Chapter 11
We will spend some time discussing the Tower of Babel, because this is the origin of Babylon, which runs spiritually throughout the rest of history to the end of this age. Here is where it got its start, and we need to fully understand that for which it stands.
1) The whole earth was of one language. This presented problems in that whatever man can imagine to do, he can do. Gen. 11:6 God has given us remarkable abilities, especially then, when men were actually more intelligent than they are now. They decided to build a tower to heaven to make a name for themselves that they wouldn‘t be scattered abroad. I don’t think they thought they could actually build a tower building that would reach up into outer space. This tower might have been meant for pagan worship (very strong possibility) and to make other nations wary of trying to mess with them. They wanted to impress and instill fear in others. And they wanted to shake their fists in God’s face, saying that they could ascend to heaven where He lived, if they so desired. (There is an alternative idea as to the purpose of this tower that may be covered at a later date.)
2) As the people migrated from Ararat (where Noah had landed) they came to the Mesopotamian plain (where evolutionists say the cradle of civilization was founded - hmmm, funny thing that). In the memory of two antediluvian rivers, they named these two rivers (which were not the same as the original rivers, as the topography would no longer be the same after the flood) the Tigris and Euphrates. As said before, the original language seems to have been Hebrew, and here is more proof. The antediluvian names only have meaning in Hebrew. In Scriptures it tells us that in the millennium the pure language will be restored to all people. Zeph. 3:9 Since Israel will be the top nation, as it were, it again is a logical deduction to say that Hebrew was the original language.
3) We know that Nimrod was the founder of Babel. Since the flood, Satan has been trying to create a one world government with himself at the head. God’s intention was that men would spread abroad, live in an agrarian society (cities tend to breed rebellion due to idleness, farmers have no time for it) , and have small local governments or patriarchal clans, with Himself at the head of everyone. A strong centralized government is too controlling of its people and resources (ain’t it the truth?) (The only one world government that God approves is His own, with Christ at the head. And even that won't be successful as man will again rebel at the end of the millennium.) One of the first decisions Nimrod (and possibly his council or cohorts) made was to develop a brick making industry. There were no stones in the area that would enable them to build permanent, strong structures for their city. Wood would not have held up in that climate. The clay that was available, however, would make good strong bricks after being baked in a kiln. The “slime” was probably a tar material taken from the asphalt pits in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Archaeology has revealed that this type of brick and asphalt construction was indeed common in ancient Babylon. Now that the brick making industry was well in hand, they made plans for a city and a tower. The tower would serve as a symbol of their unity and strength, and be a focal point of the city. It would serve as the political and religious center (and possibly for other things too). It would indeed be a show of strength to neighboring clans and settlements. The unity required to do this would be a show of strength in all ways, political, religious, military, etc. The intent was to keep people there at home rather than spreading abroad as God had intended. Nimrod had big ideas about governing everyone in the world.
Historically from records, archaeology, and occult history, we know a lot about what was happening in Babel, even though specifics are not recorded in the Scriptures.
The following comes from either occult history (the info about the antediluvian world), archaeology, ancient written records, (from the Flood on) or from research about the present day occult and its practices (symbols, etc). While occult history is not as reliable as the Scriptures by any means and should not be taken as bona fide truth, Satan does like to keep a record of his own doings. How much of the antediluvian history is actually accurate I have no way of knowing, because it does come from inside the occult, which cannot be trusted. Archaeology and ancient written records may be a little more reliable, and present day occult practices can be verified by those who have knowledge of them.
Again, it must be reiterated that this antediluvian knowledge come from an occult source and should not be equated as being the same as the truth of Scripture.
1) Previous to the flood, the most advanced occult society that ever existed was in control of the world. It was a world government (Satan loves this mantra doesn’t he?) based on 10 regions. (Oddly we will see this again as what will happen at the end of this age.) The name given to it by occultists is Atlantis. Mankind was constantly entering into altered states as they do today with things such as yoga, EST, hypnosis, channeling, automatic writing, etc. These were the secrets of the ancient mystery religions.
2) The history of this society picks up again with Nimrod. This is when Satan got a firm hold on man again and began his quest for another one world government. (He never tires of this does he?)
3) The Tower of Babel was the first ziggurat. (A tower with a temple on top.) There would be places for sacrifice (human as well as animal) up there. The zodiac, thought to have originally been conceived for the purpose of reminding people of the gospel (before the written word) was corrupted to represent Satanic things. The Virgin (Virgo) which was supposed to remind men of the Seed of woman, became the Queen of Heaven otherwise known as Semiramis, Nimrod’s wife. Leo, the Lion of Judah, and King, became a King of Heaven, and the other stars, constellations, and etc. became various representations of the demonic host that they would worship. The tower would be covered with paintings, and sculptures of these various animals or mythical creatures (not necessarily mythical either - Rev. describes a demon which looks remarkably like a centaur). Not only would the temple have these idols, but people began to have them in their homes also. “Gods” were created for every aspect of life and the environment.
4) Because the system became so cumbersome, a class of people developed who were dedicated to studying and interpreting this religious system for the people. Thus the development of a priestly class. As this class delved more into the ancient mysteries (occult practices taught by demons), they would start interacting with those demons that they worshiped and become demon possessed and controlled. The rituals that allowed them this personal interaction would become a secret for priests alone to possess, as it was a means of power for them over the people. Satan would reveal his plan for the world to them, and they would pass it on for generations to come.
5) At this time, Nimrod became known as Marduk (only one of his many names) the “god” of the new Babylonian religion mysteries. His wife was Semiramis, known as Queen of Heaven. She had a son named Tammuz.
There is a further interpretation of who and what Nimrod was, and what the tower was, which will be presented later during the course of this study, but for reasons will not be gone into here.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Genesis 10
It would be helpful now to read Genesis Chapters 10 & 11. These chapters tell us of the origin of the nations. There is not another historical document comparable to the Bible in its accuracy in this area. Even non-believing authorities such as Dr. William Albright, the world’s leading authority on archaeology of the Near East says regarding the Scripture's Table of Nations, “It stands absolutely alone in ancient literature, without a remote parallel, even among the Greeks, where we find the closest approach to a distribution of peoples in genealogical framework. The Table of Nations remains an astonishingly accurate document.” Noah and his descendants are listed and are identified with the cities and countries that they established. The record was kept for as long as the families were able to keep in touch with each other. Shem, as the one through whom the Redeemer would come, is the logical one to have kept this record. He lived for 502 years after the Flood which would have encompassed the time period of the development of the Table of Nations. Since the Tower of Babel dispersion would have created not only distancing, but inability to communicate in some cases, the genealogy would only follow certain families that would lead to Christ. The original language of the world, would no doubt be the one kept by Shem since he is the one keeping and passing on the records. Since these records end up with Moses, it is logical to assume that the original language of the world is Hebrew, as this is the language spoken by the Israelites. It makes sense that God would keep the original language reserved for his people.
Chapter 10
1) Some of the names mentioned here will appear again in the prophecies about the end time's battles that will be fought over Israel. Most of these names have been altered somewhat over the years, but historians have traced some of them to certain countries of today. Magog is a major name in an end time battle and is associated with Meshech and Tubal. Magog means place of Gog, and is connected with Georgia near the Black Sea. Meshech is preserved in the name Muskovi, the original name of Russia, and also in the name Moscow. Tubal is associated with the Russian city of Tobolsk. Both Meshech and Tubal are associated with Rosh in Ezekiel, the name from which Russian is derived. So the Russian people are considered descendants of them. Gomer is Germany. Ashkenaz is also associated with Germany and even today German Jews are called Ashkenazi. Madai is the ancestor of the Medes or Persians (now Iran) Javan is the original form of Ionia which is Greece. Hellas also applies to Greece (Hellenists). Kittim is a reference to Cyprus. The term Ma-Kittim which means the land of Kittim may have given us the name Macedonia. Cush is Ethiopia. Mizraim is the ancestor of the Egyptians and is the customary name for Egypt in the Bible. Phut is Libya. Canaan is the Canaanites with whom we are far more familiar. Seba became Sudan. Havilah, Sabtah, Sabtechah, and Raamah all settled in Arabia. These are not all, but many of the nations and their present locations.
2) Cush fathered Niimrod, who was a mighty hunter. Nimrod settled in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Nimrod’s name means “Let us rebel”, which indicates the frame of mind of Cush, Ham’s son. God says He curses and blesses to the seventh generation, and this seems to be a continuation of the curse put on Ham’s family because of his sin. They are rebellious by nature and teach their children to rebel. The title of "mighty hunter" does not just indicate a man who was good at killing wild beasts. While he had apparently gained quite a reputation for what probably was sport hunting of large wild animals, it says he was a hunter before the Lord which actually means against the Lord. This reputation made him a leader among men. It made him a hunter of men in that he became their leader and led them to go against God. He encouraged their following him in rebellion. The Jerusalem Targum says of him “He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, (possibly he actually hunted people for sport as well as leading them in rebellion) and he said to them, Depart from the judgment of the Lord and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod! Therefore it is said: As Nimrod the strong one, strong in hunting, and in wickedness before the Lord.” Nimrod was the leader of a group of people who built Babel. There is much more to Nimrod than is being mentioned here. But that is something that must wait for now.
3) Of the genealogies, the one that is important is Shem’s, as this is the one through whom the children of Israel come. In fact the word Semite comes from Shem’s name. Of his descendants, Eber is listed as important. It is from Eber that the word Hebrew comes. Eber had a son named Peleg. Peleg is of interest because of the meaning of his name. It means division. And while it probably references the division caused by the Tower of Babel incident, there are some scholars who say it goes further than this. Besides separating people by language, God wanted them to spread abroad. We know that the land was one mass before the flood and no doubt, in spite of the upheaval, after the flood also. It is possible that the continents started to rapidly drift apart at this time, so that God could facilitate moving people away from each other. Some historians say that the Incas and other South Americans came from Asia, across the land bridge, and down through the Americas to get to South America. Given the very similar cultures to the Egyptians, pyramids, pagan gods, etc. it seems more likely that they were at one time part of the same continent and had contact with each other, but the world was divided by continental drift and they were separated. Either that, or as the continents drifted, some got into boats and traveled to the other shores. It seems so peculiar otherwise for both to have the pyramids. They are basically patterned somewhat after what the Tower of Babel was supposed to have looked like. Especially the Mayan pyramids. Continental drift does not have to been as slow then as it is now. God would accomplish His ends quickly. Of course this falls under the heading of speculation, as we have no record of what happened.
4) The listing of this genealogy gives us seventy nations. Twenty-six from Shem, Thirty from Ham, and fourteen from Japheth. The number seventy is significant. It is the number of the children of Israel that came into Egypt from Canaan when the famine hit and Joseph was a high official. The number seventy has since been associated with the nation of Israel. In Daniel we are told that “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people” (an end times prophecy we will get to). Israel was led by seventy elders. There were seventy members of the Sanhedrin. Seventy scholars translated the Old Testament to Greek to produce the Septuagint. Moses wrote that man is allotted seventy years for a life span. The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Chapter 10
1) Some of the names mentioned here will appear again in the prophecies about the end time's battles that will be fought over Israel. Most of these names have been altered somewhat over the years, but historians have traced some of them to certain countries of today. Magog is a major name in an end time battle and is associated with Meshech and Tubal. Magog means place of Gog, and is connected with Georgia near the Black Sea. Meshech is preserved in the name Muskovi, the original name of Russia, and also in the name Moscow. Tubal is associated with the Russian city of Tobolsk. Both Meshech and Tubal are associated with Rosh in Ezekiel, the name from which Russian is derived. So the Russian people are considered descendants of them. Gomer is Germany. Ashkenaz is also associated with Germany and even today German Jews are called Ashkenazi. Madai is the ancestor of the Medes or Persians (now Iran) Javan is the original form of Ionia which is Greece. Hellas also applies to Greece (Hellenists). Kittim is a reference to Cyprus. The term Ma-Kittim which means the land of Kittim may have given us the name Macedonia. Cush is Ethiopia. Mizraim is the ancestor of the Egyptians and is the customary name for Egypt in the Bible. Phut is Libya. Canaan is the Canaanites with whom we are far more familiar. Seba became Sudan. Havilah, Sabtah, Sabtechah, and Raamah all settled in Arabia. These are not all, but many of the nations and their present locations.
