GENESIS — The
first book of the Bible, the book which is especially
a record of beginnings. Such things as life, death,
mankind, the world, Israel, Babylon, marriage,
language, seasons, the Sabbath and the origin of
many other things are historically recorded. It
is believed that Moses, dwelling in Midian, highly
educated and motivated to help Israel understand
its chosen status with God (as well as the problems
of sin and suffering), wrote this book with perhaps
the assistance of his father-in-law Jethro, a priest
of God. Under God’s command he returned to
Egypt to share this book with the slave nation
of Israel. And since the information was helpful
for all succeeding generations (including ours)
God preserved it as a historical record.
MORPHOLOGY — The study of the physical
forms of living creatures. The structural similarity
of some life forms is thought to support evolution
from a common ancestor (for example, animals
having hands, flippers or wings); creationists
would counter they suggest a common Designer.
SABBATH — The seventh day of Creation
Week, providing a weekly opportunity for God
and man
to celebrate the act of creation in fellowship.
The Hebrew word Shabbat literally means “to
cease.” In the context of creation, God
was seen as “ceasing” from an active
week of creating; as a memorial man was commanded
to also “cease from work” The Sabbath
is the subject of the Fourth Commandment.
EVOLUTION — The changing of one form of
life into a different form, through the passing
on of inherited genetic traits. Charles Darwin
thought the selecting mechanism for which traits
would be passed on were those that increased
survivability. There are different views of evolution:
#1 Change within basic types (like wolf to German
shepherd to terrier—sometimes called “microevolution”;
evolutionists and creationists believe this definition
of evolution to be scientifically supportable
through observation. #2 Change from type to type
(like amoeba to fish to reptile to bird—sometimes
called “macroevolution”); only evolutionists
believe this to be scientifically supportable.
#3 The belief that life has evolved generally
as secular science has taught, with the addition
that God has directed that evolution (called “theistic
evolution”).
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