Rom. 15:4."For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning."

We may ask: "How did human life originate?" The Bible answers: "God created man" (Gen. 1:27).

We may ask: "What is the purpose of life?" The Bible answers: "In the image of God He created him" (Gen. 1:27).

We may ask: "Why am I evil? Why don't I, having been created in God's image, reflect His holiness and righteousness?" The Bible answers: "Through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world" (Rom. 5:12).

We may ask: "Is there hope?" The Bible points to the woman's Seed and says: "As through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men; even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men" (Rom. 5:18).

We may ask: "What will happen to the world?" The Bible answers: "By the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His Word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men" (2 Pet. 3:5-7). Just as God by means of the Flood saved Noah, so too He will on the Last Day by means of fire save His own from tribulation and lead them to everlasting bliss.

The Christian faith cannot be understood without the accounts recorded in Genesis. Jesus and His Apostles refer to them as historical events. This is how Martin Luther also understood them and explained them in his excellent lectures. Were the accounts in Genesis not accepted as true, the preaching of the Gospel would be in vain and it would be of no benefit to talk about life's basic values. For if we deny the factuality of the Genesis accounts, then the word of the New Testament is also lacking a foundation.

God demands unconditional obedience according to His own standards from the people He has created. The development of a new "life style" led to the fall of man and subjected him to death. The whole creation suffers as a result of this. If we believe that man developed from a lower form of life, we cannot maintain that the fall into sin was an historical event. Neither can we then speak of human beings as morally responsible beings in the sight of God. Nor can we speak of original sin or judgement. Man would be an odd link in the "evolutionary" chain: The most intelligent and still the only one who destroys his own species as well as other species! Man's responsibility for his deeds before God and his fall into sin make the preaching of the Gospel meaningful. Man as a fallen creature is not God's image; this image must be renewed in him. This can happen only if the Holy Spirit renews him, through faith in Christ, who atoned for his sins.

Christians study the Bible in a humble spirit of prayer. They study also its first pages. These pages actually include the whole body of Christian doctrine. The accounts in Genesis free Christians from the destructive evolutionary optimism so that they can build their faith on the promises of the Gospel.