2) Cush fathered Niimrod, who was a mighty hunter. Nimrod settled in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Nimrod’s name means “Let us rebel”, which indicates the frame of mind of Cush, Ham’s son. God says He curses and blesses to the seventh generation, and this seems to be a continuation of the curse put on Ham’s family because of his sin. They are rebellious by nature and teach their children to rebel. The title of "mighty hunter" does not just indicate a man who was good at killing wild beasts. While he had apparently gained quite a reputation for what probably was sport hunting of large wild animals, it says he was a hunter before the Lord which actually means against the Lord. This reputation made him a leader among men. It made him a hunter of men in that he became their leader and led them to go against God. He encouraged their following him in rebellion. The Jerusalem Targum says of him “He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, (possibly he actually hunted people for sport as well as leading them in rebellion) and he said to them, Depart from the judgment of the Lord and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod! Therefore it is said: As Nimrod the strong one, strong in hunting, and in wickedness before the Lord.” Nimrod was the leader of a group of people who built Babel. There is much more to Nimrod than is being mentioned here. But that is something that must wait for now.
3) Of the genealogies, the one that is important is Shem’s, as this is the one through whom the children of Israel come. In fact the word Semite comes from Shem’s name. Of his descendants, Eber is listed as important. It is from Eber that the word Hebrew comes. Eber had a son named Peleg. Peleg is of interest because of the meaning of his name. It means division. And while it probably references the division caused by the Tower of Babel incident, there are some scholars who say it goes further than this. Besides separating people by language, God wanted them to spread abroad. We know that the land was one mass before the flood and no doubt, in spite of the upheaval, after the flood also. It is possible that the continents started to rapidly drift apart at this time, so that God could facilitate moving people away from each other. Some historians say that the Incas and other South Americans came from Asia, across the land bridge, and down through the Americas to get to South America. Given the very similar cultures to the Egyptians, pyramids, pagan gods, etc. it seems more likely that they were at one time part of the same continent and had contact with each other, but the world was divided by continental drift and they were separated. Either that, or as the continents drifted, some got into boats and traveled to the other shores. It seems so peculiar otherwise for both to have the pyramids. They are basically patterned somewhat after what the Tower of Babel was supposed to have looked like. Especially the Mayan pyramids. Continental drift does not have to been as slow then as it is now. God would accomplish His ends quickly. Of course this falls under the heading of speculation, as we have no record of what happened.
4) The listing of this genealogy gives us seventy nations. Twenty-six from Shem, Thirty from Ham, and fourteen from Japheth. The number seventy is significant. It is the number of the children of Israel that came into Egypt from Canaan when the famine hit and Joseph was a high official. The number seventy has since been associated with the nation of Israel. In Daniel we are told that “seventy weeks are determined upon thy people” (an end times prophecy we will get to). Israel was led by seventy elders. There were seventy members of the Sanhedrin. Seventy scholars translated the Old Testament to Greek to produce the Septuagint. Moses wrote that man is allotted seventy years for a life span. The Babylonian captivity lasted seventy years. The temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Genesis 9
Genesis 9:1-4 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea: into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof shall ye not eat.”
1) God pronounces another blessing, on Noah’s and his sons. He then reissues the order to get busy and fill the earth with progeny. Notice that although this is a repeat of the mandate to Adam, the other mandate, have dominion, is not repeated. It will be impossible with what God does to the animals. Not to mention that Adam forfeited his right to dominion when he sinned, so Satan now has dominion.
2) Not only man is to be fruitful and multiply, but also the animals were to breed abundantly. Gen. 8:17. Noah had been instructed to take two of every unclean animal and seven of every clean animal and birds (not just two by two as most people think) Gen. 7:2, 3. The reason for this was that clean animals would be needed to procreate faster for several reasons. One of those was that the clean animals were the ones used for sacrifice. Notice that when Noah got off the ark, the first thing he did was to build an altar and sacrifice unto God. Gen. 8:20. This was why he needed seven. Three pairs to mate, and one for the sacrifice. The poor animals made the ride just to be the sacrifice at the end of the ride.
3) A second reason for the seven clean animals was for food. When Moses was given the dietary laws, the clean animals would need to be more abundant, as they were the ones being eaten. Notice that at this time, there were no dietary restrictions. (these restrictions given to Moses would again be lifted in the New Testament.) If it moved, it was fair game. Both for man and beast. So now animals killed animals. (Probably another reason for the 3 pairs of clean. They tend to be the timid, domesticated kind, so they would be the prey for the more aggressive animals and would disappear faster.) For the first time in history, animals were allowed to be food for man and beast. Vegetation would need time to grow. They needed something to eat in the meanwhile. Even planted crops would take a season to grow. Fruits, nuts, things of this sort would take even longer. With the canopy removed, it wouldn’t be a year round lush growing environment. Soon there would be an ice age which would make food even harder to grow. However blood was never to be consumed - ever. Our life is in our blood. Lev. 17:11. Even to this day, that restriction remains. Acts 15:20. This is another drastic change from their previous world.
4)Yet another change was that the fear and dread of man was instilled in the animals. Knowing that most domesticated animals don’t necessarily fear us, one needs to look at this verse closely. Remember when God created the animals He had three categories: beasts, cattle and things that creep on the ground (which had to include small game animals). Notice this says the beasts and things that move on the earth or ground. One can assume this is still the same classifications and that cattle or domesticated animals did not fall into this fear and dread curse. Birds and fish would also fear man, but they were still delivered into man's hands for his consumption.
Genesis 8:20-21, 9:9-16 “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done…..And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
1) The smell of the sacrifice was a balm to God’s hurt spirit. While He was angry at the world for their evil, He also loves His creation and this was a painful thing to do. This isn’t talking about the actual smell of the sacrifice as much as the sweet savor of belief and obedience and thanks that Noah was offering. It was washing away the filth of man’s rebellion.
2) Now God details the covenant He is making with Noah on our behalf. God knows that we are created in sin and that we can’t help sinning. He will not add anything to the curse that already exists, it is enough as it is. He will not again smite every living creature as He had done. Let’s get specific here. He says He will not smite every living creature as He had done, meaning with a flood. At the end of this age, God will wipe out a good portion of the world, however there will be a remnant left from every nation. God is also specific in that He says He will never again destroy every living thing by a flood. It is true. When there are floods, no matter how bad, it does not destroy everything. And at the end of the age, it will not be a flood, but fire that destroys the earth. So God is very specific about what this covenant covers. To make sure He remembers the covenant He has made with mankind (because this is not only for Noah but for all of his descendants and all the animals on earth) He sets His bow in the sky. It is not just for us to remember, but for His remembrance. 2 Pet. 3:3-7 reminds us of all that we have covered here. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 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 creation. 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, Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” We are warned about apostasy, disbelief in the Second Coming, disbelief in a literal creation, the belief in evolution, and the disbelief in Noah's Flood in these verses.
1) God pronounces another blessing, on Noah’s and his sons. He then reissues the order to get busy and fill the earth with progeny. Notice that although this is a repeat of the mandate to Adam, the other mandate, have dominion, is not repeated. It will be impossible with what God does to the animals. Not to mention that Adam forfeited his right to dominion when he sinned, so Satan now has dominion.
2) Not only man is to be fruitful and multiply, but also the animals were to breed abundantly. Gen. 8:17. Noah had been instructed to take two of every unclean animal and seven of every clean animal and birds (not just two by two as most people think) Gen. 7:2, 3. The reason for this was that clean animals would be needed to procreate faster for several reasons. One of those was that the clean animals were the ones used for sacrifice. Notice that when Noah got off the ark, the first thing he did was to build an altar and sacrifice unto God. Gen. 8:20. This was why he needed seven. Three pairs to mate, and one for the sacrifice. The poor animals made the ride just to be the sacrifice at the end of the ride.
3) A second reason for the seven clean animals was for food. When Moses was given the dietary laws, the clean animals would need to be more abundant, as they were the ones being eaten. Notice that at this time, there were no dietary restrictions. (these restrictions given to Moses would again be lifted in the New Testament.) If it moved, it was fair game. Both for man and beast. So now animals killed animals. (Probably another reason for the 3 pairs of clean. They tend to be the timid, domesticated kind, so they would be the prey for the more aggressive animals and would disappear faster.) For the first time in history, animals were allowed to be food for man and beast. Vegetation would need time to grow. They needed something to eat in the meanwhile. Even planted crops would take a season to grow. Fruits, nuts, things of this sort would take even longer. With the canopy removed, it wouldn’t be a year round lush growing environment. Soon there would be an ice age which would make food even harder to grow. However blood was never to be consumed - ever. Our life is in our blood. Lev. 17:11. Even to this day, that restriction remains. Acts 15:20. This is another drastic change from their previous world.
4)Yet another change was that the fear and dread of man was instilled in the animals. Knowing that most domesticated animals don’t necessarily fear us, one needs to look at this verse closely. Remember when God created the animals He had three categories: beasts, cattle and things that creep on the ground (which had to include small game animals). Notice this says the beasts and things that move on the earth or ground. One can assume this is still the same classifications and that cattle or domesticated animals did not fall into this fear and dread curse. Birds and fish would also fear man, but they were still delivered into man's hands for his consumption.
Genesis 8:20-21, 9:9-16 “And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done…..And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
1) The smell of the sacrifice was a balm to God’s hurt spirit. While He was angry at the world for their evil, He also loves His creation and this was a painful thing to do. This isn’t talking about the actual smell of the sacrifice as much as the sweet savor of belief and obedience and thanks that Noah was offering. It was washing away the filth of man’s rebellion.
2) Now God details the covenant He is making with Noah on our behalf. God knows that we are created in sin and that we can’t help sinning. He will not add anything to the curse that already exists, it is enough as it is. He will not again smite every living creature as He had done. Let’s get specific here. He says He will not smite every living creature as He had done, meaning with a flood. At the end of this age, God will wipe out a good portion of the world, however there will be a remnant left from every nation. God is also specific in that He says He will never again destroy every living thing by a flood. It is true. When there are floods, no matter how bad, it does not destroy everything. And at the end of the age, it will not be a flood, but fire that destroys the earth. So God is very specific about what this covenant covers. To make sure He remembers the covenant He has made with mankind (because this is not only for Noah but for all of his descendants and all the animals on earth) He sets His bow in the sky. It is not just for us to remember, but for His remembrance. 2 Pet. 3:3-7 reminds us of all that we have covered here. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 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 creation. 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, Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” We are warned about apostasy, disbelief in the Second Coming, disbelief in a literal creation, the belief in evolution, and the disbelief in Noah's Flood in these verses.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Genesis 6 part 2, 7 & 8
Genesis 6:8, 14a, 17, 18; 7:11-12, 21 “ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. - Make an ark of gopher wood…- and behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. - In the six hundredth year of Noah‘s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. - And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man.”
1) Noah was the only righteous man left. He found grace in God’s eyes and would be spared the wrath of God that would be visited on the rest of the world. This is a picture of what is going to happen at the end of the age. God will again have to destroy the earth, because of its wickedness and rebellion against Him. But those who find grace in the eyes of the Lord (true believers) will not have to suffer His wrath. Throughout Scripture, God foreshadows future events with other events. In this case, Noah’s flood is in a way a pre-curser of what will happen again, albeit in a slightly different way. In fact, we will see in a reverse way.
2) God establishes the first covenant, known as the Noahic covenant. God gives Noah the details of this covenant a year later, after they leave the ark.
