Genesis 1:1-8
·
Genesis means beginning, this is a book about
the beginnings. In this book we see the…
o
Beginning of the universe
o
Beginning of the life forms
o
Beginning of man
o
Beginning of sin and death
o
Beginning of God’s redemptive plan
o
Beginning of a nation
·
Within the Book of Genesis
we see the beginning of God’s redemptive plan. It starts with the beginning of
a nation and the narrowing down of the genealogies of the specific family
through whom all the nations of the earth will be
blessed.
·
The majority of the book of Genesis has to do
with the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.
·
God did not intend to give us a complete
genealogical record of all of the families of the earth.
o
Adam and Eve had many sons and daughters.
§
The first two sons were listed because they were
significant, then when they were one hundred and thirty years old Seth is
listed.
o
Seth is listed because it is through Seth that
we follow the Messianic line.
§
Seth had other sons and daughters; however only
one is listed.
o
The purpose of the genealogies is to show the
continuous line from Adam to Abraham.
§
But there were numerous
other sons and daughters.
·
Man can not really tell
how old the earth is, science has over decades repeatedly changed how old they
think the earth really is.
o
The Bible tells us in the beginning was God, we can not go back any further than that, though
science repeatedly trying to remove God from the equation.
·
The Bible gives us the true account of how the
universe was created from a self existent God.
o
Science has tried desperately to remove God from
the equation because they do not want to retain God in their minds.
o
With out God we have a big problem explaining
where did the mass of gas and material come from?
o
The creation of all things is not a random
haphazard set of circumstances that just happened to occur. Instead
it is a creative event caused purposely by a self existent God.
·
The universe shows intelligent design, the universe is so fine tuned to support life that
there is no other option than an intelligent designer.
o
The odds for the universe and life to have
happened by chance are so remote and the numbers are so large that there is no
other real option
§
Instead as science
realizes that life forms and matter could not have just spontaneously came into
being, that science is adding to the age of the universe.
·
The Hebrew word for “Created” is בּרא bârâ'
(baw-raw'), which means to create from nothing as
opposed to the word we use today for create. Which means to
create from existing materials.
·
In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form; because of this
many Bible scholars see a time gap between the verses 1 and 2.
o
Isaiah chapter 45 states that God does not
create the earth to be void but rather to be habited.
·
There are several varying opinions on this
including…
o
Theistic evolution: God starts the process and
provides the base materials.
o
Universe is approx. 10,000 years old and that
science is only proposing an old universe to account for evolution.
§
This theory stats that the fossil evidence was
laid down all at once as a result of the flood of Noah.
§
Currently today there
are no fossils being formed; instead biological matter is decomposed without
any fossil creation.
§
There are trees that are currently growing
through several fossil strata layers.
§
We currently have fossil foot
prints that show the foot prints of man in the same layer or strata as
that of dinosaurs.
o
That the days of Genesis are
indefinite periods of time or Geological Eras.
§
This theory has its problems with the known
science of biological life forms and the Biblical account.
·
The theory regarding a universe of 10,000 years
provides harmony with the Biblical account and the science behind this theory
as yet to be disproved and test that have been done have proven accurate.
o
The problems with this theory is that the first
day of Adams creation when he was only one day old, Adam would have had age
dating factors in incorporated being.
§
For example fully grown, with hair, teeth and
physical maturity
o
There is no real explanation of when God created angels during this
creation process.
§
If Satan was in the garden tempting man early
on, how long ago was he created?
·
The Gap theory stats that there was an unknown
period prior to the beginning of man where it was possible there was that God
had placed life forms on the earth including plants and some creatures.
o
Satan could have been the responsible over this
early stage of earth.
o
And with Satan’s fall
the waters then covered the earth and set aside for a period of time, in other
words a great ice age of unknown duration.
§
Science does support that the earth has emerged
from a massive ice age approx. 7,000 - 10,000 years ago.
o
An interesting note is that science has proved
that Niagara falls
is eroding away the geologic shelf creating a canyon underneath the falls. The
current canyon is being created at the constant rate of one foot per year. This rate is fairly
constant.
§
The current canyon is 7,000 feet long not
counting the earlier glacier period where the erosion would have been greater.
This would give the canyon an age of approx 6,000 + years.
§
The account of Genesis places man on the earth
in his present form approx. 6,000 years.
·
We do not know what kind of life forms existed
on the earth prior to this God does not say in his word.
o
The Gap Theory shows that the creative days in
Genesis are actually days of recreation.
·
The command given to Noah after the flood was to
replenish the earth, this is the same command that was
given to Adam and Eve.
·
In the Genesis account
the Hebrew word used for the plant fauna is the same word for assembled or put
together from preexisting; however the Hebrew word used for the complicated
life forms, i.e. those things that could not survive an ice age is the word for
created from nothing.
o
It’s possible that God
have covered the earth in a void frozen layer where plants could have existed
and the creation account in the Book of Genesis is possibly a re-creation
account.
·
The Hebrew word for used for firmament is the
same word used for a limitless expanse, very descriptive of space.
o
The firmament was the creation of space and the
atmosphere.
·
God by placing or suspending the waters above
the earth in the atmosphere, would have caused a mild balmy climate everywhere
in the world. I tropical forest type of environment everywhere in the world
including the north and south pole.
o
This would also have provided the greater
magnetic field that would have existed around the earth at this time.
§
Today science has shown that the magnetic field
is diminishing at a steady rate, and science has been measuring it for the last
135 years.
§
This field protects the earth from the comics radiation from space.
·
This cosmic radiation causes are aging process,
since there would have been less cosmic radiation and thus people would have
lived much, much longer.
§
The flood removed this layer of protection and
caused the life span of man to drop from approx. 900 years to 100 years.
·
Interesting note, that Adam was still alive when
Noah’s father Lamech was alive.
o
The Garden of Eden account could and probably
was passed down first hand.