Creation Days Not the Same as 24-hour Earth Days

11/29/2014 , 73 Comments



Creation Days Not the Same as 24-hour Earth Days: Click here for the third part of this blog.

Getting our parameters right begins with knowing beginnings, but more than that is being able to distinguish one beginning from the other. Most think that Day 1 of Creation is also Day 1 on Earth. The Bible explains that these two differ. It is on the fourth day of creation that the first earth day commenced.

GENESIS 1:16-19
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The doubt that we have to solve is how vegetation could exist when the sun was made to bring light unto the earth only on the fourth day.

It is scientific knowledge that vegetation can exist for some time without the light of the sun upon which plants depend to produce their food by the process of photosynthesis. We must remember that it was on the third day of creation that God caused the appearing of dry land from the globe of waters, after which He caused vegetation to appear.

GENESIS 1:9-13
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

From these accounts, we understand that two great parts of creation happened on the third day: the appearing of the ground or the dry land, afterwards the appearing of vegetation. This is wonderfully scientific considering that the book of Genesis was written less than four thousand years ago, when people could hardly understand that vegetation is necessary to hold soil on its place and to prevent erosion! But the doubt is focused on this: why was the sun necessary for plant life made only the following day which is the fourth day?

As I mentioned earlier, there are plants that can exist for some time even without sunlight.

The possibility is that since vegetation and plant life were created at the end of the third day (of Creation), the sun was made to shine immediately at the start of the fourth day (Day 1 for Earth). This solves the scientific problem involved!

While it is true that the bud of a seed that grows tend to the direction of light, it is also true that the budding process can start without light. A seed planted below the surface of the soil where there is no light will grow.

REVISED STANDARD VERSION
I CORINTHIANS 15:36-38
36 You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
37 And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain.
38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

This will clearly erase the doubt in the mind of one who understands the truth in the Bible and in science, but certainly will be questioned by scoffers!

We must also consider that when God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass,” he did not say "Let the dry land bring forth grass.” When God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass,” he meant the ground in dry land and the ground under the sea to bring forth plant life. It is worthwhile mentioning that “grass” – the plant life in the depths of the sea sustain most of marine creatures.


Back to Creation, at the dawn of the fifth day God said -

GENESIS 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

This is a very scientific chronology of the account of creation in Genesis! After plant life was caused by God to exist at the dusk of the third day and the sun to give light unto the earth immediately at the dawn of the fourth day, marine creatures were brought forth at the dusk of the fifth day! What a wonderful scientific narration, not found in any other book on earth! Here’s an excerpt describing the Earth before as “barren landscape” quoting researchers from Pennsylvania State University -

The earliest evidence of land plants and fungi appears in the fossil record around 480 million years ago. Before that, the Earth's landscape was believed to consist of barren rocks, home to bacteria and possibly some algae. But some have argued that it is quite possible for land-dwelling plants and fungi to have been around much earlier, but their primitive bodies were too soft to be preserved as fossils in rock. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1482382.stm).

Science affirms - as do atheists guess - that marine life existed before land life. Richard Dawkins wrote that, being land-oriented now, one day he will go back to the sea. Dawkins is a British evolutionary biologist.

I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN
The move from water to land launched a major redesign of every aspect of life, from breathing to reproduction: it was a great trek through biological space. Nevertheless, with what seems almost wanton perversity, a good number of thoroughgoing land animals later turned around, abandoned their hard-earned terrestrial retooling, and trooped back into the water again. Seals and sea lions have only gone part-way back. (The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins, Page 80).

THE START OF HUMAN LIFE

Note that marine life were brought forth first then land life.

GENESIS 1:24-25
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Animals like cattle and creeping things were made by God at the dawn of the sixth day of creation and humans towards the end of the sixth day. (Creeping things are on dry land, not in the sea). This allows millions of years of animal existence before mankind. This also solves doubt about the existence of dinosaurs millions of years before mankind! A day in creation is not a 24-hour day as other Bible apologists claim!

ISAIAH 66:8
Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

The earth was not brought forth in one (1) earth-day! The First to the Fourth day of Creation happened before the sun was made to shine in the dome of the sky to light the earth, determining how an earth-day is made!

This is Part 4 of Possibilities and Impossibilities in the Bible.

More to come.

73 Comments:

Creation: The Most Misunderstood Portion of Genesis

11/22/2014 141 Comments

Creation: The Most Misunderstood Portion of Genesis
Human sciences are wanting, wanting as ever. That is because God has reserved some knowledge of his work for him alone.

ECCLESIASTES 8:17
Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

As defined in the dictionary, human science is the study and interpretation of the experiences, activities, constructs, and artefacts associated with human beings. Normally used with the Letter “s,” the human sciences correspond to humanities and social sciences, but also include aspects of psychology and even mathematics.