3) Now the fountains of the deep are broken up, and the windows of heaven open and the rains come and come - for forty days and nights. That is a lot of water. We know that there was a water vapor canopy above the atmosphere. Something happened to shatter the hydrogen lattice that supported it, as only in shattering it, would the waters be released. Scientists tell us that the Yucatan Peninsula is the result of a huge crater having been carved in the ground from what could only be an asteroid strike. While there was a lot of upheaval of the earth’s crust during this time, and this is only speculation, it makes sense that this is what happened, whether there or elsewhere it can't be known. God uses and has always used His own creation to carry out His will. This didn’t require some miraculous event, but simply miraculous timing of God’s creation, which is the miracle. If an asteroid came crashing through the canopy (most logical scenario) , the dust caused by the asteroid hitting the earth would have caused the condensation of water, which would no longer be supported by the lattice, as it had been shattered. (Rain is caused by the dust making water vapor too heavy to stay in the air.) Since the entire earth was covered by this canopy, it would have rained everywhere all over the planet. In addition, the underground reservoirs of water would have come shooting forth, from the impact. A TV show that tried to explain how things might have gone down during this event, started with an asteroid impact which they believe actually split the earth by causing a rupture in the earth’s crust which then proceeded to encircle the entire earth. They also speculate that this splitting would have caused the underground reservoirs to shoot high into the sky causing more “rain”. Then the crust would have started slipping with all the upheaval, and the tectonic plates would have overlapped each other, which is what we have today. Earthquakes are caused when they shift. The pressure of overlapping would have caused some sections of the crust to be shoved upward, creating high mountain ranges, and some would have been shoved downward, (filling the spaces left by the emptying of the water reservoirs), causing the deep ocean trenches. This would have happened over the course of months. While again, I must reiterate that this is speculation on the scientists part based on Scripture and the evidence, it certainly fits the scenario. It would explain how the waters abated over the course of the year Noah was in the ark. As the plates shifted creating the mountains and trenches, the waters would drain off into the trenches making the oceans, and the mountains rising would give something for the ark to rest upon until the rest of the water drained down uncovering the rest of the land that would ultimately be uncovered.
4) Everything would have died. Imagine how horrific it was for Noah and his family to hear the screaming of the people as the rain began and the flood waters rose. There would have been millions of corpses floating around in the water. One can only imagine the stench. As the floods moved the soil, the sediment would begin burying the corpses, creating the fossil record. Now before going further, stop and consider how a fossil is scientifically created. A fossil only exists when something is suddenly and catastrophically buried, thus preserving it basically intact and preventing decay. Without this catastrophic burial, bones would just disintegrate. Now, there are fossils all over the world. Including sea fossils on very high mountains. How did they get there? How did fossils get there in fact, if there was no global flood? Evolutionary scientists today point to the fossil record as the basis for evolution, however they have never discovered the so-called geological ages laid down in the order that they teach, anywhere on the planet. (A fact they do not advertise.) In fact, usually it is only a few of the “layers” and not always in the expected order. Added to that is the problem that the fossil record is all mixed up throughout all the layers, not laid out the way they say it is. The way the chart for the geological ages came about was that starting with the premise of how they thought life evolved (the order) and how long that would take, they then created a chart of what they thought should be the geological ages and how long they lasted. Then they put the fossils that they thought should be there in that era. So when they date something, they say it must be a certain age, because that fossil is supposed to be in that era. And it is that era, because they found that fossil which comes from that age. (Because they decided it did.) It’s called circular reasoning. All of it came from some speculation and imagination, nothing from fact. They also disregard any fossil that "doesn't belong" in that strata. And this is science? And yet, they say it is factual science, when in fact, factual science is something that is observable and repeatable by its very definition. Totally illogical. Answers in Genesis puts out a video called Mount St. Helens. It shows how the same geological layers that supposedly took millions of years, was laid down in a matter of a few days (or less) at Mount St. Helens when it erupted. I don’t want to go into too much evolution vs. creation evidence here, as this really is not a Genesis study, even though we are spending some time here. However there is a quote I would like to put in, as I find it so telling of evolutionary scientists’ bias. George Wald, winner of the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize in Science wrote: “When it comes to the origin of life on this earth, there are only two possibilities; creation or spontaneous generation (evolution). There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 years ago, but that leads us only to one other conclusion: that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds (personal reasons); therefore, we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.” At least he’s honest. It is pure rebellion against God, not any scientific facts, that lead them to promote evolution. That is why they suppress any evidence to the contrary (which is pretty much everything. They simply twist the interpretation). They do not want anything that validates creation to get out for the world to see. And they say we have faith?
5) When Noah and his family walked out of the ark, they found a very different world. During those forty days and nights, the storm that carried on would have been unlike anything they had ever experienced. Besides the rains which were a new event, they would experience high winds, (also new), a climate change to colder weather (the canopy that made it warm was gone), and probably a lot of darkness during the forty day storm. The hydrological cycle would now be a common occurrence. Scientists also believe that the earth was moved out of its orbit, as the impact would have caused it to drift into a different place. This probably was necessary, due to the now lack of canopy, to protect it from the sun. They also believe it may have been tilted on its axis differently than it had been. While I must admit I haven’t done enough research to find out why they believe before the flood there was a 360 day year, that is what they say. Now it would be 365. That makes sense if the earth had been moved from its orbit slightly further from the sun. Considering how meticulous God is about numbers and how they work together, I suspect they are right, that it was a 360 day year, (30 day months) and that the moon orbited every 30 days. God loves order. When we get there, I will show how at the end, Scriptures do say that the earth will be moved out of its present orbit. This seems to confirm that once it was in a different orbit and that it will be moved back. But that’s for later. The sky would no longer be a 6563 angstrom magenta (pink) color. It would now be blue, as the gas the sun shines through is mostly oxygen, not hydrogen. The plant life would be virtually gone. Everything would be barren, not lush. Instead of gentle rolling hills, there would be high mountain ranges, instead of seas there would be vast oceans. The instability of the mantle and crust would probably cause lots of volcanoes and earthquakes. The results of the flood would also bring about a mini ice age, and they would see snow for the first time. The earth would also be a different size, as now it had to hold the water that once rested above the earth. They wouldn’t necessarily notice this though. Cosmic rays would now be able to penetrate and their life spans would quickly decrease from generation to generation (as well as create health problems). Eventually instead of everyplace resembling Hawaii, there would be vast deserts, tundra, massive ice flows, etc.
Genesis 7:11,13; 8:13, 14 “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark…..And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah saying, Go forth….”
1) The Jews have two calendars. A civil calendar, which was inaugurated at the beginning of time, (in the fall around the middle of September by reckoning) and the religious calendar which was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. When God created the religious calendar, he made the seventh month of the civil calendar the first month of the religious calendar. The timing of the flood is important enough for God to give us the specific day that it began, and the day Noah walked off the ark. There is reason for this as we will see that God loves to repeat dates. Christ rose from the dead on the seventeenth day of a month, specifically the first month of the religious calendar. According to scholars, the Israelites cross the Red Sea on the 17th of the first month (of the religious calendar). We may see there is more to the dates of Noah than just Noah’s flood.
1) Noah was the only righteous man left. He found grace in God’s eyes and would be spared the wrath of God that would be visited on the rest of the world. This is a picture of what is going to happen at the end of the age. God will again have to destroy the earth, because of its wickedness and rebellion against Him. But those who find grace in the eyes of the Lord (true believers) will not have to suffer His wrath. Throughout Scripture, God foreshadows future events with other events. In this case, Noah’s flood is in a way a pre-curser of what will happen again, albeit in a slightly different way. In fact, we will see in a reverse way.
2) God establishes the first covenant, known as the Noahic covenant. God gives Noah the details of this covenant a year later, after they leave the ark.
3) Now the fountains of the deep are broken up, and the windows of heaven open and the rains come and come - for forty days and nights. That is a lot of water. We know that there was a water vapor canopy above the atmosphere. Something happened to shatter the hydrogen lattice that supported it, as only in shattering it, would the waters be released. Scientists tell us that the Yucatan Peninsula is the result of a huge crater having been carved in the ground from what could only be an asteroid strike. While there was a lot of upheaval of the earth’s crust during this time, and this is only speculation, it makes sense that this is what happened, whether there or elsewhere it can't be known. God uses and has always used His own creation to carry out His will. This didn’t require some miraculous event, but simply miraculous timing of God’s creation, which is the miracle. If an asteroid came crashing through the canopy (most logical scenario) , the dust caused by the asteroid hitting the earth would have caused the condensation of water, which would no longer be supported by the lattice, as it had been shattered. (Rain is caused by the dust making water vapor too heavy to stay in the air.) Since the entire earth was covered by this canopy, it would have rained everywhere all over the planet. In addition, the underground reservoirs of water would have come shooting forth, from the impact. A TV show that tried to explain how things might have gone down during this event, started with an asteroid impact which they believe actually split the earth by causing a rupture in the earth’s crust which then proceeded to encircle the entire earth. They also speculate that this splitting would have caused the underground reservoirs to shoot high into the sky causing more “rain”. Then the crust would have started slipping with all the upheaval, and the tectonic plates would have overlapped each other, which is what we have today. Earthquakes are caused when they shift. The pressure of overlapping would have caused some sections of the crust to be shoved upward, creating high mountain ranges, and some would have been shoved downward, (filling the spaces left by the emptying of the water reservoirs), causing the deep ocean trenches. This would have happened over the course of months. While again, I must reiterate that this is speculation on the scientists part based on Scripture and the evidence, it certainly fits the scenario. It would explain how the waters abated over the course of the year Noah was in the ark. As the plates shifted creating the mountains and trenches, the waters would drain off into the trenches making the oceans, and the mountains rising would give something for the ark to rest upon until the rest of the water drained down uncovering the rest of the land that would ultimately be uncovered.
4) Everything would have died. Imagine how horrific it was for Noah and his family to hear the screaming of the people as the rain began and the flood waters rose. There would have been millions of corpses floating around in the water. One can only imagine the stench. As the floods moved the soil, the sediment would begin burying the corpses, creating the fossil record. Now before going further, stop and consider how a fossil is scientifically created. A fossil only exists when something is suddenly and catastrophically buried, thus preserving it basically intact and preventing decay. Without this catastrophic burial, bones would just disintegrate. Now, there are fossils all over the world. Including sea fossils on very high mountains. How did they get there? How did fossils get there in fact, if there was no global flood? Evolutionary scientists today point to the fossil record as the basis for evolution, however they have never discovered the so-called geological ages laid down in the order that they teach, anywhere on the planet. (A fact they do not advertise.) In fact, usually it is only a few of the “layers” and not always in the expected order. Added to that is the problem that the fossil record is all mixed up throughout all the layers, not laid out the way they say it is. The way the chart for the geological ages came about was that starting with the premise of how they thought life evolved (the order) and how long that would take, they then created a chart of what they thought should be the geological ages and how long they lasted. Then they put the fossils that they thought should be there in that era. So when they date something, they say it must be a certain age, because that fossil is supposed to be in that era. And it is that era, because they found that fossil which comes from that age. (Because they decided it did.) It’s called circular reasoning. All of it came from some speculation and imagination, nothing from fact. They also disregard any fossil that "doesn't belong" in that strata. And this is science? And yet, they say it is factual science, when in fact, factual science is something that is observable and repeatable by its very definition. Totally illogical. Answers in Genesis puts out a video called Mount St. Helens. It shows how the same geological layers that supposedly took millions of years, was laid down in a matter of a few days (or less) at Mount St. Helens when it erupted. I don’t want to go into too much evolution vs. creation evidence here, as this really is not a Genesis study, even though we are spending some time here. However there is a quote I would like to put in, as I find it so telling of evolutionary scientists’ bias. George Wald, winner of the 1967 Nobel Peace Prize in Science wrote: “When it comes to the origin of life on this earth, there are only two possibilities; creation or spontaneous generation (evolution). There is no third way. Spontaneous generation was disproved 100 years ago, but that leads us only to one other conclusion: that of supernatural creation. We cannot accept that on philosophical grounds (personal reasons); therefore, we choose to believe the impossible: that life arose spontaneously by chance.” At least he’s honest. It is pure rebellion against God, not any scientific facts, that lead them to promote evolution. That is why they suppress any evidence to the contrary (which is pretty much everything. They simply twist the interpretation). They do not want anything that validates creation to get out for the world to see. And they say we have faith?
