(Re: Has not evolutionary mutation from one species to another never been shown, even with our vast fossil collection?)
You will have to take that up with an evolutionary scientist, who could disagree with you. The point of what was presented above is that no matter how many evolutionary mutations from one species to another can be shown from science's vast fossil collection, this does not contradict Biblical Creationism. For evolution per se (random mutation and survival of the fittest) can be a God-created, natural process which coexists with Him sometimes creating new species miraculously and instantaneously. So Christians do not need to waste their time trying to disprove evolution per se.
~
(Re: Can you take a bunch of dogs and keep breeding until you get a cat?)
Theoretically you could, gradually, over millions of years, if enough different mutations occurred in the DNA of two separated populations of dogs living in different environments, to the point where natural selection began to gradually move one population of dogs toward being more like cats, because that made them better adapted to their environment. And if this process continued to the point where the cat-like population of dogs could no longer breed with the other population of dogs, then the cat-like population would be declared a new species.
~
(Re: Does any system left uncontrolled always move from order to disorder?)
Are you referring to entropy? If so, entropy applies not to "control", but to energy, and only to a closed system as a whole, not to a subsystem which is taking in energy from a larger system. For example, life on earth remains orderly not because it is "controlled" by the sun, but because it has the sun as an external source of energy.
~
(Re: Has not carbon dating been shown to be inaccurate?)
You will have to take that up with a carbon-dating scientist, who could disagree with you. The point of what was presented earlier is that no matter how accurate carbon dating is, just as no matter how accurate other, much longer-term, radioactive-decay dating methods are, even a 4.5 billion year old earth does not contradict Biblical Creationism, because there could have been a 4.5 billion-year gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3-31. So Christians do not need to waste their time trying to disprove an old earth.
~
(Re: Are not fossils able to form in just a few years?)
Can you quote the details from the scientific, peer-reviewed paper which claimed that "fossils" which formed in a few years were equivalent to fossils which science says formed over millions of years?
~
(Re: Were not canyons the size of the Grand Canyon formed in just a few years at Mount St. Helens?)
Can you quote the details from the scientific, peer-reviewed paper which claimed that canyons at Mount St. Helens were equivalent to the Grand Canyon? For example, do the walls of the former consist of solid rock like the latter, or only of soft ash? And are the walls of the former a mile high? Also, what caused the former canyons? Simply water-flow like with the latter, or also huge earthquakes, landslides, and lava flows connected with the last volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens?
~
(Re: How could God have done such a thing as evolution and not written about it in His Book?)
The Bible does not contain a lot of things which God did (John 21:25). For example, where is His amazing design of cellular metabolism written about in the Bible? Also, the earth's crust is like God's book in that He created it to gradually form geological layers, which contain a lot of information regarding past life on the earth, in the form of fossils.
~
(Re: How could God do something which is not necessary?)
Do you believe that Creation itself was necessary, and not just for God's pleasure (Revelation 4:11)?
~
(Re: Is not using millions of years totally unnecessary when creating the universe as God did?)
Do you believe that humans, animals, and plants today developing naturally over years (from zygotes and seeds) is necessary, when God could instantaneously create them all fully-formed?
~
(Re: Did not either God create everything, or everything happened through chance evolution, so that any blending of the two is an insult to God?)
No, for evolution per se does not require that everything happened by chance. And the coexistence of the miraculous, instantaneous creation of some species with the evolution of other species is not an insult to God, because evolution can be a God-created, natural process. And if it is, then denying its existence would be an insult to God as its Creator.
~
(Re: Where does God feature exactly in your proposition?)
He features as the Creator (John 1:3), both by miraculous means and by means of His created process of natural evolution.
~
(Re: Maybe He creates some type of mechanism for positive mutation within the genome, then removes it somewhere down the line?)
With regard to any one, particular random mutation, God could either miraculously remove it, or He could let it remain to work within His created process of natural evolution. If the latter, the mutation could either become extinct naturally over time, because it provided no benefit, or it could work to improve the chances of survival of an organism within a particular environment, and so be perpetuated naturally into the next generation.
~
(Re: Perhaps He miraculously intervenes at every point in history?)
He could do that if He wanted to. Or, He could usually just let natural processes do what He created them to do.
~
(Re: Are you proposing that there was evolution first, then everything which evolved was destroyed, then God recreated everything miraculously?)
Yes, except that some miraculous creation could have coexisted with evolution from the beginning. Also, evolution per se should be distinguished from abiogenesis. For evolution per se (random mutation of life and survival of the fittest individuals) does not require abiogenesis (that life itself arose solely by chance from non-living matter). That is, it could have been God who miraculously created the earliest, one-celled life-forms, and then let them develop naturally by His created process of evolution into different, more complex life-forms over millions of years.
Or, God could have miraculously set things up so that in certain environments, atoms would form molecules, which would form chemicals, which would form cells, which would form nucleic acids, which would be able to replicate themselves and mutate randomly.
