"Marry a Zombie"

Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible came in and taught last Monday. It was really good stuff. Over the next few Monday nights he’s going to be teaching through the first eleven books of Genesis. I took six pages of notes on just the first two chapters—and filled in over half of my margins in my Bible.

The coolest thing he pointed out was all in the first sentence of the Bible. Genesis 1:1. A verse I memorized ages ago but never realized just how much that one sentence says. As a writer, I’m thoroughly impressed by how much is jammed in there. Allow me to demonstrate.

The Verse: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Simple, yes? But there is more than meets the eye.

In the beginning=Time
God=the preexistent, prime mover
Created=movement, something started (specifically, the Hebrew word “bara” indicates making something from nothing)
Heavens=space
Earth=matter

So that first sentence says that before there was time, there was a preexistent, prime mover (God) who began time and then proceeded to form space and matter from nothing. That sounds nice enough but when you list all the philosophies that one sentence debunks it is rather impressive.

Atheisim—there is no God
Agnosticism—no idea if there’s a god or not
Materialism—matter is eternal
Polytheism—many gods
Humanism—man is chief
Liberalism—God evolves according to the intelligence of the people
Dualism—two equal and opposite powers
Pantheism—everything is god
Naturalism—creation is divinity
Evolution—stuff came about over time
Henotheism—like the religions of Rome and Greece
Deism—a disconnected God

In one sentence! God lays the foundation for everything in that one first sentence. I’m still “geeking out” about that.

Oh, and the whole “Marry a zombie” thing? Tommy Nelson was talking about how we girls needed to marry a “nail pierced man,” that is, one who can say with confidence that they have been crucified with Christ and therefore no longer live (Gal 2:20). So marry the living dead. :-)