In the Beginning?
I have read your God's novel, The Bible. I do not understand it. I have many questions. I hope I will find some answers here.
So let's start at the beginning.
Genesis 1
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
My Initial Questions:
1. Where did God live before he created the heaven and the earth?
2. When did God create the earth, in terms of the Gregorian Calendar?
Thank you, I hope to find some clarity on this site and I trust I will receive logical answers, as I have many more.
Kindest regards,
R Bear
Hi
Thanks for the reply. Where exactly are these three heavens?
Did you know that the earth is accepted by scientists to be around 4.5 billion years old?
regards
R Bear
Hi
You say " I personally believe it doesn't really matter for our salvation."
Why does it not matter? I think it matters a great deal. You claim that your God is omnipotent etc, I am sure he would not get his facts wrong in his great book.
regards
R Bear
Why would God want you to "infer" or "interpret" anything at all? Why would God want to confuse us all? He was very specific about the 10 Commandments, why was he so vague and contradictory about everything else?
Hi Rim Bear, I copied or tried to copy all of your posts so my response to you would directly relate to your questions.
(1) Where did God live before creation? Before creation of the physical universe, nothing existed except God according to the Bible. So if we say there is a physical Universe, a physical realm so to speak, and a spiritual realm that has no location we can reference using using physical parameters, then all I can say is "outside" of space and time. The Bible describes three heavens, and although they are not described in detail, they seem to be (a) the earth's atmosphere, where the birds fly, (b) space, where the sun, moon and stars hang out, and (c) the spiritual realm outside of space and time. This is the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, and has an attribute that God is present there. Since it is dimensionless, it or a part of it could be occupy the same location as the physical universe or a part of the physical universe.
(2) When did God create the earth? I do not know. YEC would say less than 10,000 years ago, and OEC would say perhaps billions and billions of years ago. God's word says (a) we were not present when God did it, and (b) we do not know when God did it. God said this even though Genesis provides information which some folks believe indicates everything was created in 6 24 hour days, about 6000 years ago. But since the Bible says we (mankind) do not know, for anyone to be dogmatic seems unsound.
There are a ton of books and lots of debate on this topic, but at the end of the day, we do not know according to the Bible.
(3) Did you know scientists believe the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Yes, but the evidence does not seem compelling. According to my understanding of science, after the big bang occurred several light elements formed. Some time later stars formed and within the great pressure and temperature of the stars, heavier elements formed. And then in the midst of supernovas, the heaviest elements formed. These aggregated into molecules and minerals. So the earth was formed from these materials that were in the pre-solar nebula. So the question is, when the earth formed, were all the atomic clocks that were ticking in the presolar nebula get fully reset. If not, perhaps we are dating the supernova that contributed the heavy elements we use in our radiometric dating. If this is the case the earth could have formed later but be formed out of "old" rocks that existed in the nebula. None of this challenges the great age of the universe, or that the earth appears to be vastly older than 10,000 years. I just wanted to share that the 4.5 billion year age is based on unsupported assumptions.
(4) Does the age of the earth matter to salvation. Sure. If you believe the Bible says the earth is less than 10,000 years old and you believe the earth is actually more than 10,000, then the bible would not seem to be trustworthy. But the fact is the Bible does not say how old the earth is, and does say we (at least at the time Job was written) do not know, then there is no basis for not accepting the Bible as trustworthy.
(5) Why would God want us to infer and interprete God's word? To the contrary, God does not want us to push scripture, making assumptions. He wants us to study it and get out of it His intended message, which of course was never the age of the earth.