Indeed, God could have set things up so that atoms themselves would form. For physicists point out that if the fundamental constants of the universe (for example, Planck's constant, or the strength of subatomic electric charges, or the strength of the strong nuclear force, or the strength of gravity, etc.) were off by even a little bit, matter would not have been able to form and coalesce as we know it, and so life as we know it would never have been possible. This is called the "Anthropic Cosmological Principle", meaning that we humans only exist today because the universe was exactly tuned to make our existence possible. Atheists then have only two choices to explain our existence. It is either just an almost-impossible coincidence, one chance out of an infinite number of other possibilities for how the universe could have been tuned. Or, there must be an infinite number of other universes, almost all of which are lifeless. Either way, atheists cannot explain how any universe could even exist at all without the existence of God.
(See Romans 1:20 below)
--
*Genesis 2:7 / *Gen. 2:7 -
(Re: How were our *spirits made?)
Our spirits were made by God breathing His Spirit into our physical bodies (cf. Genesis 2:7, Isaiah 42:5b).
(See also 1 Thessalonians 5:23 below)
--
*Genesis 2:11 / *Gen. 2:11 -
(Re: Did you use the local-land idea to hide the fact that in Genesis 1, plants are made, then man, whereas in Genesis 2, man is made, then plants?)
No, that fact was indicated via the words "after" which were underlined in paragraphs 4-5 of Genesis 1(space) above.
~
(Re: The same Hebrew word for "land" is used to describe Noah's Flood. So was it just local too?)
Noah's Flood could have been global, whereas Genesis 2:5-25 was local. For the same Hebrew word ('erets: H0776) can be used to describe something either global or local, just as, for example, our English word "earth" can refer either to the globe or to a local area of land, such as one which suffers an "earthquake". That is why the same Hebrew word translated as "earth" in Genesis 1:1, referring to the globe, can be translated elsewhere as "land", such as in Genesis 2:11, referring to a local area of land, in this case the land of Havilah.
--
*Genesis 2:12 / *Gen. 2:12 -
(Bdellium / H0916)
See section 2 of Numbers 11:7 below.
--
*Genesis 2:17b / *Gen. 2:17b -
This was not a false statement. For it meant that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make Adam mortal that same day. That is, from that day forward, he would surely die, eventually. Also, even though Adam lived almost 1,000 years (Genesis 5:5), to God even 1,000 years are like one day (2 Peter 3:8).
Adam was not mortal until he sinned (Romans 5:12).
--
*Genesis 3 / *Gen. 3 -
This does not require that Adam and Eve were created with flaws. For while choosing to commit a sin is always wrong, just having the ability to choose to commit a sin is not a flaw in itself, but is a necessary component of free will. Lucifer was created perfect, without any flaws (Ezekiel 28:15a), yet he wrongly employed his free will to eventually commit rebellion against God (Ezekiel 28:15b, Isaiah 14:12-14).
~
(Re: The *devil's theology)
The devil's theology is to contradict God's Word with something which sounds better to humans, to deceive them into rejecting God's will (Genesis 3:1-6, Matthew 16:21-23; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3-4).
(See also paragraph 3 of section 5 of Matthew 4:4 below)
~
(Re: Does Adam's fall prove that a works/obedience-based system must result in the loss of salvation for all?)
No, for when people become Christians, they break off their connection with the first, disobedient Adam, and instead become connected with the last Adam, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45, Romans 5:14-21), who is perfectly obedient (Hebrews 4:15), and who makes it possible for Christians to be obedient unto their ultimate salvation (Hebrews 5:9, Matthew 25:21, Romans 2:6-7; 2 Peter 1:10-11).
(See also Ephesians 2:8 below)
--
*Genesis 3:11a / *Gen. 3:11a -
God asks Adam: "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" (Genesis 3:11a). And yet even before Adam's fall into sin, would not Adam have seen God wearing clothes whenever God walked in the garden with him (Genesis 3:8a)? And so how could Adam not have known, by contrast, that he was naked? It could be that before his fall into sin, Adam saw no problem with his nakedness (Genesis 2:25), like how a very young child running around naked in his back yard can have no problem with his nakedness, even though he can see his parents wearing clothes at the same time. But after Adam's fall into sin, he became ashamed of his nakedness (Genesis 3:7,10).
(See also 2 Corinthians 5:3 below)
--
*Genesis 3:15 / *Gen. 3:15 -
This could be understood as follows: "And I will put enmity between thee [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between thy seed [those who will never be saved, e.g. John 8:42-47] and her seed [Christ, and those whom He would save through His death, Isaiah 53:10]; it [Christ and those whom He would save] shall bruise thy head [Romans 16:20], and thou shalt bruise his heel [Satan would get Christ killed through Judas; Luke 22:3-6]".
--
*Genesis 3:20 / *Gen. 3:20 -
This does not say or mean that Eve is the mother of "every creature", like how Jesus Christ, as God, is the Creator of every creature (Colossians 1:15-16, John 1:1,3). Instead, Genesis 3:20 simply means that Eve would become the mother (Genesis 3:16) of "all living" (Genesis 3:20) humans. For all living humans are descended from Noah (Genesis 7:21 to 9:19), who was descended from Eve and Adam (Genesis 3:20, Genesis 5:3-29).
--
*Genesis 4:9a / *Gen. 4:9a -
This does not contradict that God is omniscient. For He can ask someone a question when He already knows the answer (John 6:5-6).
