SKY & SEA

This is IOPNA’s 8^th article in our conversational series on CREATION in Genesis 1:

It looks like the Builder can hand over the keys - the home is ready and the landscaping is finished.

Not yet. The lighting needs improvement and who can He hand over the keys to? 
God now compliments His work of Day 1 by making a great light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night.                                     

What about the stars?

Easy - just 3 words - "and the stars"!

I noticed there was no Big Bang.

Sun & moon in 'Ring of fire' 14.5.13

That's right. He made these 2 lights and He set the stars. Not only is this for light plus days and years but this is for signs and seasons - interesting hey!

That sounds like a study on its own.

Yep! God specifically refers to constellations in Job 38 and Isaiah 13:10.

Are there any more 3's to be found here?

Of course.  Having made (Hebrew: asah) the firmament in verse 7, He now makes (asah) the greater and lesser lights, and sets (nathan) the stars - 3 positive creative actions in space. Three times He speaks of 'the expanse of the heavens'. Three times he speaks of the lights (meorah) - the planning, the purpose and the construction.

Hang about - you're telling me that God made all those billions of stars in one day, only 2 days before man, then you’re going to say that this all happened only 6000 years ago. Now that won’t match up with Science, for sure! Those stars are so far away that their light takes years to reach us at 300,000 kilometres per second.

Okay, that’s sounds a reasonable objection although to be fair, don’t forget we don’t know just how far away anything in outer space is because the only measuring device we have is light and Science has proved that it doesn’t always behave as expected.

So is this the flaw in the Creation story?  

Except for one thing: I haven’t told you how God ‘set them (stars) in the expanse of the heavens’.

It doesn’t say how He did it.

Not here it doesn’t but later in the Bible it does – about 10 times - so there will be no argument. “…who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in’. (Isaiah 40:22)

10 times? Aah….the mind boggles! No wonder the universe is expanding.                       
I suppose God is so systematic that next day He complimented what He did on Day 2?

Of course!...and why not have an aviary and an aquarium? 
The sky needs filling with birds and the sea needs some fish so it's time for that word bara again in creating life. Fish and birds are both spoken of 3 times, and notice they are created according to their kind, with God's blessing - "be fruitful and multiply".

Wow!...created from nothing? That’s enough achievement in 2 days for me to get my head around.

Before we take a break, did you notice the order is completely opposite to what evolutionists say?  Sea creatures were first, so whales weren’t land mammals that decided to go for a swim; birds were next and so they can’t be reptiles that sprouted feathers. 

                                                                                                         

NEXT TIME: Now for ‘tenants and pets’
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/tenants-pets.html

Photo credits:  

Ring of fire / indiatimes.com 

Birds & whale / telegraph.co.uk

                                                                                     

 

NOW FOR LANDSCAPING

 This is IOPNA’s 7^th article in our conversational series on CREATION in Genesis 1:

 

So what happens to the water under the sky?

Moving into the next day, God causes the waters to gather into one place – notice that - so that dry land would appear. He calls these waters yam, meaning ‘roaring seas’. 2 Peter 3:5

I also notice that’s the third time God has called something by a specific name.      
First of all He called light and dark – Day and Night; next He called the ‘firmament’ – Heavens; now we find He calls the waters – Seas. That’s another series of three.

That’s right. The first series of 3 was Space-Time-Matter, the next is God calling something by a name, and meanwhile we’re looking out for that word ‘bara’ to appear again.  

This is so elegantly simple but I’m sure I couldn’t write with this intricate detail even if I tried.

There’s even one more series here. This is the third time God has separated or divided: first of all light from darkness, then waters above from waters under, and now a ‘gathering together’ of waters from dry land.   

So what does God do with His new piece of real estate once the waters had receded?

God uses His voice again to get the dry land producing grass, seed-bearing herbage and trees bearing fruit.

Hey, God has said:“…after its kind” three times here!

…as He describes 3 different types of plant growth. If you think about it , this is the only possible way – every plant must have been supernaturally made with its seed integrated.

I could have told you that!...you can’t grow a tree without starting with a seed and you can’t have a seed unless a tree has produced it.                                                   

Home is ready – now to fill it!     

NEXT WEEK: ‘Sky & Sea’

 http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/sky-sea.html

Photo credit:       lifeandbuilding.com

 

SOUND 'n' LIGHT SHOW

This is IOPNA’s 6th article in our conversational series on CREATION in Genesis 1:

You asked: What did God speak into existence? 
The first sound and light show using voice-activated lighting!

