Two Stories Of Creation Accounts In Genesis Written In Different Eras – Part 1 of 3

Hello and welcome to Social Media Ministries. My name is Spencer Coffman. Thank you so much for tuning in today, for dedicating a part of your day to listen to the Word of God. We’ve got a great message for you, one that could be a little bit different and somewhat controversial. So, we’re going to dive right into it.

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So, let’s get busy. We have two stories of creation. You may say, “What…two stories?” Yes, there are two different stories, two different accounts of how the world was created. So, of course, they’re both in the book of Genesis, which is in the very beginning of the Bible. Now, this is going to be a three-part sermon series, so tune in for the next three weeks. We’ve got three parts to this, on the two stories of creation.

Today, we are giving an overview of it and what is going on with them, and how you need to be prepared because this is a very, very fundamental method of people that they will use to attack your faith.

So, when you tell others that you’re a Christian or if the topic of evolution comes up and you say, “Nope, I believe that God created the earth.” Bam, this is ammunition that they’re going to use to shut that down. They’re going to say there are two different stories, and you’re probably going to say, “Well, what are you talking about – evolution and creation?” No, there are two creation stories, and then you won’t know what to say.

So, this is very important. This is a form of apologetics which means defending the faith, and as a believer, and as someone who is called to share the Gospel with others and to bring salvation to other people, you need to know the different stories or the different types of attacks that people could use on you. And, you need to be prepared to defend against them.

Of course, offense is the best defense, but in this case, you still need to know what you’re talking about, and you need to be prepared for when someone attacks you with these types of things. So, there are two different stories of creation. We’re going to go through a little bit about them. We’re going to also talk about each of the stories. So, like I said, stay tuned.

Next week we’re going to talk about the first one, and the week after that we’re going to talk about the second one. So, we have a lot of people claiming that these stories contradict and are thus invalid. Major proponents of evolution do this, and they say, “Well, the Bible doesn’t even know how the world was created. They contradict each other, so evolution, that proves evolution or that supports evolution.”

I don’t know how it supports it. They’re just kind of disproving creation by saying they’re contradictory. This is not the truth. This is a myth. They are not contradictory, they go together, they go hand in hand, and they are in the first part of the Bible. It was done for a reason. The whole Bible was divinely authored by God. Through man, He gave words to people, and they wrote them down, and these words are perfect.

If you look them up in the original Hebrew, all of the words – it’s called gematria – they go mathematically together. If you substituted one out for another, it wouldn’t work. So, they were divinely authored, but that’s a whole nother topic that we won’t get into. But, if you’re an analytical-minded person, you like numbers, accountants, stats, type in gematria, and look that up. It’s very, very cool.

So, when someone comes at you with this, don’t be shaken. You must stand firm in your faith. Again, this is an overview, so we’re going to tackle kind of a different topic. Stand firm in your faith. Why? Well, we’re going to check out 1 Corinthians 16:13.

So, let’s go there. If you have your Bible, turn with me, 1 Corinthians 13:16. I’m going to read it here, so if you don’t have your Bible, don’t worry because I’m going to give you the Verse – 16 Verse 13, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

Now, of course, at the time this was written, it’s talking to the men because men were primarily the ones that were out there. That’s who they counted when they gave totals. They counted all the men, and then they would say besides women and children, so, really the numbers were a lot higher – side point.

Anyway, in today’s modern translations or modern versions, it might say, people, humans, be people of courage, men and women of courage, the point is you, it’s not specifically talking to men. So, if you’re a female out there listening, this is speaking to you, too.

“Be on your guard; stand firm in your faith; have courage; be strong. Do everything in love.” So, that’s meaning don’t be spiteful about it. Don’t come across as arrogant with it. So, you need to stand firm, and you need to know how to talk about this.

So, if you don’t know that there are two different stories of creation, pay close attention. The next two weeks are going to reveal that. They are in Genesis Chapter 1 and Genesis Chapter 2. So, we’re going to go through each of those Chapters, and you need to be aware. You need to know all about the Bible, everything you can, so study. Meditate on the Word day and night. Learn everything you can. Be prepared to defend your faith.

We’re gonna go to 1 Peter 3:15. So, check it out, 1 Peter 3:15. Turn with me there, 3:15 says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you, to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect.”

So, we have a common theme here. Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have. Why do you have hope? Why when negative things happen do you look on the bright side? Why are you a half-full rather than a half-empty type of person? It’s because you know that there is joy down in your heart provided by Jesus Christ. So, if someone asks you that, be prepared. What is your reason? You have Jesus.