(See also section 3 of Mark 13:32 below)
--
*Genesis 5:4 / *Gen. 5:4 -
(Re: Did Cain and Abel marry their sisters?)
While Genesis 5:4 does mention other sons and daughters of Adam besides Seth, it does not say that Cain and Abel married their full sisters. To avoid Cain and Abel having to commit incest, God could have allowed them to marry only daughters of other humans descended from a race of humans created by God thousands of years before He created Adam.
(See the "Gap" part of Genesis 1(space) above)
--
*Genesis 5:24 / *Gen. 5:24 -
(Re: Will we be raptured before the future Tribulation, like *Enoch was raptured before the Flood?)
No, for Enoch was not translated into heaven so that he would not have to go through the Flood (along with righteous Noah and his family in the ark: 2 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 3:20). For Enoch (Noah's great-grandfather) was translated 669 years before the Flood.
The way that we can know this is first by knowing when Noah's flood happened:
Noah's flood occurred about 2458 BC. This is based on Bible verses which make it possible to work back from the year BC that Solomon's temple began to be built.
(See "Historians say" under the "chronology" section of Genesis 1(space) above, and see the top half of the chronology, down to Genesis 11:12)
...And Arphaxad had been born two years after the Flood (Genesis 11:10).
So all we have to do is add up the numbers of years above to see that Noah's flood occurred about 2458 BC. Then, to determine when Enoch was translated into heaven, we need to work further back. If Arphaxad had been born two years after the Flood, then Arphaxad had been born about 2456 BC. And Arphaxad had been born when his father Shem was 100 (Genesis 11:10). And Shem had been born when his father Noah was 502 (Genesis 11:10, Genesis 7:6). And Noah had been born when his father Lamech was 182 (Genesis 5:28-29). And Lamech had been born when his father Methuselah was 187 (Genesis 5:25). And Methuselah had been born when his father Enoch was 65 (Genesis 5:21).
Adding up the numbers of years above, we see that Enoch was born about 3492 BC. He was translated when he was 365 (Genesis 5:23-24), and so he was translated about 3127 BC, which was 669 years before the Flood. Adding these 669 years to Enoch's age of 365, we find that Enoch was 1,034 years old at the time of the Flood. This means that had he stayed on the earth, he would have almost certainly died from old age before the Flood came (cf. Isaiah 57:1). For Methuselah (Noah's grandfather) was the longest-living person who stayed on the earth, and he died at the age of 969 (Genesis 5:27), the same year as the Flood. For Enoch was born about 3492 BC, and Methuselah was born when his father Enoch was 65 (Genesis 5:21). So Methuselah was born about 3427 BC, and he died 969 years later, which was about 2458 BC, the same year as the Flood.
Methuselah could have died of old age right before the Flood started. God could have waited to bring the Flood until after Methuselah died of old age and was buried. Lamech (Noah's father) had already died some five years before the Flood. For Methuselah was born about 3427 BC, and Lamech was born when his father Methuselah was 187 (Genesis 5:25). So Lamech was born about 3240 BC, and he died 777 years later (Genesis 5:31), which was about 2463 BC, which was five years before the Flood.
~
(Re: Should the *ages of the individuals in Genesis be taken seriously?)
Yes, the ages of the individuals in Genesis (e.g. Genesis 5:5-32, Genesis 11:11-25) should be taken seriously, just as everything else in the Bible should be taken seriously (Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy 3:16). There is no reason not to. For even science has found that, just naturally, some multi-cellular organisms do not experience senescence (see "Biological Immortality"). And it is possible for human cell cultures to live much longer than the current maximum human lifespan of about 120 years (cf. Genesis 6:3). Indeed, human cell cultures can be made to live indefinitely, so that they become "immortal cells". This is accomplished by causing them to express the telomere-lengthening enzyme telomerase, so that the cells do not shorten their telomeres when they divide (normal cells do shorten them, causing the cells to die when their telomeres get too short). The problem with this is that the cells become cancerous. But God would know how to prevent that, even if humans do not yet know how (cf. Luke 18:27).
Perhaps the literal "tree of life" (Revelation 2:7) produces a fruit which contains a substance which, when eaten, causes human cells to express telomerase, without causing cancer.
(See also Revelation 2:7 below)
--
*Genesis 6 / *Gen. 6 -
Original sin (and so universal human mortality) is because of Adam's sin, and not (as is sometimes claimed) because of angelic sin, that is, the bringing of fallen-angelic DNA into human DNA to create the angel/human hybrids called the nephilim, or giants, of Genesis 6.
That is, Romans 5:19a, and not Genesis 6, is the doctrine of original sin.
(See Romans 5:19a below)
--
*Genesis 6:3 / *Gen. 6:3 -
(For that he also is flesh)
Here the "also" seems to say that God was flesh along with humanity. That has been the case since the first century AD incarnation of God the Word in Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14), and will be true forever because Jesus was resurrected into an immortal, fleshly human body (Luke 24:39). But God was not flesh in Jesus at the time that Genesis 6:3 was spoken, which was shortly before Noah's Flood, which occurred in the 25th century BC.
(Regarding this dating, see paragraphs 3-5 of Genesis 5:24 above.)
