Period 1
Genesis 1:1 -- "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In this passage we see that God created "the heavens and the earth", but what are the heavens and the earth? It is suggested later in Genesis 1:7 that the heavens and the earth are separated and therefore were once together (I will address this more later). Now that we see that the heavens and the earth were created as one we can more thoughtfully analyze the rest of Genesis and even some outside theories. We now know that everything that was going to be created already was created in the beginning within the heavens and the earth; Genesis 1:1 is the only verse that says God created in this chapter other than when Genesis 1:21 and 27, therefore, everything else in this chapter was a manipulation of what He had already created. We also see that the cosmological evolution (Big Bang) theory states that everything that ever existed started out in a small fourth dimensional mass<*>.Genesis 1:2 -- "The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters." This verse seems to be very simple and not have much to say, however, we must ask ourselves: does a perfect God create things that are formless and void? Something must have happened between God's creation of the heavens and the earth and the formless and void mass that was before Him. If you dig into the Hebrew of the verse, then you will find that the passage could also be translated to say, "Now the earth..." or "Then the earth..."*, which would better show that something happened between verse 1 and verse 2. I would suggest that what changed is Satan was cast out of heaven. I would support this claim with the fact that he was cast out between the creation of the angels and the temptation of Adam and Eve**. Knowing this it seems likely that Satan was the cause of the earth becoming formless and void as it happened after creation, but before the temptation of Adam and Eve. Another thing to consider is that the war between Satan along with his angels and God along with his angels may have took place between verse 1 and verse 2; this war could have taken billions of years and thus explaining why the earth is billions of years old***. If this were the case, then the dinosaurs could have lived during this time and the Satan vs. God war could have caused natural disasters and thus caused volcanic eruptions that blocked out the sun and caused a "nuclear winter" that would have killed off the dinosaurs and would have left a wasteland for God to rebuild. However, that theory is different than my own (though I do think it may fit better than my own), my theory is that the "waters" in this passage were actually space as it began to unfold and since it was formless and void, God had to create all the stars, planets, etc.
Genesis 1:3 -- "Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." This verse shows God not creating light, but pulling it out of what was already created (the heavens and the earth). This would also line up with the Big Bang theory, which states that for some reason light was separated from the fourth dimensional mass and caused a plethora of chemical reactions that caused our universe to expand<*>.
Genesis 1:4 -- "God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness." Note that God said that the light was good. When God separated the light from the darkness it was because the world was completely dark and then He made it completely light, but He recognized the need for day and night, so He separated the two and allowed them both to have their place.
Genesis 1:5 -- "God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening evening and there was morning, one day." Now in reading this passage we read that there was a period of one day, but does it really say that? The word for day in this passage is yō·wm (day, daylight [sunrise to sunset], and time period) and not bay·yō·wm (literal day)<>. You should also note that it doesn't follow a time table the way people did both now and then; it says, "there was evening and there was morning" and not, "there was morning and there was evening". If it were speaking of a literal day, then would it not reflect our morning to evening day? Since it is evening to morning it resembles more of a ending (evening) of one time period to the beginning (morning) of the next.<> One last thing to consider is that the sun was not formed yet and therefore could not spin on its axis to create a day.
We know that Genesis 1:1-5 all happened in the same "day" because each separate thing that God did on this "day" was joined together with "and", whereas the next verse says "then" to signify the start of the next "day".
Period 2
Genesis 1:7 -- "God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so." Here we see that the expanse from the last verse is better defined and is clearly not land, but it is the sky and space. I will further explain the reason it is not only the sky but space too in a later paragraph. The waters in this scripture refer to the heavens (the waters above) and the earth (the waters below).
Genesis 1:8 -- "God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." We see that the expanse is called heaven in this scripture, however, it is also referred to as sky. I would suggest that the word meant here is sky considering the expanse separated the heavens and the earth. Moving on, we see that there is no account of God saying that what He had done in the second "day" was good. I believe that God was not happy about what He did in the second "day" because He had to separate Himself from His creation (earth). I also believe that this is foreshadowing of God separating Himself from man. Also, in these last three verses, we notice that the author said God separated the heavens from the earth using the word raqia. The word raqia was translated to the Greek word stereoma in the Septuagint and stereoma was translated to the Latin word firmamentum in the Vulgate. The word firmamentum in Latin means strong or steadfast support and the word stereoma in Greek means solid structure, but the word raqia came from the Hebrew verb raqa; this verb means to stretch out><. When you translate the actual word from Hebrew, it is clear that God stretched the heavens from the earth and this would explain why the universe spun out to its current state. This lines up with the Big Bang theory because after light was separated, the universe expanded. Please note that God still has not created anything new, but has only continued to manipulate His creation.
Period 3
Genesis 1:9 -- "Then God said, 'Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear'; and it was so." Here we see that God still has not created anything new and everything is still from the original heavens and earth creation from Genesis 1:1. This scripture outlines the land raising out of the oceans, which can be seen as the volcanic eruptions that science says formed land.Genesis 1:10 -- "God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good." Notice that God calls what He has done here good just as He did on the first "day", but not the second. This verse is really just a further elaboration on what had happened in the previous verse.
Genesis 1:11 -- "Then God said, 'Let the the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them'; and it was so." Again, we see that God is not creating anything new, but manipulating the earth. God told the earth to sprout vegetation and this means that the vegetation was already in the earth to begin with. We can read later that God created man out of the dust of the earth and, therefore, life came from the earth and God just manipulated it rather than creating it. This would also seem to explain the evolutionary theory because life came from the earth since we came from dust.
