Nearly 500 years ago, the Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli made an insightful observation in his Commentary on True and False Religion when he wrote, “There is no difference between the life of man and that of the beasts if you take away the knowledge of God.” Zwingli observed an essential relationship between knowledge of God and being human. Zwingli’s contemporary, John Calvin…
Genesis has much to teach us on the nature and content of faith. It’s been said of a person falling off a cliff that what matters is not the degree of faith one has in an extended tree branch to save him, but the strength of the branch. A person’s faith is effectual if God is the object—he is the strong branch,…
Genesis 4 reveals the immediate and devastating consequences of humanity’s fall. Cain was the first son of Adam and Eve whose birth Eve seemed to look upon with optimistic anticipation—possibly believing he was the promised “seed of the woman.” But in a terrifying twist, Cain murders his brother Abel. Cain had failed to offer God the best of his harvest in worship…
We have many questions—we desperately need answers. Where have we come from? Where are we going? Why is there evil in the world? What does it mean to be male and female? Is there ultimate meaning to life? All cultures seek to answer these. The answers are inescapably religious in nature. Creation, Fall, Redemption. These themes aptly summarize the biblical narrative in…