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Methinks you have a big problem with God....
The creation story in Genesis is mythological and polemic. ....
Of course, and I know where you are going, and I've already shown my hand on this. But let's see where this leads anyway.
]Hi greenguzzi,
Well, just so we each understand each other and the authority and truth of the Scriptures...
You wrote:
This is, of course, the battle cry of old earth creationism and evolutionary theorists. If what we see in the reality of the physical realm doesn't match with what God's word seems to be telling us, then our understanding of God's word is flawed. However, in speaking specifically of the creation, Paul warned the believers in Colossi not to be deceived by knowledge that is founded on the natural properties of things.
My best example of this, apart from the creation account, is the crossing of the sea by the Hebrews coming out of Egypt. We are told in the Scriptures that as the Hebrews passed over the dry seabed that there was a wall of water on both their right hand and on their left hand. However, our tried and true and well tested observation of reality is that water will not stand up like a wall without some aid such as a glass container or fish tank or cliff face. Our observation of reality tells us that water will always seek to level itself unless something holds it from that natural property. It's an understanding that has been tested and proven hundreds of thousands if not several million times.
So, what's your understanding of the crossing of the Hebrews over the dry seabed with a wall of water on both their left hand and their right hand?
And, of course, that's only one example where we see that when God works all our knowledge of what can and can't be done based on the natural properties of things is worthless. How do you understand the sun standing still in the sky over Israel for nearly a full day or the shadow of the sun going backwards? How do you understand that an ass (the animal kind) can speak? What is your understanding of these events that seem quite clearly laid out for us in the Scriptures. If the sun going backwards or standing still is in conflict with our observations of reality, are all those who believe that God did actually cause such things to happen, not properly interpreting the Scriptures?
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
I agree with your post except that Satan is never called a holy angel or a fallen angel in the Word of God, rather, he is the chief of a host of created evil angels in heaven, who were created to do what they do, and they serve God in doing it [the angel of destruction is a satan, who is the angel of death; the evil spirit, Abaddon/Apollyn/Destruction, who is in charge of Sheol below is an evil angel, and corruption which is legally in the flesh of every Adam person who comes into their Adam being is an evil angel, in fact -a host of them, as is listed in the Word, but they cannot curse without legal cause, and God is the One who gives them legal authority to curse, since Genesis 3:15 -but in this present creation only. After the seventh millennium, they will be confined to the borders of the Lake of Fire where they are the tormenters of their prey, forever.Hi again,
You responded to my hypothetical with:
Yes, I'm sure that you do, but have you honestly considered the similarities to what all known scientific evidence would have told us was the truth about Adam's existence and age on day two of his life with what all known scientific evidence tells us about the age of creation. Any scientist would have told us on day two of Adam's life that he 'appeared' to be about 20-30 years old. That he had passed through the birth and weaning years with his parents and grew into quite a healthy young man.
We, similarly, think to imagine that we can date the earth and the universe based on our great scientific knowledge and understanding. We measure and prod and poke and study and create great theories and 'truths' that lead us into direct contradiction to what God has told us, but because we think of ourselves as so much wiser than we really are and trust men and women who have given of their life's work to study these things with great doctoral degrees in their fields, we believe the lie rather than the truth. This is the exact same thing that Satan did and that Eve did. They believed of themselves to be wiser than God. That the real truth was gained through the exhaustive studies of men rather than the trust of God.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
No.I think i begin to see what you are talking about: is the image below fit the Bible description about the stretching of the heavens ?
Hi there Ted,
Did you know that Jonathan Gray showed how God used His true science to stand the waters in a heap/ice, by the wind that He sent to blow all night?
Gray has some videos online where he talks about this abd he also writes it in one of his books, in which he tells us about locals to that area who will put out water to freeze to ice when a wind is howling through a pass and makes the water ice, even though the climate is a hot one.
Exo 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
Exo 15:8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
Psa 78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
Psa 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
For those who believe in it, how are those years calculated according to scripture?
Welcome, Ted,Hi YSM,
Good to hear from you and thank you for the likes. The Scriptures say 'water'. Yes, we are told that a great wind blew all night against the water, but there is a problem when we try to say that it was the wind that kept the water in place as the Israelites passed through. ...
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
Welcome, Ted,
Exo 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided
Exo 15:8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
Psa 78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
Psa 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.
The Word said God sent a blast of wind, not a gentle thing, and it blasted through all night.
The wind blasting through that point caused the waters to divide, and to become congealed/ice, and stand as a solid wall -not a [liquid] water wall, but a congealed water [solid ice] wall....heaped up.
The climate is hot, there, but natives to the area even to this day know that blasting wind blowing through certain passes turn water to ice, and they use that to their own advantage. They put out containers of water to make ice.
God had it so timed that when the wind stopped blowing and the Israelites were all through and the Egyptians started through, the water behind the weakening ice wall crashed through....
The water congealed and standing in heaps, was an ice wall, caused by the wind blowing through the passage.
The earth and heaven were created in the beginning - at the same time as per Genesis 1:1. This was before the first day of creation; when darkness fell upon earth, and earth became void - and when God moved and separated the darkness from the light, then the first day of creation began.
Also, day doesn't necessarily mean one 24 hour period, or 1000 years. It can mean any unspecific period of time. The context is important, and how can there be a 24 hour day before a sun and moon were created? How, then, can we even use the "A day with the Lord is as 1000 (human) years with man = 8,760,000 24 hour days" - a measure that is based on the earth's rotation about its axis with respect to the sun? There is something else going on in the Hebrew...