Also, in Genesis 6:3 the original Hebrew word (shagag: H7683) translated as "also" actually means "to err" (cf. Leviticus 5:18) in the sense of to sin (cf. Numbers 15:28, Psalms 119:67). So when Genesis 6:3 says: "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh", the original Hebrew means that God was not going to strive forever with fallen humanity in its sinful flesh.
Also, it needs to be pointed out that while God is now in human flesh, He has never been and is not now in sinful flesh. For Jesus Christ has never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).
(See also Luke 24:39 and Romans 8:3 below. And compare Hebrews 6:20 below)
--
*Genesis 6:6 / *Gen. 6:6 -
While God knows everything which is going to happen (Isaiah 46:10, Revelation 1:1, Acts 2:23), this does not contradict that He can still feel grief when people wrongly employ their free will to commit sin (James 1:13-14), such as in Genesis 6:5-6. An analogy would be a mother being told by a doctor that her infant son has only a few days to live. The mother could fully believe the doctor, and so be fully expecting the death of her son in only a few days. And yet she could still feel great grief when her son actually dies.
--
*Genesis 6:14 / *Gen. 6:14 -
(Make thee an ark of gopher wood)
The original Hebrew word (H1613) transliterated as "gopher" wood can mean cypress wood, which is especially durable and long-lasting, so that living cypress trees are able to withstand strong winds and salt injury. Also, cypress wood was chosen to fashion the doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, just as it was the apostle Peter who made the spiritual connection between Noah's Ark and Christian water-immersion baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Also, one type of cypress tree is commonly used for Christmas trees, just as water-immersion (burial) baptism connects Christians spiritually with the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross for our sins (Romans 6:3-18, Romans 3:25-26).
Also "gopher" wood should not be connected with the animals called gophers (in English), which are burrowing rodents. Instead, as was pointed out above, "gopher" in Genesis 6:14 is simply the transliteration of an ancient Hebrew word (H1613).
Also, the animals called gophers (in English) should not be confused with the aquatic rodents called beavers, which cut down a lot of wood by gnawing the trunks of trees to form wooden dams/lodges in streams, in which dams/lodges the beavers and their young then live.
~
(Pitch it within and without)
The original Hebrew verb (kaphar: H3722) translated as to "pitch" means to "cover", and is elsewhere used figuratively in the sense of "making an atonement" (Exodus 29:36), "purging away" sins (Psalms 79:9); just as water-immersion (burial) baptism purges Christians from their sins (Acts 22:16), both within and without (contrast Luke 11:39).
~
(With pitch)
The original Hebrew noun (kopher: H3724) translated as "pitch" means liquid asphalt, or tar, like is still used today to seal the roofs of homes against the rain. The Hebrew word is also used figuratively to refer to a spiritual "ransom" (Exodus 30:12), just as Jesus Christ's suffering and death on the Cross was a ransom for our sins (Matthew 20:28). On the Cross, the sinless Jesus Christ was figuratively made like the blackness of tar; He momentarily was made sin itself, so that we might be forgiven for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:25-26).
Also, note the wonderful similarity of the Hebrew word kopher (pitch) with the Hebrew word gopher (cypress). So much of God's poetry is lost in translation. Also, Jesus Christ turned the pitch of our sins into the pure cypress wood of salvation by his physical resurrection into sinless immortality on the third day after His death (Romans 1:4, Romans 10:9, Luke 24:39,46-47).
--
*Genesis 6:17 / *Gen. 6:17 -
(*Flood)
When God slew people in Noah's Flood (Genesis 6:17) for their sinfulness (Genesis 6:5), this was not murder on God's part, but capital punishment (cf. Romans 13:4). "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But God can also show great mercy toward us sinners (Romans 5:8-11, Luke 18:9-14).
It is easy to forget that even if God had not slain people in the Flood, they would have eventually died for their sins anyway, if even just from old age. And compared with eternity, there is no real difference between a life lasting, say, only two years, and a life lasting eighty years. Both are just a blink of an eye (cf. James 4:14b). So judging and reviling God for slaying people in the Flood is ultimately the same as judging and reviling God for the fact that people die from old age. And to judge and revile God for the mortality of humans is the same as judging and reviling God for not making all humans immortal no matter how sinful they are. And this reveals what ultimately underlies all human judging and reviling of God: the desire of sinful humans to get rid of God, and to live forever on their own and do whatever they want. But alas, this is an existential impossibility. For our very existence is maintained solely by God (Acts 17:28, Colossians 1:17). In this fact can begin our humility as mere humans, mere creatures, who are not the Creator, who are not God (James 4:7).
(See also Isaiah 40:17 below)
~
(Re: The date of the Flood)
See paragraph 3 of Genesis 5:24 above.
~
(Re: There is no geological record of a global flood)
After a house is flooded, people are able to refurbish it so that no one can tell that it had ever been flooded, unless someone tells them that it had. There is even a company in the U.S. which cleans up houses and businesses after they are flooded, with the motto: "Like it never even happened". In the same way, after the earth was flooded, God was able to clean it up by His miraculous power so that no one could tell that it had ever been flooded, unless God told them in the Bible that it had been flooded (Genesis 7:10 to 8:14).
