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Does believing Genesis is wrong make me a bad Christian?

Favoredclay

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Gerald Schroeder - Wikipedia

Schroeder gives a theory as to how both are true.

I see the earth as a created place. Everything works as a part in a great symbiotic relationship and you can easily see order and design. I do not see evidence of evolution in any form, I see adaptation of existing species, but no evidence of new species. There are no known transitional DNA models to my knowledge. The transitional archeological record just does not exist. There are no archeological records showing the move from gills to lungs for mammals coming out of the sea.....on and on. Some will say that there is evidence, but it's only speculation. Sure we share common parts with many animals, but that doesn't mean we have a common ancestor. You can find a radiator in a car or in a house, they do the same thing, but the car wasn't once a house. I do see design and defininition parameters. God created the standards of science and physics as part of the creation standards that hold everything together. We are made of common materials, but the spirit that gives us life is God breathed into us. Why can't science make a computer sentient or simply create an animal? We can manipulate, but we can't create, so how did the universe do this out of nothing. Stephen Hawking was deluded, he now knows better and probably wishes he had a do over.

Yes you have a problem if you believe the Bible is not true in pure form. You are in essence saying that God is a liar. You are saying man authored the Bible and not God. Sure a lot is written as example and symbolically, but it's pretty easy to see what is and what principles are solid. The clue in Genesis is the very first verse:
Genesis 1:1 New International Version (NIV)
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This removes all doubt as to it being interpretive, it's a literal truth statement
 
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GodLovesCats

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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.

Fresh dinosaur tissue? All we have are ancient bones that had physically and chemically changed over the millennia.

There are many reasons extinct animal bones can be discovered near the surface. None of them is human beings buried them there.
 
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GodLovesCats

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Yes I agree, however, you can usually tell by the context, etc. What is metaphors or symbolic. The creation week and many other aspects do not give this impression. The only reason people don't take it literal is because they may believe the many assumptions in science as fact. They don't want to be ridiculed since they are afraid of the authoritative nature of scientists. Science isn't infallible and is just as corrupt as any other field that involves humans.

Nobody just believes something to avoid being ridiculed when there is undeniable proof of the fact.
 
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hedrick

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Yes you have a problem if you believe the Bible is not true in pure form. You are in essence saying that God is a liar. You are saying man authored the Bible and not God.
The obvious fact that people wrote the Bible certainly does not make God a liar.
 
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Ivan Hlavanda

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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.

Maybe it's because God created it that way? God perhaps created a complete World? God said that the Earth will be like that, full of grown up trees, flowing rives, coals etc. God says and it is.
How much scientific facts we had over the years that turned up to be wrong. Let's believe evolution. Let's believe that the universe just randomly happened. Evolution...yeah because evolution can give life. Something that doesn't live gives life..right...or we believe the Word of that created everything..because well He created everything.

God that loves so much the World that despite everyone hating on God, hurting Him all the time instead of wiping everyone out sends His innocent Son to die for us all so we can be saved in Him. Come on man, God surely wouldn't love us that much. No everything just happened randomly and evolution does get everything perfectly. Just out of nothing it creates the Universe, life, the planet that is in perfect location, with perfect mixture of gases, with perfect size, with perfect Sun, with perfect everything, with living creatures out of nowhere...yeah right. Btw there is like 3 million parts in our eyes, yeah Evolution
 
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Ivan Hlavanda

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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.

Mountains, hills, and trees are all part of nature which God put here for the enjoyment of man. This means even nature rejoices at the victory.
 
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expos4ever

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obviously you don’t read much mythology as these are literary devices in other older (some extinct) faiths
I stand by my assertion, although I concede I have not investigated this explicitly. Let me try to explain. Surely you would agree that talking animals are a prominent device used in story-telling. So we have, for example, the talking animals in the classic "Animal Farm". I am not aware of any examples where resurrection, or healing, are used in the same way - as a metaphorical device. But, if I am mistaken, and since you appear to be more widely read in this area then me, prithee expatiate.
 
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expos4ever

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Mountains, hills, and trees are all part of nature which God put here for the enjoyment of man. This means even nature rejoices at the victory.
You are evading. Will the hills shout? Will the trees clap their hands?
 
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Archivist

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I read the Genesis creation accounts (2 accounts that do not agree) as allegory. A great many Christians do the same. Yes, you can be a Christian and not believe in a literal 6-day creation involving Adam, Eve and a talking snake.
 
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hedrick

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Hedrick, Do you consider a difference in wrote and authored. I agree men wrote it, but God was the author of the words they wrote. So I maybe needed to clarify the statement.
No. I meant authored it. There no reason to consider God the author, and there’s plenty of reason to think he isn’t. When God wanted to encounter us directly, he sent his son, not a book. It’s not just made up. God did work with Israel, so the Bible is describes experiences of God. But he isn’t the author, and the actual authors often didn’t understand him perfectly, and were often influenced by understandings of the times they lived in.
 
