Creation: Genesis as Foundation—Part 2
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Job 26:7–10; Genesis 1; Genesis 2; Genesis 5; Genesis 11; 1 Chron. 1:18–27; Matt. 19:4, 5; John 1:1–3.
Memory Text: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1, NKJV).
Many great thinkers were inspired by Scripture to explore God’s created world; as a result, modern science was born. Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, John Ray, Robert Boyle, and other early great scientists believed that their work revealed even more about the handiwork of God’s creation.
After the French Revolution, however, nineteenth-century science began to move from a theistic worldview to one based on naturalism and materialism, often with no place at all for the supernatural. These philosophical ideas were popularized by Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). Since that time, science has increasingly distanced itself from its biblical foundation, resulting in a radical reinterpretation of the Genesis story.
Does the Bible teach an antiquated, unscientific view of cosmology? Was the biblical account simply borrowed from the surrounding pagan nations? Was the Bible culturally conditioned by its place and time, or does its inspired nature elevate us to a view of origins that is complete in its divine framework?
These are some of the issues we will touch on in this week’s lesson.
* Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, May 30.
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