-
Next entry / Prior / Table of Contents
Nov 13, 2018
You will have to take that up with an evolutionary scientist, who could disagree with you. The point of what was presented above is that no matter how many evolutionary mutations from one species to another can be shown from science's vast fossil collection, this does not contradict Biblical Creationism. For evolution per se (random mutation and survival of the fittest) can be a God-created, natural process which coexists with Him sometimes creating new species miraculously and instantaneously. So Christians do not need to waste their time trying to disprove evolution per se.
~
(Re: Can you take a bunch of dogs and keep breeding until you get a cat?)
Theoretically you could, gradually, over millions of years, if enough different mutations occurred in the DNA of two separated populations of dogs living in different environments, to the point where natural selection began to gradually move one population of dogs toward being more like cats, because that made them better adapted to their environment. And if this process continued to the point where the cat-like population of dogs could no longer breed with the other population of dogs, then the cat-like population would be declared a new species.
~
(Re: Does any system left uncontrolled always move from order to disorder?)
Are you referring to entropy? If so, entropy applies not to "control", but to energy, and only to a closed system as a whole, not to a subsystem which is taking in energy from a larger system. For example, life on earth remains orderly not because it is "controlled" by the sun, but because it has the sun as an external source of energy.
~
(Re: Has not carbon dating been shown to be inaccurate?)
You will have to take that up with a carbon-dating scientist, who could disagree with you. The point of what was presented earlier is that no matter how accurate carbon dating is, just as no matter how accurate other, much longer-term, radioactive-decay dating methods are, even a 4.5 billion year old earth does not contradict Biblical Creationism, because there could have been a 4.5 billion-year gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:3-31. So Christians do not need to waste their time trying to disprove an old earth.
~
(Re: Are not fossils able to form in just a few years?)
Can you quote the details from the scientific, peer-reviewed paper which claimed that "fossils" which formed in a few years were equivalent to fossils which science says formed over millions of years?
~
(Re: Were not canyons the size of the Grand Canyon formed in just a few years at Mount St. Helens?)
Can you quote the details from the scientific, peer-reviewed paper which claimed that canyons at Mount St. Helens were equivalent to the Grand Canyon? For example, do the walls of the former consist of solid rock like the latter, or only of soft ash? And are the walls of the former a mile high? Also, what caused the former canyons? Simply water-flow like with the latter, or also huge earthquakes, landslides, and lava flows connected with the last volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens?
~
(Re: How could God have done such a thing as evolution and not written about it in His Book?)
The Bible does not contain a lot of things which God did (John 21:25). For example, where is His amazing design of cellular metabolism written about in the Bible? Also, the earth's crust is like God's book in that He created it to gradually form geological layers, which contain a lot of information regarding past life on the earth, in the form of fossils.
~
(Re: How could God do something which is not necessary?)
Do you believe that Creation itself was necessary, and not just for God's pleasure (Revelation 4:11)?
~
(Re: Is not using millions of years totally unnecessary when creating the universe as God did?)
Do you believe that humans, animals, and plants today developing naturally over years (from zygotes and seeds) is necessary, when God could instantaneously create them all fully-formed?
~
(Re: Did not either God create everything, or everything happened through chance evolution, so that any blending of the two is an insult to God?)
No, for evolution per se does not require that everything happened by chance. And the coexistence of the miraculous, instantaneous creation of some species with the evolution of other species is not an insult to God, because evolution can be a God-created, natural process. And if it is, then denying its existence would be an insult to God as its Creator.
~
(Re: Where does God feature exactly in your proposition?)
He features as the Creator (John 1:3), both by miraculous means and by means of His created process of natural evolution.
~
(Re: Maybe He creates some type of mechanism for positive mutation within the genome, then removes it somewhere down the line?)
With regard to any one, particular random mutation, God could either miraculously remove it, or He could let it remain to work within His created process of natural evolution. If the latter, the mutation could either become extinct naturally over time, because it provided no benefit, or it could work to improve the chances of survival of an organism within a particular environment, and so be perpetuated naturally into the next generation.
~
(Re: Perhaps He miraculously intervenes at every point in history?)
He could do that if He wanted to. Or, He could usually just let natural processes do what He created them to do.
~
(Re: Are you proposing that there was evolution first, then everything which evolved was destroyed, then God recreated everything miraculously?)
Yes, except that some miraculous creation could have coexisted with evolution from the beginning. Also, evolution per se should be distinguished from abiogenesis. For evolution per se (random mutation of life and survival of the fittest individuals) does not require abiogenesis (that life itself arose solely by chance from non-living matter). That is, it could have been God who miraculously created the earliest, one-celled life-forms, and then let them develop naturally by His created process of evolution into different, more complex life-forms over millions of years.
Or, God could have miraculously set things up so that in certain environments, atoms would form molecules, which would form chemicals, which would form cells, which would form nucleic acids, which would be able to replicate themselves and mutate randomly.
