It’s Friday night and many from our church met in the auditorium for yet another FREE MOVIE NIGHT! Tonight we going to get to see the much awaited viewing of the new compelling and perhaps controversial documentary movie Is Genesis History?.
The film’s title is a double entendre, or play on words. In my initial reading of the title, I inferred that the subject matter would question the significance and foundation of Christianity in today’s world. When I viewed a few trailers from the film, I decided it was more about the relevance and credibility of the history as presented in the bible’s Book of Genesis. It is both . . .
Dr. Del Tackett
In a series of interviews with over a dozen scientists and scholars (archaeologist, astronomer, atmospheric physicist, biologist, geologist, herbraist, microbiologist, marine biologist, computer scientist, mechanical engineer, paleontologist, pastor, philosopher of science, taphonomist, and theologian), Dr. Del Tackett, creator of “The Truth Project, serves as a guide to help viewers understand how the world intersects with the bible’s Book of Genesis by exploring two competing views about how earth and its inhabitants came into being.
The interviews probe over 30 fairly complex topics to help us better understand each of them. Among the topics: the big bang, evolution, fossil records, paradigms, scientific dating methods, and major biblical historical events.
About the Bible’s Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis answers the question, “Where did all this come from?” It is the first book of the bible and the first of Moses’ five books that make up his Pentateuch. Genesis is the story of how Israel began as a nation, described through a series of beginnings—starting with the creation of the universe and following a series of genealogies within of one family.
Some Background
The film explores two basic views about the history of the earth, with the fundamental difference being about the explanations of historical time vs. conventional time through scientific dating methods.
- In the historical book of Genesis, we are taught that the earth and universe are less than 10,000 years old and events recorded occurred in a literal way.
- In the conventional teachings about the earth and its times, we have been taught that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old and the universe 13.7 billion years.
My Conclusions
This film’s coverage on the subject was very comprehensive and extremely well organized. It helped me better grasp both complex biblical and scientific topics.
I very much favor the film’s website and its accompanying resources (that include a church and group/family discussion guide) for those who want to delve deeper into the topics and/or just reflect back on them.
In fact, our area’s churches are organizing discussion groups for those who want to learn more or just express their views about the film and its content, giving us yet another opportunity to get to know others within biblical community settings.
Thank you Jeremy Robinson for coordinating this event and Chesapeake Church for giving us the privilege to learn more about these competing perspectives of who we are and how we got here. Genesis encourages me to continue trusting my faith in God and religion over the scientific world’s perspective that excludes God from its thinking. It reinforced for me the importance of reading, knowing, and better understanding those historical biblical writings. The big flood or some other literally earth-shattering event may likely come again during my lifetime. Until then, I will strive to understand the natural world as the bible teaches about it as best I can.
