Newspaper Page Text
6
TRHCK THROUGH The RIBLE
By G. CAMPBELL JTORQAN, Westminster Chapel, London, England.
Appearing Ebery Week "During 1907. {Copyright American Serial "Rights applied Tor by The Colden (Age Publishing Co. All Rights ReserbedA
GENESIS—THE BOOK OF BEGINNINGS.
A. Generation. 1., ii. B. Degeneration, iii.—xi. C. Regeneration. xii.—l.
“In the Beginning God.” “Now the Serpent.” “Now Jehovah.”
I. Os the Material, to I. Os the Individual, iii. I. Os Individuals. xii.—xxxv. 21
Man. i.—ii. 3 i. The Serpent and i. Abraham. xii.—xxv. 10
i. Origin. i. 1 Man. 1-8 7 Communications.
ii. Ruin. i. 2a ii. Jehovah. 9-24 a. The Call out. xii. 1-6.
iii. The revealed a. The Call out. xii. 1.16
Cosmogony. b. The Land promised. xii. 7 —xiii. 13.
i. 2b —ii. 3 c. The Land given xiii. 14 —xiv.
d. The Seed promised. xv., xvi.
11. Os the Family. iv., v. e - The covenant. xvii.
i. The first Family, iv. f - The Son given. xviii—xxi.
ii. The Families. v. £• The final Testing. xxii—xxv. 10
ii. Isaac, xxv. 11 —xxvi. 2 Communications.
a. Introductory.. xxv. 11-34
b. Continuity of Covenant. xxvi. 1-22
c. Ratification of Covenant. xxvi. 23-35
111. Os Society. vi. yj Jacob, xxvii.—xxxv. 21.
i. Intermixture. 5 Communications.
11. Os Man, as to Nature Degeneracy - a. Duplicity and the over-ruling God.
and Office. . xxvri > xxviil -
ii 4- 9 5 Destruction and b. Success and the interfering God.
i. Created 4-8 Deliverance. xxix.—xxxi. 3
ii Crowned 9-15 vii., viii - c - Inde P endence and the conquering God.
iii. Conditioned. 16, 17 xxxi. 4—xxxii.
iv. Completed 18-25 New Departure, d - Compromise and the restoring God.
National, ix., x. xxxiii.—xxxv. 1
e. Obedience and the faithful God.
xxxv. 2-21
11. Os the Family. xxxv. 22. —xxxviii.
1% , x , w. x. • i- The Sons of Jacob. xxxv. 22-29
,v - the Natlons XL Generations of Esau, xxxvi.
I. Confederacy. „ Joseph xxxvil.
11. Contusion. -- j n( i a h’ 3 corruption. xxxviii.
ill. Continuity. ' 111. Os Society. xxxix.-l. 21
Shem to t History Qf Joseph
Abraham. y Israel segregated.
IV. Os a Nation. 1. 22-26
Prophecy of faith.
GENESIS.
" HE book of Genesis is the book of
origins. It deals with the beginnings
of the facts and forces in the midst
of which humanity lives, in so far as
it is necessary for man to know them
in order to set his life in right relation-
Iship to them. There is nothing final
in this book. Things created are not
seen in perfection, but, rather, as pre-
T
pared for development. Evil is revealed neither
as to its first origin, nor ultimate development, but
only in the 'beginnings of its operation in human
life. The divine plan of redemption is not fully
unfolded, but the first movements in history toward
its outworking are clearly revealed.
The main divisions of the book are marked by
the phrases, “In the beginning God” (1.1), “Now
the serpent” (3: 1), “Now Jehovah” (1: 1).
The first division tells the story of the beginnings
of the material universe. The second division
gives an account of how evil entered human history,
and traces its first movement. The third division
gives the history of the calling of a man, the mak
ing of a nation, the creation of a testimony, and
thus the preparation for the ultimate coming of
a 'Savior. Thus in broad outline we have the divi
sions of our book. The beginnings of .crjeatfed
things: Generation, and at the 1 back of all, God.
The beginnings of evil: Degeneration, and at the
back of all, the serpent. The beginning’s of the
process of restoration: Regeneration, and at the
back of all, Jehovah.
A. Generation.
In this first division, there are two sections,
1: 2, 3 and 2: 4-25, which give an account respec
tively of the generation of the material to man,
and the generation of man as to nature and
office.