Indeed, God could have set things up so that atoms themselves would form. For physicists point out that if the fundamental constants of the universe (for example, Planck's constant, or the strength of subatomic electric charges, or the strength of the strong nuclear force, or the strength of gravity, etc.) were off by even a little bit, matter would not have been able to form and coalesce as we know it, and so life as we know it would never have been possible. This is called the "Anthropic Cosmological Principle", meaning that we humans only exist today because the universe was exactly tuned to make our existence possible. Atheists then have only two choices to explain our existence. It is either just an almost-impossible coincidence, one chance out of an infinite number of other possibilities for how the universe could have been tuned. Or, there must be an infinite number of other universes, almost all of which are lifeless. Either way, atheists cannot explain how any universe could even exist at all without the existence of God.
(See Romans 1:20 below)
--
*Genesis 2:7 / *Gen. 2:7 -
(Re: How were our *spirits made?)
Our spirits were made by God breathing His Spirit into our physical bodies (cf. Genesis 2:7, Isaiah 42:5b).
(See also 1 Thessalonians 5:23 below)
--
*Genesis 2:11 / *Gen. 2:11 -
(Re: Did you use the local-land idea to hide the fact that in Genesis 1, plants are made, then man, whereas in Genesis 2, man is made, then plants?)
No, that fact was indicated via the words "after" which were underlined in paragraphs 4-5 of Genesis 1(space) above.
~
(Re: The same Hebrew word for "land" is used to describe Noah's Flood. So was it just local too?)
Noah's Flood could have been global, whereas Genesis 2:5-25 was local. For the same Hebrew word ('erets: H0776) can be used to describe something either global or local, just as, for example, our English word "earth" can refer either to the globe or to a local area of land, such as one which suffers an "earthquake". That is why the same Hebrew word translated as "earth" in Genesis 1:1, referring to the globe, can be translated elsewhere as "land", such as in Genesis 2:11, referring to a local area of land, in this case the land of Havilah.
--
*Genesis 2:12 / *Gen. 2:12 -
(Bdellium / H0916)
See section 2 of Numbers 11:7 below.
--
*Genesis 2:17b / *Gen. 2:17b -
This was not a false statement. For it meant that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make Adam mortal that same day. That is, from that day forward, he would surely die, eventually. Also, even though Adam lived almost 1,000 years (Genesis 5:5), to God even 1,000 years are like one day (2 Peter 3:8).
Adam was not mortal until he sinned (Romans 5:12).
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*Genesis 3 / *Gen. 3 -
This does not require that Adam and Eve were created with flaws. For while choosing to commit a sin is always wrong, just having the ability to choose to commit a sin is not a flaw in itself, but is a necessary component of free will. Lucifer was created perfect, without any flaws (Ezekiel 28:15a), yet he wrongly employed his free will to eventually commit rebellion against God (Ezekiel 28:15b, Isaiah 14:12-14).
~
(Re: The *devil's theology)
The devil's theology is to contradict God's Word with something which sounds better to humans, to deceive them into rejecting God's will (Genesis 3:1-6, Matthew 16:21-23; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3-4).
(See also paragraph 3 of section 5 of Matthew 4:4 below)
~
(Re: Does Adam's fall prove that a works/obedience-based system must result in the loss of salvation for all?)
No, for when people become Christians, they break off their connection with the first, disobedient Adam, and instead become connected with the last Adam, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45, Romans 5:14-21), who is perfectly obedient (Hebrews 4:15), and who makes it possible for Christians to be obedient unto their ultimate salvation (Hebrews 5:9, Matthew 25:21, Romans 2:6-7; 2 Peter 1:10-11).
(See also Ephesians 2:8 below)
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*Genesis 3:11a / *Gen. 3:11a -
God asks Adam: "Who told thee that thou wast naked?" (Genesis 3:11a). And yet even before Adam's fall into sin, would not Adam have seen God wearing clothes whenever God walked in the garden with him (Genesis 3:8a)? And so how could Adam not have known, by contrast, that he was naked? It could be that before his fall into sin, Adam saw no problem with his nakedness (Genesis 2:25), like how a very young child running around naked in his back yard can have no problem with his nakedness, even though he can see his parents wearing clothes at the same time. But after Adam's fall into sin, he became ashamed of his nakedness (Genesis 3:7,10).
(See also 2 Corinthians 5:3 below)
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*Genesis 3:15 / *Gen. 3:15 -
This could be understood as follows: "And I will put enmity between thee [Satan] and the woman [Eve], and between thy seed [those who will never be saved, e.g. John 8:42-47] and her seed [Christ, and those whom He would save through His death, Isaiah 53:10]; it [Christ and those whom He would save] shall bruise thy head [Romans 16:20], and thou shalt bruise his heel [Satan would get Christ killed through Judas; Luke 22:3-6]".
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*Genesis 3:20 / *Gen. 3:20 -
This does not say or mean that Eve is the mother of "every creature", like how Jesus Christ, as God, is the Creator of every creature (Colossians 1:15-16, John 1:1,3). Instead, Genesis 3:20 simply means that Eve would become the mother (Genesis 3:16) of "all living" (Genesis 3:20) humans. For all living humans are descended from Noah (Genesis 7:21 to 9:19), who was descended from Eve and Adam (Genesis 3:20, Genesis 5:3-29).
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*Genesis 4:9a / *Gen. 4:9a -
This does not contradict that God is omniscient. For He can ask someone a question when He already knows the answer (John 6:5-6).