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GodsGrace101

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. I know quite a few atheists who became atheists BECAUSE they realized that the main ideas of young earth creationism were wrong and or that evolution/ common descent was an accurate description of life
Can you blame them?
I think some persons worship the bible instead of God.
I wonder if some understand how grand God is,,,how Almighty, how BIG....I think they have Him in a little box.

I'm not sure about evolution...but we can know for sure the earth is not 6,000 years old. And evolution might be right....

God is GOD....no matter what any book says.
I believe the N.T. is historic....
The O.T. is not historic, but only has history in it.
It's good to know there are many out there that can accept the truth and it does not affect their faith.
 
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Ivan Hlavanda

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You are evading. Will the hills shout? Will the trees clap their hands?

I get your point now. I don't take everything in the Bible literally, but I do believe everything in the Bible as true. So if I read in the Bible that God is my rock, I don't take it as that God is a literal God but God is literally someone I can stand on, He is my salvation.

Or when Jesus say I am the gate...is He telling the truth, yes, does He says He is literally a physical gate? No, but He is a gate to Heaven as He is the only salvation in life.

Now the guy who started this thread said that he does not believe Genesis to be true. The events recorded in Genesis are literal history.
 
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nolidad

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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?[/QUOTE/]

First< there is not proof everywhere that macro evolution or microbes to man over billions of years ever took place. In fact empirical proven and tested science of genetic shows that it cannot take place.

Second it does not make you a bad christian. Just a misinformed Christian that now has many problems to face with many Scriptures. Your being a Christian is based solely on the fact of you placing your trust in Jesus and His death and physical resurrection for your sin that makes you a Christian.
 
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nolidad

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Can you blame them?
I think some persons worship the bible instead of God.
I wonder if some understand how grand God is,,,how Almighty, how BIG....I think they have Him in a little box.

I'm not sure about evolution...but we can know for sure the earth is not 6,000 years old. And evolution might be right....

God is GOD....no matter what any book says.
I believe the N.T. is historic....
The O.T. is not historic, but only has history in it.
It's good to know there are many out there that can accept the truth and it does not affect their faith.

Well you have divided the bible into history and non-history, despite Jesus verifying, Adam and Eve and Noah and the world verifying the account of Babel.

It is sad you declare BB/TOE as truth when Jesus and His Word is declared as truth!
 
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Niels

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The creation story is a metaphor for a greater truth. It timelessly establishes who it is that we're talking about when we say God. The format is poetry rather than prose, which is consistent with other metaphorical passages. I don't think Genesis is necessarily wrong, given its format and that it accomplishes what it sets out to do, but I do think certain *interpretations* of Genesis like young Earth creation are demonstrably wrong.

Accounts of Jesus's life are prose. They are meant to be taken as literal history. His parables, however, are metaphorical. The Genesis creation story is closer to a parable than to a detailed description.
 
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GodLovesCats

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I read the Genesis creation accounts (2 accounts that do not agree) as allegory. A great many Christians do the same. Yes, you can be a Christian and not believe in a literal 6-day creation involving Adam, Eve and a talking snake.

I do not doubt a snake literally talked. The creation of Adam is harder to accept because tons of evidence shows it is not a coincidence that the earliest humans were very similar to chimpanzees.
 
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GodLovesCats

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Now the guy who started this thread said that he does not believe Genesis to be true. The events recorded in Genesis are literal history.

Um, did you forget I am a WOMAN? I thought only new posters did not know that.

Obviously much of the Bible is NOT meant to be literal. Jesus did not tell people to amputate their arms if they sin to hurt themselves. He is not a ram just because He is called the Lamb of God, but a man.
 
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Ivan Hlavanda

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Um, did you forget I am a WOMAN? I thought only new posters did not know that.

Obviously much of the Bible is NOT meant to be literal. Jesus did not tell people to amputate their arms if they sin to hurt themselves. He is not a ram just because He is called the Lamb of God, but a man.

My apologies for calling you the wrong gender, I have no idea why I thought you were a man.

The Bible's teachings are to be meant to taken literally, not everything in there is literal. Of course we have the parables and metaphors but their teachings are still ought to be taught literally.

If I misunderstood your first point in this forum I deeply apologise. But it came to me as you called the events and the timeline in Genesis to be false. The events recorded in Genesis happened. They are the events in our history. Adam and Eve happened, they were deceived by the devil, Sodom and Gomorah happened (and yes they were destroyed the way the Bible says they were, the flood happened, Abraham happened etc. etc. If anyone says that the events in Genesis did not happen is denying the Word of God
 
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