ashleyn90

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!
 

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!

God is able to create light without the sun. Think like waves of light or something. Not sure how exactly light manifested itself (what shape it took) before the sun was created, but I am sure God moved the particles of light into the sun, and the stars, etc.
 
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While Genesis tells us how God created all things (answering our question on where we come from), the ultimate truth of the creation account is Jesus Christ.

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (John 5:39).​

To give you an example of this: God showed me one day in the creation account of how it points to Jesus.

Finger Prints of the Greatest Love Story Ever Told!

In the opening of God's love letter to man, God lets us know that He created all things in six days and stops from all His work on the seventh and blesses it. However, what you may not know, is that God had also secretly told us about the greatest love story of all in the beginning of His Word, too.

1. Day One of Creation:
God brings forth Light.
In the New Testament, Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14) who is the light of all men whose light shineth out darkness (John 1:4-5). For He is the light of the world (John 8:12).

2. Day Two of Creation:
God separates the Water & creates the firmament or Heavens in-between them.
In the New Testament, Jesus is baptized in water and then the Heavens open up, which begins His ministry (Matthew 3:16). Jesus is our firmament or Heaven (i.e. bridge or stairway) between that which is Heavenly above and that which is Earthy below. For Jesus is the mediator between God and men.

3. Day Three of Creation:
Dry land (including rock) appears and vegetation such as trees come forth.
In the New Testament, Jesus is the rock of our salvation (1 Corinthians 10:4) who is crucified upon a wooden cross or tree for our sins or transgressions against Him (Acts 5:30).

4. Day Four of Creation:
After three days pass by, the sun, the moon, and the stars are raised up into the sky.
In the New Testament, on the third day, Jesus who is the Son of God or the Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2) (Revelation 1:16) rises from the grave (Matthew 28:5-6), ascends to the Father up in Heaven (John 20:17) enters the Holy place, and obtains eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12).

5. Day Five of Creation:
God creates marine life and the fowl of the air.
In the New Testament, Jesus is the fisher of men (Matthew 4:19) (John 21:4-8) who returns to be with his disciples for 40 days, greeting them with a meal of fish, and then leaving them back up into Heaven again like a bird going up into the sky (Acts of the Apostles 1:9-10) (Psalms 91:4).

6. Day Six of Creation:
God creates animals and man.
In the New Testament, thru Christ's redemptive work of his death and resurrection, the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God (Romans 8:19).

7. Day Seven - After Creation:
God stops from his work, and blesses it as a weekly Sabbath rest for man.
In the New Testament, Jesus can forgive of us of our sins (1 John 2:1-2) and give us an eternal rest and Sabbath for all eternity if we choose to accept it (Matthew 11:28) (Hebrews 4:8-11). Thus restoring a broken relationship between God and man so that we may walk with Him in the light (1 John 1:7) and so that He may give us love and peace (Ephesians 3:17) (John 14:27).​

This is the greatest love story ever told. Jesus, who was God Almighty in the flesh knew before the beginning of creation itself that we would sin against Him. So He came down into the flesh of a man to pay the price for our sins against Him. He died so that we could have life and so that we could have a loving and glorious fellowship with Him that is unlike any other. That is how much God loves us; And it is hidden for us to discover like a secret love letter or loving finger print right in the very beginning of Genesis.
 
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The Bible is all about Jesus and salvation in Him.
This is not a one time prayer, but a continual walk with the Lord.
A surrender to God (Jesus).
The creation account in Genesis 1 points to our Savior and our need for Him.
 
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D.A. Wright

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The problem is in assuming that the sun was the first source of light (which would actually be God, Himself). It's just that simple. And yet highly intelligent atheists use this as a talking point for debates all the time.
 
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Aabbie James

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!
The Glory of God gives light...
  • Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
God is the Author of physical laws...
  • Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
  • Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
 
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We also have to think that with God, nothing is impossible. God can create things (or do things) in a way that we do not always understand. Jesus turned water into wine. That cannot be explained scientifically. In short, God is able to do the miraculous.
 
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royal priest

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Light teaches us many things about God and His character. God even uses special manifestations of light to show how He transcends the created order.
1 John 1:9
God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.

1 Timothy 6:16
who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

Revelation 21:23
The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.
 
