The Bible tells us many things that men desperately would like to know. Have you ever wondered who you are? Have you ever wondered where you came from? Have you ever wondered where did this world come from? Have you ever wondered why there’s so much suffering in the world today? Have you ever wondered what the future of this world might be, how long it’s going to continue?
Well, these are big questions, aren’t they? Our philosophers have speculated about these things, and there have been philosophers and scientists throughout the world who have written many thousands of volumes trying to answer these questions.
For example, when we raise the question, how long has this world been around, and how did it come into existence? We’re taught that this world came into existence by evolution — that over long periods of time, molecules and atoms and electrons and protons worked together in such a way that finally life was brought into reality, and that life gradually, by chance, became more and more complex until finally we have the world that we see today. Now, this is an answer that has been given to us by many teachers, and that’s not only true in our land, but it’s true in every land of the world. There are all kinds of speculations and ideas as to where this world came from.
But when we go to the Bible, we find the truth. At first, as we look into the Bible, if you’re not all familiar with it, you’re going to say, oh, I can’t believe that. And that’s all right. That’s understandable. But I hope that as we have these studies together, at the same time letting the Bible give us the truth, that we will begin to see how the Bible does have answers, and that the Bible does not contradict science in any way — that is, the evidence of the scientists. Oh, yes, it may contradict the conclusions of the scientists, but it will not contradict the evidence.
Now, the Bible is a fairly large book. It has 66 separate books, and it was written over a period of about 1,600 years. It is a book that was completed about 2,000 years ago. It’s a very old book. It is one of the oldest books that we can find. Of course, the invention of writing goes all the way back to about 3,000 B.C., or about 5,000 years ago. Nevertheless, we do not have nearly as much literature from long ago as we have today, but the Bible is a book that is fully 2,000 years old, and it was actually written during a period of about 1,500 years.
Consequently, the Bible has had many authors. Many men wrote in the Bible. But you will find as we go on in this study that everything we find in the Bible agrees with everything else. And that is because there is one super-author. There is one author who guided all of the men who actually wrote the Bible, so that even though they wrote at various times in history, separated by many centuries, nevertheless, what they wrote was always true.
Now, the reason for all of this is that the Bible is the Word of God. It is the Word of God. God — who is God? Well, that’s what we’re going to talk about as a first bit of truth as we get into these studies.
For our first study, we’re going to look at the first verse of the Bible, the very first sentence. And it’s in the first book of the Bible. Remember, we said there are 66 books in the Bible. And this is the first book, and it’s called Genesis, which means the beginning. In this book, God tells us where the world came from. And in the very first verse we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
And then in our next study we will look a little more at this verse and try to understand what it means. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.