Genesis 5:1-22

We started our early morning men’s study this week and the topic of apologetics came up. We were reminded that a lot of people really don’t know what apologetics means. Some actually do think that it means that we apologize for our faith. “I believe in Jesus Christ, but I’m really sorry about that.” No, that’s not what we mean by apologetics. The word comes from 1 Peter 3:15. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. The Greek word for “reason” is apologian, which is where we get the word apologetics. The ESV uses the word defense. Here is the definition for apologetics from the book we are using. Apologetics: The discipline that seeks to provide a defense of the truthfulness of the Christian faith for the purpose of convincing unbelievers.^{^[i]}

It is vitally important that we have a reason, or defense of the hope that we have. Our hope answers the “what” question of our beliefs. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, that he died on the cross as our substitute and when we place our faith in Christ alone, we are forgiven of our sins and have the certain hope of eternal life. I hope that you understand the hope that Christians possess. This is the content of what we believe or the “what” of our belief. It answers the “what” question. In contrast, the reason for our belief answers the “why” question. Why do you believe what you believe? Give me some reasons. Present a defense of your beliefs. Don’t just read me some words off of a page. Don’t just parrot back what the pastor says in church. Don’t just repeat what your parents tell you, like you are some kind of robot or computer. Tell me what you believe and why you believe it. Give me a reason for the hope that you have.

How can hope have reasons? Isn’t that an oxymoron? If I have a bunch of reasons and proof, then is it still hope, isn’t it a fact? This is where we have drastically misunderstood the concept of hope in the Christian life.

If we only have content to our faith and no reasons for believing them, two consequences will follow—you will have less confidence in your faith and other people will not be convinced by your faith. For example, what if I said that I believe in space monkeys? There’s a strange thought for you, but that is what atheist and evolutionist Richard Dawkins believes. He believes, number one, that we evolved from monkeys and number two, that the initial seeds of life were probably planted here by space aliens. Do you see, he believes in space monkeys! But here’s the problem. To the unbeliever, Christianity can sound about as credible as believing in space monkeys! Listen to how this sounds to someone who has never heard it before.

God created everything in the span of six days about six thousand years ago. God made Adam from dirt and his wife from the man’s rib. They ate a piece of fruit and billions of people were condemned to Hell. God told them to be fruitful and multiply, so Adam and Eve had thousands of descendants and eventually God killed most of them in a worldwide flood. As soon as righteous man, Noah, got off of the ark, he got drunk on wine. God again told the survivors of this flood to be fruitful and multiply, so Noah’s sons repopulated the earth. They tried to build a tower to Heaven, so God confused their language and that’s how nations were born. After thousands of years of death and struggle, God finally sent a Savior. But instead of a military man, he sent a baby who was born to a virgin mother. This baby Savior grew up and even though he was really nice to everyone, they all hated him and killed him. God raised this Savior from the dead, he flew up into Heaven. A man named Paul walked around the known world and told everyone that because Jesus died and rose from the dead, that he could forgive their sins and live forever. One day very soon Jesus will come down from Heaven on a white horse and for the second time will destroy the majority of humanity.

I believe that this is the greatest news in the universe and I believe all of these truths with passion and with expectancy, but when you tell the brute facts of the story in a single paragraph to someone who has never heard them before, it can sound a bit like you believe in space monkeys. This is the content of what we believe, but why do we believe all of this? This big long story which claims to explain the presence of all matter in the universe and all history and all eternity past and eternity future, about a God who created you and who deserves and demands your allegiance, is a radical view of the world. Furthermore, we believe that this radical view of the world is actually a Biblical worldview and that everything that we need to know is contained in the pages of this little book we are holding in our hands. When you try to tell this to the rest of the world, their response is, “Man, it’s like you guys believe in space monkeys!” Can you see? To their ears and minds, all of this sounds so far-fetched and bizarre and way out there—about as believable as space monkeys.

If that weren’t bad enough, sometimes we may start to believe all of this sounds about as believable as space monkeys. Let me tell you what I mean. You may have heard the study done by the Southern Baptists several years ago that demonstrated that after high school, 87% of young people lose their faith. 87%! If that doesn’t send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what will. But here is the assumption in this horrible statistic. We assume that the ones who stop believing do so because of what happened after high school. A great many of them will go off to college and will get hammered by evolution, moral relativism and radical atheism. The rest will get jobs and be dragged down by their secular friends and the pressures of the world. Do you see, we think that everything was basically OK while they lived at home and went to church, but after they left home, university and work life destroyed their faith.

