By: Mark Tabata (Evangelist)
Usually when people begin to attack the Bible, they claim that the Book of Genesis is mythology expressed in poetic language.
They will claim that Genesis is not accurate history in any way, shape, or form. After all, if they realized that Genesis is indeed an inspired Book, that would mean (among other things) that they would need to change their hearts and lives before a perfectly holy God.
People can’t have that, now can they?
Nevertheless, the Book of Genesis has been confirmed time after time has being historically accurate and authentic. One example of this accuracy is found in what is known as the Table of Nations.
This is a chart of nations found in Genesis 10 that describes the civilizations which sprang up from Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth after the Deluge. Skeptics of the Bible have often attacked this Table, claiming that it is a product of legend and folklore.
However, one man who spent decades examining this Table came to a much different conclusion. He writes:
“When I first came across this problem some fifty years ago, I found it most perplexing. On the one hand I had the Bible itself claiming to be the very Word of God, and on the other I was presented with numerous commentaries that spoke with one voice in telling me that the Bible was nothing of the kind. It was merely a hotch- potch collection of Middle- Eastern myths and fables that sought to explain the world in primitive terms, whose parts had been patched together by a series of later editors. Modem scientific man need have nothing whatever to do with it. Now, it simply was not possible for both these claims to be valid. Only one of them could be right, and I saw it as my duty, to myself at least, to find out which was the true account and which was the false….Either way, I would discover once and for all whether the Biblical record was worthy of my trust or not. It seemed a little irreverent to treat a book that claimed to be the very Word of God in such a fashion. But if truth has any substance at all, then that Book would surely be able to bear such a test. If Genesis contained any falsehood, error or misleading statement of fact, then a severe testing would reveal it and I would be the first to add my own voice to those of all the other scholars who declared the Book of Genesis to be little more than fable…What I had not expected at the time was the fact that the task was to engage my attention and energies for more than twenty- five years. Nor had I expected the astonishing degree to which Genesis, particularly the tenth and eleventh chapters, was to be vindicated. These chapters are conveniently known to scholars as the Table of Nations, and the sheer breadth and depth of the historical evidence that was available for their study astonished me….Today I can say that the names so far vindicated in the Table of Nations make up over 99% of the list, and I shall make no further comment on that other than to say that no other ancient historical document of purely human authorship could be expected to yield such a level of corroboration as that!” (Bill Cooper, After The Flood: The Early Post-Flood History Of Europe Traced Back To Noah, 80-111 (Kindle Edition))
With this incredible volume, we see yet another incredible way in which the Book of Genesis (and by direct implication the whole of the Bible) is authenticated. Notice with me some lessons.
First, this is another incredible indicator of the accuracy of the Bible. Genesis was never intended to be a book of myth, but rather a Book of History. It is treated as such throughout the rest of the entire Bible, and the accuracy of the Table of Nations is another brick in the foundation of the reliability of Scripture.
Second, the accuracy of the Table of Nations teaches us the fact that we truly are all one race. Adam is the first man (1 Corinthians 15:45), and Eve is the mother of all living (Genesis 3:20). We are all descended from “one blood” (Acts 17:26-30). As such, racism is shown to be the fraud and the deception that it is. Within the pages of the Bible, we find the true cure to all forms of racism. By returning to our understanding of our common lineage, we are reminded that all people, of all races, both male and female, are made in the image of Almighty God (Genesis 1:26-27).
Third, this also brings to our minds the fact of the Great Judgment of God on the antediluvian people. Because of their continued and progressive wickedness and refusal to repent (Genesis 6:5-6), God brought His judgment upon the world. He gave people time to repent, yet they refused (Genesis 6:3). This Flood foreshadows the Judgment that awaits the world at the Return of Christ (2 Peter 3:1-13). If we will repent, we will be spared (Ezekiel 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9). But if we refuse God’s offer of mercy, we will be destroyed (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).
God loves you my friends, so much that He allowed His Son to pay the full penalty for your sins on Calvary (1 Timothy 2:6). Jesus died for us, was buried, and arose again the third Day (1 Corinthians 15:1-8).
Why not today, as a believer, repent of your sins and be baptized by the authority of Christ to have your sins washed away (Acts 2:38; 22:16)?
Why not as an erring child of God return to The Lord, repenting of sin and confessing them to the Savior (1 John 1:9)?
The grace of The Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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