Well of course - even children know to turn on the light so they can see what they're doing. 

Yes they don't have a problem with this - only clever people do.                                     

Darkness was still there so God called the light day and the darkness night.            
Psalm 74:16             Isaiah 45:7     2 Corinthians 4:6

What sort of a day is this?  

Well, just like in our modern language, yom (Hebrew) could mean daylight hours, 24 hours, or an era of time.                     

So there would be no confusion, God conveniently spells it out for us: it was the first literal day with an evening (ereb: dusk) and a morning (boqer: dawn) - incidentally telling us that He regards a day as sunset to sunset, not midnight to midnight.

But that's not good enough for a lot of people who say the sun isn’t in place until Day 4.

Yes, we forget that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5) – that’s why there will be no need for lighting or even sunlight in the end – “the Lord God gives them light”. (Revelation 22:5)                                                                        

Now we move into the next day to find God, using His voice, separates the waters - under ‘the firmament’ and above ‘the firmament’.                                                           

Whatever is this firmament?                                                                     

The Hebrew word He used was raqiya, meaning ‘expanse’, and it comes from raqa which means overlay or plate – you know – armour-plated, gold plated, chromium plated….. So God sets it up so there is water under heavens or sky, which is under a ‘plating’ with more water above.

Well that sounds pretty unrealistic and not a bit like clouds floating over the oceans.

That’s for sure but before we dismiss it as far-fetched and ridiculous, remember that there have been too many discoveries to detail here of oversized plants, animals and even people fossilized. Experiments have shown that an oxygen rich atmosphere in a biosphere with a higher pressure will produce that kind of growth.                                 
In 1935 scientists theorized that when hydrogen is subjected to extreme pressure it forms into a semi-translucent, fibre-optic, super-conducting, ferro-magnetic ‘metal’.  Apparently Mikhail Eremets and Ivan Troyan now claim they have achieved this in laboratory conditions, in Mainz, Germany. In fact the Greek word for firmament is stereoma or ‘solid’, which gave us ‘stereoscopic’ images that look solid or 3D.

Fascinating! It would be interesting to see how this tallies up with the account of the Flood.

Don’t worry – it does. It looks as though it didn’t rain (Genesis 2:5-6) for 1656 years until the ‘windows of heaven were opened’ in Genesis 7:11.  

But we can’t be sure of this.

We can only go on what is written, so why did Job’s friend Elihu ask him: “With Him, have you spread out the skies, strong as a cast metal mirror?” (Job 37:18)                              
Scientists know that all continents were at some stage under sea water, but where did all that water come from?                                                                   
Finally, God tells us that was done on the second day with an evening and a morning.

…and they try to tell us that things have always been the same as they are now!          
Somehow I don't think so.

 NEXT: Time for landscaping
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/time-for-landscaping.html

Image credit: liquidlightshowhire.com

GOD'S AUTOGRAPH - with 3's & 7's

This is IOPNA’s 5^th article in our conversational study of CREATION in Genesis 1:

Well, that was a surprise….finding that religion destroys the Bible’s credibility, thanks to Man interrupting God after only 10 words!...while real Science agrees with the Bible! Not only that, there’s no Big Bang here – that comes at the end, and the Earth in some form is somehow centre-stage. What next?

Just by the way, as we read through this first chapter of Genesis how about we look out for patterns of 3 and patterns of 7.

What on earth for?

From reading the Bible, it looks as if they’re God’s two favourite numbers.

Do you mean if we can find these patterns it’s like a signature or watermark showing He wrote it?

It could be, so let’s keep an open mind on that. Now, do you remember this?...a prime number is a natural number that can be divided only by itself and 1 to leave no remainder. In other words it’s a strong number - except for ‘2’ which can be split. That leaves 3, 5 and 7 – where 3 is the smallest and 7 the largest, strong single-digit prime numbers.

I’ve noticed ropes are commonly laid in 3 strands, for strength.

Yes, and the full bench of the High Court of Australia comprises 7 judges so there can never be a hung judgment; the weakest result possible is a 4 – 3.

As for 5, the Bible seems to regard that as Man’s number…

…last time I counted I had 5 fingers on each hand and 5 toes on each foot.