If this was the only statistic that we had, then this would be a reasonable conclusion. When our kids lived with us they had faith and after they left home they lost their faith. Unfortunately, we have good evidence that this does not explain the reason why 87% of eighteen and nineteen years old are losing their faith. Another study was done recently that sheds more light on the reasons. A thousand people in their early twenties were surveyed and asked this question: If you don’t believe, when did you first start having doubts? A few people weren’t sure when their doubts began. Four percent said it started in elementary school. Here is the surprising part—only 10% said their doubts started in the turbulent college years.

So wait a minute, what happened to the 87% statistic? Hold on to your hats, cuz here it comes. Forty percent began doubting in middle school and 44% in high school. When you add up high school, middle school and elementary, guess what you get? It adds up to exactly 87%! Now understand that these two studies are measuring different things, but the conclusion is that 87% of college age youth have lost their faith but worse still, 87% of them lost their faith before they left high school.

This frightening news is found in a new book called, Already Gone. The premise is that the majority of young people sitting in the pews and in youth group are “already gone”. They have already checked out of their faith, but because they are still living at home, their full rejection is hidden from everyone else. Once they have the freedom away from home they quickly strip off the Christian veneer to expose their lack of faith.

Depressing statistics, aren’t they? Anyone can point to what is wrong, and I would say a survey like this one, though painful, is very necessary, but what do we do about this problem? There is no magic bullet because there is not a single reason for people losing their faith. But one thing was prominent is this study—young people are being taught the “what” of their faith but not the “why”. For example, the church teaches Bible stories and the rest of the world teaches so-called “real” history and “real” science—biology, geology, anthropology, astronomy and archeology. The problem is that the Bible stories often seem to have little or no relevance to science and history. We falsely think that church is supposed to teach me religious stuff and school is supposed to teach me everything else.

Some might say, “Well that’s why everyone should home school their kids.” I devoted an entire message to the issue of school choice for your family, so see me if you are interested. I believe that there are a lot of good reasons for homeschooling your kids, but I don’t think homeschooling is the whole answer to this problem. I have a question for you. In which of these two institutions do we have the most influence? You and I can’t change the fact that the world teaches evolutionary, atheistic dogma at every turn. Even if you pull your kids out of public school, they will still be assaulted by it on TV, movies, media, friends and eventually college. We can’t change what the world does, but we can change what the church does. So the answer is to make sure that the church teaches that the Bible is actually the real source of history.

This brings us back to the topic of apologetics. Let me remind you of the working definition.

Apologetics: is the discipline that seeks to provide a defense of the truthfulness of the Christian faith for the purpose of convincing unbelievers. The man who wrote that definition is much smarter than I am and I understand what is driving at, but I am going to have to disagree with it and offer an alternate definition. Apologetics is the discipline that seeks to provide a defense of the truthfulness of the Christian faith for the purpose of convincing believers so that they give the reason for the hope that they have. The true audience for apologetics is believers, because if Christians don’t understand what they believe and why they believe it, then how will they ever be able to convince others that they should believe? As soon as the winds of atheism and secularism begin to blow, their faith will be lifted away.

Several years ago we had a trampoline in our back yard but I woke up one morning and it was no longer in the back yard. The winds from the night before had carried it fifty yards, lifted it up over thirty foot tall trees and dumped it in the ditch in a mangled pile of steel and springs. We bought a new trampoline but I was determined to hang on to this one. I drove two steel stakes a foot into the ground and wrapped to steel dog leashes all around the base of the trampoline and attached it to the stakes. I am convinced that if a category five tornado hit that thing, it might get mangled and partially carried away, but the base will absolutely not be moved.

Tell me this—what would happen to your faith if a category five tornado hit it? Would it survive? What if it was just hit by a strong storm? Apologetics is the way to drive the stakes of our faith deeper into the ground. We must not only know what we believe but why we believe it. Even though apologetics can be a separate category of learning, much like the worldview class I am leading on Wednesday nights, I think apologetics must be woven into everything we teach. For example, I want to read the fifth chapter of Genesis, a long chapter on genealogy, then I will tell you why it is important. In other words, I will show you how this chapter will give you reasons for the hope that you have.

