The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
~Genesis 2:20-22~

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. Genesis 2 seems to be a separate creation story that many say discredits the first creation account in Genesis 1. This theory has no legitimate grounds. Whereas Moses took us through a museum as a tour guide in Genesis 1, as Calvin put it, he gives us a much more detailed creation account of the sixth day, specifically the creation of man and woman on the sixth day. Genesis 2 is therefore a complimentary creation account, not a substitutionary account. Whereas man is first introduced as one created with authority, man is then reintroduced as one created under authority of a God whom is a craftsman, a gardener, and a builder.[1]

The Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. It was from God’s breath that man became alive. “The word formed describes the activity of a potter forming vessels out of clay—ground and water. The fact that God forms man out of dust reflects man’s lowly origin.”[2]This is not God trying to tear us down, but rather God lifting Himself up. His most prized creation, man, was formed from but dust of the earth, and only has breath in his lungs because the breath originated from God Himself. How inconsequential dust is, yet from it, God saw value.

In the Garden of Eden, there was the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In all of scripture, the latter is a mystery—not much is known about it at all. The Tree of Life, although minimal, is explained elsewhere in scripture. “In the Book of Proverbs it is used to refer to anything which enhances and celebrates life. Thus it is related to righteousness (11:30), desire fulfilled (13:12), and a gentle tongue (15:4). …In Revelation 2:7, the tree of life refers to fellowship with God.”[3]

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. God gives Adam a job, to steward creation. For a second time, Moses iterates that work is good. For God to give Adam a specific job of maintaining the Garden of Eden demonstrates two crucial things. God had predetermined man to be trustworthy of ruling over the garden, and to share in God’s creative plan for the world.

Then, the first three words God speaks to man are written in the scriptures: YOU ARE FREE! God’s plan in creation was to bring forth freedom. God is not a galactic sith lord in a galaxy far, far away thinking up ways to condemn His creation; God is supreme ruler of the world who wants to bless His creation. At least from a comical point of view, the first five words God speaks are, “You are free to eat!” What does man not like to eat? Humor aside, it is plain to see that from the first words spoken to Adam by God demonstrate God’s desire for His creation to live in freedom.

This freedom comes with a warning not to eat of a specific tree. God essentially took man and told him, “Here is what you can eat, and here is what you cannot eat.” Although that perhaps might be too broad, since this one warning was the only restriction in the entire Garden of Eden.

Why restrict from this one tree? The Bible does not answer this question; in fact the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is never again described in all of scripture—what the tree represents is of no concern. What is of concern though is that God is one who sets the standard of how His creation should behave. What is of concern is that God put Himself as the authority over His creation and expects them to live obediently to His terms, the penalty for disobedience being death.

It is also imperative to point out that God warned Adam beforehand about the deadly nature of the tree. God desired for Adam to live in freedom, apart from death, and so He made it abundantly clear to Adam before setting him loose in the Garden, that from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he shall not eat, for in the day that he eats from it he will surely die.

Many opposed to the God of the Bible do so because they view Him as a deity out to get them, looking for ways to watch them suffer, but this passage rams head-on with that faulty worldview—if God was looking for ways to watch His most prized creation suffer, then why did He warn Adam at all? If He truly was a deity looking for ways to watch us suffer, then having placed the tree-of-such-danger in the garden, He would have placed Adam near the tree to entice Adam to eat from it and experience death. That is not; however, what unfolds in the story—God desires to bless His creation with prosperity and longevity—God is shown as a good God, not an evil God.

While God is good, God finds something within His creation that is not good. It is not good for man to be alone, therefore God sought to make a helper suitable for Him. Helper contains no connotations related to slave to, lesser than, or greater than the man. While God made man from dust, God made woman from the man’s rib. This was not by accident!

God did not form the woman from the man’s foot to symbolize the woman’s inferiority to man, God did not form the woman from the man’s head to symbolize the woman’s superiority to man—God formed the woman, in His image, from the man’s side, close to his heart in equality to him. It is unbiblical to suggest that because God created the woman after the man means that women are inferior to men.