What is the reason why two stories of creation don’t rattle or shake you when someone attacks you with it? Because I have hope. I have Jesus in me, and it says do this with gentleness and respect just like the other Verse in Corinthians says do it in love.

You need to be kind. You’re not talking at people. You’re not saying, “You’re so foolish. You don’t know what you are talking about.” You’re saying, “Okay, I see what you are saying; however, this is what it means.” And, you’re progressing. You’re giving them answers. You’re combating their arguments with facts, with calmness, peace, and love, and respect.

So, the Holy Spirit will tell you what to say. Even if you don’t know what’s going on, if you step into the ring and start defending your faith, and start defending Jesus Christ here on earth, He will speak for you.

We’re going to go to Luke 12:12 just in case you don’t believe me. Go to Luke 12:12. It says, “For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Right there, now we’ve got a little bit more support for this. When you look at the Old Testament, you look at Moses who was out in the wilderness, and God said, “Go back. Talk to Pharaoh.” Moses said, “Hey man, I can’t speak very well. I stutter.”

He might’ve had a speech problem, some type of impediment, so for those of you that struggle with speech, maybe you stutter and you don’t have the confidence to talk to people because you’re worried what they might think about you, Moses was the same way. Don’t worry about it. God told Moses, “I’ll speak for you,” and then he says, “No, no, God, I can’t do it.” “Okay, fine, take your brother Aaron with you, and he can speak for you, but you’re still going to speak.”

God wouldn’t let him off the hook.

You step into the ring, God’s gonna back you. He will help you. The Holy Spirit will tell you what to say. Right here, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. You may not know. You may not have it prepared or planned, but you will be spoken through. You’re a vessel. You show up, and bam, things happen.

And, this Verse in Luke is a context. This is Jesus’ words. If we go back to Verse 11, it says, “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”

So, when someone starts questioning your faith, when someone starts attacking your beliefs, when someone says, “Hey, the Bible doesn’t make sense. It contradicts itself on the stories of creation.” “Hey, the world wasn’t created. Evolution happened.”

Any of those questions, be prepared to defend your faith. Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you’ll say. The Holy Spirit will speak for you, so keep that in mind. Always trust that the Holy Spirit will come through for you.

You gotta take that first step. God isn’t simply going to speak for you, though, about something you know nothing about. So, if you’ve already stopped, or you say, “Alright, well, I don’t need to tune in for the next two weeks because I don’t need to learn about the two different stories of creation because you just said the Holy Spirit will speak for me.”

Uh-uh, you have to do your part. Your part is more than just opening your mouth and starting to speak. That’s like foolishness. A babbling fool comes to ruin. Don’t be a babbling fool. You got to have knowledge behind what you’re saying, so learn about this. You need to meet God halfway.

Now, that’s a very popular saying from a very popular old movie, “Where the Red Fern Grows,” where the little boy wants some dogs, and the grandfather or the storekeeper – I’m pretty sure it’s the grandfather – says, “You got to meet God halfway.” So, then you see the next scenes the boy is working hard, saving up his money to get some dogs. He met God halfway. And, a lot of people say, “This isn’t true, but it is.”

You have to do your part. God isn’t simply going to do everything for you. If you step into the ring to defend the faith, you need to have some knowledge that God can put together out of your mind and make sound good. Yeah, you might not have prepared it all, but deep down it’s been buried in your heart. You’ve learned it. That’s what God will use.

How do we know that the concept of meeting God halfway is a true thing? Well, we’re going to take a look at two stories. Number one is Abraham. If you know the story of Abraham, you’ll know a little bit about what I’m going to say. There are a lot of things with Abraham.

So, we’re going to go to Genesis 12:1. This is in the very, very beginning when his name was Abram. “The LORD said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people, your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’” It’s not when his name was Abraham. I misspoke there. It is A-bram – A-B-R-A-M – before God changed his name, and he became Abraham.

So, He said, “Leave your country and your people…” – leave everything – “…your father’s household…” – leave that – “…go to the land I will show you.” And, he’s probably saying, “What are you talking about, God, just start walking?” God says, “Yes, take those first steps in faith. I will show you what to do.” Meet me halfway, I’ll provide the rest. Start doing what I’m telling you to do. Everything else will fall into place.

This happens time and time again throughout the Bible, where God says, “Go. Do. Start.” The rest comes into place. There are stories throughout history of pastors or preachers or orphanages or anybody Christians who are trying to do something, and God says, “Pour the foundation.” “God, we don’t have enough money to do that.” “Go ahead.” So, they start the construction, and all of a sudden the money comes and the foundation is poured.

