This Monday, my fifth and newest book will be released: The Doctrines of Genesis. As I have examined the books I have written so far, and even examining the ones I have already been “cooking” for what is coming next, this one very well could be the one that defines my writing career and be the most important book I could write. And I don’t say that lightly. Of the books I have written so far, only Call to Arms is truly unique and original to me, and that is a fiction novel. My other three are all content that I have gathered from other authors and analyzed. This one, however, is different.
When the reality of The Doctrines of Genesis being published began to sink in and exactly what I sought to do with this book was being revealed, our president Jason DeZurik stated that he has personally sought to get a resource like this ever since he started Worldview Warriors back in 2006. For those who have followed Jason and the ministry in general, you will have heard Jason use the slogan, “The Way Forward is Back.” His message is that the only way we can truly progress forward in a positive direction is to go back to the foundations and back to the concepts that made things work in the first place. This book does to theology what he has been preaching for many years.
The Doctrines of Genesis came to mind most specifically when my previous pastor at my former church made the statement that all doctrines of Christianity have some root in Genesis. I knew this fact before he said this, but I had not heard it articulated that way. And the more I thought about it, in all the time I had spent in discussing origins, this is a statement that all the Young Earth Creation groups have been saying. But even to the writing of this post, I have not heard of anyone actually going through and fleshing that statement out. Henry Morris talked about it in The Long War Against God and cited 200+ verses in the New Testament that tie directly to Genesis. But it never went beyond that. If you ask a solid YEC theologian how any particular doctrine points to Genesis, he could probably tell you; however, there are no resources I know of that actually showcase this truth. Not even John MacArthur does this in his book and sermon series, “The Battle for the Beginning.” I was simply baffled at this fact. So, I decided to actually write it.
I tried multiple approached and angles in getting it going. At first, I just went through Genesis and made a list of all the common doctrines we teach today that directly come from the book – doctrines like God as creator, the work week, marriage, clothing, judgment for sin individually and globally, the promise of a Savior, salvation from judgment, etc. But something wasn’t right with that. I wanted something more and stronger. Genesis gives the first images, first pictures, and the seed form, but it is not always directly visible to see where it leads.
After trying this route, I decide to go with doctrines that nearly every Christian denomination believes: the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. At the time, I was teaching a Bible study with my previous church, and we were setting up to teach on the Apostles Creed and why it needed to be written. I sought to take each tenet and trace it through Scripture back to Genesis. While this worked, I found myself chasing a lot more rabbit trails and drifting off topic more than I liked. After getting some feedback from my creationist peers, I gave it one more run through. This time, I took the creedal statement, described it, cited the initial Genesis Scripture where it would first be mentioned, and built forward from Genesis to flesh out the statement. While I did this, I read through the New Testament twice and marked every passage that would only make sense if Genesis was true as written. I found 237 such passages, and I do not believe that is comprehensive. With that, I did what no other author I know of has done besides via some websites with the power of search engines and sorting: I listed each reference and their source.
The biggest point I make throughout the book is that you cannot separate Genesis from the Gospel of Christ without heavily reducing its power and message. While I do not deal much with the scientific aspects of young earth versus old earth, I do showcase theologically why young earth is the only valid position the Bible teaches and why old earth models do not just get Genesis wrong but Jesus and the cross too. With that said, there are a number of Old Earth Creationists who do get Jesus and the cross correct, but they only by disjointing the two topics so much that it makes one wonder why they side with old earth ideas to begin with.
I emphasize more on the images that Genesis presents and what happens when we take those images consistently. We should notice that the judgment on sin is effective to all people of all places, and there is only one means of salvation. The Flood in particular cannot make this any clearer, so when one rejects the Flood as being global, they take that picture to the Gospel. Such a person is actually saying that there are some who are outside the judgment of sin and do not need Christ. This is no insignificant or secondary topic. This is the most central part of the Gospel: one means of salvation. Genesis makes this point on multiple occasions from Adam and Eve with clothing, to Cain and Abel with their sacrifices, to Noah’s Flood, to Abraham, and the list goes on. Salvation is done God’s way and on God’s terms. We have no input into it other than our sin and our acceptance or rejection of those terms holistically. I heavily emphasize the Gospel in several chapters and showcase how Jesus truly is the second Adam, the one who did all that Adam should have done and didn’t.
I want this book to not just edify and strengthen the Church but to be a tool that God uses to get Christians and churches back to Genesis and back to foundations and back to the roots of everything. If the church gets backs to our foundations, maybe our culture will return to its foundations, too. Get deeply rooted in Scripture, and make Scripture be what drives your thinking. The Doctrines of Genesis will be available on Monday in paperback and Kindle at WorldviewWarriors.org. You will not want to miss it!
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