Discussions by Michael Dunn in The Human Sciences (2013), theoryofknowedge.net said many people do not consider human sciences as true science because they rely on empirical observation to arrive at findings. In contrast, the natural sciences, which are much ‘stricter’ in their use of observation, are backed up by rational theorizing. Still they are just theories. And yet man resorts to either in trying to understand the universe.

Therefore, human sciences as well as natural sciences endeavoring at their best, lack explanation in so many things that actually happen and exist. In faith and in the Bible such unexplained thing is called mystery. This progress report, for example, by Adam Hadhazy published in Popular Mechanics is about unsolved mysteries of science.

Science's 8 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Progress Report by Adam Hadhazy
(Ref: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/sciences-greatest-unsolved-mysteries-progress-report#slide-1). The questions include: 1) Will we find a cure for cancer? 2) Can we achieve immortality? 3) Can we create life? 4) Will we find the soul? 5) Are we alone? 6) Is light the ultimate speed limit? 7) Can we travel through time? And 8) Will we find other universes?

To qualify, not everything in the Bible is considered a mystery. The Bible contains information worded in simple words understandable even by the most illiterate of humans. Honor and obey a father and a mother can be understood even by a child.

EPHESIANS 6:1-2
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;

To do good to everybody can easily be understood by a person of good conscience.

GALATIANS 6:10
As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

But how about having light, morning and evening the first day when the sun and the moon were made on the fourth day? Can’t this be possible scientifically speaking? Let us investigate within the pages of the "book" that offers humanity the only credible and real scientific information on how the universe came into existence!

GENESIS 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In this verse, the only refuted word by unbelievers, especially the atheists, is "God". Real science believes in beginnings. Real science believes that there is an earth, a planet. Real science believes in the expanse that envelopes the earth and other heavenly bodies they call "space" which the Bible calls "heavens".

GENESIS 1:7-8
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

To a person well-versed on the manner of how the Bible was written, the first verse which says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" is easily understood as the heavens created ahead of the creation of the earth. (The Bible speaks of first things first.) This will give us the implication that the heavens or the universe in its entirety should be older than the earth and this is amazingly scientific! To prove this idea let us read verse 2.

GENESIS 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

While verse 1 contains the information that the heavens and the earth were created, we may notice that on verse 2, only the earth was mentioned to be formless and void, meaning that the heavens were already formed at the time that the earth was without form and void. No known and accepted knowledge in science refutes this Biblical truth: that the earth is much younger than the universe that contains it.

Most scientists believe that the universe can be as old as 13 billion years while the earth is 4 to 4.5 billion years old. But why can’t billions of years possibly be the age of the universe when most religious apologists say that the earth is only 6,000 years old?
The most misunderstood portion of the account of creation is that the heavens and the earth were created in six days, and for most of them were literal six 24-hour days, which is wrong!

The counting of the "first day" must be noted to have commenced after the creation of the heavens and the earth when light started to appear.

GENESIS 1:3-5
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The pronouncement, "Let there be light" does not mean that the existence of light-emitting heavenly bodies like stars and nebulae will only begin at that time. Remember that the heavens was created and formed already in verse 1.

From logic, what is possible is that the process of nuclear fission in stars and other heavenly light-emitting bodies started at the time when God said "Let there be light." This is very much like when the starter of the fluorescent lamp is activated! 

One important thing to consider is (in my mind but not in every mind), that the first day mentioned, is the first day after the creation of the heavens and the earth and not the first day on the planet earth! There are days in heaven which are very much different from days on earth.

DEUTERONOMY 11:21
That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

This explains the fact that only on the fourth day God caused the existence of two great lights to light and to rule upon the earth, (Note that on earth only) because scientifically speaking, our lights - the sun, and the moon –  are very insignificant in relation to the entire universe!

GENESIS 1:14-16
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: the stars also.

To understand the scientificity of the account in Genesis we must take note of the use of the word "made two great lights".

The word bârâ' (baw-raw), create, was used in verse 1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” while the word ‛âśâh (aw-saw), to make, was used in verse 16, “And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: the stars also.”

“To create” is to make something exist while “to make” is to produce something from something that already exists. It is not only logical but scientific to say that "God made two great lights" which biblically and scientifically means that the sun and the moon were already in existence before God caused the sun to emit light and the moon to reflect on earth.

This Sub-topic3 falls under the general topic, “Possibilities and Impossibilities in the Bible.”

More to follow, God willing.

141 Comments:

More Possibilities and Impossibilities: God is in Control – not Atheists

11/21/2014 , 43 Comments

God is in Control - not atheists

God is in control - not Atheists. Click here for the first part of this blog.
Nothing in science tells us that there is no Creator. To qualify, it is “scientific atheists” that declare so. Recently, a famed British Scientist named Stephen Hawking said science is more convincing than God in explaining the universe.



