OPENING UP GENESIS

Description

KURT STRASSNER

Genesis is the book of beginnings. But it is also a book about God. “In the beginning God” is the opening freeze-frame of the Bible. If we go back in time before the world sprung into being, we find God. If we ask where the world came from, Genesis answers: God. If we wonder why the universe continues to operate in an orderly, timely, predictable fashion, the answer in Genesis is God. And as we ponder how all this ancient information has been preserved and passed down to us, the answer again is God, who gave this book to Moses and had him write it down for the ages.

Kurt Strassner leads readers through Genesis with clarity and application, showing its vital relevance to our modern world.

Kurt Strassner is pastor of Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio He graduated from the University of Mississippi and attended seminary in Memphis, Tennessee. He is married to Tobey, a homemaker, and together they have three children. Opening up Genesis is his first publication.

Kurt Strassner is an excellent writer and it shows in this commentary on the foundational book of the Bible. He has an easy to read style, lucid, thought-provoking and with much practical application. His grasp of the omnipotent creation of God is most refreshing. The illustrations he uses for the flood and for the fire that came on Sodom and Gomorrah are powerful. Later on in Genesis he searches the mind of Joseph. Just what motivated Joseph as he gave his erring brothers a hard time? Kurt’s ability to keep to the text, to avoid the obvious and make us think is just what we need.
—Erroll Hulse, Associate pastor Leeds Reformed Baptist Church, Editor, Reformation Today

This study guide to Genesis has three primary strengths. First and foremost it shows accurately what Genesis is all about, not simply in summary but in careful detail. This is what thousands of Christians want and sometimes find hard to locate. Second, and almost as important, it is written simply. No one needs to struggle with strange vocabulary and huge sentences in reading this book. This is immensely important in going on with your study. Third, it applies the text to the needs of the reader. Grasping the message of the Bible is not primarily an academic exercise. Pastors and students sometimes forget this. Kurt Strassner has not done so! All in all, you cannot possibly fail to profit from using this fine tool.
—Tom Wells, retired pastor of The King’s Chapel, West Chester, Ohio, author

Some surprising but true to Scripture exegesis and helpful notes gives this commentary the edge over commentaries of its size. Pastor Kurt Strassner is true to the text in Genesis 1-11 emphasising six day creation and endorsing God’s sovereign work over against naturalistic atheism. He is also devotional in tone, making application to the saved and unsaved alike as he does not flinch to bring out the inconsistencies in the lives of some of the greatest people in the Bible. Throughout the book God’s amazing grace, love and providence are clearly dealt with. Use this commentary for small group Bible study, quiet time reflection and sermon preparation.
—Rev Ian McNaughton, Pastor, West Worthing Evangelical Church, West Sussex, and Chairman of AiG (UK/Europe)

Sound and well-written books like those by our ministry friend (and Creation Museum neighbor), Kurt Strassner, are desperately needed today, for the church, by and large, has compromised on the foundational book of the Bible: Genesis.
In a uniquely practical way, Kurt has unpacked the truths of Genesis, the book of the Bible most under attack of all 66 books of Scripture—and a book which is often dismissed by theologians and pastors as allegory or even myth. He shows that Genesis is the foundational book for all Christian doctrine, and that it must be defended against compromise, or the Bible’s foundations are undermined.
—Ken Ham, president of the Creation Museum and Answers in Genesis, KY, USA