Does believing Genesis is wrong make me a bad Christian?

[hedrick]

Where did 3 billion come from? I was always taught Earth's age is 4.6 billion years old in school. Later the number was changed to 4.5 billion with no given explanation.

You can prove cats have always been obligate carnivores since the first feline species was made. Who can deny the purpose of triangular teeth and why four are long enough to cut through prey animals?

I believe the age of the earth is computed from rocks. That's a difficult computation, so some uncertainty isn't a surprise. That doesn't mean that 6000 is a plausible answer.

The age of the universe is easier to compute, from astronomy.

 

[hedrick]

And you call your-self a Christian...I advice that you rethink if you know God. Because a person who knows God would know that everything in the Bible is truth. Or do we believe people over God? Then you have some problem.

No, actually they wouldn't. God hasn't spoken to anyone that I know and said it's inerrant. Looking at it, if you don't look through ideological glasses, it's obviously about God, but written by humans. God does not expect us to ignore things that are true in order to accept someone's opinion about the Bible.

 

[GodLovesCats]

The Genesis account is just as inspired and truth as the parts of the Bible that anyone is to believe in order to be saved.

There's a definite incompatibility between evolution and the Bible. There are reasons why people would think that the Bible is wrong. However, anyone who does think that, they are accepting the influence of the unbelief of atheists who teach the evolution to explain everything in the universe. For Christians who sit in the seat of scoffers, they are only hindering their own faith in God who created everything within 6 24 hour days.

He is the God of salvation.

I have no doubt God could have made everything in 144 hours if He wanted to. He can choose how short or long it takes to do stuff like that.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

No, actually they wouldn't. God hasn't spoken to anyone that I know and said it's inerrant. Looking at it, if you don't look through ideological glasses, it's obviously about God, but written by humans. God does not expect us to ignore things that are true in order to accept someone's opinion about the Bible.

Everyone who wrote chapters of the Bible had the Holy Spirit in them. God dictated them what to write and they wrote it. It is as if I would dictate you a book and you would write every word that I say. Every word in the Bible should be taken as a word of God, that some people interpret things wrongly is not God's fault

 

[GodLovesCats]

Everyone who wrote chapters of the Bible had the Holy Spirit in them. God dictated them what to write and they wrote it. It is as if I would dictate you a book and you would write every word that I say. Every word in the Bible should be taken as a word of God, that some people interpret things wrongly is not God's fault

If you actually knew the whole Bible, you would fully understand the Holy Spirit came down 40 days after the Resurrection. How did everyone who lived before then have it? Nobody who wrote the OT was alive in the first century.

 

[hedrick]

If you actually knew the whole Bible, you would fully understand the Holy Spirit came down 40 days after the Resurrection. How did everyone who lived before then have it? Nobody who wrote the OT was alive in the first century.

I dont believe for a minute that the Holy Spirit guarantees the accuracy of all the books. One can experience god and still not understand astronomy. But I think you should rethink your statement. At the very least the prophets claimed to have God’s message, and I tend to believe it, though I think at some points they may not have fully understood what they saw.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

If you actually knew the whole Bible, you would fully understand the Holy Spirit came down 40 days after the Resurrection. How did everyone who lived before then have it? Nobody who wrote the OT was alive in the first century.

You assume that the Holy Spirit was only active in New Testament, but He was as much as active in the Old Testament as the New one. The Spirit came upon certain judges, warriors, and prophets in a way that gave them extraordinary power: for example, Joshua (Num. 27:18), Othniel (Judg. 3:10), Gideon (6:34), Samson (13:25; 14:6), and Saul (1 Sam. 10:9, 10). However, the Spirit later departed from Saul because of his disobedience (16:14).

 

[dqhall]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

The early parts of the Bible contain stories. I know God can create and do miracles. I do not believe in Genesis, Exodus or Joshua. I put more trust in parts of the Bible from 1 Kings onward, as Biblical archaeology has provided evidence to support some of these verses. God sent Jesus to an imperfect people whose scriptures contained both fact and fiction. It is difficult to understand God’s omnipotence, love for his people, prayer, prophesy and miracles without the Bible.

 

[klutedavid]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

If you have already noticed, that Genesis covers a vast period of time. From the creation event up to the era of Moses.

In Genesis you have priesthood (Melchizedek), you have sacrifices, altars. Sin is in the world. We have the law given to Noah. We have covenants.

We have clean and unclean animals in the ark, Noah. We even have a rest day on the seventh day in Genesis. So it is highly likely that the text, was written by folk after the law of Mt Sinai. Unless of course the law was in effect before Moses?

We essentially have a problem in understanding what the purpose of this book of Genesis serves.

Is it a scientific journal regarding the creation of the universe?

Is it a strictly, historical record of every generation of humanity through history?

Is the book of Genesis, a simple religious account written for a very simple audience, thousands of years ago?

The Old Testament is wholly a Jewish text that grounds a Jew in their religious ancestry. The intervention of God in Israel's vast history in choosing, their nation as God's representative nation among all the nations.

So Genesis is compact, simply written, scientifically incomprehensible. Historically not accurate or even precise.

Noah's flood occurred but not a world wide flood.

Abraham existed and was chosen by God.

The genealogy is not accurate, the people mentioned may not be direct descendants, as in the son of preceding person. The Hebrew language did not have words for grandfather or even great grandfather.

The Genesis text is a summary, an overview, of Jewish history. For that purpose it was written. The Genesis text is also deeply symbolic. The tree in the center of the garden may not have been a tree at all. The garden may have represented something more pure. Be very careful when stepping through Genesis, a soft touch is necessary.