(See also section 3 of Mark 13:32 below)
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*Genesis 5:4 / *Gen. 5:4 -
(Re: Did Cain and Abel marry their sisters?)
While Genesis 5:4 does mention other sons and daughters of Adam besides Seth, it does not say that Cain and Abel married their full sisters. To avoid Cain and Abel having to commit incest, God could have allowed them to marry only daughters of other humans descended from a race of humans created by God thousands of years before He created Adam.
(See the "Gap" part of Genesis 1(space) above)
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*Genesis 5:24 / *Gen. 5:24 -
(Re: Will we be raptured before the future Tribulation, like *Enoch was raptured before the Flood?)
No, for Enoch was not translated into heaven so that he would not have to go through the Flood (along with righteous Noah and his family in the ark: 2 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 3:20). For Enoch (Noah's great-grandfather) was translated 669 years before the Flood.
The way that we can know this is first by knowing when Noah's flood happened:
Noah's flood occurred about 2458 BC. This is based on Bible verses which make it possible to work back from the year BC that Solomon's temple began to be built.
(See "Historians say" under the "chronology" section of Genesis 1(space) above, and see the top half of the chronology, down to Genesis 11:12)
...And Arphaxad had been born two years after the Flood (Genesis 11:10).
So all we have to do is add up the numbers of years above to see that Noah's flood occurred about 2458 BC. Then, to determine when Enoch was translated into heaven, we need to work further back. If Arphaxad had been born two years after the Flood, then Arphaxad had been born about 2456 BC. And Arphaxad had been born when his father Shem was 100 (Genesis 11:10). And Shem had been born when his father Noah was 502 (Genesis 11:10, Genesis 7:6). And Noah had been born when his father Lamech was 182 (Genesis 5:28-29). And Lamech had been born when his father Methuselah was 187 (Genesis 5:25). And Methuselah had been born when his father Enoch was 65 (Genesis 5:21).
Adding up the numbers of years above, we see that Enoch was born about 3492 BC. He was translated when he was 365 (Genesis 5:23-24), and so he was translated about 3127 BC, which was 669 years before the Flood. Adding these 669 years to Enoch's age of 365, we find that Enoch was 1,034 years old at the time of the Flood. This means that had he stayed on the earth, he would have almost certainly died from old age before the Flood came (cf. Isaiah 57:1). For Methuselah (Noah's grandfather) was the longest-living person who stayed on the earth, and he died at the age of 969 (Genesis 5:27), the same year as the Flood. For Enoch was born about 3492 BC, and Methuselah was born when his father Enoch was 65 (Genesis 5:21). So Methuselah was born about 3427 BC, and he died 969 years later, which was about 2458 BC, the same year as the Flood.
Methuselah could have died of old age right before the Flood started. God could have waited to bring the Flood until after Methuselah died of old age and was buried. Lamech (Noah's father) had already died some five years before the Flood. For Methuselah was born about 3427 BC, and Lamech was born when his father Methuselah was 187 (Genesis 5:25). So Lamech was born about 3240 BC, and he died 777 years later (Genesis 5:31), which was about 2463 BC, which was five years before the Flood.
~
(Re: Should the *ages of the individuals in Genesis be taken seriously?)
Yes, the ages of the individuals in Genesis (e.g. Genesis 5:5-32, Genesis 11:11-25) should be taken seriously, just as everything else in the Bible should be taken seriously (Matthew 4:4; 2 Timothy 3:16). There is no reason not to. For even science has found that, just naturally, some multi-cellular organisms do not experience senescence (see "Biological Immortality"). And it is possible for human cell cultures to live much longer than the current maximum human lifespan of about 120 years (cf. Genesis 6:3). Indeed, human cell cultures can be made to live indefinitely, so that they become "immortal cells". This is accomplished by causing them to express the telomere-lengthening enzyme telomerase, so that the cells do not shorten their telomeres when they divide (normal cells do shorten them, causing the cells to die when their telomeres get too short). The problem with this is that the cells become cancerous. But God would know how to prevent that, even if humans do not yet know how (cf. Luke 18:27).
Perhaps the literal "tree of life" (Revelation 2:7) produces a fruit which contains a substance which, when eaten, causes human cells to express telomerase, without causing cancer.
(See also Revelation 2:7 below)
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*Genesis 6 / *Gen. 6 -
Original sin (and so universal human mortality) is because of Adam's sin, and not (as is sometimes claimed) because of angelic sin, that is, the bringing of fallen-angelic DNA into human DNA to create the angel/human hybrids called the nephilim, or giants, of Genesis 6.
That is, Romans 5:19a, and not Genesis 6, is the doctrine of original sin.
(See Romans 5:19a below)
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*Genesis 6:3 / *Gen. 6:3 -
(For that he also is flesh)
Here the "also" seems to say that God was flesh along with humanity. That has been the case since the first century AD incarnation of God the Word in Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14), and will be true forever because Jesus was resurrected into an immortal, fleshly human body (Luke 24:39). But God was not flesh in Jesus at the time that Genesis 6:3 was spoken, which was shortly before Noah's Flood, which occurred in the 25th century BC.
(Regarding this dating, see paragraphs 3-5 of Genesis 5:24 above.)
