Author Archives: John Samson

The Genesis Foundation

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Ken Ham writes:

The meaning of anything depends on its origin. And did you know that the book of Genesis gives us an account of the origin of all the basic entities of life and the universe? Let’s start listing them:

•The origin of space, matter, and time.

•The origin of the earth.

•The origin of water.

•The origin of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.

•The origin of light.

•The origin of plants.

•The origin of the sun, moon, and stars.

•The origin of the universe and solar system.

•The origin of land animals, flying creatures, and aquatic creatures.

•The origin of man.

•The origin of man’s dominion over the creation.

•The origin of why man has to work hard.

•The origin of woman.

•The origin of marriage.

•The origin of the family.

•The origin of evil.

•The origin of sin.

•The origin of death.

•The origin of clothing.

•The origin of man’s need for a Savior.

•The origin of the sacrificial system.

•The origin of thorns.

•The origin of languages.

•The origin of government.

•The origin of culture.

•The origin of people groups.

•The origin of nations.

•The origin of the chosen people.

Genesis is a very important book, as it provides the foundational knowledge for the rest of the Bible, for our Christian worldview, for all doctrine, and, in fact, for everything.

Let’s consider marriage. God created marriage when he created the first man and woman:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:24–25).

Marriage was not invented by judges or government leaders.

When Jesus as the Godman was asked about marriage, he responded this way:

“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’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4–6).

Jesus actually quoted the text of Genesis 1:27 (“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”) and Genesis 2:24 in giving the foundation for marriage. Marriage is between one man (male) and one woman (female). Yes, there are only two genders.

To understand the meaning of marriage, we need to understand its origin. Sadly, many Christian leaders who compromised Genesis with evolution and millions of years haven’t taught this foundational history to coming generations. If people don’t have the foundation in Genesis concerning the origin of marriage, one can understand how they might be easily influenced by the LGBTQ worldview, which is sadly happening to many young people, even from the church.

Satan knows if he can cause people to reject the literal history of Genesis, then the foundation of the whole Bible, of all doctrine, of the Christian worldview and, in fact, everything is undermined. That’s why in our day, Genesis has been so attacked. Christians must stand against those who compromise Genesis.

Even many conservative church leaders have been so intimidated by secular scientists and compromising Christian academics that they have not taught Genesis as literal history. As a result, biblical illiteracy permeates the church. Many don’t really understand Christianity as they should and can’t explain what Christians really believe and how to defend the Christian faith.

How can a Christian explain the gospel without teaching where man came from, why we are accountable to God, what sin is, why we die, why we needed a Savior, and why Christ died and rose again, without the foundational history in Genesis?

The Apostle Paul quotes or refers to Genesis many times when explaining the gospel message:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

“Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:45–49).

Paul goes back to Genesis in discussing the doctrine of marriage and the church:

“’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:31–33).

The above is just a tiny glimpse of why Genesis is so important and why it is vital that Christians take it as written—as literal history. No wonder Jesus said:

“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45–47).

5 Points For Preaching

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Article: 5 Practical Points for Preachers by Nicholas Batzig – original source – https://www.feedingonchrist.com/blog/post/five-practical-points-of-peaching

This past Tuesday, I had the privilege of giving a pastoral charge to two men coming to be licensed to preach within the bounds of our Presbytery. The charge to those being licensed or ordained is a solemn event, happening only once in a man’s life and ministry. The charge was built largely on the ministry of the Apostle Paul and some of his charges to Timothy and Titus in the pastoral epistles. Though one can only say so much in a three to four minute charge, I carved out five practical points for these men as they enter in on a preaching ministry. Here is the essence of that charge: 

1. Prioritize first preaching to yourself whatever you plan on preaching to others.

John Owen once famously declared, “Truly no man preaches that sermon well to others that doth not first preach it to his own heart”. . .Unless “he finds the power of it in his own heart, he cannot have any ground of confidence that it will have power in the hearts of others.” We never want to step into the pulpit without having seriously and soberingly preached first to ourselves whatever passage we are preaching to the congregation. When a man does not preach the Scriptures to himself, first and foremost, he will deliver hyper-intellectual, experientially theoretical, or dry and lifeless sermons to the people of God. 