Or, there’s a story of orphanages overseas in the 1800s where the guy sits down to pray and they have 200 kids to feed and they have no food, and he says, “Lord, thank you for the food we are going to eat and about to receive,” and all the cooks are like, “What is going on? This guy’s nuts. We have nothing.” All of a sudden the milk truck broke down outside and this broke down, and they got all kinds of food to feed the orphanages because if they don’t use it, it’ll go bad.

Bam, he took the first step. That is the point here.

Let’s go to Matthew 17:24 to 27. This is a very, very popular story, and a lot of people don’t quite know what it means. And, there are also various meanings for it, but we’re going to take one very important point from it.

Matthew 17:24 to 27, so let’s check this out here, “After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, ‘Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?’ ‘Yes, he does,’ he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. ‘What do you think, Simon?’ he asked. ‘From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes – from their own sons or from others?’ ‘From others,’ Peter answered….

…‘Then the sons are exempt,’ Jesus said to him – meaning, he didn’t have to pay tax – ‘But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line, take the first fish that you catch, open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.’”

So, the taxes are beside the point. The point – Jesus says that they don’t take it from the sons, they take it from others. If He is the son of the government – okay it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need to pay it, but guess what? He’s in this area. He’s under this world temporarily. So, so that we may not offend the rulers of this world, we’ll pay the tax. That’s where people get caught up in this. It’s about paying taxes.

However, there’s another meaning here that I want to point out. Right here, “…go to the lake and throw out your line, take the first fish you catch, open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin.”

Okay, Jesus could have snapped His fingers and said, “Here you go. Here’s a coin. Go give it to them.” Or, “Hey, guess what? Check your pocket. There’s a coin there.” Or, “Here, I got a coin. Pay him for the tax.” No! He made Peter meet Him halfway – go to the lake, throw out your line, take the fish, pull out the coin, then go give it to them. There’s a lot of steps there. There are a lot of steps there. Meet God halfway.

Alright, you need to give God something to work with. You can’t simply go through life expecting that everything is going to happen exactly as it should be or as in some fairy tale. You got to work, you got to do some, some, put in some effort. Meet God halfway.

So, the next two weeks you’re going to learn about the two stories of creation. We’re going to learn them in chronological order. So, you’re going to learn the first story, and then, years later, decades later, another story was written, and that story you’re going to learn about second.

Now, this means, in case you don’t know, the first story, the original story of creation is Genesis Chapter 2. So, we’re going to learn about Genesis Chapter 2 next week, and then after that, we’re going to examine Genesis Chapter 1.

Now, you might say, “Wait a minute. Why wouldn’t Genesis Chapter 1 be the older story of creation?” Well, there are some reasons for that on why they put a newer story of creation in front of the Bible, in front of the original story, and we’re going to get to that at that point in time. So, this is kind of like a hook to get you to come back, listen to this, find out why.

Maybe you already know. This isn’t some newfound revolutionary notions. People have been debating this for long, long – many years. Before you and I were even born, they were talking about this issue. So, it’s a very popular thing. It’s a very popular issue. The point that I want to make in this sort of introductory sermon is that you need to be aware of these types of things in the Bible.

You need to know that, yes, there are some areas that might seem contradictory or controversial, but you have to remember you must stand firm in your faith. All of this, the whole Bible, is divinely authored. That means it’s 100 percent true. You take it all.

If there’s something in the Bible you don’t believe, that’s a problem. You need to believe everything in here. Everything in here was written to teach us. And, so take in that knowledge. This is everything, everything you need to know on how to live the best life you could possibly live. Soak it in, learn as much as you can, and be prepared to defend your faith, and always give an account for the joy and the hope that is within you.

Let’s pray:

Father God, thank you so much for this time together. Thank You for this introductory lesson into the next three weeks, or the next two weeks of this sermon. And, Lord, I ask that each and every person who is tuning in comes back and that they continue to learn about this and that they will be fascinated by the discrepancies that are perceived in Your Word and that they would know and understand that they aren’t discrepancies at all.

But, that You put them there for a specific reason, and that reason might very well be to have other people think that there’s something wrong or point out a discrepancy or a contradiction, but the reason You did that was so that believers and people who study and know the Word…

…can easily and effortlessly speak against that and convince those other people, those critiques or critics, and naysayers, that no, it actually does make sense that they are wrong and that we know what we’re talking about, and that You put that in there to give us an opportunity to bring more people to You.

So, we thank You so much for that. Thank You for the ability to learn about these, and Lord I ask that every single person out there listening and watching would really, really have a desire to learn more about Your Word and that they would use that knowledge to share it with other people.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thanks again for tuning in, for giving me your time tonight or today whenever you’re listening or watching. Thank you very much.

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Thank you and God bless.