Beginning until Christianity
Scientific research indicates the universe began when energy in a “singularity” exploded with a “big bang”. Similarly, science supports the view that the world will have an ultimate end when the stars all burn out. Scientists have developed theories of continent formation and the evolution of living forms over billions of years. The physical sciences attempt to explain how the physical world operates, whereas the focus of the Bible is on why the world was created and how humanity should operate.
The Genesis account of creation (Genesis 1) portrays God as speaking the universe into existence, so that both the world and inspired scriptures manifest God’s Word. God created both males and females in his image, which seems to mean with the capacity to communicate with God and make moral choices (Gen. 1:26-31). The first man and woman were good or innocent, but not perfect, because they sinned together by not asking God about the lie of Satan (Gen. 3:6b-7, cf. 1John 4:1), which resulted in spiritual death or separation from God. However, with hindsight (the help of the NT) we can see God’s plan of salvation for humanity indicated three ways (in Gen. 3:15-22): 1. God did not allow Adam and Eve to live forever in their fallen position, 2. God shed the blood of innocent animals to cover the guilt of their sin, and 3. God promised that a descendant would crush the power of Satan.
Adam and Eve’s failure may have influenced Cain negatively, so that because of a sinful attitude his offering was unacceptable to God, whereupon Cain became enraged and murdered Abel. Enoch is notable as the first mature believer mentioned in the Bible (Gen. 5:24). After him, it came to be that Noah and his family were the only godly people on earth (Gen. 6:9), so God saved them from a flood. After building a tower at Babel, Noah’s descendants became divided into various language groups and scattered over the earth. In order to jibe with the findings of archeology, the post-Babel migrations must have occurred after the stone-age cave dwellers (Paleolithic period) during the Mesolithic cultural period, which was followed by the Neolithic period, when mankind began to farm and make pottery (about 10,000-3,000 B.C.).
Secular histories of mankind commonly begin with the civilization at the Sumerian city-state of Ur in Mesopotamia, where archaeologists have found the earliest written language (pictographs on clay tablets) and wheeled vehicles. In India, the Indus river valley had large settlements at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, while in Egypt the first historic dynasty was established by pharaoh Menes when he united the Upper and Lower Nile cultures. (The first pyramid was built about 3100, and the Great Pyramid was built about 2600.) The Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadian, Sargon (c. 2270). About this time India was being taken over by Aryans from Turkestan, who invaded through the Khyber Pass. Also, the Minoan civilization was developing on the Aegean island of Crete. Very little is known about the people in Europe, Russia, China, Oceana, America and most of Africa during this period. By 2230 the Sumerians had thrown off the Akkadians and formed a second empire with its capital at the thriving seaport of Ur.
The Mesopotamians were polytheistic, but out of this culture Abram was called to worship the one true God (monotheism) in Canaan (according to Gen. 12:1-2). Genesis says that after a sojourn in Egypt because of a famine, Abram returned to Hebron, where he gave a tithe to a priest named Melchizedek of Salem (later Jerusalem), who served him bread and wine (Gen. 14:18-20). Thirteen years later God changed his name to Abraham and commanded that every male would be circumcised. After having a son, Ishmael, by his slave, Hagar, Sarah bore Isaac, beginning a rivalry that has lasted through the ages. On one occasion God tested Abraham’s faith by determining whether he was willing to sacrifice Isaac, which some see as foreshadowing God’s provision of Messiah (Gen. 22:9-12).
Abraham sent his chief servant back to his relatives in Mesopotamia to find a wife for Isaac. The servant found Rebekah, who bore twins named Esau and Jacob. After obtaining legal right to Esau’s inheritance by means of a ruse, Jacob fled to Mesopotamia, where he in turn was tricked into marrying Leah before being allowed to marry Rachel (Gen. 29:18-27). Jacob eventually had twelve sons by Leah, Rachel, and each of their servants, who became twelve tribes, before moving back to Canaan. On the way he wrestled with an angel in a dream, who changed his name to Israel and reiterated the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 32:24-29). Israel showed favoritism to Joseph, so the jealous brothers sold him to a slave trader bound for Egypt, where Joseph impressed the pharaoh and became his right-hand man, enabling him to provide for his family when they were forced to seek food in Egypt during another famine.