The report written by David Edwards for Raw Story was titled, “Stephen Hawking comes out: ‘I’m an atheist’ because science is ‘more convincing’ than God.”

According to NBC News, Hawking made the comments to the Spanish-language paper El Mundo during the Starmus Festival at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. El Mundo’s Pablo Jauregui pointed out that Hawking had written in his book “A Brief History of Time” that scientists could “know the mind of God” if a unifying set of principles  - or theory of everything  - was discovered to explain the physical universe. But Hawking later wrote in “The Grand Design” that God was no longer necessary because science had provided a better understanding of the universe.



The world-famous theoretical physicist cleaved more to cosmology to explain the physical origins and evolution of the Universe. Hawking reportedly said -



“What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t,” he added. “I’m an atheist.”

(Ref: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/stephen-hawking-comes-out-im-an-atheist-because-science-is-more-convincing-than-god/)

The belief that there is a Creator came from the Bible written a little less than four thousand years ago, and then accepted, believed, preserved, shared, translated into almost all existing tongues and have gotten the reputation as “the best selling book of all time.”

In contrast, the belief in the Big Bang, Evolution, Natural Selection and The Origin of Species, was just formulated barely 200 years ago! The latter belief intends to belie the existence of the Creator, the Bible calls God. To disprove what the Bible says, believers of the Big Bang and Evolution like atheists argue that there are unscientific things in the Bible. For example, having morning and evening on the first day when the sun and the moon  were made only on the fourth day. Another is the existence of vegetation in the absence of the sun. And many more similar examples.

As mentioned in an earlier discussion, we have to consider possibilities and impossibilities to arrive at a just and fair conclusion on any refuted matter. Isn’t it possible that the universe and all existing things came into being because of a Creator? The possibility is 100%! Nobody in our time will believe that the NASA Space Station came into being because of an accident. The construction, the design, and the transport of all those materials that made up the NASA Space Station that now orbits the earth at an altitude of 173 miles above the earth with an average ground speed of 17, 227 miles per hour to complete almost 16 orbits per day, entailed a lot of creators.

The Space Station involves mathematical precision in its transport from the Earth to escape the gravitational pull and to stay in its own orbit above the earth! If such a minute thing required creators, isn’t it possible that the universe with all of its complexities and intricacies in its law and order also came from a Creator – an intelligent being with a purpose in mind yet? The possibility is 100%! What is marvellous is that, that knowledge was written in the Bible almost four thousand years ago even before man has discovered of the universe vastness!

THE ACTS 17:24-26
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshiped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

The preceding verses tell us that God is the Creator of the universe. The word translated “world” is “kosmos” in Greek. Something in these verses is worthwhile considering. “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;”

The verses incorporate a Creator, a purpose, a time, a boundary. The truth in this information written millennia ago still stands unrefuted today by human science and knowledge! The earth in the entire universe is the only destined habitation with boundaries, for humans. Beyond the boundaries set by God no human can exist! Shall we consider at this juncture possibilities and impossibilities? Let us see:

Is it possible that there is life beyond earth – a planet made like earth with life in it?  Joel Achenbach wrote that with instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope scientists discovered a huge amount of cosmic turf but came to know of only a single inhabited world - the unique earth of the human beings.

Since 1995 astronomers have detected at least 22 planets orbiting other stars. NASA hopes to build a telescope called the Terrestrial Planet Finder to search for Earth-like planets, examining them for the atmospheric signatures of a living world....

We all have our suppositions, our scenarios. The late astronomer Carl Sagan estimated that there are a million technological civilizations in our galaxy alone. His more conservative colleague Frank Drake offers the number 10,000. John Oro, a pioneering comet researcher, calculates that the Milky Way is sprinkled with a hundred civilizations. And finally there are skeptics like Ben Zuckerman, an astronomer at UCLA, who thinks we may as well be alone in this galaxy if not in the universe.
(Ref: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/life-beyond-earth/)


(Ref: http://www.reasons.org/articles/design-evidences-in-the-cosmos-1998)

The National Geographic report further mentioned that all the estimates “are highly speculative, and the fact is that there is no conclusive evidence of any life beyond Earth.  There is still no solid knowledge about a single alien microbe, a solitary spore, much less the hubcap from a passing alien starship.”

Back to the Space Station, as it is impossible to be orbiting the earth without any creator, the grandest impossibility is for the universe to be operating marvellously and in order without a Creator!