5) When Noah and his family walked out of the ark, they found a very different world. During those forty days and nights, the storm that carried on would have been unlike anything they had ever experienced. Besides the rains which were a new event, they would experience high winds, (also new), a climate change to colder weather (the canopy that made it warm was gone), and probably a lot of darkness during the forty day storm. The hydrological cycle would now be a common occurrence. Scientists also believe that the earth was moved out of its orbit, as the impact would have caused it to drift into a different place. This probably was necessary, due to the now lack of canopy, to protect it from the sun. They also believe it may have been tilted on its axis differently than it had been. While I must admit I haven’t done enough research to find out why they believe before the flood there was a 360 day year, that is what they say. Now it would be 365. That makes sense if the earth had been moved from its orbit slightly further from the sun. Considering how meticulous God is about numbers and how they work together, I suspect they are right, that it was a 360 day year, (30 day months) and that the moon orbited every 30 days. God loves order. When we get there, I will show how at the end, Scriptures do say that the earth will be moved out of its present orbit. This seems to confirm that once it was in a different orbit and that it will be moved back. But that’s for later. The sky would no longer be a 6563 angstrom magenta (pink) color. It would now be blue, as the gas the sun shines through is mostly oxygen, not hydrogen. The plant life would be virtually gone. Everything would be barren, not lush. Instead of gentle rolling hills, there would be high mountain ranges, instead of seas there would be vast oceans. The instability of the mantle and crust would probably cause lots of volcanoes and earthquakes. The results of the flood would also bring about a mini ice age, and they would see snow for the first time. The earth would also be a different size, as now it had to hold the water that once rested above the earth. They wouldn’t necessarily notice this though. Cosmic rays would now be able to penetrate and their life spans would quickly decrease from generation to generation (as well as create health problems). Eventually instead of everyplace resembling Hawaii, there would be vast deserts, tundra, massive ice flows, etc.
Genesis 7:11,13; 8:13, 14 “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark…..And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah saying, Go forth….”
1) The Jews have two calendars. A civil calendar, which was inaugurated at the beginning of time, (in the fall around the middle of September by reckoning) and the religious calendar which was given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. When God created the religious calendar, he made the seventh month of the civil calendar the first month of the religious calendar. The timing of the flood is important enough for God to give us the specific day that it began, and the day Noah walked off the ark. There is reason for this as we will see that God loves to repeat dates. Christ rose from the dead on the seventeenth day of a month, specifically the first month of the religious calendar. According to scholars, the Israelites cross the Red Sea on the 17th of the first month (of the religious calendar). We may see there is more to the dates of Noah than just Noah’s flood.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Genesis 6 part 1
Genesis 6:1-7, 11-13 “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. The earth also was corrupt before God , and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
1) In the days of Noah, something very unusual took place. It wouldn’t be the last time that it took place either. The sons of God took the daughters of men as their wives and gave birth to giants. These men would not only be monstrous in size, but monstrous in wickedness also. Many Christians want to find a human explanation for this passage turning the sons of God into the men in the line of Seth and the daughters of men from the line of Cain, but a union of humans would not produce the superhuman giants that these men of renown were. Also, if the whole world was so wicked that only Noah and his family were saved, then there would be no righteous line of Seth in which to mate.
2) The term sons of God, although used in the New Testament to describe the Christian’s relationship to God is not used the same way in the Old Testament. The term “bene elohim” is only used here in Genesis and in one other book, the book of Job. In Job it is clear that the term refers to angels - Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7. Thus we can deduce that the term sons of God means exactly the same thing here. The reason for some having problems with this interpretation is that the Lord said, “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Matt. 22:30. The leap has been made that this indicates that they are sexless and can‘t marry or have relations, but that is not what the verse actually says. It says they don’t marry, not that they are physically incapable. Since they don’t die, there is no need for them to procreate. Our sexual relations(within marriage) are basically for that purpose. Marriage is also to serve as a model for the relation the church has with Christ. The angels have no need of marriage as a reminder of what a relationship with Christ is, as they are not the heirs of salvation, and they already live in his presence. Gabriel is described as being a male. The angels going to Sodom were described as being male. In Zech. 5:9 we see where a couple of angels are described as female. When we are resurrected we will retain our identity and gender, however since the purpose of marriage and sex was for reproduction on the earth, we will have no need for such relationships in heaven. Our relationship with the Lord will fulfill all our needs. It was not intended for angels to reproduce themselves, so they do not marry. Again, that doesn’t mean that they are sexless and incapable of having sexual relations should they so choose. They can manifest in physical bodies as shown in Scripture, such as when they came to Sodom and all the men there wanted to have sex with them. Obviously when the angels chose to have relations with humans, they fell from heaven in disobedience to God’s intentions. Satan’s intention was to corrupt the seed of woman so that Christ could not be born, and what better way than adding demonic blood into the bloodlines. When Noah was born, his father prophesied that comfort and relief from the curse would come from him. He was untainted by this blood and found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Gen. 6:9 says “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” The word perfect wasn’t referring to his righteousness. It already mentioned he was just and walked with God. It said he was perfect in his generations. His bloodline was untainted by demonic blood. He was probably one of the few people whose bloodline was untainted.
3) That these fallen angels could take any woman they chose shows the degree of moral decay that existed at that time. God-fearing women surely wouldn’t want a sexual union with one of these fallen creatures, (even if they were tall, blonde, and good-looking) although it is quite probable that many of them were forced. The addition of this into the world would cause the extreme wickedness that caused God to obliterate the world with the flood.
4) These fallen angels compounded their sin of following Satan and being cast out of heaven. Jude 6 tells us that “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” These angels did not keep to the dimension in which they were created. They came down to the earth and left that dimension. They are chained until God judges the world (described in Rev.) and not allowed to roam loose as are other fallen spirits, as God considered this a really heinous act as it would prevent the Saviour from being born.
5) You would think that would be the end of it, but in fact more angels (fallen) do this again after the flood (either this or some of the nephilim survived the flood elsewhere than earth.) This is the source of the giants such as Goliath and the other Philistines. That is why God insisted that the Israelites wipe out entire groups of people when they came to the promised land. They were tainted with demonic blood, which could not be allowed to accidentally mingle with Israelite blood. It had to be completely eliminated. We hear of people today claiming to have sex with “ghosts” and being impregnated by “aliens” and having these babies taken from their wombs by the “aliens”. It does say in Matt. 24:37 that in our time (end days) it will be as it was in the days of Noah. It would seem that possibly they are at it again, although pretending to be aliens. Since we have no giants roaming the earth, per se, at least they are not out roaming in public- there is the occasional abnormally large person (8-9') - one wonders if babies are being taken and what they are doing with them. Is an army being put together to make us think we are under an alien invasion? (This is speculative naturally)
6) An interesting idea is that most myths have some basis in fact. If we look at Roman and Greek myths of the gods and half-god/half-humans such as Hercules, we find the stories of “men of renown” and stories of giants, just as the Bible says existed. It is possible these are the corrupted stories of the Bible nephilim (giants) that have been passed down through the pagan world. Also the legend of Atlantis is most likely the corrupted version of the antediluvian world. According to the Book of Enoch (again not canon, but possibly some truth historically), the angels who came down gave all kinds of forbidden knowledge to man - for instance occult practices, technology, etc. (This is no doubt true. I believe it is happening again in our time.) This is the description given of Atlantis in the myths, that it was highly evolved technologically and pagan in practice. Atlantis sank into the ocean. So did the antediluvian world. It is known that every culture on earth has some sort of flood legend, so it is easy to believe that the existence of a world sunken into the ocean is a story that would have been passed down through the generations, but in a corrupted version, as God only kept his version free from error.
7) God announces that He has had it with mankind and their violence and wickedness and is giving them 120 more years. They will no longer listen, and the blood has been so tainted, there is no redeeming it. He has to start over. He gives them 120 years for two reasons. God is remarkably patient with mankind (He wants all to come to the truth) and it takes Noah that long to make the ark. During this time, Noah apparently does continue to preach, (but they obviously won’t listen.) 2 Pet. 2:5
8) The word "nephil" translated giants (we often say nephilim) is a derivative of another word that means fallen and would describe the nature of these giants. It is interesting that there is a note that not only were there giants then, but it tells us there that they will happen again later in history, which we do find later in the Scriptures, such as when Joshua and the spies go out from the desert to spy out the land and some come back saying that they are as grasshoppers in comparison to the inhabitants of the promised land. Again to reference the Book of Enoch, if it is historical, it is said that these giants were by today's standards as large as thirty-five feet tall. God referred to the Amorites as being as tall as cedars. The cedars of Lebanon grew to a good 130 feet. That would definitely make us look like grasshoppers by comparison. Apparently each following generation gets smaller as by the time of David, Goliath is only nine feet tall. King Og was measured at thirteen feet at that time.
9) Since the days before the Lord’s coming is supposed to be a repeat of the days of Noah, Matt. 24:37-39, Luke 17:26-27 it behooves us to see exactly what these days were like, besides having intercourse - both sexually and intellectually with fallen spiritual entities. We know from the above verses that the wickedness of man had reached an all time high as every imagination of their hearts was evil continually. Let us see what some of those characteristics might have been and see if they exist today.
1) In the days of Noah, something very unusual took place. It wouldn’t be the last time that it took place either. The sons of God took the daughters of men as their wives and gave birth to giants. These men would not only be monstrous in size, but monstrous in wickedness also. Many Christians want to find a human explanation for this passage turning the sons of God into the men in the line of Seth and the daughters of men from the line of Cain, but a union of humans would not produce the superhuman giants that these men of renown were. Also, if the whole world was so wicked that only Noah and his family were saved, then there would be no righteous line of Seth in which to mate.
2) The term sons of God, although used in the New Testament to describe the Christian’s relationship to God is not used the same way in the Old Testament. The term “bene elohim” is only used here in Genesis and in one other book, the book of Job. In Job it is clear that the term refers to angels - Job 1:6, 2:1, 38:7. Thus we can deduce that the term sons of God means exactly the same thing here. The reason for some having problems with this interpretation is that the Lord said, “in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Matt. 22:30. The leap has been made that this indicates that they are sexless and can‘t marry or have relations, but that is not what the verse actually says. It says they don’t marry, not that they are physically incapable. Since they don’t die, there is no need for them to procreate. Our sexual relations(within marriage) are basically for that purpose. Marriage is also to serve as a model for the relation the church has with Christ. The angels have no need of marriage as a reminder of what a relationship with Christ is, as they are not the heirs of salvation, and they already live in his presence. Gabriel is described as being a male. The angels going to Sodom were described as being male. In Zech. 5:9 we see where a couple of angels are described as female. When we are resurrected we will retain our identity and gender, however since the purpose of marriage and sex was for reproduction on the earth, we will have no need for such relationships in heaven. Our relationship with the Lord will fulfill all our needs. It was not intended for angels to reproduce themselves, so they do not marry. Again, that doesn’t mean that they are sexless and incapable of having sexual relations should they so choose. They can manifest in physical bodies as shown in Scripture, such as when they came to Sodom and all the men there wanted to have sex with them. Obviously when the angels chose to have relations with humans, they fell from heaven in disobedience to God’s intentions. Satan’s intention was to corrupt the seed of woman so that Christ could not be born, and what better way than adding demonic blood into the bloodlines. When Noah was born, his father prophesied that comfort and relief from the curse would come from him. He was untainted by this blood and found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Gen. 6:9 says “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” The word perfect wasn’t referring to his righteousness. It already mentioned he was just and walked with God. It said he was perfect in his generations. His bloodline was untainted by demonic blood. He was probably one of the few people whose bloodline was untainted.
3) That these fallen angels could take any woman they chose shows the degree of moral decay that existed at that time. God-fearing women surely wouldn’t want a sexual union with one of these fallen creatures, (even if they were tall, blonde, and good-looking) although it is quite probable that many of them were forced. The addition of this into the world would cause the extreme wickedness that caused God to obliterate the world with the flood.
4) These fallen angels compounded their sin of following Satan and being cast out of heaven. Jude 6 tells us that “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” These angels did not keep to the dimension in which they were created. They came down to the earth and left that dimension. They are chained until God judges the world (described in Rev.) and not allowed to roam loose as are other fallen spirits, as God considered this a really heinous act as it would prevent the Saviour from being born.
