1 October 2012
All righty, since I have had a lot of questions about my last post here is another one to try and explain. To get a full picture please read this whole post, (even though its long) *added note* I have decided not to do a part 2. If you would like a question answered just leave a comment and I will get back to you*
So, to start off, let me give a brief overview of the first part of Genesis in the Bible.
Creation:
Genesis1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.”
God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and eternal. He created the heavens and the earth by just His voice.
Continuing, Genesis 1:2-3 says “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.”
So the earth was nothing. And then God spoke, and created the earth. He spoke saying, “Let there be light” and He had created light.
Genesis 1:4-5 “And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”
God saw His creation and called it “good”. He made day and night. Because of the phrasing, “There was evening and morning, the first day” it shows that He is talking about 24-hour days, not billions of years. So, on the first day God created the heavens and the earth, and He created Night and Day.
In Genesis 6-8 God divided the waters and made the sky and the sea (for lack of a better word). He said, “and there was evening and morning, the second day.”
In Genesis 9-10 God said, “‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good” Meaning He made the land and seas. In Genesis 11-13 He goes on to say, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth” and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and morning, the third day.” So He also created plants on this day. Each plant and tree was fully formed, with seeds and everything. It did NOT take millions of years as some claim. So on the third day God created Land, Sea, and Vegetation.
(because I am short on time and space, I will just provide an overview of the rest. If you would like to read the account for yourself, I used the ESV Bible, and Genesis is the first book)
In verses 14-17 God created the sun, moon and stars, the fourth day.
In verses 20-23 He created sea creatures and birds, the fifth day.
In verses 24-31 God created animals, and He created Adam.
And God rested on the seventh day. Not because he had to, but he wanted to, and he made that day holy. And God called all of his work “good”, which means, because He is a perfect God, He had created a perfect world, with no sin or death.
Later on in chapter 2 God created Eve.
The Fall:
Chapter 3 describes the fall of man. God had told Adam and Eve that they may eat of any tree except the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the tree, bringing sin into the world. They were banished from the Garden of Eden.
There is more about the fall (please read the account for yourself!), but that is for another post.
The Flood:
Moving on, after several hundred years, the earth had become so corrupt that there was only one man who still honored the Lord.
Genesis 6:5 says “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
(this is the shortened version, the whole account is in Genesis 6-9)
So God had Noah build an ark, and Noah’s family and 2 of every kind of animal went aboard the ark, and God sent a flood that destroyed the earth. After a long time, they were able to leave the ark. God made a rainbow as a sign of His covenant with Noah to never destroy the world through a flood again.
Tower of Babel:
Genesis 9:1says, “And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”, which leads to the next part of Genesis. @burrfoot asked, “...then somehow populated the world but forgot their native tongue and took on different genetic appearances?”
Well, @burrfoot, all the background I’ve given you has been leading up to this question. The answer? The Tower of Babel. Man decided to build a tower leading up to heaven so they would not be scattered, which was in direct disobedience to God’s command. So God confused their languages and scattered them across the earth. Thats why we have different languages. As for different appearances, they adapted to their region, and since they were isolated, different dominant traits were passed down. Now, I am no science major, so I can’t explain exactly. That’s one thing y’all will have to study yourself if you want to know more.
General Questions:
Now, @swj said, “but then maybe the creation of the earth in 6 days is not in a literal sense, and if created by God and we don’t put the limitations on ‘A God’ that we put on mankind is it not possible for it to be done?”
That is a great point @swj! Because we are finite beings, we simply cannot comprehend, or even begin to fathom an infinite God.
@burrfoot, when I say I believe the whole bible, I do not mean that the WHOLE bible is meant to be taken in a literal sense. Several passages in the bible are poetry, analogies, and parables. However, the Genesis account IS talking about a literal, 24 hour day. And no, I don’t believe that medical intervention is against the word of God. God gave us dominion over the earth. I believe that we are exercising that dominion by learning all we can about the world we live in through science. Yes, ultimately it’s up to God, but taking tylenol for a headache is NOT against GOd’s word :) As to which parts I take literally and how far, it would take WAY to long to list them ALL. However, the most important parts I take literally are
1) The creation account in Genesis. Also the Worldwide Flood
2) Jesus is the Son of God
3) Jesus died, was buried, and rose again 3 days later
As far as I am concerned, those are the most important. If you would like to take a specific passage in the Bible and ask me what I think, I would be happy to tell you:)
The last comment I am going to address in this post is this:
@burrfoot said, “Also, why in 6 days? An omnipresent God could do anything in a blink of an eye...Why six days? Also, why rest? That suggests a human like need to recuperate and therefor suggests frailty...and after all that work in a week 6 thousand (?) years ago...why no adjustments, what did God do before He created everything and what’s his next project?”
Well, @burrfoot, all I can say is I’m not God. Yes, God can do anything He wants in a blink of eye, but that doesn’t mean He has to. It’s kind of like this; I would love a hand-made, crocheted blanket. I could go an buy one just like that, or (because I love to crochet) I can take my time and make it myself, enjoying every minute. God did the same thing (sort of), rather than do it all at once, He took the time because He enjoyed it. Why did He rest? Because He wanted to enjoy what he created. Why, after all that work, make no adjustments? How do you know He hans’t made any? All that to say, I am not God, so I don’t know what His plans are, why He did it the way He did, or what His “next project” is. I do know that the Bible tells us that We (those who have believed and are His children) will reign with him forever. We, as finite beings, can’t possibly fathom “forever” or even life after death.
One more thing: @swj, you said the bible has many contradictions. If you will name a few, I will answer :)
Thank you all for commenting! And thank you for keeping it clean and civil! I will address the rest of the comments in Part 2! Thank you for reading!
Answers To Comments From "Religion?" aka, Overview Of Creation • Opuss № I