I can’t think of any section of the Bible that is as doubted, maligned, and ridiculed as the opening chapters of Genesis. There are even some professing Christians who claim to love Jesus while doing interpretative backflips around the straightforward storyline presented by these chapters. How the critics scoff at the notions of:

• a Creator God
• a creation week of seven literal days
• an original man and woman who served as the parents of the entire human race
• a talking serpent
• Cain killing Abel
• a worldwide flood
• one family saved aboard an ark

But here’s a question that someone needs to ask all these doubters, particularly the “Christian” doubters: “What did Jesus believe and teach about the opening chapters of Genesis?” Frankly, that answer would surprise a lot of people.

First, Jesus believed and taught that Adam and Eve were real people and that they actually were the parents of the entire human race. When the Pharisees asked Him if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason, Jesus began His answer by taking them all the way back to the origin of the institution of marriage. He asked them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning made them male and female…?” (Matthew 19:4, N.K.J.V.). Obviously, Jesus didn’t promote the ludicrous theory of evolution in regards to the origin of the human race. To the contrary, He said that God created the male and the female.

Second, Jesus believed and taught that God created Adam and Eve at the beginning of creation. Read His opening question to those Pharisees again. Notice that He says that God made Adam and Eve “at the beginning.” Clearly, He is referring to the beginning of creation. Mark’s account of the conversation makes this point even more obvious. That account quotes Jesus as saying, “But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6, N.K.J.V.). Boy, somebody should have told Jesus that the earth is billions of years old and that Adam and Eve, if they existed at all, didn’t come along until a few million years ago!

Third, Jesus believed and taught that God created creation. Any honest reading of His opening words to those Pharisees can produce no other conclusion. Jesus talks about God and creation in the same breath, and He certainly doesn’t use the term “big bang.” You say you need more proof? Okay, read Mark 13:19, which is another quote from Jesus. There He says of the coming tribulation period, “For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor shall ever be” (N.K.J.V.). That can’t be much simpler to understand, can it?

Fourth, Jesus believed and taught that not only did the serpent talk but that Satan was the one who caused it to talk. In John 8:44, Jesus calls Satan “the father of lies” (N.I.V.). Why did Jesus call him that? He did it because Satan told the first lie that ever got told in all of creation. And what was that lie? It was the lie that Satan, speaking through the serpent, told Eve when he said of her and Adam eating the forbidden fruit, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4, N.K.J.V.). For the record, Jesus also believed that Satan had fallen from heaven. In Luke 10:18, He says, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (N.K.J.V.).

Fifth, Jesus believed and taught that not only is the story of Cain and Abel real, it occurred not long from the beginning of creation. In Luke 11:49-51, Jesus says, “Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah…” (N.K.J.V.). Also notice here that Jesus implies that there was no difference between the beginning of creation and the formation of the earth. Both occurred on day one of the creation week. Again, that cuts against every grain of what modern scientists arrogantly assert about the origins of the universe and the earth.

Sixth, Jesus believed and taught the story of the worldwide flood/Noah/the ark. In Matthew 24:37-39, He makes a point of using that story to teach the unexpectedness of His Second Coming. He says, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be” (N.K.J.V.).

In light of all these quotes from Jesus, perhaps one final quote from Him should be conveyed to anyone who claims to know Him as Savior but still doubts the veracity of the opening chapters of Genesis. In John 5:46-47, Jesus says to a group of unbelieving Jews, “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (N.K.J.V.). You might be saying, “Okay, so what were the writings of Moses?” Oh, you know them. They are the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You see, the book of Genesis, complete with its incredible opening chapters, leads off that list. And so, with that in mind, I guess the only real question left to ask right now is, “Do you believe?”