To continue, God created women uniquely and intentionally. He created her on purpose, for a purpose, and with a purpose; that purpose is rooted in being a suitable helper to the man, and ultimately the man is to be a suitable helper to the woman. It is also fundamental to a proper understanding of the creation of man to understand the relational aspect between God and His creation. Adam had a personal relationship with God before God even made the woman; comparably, the woman had a personal relationship with God before God brought her to Adam. Once both Adam and the woman had a personal relationship with God they were brought together.

John Piper says that this view “resists the impulses of a chauvinistic, dominating, and abusive culture, on the one side, and the impulses of a sex-blind, gender-leveling, unisex culture on the other side. And we take our stand between these two ways of life not because the middle ground is a safe place (which it is emphatically not), but because we think this is the good plan of God in the Bible for men and women.”[4]

It was after God had established a relationship with Adam and after God had established a relationship with the woman that he brought them together to be in relationship with one another. The terms used compare to a leave and cleave effect. For this reason, a man shall leave his parents to cleave to his new partner. To cleave is to adhere to another in a conventional relationship, comparable in defining terms to the concept of super glue. The becoming of one flesh is unified physically and suggests the progression of events. In other words, a couple should not cleave until they both leave.

Later in scripture, we learn of the temple. The temple is a place where men and women went either to receive their proper role in kingdom of God, or to have the role they presumed to have checked upon. The temple by nature is undefiled by sin, and is characterized by one thing: obedience to God’s Word. Creation is the original Temple of the Lord. It was in this original temple that humanity received its vocation in God’s world. It was in this original temple that humanity was amongst the presence of the Almighty without prior actions. It was in this original temple that humanity was undefiled by sin. It was in this original temple that humanity, while undefiled by sin, still required the special revelation of God to live obediently under.[5]

It was in this original temple that brought forth shalom, a peace far greater than simple peace between two opposing parties. This interconnection between God, humanity, and all of His creation is what brought forth “universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural seeds are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights.”[6] This peace was how God created the world; this peace was God’s desire for the world’s function.

God created us in His image, which has three critical implications involving our relationships with others, Him, and our view of humanity. God created us to live in communication with Him. How unique that God did this with only man. First, God bends down to breathe life into his creation. There is an apparent dialogue where God sees what man lacks and changes it. Man’s response is praise and thanks. How glorious it is that the God who created us desires us to communicate with Him and rely on Him. Even as Adam was still a perfect being, he relied upon the revelation of God for His safety.[7]

The entirety of scripture reveals that the personalities of God are relational with one another, and that He is relational with His creation, therefore since we are created in His image, it is God’s desire for us in creating us that way for us to live relationally with one another. This is not to suggest that God wants us to be sexual deviants, cleaving to anything that walks, but to walk alongside one another in community. The connotations to community do not suggest the relational concept quite well enough in our 21st century western culture.

Being relational with your fellow man is to walk through life with them, equating to the modes of discipleship employed in the first century church after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Live life with each other, opening up your home to others, understanding where in life people are and standing beside them; eating meals with them, studying the scriptures together, going through real life situations in such a way to set an example for how they should go through their own real life situations. To be sure, living relationally with another person is to walk alongside them in their difficulties, and in your difficulties, grounded on a love for God and a desire for those given into your stewardship to be relational with to love God as well.

More so, God created us in His image, and therefore we all have intrinsic value. “Everything that is has value, because while it is not God, it has been made by Him.”[8] Some will argue back that if God created humanity with the same intrinsic value rooted in the same thing—His image—that that intrinsic value is minimized. That claim is false. All humanity has great intrinsic value; it is something that we all share together as God’s most prized creation above all the rest of creation.

Popular culture, more often than not, devalues human life, making it equal with the lives of animals and plants; this is not a biblical concept. To be sure, it is biblical to take care of animals and plants—God has given us stewardship over creation; however, if comparing the two, it is biblical to assert that human life is more important, because human life is made in God’s image.

