Jesus teaching the ‘big picture’ from Genesis
by Gary Bates and Russell
Grigg
Is creation evangelism, in the sense of using Genesis to help explain and proclaim
the gospel, new? Is it a method employed by ministries such as CMI purely
to counter the harmful cultural effects of the teaching of evolution in our modern
day? Many think so, but this is not the case. Laying a foundation from
Genesis confirms the ‘big picture’ of the Bible and salvation, something
that is often lacking in today’s evangelism and teaching.
Evolution (which is the justification for humanist beliefs paraded as science) has immunized
people today from responding to the gospel, because they think that ‘science
has disproved the Bible’. However, it was not always like this.
Eager to hear
In the 1950s, when evangelists like Billy Graham conducted public campaigns, sporting
stadiums were filled with folk eager to hear what he had to say. The concepts
of God and salvation were understood, as most, if not all, had been brought up in
a ‘God-fearing’ environment, where the Bible, prayers and hymns were
standard fare in schools. Christian principles and the foundation of the gospel
were established facts of life. For many responding at these ‘crusades’,
it simply meant a return to the God they already knew about.
However, these methods do not work as well today. If you said to most non-Christians:
‘The Bible says … ,’ they would likely reply, ‘So what?’
Reaching an evolution-soaked culture
Today, the majority of people are ‘unchurched’ and ‘un-Sunday-schooled’.
The concept of salvation is lost on them because they don’t know that they
are sinners to start with. To learn any new concept properly you must start
at the beginning—from the foundation up. The Apostle Paul used this
method at a meeting of the Areopagus1
in Athens, recorded in
Acts 17. He had been trying to reason with the philosophers of the
day in the market-place, who, it should be noted, believed in a form of evolution,2 and they remarked, ‘What
is this babbler trying to say?’ (Acts
17:18).
Paul points out their altar, labelled ‘To an unknown god’. He
then tells them that this unknown god whom they worship is ‘The
God who made the world and everything in it’ (v.
24) and that ‘from one man He made every nation of
men’ (v.
26). What was Paul doing? He was unfolding the origins
of the gospel as the true history of the world, as found in Genesis.
It is true that only a few of his hearers believed (v.
34), but one of these was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus. In
due course a church was started, and Dionysius became its leader.3 The church in Athens became large and influential.
They had the right foundation to start with.
Preaching to a ‘churched’ generation
Contrast this with the Apostle Peter’s sermon in
Acts 2, where he simply preached on the crucifixion and Resurrection of
Jesus, and then concluded, ‘Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made
this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ’ (v.
36). About 3,000 were saved and baptized that day (v.
41).4
Peter was preaching to a ‘churched’ generation—the Jews, who already
possessed the knowledge of God as Creator, Lawgiver and Judge from the Scriptures.
They knew and believed the Genesis record of Creation and of the Fall, with the
entrance of, and subsequent penalty for, sin. Realizing their helpless state
as sinners before God, they simply needed to be shown from the Scriptures that Jesus
was the promised Messiah—God’s chosen One sent to pay for their sins
through His death and Resurrection.
Unfortunately, there are many in the church today who have not understood (and don’t
preach) this ‘big picture’ regarding salvation. This may be due
to many things, such as merely emotional ideas of salvation, a lack of foundational
teaching and a disregard for the book of Genesis due to evolutionary teaching.
Jesus and the ‘big picture’
Jesus also encountered some ‘churched’ folk (Jews) who failed to grasp
the significance of the ‘big picture’. In
Luke 24, after Jesus’ Resurrection, two of His disciples were walking
along the road to Emmaus, discussing the events of the previous few days.
Jesus came alongside them and asked them what they were talking about and why they
were so sad. They were kept from recognizing Jesus (v.
13–17). ‘One of them, named Cleopas, asked
him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that
have happened there in these days?”? “What things?”? Jesus asked.
‘“About Jesus of Nazareth”? they replied.
“He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they
crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition,
some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but
didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision
of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the
tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”?’
Cleopas knew the Scriptures and he saw Jesus as being sent from God, but he was
downcast because he failed to understand why Jesus (the Christ) had to
die. He and his friend were preoccupied with their present circumstances and
the state of their nation. Knowing this, Jesus said to them, ‘“How
foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”?
And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them
what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself’ (v.
25–27). [Emphasis added.]5
The same thing happened when Jesus appeared to His disciples in the upper room (Luke
24:44–46). Jesus took them back to the beginning, to what Moses
had written concerning Himself, when He said: ‘ …
This is what I told you while I was still with you. Everything must be fulfilled
that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’
[Emphasis added.]
So what was it that Moses wrote that was needed to clearly explain the
gospel?6
It was the foundational account of the Creation (which New Testament writers attribute
to Jesus (e.g.
John 1:1–3;
Colossians 1:16;
Hebrews 1:2), the subsequent Fall of Adam, with the entrance of
sin and death into the human race, which explains the reason for a substitutionary
atonement for sin.
On the road to Emmaus that day, Jesus explained why He had to die. Similarly,
we, too, should explain to people today not just that all need a Saviour,
but why, and why He had to die for us—foundational concepts
established in Genesis.7
For Christians preaching the gospel today, this is the ‘big picture’.
References and notes
- Areopagus (Greek: Άρειος Πάγος
(Areios Pagos)), the hill of Ares, the Greek god of war, corresponding
to the Roman god Mars. The Council of the Areopagus was the Supreme Court
of the City of Athens. Return to text.
- For example, Aristotle taught that ‘the lowest stage [in
nature] is the inorganic, and this passes into the organic by direct metamorphosis,
matter being transformed into life’. (Osborn, H.F., From the Greeks to Darwin,
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 2nd ed., p. 78, 1929.)
But Aristotle criticized the transformism of Empedocles, so seemed anti-evolutionary.
Return to text.
- Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, refers to Dionysius as ‘the
first Bishop of the Church of Athens’. (Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica,
iii.4; iv.23, as quoted in New Bible Dictionary, Inter-Varsity press, London,
p. 312, 1974.) Return to text.
- In any comparison of numbers, it should be noted that Paul’s
audience at Athens was very much fewer than ‘the multitude—out of every
nation under heaven’ (Acts
2:5–6) that was Peter’s at Jerusalem. Return to text.
- For a study of Old Testament prophecy concerning the First Coming
of the Messiah see: Fruchtenbaum, A., Messianic Christology, Ariel
Ministries, Tustin, California, 1998. Return to text.
- Jesus, John and Paul clearly confirmed the book of Genesis (written
by Moses) as literal history. See also
Luke 16:29–31;
John 1:45;
John 5:46–47;
Acts 26:22, 28:23. Return to text.
- Many people relate how they could not understand Christianity until
taught fundamental principles from Genesis. E.g. ‘Because you took me
back to the beginning, now I understand the plot. For the first time I am
understanding what Christianity is all about. No-one ever suggested I start
reading the Bible at the beginning.’ See Ham, K.,
Why won’t they listen? Master Books, Inc., Green Forest, Arizona,
p. 105, 1999. Return to text.
(Available in Haitian Creole)
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