5) You would think that would be the end of it, but in fact more angels (fallen) do this again after the flood (either this or some of the nephilim survived the flood elsewhere than earth.) This is the source of the giants such as Goliath and the other Philistines. That is why God insisted that the Israelites wipe out entire groups of people when they came to the promised land. They were tainted with demonic blood, which could not be allowed to accidentally mingle with Israelite blood. It had to be completely eliminated. We hear of people today claiming to have sex with “ghosts” and being impregnated by “aliens” and having these babies taken from their wombs by the “aliens”. It does say in Matt. 24:37 that in our time (end days) it will be as it was in the days of Noah. It would seem that possibly they are at it again, although pretending to be aliens. Since we have no giants roaming the earth, per se, at least they are not out roaming in public- there is the occasional abnormally large person (8-9') - one wonders if babies are being taken and what they are doing with them. Is an army being put together to make us think we are under an alien invasion? (This is speculative naturally)
6) An interesting idea is that most myths have some basis in fact. If we look at Roman and Greek myths of the gods and half-god/half-humans such as Hercules, we find the stories of “men of renown” and stories of giants, just as the Bible says existed. It is possible these are the corrupted stories of the Bible nephilim (giants) that have been passed down through the pagan world. Also the legend of Atlantis is most likely the corrupted version of the antediluvian world. According to the Book of Enoch (again not canon, but possibly some truth historically), the angels who came down gave all kinds of forbidden knowledge to man - for instance occult practices, technology, etc. (This is no doubt true. I believe it is happening again in our time.) This is the description given of Atlantis in the myths, that it was highly evolved technologically and pagan in practice. Atlantis sank into the ocean. So did the antediluvian world. It is known that every culture on earth has some sort of flood legend, so it is easy to believe that the existence of a world sunken into the ocean is a story that would have been passed down through the generations, but in a corrupted version, as God only kept his version free from error.
7) God announces that He has had it with mankind and their violence and wickedness and is giving them 120 more years. They will no longer listen, and the blood has been so tainted, there is no redeeming it. He has to start over. He gives them 120 years for two reasons. God is remarkably patient with mankind (He wants all to come to the truth) and it takes Noah that long to make the ark. During this time, Noah apparently does continue to preach, (but they obviously won’t listen.) 2 Pet. 2:5
8) The word "nephil" translated giants (we often say nephilim) is a derivative of another word that means fallen and would describe the nature of these giants. It is interesting that there is a note that not only were there giants then, but it tells us there that they will happen again later in history, which we do find later in the Scriptures, such as when Joshua and the spies go out from the desert to spy out the land and some come back saying that they are as grasshoppers in comparison to the inhabitants of the promised land. Again to reference the Book of Enoch, if it is historical, it is said that these giants were by today's standards as large as thirty-five feet tall. God referred to the Amorites as being as tall as cedars. The cedars of Lebanon grew to a good 130 feet. That would definitely make us look like grasshoppers by comparison. Apparently each following generation gets smaller as by the time of David, Goliath is only nine feet tall. King Og was measured at thirteen feet at that time.
9) Since the days before the Lord’s coming is supposed to be a repeat of the days of Noah, Matt. 24:37-39, Luke 17:26-27 it behooves us to see exactly what these days were like, besides having intercourse - both sexually and intellectually with fallen spiritual entities. We know from the above verses that the wickedness of man had reached an all time high as every imagination of their hearts was evil continually. Let us see what some of those characteristics might have been and see if they exist today.
- Matt. 24:38-39 “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day the Noah entered into the ark. And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” They were occupied with physical appetites. Eating and drinking, (one assumes alcoholic beverages were abused), drugs, probably partying, gluttony. One can guess that there was lots of illicit and perverted sex as this generally follows the former. They were marrying and giving in marriage. Probably multiple ones, either consecutive through divorce, or polygamy and homosexual unions. All practiced today - the first by more than half the people in this country (and others) , and the second by certain religious sects and cultures. The last by way too many people. This verse also says that they knew not until the flood came and took them away. They were oblivous in spite of the fact that Noah was preaching, no doubt the preaching was warning them that the world they knew was about to come to an end. Today we know that Christ is about to return, and yet with those of us telling people that the world (as we know it-not the planet) is about to come to an end, people are completely ignoring us. The Scriptures tell us that people will again be blindsided when God brings down His wrath. His coming will be like a thief in the night to them, just as it was to Noah's generation. 2 Peter 3:3-7, 10. 1 Thess. 5:2-3.
- Every thought of their imagination was continually evil. Not occasionally, but continually. Today every direction we turn we are assailed with evil in some form or another. The only way to escape it is to become a hermit in a cave somewhere with no communication with the outside world. It is to be expected that occult practices ran rampant at that time, as they do today.
- Genesis 4:20-22 talks about the development of technology. Metallurgy, musical instruments, animal husbandry. If you stop and consider, man was created with incredible intelligence. Adam named all the animals on the first day of his life. Gen. 2:19. That took some thought. We know we only use a small portion of our brain these days. They no doubt used it all, since the world (and everything in it, including us) has been deteriorating since the start. We don’t even begin to know what other technologies they may have possessed. But since we have incredible technology in these days, and it is progressing geometrically, one can assume that with the fallen angels helping them, they also had an explosion of technology.
- There was incredible violence in the land then. Today we have children killing each other. People are abusing children. Women and children are constantly disappearing and usually turning up dead. Road rage has become a problem. Drive-by shootings. Everybody is constantly angry anymore. Movies, TV, and video games all portray violence all the time. Our children are exposed to it all the time, which has had the unfortunate side-effect of making them immune to its horror. Even cannibalism is being glorified in movies like Silence of the Lambs.
- It says that the earth had become corrupt, that all flesh had corrupted his way. Only one family was still clinging to faith - in the whole earth, only one family. Sometimes we feel alone with so many Christians becoming apostate and living licentiously, but imagine if yours were the only family still believing in God. There was no restraint at all. The Hebrew word for corrupt is sometimes translated as destroy, so the earth was destroying itself with its violence and corruption.
- Notice that God says he is going to destroy the earth with the earth. The world as they knew it would perish by God using the earth itself against them. It would be a totally different world, as we will see, when they came out of the ark.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Genesis 5 highlights
From this point on, I will often reference Scripture without writing it, to save myself time and the blog unnecessary space consumption. I advise keeping your Bible handy to check out all these references. (be a Berean) Also, if anyone catches a mistake (I do sometimes make them) in a reference, let me know so I can correct it.
It is suggested at this point that you read Chapter 5 to familiarize yourself with the names of the generations from Adam to Noah, as some of these people will be briefly referenced.
Some of the names of the patriarchs are very interesting in their meanings. Seth means “appointed one“. God had promised Adam and Eve a redeemer, after they sinned - Gen. 3:15. When Cain killed Abel, they must have thought that promise was broken. When Seth was born, they knew that he was the appointed one to take the place of Abel and from whom the redeemer would come, thus the name. In fact, he was the appointed one to be the next patriarch to carry righteousness to the next generation.
Jared means “descent”. The Book of Enoch, though not in our canon, was accepted by the Jews of biblical times as a valid historical book. It is the supposed history of the world before the flood. It tells that at the time of Jared, angels came down from heaven and co-habited with mankind (which we know to be true as we will see a little later). Jared’s name meaning descent, may commemorate that event.. Methusaleh means “when he dies, judgment”. Indeed Methusalah died the year of the flood, possibly right before it. Noah means “rest”. The world definitely got a rest as did Noah and his family (and God) from the wickedness abounding in the world.
Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Heb. 11:5 “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
1) Enoch is a pattern for those who will be raptured at the end of the age. There is also speculation that he may play a part in the tribulation at the end, but more on that later.
2) Enoch, though he lived before the flood, prophesied concerning the second coming of Christ, (Jude 14-15) which is odd when you think of it. Why not the first coming? This shows how important the second coming of Christ is, for an antediluvian patriarch to be prophesying about it. This is how early on in the world (and therefore Scriptures) God started referencing it.
Genesis 5:28-29 “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah, saying This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
1) If one looks at the genealogy and the ages each patriarch was when his son was born, it turns out that Adam died when Noah’s father Lamech was 56, and Seth, Adam’s son, died only 14 years before Noah was born. In fact, there is a space of only 126 years between Adam’s death and Noah’s birth. Noah would have known and spoken with many of the patriarchs, who would have known and spoken with Adam and Seth. Since both Enoch and Lamech were outlived by their fathers - (Gen. Chapter 5) - there were only seven patriarchal men in the line before Noah. (A man wouldn’t become a patriarch until his father died.) This explains the verse in 2 Pet. 2:5 which says that Noah was the eighth preacher of righteousness, even though Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. This closeness in proximity to the first man created makes the history that Noah would have brought beyond the flood very reliable (besides the fact that God would make sure his Word was preserved in truth). It wasn’t hundreds of years removed from the original source, even though by counting up the ages of the patriarchs, the flood happened in 1656 A.C. (after creation). Unlike today where we are far removed from the founders of our country, these people’s lives overlapped each other by centuries in some cases.
It is important now to look at what the world was like at the time of Noah. Not only does the world change drastically in a physical sense, but the spiritual and social condition of what the world was then, is repeated before Christ returns. Matt. 24:37.
It is suggested at this point that you read Chapter 5 to familiarize yourself with the names of the generations from Adam to Noah, as some of these people will be briefly referenced.
Some of the names of the patriarchs are very interesting in their meanings. Seth means “appointed one“. God had promised Adam and Eve a redeemer, after they sinned - Gen. 3:15. When Cain killed Abel, they must have thought that promise was broken. When Seth was born, they knew that he was the appointed one to take the place of Abel and from whom the redeemer would come, thus the name. In fact, he was the appointed one to be the next patriarch to carry righteousness to the next generation.
Jared means “descent”. The Book of Enoch, though not in our canon, was accepted by the Jews of biblical times as a valid historical book. It is the supposed history of the world before the flood. It tells that at the time of Jared, angels came down from heaven and co-habited with mankind (which we know to be true as we will see a little later). Jared’s name meaning descent, may commemorate that event.. Methusaleh means “when he dies, judgment”. Indeed Methusalah died the year of the flood, possibly right before it. Noah means “rest”. The world definitely got a rest as did Noah and his family (and God) from the wickedness abounding in the world.
Genesis 5:24 “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. Heb. 11:5 “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”
1) Enoch is a pattern for those who will be raptured at the end of the age. There is also speculation that he may play a part in the tribulation at the end, but more on that later.
2) Enoch, though he lived before the flood, prophesied concerning the second coming of Christ, (Jude 14-15) which is odd when you think of it. Why not the first coming? This shows how important the second coming of Christ is, for an antediluvian patriarch to be prophesying about it. This is how early on in the world (and therefore Scriptures) God started referencing it.
Genesis 5:28-29 “And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: and he called his name Noah, saying This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
1) If one looks at the genealogy and the ages each patriarch was when his son was born, it turns out that Adam died when Noah’s father Lamech was 56, and Seth, Adam’s son, died only 14 years before Noah was born. In fact, there is a space of only 126 years between Adam’s death and Noah’s birth. Noah would have known and spoken with many of the patriarchs, who would have known and spoken with Adam and Seth. Since both Enoch and Lamech were outlived by their fathers - (Gen. Chapter 5) - there were only seven patriarchal men in the line before Noah. (A man wouldn’t become a patriarch until his father died.) This explains the verse in 2 Pet. 2:5 which says that Noah was the eighth preacher of righteousness, even though Noah was the tenth generation from Adam. This closeness in proximity to the first man created makes the history that Noah would have brought beyond the flood very reliable (besides the fact that God would make sure his Word was preserved in truth). It wasn’t hundreds of years removed from the original source, even though by counting up the ages of the patriarchs, the flood happened in 1656 A.C. (after creation). Unlike today where we are far removed from the founders of our country, these people’s lives overlapped each other by centuries in some cases.