The pressures of popular culture reign over highly impressionable adolescents every day. Boys are encouraged to eliminate all emotion from who they are at risk of being labeled gay, reducing themselves to solely physical beings—strangely popular culture encourages this labeling, yet also aggressively pushes an agenda of believing the gay label is cool. To be sure, I am not insinuating that gay people are lesser humans (God created them in His image as well), but I am trying to demonstrate popular culture’s contradictory messages.

Girls are encouraged to base their entire self-esteem and worth in their physical appearance, and to believe that there is something inherently wrong with them if they are not attractive. Popular culture’s messaging to girls is contradictory as well. Girls are diminished as objects to be used by boys through means of pornography, over-sexualized music videos, commercial advertisements for burgers, and “beauty” pageants. Popular culture’s notion that these things empower women is far from the truth—if women are objectified, then they are enslaved, not empowered.

In a recent pictorial study, Esther Honig sent her picture to 40 Photoshop artists in different cultures to see if there was a cross-cultural beauty standard. While nearly every cultural illustrator added the appearance of make-up, in the cultures that dominate popular culture (i.e. US, UK, etc.), the specific make-up effects employed involved the thinning of the face, whereas all the other cultures added make-up to emphasize certain features that Ms. Honig already possessed.

These contradictory characterizations may seem extreme, and they are extreme, but they are also real. Having been exposed to nearly a thousand adolescents over the year prior to writing this, I can declare with certainty that the aforementioned contradictory themes that popular culture aggressively employs are very real and extreme pressures towering over adolescents and millennials today, especially women.

God created women in the image of God, taken from the side of man to live relationally with man in equality with man by the man’s side—the woman supporting him and the man supporting her, in a co-dependent partnership. God consistently lifts the role of women in every culture the Bible finds itself in, by recognizing women as human beings of equal value with men, and by presenting them to men as a fulfillment of what is not good in men, with the purpose of helping fill the void of the incapability of men to live on their own.

As we progress through Genesis, we will see this great truth played out in the lives of Eve, Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah; however, one example of this among many all throughout the Bible is found in John 4. Jesus spoke to a woman! This may not seem like the craziest of revelations, but from our historical evidence of this pagan culture, these women were equal to animals; they were property to be used by their male owner, kept if he so chose, or discarded if he so chose. They were not to be talked to by any man other than their owner. Jesus broke down that wall; He had a conversation with her, and offered to her the promise of salvation, the same promise He offered to men. Jesus Christ’s work is living proof that God equates men and women.

God created men and women differently, but also equally. Throughout the Bible, men are seemingly given superiority; but the cultural treatment of women, while wrong, was simultaneously countered by the word of God. As we progress through the Book of Genesis especially, the cultural dynamics of men and women are disturbed after the Fall of Man, and for the rest of the story, as God seeks to reverse the curse cast upon man from the bite of the fruit, women slowly but surely will regain their status as equals.

Moreover, in the consummation of redemption, when we are in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ worshipping God the Father, the gender God gave us on earth will mean nothing. Total equality will ensue—a divine gender equality—undisturbed by a sinful culture geared towards limitation, and enjoyed by those drenched in the freedom by which God desires His most prized creation to live.

[1] Richter, Sandra L. The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2008. Page 93.
[2] Hudson, CHristopher D. Layman's Concise Bible Commentary. Uhrichsville: Barbour Publishing, 2013. Page 7.
[3] Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010. Page 45.
[4] Piper, John. "God Created Man Male and Female: What Does it Mean to be Complementarian?" Desiring God Foundation, desiringGod.org, November 24, 2012.
[5] Leder, Arie C. "Reading the Bible Backwards: From the Ending to its Beginning and Back Again." Calvin Theological Seminary Forum. Vol. 21, Spring 2014. Page 4.
[6] Plantinga, Cornelius. Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. Grand Rapids: Eerdsmans, 1995. Page 10.
[7] Chan, Francis. Multiply. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2012. Pages 146-147.
[8] Erickson, Millard. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2013. Page 356.

