Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Genesis
Overview
There is no separation of history and theology in Genesis, nor in all the Bible. Our choice is between God and chance, between total meaning and total meaninglessness.
Genesis is the starting point of sound theology because it declares God to be the Creator and therefore the determiner of all things. Without this premise, Christianity begins to disintegrate. The restoration of a strong faith begins with the recognition of the centrality of Genesis to theology.
Top Highlights
“Herbert E. Ryle observed, ‘Guilt makes the man first a coward, and then insolent.” (Page 39)
“Faith in creation by God’s sovereign act means that the triune God is Lord and Sovereign over all, with all things dependent on His providence and grace. God the Creator is not an outsider to our lives; in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Every atom of our being is His creation, and He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Our history moves in Him and in terms of His decree, so that all things serve His purpose and glory. All history works out the purpose and decrees of God. Only the Creator God can hear and answer prayer, because He alone is sovereign and all powerful.” (Page 11)
“The Hebrew word blessed (barak) means that God, by blessing something, establishes a relationship between Himself and the person or thing blessed. This is the heart of a blessing: a relationship is created by God’s sovereign grace. The relationship may bring such results as prosperity, fertility, advancement, and power, but its essential aspect is that God establishes a relationship with the person or thing blessed. It becomes set apart and holy to Him. God’s blessing establishes the relationship; when man praises or blesses God, He celebrates the relationship.” (Page 9)
“Our Lord tells us that the sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27): it is a witness to our creatureliness, to the fact that we can rest because the government of all things is not on our shoulders, and our Lord is King over all creation. The sabbath thus is a glorious fact, a witness to our victory in and through Christ.” (Page 20)
- Title: Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Genesis
- Author: Rousas John Rushdoony
- Publisher: Ross House Books
- Publication Date: 2002
- Pages: 297
Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) was was a well-known American scholar, writer, and author of over thirty books. He earned degrees from the University of California, received theological training at the Pacific School of Religion, and received an honorary Doctorate from Valley Christian University for his book The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum.
Rushdoony was an ordained minister and served as pastor at two California churches. He served for almost nine years as a missionary to the Shoshone and Paiute Indians in a remote area of Nevada. It was during this time as a missionary that Rushdoony began writing. The Institutes of Biblical Law and Commentary on the Pentateuch are just a few of the titles that Rushdoony has penned.
The Chalcedon Foundation, an educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and cogent communication of a distinctively Christian scholarship to the world at large, was founded by Rushdoony in 1965. He served as the editor of The Chalcedon Report, the monthly magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation.
Rushdoony also published the Journal of Christian Reconstruction and was an early board member of the Rutherford Institute which was founded by John W. Whitehead.