It is important now to look at what the world was like at the time of Noah. Not only does the world change drastically in a physical sense, but the spiritual and social condition of what the world was then, is repeated before Christ returns. Matt. 24:37.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Genesis Chapter 2 & 3 highlights
Genesis 2:1-3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
1) - As we can see in these verses, God tells us four times that he was finished with the work of creation. First He says finished, then He says ended, then He says rested twice. He also states three times that this includes “all of his work”. He emphasizes yet again that He created all of this in the course of six literal days, because He was finished by the seventh day and rested that day.
2) This is the first physical state of the world. It is in perfection and was not deteriorating or decaying. It maintained a status quo of perfection. The present processes we observe in the world are the first two laws of thermodynamics - energy is conserved , energy goes from a higher to a lower state. This is what causes so many problems for evolutionists, because creation - any kind of creation, including evolution (if it existed) has to be a process of innovation or creating or making, which is the direct opposite of the way the universe is working. The only explanation for this is something outside of the universe having input into our universe. This can only be explained by the divine revelation that God has given us. Heb. 11:3 says God framed the world by His word. Eph. 3:9 says Jesus created all things.
3) When it says that God rested, it doesn’t mean that He was exhausted and needed to recuperate. It merely means that He ceased from working. The Hebrew word is “naphash” which literally means to take a breath. So God took a breather to survey and enjoy the wonderful things He had created. He knew in advance that it wasn’t going to last long, so He wanted to enjoy it while He could before He had to start the work of redemption, which probably happened rapidly. This can be deduced from the fact that Adam and Eve were perfect in their creation, so they would have no trouble conceiving children - both being very fertile, and they had been commanded to get right down to business. The fact that she was not pregnant when she sinned (all mankind has been conceived in sin) shows that there was not a long gap of time as some have speculated. Some even say 40 years or so passed before sin entered. This is ludicrous given that God had commanded them to get busy and fill the earth. At this point, Satan had not yet sinned as all creation was perfect and good, so he had to fall, then he had to tempt Eve. Things must have happened rapidly at this point. When Christ said, “It is finished,” on the cross, He meant that that part of redemption - His coming into the world and dying for our sins- was finished. But in fact, redemption has not been concluded yet, and won’t be until the earth and all of creation is redeemed from the curse.
4) God pronounces his third blessing. This time it is on a day, not a creation. God sanctifies the seventh day and sets it apart as holy. We know that it was a command to Moses for the children of Israel to observe the seventh day as a day of rest. One can assume that Adam had been told the same thing, but it is unknown as to how long man observed this command, given that the whole world became full of sin. (Since the world really doesn’t observe a day of rest these days, as we are told that the end times are as in the days of Noah, one can surmise that they probably didn’t observe it either).
5) We have already covered the meaning "all the host of them", so there is no need to repeat it.
From this point on, we are only going to look at chosen sections of Scriptures that are pertinent to the development of our end times study. If I miss a few on the way, I will jump back when I need to and go over them.
Genesis 2: 5b-6 “for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”
1) This is just to reiterate that in the antediluvian world, whether before or after the fall, there was no hydrological cycle.
Genesis 2: 9 “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 2:15-17 “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
1) In the garden of Eden God had placed the tree of life. This tree was not forbidden to Adam and Eve, they could freely eat of it. Only the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. This tree (tree of life) was put under protective custody by angels with a flaming sword after the fall - Gen. 3:24. It was destroyed during the flood, but will make its appearance again in Revelation. When man was cut off from that tree in the day he sinned and was cast out of Eden, he began to die physically. It is just that the world was still so perfect in its ability to give health, that it took a long time for them to die physically. There is a dual meaning to the phrase “in the day that thou eastest thereof thou shalt surely die.” First, Adam died spiritually that day. This is the death that really matters. Secondly, he began to die physically. Then if one considers the phrase “a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day with the Lord”, Adam died before he was 1,000 years old, so he did die the first “day”, from God‘s perspective.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
1) This Scripture is one of those over which there is debate. Some say that it is referring to what we would call a snake today, and that Satan entered and possessed it. However, if we take Scriptures literally, which is what we are supposed to be doing, this is not a snake but Satan’s actual form. He is a type of serpent. To get some idea of his original form, we must assume first that God calls him a serpent knowing that we will associate this term with a reptilian creature. While we cannot know for sure what Satan looked like, there are some clues that help us out. Starting with the reptilian part - If one looks at some of the pagan drawings of pagan gods (for instance Quezalcoatl) one finds reptilian gods. In Quezlcoatl’s case, it is a feathered god, or a reptile with wings. That is interesting in that after Adam sins, God places a curse on Satan that he will be cursed above every other beast and will crawl on his belly the rest of his days ( 3:14) - meaning that originally he did not, so either he had legs or wings. Based on the pagan representations, which came from Satan, we can make a case for wings. Possibly that is why Satan has some cultures create images of him in this guise. He wants them to see him as he was, not as he is now, crawling on his belly. God doesn’t want to demean one of his lower creations, he wants to demean Satan. Where is the curse on Satan here, if God only means a snake? Why should some poor innocent creature who is unintelligent and being used (if this was a case of possession) be punished and Satan not? While this does fall under the category of speculation, I think there is enough evidence to present a reasonable case for Satan having been a beautiful winged serpent at the start. Another passage in Ez. 28:13-15 tells us that Satan had, as a literal part of his body, musical instruments as well as precious gemstones. No wonder he was so beautiful. We now look upon reptiles as not being so pretty, but God may not have seen them that way.
2) Satan’s first words to man is to try to make man question 1) whether or not God meant what He said or could they have misunderstood and 2) was God trying to deny them something really good and was just being mean and selfish? To this day mankind is questioning whether God means what He has said in His Word, and whether His rules are to keep us from enjoying ourselves as much as we might. That is why there are so many interpretations of Scriptures and so much debate as to what God means. Instead of taking God at His word and taking it literally without adding or taking away, man finds all kinds of ways to change what God has said. And here is where it started. Does not every attack on God and the Bible start with, "Has God really said?" Is not every word questioned as being literal truth or merely a literary devise? It is Satan's main question to lead people astray.
3) Look at Eve’s response. The first things she does is change God’s word, making it more restrictive than it actually was. This is exactly what the Pharisees did and Jesus rebuked them for this, saying that they were making people more children of hell than themselves by all their rules (Matt. 23:15). God’s rules were never meant to be a burden. They were created with very specific purposes in mind and were for the benefit of man. At this point, even keeping the Sabbath was not a rule. They simply had to not eat of one tree. And I don’t believe it was any particularly special fruit. There was no special knowledge within the fruit as some people seem to think. The knowledge of good and evil came about as a result of disobedience, rebellion, and sin and its consequences of being separated from God, not from some miraculous thing in the fruit. Now they knew what rebellion was and were cut off from communion with God, so they knew evil.
4) Satan always couches his lies in some portion of truth. He says that they will not die, meaning “you’re not going to drop dead”. This was true. They didn’t just drop dead immediately, but they did die spiritually immediately, and they started to die physically, even though that took a lot longer. His next lie was to try to tempt them with his own sin, pride. He tells Eve they will be like gods knowing good and evil. Again, a half truth. We do know good and evil as a result of sin, but we are not gods. This is what most of the world is striving for, to be their own gods and rule their own destiny. They even like to tell God whom He has to accept into heaven and on what terms He has to accept them. This first lie, being like gods, is still the strongest lie that keeps people from coming to Christ. Everyone is striving to be a little god. New Age, Mormonism, it goes on and on. Nobody wants to answer to a higher power. They want to be that higher power. New Age is actually very old age.
Genesis 3:17-19 “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
1) Sin brought about the curse. Now the world enters into its second physical state. The cursed state. The laws of thermodynamics take over as everything starts to deteriorate and decay and die. Not only that, the ground brings forth unpleasant thorns and thistles, weeds, etc. Instead of just sowing, pruning, and watering (dressing and keeping) the plant life and harvesting the fruit, man had to till the soil by the sweat of his brow and weed his gardens to enable the plants to grow. This curse will not be lifted until the end of time when God creates a new heaven and earth - Rev. 21:1. (Another reason for not believing in life on other planets. The curse went throughout the universe. Any other creation would have suffered without having sinned.)
1) - As we can see in these verses, God tells us four times that he was finished with the work of creation. First He says finished, then He says ended, then He says rested twice. He also states three times that this includes “all of his work”. He emphasizes yet again that He created all of this in the course of six literal days, because He was finished by the seventh day and rested that day.
2) This is the first physical state of the world. It is in perfection and was not deteriorating or decaying. It maintained a status quo of perfection. The present processes we observe in the world are the first two laws of thermodynamics - energy is conserved , energy goes from a higher to a lower state. This is what causes so many problems for evolutionists, because creation - any kind of creation, including evolution (if it existed) has to be a process of innovation or creating or making, which is the direct opposite of the way the universe is working. The only explanation for this is something outside of the universe having input into our universe. This can only be explained by the divine revelation that God has given us. Heb. 11:3 says God framed the world by His word. Eph. 3:9 says Jesus created all things.
3) When it says that God rested, it doesn’t mean that He was exhausted and needed to recuperate. It merely means that He ceased from working. The Hebrew word is “naphash” which literally means to take a breath. So God took a breather to survey and enjoy the wonderful things He had created. He knew in advance that it wasn’t going to last long, so He wanted to enjoy it while He could before He had to start the work of redemption, which probably happened rapidly. This can be deduced from the fact that Adam and Eve were perfect in their creation, so they would have no trouble conceiving children - both being very fertile, and they had been commanded to get right down to business. The fact that she was not pregnant when she sinned (all mankind has been conceived in sin) shows that there was not a long gap of time as some have speculated. Some even say 40 years or so passed before sin entered. This is ludicrous given that God had commanded them to get busy and fill the earth. At this point, Satan had not yet sinned as all creation was perfect and good, so he had to fall, then he had to tempt Eve. Things must have happened rapidly at this point. When Christ said, “It is finished,” on the cross, He meant that that part of redemption - His coming into the world and dying for our sins- was finished. But in fact, redemption has not been concluded yet, and won’t be until the earth and all of creation is redeemed from the curse.
4) God pronounces his third blessing. This time it is on a day, not a creation. God sanctifies the seventh day and sets it apart as holy. We know that it was a command to Moses for the children of Israel to observe the seventh day as a day of rest. One can assume that Adam had been told the same thing, but it is unknown as to how long man observed this command, given that the whole world became full of sin. (Since the world really doesn’t observe a day of rest these days, as we are told that the end times are as in the days of Noah, one can surmise that they probably didn’t observe it either).
5) We have already covered the meaning "all the host of them", so there is no need to repeat it.
From this point on, we are only going to look at chosen sections of Scriptures that are pertinent to the development of our end times study. If I miss a few on the way, I will jump back when I need to and go over them.
Genesis 2: 5b-6 “for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.”
1) This is just to reiterate that in the antediluvian world, whether before or after the fall, there was no hydrological cycle.
Genesis 2: 9 “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 2:15-17 “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
1) In the garden of Eden God had placed the tree of life. This tree was not forbidden to Adam and Eve, they could freely eat of it. Only the tree of knowledge of good and evil was forbidden. This tree (tree of life) was put under protective custody by angels with a flaming sword after the fall - Gen. 3:24. It was destroyed during the flood, but will make its appearance again in Revelation. When man was cut off from that tree in the day he sinned and was cast out of Eden, he began to die physically. It is just that the world was still so perfect in its ability to give health, that it took a long time for them to die physically. There is a dual meaning to the phrase “in the day that thou eastest thereof thou shalt surely die.” First, Adam died spiritually that day. This is the death that really matters. Secondly, he began to die physically. Then if one considers the phrase “a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day with the Lord”, Adam died before he was 1,000 years old, so he did die the first “day”, from God‘s perspective.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
1) This Scripture is one of those over which there is debate. Some say that it is referring to what we would call a snake today, and that Satan entered and possessed it. However, if we take Scriptures literally, which is what we are supposed to be doing, this is not a snake but Satan’s actual form. He is a type of serpent. To get some idea of his original form, we must assume first that God calls him a serpent knowing that we will associate this term with a reptilian creature. While we cannot know for sure what Satan looked like, there are some clues that help us out. Starting with the reptilian part - If one looks at some of the pagan drawings of pagan gods (for instance Quezalcoatl) one finds reptilian gods. In Quezlcoatl’s case, it is a feathered god, or a reptile with wings. That is interesting in that after Adam sins, God places a curse on Satan that he will be cursed above every other beast and will crawl on his belly the rest of his days ( 3:14) - meaning that originally he did not, so either he had legs or wings. Based on the pagan representations, which came from Satan, we can make a case for wings. Possibly that is why Satan has some cultures create images of him in this guise. He wants them to see him as he was, not as he is now, crawling on his belly. God doesn’t want to demean one of his lower creations, he wants to demean Satan. Where is the curse on Satan here, if God only means a snake? Why should some poor innocent creature who is unintelligent and being used (if this was a case of possession) be punished and Satan not? While this does fall under the category of speculation, I think there is enough evidence to present a reasonable case for Satan having been a beautiful winged serpent at the start. Another passage in Ez. 28:13-15 tells us that Satan had, as a literal part of his body, musical instruments as well as precious gemstones. No wonder he was so beautiful. We now look upon reptiles as not being so pretty, but God may not have seen them that way.
