Lecture 2 - The Genesis of Humanity

Question 1

Genesis 1-3

Answer 1

1) The world, creation & human beings have a beginning
2) There is a sequence of progression in creation (let there be light - creation of man)
3) creation and mankind depend on God before the fall

Question 2

Genealogies in Genesis

Answer 2

1) Heb. toledoth - generations
2) Narrative marker that unfolds plot line of Genesis
3) The Messiah is brought through toledoth

Question 3

Literary Outline: Primeval history

Answer 3

1) Found in Gen. 1-11
2) Adam to Noah
3) History of Creation

Question 4

Literary Outline: Patriarchal history

Answer 4

1) Found in Gen. 12-50
2) Abraham to Jacob
3) History of Covenant

Question 5

Redemptive-Historical Plot line

Answer 5

1) Creation (Gen. 1-2) - intro to God & Man
2) Fall (Gen. 3) - Adam & Eve sin
3) Redemption (Gen. 3) - God’s promise
4) Continuation - between promise & fulfillment, living in God’s promise
5) Consummation - fulfillment

Question 6

Doctrine of God in Genesis 1

Answer 6

1) “God” (Heb. Elohim)
2) “Elohim” used 32x in Genesis
3) God is the center of creation

Question 7

Doctrine of God in Genesis 1:1

Answer 7

1) Monotheism - also seen in Duet 6
2) Revelation - God discloses Himself to what He has made
3) Foundational to understanding of who God is

Question 8

Biblical Cosmogony

Answer 8

1) Greek; cosmos (world) + gonos (begetting)
2) God speaks the world into existence (Heb. 11)
3) Everything exists because of God (John 1)

Question 9

Creatio ex nihilo

Answer 9

1) Latin for “creation out of nothing”
2) “created” Heb. bara (only attributed to God)
3) our creativity and personality is a derivative of God

Question 10

Man is the apex of creation

Answer 10

1) Man is secondary to God but the crown of creation
2) We are God’s highest and richest self-revelation
3) Men are objects of God’s special care

Question 11

Man was created as the result of the immediate, creative action of God

Answer 11

1) the product of the “breath of God”
2) The opposite of this would be micro evolution = God’s mediate action
3) Our creativity is a derivative of God’s

Question 12

Man was created in distinction from God but is dependent on God

Answer 12

1) God creates all things but He is not all things
2) Deny the creator and you start worshiping the creation
3) We become like what we worship

Question 13

Man was created in the image of God

Answer 13

1) We are God’s representatives on earth
2) Creativity, personality, & relationships are attributes we find first in God
3) Creation (original), fall (perverted), redemption (redeemed), and glory (perfected)

Question 14

Man was created to reflect both gender equality and gender distinction

Answer 14

1) Objective gender
2) inherent dignity in being a man or woman
3) a gender is a category of the image of God

Question 15

Man was created with both a soul and body

Answer 15

1) shapes our view of ourselves
2) we need to treat our body with honor & dignity
3) We are to love & worship God with our body

Question 16

Man is the recipient of God’s revelation

Answer 16

1) We need God to know God
2) We will have a new revelation in heaven
3) Man needed God’s explicit communication to know His law

Question 17

Man was created in covenant with God

Answer 17

1) Man was made to be in a covenant
2) Covenant makes life happen
3) First seen in Genesis: in benediction - Gen. 1; malediction - Gen. 3

Question 18

Man was made for communion with God

Answer 18

1) We are made for the purpose of communion with God
2) to be truly human is to be in communion with God
3) The Sabbath principle is the end for which we are made

Question 19

Man has sinned against God and stands in need of a redeemer

Answer 19

1) benediction turns to malediction at the fall
2) Humanity now lives under God’s judgment
3) Christ becomes cursed so that we might be blessed