JEREMIAH 33:25
25 Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; …

The laws that govern the strict and mathematical order in the universe, written in the Bible long before man have understood and discovered it, implies that the Bible carries in it scientific information which are impossible for men at the time of its writing to know. The Creator who understands and who ordained such laws is the only possible source of such information.

To take exception to Hawking, if God cannot explain the universe where science is better at doing it, it will be impossible for the writers of the Bible to advance or even guess the precise scientific truth that modern science have understood nowadays.

ISAIAH 46:9-10
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

God’s intention is apparently and logically clear: For man to believe that He exists!

JOHN 13:19
 Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.

The Bible even predicted precisely the existence of Stephen Hawking and his fans club!

II PETER 3:3-5
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

Scoffers do not believe in God. The modern term for scoffers is ATHEISTS! The writer of this book, Peter, the Apostle, is an illiterate man.

THE ACTS 4:13
 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

The illiterate Peter knew that the earth was formed out of water and by means of water – just with God’s bidding. But let us look into how astrophysicists like Stephen Hawking look at the creation of planets like Earth. This one is from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

TERRESTRIAL PLANET FORMATION
Gasses condensed into rocky particles → Rocky particles begins to clump → These clumps accrete more → Clumps from planetesimals → Planetesimals accrete more →Terrestrial planets formed

Hydrogen compounds, such as water and methane, typically condense at low temperatures, and remain gaseous inside the frost line where temperatures are higher. The heavier rocky and metallic materials are better suited to condense at higher temperatures. Thus, the inner planets are made almost entirely of rock and metal and form the group known as the terrestrial planets.

How did the terrestrial planets form?

After the heavier elements and minerals condensed into solid bits of rock, they all orbited the Sun at about the same speed. As you can imagine, collisions of objects moving at the same speed are less destructive than those of objects moving at different speeds. Thus, when rocks orbiting the Sun move close to one another, they stick together more often than they destroy each other. These pieces gradually grow larger in a process called accretion. Once they are large enough, gravity forces them into spherical shapes.
(Ref: http://lasp.colorado.edu/education/outerplanets/solsys_planets.php)

The excerpts just given speak of gasses and solids – simply moving among themselves in time and space to form, accrete, reform - all devoid of purpose. And yet out of chaos something beautiful is formed?

We must not forget that water came from gas - hydrogen and oxygen - which are things unseen and jive with the Biblical truth that things that are seen were made from things unseen.

HEBREWS 11:3
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Meaning that things which are seen were made from things that are not seen, like gases! The Bible teaches us wonderful knowledge in science even before the birth of Stephen Hawking.

Hawking is a British scientist, who, according to Maria Cheng of the Associated Press, first gained attention with his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time," a simplified overview of the universe. It sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. His subsequent theories have revolutionized modern understanding of concepts like black holes and the Big Bang theory of how the universe began. (Ref: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45886738/ns/health-aging/t/stephen-hawking-how-has-he-survived-so-long/#.VDz2k7CUdpA)

Unfortunately, for all his intellect, Hawking felt no presence of a Creator who let him live comfortably and long despite his disabilities. He vilified God as incapable of explaining the origin and nature of the universe that he tried so hard to explain with physics sans a Creator. He worshipped Science more. But then there would be many more Hawkings in many forms.

The book of Hebrews was written some time in 61 AD, an era wherein No human understood the composition of gases and the possibility of producing things which are seen from the unseen gases. Yet the people were described to be perfectly peaceful, calm, restful, undisturbed by circumstances and so were powerful, effective, accomplishing things. They found hope, joy and patience in the face of tribulations. They believed in a Creator that made things possible for them. Whatever they could not explain, they trusted in their Creator.

Hawking is said to be the most famous scientist alive today. His 2001 book “The Universe in a Nutshell” is hailed as a masterpiece in the history of modern physics. At 72, he thinks little of his humanity.

Explaining the universe sans a Creator is new knowledge that came only 200 years ago. Isn’t it possible that the minds so oriented to a Creator-less creation are being influenced by the same force that said in the Garden of Eden, “You won’t die when you eat this fruit”?

It is possible to ignore the existence of a Creator but it is impossible to obliterate that existence, even if one believes in such non-existence. It is upon the existence of a Creator that we can even think of possibilities of how the world was created.

It is possible that a cause can cause an effect but it is impossible that the cause is nothingness for in nothingness, the ability to think cannot develop or exist.

It is possible for the seen to cause another seen to exist, but penultimately, the seen is caused by an unseen, a being of higher level than the one caused.

It is possible that atheists may fool people with their so-called masterpiece knowledge but it is impossible for such knowledge to take the place of truth.

It is possible that the Father of Lies is at work with people’s minds, and those he would seduce are those who preferred to be rich and famous - with lies, but it is impossible that one’s heart does not lust for the power and fame that comes with it.

More to follow.

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