2) Satan’s first words to man is to try to make man question 1) whether or not God meant what He said or could they have misunderstood and 2) was God trying to deny them something really good and was just being mean and selfish? To this day mankind is questioning whether God means what He has said in His Word, and whether His rules are to keep us from enjoying ourselves as much as we might. That is why there are so many interpretations of Scriptures and so much debate as to what God means. Instead of taking God at His word and taking it literally without adding or taking away, man finds all kinds of ways to change what God has said. And here is where it started. Does not every attack on God and the Bible start with, "Has God really said?" Is not every word questioned as being literal truth or merely a literary devise? It is Satan's main question to lead people astray.
3) Look at Eve’s response. The first things she does is change God’s word, making it more restrictive than it actually was. This is exactly what the Pharisees did and Jesus rebuked them for this, saying that they were making people more children of hell than themselves by all their rules (Matt. 23:15). God’s rules were never meant to be a burden. They were created with very specific purposes in mind and were for the benefit of man. At this point, even keeping the Sabbath was not a rule. They simply had to not eat of one tree. And I don’t believe it was any particularly special fruit. There was no special knowledge within the fruit as some people seem to think. The knowledge of good and evil came about as a result of disobedience, rebellion, and sin and its consequences of being separated from God, not from some miraculous thing in the fruit. Now they knew what rebellion was and were cut off from communion with God, so they knew evil.
4) Satan always couches his lies in some portion of truth. He says that they will not die, meaning “you’re not going to drop dead”. This was true. They didn’t just drop dead immediately, but they did die spiritually immediately, and they started to die physically, even though that took a lot longer. His next lie was to try to tempt them with his own sin, pride. He tells Eve they will be like gods knowing good and evil. Again, a half truth. We do know good and evil as a result of sin, but we are not gods. This is what most of the world is striving for, to be their own gods and rule their own destiny. They even like to tell God whom He has to accept into heaven and on what terms He has to accept them. This first lie, being like gods, is still the strongest lie that keeps people from coming to Christ. Everyone is striving to be a little god. New Age, Mormonism, it goes on and on. Nobody wants to answer to a higher power. They want to be that higher power. New Age is actually very old age.
Genesis 3:17-19 “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
1) Sin brought about the curse. Now the world enters into its second physical state. The cursed state. The laws of thermodynamics take over as everything starts to deteriorate and decay and die. Not only that, the ground brings forth unpleasant thorns and thistles, weeds, etc. Instead of just sowing, pruning, and watering (dressing and keeping) the plant life and harvesting the fruit, man had to till the soil by the sweat of his brow and weed his gardens to enable the plants to grow. This curse will not be lifted until the end of time when God creates a new heaven and earth - Rev. 21:1. (Another reason for not believing in life on other planets. The curse went throughout the universe. Any other creation would have suffered without having sinned.)
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 1:26-28 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
1) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” - Here we have a change of the pattern of God’s creating. Up until now God simply spoke. Now He speaks to Himself in the plural. He is speaking to the other members of the Godhead. There are other passages where God speaks to the Godhead. Ps. 2:7, 110:1. Man was to be much more than the animals. He was made in the image of God. He was to be a spiritual being. Again this requires a creative act of God. He had created the elements from which man would be made, and the “nephesh” or conscious soul that animals have (this would incorporate intelligence, emotions, instincts, etc.). To be in the image of God required an eternal spirit that could commune with God. Just as God is a triune being, so are we. We have a body, Christ is the physical manifestation of God. We have a conscious intelligence, emotions, etc., and we have an eternal spirit. The counterpart to those are God the Father and the Holy Spirit. At this time (in Genesis) God has not revealed Himself as a triune being, however we have a hint that He is one, since we are also triune beings. How our physical body is in the image of God is hard to imagine. We know that we hear, speak, smell, feel, think - these are all things that God does. One last note - the word man is actually “Adam” in Hebrew (in English his name would be simply “man”) and is related to the word earth, which is “adamah” (For you Battlestar Galactica fans)
2) “and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping things that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them” - The term man here actually refers to man as in mankind, since it was used to refer to both male and female. Man was to have dominion over the earth itself and every living creature upon it. This did not give man the license to abuse, but to be a steward over it and to use it for his benefit, but within the limits of that stewardship. Unlike the New Age teachings that we are all part of the big oneness of the universe and must respect every living thing as an equal, and see the earth as a living soul (the earth is just the elements), God clearly gives man the dominion for his use of everything here.
3) “And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” - God pronounces another blessing on a part of His creation. Along with the blessing, God gives the first command. They were to waste no time in having children, plenty of them since they were to fill the earth. The word replenish simply means fill, not only in the Hebrew, but also in the English. It is just a more archaic way of saying "fill." It does not mean to refill, as some assume. This command has never been rescinded and if man were doing the next part properly (subduing it and exercising dominion) the world could easily support a much larger population than it does today in spite of man’s panic of over-population. We are causing the problems that exist ourselves. Paying people to not grow crops, letting many crops rot rather than feed people, etc.
4) “and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” - Again we are told that it is God’s intention that man subdue and have dominion over everything. In other words, learn all you can about it, control it, bring it under subjection for your benefit and use the resources to make a better life for yourself - animal husbandry, agriculture, metallurgy, etc. God is not against technology per se, he wanted us to learn how to get everything we could from our environment, but He didn't want us to abuse it, which is what we have done. We seem to turn everything good into something evil.
Genesis 1:29-31 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
1) “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” - Notice that God created man to be a vegetarian. Meat eating was not sanctioned until after the flood. At least it was not intended to happen. If one accepts the Book of Enoch as historical, even if not canon, it says that the giants were meat eaters of both animal and men’s flesh. How true this is, is unknown. But we know evil was unprecedented at that time. It was intended at the beginning that there would be plenty of lush vegetation bringing forth plenty of food for a world filled with animals and people. While some people adhere to being vegetarians today, and as a personal choice that is fine, God has actually warned in the last days against listening to people that push this agenda. 1 Tim. 1-5 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” The reason God encourages us in this day to partake of all food including animal flesh is probably because plants (like everything else) have so deteriorated since the beginning, and with the scientists messing with the genetics by cross-pollination, man has rendered our food far less nutritious than it would have originally been. We need the protein and whatever else that meat offers.
2) “And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so.” - Animals were also herbivores. They were not vicious or afraid of man at this point and did not hunt each other. This would come after the flood. That God built into some animals the equipment they would need to eat meat was the result of His foreknowledge of what would happen after the fall and flood. The equipment would be there so that the genes would pass it on to the animals that would one day need it. Again God emphasizes that this is exactly the way it happened, so we should believe it.
3) “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” - Now not only is everything pronounced good, but God says it is VERY good. This ends the sixth 24 hour period. Six literal 24 hour days have passed since Genesis 1:1.
1) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” - Here we have a change of the pattern of God’s creating. Up until now God simply spoke. Now He speaks to Himself in the plural. He is speaking to the other members of the Godhead. There are other passages where God speaks to the Godhead. Ps. 2:7, 110:1. Man was to be much more than the animals. He was made in the image of God. He was to be a spiritual being. Again this requires a creative act of God. He had created the elements from which man would be made, and the “nephesh” or conscious soul that animals have (this would incorporate intelligence, emotions, instincts, etc.). To be in the image of God required an eternal spirit that could commune with God. Just as God is a triune being, so are we. We have a body, Christ is the physical manifestation of God. We have a conscious intelligence, emotions, etc., and we have an eternal spirit. The counterpart to those are God the Father and the Holy Spirit. At this time (in Genesis) God has not revealed Himself as a triune being, however we have a hint that He is one, since we are also triune beings. How our physical body is in the image of God is hard to imagine. We know that we hear, speak, smell, feel, think - these are all things that God does. One last note - the word man is actually “Adam” in Hebrew (in English his name would be simply “man”) and is related to the word earth, which is “adamah” (For you Battlestar Galactica fans)
2) “and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping things that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them” - The term man here actually refers to man as in mankind, since it was used to refer to both male and female. Man was to have dominion over the earth itself and every living creature upon it. This did not give man the license to abuse, but to be a steward over it and to use it for his benefit, but within the limits of that stewardship. Unlike the New Age teachings that we are all part of the big oneness of the universe and must respect every living thing as an equal, and see the earth as a living soul (the earth is just the elements), God clearly gives man the dominion for his use of everything here.
3) “And God blessed them and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” - God pronounces another blessing on a part of His creation. Along with the blessing, God gives the first command. They were to waste no time in having children, plenty of them since they were to fill the earth. The word replenish simply means fill, not only in the Hebrew, but also in the English. It is just a more archaic way of saying "fill." It does not mean to refill, as some assume. This command has never been rescinded and if man were doing the next part properly (subduing it and exercising dominion) the world could easily support a much larger population than it does today in spite of man’s panic of over-population. We are causing the problems that exist ourselves. Paying people to not grow crops, letting many crops rot rather than feed people, etc.
4) “and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” - Again we are told that it is God’s intention that man subdue and have dominion over everything. In other words, learn all you can about it, control it, bring it under subjection for your benefit and use the resources to make a better life for yourself - animal husbandry, agriculture, metallurgy, etc. God is not against technology per se, he wanted us to learn how to get everything we could from our environment, but He didn't want us to abuse it, which is what we have done. We seem to turn everything good into something evil.
Genesis 1:29-31 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
1) “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” - Notice that God created man to be a vegetarian. Meat eating was not sanctioned until after the flood. At least it was not intended to happen. If one accepts the Book of Enoch as historical, even if not canon, it says that the giants were meat eaters of both animal and men’s flesh. How true this is, is unknown. But we know evil was unprecedented at that time. It was intended at the beginning that there would be plenty of lush vegetation bringing forth plenty of food for a world filled with animals and people. While some people adhere to being vegetarians today, and as a personal choice that is fine, God has actually warned in the last days against listening to people that push this agenda. 1 Tim. 1-5 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” The reason God encourages us in this day to partake of all food including animal flesh is probably because plants (like everything else) have so deteriorated since the beginning, and with the scientists messing with the genetics by cross-pollination, man has rendered our food far less nutritious than it would have originally been. We need the protein and whatever else that meat offers.
2) “And to every beast of the earth and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat. And it was so.” - Animals were also herbivores. They were not vicious or afraid of man at this point and did not hunt each other. This would come after the flood. That God built into some animals the equipment they would need to eat meat was the result of His foreknowledge of what would happen after the fall and flood. The equipment would be there so that the genes would pass it on to the animals that would one day need it. Again God emphasizes that this is exactly the way it happened, so we should believe it.
3) “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” - Now not only is everything pronounced good, but God says it is VERY good. This ends the sixth 24 hour period. Six literal 24 hour days have passed since Genesis 1:1.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Genesis 1:20-25
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.”