When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. ²He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man”

³When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. ⁴After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁵Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

⁶When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. ⁷And after he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁸Altogether, Seth lived 912 years, and then he died.

⁹When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰And after he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹¹Altogether, Enosh lived 905 years, and then he died.

¹² When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died.

¹⁵ When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶And after he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷Altogether, Mahalalel lived 895 years, and then he died.

¹⁸ When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died.

²¹ When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²²And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. ²⁴Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.

²⁵ When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶ And after he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷Altogether, Methuselah lived 969 years, and then he died.

²⁸ When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. ²⁹He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” ³⁰After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years, and then he died.

³² After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Genealogies like this one may seem boring and irrelevant, but when you understand their significance, they become like a gigantic missing piece of a puzzle. You start to see how it all fits together. I want to give you seven reasons why this is so important.

First we see that the image of God continues despite the Fall. The author was careful to remind us that Adam and eve were created in the image of God but also that this God-image was also passed onto their son Seth. The clear implication is that the image of God will continue in every child who will ever be born. We bear the mark of the Almighty God upon our soul.

Second, this genealogy reminds us that despite the amazingly long lives of our early descendants, death is the end of every man. Eight times the phrase, “and then he died” is repeated. The curse of death in chapter three and the first murder in chapter four were not isolated incidents. Just as the image of God will continue in every person so the curse of death will march along like a destroyer. This is not good news, but it is important news. It continues to answer the fundamental question of the problem of evil. Why is there so much suffering and death in the world? The answer is due to the curse of our own sin. There is hope, but hope is not seen unless the curse is first felt.

Third, this genealogy fits in with the rest of Genesis history. Though it is not easily spotted, Genesis has ten clear chapter divisions.

Therefore, if we are tempted to say that this is so boring and irrelevant, before we come to that conclusion we must understand that Moses did not think so. He divided the book of Genesis into ten chapters and he thought that what we call “chapter five” was so important that it needed its own chapter. This means that we cannot understand the rest of Genesis unless we also understand this chapter.

Fourth, this list of people shows that this is real history. This is not merely a “Bible story” separate from real history—this is real history—more real than anything you will ever get in any secular classroom. You and I trace al of our ancestry back to Noah’s three sons and ultimately back to Adam and Eve. Furthermore, this real history teaches us that all of human history can be traced back to the Middle East. The current upheaval in the Middle East stems from the true history as recorded in the Bible and the final consummation will take place in the Middle East.

Fifth, if we can all trace our human ancestry back to Adam and Eve, this means that we are all one race. There is no superiority of one race over another because there really is no such thing as “race.” There are not many races, there is only one race—the human race. Race is merely a social construct that is a convenient way to oppress and kill people who are different from us. Among Christians there should not be a hint of racism because we are all one blood in Adam, and more importantly, we are all one blood in Jesus Christ.

Sifth, this genealogy provides an important link to men of faith. Reading from Hebrews eleven, the Hall of Faith…

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

⁴ By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Where did the writer of Hebrews get his information? Verse three came from Genesis chapter one. Verse four came from Genesis chapter four. Verse 5-6 came from Genesis chapter five and verse seven came from chapters five through nine of Genesis. The writer of Hebrews is not only listing these great men of faith, but he is also treating the first five chapters of Genesis as real history.

Finally, this genealogy links to The Man of Faith, Jesus Christ. When Luke wrote his gospel, he used the genealogy of Genesis five to link Jesus to Adam. Jesus was fully God and fully man, but he also had a long history that started with Adam. Do you remember how God cursed Satan in chapter three? He said that the “seed” of the woman would crush Satan’s head. Jesus is the seed of Eve and he did crush Satan. This long genealogy is extremely important for all of the reasons I just listed but especially because it lays the groundwork for the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of Christ.

Furthermore, the whole reason that Luke wrote his gospel was to give his readers certainty in their faith.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled^a among us, ² just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³ Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴ so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

I want to conclude by addressing the young people here—middle school and high schoolers especially. These statistics tell us that most of you have doubts of some kind. Maybe they are few and small, maybe they are many and great. My question to you is this: what do you plan to do with your doubts? Do you imagine that they will just disappear on their own? If you combine doubts with a seed of rebellion and you choose to do nothing, we will have very few young people left who are following after Christ. Will you let our church help you? Will you let your parents help you?

^aOr been surely believed

^{^[i]}Grudem, Wayne A.: Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich. : Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994, S. 1235