The creation narrative in Genesis is mythological and polemic. It is therefore important and true. But once you try to use it to describe the physical universe you end up with gibberish, as you have adequately demonstrated.Methinks you have a big problem with God.
Are you a disciple of Hugh Ross? You seem to be, for he denies the Word under guise of "science" which is the biblical "...so called".
Hi Ted,Hi YSM,
Yes, I agree that God used the wind to divide the sea, but as mentioned, keeping it divided for the duration of time that it took for the Israelites to pass through, while a seemingly stronger than hurricane force wind blew through the pass, is a bit of a stretch for me. Do you realize how cold it has to be to freeze a body of water such as a sea in 24 hours or so? It's got to be well below 32 degrees. I fully understand that in some mountainous passes in the middle east it can get very cold, but we're talking sea level here and a temperature that would likely have to be way below zero for such a freeze to occur in the time that the account allows for the dividing and the crossing. Further, the Red Sea is a salt water body. Salt water requires about 28 degrees F to freeze. The Red Sea lies roughly along the same lattitude as Florida. If you can show me some evidence that salt water has ever frozen anywhere along that lattitude at sea level I'd be interested in seeing it. I'm confident that your mentor won't be able to provide such evidence. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Egypt is about 44 degrees F. Even if we were to allow that some strange anomaly caused the temperature to drop to zero degrees F a body of salt water such as a sea would not freeze. Not in 24 hours. Fresh water in a small bottle or clay urn, yes, but salt water in a sea, never! For something akin to a huge iceberg to freeze that would stop up the width of the Red Sea, you'd need to have very, very low temperatures for a very, very extended length of time.
Further, what freezes from salt water is the pure water. This is why you can drink the water from a frozen iceberg. I remember years ago, to solve the water shortage problems around the world, men considered towing icebergs to those areas to melt and provide clean drinking water. Your mentor has taken a known fact that water can freeze along the lattitude of the Red Sea, but thown out all the differences that allow that non-salted water to freeze at much higher elevations and then stands back and tells you, 'see, it can happen'.
As I said, your mentor has thought to imagine that he can explain to unbelievers and even believers that he can explain
'how' it's possible that the account of the Exodus from Egypt could have happened using just regular explanations based on regular natural properties. He can't! And I'd warn anyone trying to adopt his thinking and methodology that what is really happening here is that we are trying to deny the full glory and power of God. We are striving to deny God the full glory of what He can do by making claims that when He works, He just manipulates the natural properties of things.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
Then, we see that the waters were congealed, they were ice -they froze by the wind, and it does not take a low temp atmosphere for a strong wind over water to make that water ice. I said to you that Jonathan Gray said natives in that hot land make ice even in this age, by placing water containers in narrow passes where the wind blows hard, through.
Hi tatteredsoul,
I've written about this before. Yes, if we only look at the word 'day' in the Genesis account, we can't be sure of its duration. However, when you define that day as consisting of an evening and a morning there is not a single writing in all of the world that has done so and meant a period longer than a normal, single rotation of the earth, 'day'. Day is the kind of word that needs a contextual clue for the reader to understand the period of time that it refers to. God know this! God put the word in context for us.
Hi tatteredsoul,
I've written about this before. Yes, if we only look at the word 'day' in the Genesis account, we can't be sure of its duration. However, when you define that day as consisting of an evening and a morning there is not a single writing in all of the world that has done so and meant a period longer than a normal, single rotation of the earth, 'day'. Day is the kind of word that needs a contextual clue for the reader to understand the period of time that it refers to. God know this! God put the word in context for us.
God is wiser than you or I could ever hope to imagine. He knew before He created this realm that a time would come when men would not put up with sound doctrine, but rather, surround themselves with others to tell them what their itching ears wanted to hear. He knew that there would be great and extended discussions on what the word 'day' in the Genesis account could mean. So, God set for us some context by which we would understand.
Now, each is free to deny that and it seems that everyone who enjoins these discussions regarding the length of the creation days always gets hung up on just the word 'day'. They never write the word in its full context, but merely write 'day' and then go off on tangents regarding how long a day 'could' be.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted
Evening and morning still beg the question of a day, and/or the location of a sun and moon (which did not exist until the forth "day.") Not, unless you look at the Hebrew.
Evening means dusk, but it is from the Hebrew word "arab," which means "covering, mingling, braiding, darkened." Notice what God did before the evening existed: He defined light and day, and created a firmament (covering.) That creation of the firmament was "arab," and the "breaking away, ploughing of, consideration and inspection of that firmament" (baqar in Hebrew) was the morning. No sun needed. No moon needed. "Light and Dark" were separated, and defined (and this goes even deeper in the Hebrew connotations of what happened in just five verses.) And, it still doesn't define what a day is as any numerable measure of "time."
Even if you use "evening and morning," in its contemporary sense (and not the Hebrew context and image device,) then it still begs the question of where an evening and morning can come from if there is no sun or moon
Hi YSM,
Yes I read all of your earlier post. You have repeated your reply as thus:
It's the 'then, we see that the waters were congealed, they were ice - thy froze by the wind...' part that I'm not in agreement that the Scriptures tell us that 'then, we see...'.
There is nothing in the Scriptures to infer that the water 'congealed'. All that is said is that the waters divided. We are then told that there was a wall of 'water' on both their left hand and their right hand.
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