I. Generation of the Material to Man.
1. Origin. “In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.” In that simple statement
we have the Bible declaration of the origin of the
The Golden Age for January 10, 1907.
material universe, and it is one in which faith
finds reasonable foundation. Interpretations of
method may vary, but the essential truth abides.
In its dignified and sublime statement reason may
rest as it cannot possibly do in any theory which
leaves God out of the question, and thus, finally,
declares that the first cause was, more or less the
result of accident, or the existence of laws with
out mind, or of order without thought.
2. Ruin. “And the earth was waste and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”
MM
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN.
It is not possible that these words describe the' con
dition of the heaven and the earth as they were
created by God. Between the original creation,
and the conditions herein described, there had been
a cataclysm. Os that, revelation has given us no
account. Speculations are interesting, but they
cannot be final or dogmatic. It may be that be
hind the material cataclysm there was a moral
catastrophe. Probably if we knew all the history,
we should know the truth concerning the origina
tion of evil. In subsequent volumes of the Divine
Library, there are flashes of light which may afford
some clue to the hidden things. The fact that
Satan is spoken of as “the god of this world,”
“the prince of this world,” may refer to a rela
tionship he| bore to the earth prior to the appearance
of man. It may be that here angels “kept not their
first estate,” and that in their fall they involved
the earth itself in degradation from its primal
perfection, and brought it to the condition describ
ed as “waste and void.”
3. The (Revealed Cosmogony. With the words,
“The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters,” begins the story/of reconstruction, and
this continues through the third verse of the sec
ond chapter. The method of the new birth of
the earth was that of the brooding over it of the
Spirit, and the uttering of the Word of God. The
earth was born again by the Spirit and the Word.
A careful study of this section, and of the follow
ing one, will reveal the fact that two words are
made use of to describe the divine action. The
Revised Version has indicated the difference by
the use of our word’s “ create,d” and made;.”
The Hebrew words, of which these are transla
tions, do not indicate the same thing. The first,
“created,” indicates an essential making, a bring
ing into existence. The second, “made,” suggests
rather the origination of new forms by the use of
things already created. It is of great interest,
and, moreover, of value to notice the places where
the word “created” is used. It occurs, first, in
the declaration concerning the origin of material
things. It occurs again at thq point where life
rises from the non-sentient to the sentient. It
occurs in the third place at the story of the com
ing of man. Between these the word used is al
ways “made.” This fact reveals that at the points
indicated there was a new act of God, introducing
an entirely fresh order of being. It is worthy of
notice that these words occur exactly where the
evolutionary theory has never yet been able to
bridge a gulf. The evolutionary process demands
a primal fact from which everything goes forward.
It cannot supply it. It is supplied by the declara
tion, “in the beginning God created.” It has
never been able to discover the link between the
non-sentient and sentient. That link is here sup
plied in the affirmation, “God created
every living creature.” It has never been able,
finally, to discover a link between the highest form
of animal life and man. That link is supplied in
thc( affirmation, “God created man in his own
image.” Whereas, according to this account, he
was ever the immanent God, by his own wisdom
and power producing every new form of already
existing life, he did, also, at certain periods in
the process by direct, essential, new creation, cre
ate a crisis from which the order proceeded anew.
11. Os man as to Nature and Office.
1. Created. There are those who affirm that
in these two chapters we, havei two distinct ac
counts of the creation of man; and, moreover, some
declare that they contradict each other. As a mat
ter of fact the first story places man in his rela
tion to the material universe. He is seen as the
crowning work in creation, the last of a succession,
whether a succession of separate events or of
evolutionary processes is not declared. Whatever
the process, he is seen to be the crown of the ma
terial creation. In the second story he is shown
to be more than this. There an explanation is
given of that spiritual quantity which is found in
man, and in no other creation. It describes the
process by which man became different from and
superior to everything which had preceded him.
He was made| of the dust of the ground; that is,
he had come from the common origin. His creation
as man was due to the fact that God breathed
into his nostrils the breath of lives. By the posses
sion of God-breathed lives he was differentiated
from everything which had preceded him.
2. Crowned. This being, at once related to the
material universe, and yet kin of God, is placed
at the center of creation to govern it in co-opera
tion with God. He is to reign over all beneath
(Concluded on page 12.)