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We see the sun, and the stars give light by observable science and this is repeatable to us. So we think it is normative of how light should appear. But God could have made light to appear in some shape or form without the need of the sun or stars. He can do it because He is God.

What shape that light looked like (if there was a specific shape) before God placed the light in the sun and the stars is unknown. God did not feel it was important for us to know. We take it by faith and not by sight that these things are so because God's Word said that this is what happened (See Hebrews 11).
 
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D.A. Wright

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I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1.
By the way, no need to be embarrassed. We're all on the same journey. And when you begin to think you understand everything, that's when you've got trouble.
 
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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!

Anyways, it is wonderful that you are sticking with learning God's Word. Many of the youth in our churches today are not as interested as you in the Bible. Here is a movie that is playing in limited theaters that talks about this (if you are interested).


To check showtimes and locations, see the bottom of this website here:

Play The Flute Movie

May God bless you in your continued journey in learning God's Word more.
 
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Halbhh

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!

Let me talk about the most important thing first, then the less important thing about this question 2nd, and finally a very wonderful thing about this chapter at the end.

There are many small details about creation we are not told in the scripture, because they truly do not matter if we have faith. Our faith isn't reliant on believing or knowing that God made worms before antelope. That's not the basis for our hope or salvation.

Saving faith is only faith in Christ, risen, and is built by hearing the Word of Christ (in the 4 gospels), Romans 10:17 tells us. Faith isn't based (correctly!) on believing this or that theory about creation, theory B instead of theory J. We are told that the only good foundation for faith, the only, is hearing and doing the Words of Christ -- Matthew 7:24-27.

No other foundation is safe, over time.

All other foundations will fail.

Unless a person is hearing and doing as Christ said, they will not make it.

If we do hear His words, and do them, then we can be totally assured with absolute certainty that we will make it, safe and sound on the rock of hearing and doing His words.

---------
Ok, the small detail about the light on the first day in Genesis, and then the sun, moon and stars revealed on the 4th day. Since the first day has a normal morning and evening, it seems to be a day like the other days, instead of the theory people came up with that somehow the days before day 4 are unlike those after day 4. So, we can guess (all views involve some assumptions or guesses, even if the person does not realize it!), that the light might be the sun, beginning to shine, on the already rotating all-ocean surface ("formless") Earth, and that would mean that the 4th day sun, moon and stars becoming visible (in this vision or revelation) means that they were not visible in the prior days, but the message is the same message that is repeated 7 times to us in the chapter -- the sun, moon and stars are part of all that is "good", helpful, pleasant, useful, delightful, wonderful, for us, as our home!

We have a wonderful home God has made for us, and it is "very good". Hallelujah.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Notice that only some words of actual speaking from God are given -- those in quotation marks here. Just like the vision to Peter in Acts chapter 10 -- only some words are given, just enough to eventually understand the essential meaning...if a person truly listens. Peter did not understand at first, right off. He didn't understand. But later, he would eventually understand. There were just enough words in the vision to get to the only, essential meaning. The meaning being given Peter was not to merely go hunting for supper or such! (even though those were indeed the words...they were not the meaning).

Moses is getting (we assume it is Moses given this vision or revelation) a sense of key meaning, and even some brief words/narration (but not much!) from God. The essential meaning is very clearly said though: "it was good" -- good for whom? good for us, as our home -- we can notice, once we have had time to realize He has said this 7 times, and consider what He has made.

Notice that while we are told God created the sun, moon and stars -- as all believe that believe He is the creator of all that is....

....we are not actually told when here. Because that is a relatively trivial detail, really. Consider: would it matter if it was a certain number, X amount of time -- for an Eternal God of all the Universe? Not really, of course. Time duration is no kind of problem for Him.

--------------
Now for the truly wonderful thing this chapter can do for you.

Consider: we know first God chose not to reveal things that ultimately don't matter. The vision/revelation does have a purpose -- it can change you.

If we truly listen, with our heart/soul/mind, listening, to the words, without an agenda, and with faith. It can/will alter our minds. Lift us up out of worldly thinking and concerns. That's the primary effect of this chapter on us, if we let it happen. By laying aside all of the ideas/debates/doctrines, and just hearing.

Everyone should take the time to set aside every doctrine and agenda and be truly listening, with all of their being, and just affected by the wonder and glory of it. It's an blessing of rare quality, so much better than just some good weather or nice food or such.
 
