Hi jamsie,
I have read your response. From my previous posts, I think it clear that not only do I not agree with you as far as this being some account of God just making commands and then one day down the road the land/water did something to complete God's command that was directed to them.
You are correct that God's word never specifically says that the six day period was consecutive. Except in the law. The law says that in six days God
made the heavens and the earth and all that it is in them. It doesn't say that in six days God gave the set of commands that, through the operational forces of nature, caused to be created by the land and the water all that is in the heavens and the earth.
However, what God's word does say is this:
Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
Let's look more closely at the order and the time in which God says that it was 'done'. God said, "Let the land produce vegetation". The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. So, God has now commanded that the land produce vegetation and declared to us that the land did what He commanded it to do. Then God saw that it was good and closed out the narrative that thus ended the evening and morning of the third day. So, it would seem, following the order of the narrative, that whether it was God stooping down to create each plant out of the dirt or that the land itself brought forth each plant of the earth, the command seems to have been fulfilled before that day of creation ended or the next day came around.
But, for the sake of argument, let's assume that your understanding of the six days not being consecutive to have some merit. Then we are left to believe that on one day God created the earth. Then, what, a billion years later there came a day that God created the seas and divided the land? Then another day another billion years later God created the sun and moon and stars in the heavens? Then another billion years later God gave commands to the dirt and water of the earth to bring forth living creatures and over the next billion or so years it did. For me, the law confirms the six days being the period in which everything was made by God. Everything in both the heavens and the earth was
made in six days, by God. And, according to the timeline as it is found in the Scriptures, it didn't take multiple days or years or millennia for God's commands to the land and water to fulfill what God commanded them to do.
Now, it might also be useful to know that biological life contained in animals and man has all the same elementary building blocks as dirt. According to the Scriptures, God fashioned the first man Adam from the dirt/dust of the ground. It's very likely that when God commanded 'let the land produce', that instead of God fashioning the individual animals Himself out of the dirt/dust of the ground, the hundreds of animal and plant species came up out of the dirt/dust of the ground. But in each case, God sees that the land and water have done what He has commanded them to do, and then closes out that day.
Where did I deny God's omnipotence? As you say "when God takes physical control of the things in this realm of His creating, all bets as to what happens naturally are off." As with many instances in scripture, such as the preceding plagues, God used agency...Moses "raise your staff and stretch out you hand...". God's interventions do not negate a clear reading of Genesis 1.
Just to be clear, I didn't say that you did. The subject of that claim was 'they' being those who study the creation using scientific methodology. (You claim to be a scientist, but you haven't yet said that you are of one of the sciences that denies the truth of God's word or not.) That methodology does not account for something that God may have done in the past outside of what we know is naturally done in the creation. For example: It is claimed that the earth must be several billions of years old based primarily, although there are other reasons, that the light of distant stars couldn't be seen if that light is traveling across the universe from its source to the earth at the speed that we have tested and know, that light 'naturally' travels. Science cannot give any nod to some idea that, well, maybe God miraculously stretched that light, or He flung the stars into their places from a starting point near the earth and so we see them, even though they are only about 6,000 years out there. Because all that science can see is that the stars are out there and the light is here and if for all time light has always been studied, light only travels at a given speed. Therefore, either the stars were put out there long before the earth was created, or the earth is so many billions of years old.
As I tried to explain, and you being a man of science, perhaps you could provide some answers in this regard. How did a sea part, for at least a couple of hours for a half a million people to walk across on dry land, and the water that was parted just stand as a sentinel on both the right and left hand of those walking though the chasm? If we use the scientific methodology of all that we know about the properties of water, just as we know some properties of light, that's an impossible feat. I don't think you will find any scientist that won't confirm that it is a natural law of water and is always true, that water seeks level. So, how does a body of water that must be at least several dozen feet deep, part and create a chasm with two walls of water on
both sides?
How did a shadow cast by the sun shining down from heaven, go backwards the distance of ten steps? Based on scientific methodology and all that we know about the movement of the heavenly bodies, that's an impossible scenario. So, what do we do? Do we accept that science does provide us the answer for all the natural properties and that they are totally and completely immutable and, therefore, the events, as told, just didn't happen that way? Or, do we take the position that God can do whatever He wants however He wants and if He tells us that He did something then we can trust that He did it. That these events that God describes to us as doing in particular ways is exactly what God was referring to when He made the claim, "I will confound the wisdom of the wise!"
I'm happy to read any evidence that you have for another position than those two, but those are the only two that I can come up with. However, if we choose to take the second position, that when God performs a miracle in this realm that it is outside of any explanation that science can provide, I think we should understand that as far as this realm of His creating, the creation event itself was likely His greatest miracle. Certainly until Jesus was implanted in that Jewish woman's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. However, as far as the scope and size of all of God's miracles that He tells us about in His account of history, the creation event is,for me, certainly the largest.
For me, and I've learned long ago on this forum that all I can explain is my own understanding of the Scriptures, when we take
all of the testimony concerning the creation event, it seems pretty clear that it was in six days and that those days were consecutive to one another. Then God's testimony of the genealogies also makes pretty clear that it hasn't existed for millions and billions of years, but only a few thousand. That God's creating this realm of existence was for the purpose of culling out of all the people that were to come from His command to go forth and multiply and subdue the earth. To cull out what He refers to as His children, those who would trust and believe Him as to who He is and all that He has done, and bring those few, according to Jesus' explanation, into an eternal existence with Him. We live in a created realm that was created by a God who created it all for a purpose. From beginning to end of God's account of both historical and future events that seems to be God's clear purpose. That's my position even after having critically taken under advisement, your understanding.
God bless,
In Christ, ted
