Walking in the Garden

There is intimacy between God and humans from the moment God forms Adam from the dust of the ground and breathes life into his body (Gen. 2:7). The Lord blesses Adam and Eve, speaks with them, commands them, and offers them dominion over the created order. All is well until the serpent enters the scene. He deceives Eve, who successfully beckons Adam to disobey God. At the point of sin, everything changes.

Even so, there is an interesting encounter between God and his fallen human creatures beginning in Genesis 3:8. Adam and his wife hear the sound of the Lord walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hide from him. This is the earliest theophany in Scripture after the Fall, and it indicates a physical manifestation of the Lord.

Could this also be the first recorded Christophany – the first appearance of the preincarnate Christ? We can’t say with certainty. He is not depicted as the angel of the Lord in this passage. But God does appear physically and speaks personally with Adam and Eve. He asks them questions in which they confess their sin, although they also make excuses for it.

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ARTICLE I of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000: The Scriptures

The Bible is God’s revelation of himself to man and is a perfect treasure of divine instruction.

Article I of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 reads:

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation. 

Four key truths

We know the Bible as the word of God. That means God is the source of Scripture, revealing truths we are incapable of knowing without divine help. The Bible is special revelation in that it is a record of God’s work before time, in time, and beyond time, with a particular emphasis on creation, sin, redemption, and restoration.

As such, Scripture complements God’s general revelation, which all people witness in creation and conscience (Rom. 1:18-32; 2:14-16).

Let’s break down Article I of the BF&M by briefly exploring four key truths Southern Baptists embrace with respect to the Scriptures.

First, the Bible is inspired. The apostle Paul writes, “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The phrase “inspired by God” comes from the Greek word theopneustos. It means “God-breathed” and conveys the idea that Scripture is the product of a holy exhalation.

God did not breathe into the Scriptures, thus inspiring them; he breathed out his word. The Bible’s origin is God himself.

Theologian Charles Ryrie defines inspiration this way: “God superintended the human authors of the Bible so that they composed and recorded without error His message to mankind in the words of their original writings.”

By superintendence, we do not mean that God dictated his word to human stenographers, as Muhammad claimed of the Qur’an (via the angel Gabriel). Rather, God breathed out his word, enabling the human authors to use their own writing styles, backgrounds, experiences, and ideas to put in written form the very thoughts of God, thus ensuring their accuracy.

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Jacob meets the angel of the LORD

Previously, we explored Abraham and Sarah’s encounters with the angel of the LORD. Now, we learn about three visits Jacob has with the angel, including Jacob’s classic wrestling match with the pre-incarnate Christ.

The angel appears to Jacob

Genesis 28:10-22

Isaac has blessed Jacob and sent him to find a wife from the family of Jacob’s uncle, Laban. While on his journey, Jacob stops for the night and, having fallen asleep, experiences a most remarkable dream. He sees a ladder extending from earth into heaven. Angels are moving up and down the ladder. Above it all (or perhaps beside Jacob; English translations differ) stands Yahweh, who identifies himself as “the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac” (Gen. 28:13). 

The LORD promises Jacob and his offspring the land on which he sleeps. He also assures Jacob of descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth. And he promises that all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through Jacob and his descendants. Finally, the LORD tells Jacob, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (v. 15).  The description of the LORD as standing evokes images of a human-like figure, so it’s possible we are witnessing a Christophany.

Lending credence to this view is Jesus’ conversation with Philip and Nathanael in John 1:51. Jesus says to these disciples, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Perhaps Jesus is urging his new followers to see him as the one who appeared to Jacob in the vision, especially as he connects the heavenly ladder with the Son of Man. 

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What Is The Baptist Faith & Message?

During the 2021 Annual Meeting of Missouri Baptists in Branson, Missouri, messengers adopted a resolution encouraging all Missouri Baptist pastors “to consistently provide instruction to their congregations on the content of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.”

The resolution cited general unfamiliarity with The Baptist Faith & Message (BF&M). It also said agreement on the gospel and the core doctrines of our faith is essential both for unity and effective Great Commission work. Finally, the resolution noted that the BF&M 2000 is “the accepted guiding statement of faith for the Southern Baptist Convention.”

The missionary staff of the Missouri Baptist Convention offers the following study in support of this resolution. At the same time, we believe the confessional statements in the BF&M are vital, not only to Missouri Baptists, but to all Southern Baptists and our cooperative work of obeying the Great Commission. Our goal is to help pastors and other church leaders equip their members to understand the biblical truths that unite us as Southern Baptists. This is the first in a series of columns exploring the BF&M.

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Abraham and Sarah’s encounters with the angel of the LORD

Previously, we examined Hagar’s visits with the angel of the LORD. Now, we turn to the angel’s encounters with Abraham and Sarah.

To Abram

Genesis 17:1-22 

After the angel of the LORD’s visit to Hagar in Genesis 16, Yahweh appears to Abram saying, “I am God Almighty [el Shaddai]. Live in my presence and be blameless. I will set up my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you greatly” (Gen. 17:1-2). We are not told how Yahweh appears, yet this seems to be a visible manifestation, for Abram twice falls facedown as God speaks with him. So, it’s possible Yahweh appears as the angel of the LORD, but we are not explicitly told so. 

In any case, the LORD lays out his covenant promises to Abram: (1) Abram is to become the father of many nations; (2) his name is no longer Abram, but Abraham, with a portion of God’s name – YHWH – given to him; (3) God is to make Abraham extremely fruitful so that nations and kings come to him; (4) God makes a permanent covenant promise to be Abraham’s God and the God of his offspring; and (5) God promises to give all the land of Canaan as a permanent possession to Abraham and his descendants (Gen. 17:3-8).

Then, God orders Abraham and his male descendants to be circumcised as a permanent sign of the covenant (Gen. 17:9-14). He also announces that Sarai’s name is now Sarah, which means “Princess.” Again, note the portion of YHWH given to her. God is to bless her with a son in her old age, and “she will produce nations; kings of peoples will come from her” (Gen. 17:16).

When Abraham wonders how a hundred-year-old man and a ninety-year-old woman can possibly bear children, the LORD assures Abraham that his covenant is not through Ishmael but through a child yet to come, a child they are to name Isaac. God promises to confirm the covenant with Isaac, who is to be born the next year (Gen. 17:19-21). 

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