Same here.

So you tell me the Hebrew word : bara - 'created from nothing' - is the first series of 3 to look out for, with some series of 7 to find as well.
What was the Earth like, to start with?

We’re going to find out but first of all, Someone needs to turn on ...

The 1st Sound & Light Show - in our next article.
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/sound-n-lite-show.html

Image credit: freepik.com

MAN MEDDLES MORE!

This is IOPNA’s 4^th article in our conversational series on CREATION in Genesis 1

We found that God doesn’t say anything about millions of years – that was the idea of religious scholars to try and fit in with Man’s ideas. What does God go on to tell us?

He tells us that the earth or matter was ‘without form’ from tohu (Hebrew): ‘lying waste’; and ‘void’ from bohu: ‘empty’. So I guess we could say it was desolate and apparently even shapeless. Everything was dark but the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of…….waters. ‘Spirit’ comes from ruach: breath, so you could say the breath of God was hovering over the waters.  Even ‘hovering’ is an interesting choice of words, coming from rachaph: ‘brooding’, like a hen fluttering her wings as she carefully energises those eggs with her body heat.

Wow!...this is fascinating. I was wondering when water would come into it seeing Earth is called the watery planet and I‘ve never heard a credible explanation as to where water came from. It’s like God is starting with a blank canvas and now energising His creation.  Go on.

Before we do, I need to explain that religious scholars have got more to say: they try and explain why there are so many fossils imbedded in rock by claiming that evil forces ruined God’s first attempts at creation. In other words, they say death preceded Man instead of what God says: Man’s sin caused death.

That’s weird! These religious people promote the idea that Earth is millions of years old and then I guess they have to try and explain the existence of fossils by meddling more and reading into the Bible what it doesn’t say, and which defies commonsense anyway!

That’s right, they compare this second verse with tohu being used in Isaiah 45:18 which says: “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain (tohu), who formed it to be inhabited…”                                         
They claim this is a reconstruction job on a ruined creation - which has huge implications for the Bible’s message of redemption.  If we listened to them we’d be throwing our Bibles out in the trash because it wouldn’t make sense.

But doesn’t the Bible warn against people adding bits and pieces or leaving things out of the Bible?

You can bet it does!
Deuteronomy 4:2 Proverbs 30:6 Revelation 22:18                                           

Moving on to finally answer your opening question, we get:

“God said, “Let there be….”                 
God just spoke things into existence.

Wow! This leaves me speechless – religious Man’s arrogance and stupidity in the face of God’s power. He speaks the universe into existence while Man speaks nonsense.

In case there’s any doubt, the apostle Paul reminds us in Hebrews 11:3 – “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.”  (Also Psalm 33)

I guess we need faith to accept that God could do what seems impossible to us – make something from nothing, in that supernatural beginning.

Yes, it does take faith, but it’s not blind – it’s based on evidence. Notice how it’s real Science that supports this account of a supernatural beginning …

…while religion destroys its credibility.  Almost unbelievable!

NEXT: God’s autograph

http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/gods-autograph.html

MAN MUST MEDDLE!...the Gap Theory

You were going to tell me how God created something from nothing - I think it says He started with the heavens and the earth.

We’ll look at that soon but first of all, Man has to have his bit to say. Does the Bible tells us that the Earth sat there for millions of years doing who knows what?

No it doesn't! What would be the point of that anyway?

Precisely. People who ought to know better - highly educated religious scholars - have tried to tell us over the centuries that millions of years fit in the gap between verses one and two. They really cranked it up in the 1800's trying to make the Bible fit theories of long-age geology that were being published then by amateurs. In fact Charles Darwin, who published ‘Origin of Species’ in 1859, was only a 5 year old kid when this Gap Theory was popularized by the Bridgewater Treatises!  

Do you mean to say that these religious people were pushing for long-age geology long before Darwin or even before geology was a science? 
I find that incredible. It sounds like the Church was the seed-bed for the ‘theories of evolution’!
I think I'd rather believe what God says, seeing He was there doing the creating, than listen to people who think they are clever but weren't even there.

You said it! In fact, ever since Cambridge scholars Westcott and Hort published their Revised Version in 1891, modern translations of the Bible have tended to modify the continuity of Genesis 1 by changing the first word of each verse which is supposed to be ‘and’.
The first verse couldn’t be interfered with easily ….

