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.” (number of stars beyond measure)

Jeremiah 33:22, “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.” (ditto)

1 Corinthians 15:41, “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.” (stars are all different from each other)

Job 26:7, “He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.” (suspension of the earth in space)

Job 28:25, “To establish a weight for the wind, and apportion the waters by measure.” (wind has weight – fluid dynamics)

Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” (the value of blood)

Genesis 3:19, “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.” (chemical composition of flesh)

Psalm 135:7, “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries.” (hydrologic cycle)

Job 36:27-29, “For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading of clouds, the thunder from His canopy? (hydrology again)

Isaiah 40:22, “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. (shape of the earth)

2 Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” (nuclear processes we only discovered with nuclear weapon development)

Conclusion? Science confirms the Bible! Genesis 1 to 11 is true and should be taken at face value. Prophecy is straight from Christ and should be studied, loved, and believed. Obviously, if God cannot lie (“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Numbers 23:19), then why would He mislead? He does not mislead, He tells us the truth and all of God’s Word is Truth! And, so what if “science” does not agree with the Bible? The Bible is always correct. So, there must be something wrong with “science”.

What to do? Jude 3c and 4 says, “…contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” And 1 Peter 3:13, “And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?” So, read God’s Word, ALL of it, believe ALL of it, and contend for the faith. Because, as David said, “What can man do to me?”