Genesis 1:12 -- "The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good." We see here that the earth obeyed God's word and did everything He told it to. We also see that it was good and this shows that God had done multiple works in this period and both were good.
Genesis 1:13 -- "There was evening and there was morning, a third day." We see that all that God had done with dry land and vegetation took place in one "day", however, we know that for most trees to grow enough to produce fruit takes at least a year.
We should recognize that this period does not line up with the Big Bang theory because this period should have been
Period 4<*>
Genesis 1:14 -- "Then God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs for seasons and for days and years;" Here we see that God formed the sun, moon, and stars in the "heavens", but as I touched on earlier, this usage of heavens is more likely referring to the sky. We will see that God manipulated lights into the "sky", which was really space, but they didn't have a word for space yet. I say manipulated again because it does not say that God created the lights, but that He told them to be and thus they were manipulated out of nebulae. We also see that the moon "lights" the earth, but the word for light in this passage is 'owr, which means to be or become light or to be illuminated or become lighted up. We would understand that this means that the moon becomes lit up and reflects its light to us. The main point of this scripture is to give us a way to track seasons, days, and years.Genesis 1:15 -- "'and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth'; and it was so." Here we see that the Bible doesn't say that they are lights, but that they will be for light in the sky/space to give light to earth. This would explain that the moon is not a light, but is for light because it gives light by reflecting the sun. This also explains why God put the lights in the sky/space.
Genesis 1:16 -- "God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also." This further explains what God did in Genesis 1:14-15 and goes on to give further purpose to the sun and moon, but it leaves the stars out as an afterthought.
Genesis 1:17 -- "God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth," This is further explanation on what God did and that He placed the stars in space.
Genesis 1:18 -- "and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good." This is still a further explanation of what God did and explains that this "day" was also good as every "day" has been except for the second "day".
Genesis 1:19 -- "There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day." This just outlines the end of the fourth period.
An important detail about this is that God provides the sun and moon in order to measure "days, and years" and this would mean that there was no way to measure days before and therefore the Bible was not speaking of a literal 24-hour day because a 24-hour day hadn't existed until "day" 4.
Period 5
Genesis 1:20 -- "Then God said, 'Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.'" Here we see that God caused the birds and fish to be and considering there has been no new creation and that everything came from His original creation, I would assume that God formed this from His original creation too. There is no reason to believe the creatures came from nothing.
Genesis 1:21 -- "God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good." This is just elaborating the last verse as is common in this chapter, but this period also outlines that its works were good unlike the second period.
Genesis 1:22 -- "God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'" God told them to reproduce and fill the earth; notice that there are some types of animals that reproduce asexually and do not need a member of the opposite sex; remember that God formed them that way.
Genesis 1:23 -- "There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day." The end of the fifth period.
We see here that God caused life to be in the oceans and skies and this was in a separate time period than land creatures.
Genesis 1:21 -- "God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good." This is just elaborating the last verse as is common in this chapter, but this period also outlines that its works were good unlike the second period.
Genesis 1:22 -- "God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'" God told them to reproduce and fill the earth; notice that there are some types of animals that reproduce asexually and do not need a member of the opposite sex; remember that God formed them that way.
Genesis 1:23 -- "There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day." The end of the fifth period.
We see here that God caused life to be in the oceans and skies and this was in a separate time period than land creatures.
Period 6
Genesis 1:24 -- "Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind'; and it was so." Here we see that in the next time period God formed land creatures, but who is to say that He did not use the previously formed creatures to form the land creatures? I would propose that there is a reason that land creatures came after sea creatures just as they do in biological evolution and it is not coincidence. I would propose scientists are educating us more on our creation story than many pastors are.
Genesis 1:25 -- "God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good." Yet another instance of what God had done being good unlike the second period.
Genesis 1:26 -- "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" Here is something interesting; why do the Bible and the biological evolutionary theory both have man coming last in the chain? Why does man come after the land creatures? Once the slow pace of evolution from water to land and air to land took place evolution soon come to man just as the Bible did. Why couldn't God take what He had made and form a man out of it?
Genesis 1:27 -- "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." God pulled out of His creation a being that resembled Himself. How do we resemble God though? We don't resemble God physically (so why couldn't our bodies come from an evolutionary process), but we resemble Him mentally, morally, and socially>*<. He created us male and female just like all of the other animals, but we do not need both male and female as there are some species who survive with only one of the sexes.
Genesis 1:28 -- "God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" God gave us steward ship over all of the earth and it is our duty to care for it all. God also told us to reproduce and fill the earth.
Genesis 1:29 -- "Then God said, 'Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;..." God gave us all vegetation on the earth.
Genesis 1:30 -- "...and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food'; and it was so." God gave us everything else and gave us green plants for food. Green plants here most likely generally referred to fruits and vegetables.
Genesis 1:31 -- "God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day." God saw everything He did and overall it was very good (this doesn't make the second period good, it just means that God made up for it). This is the end of arguably the most eventful period.
It is also worth mentioning that many scholars believe that Genesis 1 was nothing more than to set apart the Hebrews from the other surrounding religions such as the Babylonians.
It is also worth mentioning that many scholars believe that Genesis 1 was nothing more than to set apart the Hebrews from the other surrounding religions such as the Babylonians.
* http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm
** http://www.gotquestions.org/Satan-fall.html
*** http://reluctant-messenger.com/Lost-Doctrines-Christianity006.htm
<> http://www.godandscience.org/youngearth/sixdays.html
>< http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2009/03/09/contradictions-underneath-a-solid-sky
<*> http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2010/06/28/contradictions-by-the-light-of-the-moon
>*< http://creation.com/made-in-the-image-of-god
No comments:
Post a Comment