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Halbhh

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The problem is in assuming that the sun was the first source of light (which would actually be God, Himself). It's just that simple. And yet highly intelligent atheists use this as a talking point for debates all the time.
This chapter isn't about small details. Yes, atheists use small details to try to get people to focus on the wrong things. We can do better than that.
 
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D.A. Wright

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This chapter isn't about small details. Yes, atheists use small details to try to get people to focus on the wrong things. We can do better than that.
What is this chapter about?
 
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D.A. Wright

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Let me talk about the most important thing first, then the less important thing about this question 2nd, and finally a very wonderful thing about this chapter at the end.

There are many small details about creation we are not told in the scripture, because they truly do not matter if we have faith. Our faith isn't reliant on believing or knowing that God made worms before antelope. That's not the basis for our hope or salvation.

Saving faith is only faith in Christ, risen, and is built by hearing the Word of Christ (in the 4 gospels), Romans 10:17 tells us. Faith isn't based (correctly!) on believing this or that theory about creation, theory B instead of theory J. We are told that the only good foundation for faith, the only, is hearing and doing the Words of Christ -- Matthew 7:24-27.

No other foundation is safe, over time.

All other foundations will fail.

Unless a person is hearing and doing as Christ said, they will not make it.

If we do hear His words, and do them, then we can be totally assured with absolute certainty that we will make it, safe and sound on the rock of hearing and doing His words.

---------
Ok, the small detail about the light on the first day in Genesis, and then the sun, moon and stars revealed on the 4th day. Since the first day has a normal morning and evening, it seems to be a day like the other days, instead of the theory people came up with that somehow the days before day 4 are unlike those after day 4. So, we can guess (all views involve some assumptions or guesses, even if the person does not realize it!), that the light might be the sun, beginning to shine, on the already rotating all-ocean surface ("formless") Earth, and that would mean that the 4th day sun, moon and stars becoming visible (in this vision or revelation) means that they were not visible in the prior days, but the message is the same message that is repeated 7 times to us in the chapter -- the sun, moon and stars are part of all that is "good", helpful, pleasant, useful, delightful, wonderful, for us, as our home!

We have a wonderful home God has made for us, and it is "very good". Hallelujah.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

Notice that only some words of actual speaking from God are given -- those in quotation marks here. Just like the vision to Peter in Acts chapter 10 -- only some words are given, just enough to eventually understand the essential meaning...if a person truly listens. Peter did not understand at first, right off. He didn't understand. But later, he would eventually understand. There were just enough words in the vision to get to the only, essential meaning. The meaning being given Peter was not to merely go hunting for supper or such! (even though those were indeed the words...they were not the meaning).

Moses is getting (we assume it is Moses given this vision or revelation) a sense of key meaning, and even some brief words/narration (but not much!) from God. The essential meaning is very clearly said though: "it was good" -- good for whom? good for us, as our home -- we can notice, once we have had time to realize He has said this 7 times, and consider what He has made.

Notice that while we are told God created the sun, moon and stars -- as all believe that believe He is the creator of all that is....

....we are not actually told when here. Because that is a relatively trivial detail, really. Consider: would it matter if it was a certain number, X amount of time -- for an Eternal God of all the Universe? Not really, of course. Time duration is no kind of problem for Him.

--------------
Now for the truly wonderful thing this chapter can do for you.

Consider: we know first God chose not to reveal things that ultimately don't matter. The vision/revelation does have a purpose -- it can change you.

If we truly listen, with our heart/soul/mind, listening, to the words, without an agenda, and with faith. It can/will alter our minds. Lift us up out of worldly thinking and concerns. That's the primary effect of this chapter on us, if we let it happen. By laying aside all of the ideas/debates/doctrines, and just hearing.

Everyone should take the time to set aside every doctrine and agenda and be truly listening, with all of their being, and just affected by the wonder and glory of it. It's an blessing of rare quality, so much better than just some good weather or nice food or such.
So He gives us a bunch of details to teach us that details do not matter. Got it.

Where do people get this stuff?
 
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Sanoy

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!
There are various views, however mine is that God caused the lights in the first case, and set them into position for times and seasons in the second case. For example, our sun used to be smaller, and the moon closer. Over time the moon drifted away slowly until a certain point where it locked the earth in a 24 hour cycle. And over time the sun grew larger.

