•To understand the underlying assumptions for a biblical world view and how it affects interpretation of information.

•Eternal God, the Master Chef, created time, space, matter, and energy out of nothing by His words; the record of this beginning and His further actions is in Genesis. The information was provided by Him to the writers.

•The Record of actions is in plain terms of time so that the creation of the earth and universe was accomplished in the equivalent time of six solar days. The seventh day is declared holy, a day of rest, as God also rested from His creating. His creation includes the laws and ordinances that we see in operation today.

•Genealogies are plainly listed in the Bible to reasonably calculate the age of the earth as a little over 6000 years. The Genesis Flood occurred about 4500 years ago.

•While creation was perfect, the sin of man and the consequences of it led to the entrance of death, disease, and decay shortly after God’s creating period. Man’s free access to the Creator, the Giver of Life, was broken. The universe and earth were subjected to decay.

•The only solution for man’s broken relationship with God is Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sin that began with the first human beings. Those who call on Him and walk accordingly will have eternal life.

•He will return at the end of time, which is declared in the Record to be soon, to judge the earth and bring a distinct end to the universe and earth as it is known today. Those who do not believe will be judged accordingly.

•The whole matter begins and is framed by what happens at the beginning of Genesis.

1.Eternal God creates the heavens and the earth (all things) by His word. Having created them out of nothing, He ensured that the Record (the Bible) would state what He did and when He did it for our benefit. He is eternal, but He marks the start of the Record with the important words, “In the beginning”. The time, matter, and energy continuum comprise the start of the creation week as laid out in Genesis 1.

2.The plain reading of Genesis specifies that the whole of creation, including time, matter, and energy on the first day, was created in a total in six (6) solar days. The meaning of ‘day’ is plain and is repeated in Exodus 20:11. Jesus Christ also refers to the period of the ‘beginning’ in the New Testament. God references the seventh day by His action to “rest” from all His creating, which He declared was “good” during several of the individual days and “very good” at the end of the sixth day. There was no flaw, no evil, and no death in His creation. The ordinances of the heavens and the earth are in operation.

3.The depth and complexity of everything He made on the first five days and the first part of the sixth day preceded His last act of creation when He creates man, who is made in the image of God. He gives man commands and functions. He is given one constraint: do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If man does, God says that he will surely die. Man names all the kinds of living creatures as God brings them to him to name. No suitable helper for him could be found. God creates woman and brings her to him. God defines their relationship. The vast array of creation awaits their walk forward to reproduce and fulfill God’s commands to them.

4.As Genesis continues, the history of man is recorded in these first two people and succeeding generations. The history anchors human existence in real lives and circumstances so the reader understands where he came from, what significant events affected the history, and how God oversaw those generations and events. When the genealogies are studied in the Bible, including the listings in other books outside of Genesis, the age of the earth is a little over 6000 years and it has been a little over 4500 years since the Genesis Flood.

5.Events among the first people, Adam and Eve, precipitated the Fall of man from the unhindered access to fellowship with their Creator. The event yields immediate repercussions stated by the perfect and righteous Creator. The Fall of Man, as it is called, marks the entrance of sin and death in humans. The creation was affected by God’s pronouncement. Succeeding generations, born from the same lineage, deteriorated quickly. God’s oversight did not stop, however, and events revealed His hand at work. As the degree of violence in mankind’s heart came to a climax, God announced judgment on all living things except for Noah, his family, and representative kinds of living things. God initiates and orchestrates the worldwide Genesis Flood to execute His proclaimed judgment but keeps these selected people and pairs of the kinds of living creatures safe in an ark. The Flood rearranges earth’s topography and permanently marks the earth with its evidence. Some of that evidence is in the fossil record. Conditions during the Flood’s aftermath are harsh with raw, new lands and an unsettled climate. The heart of mankind, however, remains unchanged and rebellious.

6.After a few more generations, some of mankind begins to build a tower to the heavens, resisting God’s command to disperse and aiming to make a name for themselves. He observes their behavior and causes a confusion of language. The imposed language barriers serve to disperse remaining peoples along different types of language. All of these crucial events in human history, recorded in the early chapters of Genesis, lead to the doorstep of the life of Abraham.

7.The only solution to man’s tendency to sin is Jesus Christ, the Savior. From the writings of Genesis and forward, He is announced in various ways as the Solution to the separation of man from God that started shortly after creation in Genesis. So, what happened at the beginning becomes the context for the Gospel, the Good News, which is the Kingdom of God.

8.God goes further in the Bible record by speaking of an eternal future for those who call on Him. Meanwhile, as promised by the Creator, the earth endures, but will not endure forever. He promises a return, which the Bible says will be soon and without delay. His coming is compared to the event of the onset of the Genesis Flood—a surprise. The issue for men that is ever before them is whether they will accept the Creator’s solution to their sinful condition, which began with Adam and Eve shortly after creation. The Bible says that those who call on Him and walk accordingly will be with Him forever. When the end of the earth and the universe come, God will judge all men. Those who have heard Him and responded will live forever. Evil and unrighteousness will also be dealt with in finality.

9.The whole matter begins and is framed with what happened in the early parts of Genesis.

1.The governing of earth’s resources that are sparse.

2.The reason and quest to discover outer space.

1.How is a scientific law established, such as the Law of Gravity? Explain the process from initial observation to a law written down.

2.Come up with three types of laws from a broad range of areas.

3.Once listed, view them as a body of laws and consider: How does this differ from random or undirected functions? Will randomness yield a definite set of laws of physical action?