 

[GodLovesCats]

No, I assume the Holy Spirit never descended to Earth and entered the hearts of prophets, judges, etc. in the Old Testament. There is no mention of anyone possessing the Holy Spirit who has not been saved.

 

[klutedavid]

I believe the age of the earth is computed from rocks. That's a difficult computation, so some uncertainty isn't a surprise. That doesn't mean that 6000 is a plausible answer.

The age of the universe is easier to compute, from astronomy.

They also need to explain the era of the Dinosaurs.
Why species in the fossil record are different to species observed currently. Why is the plant life in the fossils different to what is observed in recent history.

Why there is no evidence of a world wide flood in geology, after all, it was only 4000 years ago.

How do we have continental drift on a vast scale. South America fits precisely into Africa. They both have the same rock strata and the same fossils. Even the same plant fossils. This drift of these two continents has not happened recently.

On and on it goes.

 

[Rachel20]

My knowledge of this life is small
The eye of faith is dim
But tis enough that Christ knows all
And I shall be with him

(don't know original author)

 

[GodLovesCats]

Klute, there was a worldwide flood 290 billion years ago. It caused the biggest mass extinction in history: 91 percent of all species. Some of the 9 percent that survived became endangered and could not recover.

The continental drift that we are familiar with must have happened while dinosaurs existed because some dinosaur bones have been found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. An earthquake caused part of Africa to break off but I have no idea how what we call South America turned to face the direction it does today.

 

[Phil W]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species.
I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover.
But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

Yes. (Answer to the title of the thread)
You are living with two goals.
One..."I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, "
Two..."I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover."
Pick a side of the fence and quit waffling!
The bible IS God's word, and will face endless challenges from...who?
From the devil, that's who.

 

[GodLovesCats]

I am not waffling.

 

[expos4ever]

And you call your-self a Christian...I advice that you rethink if you know God. Because a person who knows God would know that everything in the Bible is truth. Or do we believe people over God? Then you have some problem.

I live on planet reality, you are welcome to visit anytime.

Look: First, the scientific evidence is overwhelming - the Universe and the Earth are billions of years old. And evolution has the status of fact, by any reasonable standard. Second, it is entirely reasonably to interpret the creation account as metaphor.

A talking snake? Come on, man.

 

[coffee4u]

Nobody can disprove what has been proven, obviously. Proof is everywhere that the whole world and all of nature evolved over billions of years, not less than a week. Mass extinctions including the biggest flood in world history are known to have occurred hundreds of millions of years prior to the existence of humans, especially homo sapiens - the last remaining species. I simply cannot for the life of me believe what the Bible says about the Creation and timing of the Great Flood, at least in terms of being the worst ever, is more accurate than what scientists discover. But in my heart I believe the Bible is God's Word and believe in miracles, so I don't want to feel like I am betraying Him in favor of sinners. Am I screwed up about my religion?

I believe that you and others that don't believe in Genesis are missing out on a beautiful picture. Like looking at the Sistine chapel through a cardboard tube. I think you are missing out on how scripture harmonizes with itself. When I read about the garden of Eden I see it as a foreshadowing of the New Heavens and New World. When I read that Jesus is the second Adam I know it is referring back to how Adam fell into sin and how Jesus did not. When God killed an animal to clothe Adam and eve I know it is a picture of being clothed in the blood of Jesus.

I don't see any proof of evolution.
I see creatures which look similar to one another. You probably see those and say "Common ancestry"
I look at them and says "The same God made them all out of the same material"
The evidence there didn't change, but the way it is interpreted can do.

Scientist date a fossil and give an age.
I say they don't have all the facts, that they are doing tests without all the information. They have also assumed things Inaccuracies in radiocarbon dating
Also who says that the facts they have now were the same at creation, the fall or the flood? It's quite obvious that some laws governing the world changed. At creation animals only ate plants, something changed there.

Then you have the age of the earth which does not have to match the age of creation. It says the earth was void, who says it didn't sit there for an extended period of time before God created on it? The Bible doesn't say. So its also possible for the rock to be a billion years old and the creation to be 6-15 thousand years old.

The Bible says that there was no death before sin, that man sinned and then death came in. Evolution requires a lot of death, millions of years of death. This is a very big problem with evolution and the Bible.

Of course, you are free to think whatever you like.

 

[coffee4u]

A talking snake? Come on, man.

A talking donkey.

A virgin birth.

The blind and crippled healed.

A man walks on water.

A man crucified dead and buried but raised on the third day.

That same man walking through walls and being lifted up back into the heavens until he disappeared from sight.

I will say the same to you, come on man. Do you believe those things?

Are they not every bit as 'unbelievable' as God making a man out of a lump of clay and having him come to life? Is one of those things harder than the others?

 

[Andre_b]

They also need to explain the era of the Dinosaurs.
Why species in the fossil record are different to species observed currently. Why is the plant life in the fossils different to what is observed in recent history.

Why there is no evidence of a world wide flood in geology, after all, it was only 4000 years ago.

How do we have continental drift on a vast scale. South America fits precisely into Africa. They both have the same rock strata and the same fossils. Even the same plant fossils. This drift of these two continents has not happened recently.

On and on it goes.

No they don't the dinosaurs were there. Not very complicated. Why are there still fresh dinosaur tissue if it was 65 million years ago? Why are there many buried near the surface? and it goes on and on.

 

[expos4ever]

Every word in the Bible should be taken as a word of God, that some people interpret things wrongly is not God's fault

So we should take this literally?

The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.