Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Matthew 19:4-5 – He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’”
Opponents of the accuracy of Genesis concentrate their criticism on such events as Creation, the Flood, and destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. However, the greatest teacher who has ever lived, Jesus Christ, consistently referred to the Genesis account of people and events as historically accurate. Some examples are listed below:
- Jesus taught that the Creation account of Genesis 1-2 was accurate in Luke 11:50
- Jesus taught that the first marriage account of Adam and Eve recorded in Genesis 2:24 was accurate in Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-8
- Jesus taught that the Genesis 4 account of Cain’s murder of Abel was accurate in Matthew 23:35 and Luke 11:51
- Jesus taught that the flood recorded in Genesis 6-9 was indeed accurate in Matthew 24:37-39 and Luke 17:26-27
- Jesus taught that Abraham, who looms large throughout Genesis beginning in 11:26, did actually exist in John 8:56
- Jesus taught that circumcision instituted by Abraham and the patriarchs in Genesis 17:12 was factual in John 7:22-23
- Jesus taught that the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah recorded in Genesis 19 did in fact occur in Matthew 10:15, 11:23-24 and Luke 10:12
- Jesus taught that Lot, who is spoken of in Genesis 11:27 through Genesis 14 and again in Genesis 19, did in fact exist in Luke 17:28-32
- Jesus taught that Abraham’s sons Isaac and Jacob, the patriarchs who appear in Genesis 21 and continue to loom throughout Genesis, did in fact exist in Matthew 8:11 and Luke 13:28
In summary, it is impossible for someone to simultaneously claim to be a Christian and disbelieve the book of Genesis because to do so, they would need to also believe that Jesus was either a liar or at best an ill-informed imperfect man who simply made honest mistakes. Either way, Jesus is imperfect, erroneous, and confirms Genesis as fact.
Read through the various passages mentioned in Genesis and by Jesus in the Gospels. Thank God that He reiterates the same ideas throughout the Bible and gives us confidence in His Word.
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