Earticle

The purpose of this article is to diagnose how the Book of Genesis is treated and preached by local pastors from the pulpit setting, apart from the academic arena, and also to demonstrate how preaching can drift away from the original intentions of the author of Genesis if it is not supported by sound exegesis. This article addresses several representative categories of errors that often occur in the preaching setting and furthermore, highlights the importance of exegesis as a foundation to a sound sermon. The errors introduced in this article are: Generalizing, Exemplarizing, Moralizing, Allegorizing, and Spiritualizing. This article utilizes actual sermons on Genesis that were published by highly reputable preachers in this country and to which each of these errors apply with varying degrees. This article also analyzes and evaluates the sermons to show precisely where these errors crept in, and when possible, provides an alternative exegesis of the passage by deriving the message, which naturally surfaces from this process. This article emphasizes to seek the true message of Genesis that was intended by its author and not to replace the main message with secondary elements. Once we determine the message of Genesis, we can safely build relevancy of that message to the 21st century audience.