Also, in Genesis 6:3 the original Hebrew word (shagag: H7683) translated as "also" actually means "to err" (cf. Leviticus 5:18) in the sense of to sin (cf. Numbers 15:28, Psalms 119:67). So when Genesis 6:3 says: "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh", the original Hebrew means that God was not going to strive forever with fallen humanity in its sinful flesh.
Also, it needs to be pointed out that while God is now in human flesh, He has never been and is not now in sinful flesh. For Jesus Christ has never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).
(See also Luke 24:39 and Romans 8:3 below. And compare Hebrews 6:20 below)
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*Genesis 6:6 / *Gen. 6:6 -
While God knows everything which is going to happen (Isaiah 46:10, Revelation 1:1, Acts 2:23), this does not contradict that He can still feel grief when people wrongly employ their free will to commit sin (James 1:13-14), such as in Genesis 6:5-6. An analogy would be a mother being told by a doctor that her infant son has only a few days to live. The mother could fully believe the doctor, and so be fully expecting the death of her son in only a few days. And yet she could still feel great grief when her son actually dies.
--
*Genesis 6:14 / *Gen. 6:14 -
(Make thee an ark of gopher wood)
The original Hebrew word (H1613) transliterated as "gopher" wood can mean cypress wood, which is especially durable and long-lasting, so that living cypress trees are able to withstand strong winds and salt injury. Also, cypress wood was chosen to fashion the doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, just as it was the apostle Peter who made the spiritual connection between Noah's Ark and Christian water-immersion baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Also, one type of cypress tree is commonly used for Christmas trees, just as water-immersion (burial) baptism connects Christians spiritually with the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the Cross for our sins (Romans 6:3-18, Romans 3:25-26).
Also "gopher" wood should not be connected with the animals called gophers (in English), which are burrowing rodents. Instead, as was pointed out above, "gopher" in Genesis 6:14 is simply the transliteration of an ancient Hebrew word (H1613).
Also, the animals called gophers (in English) should not be confused with the aquatic rodents called beavers, which cut down a lot of wood by gnawing the trunks of trees to form wooden dams/lodges in streams, in which dams/lodges the beavers and their young then live.
~
(Pitch it within and without)
The original Hebrew verb (kaphar: H3722) translated as to "pitch" means to "cover", and is elsewhere used figuratively in the sense of "making an atonement" (Exodus 29:36), "purging away" sins (Psalms 79:9); just as water-immersion (burial) baptism purges Christians from their sins (Acts 22:16), both within and without (contrast Luke 11:39).
~
(With pitch)
The original Hebrew noun (kopher: H3724) translated as "pitch" means liquid asphalt, or tar, like is still used today to seal the roofs of homes against the rain. The Hebrew word is also used figuratively to refer to a spiritual "ransom" (Exodus 30:12), just as Jesus Christ's suffering and death on the Cross was a ransom for our sins (Matthew 20:28). On the Cross, the sinless Jesus Christ was figuratively made like the blackness of tar; He momentarily was made sin itself, so that we might be forgiven for our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 3:25-26).
Also, note the wonderful similarity of the Hebrew word kopher (pitch) with the Hebrew word gopher (cypress). So much of God's poetry is lost in translation. Also, Jesus Christ turned the pitch of our sins into the pure cypress wood of salvation by his physical resurrection into sinless immortality on the third day after His death (Romans 1:4, Romans 10:9, Luke 24:39,46-47).
--
*Genesis 6:17 / *Gen. 6:17 -
(*Flood)
When God slew people in Noah's Flood (Genesis 6:17) for their sinfulness (Genesis 6:5), this was not murder on God's part, but capital punishment (cf. Romans 13:4). "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). But God can also show great mercy toward us sinners (Romans 5:8-11, Luke 18:9-14).
It is easy to forget that even if God had not slain people in the Flood, they would have eventually died for their sins anyway, if even just from old age. And compared with eternity, there is no real difference between a life lasting, say, only two years, and a life lasting eighty years. Both are just a blink of an eye (cf. James 4:14b). So judging and reviling God for slaying people in the Flood is ultimately the same as judging and reviling God for the fact that people die from old age. And to judge and revile God for the mortality of humans is the same as judging and reviling God for not making all humans immortal no matter how sinful they are. And this reveals what ultimately underlies all human judging and reviling of God: the desire of sinful humans to get rid of God, and to live forever on their own and do whatever they want. But alas, this is an existential impossibility. For our very existence is maintained solely by God (Acts 17:28, Colossians 1:17). In this fact can begin our humility as mere humans, mere creatures, who are not the Creator, who are not God (James 4:7).
(See also Isaiah 40:17 below)
~
(Re: The date of the Flood)
See paragraph 3 of Genesis 5:24 above.
~
(Re: There is no geological record of a global flood)
After a house is flooded, people are able to refurbish it so that no one can tell that it had ever been flooded, unless someone tells them that it had. There is even a company in the U.S. which cleans up houses and businesses after they are flooded, with the motto: "Like it never even happened". In the same way, after the earth was flooded, God was able to clean it up by His miraculous power so that no one could tell that it had ever been flooded, unless God told them in the Bible that it had been flooded (Genesis 7:10 to 8:14).
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Nov 13, 2018