In Lectures to My Students, Charles Spurgeon explained the dire need a minister of the word must have to be so affected by God’s word that he has a burning fire for the proclamation of it within. This will only come as we preach God’s word consistently to our own hearts, the Holy Spirit fanning the flame of love for the triune God and the ministry of His word. Spurgeon wrote, 

“I have such a profound respect for this ‘fire in the bones,’ that if I did not feel it myself, I must leave the ministry at once. If you do not feel the consecrated glow, I beseech you return to your homes and serve God in your proper spheres; but if assuredly the coals of juniper blaze within, do not stifle them, unless, indeed, other considerations of great moment should prove to you that the desire is not a fire of heavenly origin.”

2. Keep Christ and Him crucified and risen central in all your preaching.

The Apostle Paul said, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Nearly every man I have known has began his preaching ministry with this commitment. However, as the years roll on, so many deviate from this and allow themselves to be sidetracked by subjects and emphases that–while they may have roots in the teaching of Scripture–supplant the central focus of Scripture on Christ and the salvation that is in Him alone. As Geerhardus Vos explained,

“It is possible, Sabbath after Sabbath and year after year, to preach things of which none can say that they are untrue and none can deny that in their proper place and time they may be important, and yet to forego telling people plainly and to forego giving them the distinct impression that they need forgiveness and salvation from sin through the cross of Christ. . . there ought not to be in your whole repertoire a single sermon in which from beginning to end you do not convey to your hearers the impression that what you want to impart to them, you do not think it possible to impart to them in any other way than as a correlate and consequence of the eternal salvation of their souls through the blood of Christ.” 

3. Give yourself to a continual study of biblical, systematic, exegetical, and historical theology. 

In 1 Timothy 4:13-15, the Apostle charged young Timothy, “devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. . Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. There is so much to learn. The late John Gerstner was once asked how much theological preparation does a man need for effective ministry. He said, “If I knew that I only had five years to live. I would spend four preparing for ministry and one ministering.” Although some might find this statement somewhat lopsided, the point is simple. We need to be men who are continually digging into the Scripture, solid theological works, and the annals of church history. As we do, the Apostle says that our “progress will be evident to all.” We need men who are humble, hungry, and teachable. We should also recognize that this is not merely something we should do in preparation for a preaching ministry–it is something that we will need to do this throughout the entirety of our ministries.

4. Stay single-minded in your commitment to the the gospel ministry, particularly in light of suffering for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

As the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” If we are to have a fruitful and effective ministry of the word and the gospel, we need to stay single-minded to the call of God. Too many ministers have allowed themselves to become preoccupied with civilian affairs. We are not to divide our time between the ministry of the gospel and community organization. We must resist becoming “half pastor/half politician.” Whatever the distracting agendas, the man of God must give himself wholly to that which God has deemed most important.

This is especially the case when hardship or opposition arise because of the word. The Apostle Paul could press though all the challenges, trials, and opposition on account of the word because he remained single-minded in his commitment to the mission of God. In 2 Tim. 2:10, he explained, “I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

5. Watch over your life

In 1 Timothy 4:16, Paul told Timothy, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” There are a thousand different ways that Satan seeks to devour ministers–e.g. love of provision, love of praise, love of pleasure, and love of power. Many men have started off strong and then spiritually declined because they stopped keeping watch over themselves. Since we have an irreconciliable war raging within us, the flesh wrestling with the Spirit and the Spirit with the flesh, we need to be especially resolute in mortifying sin and in guarding our hearts.

We can professionalize ministry in such a way and to such an extent that we learn how to hide the true spiritual condition of our hearts. A number of years ago a pastor and theologian I greatly admired for his robust Reformed expositions of Scripture took his own life. It came out that he had been having affairs with women in various related congregations for approximately two decades. During that time, this minister wrote solid books, spoke at major conferences, taught in seminaries, and carried on in regular Lord’s Day preaching and teaching. When some of his ongoing sin came to light, he was asked how he was able to minister while living in unrepentant sin. He replied, “I leaned on my gifts.” That is a sobering thought for any man to whom God has given gifts for preaching and pastoring. A mentor once wisely taught me, “You can lose the ministry and keep your family but you can’t lose your family and keep the ministry.” There is an ever present need to take heed to ourselves. Our lips are always a few steps ahead of our feet. There, we must be resolute in guarding against the multitude of temptations that Satan will seek to use against us.