I also believe that what seems to us as impossible is certainly possible for God. I believe in the resurrection. I believe Jesus is the Son of God. And, a good bit more. I'm just not convinced my faith requires me to read Genesis as a literal rendering of God's creating activity. Or better, I simply can't form such a literal conception. Is that the point you are making, that I don't need to be able to form a literal conception in order to take it literally? If so, I hadn't considered that as a possibility.
Hi chadrho,
If you believe what you've just written, then why is it that you say that God couldn't have done what He seems to have clearly claimed to have done, because you can't conceptualize the pictures of these things in your mind. You either believe that God can do what is impossible for man or you don't.
Secondly, I disagree that the separation of light and dark that God speaks of in the very beginning of the creation account must necessarily have been the light of the sun that He separated. God speaks in the very first words that before He created anything in this realm, He did create some kind of light. Now, the source of that light He doesn't give us any further detail of, but if He did create light in this realm before anything else was created, then He could have divided that light.
If God did create some fixed point of light, say even Himself, then if the earth was rotating upon its axis at the moment of its creation, there would have always been a dark portion of the earth and a light portion of the earth. The Scriptures do tell us that God is light. In fact, the Revelation tells us that in the new heaven and the new earth that there will be no need of the sun or moon because God will be the light that we use to see by. Is it possible that at the moment of the creation, God was also the source of the light that gave the dark and light portions of the earth just as it might be in the new heaven and new earth. The Revelation tells us that all the stars were rolled up like a scroll. Could it be that in the new heaven and the new earth we won't have a starry expanse before our eyes when we look up to the heavens? For God says that the heavens declare the glory of God, but if God is actually living with us, as the Revelation declares, then we won't need the heavens to declare the glory of God. We will see God's physical glory right before our very eyes. We will see, just as the angels now see, God in His nature and form just as they do. We won't need things like a wonderful and awe inspiring plethora of stars and planets to remind us of the power and glory of God. Something to consider.
So, these issues can be resolved through a literal interpretation of the Scriptural account of the creation event. God asks us to believe Him. He doesn't ask us to understand everything as to what He can or can't do. With our knowledge of the natural properties, which is what you are trying to use to deny the truth of God's account of the creation event, you also can't believe that a sea of some fairly great depth could actually split and a wall of water stand on the left and right hand of a group of people passing through the created chasm. Water, as we all know and has been proven literally zillions of times upon the earth, seeks level. It is not possible that water, unaided by some sort of solid wall of some kind, can stand divided on its own.
Based on what we know about the natural properties of this earth, it is impossible that Jesus was born. We all know that a human zygot can only be created by the introduction of human sperm into a human egg. It is not possible that a cow or sheep can impregnate a woman. It is not possible that a zygot can be formed in the uterus or womb of a woman on its own. There are all sorts of accounts of events that, as far as our being able to say, "well this is how the natural properties of what we know about the creation explains such a thing happening or prevents such a thing from happening." But if we believe the literal application of God's word in all of these events, then we believe that God did do what He claims to have done wholly outside of our being able to understand 'how' He did it.
There is an account in the Scriptures of a shadow, cast by the sun, going backwards a distance of 10 steps. We all know that's an impossible event. For a shadow cast by the sun to go backwards, according to all that we know about the creation, the earth would have to spin backwards, or the sun move from its fixed place in the center of our solar system. However, God says that He did just such a thing to prove to a lowly king the truth of His words. That event was also given even to us today to know that when we say that it's impossible that God did something that He claims to have done...He can do it! He showed that king His power over His creation and we can use that same account to see with our own eyes His power over His creation. That we don't have to be able to explain the 'how' that He might have done something. Just believe that He did!
God can make a shadow cast by the sun to go backwards just as easily as He can make light, such as a daylight, without the sun. God can do it! The question really isn't whether or not God can do some physical thing, as His word clearly tells us that nothing is impossible for God, but whether or not you will believe Him. God can make water stand on its heels as a sentinel guarding a pathway. He can do it! What God asks is not whether or not you can explain the physics of the event, but whether or not you will just trust Him and believe it? I do!
I believe that in the span of time that we know today to be a 'day' (one rotation of the earth upon its axis), multiplied by six, that He cobbled together a realm of existence, filling it with plants and water and dirt and animals and people. That at the completion of that six day period, the earth and all of the universe of our realm had been created out of nothing. That at the end of that six day period, God looked over all that He created and declared that it was all good...very good. Everything was working just the way it was supposed to according to whatever master plan God had set out to complete to bring about this realm of existence for a creature that He would call man. A creature that He desired to be in relationship with just as you might be in relationship with a close friend or loved one. That it was His express and desired purpose to create such a realm. That before He even spoke, "Let there be light!", He had already purposed that He would have to send His Son to die for the sins of those who would believe. Otherwise, no flesh could be saved from His wrath and then live eternally with Him after His sure and dreadful day of judgment upon the earth for sin.
God created this realm for a purpose. I believe that purpose was to get to the day in which He would say, "Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will be their God and they will be His people." God did all of this, and set forth this very great plan of salvation through the blood of His Son, so that one day He would have a preisthood of people who did desire of their own free will to be in the kind of relationship with God for which He first created man. A relationship just as He had with Adam and Eve before the fall of man into disobedience and rebellion and unbelief. God has done a great many things for which we cannot possibly explain the 'how' that He did them. Now He has sent His Son so that anyone who would repent of their unbelief and rebellion, could have the existence for which God created man in the first place. His Son paid the penalty due for each of our lives of rebellion and unbelief, so that once we did come to understand the truth of God, we would then be saved from His terrible day of wrath against all those who refused to repent and believe.
Which side are you on? Are you on the side of men who deny the truth of God because their own inability to comprehend the 'how' that God could have done something causes them to deny the truth of what God has told us? Or the side of men that fully and faithfully believes that the great wisdom of great scientists have given us undeniable proof that the things that God says that He did just couldn't have been done? What God asks is that we believe Him. In the Revelation God also makes it clear that no unbeliever will be saved.
God bless you,
In Christ, ted
