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FAMILY AND THE BIBLE
by Lindy von Harringa
April 2, 2005

    As the mother of fifteen children, and four grandchildren (two are still "in the womb"), I pour out from my heart thanks to the Lord who not only created me, and my family, and most importantly, gave us His Word---the Bible. In this article, let's discuss the wonder of God's creation in the lives He brings into being, the origins of the earth, and His holy Word, the Bible.

     Genesis tells the beginning of God's creation. Throughout history, God continues to create, bringing lives into existence. We read in Psalm 104:30: "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth." Psalm 102:18 says: "This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the Lord."

     In these two verses, we see that God continues His work of creation. He brings new life into being, both physical life, whereby He creates each infant in the womb, and spiritual life, whereby He makes "born from above" His Elect people.

     I am thankful to the Lord for the presence of God the Holy Spirit who moved holy men of God to speak accurately and authoritatively about how this earth began for all mankind to know. Consider how amazing God's craftsmanship is compared to that of man's. Today, for instance, we see man's ingenuity in describing the creation of this world on clay tablets discovered in ancient lands, such as Nineveh, Babylon, Ur, and Egypt. Such accounts do have similarities to the record in Genesis; however, the preeminence of God's creation stands out most---not in the similarities---but in the differences. Contrast the Bible's declaration that God created matter out of nothing, by the sovereign Word of God. God speaks and it is done. The clay tablets, on the other hand, reveal fabricated gods and a strange creation process by which matter originates from matter. Additionally, the Bible says that man was created in the image of a holy and righteous God to be lord of the earth, the air, and the sea and to obey God as a moral and spiritual soul. The clay tablets are filled with errors in the description of the origins of the earth and of man who is from the earth.

           Look at Moses, speaking under divine inspiration as one of the "...holy men of God moved by the Holy Ghost..." He was not just a primitive man, ignorant of the ramifications of the events he wrote about. Acts 7:20-22 describes him in this manner: "In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months: And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." The great tombs of Egypt from this period, in which Moses lived, reveal a highly advanced and sophisticated culture. His education and background notwithstanding, the statement found in Heb 11:24-27 is quite significant for each of us: "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh�s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible."

     On the spiritual side of things, Moses received spiritual understanding from God as to the promises that God made to His people, even telling Moses the very conversations that took place in the Garden of Eden 9,500 years earlier!

     We also read in the following two passages:

In Genesis 15:13-14 we read:

"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance."

Acts 7:23 and 25 also declare:

"And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not."

     I praise the Lord for His Creation of the world, for my children and grandchildren, and other lives He brings continually into being for the new birth---salvation from sin and death and Hell that he gives to His Elect. I praise Him for creating Moses and the other holy men of God, and for His authorship of the Bible---the perfect and wonderful Word of God.