Only the first part is finished but I worked on this problem here. Hope it will be useful.
 
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Jonaitis

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Hi everyone,

I am embarrassed to ask this but I am having problems understanding Genesis 1. Would someone please clarify it for me?

On the first day, God created light. However, on the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. Would light not be the sun?

I am really confused about these two and an explanation would be very appreciative!

Thank you!

I may not stand in agreement with everything John Whitcomb believes, but this I agree with.

"God created a fixed and localized light source in the heaven in reference to which the rotating earth passed through the same kind of day/night cycle as it has since the creation of the sun."

1. Notice that the day/night cycle begins on the first day, not the fourth.
2. If the sun was created first, where would God place it? The heaven/sky was created on the second day.

I may be looking more into this than what is necessary, but it may be that the improbability of a sun existing without a heaven first and a heaven (separation of water) without heat only makes this alternative light possible. Genesis should not be read as a science textbook, but this is consistent with the natural order of things.
 
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hedrick

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I don’t think it is possible to turn Genesis into a literal play-by-play account of the origin of the universe, the earth, and living things. However there is a certain sense to making creation of light come before the sun and moon.

Light as a thing (in modern physics, a particular type of field) is the same whether the source is the sun or a light bulb. So it makes sense to think of light as a thing independent of any particular source (e.g. sun or moon).

Indeed God is at times portrayed as dwelling in realms of endless light, so God is probably the original source of light.

A couple of relevant parallels: Genesis 1 is close to and probably based on a Babylonian creation account. In that account the order is the same: light is created before the sun and moon. The gods are the source of the original light. I think the idea is that God is the source of the original light.

Second: in the scientific account, there is light from very early in the timeline of the universe, well before any stars. The original light came from the big bang itself. Indeed the way scientists first realized that the big bang occurred was by picking up remnants of the original light (actually radio waves).

So I think it’s just fine to say that there was a source of light on day 1, before the sun. It’s probably intended that God is the source.
 
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Halbhh

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I don’t think it is possible to turn Genesis into a literal play-by-play account of the origin of the universe, the earth, and living things. However there is a certain sense to making creation of light come before the sun and moon.

Light as a thing (in modern physics, a particular type of field) is the same whether the source is the sun or a light bulb. So it makes sense to think of light as a thing independent of any particular source (e.g. sun or moon).

Indeed God is at times portrayed as dwelling in realms of endless light, so God is probably the original source of light.

A couple of relevant parallels: Genesis 1 is close to and probably based on a Babylonian creation account. In that account the order is the same: light is created before the sun and moon. The gods are the source of the original light. I think the idea is that God is the source of the original light.

Second: in the scientific account, there is light from very early in the timeline of the universe, well before any stars. The original light came from the big bang itself. Indeed the way scientists first realized that the big bang occurred was by picking up remnants of the original light (actually radio waves).

So I think it’s just fine to say that there was a source of light on day 1, before the sun. It’s probably intended that God is the source.
It's a common modern view, that, to combine a modern version of an Augustine style special light source for days 1-3 with the big bang vaguely understood thrown in. My own view is simply a more considered one based on more details, that fits more things together with less assumptions and additions, but this is only because of the larger amount of information about Earth and the solar system and the Universe I've been though due to background and interests over decades.


For example, not many people are aware that it's a mainstream science understanding in recent years that Earth was a water world once -- "formless" is one wording in Genesis 1:2 that would fit a surface like that, constantly in motion and lacking any dry land.

The science is lining up to Genesis. Not just on 1 thing.

Mainstream science is slowly revealing Genesis 1 to be literally on target, not just metaphor or representation only, to the surprise of anyone I think. I was so surprised to start to see pieces fit.

But, how would this help anyone that is totally in love with their own pet theory of creation? They would only use personal disparagements usually, determined to defend their theory on which they've built too much of their self-identity, I fear. I hardly think it helps to even tell them anything now a days, unless they are humble enough to be able to be ok that someone else may know more than they do about something on which they've spent so many hours, or have so often presented proudly.
 
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This chapter isn't about small details. Yes, atheists use small details to try to get people to focus on the wrong things. We can do better than that.

You don't have to be an atheist to go nuts over the small details. They have to argue with people who do not want to know any details that God never wrote and, consequently, are unable to disprove anything that has been proven thousands of times around the world.
 
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