Here are some questions I might ask my Sabbath School (and probably will since it is my week to teach):

1. How do we know that the book of Genesis is reliable?

2. What does Genesis reveal about the basis of our faith and hope?

I will be very much interested to hear the answer(s) to your first query.

I as well.

Without the book of Genesis we would have no idea about the entrance of sin. We would know nothing of the Great Flood, and the upheaval of the earth. We would not have the history of the Jewish people. The reason for Christ coming to this earth would have been partly hidden from us.

Beryl

[quote=] How do we know that the book of Genesis is reliable?
[/quote]

If we can't rely on the Book of Genesis, how can we possibly rely on any of the Bible? And we certainly could not rely on Jesus -- because He quoted from the Book of Genesis. So -- if we can't rely on the Book of Genesis, then all is lost!

Beryl

if we can't rely on the Book of Genesis, then all is lost!

Beryl [/quote]

Exactly. This is one area where I have never quite understood people who supposedly believe in Jesus but not the book of Genesis is accurate.

Without Genesis, we might not know where we came from, even though its accounts are quite brief, lacking details that might satisfy our scientific curiosity. Otherwise, we must conjure up other ideas, such as life created itself.

It's a matter of trust, whether or not we believe Genesis is true and accurate. Maybe parts were handed down from generation to generation for thousands of years, and maybe inaccuracies crept in, maybe not.

We can still do what Christ asked us to do, even without Genesis. It could be possible for those who have never heard of Genesis to enter the Kingdom, not because of what they knew, but because of what they did for others during their lifetimes.

Genesis also introduces God as our One-and-Only Creator. Without that concept, we might conjure up many gods and try to make up rules to follow for them all.

Genesis teaches us that to disobey God is evil, and will only result in harm to ourselves and our descendents. Evil became so prevalent that God had to destroy the First World with a deluge of water, then start again with just a handful of people and a few hundred or thousand land/air animals.

Without Genesis we wouldn't know about Abraham, who for some unknown reason was chosen by God to father a nation who would make a special covenant with Him, to teach the world about Him and be His representatives on Earth.

We can trust that Genesis is true, and this belief will do no harm to us. If we choose to dishonor God and harm others or ourselves, neither Genesis nor any other books of the Bible will do us much good.

The is in the Sabbath School forum.

Stan has ruled that this particular forum is not an appropriate place for expressing opinions and ideas contrary to main-stream SDA'ism

If you seriously want to discuss this topic, move it to the Origins forum or some other forum where a wider ranging debate is accepted.

/Bevin

What was wrong with that post, Bevin? The writer was merely answering a question about the lesson, which IS about the accuracy of Genesis. You may not believe in the accuracy of
Genesis. that is YOUR problem. THAT aspect can be discussed in "Origins", but it can also be discussed here, because it IS the subject of the lesson.

Beryl

I'm sorry - my phrasing implied I disapproved of the post, and that was not my intention. I simply felt that there were tighter limits on what I could say here, than if the topic was in the Origins forum.

Perhaps the following observation would be acceptable in a SS Class.

There are many millions Christians, and indeed complete denominations, that do not see a need to understand Genesis literally. The Roman Catholics, the Episcopalians, and many many Protestants see the story as a vast oversimplification of a complex process that is intended to be more of an analogy than a scientific/historical explanation.

There are even many SDA who do not accept anything near Bishop Ussher's 4004BC year estimate.

/Bevin