The opening verse of the Bible is one of the most known verses in the Bible by believers and nonbelievers all around the world: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth—perhaps its only rival is John 3:16. We put on so much emphasis when we read that verse that we unintentionally skim over a major theological doctrine that all Christians must accept as truth.

In the beginning, God. God’s preexistence is crucial in a proper understanding of who God is. It is logical to say that if God brought everything into existence, then He must have existed prior to that creation. There was nobody present when the physical universe came into existence by God, and therefore nobody can tell us what happened except for God who was there.

Who is this God? While this is still just the first verse of the Bible, the author does not answer that question as the remainder of the chapter unfolds. The author focuses strictly on what this God did. “The author doesn’t pause to tell us theologically or philosophically who God is,” says Francis Chan.[1] There is an obvious and apparent assumption of God’s existence, and is therefore the first truth one must accept from the Bible prior to a proper understanding of the rest.

Later in the Bible, in 2 Timothy 3:16, the scripture states that everything God has revealed to us in the Bible serves a specific purpose, so why would God not seek to reveal who He is in the beginning? The rest of the Bible brings forth more clarity into His attributes and character, but the purpose of Genesis 1 is to establish the origins of the world and physical universe.

“‘God has no origin,’ said Novation, and it is precisely this concept of no-origin which distinguishes that-which-is-God from that-which-is-not-God. Origin is a word that can apply only to things created. When we think of anything that has origin, we are not thinking of God. God is self-existent, while all created things necessarily originated somewhere at some time. Aside from God, nothing is self-caused.”[2]

The earth was formless and empty. The first step of creation after the physical universe (the heavens) was for God to create the earth. The earth was unformed and unfilled, making it an unfinished production by which God spent the following three days forming and the three subsequent days filling to be finished and complete on the seventh day of rest, a symbol reiterated throughout the entirety of scripture.

“Now we know beyond reasonable doubt that the universe of space-time and matter had a beginning. It is now no longer reasonable to believe that the universe has always been here. That is now an irrational belief. Instead, we now know beyond reasonable doubt that the physical cosmos, of matter, and of space, and of time, came into existence some time ago.”[3]

The Spirit of God on the waters is translated in such a way that compares with an eagle hovering over her young. God is not a deity who creates and walks away; He has a specific purpose for His creation and seeks to guide it toward the fulfillment of that purpose. This moving represents God’s guarding and watchful eye over His creation.

“The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. He sat brooding over the scene of his future operations. A dark scene, truly, and one in which there was ample room for the God of light and life to act. He alone could enlighten the darkness, cause life to spring up, substitute order for chaos, open an expanse between the waters, where life might display itself without fear of death.”[4]

Let there be light! It was not an act of God that light became existent, but His word. How fascinating it is that God need not act for something to occur, He need only speak (Heb. 11:3). It takes a truly sovereign ruler to just say let it be and have it come about. “As God’s speech-creature, the world is evoked by this summoning God who will have his way. Creation by such speech shows God’s authority.”[5]

I cannot help but ponder on the world famous ballad Let it Be by the Beatles. In this song, John Lennon speaks of an idealistic utopia of peace and happiness, yet when he says let it be, nothing happens. Perhaps one of the most influential lyricists of all time, a member in a group many claimed to be more famous than God wished something to be and it did not happen. How much greater than is our God!

“One common objection to a traditional reading of Genesis 1 is the creation of light before the creation of the light-bearers. …The real problem with this argument…is that it addresses creation from a purely naturalistic point of view. This interpretation assumes that God is not working outside of the laws of nature.”[6] As Christians, we believe that God spoke the universe into existence, that His Son was born to a virgin, that He lived a perfect life as God manifested in human form where He performed tremendous miracles, and Whom raised to life from death—if we believe those things, we cannot call ourselves naturalists, because believing those things makes us supernaturalists.

How can light exist if God has not yet created light-bearers such as the sun, moon, and stars into place? This is a common argument against the literal interpretation of Genesis 1. The problem, though, with this assessment is it is rooted in a foundation that God is subject to the laws of nature that He created. If God created natural law, and if He exists outside realm of the physical universe, then He has the capability of working outside of that realm and outside those laws.

