01 -- Where do you come from?
Today we live in a unique time in history. Never before, have so many people lived together on our planet earth. And every year many millions of people are added to this world population. Humans have discovered and populated nearly the farthest reaches of our planet earth. With the help of telescopes both on earth and on satellites in outer space they have made breathtaking discoveries in the world of moons, planets, stars, stellar clusters, galaxies and clusters of galaxies. With the help of microscopes and cleverly used chemicals and minute beings, like viruses, they have uncovered incredibly dynamic structures in our bodies and in the bodies of other living beings: how the organs of our bodies work, how they are composed of many, many cells, how each cell is made up of uncountable huge and unbelievably complex bio-molecules, with the most complex one living and ruling from the nucleus of each cell. In addition clever and hard working engineers have made inventions that led to the production of fast cars, huge airplanes, powerful rockets, complex computers and the easy to use Smartphone, which allows us to get in contact with people all over the globe instantaneously through the world wide web of cables and wireless communication antennas. However, at the same time we have never seen more refugees on our planet earth, fleeing wars, famines, unemployment and social injustice in many countries. Also many people are suffering from diseases, malnutrition and famine, often having to live in great need.
From where do all these human beings come, who on the one hand have made breathtaking advances, but on the other side have also brought incredible suffering and suppression of fellow humans? Where do we all come from? Where do you come from?
Of course you come from your parents (no matter if you know them or not) and they from their respective parents, who are your grandparents, and so on generation before generation back into the inscrutable past. But how far can you go with this chain of generations? Is there a beginning to all this? Different answers have been given to such questions. Many, especially in South and East Asia, have taught that all humans and in fact all of being is just an illusion involving an unending series of deaths and reincarnations and we have to escape these endless cycles with the help of observing strict rules including meditations. Others in the past, especially natural philosophers for many centuries in Europe, have taught that there was no beginning and that humans have been around forever. More recently a growing proportion of secular people worldwide, following the teachings of non-religious and sometimes anti-religious scientists, believe that humans and apes descended from common ape-like ancestors through what they call evolution.
However, God in his revelation to Moses in the Torah says NO to all such teachings. He has revealed to the Sons of Jacob that all humans are descendants of one man and one woman, Adam and Eve, whom he created in the beginning, more than 6000 years ago. In the following pages we invite you to read about and reflect on this teaching of God that has influenced the lives of billions of people living on earth today. You find His teaching in the first pages of the Torah of Moses, which is at the beginning of the Bible.
As we follow this teaching of God in the first chapters of the book of Moses, we will not only find the reason for the suffering and increasing ungodliness among humans in our world today, but also the beginning of God's plan of salvation, which today offers salvation to all those who open up to and believe in this free salvation offered to us by the God of the Bible.
PRAYER: Almighty God, we live in an incredible and bewildering world. Many discoveries and inventions are captivating and influencing us daily. Help us listen to what you teach through your faithful servant Moses. Let us understand and appreciate how you, out of love, established human life through Adam and Eve. Prepare our hearts and minds to accept and be obedient to your teachings so that we can partake in the eternal life, which you offer us freely through Jesus Christ. Amen.