….so they leave out the very next word in the next verse!  They put in a gap where there is no gap!

Yes, you would think that religious scholars would be afraid to change God’s word.  
By the way, have you seen any dead animals lying around for years, waiting patiently to be turned into fossils?...even fish lying around on the bottom of the ocean?                                                                  
Of course not! They are eaten or scattered. Anyway, fish in our aquarium float when they die – not sink.

So even common sense tells us that fossils can only exist because animals were suddenly overtaken by cataclysm to be entombed in sedimentary rock world-wide.

Do you know – that’s never occurred to me before.  Isn’t the geological time scale meant to be the result of millions of years of slow sedimentation with no cataclysmic flood?

Think about it, and 2 Peter 3 especially verses 4 to 6 are worth reading.

Don’t worry I will. We had the geological time-scale drilled into us at college and it had better not be a figment of the imagination thanks to religious scholars.

So did I. Let’s try and get back to what God has to say before…                                             

Man meddles more!...in the next article.
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/man-meddles-more.html

& BONUS:                                                                      

Don’t miss the separate 6-part ‘Missing Link’ series, starting with ‘Dusty C19’
 http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/dusty-c19.html

CREATION...FROM NOTHING!

This is IOPNA’s 2^nd article in a conversational study of CREATION in Genesis 1 –

Last time we found that the Bible agrees with Science that the universe had a beginning and that it is winding down.

Now if the First Law of Thermodynamics says: “energy can neither be created nor destroyed”, the beginning had to be supernatural – yes?... and here it is!

Ah, maybe….but you still haven’t told me who 'God' is or how 'God' came to be there at the beginning.

No, but we are told what 'God' did. Listen. Did your parents tell you, as a baby, their whole life story plus produce DNA evidence, to prove themselves to you as your parents? Did they tell you about your conception?

Of course not!...at least, not that I can remember.  Aw...spare me the details!

So why do we expect God to tell us everything, all at once? He will reveal Himself gradually just like you found out more about your parents as you grew to know and love them. Even so, I’m sure your parents couldn’t match what God could do, described by the Hebrew word bara: ‘create from nothing’.
God created – from nothing!

Wow! that’s neat – Man can’t do that! I suppose that makes sense anyway –if the universe had a beginning it had to have been created somehow from nothing.

Exactly. The Bible applies this Hebrew word bara to God only - never to man who makes things. In fact, barawill be used in this chapter to describe only 3 different creative acts, and it’s used 3 times for the last act, the creation of people – ‘3 by 3’ if you like. The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 4:17 - "God...calls those things which do not exist as though they did;"

Well that’s got to be pretty special - something from nothing – how ever did God do it?

We’re going to find out and here is where He started:

the heavens (shamayim: 'lofty, heaped up things') and….

the earth (erets: 'firmness, land').

So what are the elements that make up the universe, according to Science?

Why…..space – time – matter.

Well, here they are in the very first verse: the beginning of time, the heavens or space, and the firmness of matter! Verse 1 could be accurately written as:
‘At the beginning of time God created space and matter - from nothing.'                             

Notice how ‘the earth’ in some form seems to be centre-stage straightaway whereas I’m sure you’ve heard Earth being described as just an insignificant speck of dust lost somewhere in a vast universe.

Sure.

We will see how typical it is for the ‘theories of evolution’ (they’re always changing) to claim the exact opposite to what the Bible says.
For instance, did you hear the ‘Big Bang’ when God created the heavens and the earth?

Well no, it doesn’t say anything here about a big bang.

The apostle Peter, who accompanied Jesus Christ, tells us in 2 Peter 3:10 that the Big Bang comes at the end!
Now we find Earth is somehow centre-stage right at the beginning.

How about that! I wonder what real Science says about Earth being centre-stage?

We understand that microwave energy received from outer space is generally uniform in all directions and recent surveys: the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, seem to confirm that, by the positioning of galaxies relative to Earth.

So even though we are not at the centre of our solar system or the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, we could be near the centre of the universe? How intriguing!

Instead of real Science contradicting the Bible it actually seems to be confirming that there has to be a Creator who started it all supernaturally!....
.....this IS an eye-opener.

NEXT: Man Must Meddle!
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/man-must-meddle.html

Acknowledgement: John Hartnett, In the Middle of the Action, Creation Ministries Int.
Image credit: taborrobak.com