Coincidentally, later in scripture, we learn that God is light (John 1:5), that God wears a cloak of light (Ps. 104:2) whose radiance is light (Hab. 3:3-4). Moreover, there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever (Rev. 22:5). With a full-biblical understanding, it is entirely possible that in the midst of creating, the mere glory pouring out from Him was the light that lit the unfinished world; almost as if He said, “Let light begin with me and never end.”

In day two and three, God creates the skies below and above the waters. These waters refer to a vapor canopy that many scholars believe would have significantly affected life expectancy. These waters ultimately became the large amount of water that fell to the earth in the Flood. The expanse had a specific purpose of separation; the earth separated from the seas, with the purpose of growing vegetation. God formed the universe and earth, but now the filling needed to occur. 

In day four, the first day of filling, God filled the universe with light-bearers, specifically the sun and moon. God created the sun and moon with a specific purpose of giving light and governing day and night.

In day five, the second day of filling, God filled the earth with sea and sky animals. God blessed the animals of the sea and sky with the ability to reproduce. This is not the first time a blessing like this is given. God also gave the vegetation the ability to reproduce as well. God’s purpose for His creation was to continue, to bless it with prosperity and longevity; in the first part of day six, God filled the earth with dry-land animals with that same blessing.

Before moving forward, go back to verse one: In the beginning, God. In Hebrew, the word that we get God from is Elohim. Elohim is a plural noun. This is not by accident! Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. If God was the only being in existence prior to creation, then whom is God equating Himself with in this introduction to the origins of man? This is not by accident!

God created man in His own image. How is God simultaneously singular and plural? Those with a church background are putting the pieces together for the doctrine of the trinity. To be certain, if considering the passages contained within the first chapter of Genesis, the doctrine of the trinity is not conclusive; however, with a view of the entire scripture, these passages do great justice to that doctrine. To be sure, the creation of man was in the image of all three personalities of the one triune God.

What is the image of God? We are not told directly; however, whatever the image of God is, it makes man unique from all the rest of creation, because it was only man that God created in His own image. With the entirety of scripture in mind, it is likely that the image of God refers specifically to God’s spiritual and moral nature.

“In his spiritual likeness, man as a regenerated being may have fellowship with God; in his natural likeness, man has intellect, emotions, and will to know and commune with God; in his moral likeness, man may know and obey the precepts of God.”[7] God gives man responsibility over the creation that He created. The image of God in man is a capacity for creation, meaning the power to create from His raw creation (Heb. 11:3).

Just as He did with the vegetation and animals, God blessed man with specific purposes. God blessed man with sex—therefore populate the earth. What is interesting about this is it is not a required act for man, but a gift for man. This means that God has not called all of humanity to have children, but He did specifically call the first man and woman to have children. Later in scripture, in First Corinthians 7:8 we see Paul empower those called to singlehood, and to be sure, Jesus Christ, who we worship as our Savior, was a virgin. So certainly, God’s blessing of sex was not a mandate to all of humanity, but a gift.

God blessed man with dominion over creation. This concept of dominion implicates responsibility and management over the creation, rather than dictatorship and exploitation. Many in the Church today outright deny scientific claims because they risk being associated with the evolutionist worldview; however, where they miss the point is that if God created science, then science should not dictate what we believe of the Bible, but serve as observable evidence for the claims made in the Bible.

While the subject of science will return in a later lesson, it is important to point out that in the past decade, major scientific claims have been made about the earth, and they allege that the cause is from man’s actions. As Christians, we should take those claims seriously, because God has blessed us with stewardship over His creation. God gave us creation—we should use it, not abuse it.

Theologian John Calvin writes, “In the very order of events, we ought diligently on the paternal goodness of God toward the human race, in not creating Adam until he had liberally enriched the earth with all good things. Had he placed him on an earth barren and unfurnished; had he given life before light, he mind have seemed to pay little regard to his interest. But now that he has arranged the motions of the sun and stars for man’s use, has replenished the air, earth, and water, with living creatures, performing the office of a provident and industrious head of a family, he has shown his wondrous goodness toward us.”[8]

Finally, the pinnacle of the creation account given to us is on day seven with three blessings. God saw all that He created and it was all very good. Since there is no authority over God, God is therefore justified in determining what is good. We see this all throughout scripture: God is the determiner of what is good; He is the standard-bearer in what is acceptable behavior for His creation.

God rested on this seventh day. He rested because He worked, not because He was tired. God enjoyed the satisfaction and repose that comes with the completion of a task. God blessed the seventh day; He sanctified it. Sanctified is one of those words Christians throw around, seemingly without knowing what it actually means. For God to sanctify the seventh day was for Him to make the seventh day set apart from the rest for a distinct purpose of remembering His holiness.

Given later in the Ten Commandments, God required His people Israel to stop all life functions on the Sabbath as a reminder that He was really in charge. Just the same, Christians today should incorporate rest into their lifestyles to remember that God holds all things together. While the laws on Sabbath are not required of Christians today, Christians should elevate one day a week above the other days as a reminder to us that in six days God created everything, and rested on one day to enjoy His work. The specific day you take is less important than the actual taking of a day to remember God’s great work.

God is already in control of your life, whether you acknowledge it or not. He has been in control of your life since before He brought anything into existence (Ps. 139:16). So why should you give God total control of your life if He already has control? To relate this topic, why does the Bible tell us in 1 John 1:9 directly, and various other places indirectly, to confess our sins to God if the Bible also says in Hebrews 4:13 directly, and various other places indirectly, that He knows everything? Confession to God is not about information; it is about transformation. Confessing sins acknowledges God’s role as superior and our role as inferior, and in so doing, humbles us into a life lived within the will of God.

Just the same, giving total control over to God is not about an exchange or transfer of power or sovereignty over our lives from us to Him, because He already has that power. Giving total control over to God is about recognizing His role as the Creator, and our role as His creation. Doing so gives us a peace, because we are no longer trying to fill the role of a sovereign being with tasks that surpass our own abilities. When we recognize God as the sovereign ruler of our life, we can experience the Sabbath rest that He sought us to have, so that our work can have lasting, intrinsic value, and so we may not fear the curveballs that life may pitch our way.

What does recognizing God as the sovereign ruler of our life look like in real life? To put into simple understanding, it is listening to the special revelation of God given to us at various stages of life and applying it to our life. One form of special revelation is the Word of God, given specifically to teach us, rebuke us, correct us, and train us for a life lived in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16).

While the other forms shown in the Bible (i.e. dreams, visits from angels, etc.) are less common in the modern age, the second largest form is listening to the preaching of God’s Word. If our hearts are prepared to adjust our lives based on what God reveals to us in scripture, then we will be equipped to submit to God’s sovereignty. If our hearts are prepared to adjust our lives based on what God reveals to us through His faithful servants who interpret the Bible, then we will be equipped to submit to God’s sovereignty. In the beginning, God spoke specific things about life and they occurred. Just the same, when God speaks specific things to us, they need to occur in our life. When we submit to God’s Word, His sovereignty will transform our desires and lives.

[1] Chan, Francis. Multiply. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2012. Page 140.
[2] Tozer, A.W. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York: Harper Collins, 1961. Page 25.
[3] Moreland, J.P. "The Age of Earth." Editorial. Reason to Believe: Reasons.Org, 2, Feb., 2002.
[4] Mackintosh, Charles Henry. Notes on the Book of Genesis. Philadelphia: Henry Longstreth, 1863. Page 6.
[5] Brueggemann, Walter. Genesis: Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982. Page 24.
[6] Heck, Joel D. In the Beginning, God: Creation from God's Perspective. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing, 2011. Pages 20-21.
[7] Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Chicago: Moody, 2008. Page 42.
[8] Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Seattle: Pacific Publishing Studio, 2011. Page 76.