1) “And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life” - Within the water God called for living conscious creatures to come forth. In the next verse we see that God “bara” them. These were not just elements from the water as the soil and plants had been, but living conscious creatures. He called them forth from the elements in the water, but He had to add that special characteristic of a “nephesh” or soul (not the eternal spirit that man has, but a living consciousness), so this was another special act of creation, although this special creation was not a material thing, so he was not "bara"-ing any new material substance. It was the breath of life. Notice that the waters brought forth abundantly. Multitudes of creatures suddenly swarmed in the waters. This was not the slow process of evolution.
2) “and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” - God also created all flying creatures, that included the so-called prehistoric creatures such as pterodactyls and others of this nature. These would fly in the open firmament. The word open is “pene” and can mean in the face of, so these fowl would fly in the face of or in the lower part of the firmament.
Genesis 1:21-23 “And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
1) “And God created great whales” - This is the first mention of any specific animal. The Hebrew word here is "tannin". The term basically refers to great sea creatures. The fact that the scholars chose to translate this whale here though, is significant as we know that God had specifically prepared a whale to swallow Jonah. It is interesting that elsewhere in the Bible this word is translated dragon. If you read Job, there is a description of a great fire-breathing water creature that God has created. Many legends have some distant basis in reality. The legends of dragons may be no mere legend.
2) “and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind” - Notice that God has again let us know that each creature has its own DNA reproducing system and that species will not cross breed. This DNA would have a tremendous amount of variation within it to create many variations on the species, for example dogs. Again this is a definitive statement against evolution which requires animals reproducing other kinds than their own.
3) “and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” - Again God pronounces everything sin free. Not only that but he blesses the creatures. He cares about the animals of his creation. Not a sparrow falls that He doesn’t notice. (Matt. 6:26) This blessing also gives the imperative for them to abundantly reproduce so that the earth would be quickly filled. A fifth 24 hour period has elapsed.
Genesis 1:24-25 “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. 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.”
1) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind” - God had filled the waters and the air. Now He made creatures for the land. This time he does not “bara”. He has the chemical elements from the earth to bring forth the animals, and He has already created a living consciousness or soul for the sea and air creatures, so there is nothing new being created here. Again creatures will bring forth after their one kind, not mutate into other kinds.
2) “cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so” - there are three categories of land animals. Since all animals had to fall into one of these categories, they have to be very general categories. The term cattle does not refer to just bovines. Cattle would refer to domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, goats, dogs, and such as would be used in animal husbandry. Beasts of the earth would refer to what we call wild animals and large animals such as lions and dinosaurs, even though back then the animals were not “wild” in the way we consider these days, since they had no fear of man and were not carnivorous.” (There was no meat eating until after the flood). Creeping things would probably refer to animals that are low to the ground and small such as small reptiles, amphibians, rats, moles and etc. (Lev. 11:29-31) not just insects and such. The classification of animals that we have today is a man-made classification and has no relation to how God classified them. He classified them to how they would relate to man. Again, they reproduce after their kind. "And it was so" indicates that we are not to believe evolution, because it happened the way God said it did. By the way, God does warn us against evolution in the Bible. 2 Pet. 3:3-5 says that in the last days there will be scoffers of God’s Word and people will say that things continue as they have from the beginning (this is an evolutionary precept called “uniformitarianism”) and are ignorant of Genesis’ truth of how the world was created.
3) “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.” - apparently the animals were made in random order, since the order here is reversed from the previous verse. Again it is good. No death as evolution teaches. It is interesting that the order of creation is not the same as the order that evolution would have. Evolution says that first there was marine organisms, then land plants, then birds. Then insects, then amphibians, then reptiles and finally mammals.
1) “And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life” - Within the water God called for living conscious creatures to come forth. In the next verse we see that God “bara” them. These were not just elements from the water as the soil and plants had been, but living conscious creatures. He called them forth from the elements in the water, but He had to add that special characteristic of a “nephesh” or soul (not the eternal spirit that man has, but a living consciousness), so this was another special act of creation, although this special creation was not a material thing, so he was not "bara"-ing any new material substance. It was the breath of life. Notice that the waters brought forth abundantly. Multitudes of creatures suddenly swarmed in the waters. This was not the slow process of evolution.
2) “and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” - God also created all flying creatures, that included the so-called prehistoric creatures such as pterodactyls and others of this nature. These would fly in the open firmament. The word open is “pene” and can mean in the face of, so these fowl would fly in the face of or in the lower part of the firmament.
Genesis 1:21-23 “And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.”
1) “And God created great whales” - This is the first mention of any specific animal. The Hebrew word here is "tannin". The term basically refers to great sea creatures. The fact that the scholars chose to translate this whale here though, is significant as we know that God had specifically prepared a whale to swallow Jonah. It is interesting that elsewhere in the Bible this word is translated dragon. If you read Job, there is a description of a great fire-breathing water creature that God has created. Many legends have some distant basis in reality. The legends of dragons may be no mere legend.
2) “and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind” - Notice that God has again let us know that each creature has its own DNA reproducing system and that species will not cross breed. This DNA would have a tremendous amount of variation within it to create many variations on the species, for example dogs. Again this is a definitive statement against evolution which requires animals reproducing other kinds than their own.
3) “and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” - Again God pronounces everything sin free. Not only that but he blesses the creatures. He cares about the animals of his creation. Not a sparrow falls that He doesn’t notice. (Matt. 6:26) This blessing also gives the imperative for them to abundantly reproduce so that the earth would be quickly filled. A fifth 24 hour period has elapsed.
Genesis 1:24-25 “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. 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.”
1) “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind” - God had filled the waters and the air. Now He made creatures for the land. This time he does not “bara”. He has the chemical elements from the earth to bring forth the animals, and He has already created a living consciousness or soul for the sea and air creatures, so there is nothing new being created here. Again creatures will bring forth after their one kind, not mutate into other kinds.
2) “cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so” - there are three categories of land animals. Since all animals had to fall into one of these categories, they have to be very general categories. The term cattle does not refer to just bovines. Cattle would refer to domesticated animals such as cows, sheep, goats, dogs, and such as would be used in animal husbandry. Beasts of the earth would refer to what we call wild animals and large animals such as lions and dinosaurs, even though back then the animals were not “wild” in the way we consider these days, since they had no fear of man and were not carnivorous.” (There was no meat eating until after the flood). Creeping things would probably refer to animals that are low to the ground and small such as small reptiles, amphibians, rats, moles and etc. (Lev. 11:29-31) not just insects and such. The classification of animals that we have today is a man-made classification and has no relation to how God classified them. He classified them to how they would relate to man. Again, they reproduce after their kind. "And it was so" indicates that we are not to believe evolution, because it happened the way God said it did. By the way, God does warn us against evolution in the Bible. 2 Pet. 3:3-5 says that in the last days there will be scoffers of God’s Word and people will say that things continue as they have from the beginning (this is an evolutionary precept called “uniformitarianism”) and are ignorant of Genesis’ truth of how the world was created.
3) “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.” - apparently the animals were made in random order, since the order here is reversed from the previous verse. Again it is good. No death as evolution teaches. It is interesting that the order of creation is not the same as the order that evolution would have. Evolution says that first there was marine organisms, then land plants, then birds. Then insects, then amphibians, then reptiles and finally mammals.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Genesis 1:9-19
Genesis 1:9 “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.”
1) The earth was still nothing more than water. For dry land to appear out of the water, chemical reactions had to start occurring to transmute all of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms into the elements that would become solid ground. As the land formed, underground reservoirs would accept the water run-off, and the subterranean chambers of waters in reserve for the flood would be created. At this time the land would have been one land mass. Even secular scientists agree that the continents were once connected (like a jigsaw puzzle if you pushed the continents we now have together). They have named this the pangaea. This pangaea would have not had the high mountains (Rockies, Himalayas) and low ocean valleys that we have now. It might have had rolling hills, but that is all. Scientists know that the very high mountain ranges are the result of the tectonic plates pushing against each other and heaving the land masses up and down. When we get to Noah’s flood, we’ll see how catastrophic that was for the world.
Genesis 1:10 “And God called the dry land Earth: and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
1) “And God called the dry land Earth” - since God made the dry land from the original water, God chose to call the dry land by the same name as the waters which we first created(Gen 1:1).
2) “and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas” God renames the waters. The odds are, there were only seas, not the huge oceans we have now, as the majority of water was either in subterranean reservoirs or in the water vapor canopy. The earth would actually have been a different size too.
3) “and God saw that it was good” - again God comments on the purity of his creation, untainted by sin.
Genesis 1:11-13 “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. 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. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”
1) Not only had rocks and minerals been formed, but there was fertile soil that contained the chemicals and nutrients from which God would call forth the complex plants and instill self-reproducing information or DNA within them. The term after his kind refutes evolution which goes from one kind to another. Species do not and cannot cross. They reproduce after their own kind. This is a problem for evolution since they can find no missing links. This original DNA would have a tremendous amount of data to allow for all the variations that we find within species. This information has gradually been lost over time, so that present day representatives of species would not have nearly the same amount of information present in their DNA that the original creation had.
2) There are three classifications of flora mentioned in the Bible. These particular classifications represent all of the flora we have. Grasses would refer to all spreading ground-covering vegetation. Herbs would include bushes and shrubs, and trees would include all large woody and fruit bearing plants. These were brought forth as full-grown plants with the seeds in them. They would have the appearance of age without actually having the age, just as Adam was created full-grown. Many of these plants required pollination to reproduce. Since insects were not made until the 6th day of creation, these days could not have been anything other than 24 hour days. They could not have been long ages of time as theistic evolution proposes, since the plants would die off before they had a chance to reproduce. As mentioned before, the flora would be very lush due to the greenhouse effect. Also it would grow very large as there was a continuous growing season. Fossils show that mosses that grow one or two inches today grew two or three feet tall. One particular moss that grows 1 ½ feet today grew 120 feet then. Cattails that grow 6 feet now grew to 50 feet then. An interesting story is of a Japanese man who has a love of miniature plants. He brought a cherry tomato plant into his house, specifically in his basement, to grow. Since he didn’t have lights down there and at work he had fiber optic cable, he got the bright idea of running fiber optic cable from his roof down into his basement and placed it over the tomato plant. Now fiber optic cable transmits the light without the ultra-violet rays, just as the antediluvian canopy would. After a while the tomato plant was so big he had to move it to his laboratory. As the plant needed more carbon dioxide at the size it was, he created a tube system around the stalk and pumped pressure into it to enable the stalk to absorb more carbon dioxide. This would simulate the barometric pressure that the earth would have had at the beginning. After two years, the tomato plant was a 16 foot tree with hundreds of baseball sized tomatoes. The tree outgrew the lab at work, so he moved it (as a tourist attraction) into the lobby of a hotel. Some years back, the tree was 40 feet tall and had over 5,000 tomatoes on it. I have personally seen photos of this amazing cherry tomato tree.
3) This completed the third 24 hour period.
Genesis 1:14-19 “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, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 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. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
1) “And God said, let there be lights” - God originally made light (Hebrew “or”), but now He made “ma-or” or light-givers. Light had been shining on the earth and now it was merely condensed into the generators that fill the universe. It did not take millions of years for the light to travel from distant stars. It already shone upon the earth from a full half-universe. Just as God created plants and animals and man full-grown, he created light-givers whose light was already in transit to the earth. The purpose of these heavenly bodies was to give light on the earth. They did so immediately. Also the tremendous distances that are cited for these stars are based upon questionable assumptions and hypothetical math in some cases. The speed of light which was always held as a constant for scientific calculations has been found not to be constant, so it creates an uncertainty in any calculations. Basically all we know of these distant bodies is not based on scientific facts, but on scientific assumptions and hypotheses. The Bible also tells us that God stretched out the heavens - Is. 40:22, 42:5, 45:12. Scientists tell us the universe is still expanding, so it is reasonable to assume that if God is still stretching out the heavens, that at creation things were much closer in proximity to the earth.
2) “in the firmament of the heaven” - this is obviously talking about the second heaven.
3) “to divide the day from the night” - originally light was on one side of the universe and darkness on the other. Now the light side is condensed into stars, set about the universe at different distances from the earth, and scattered around through the darkness so that all of space is now the same instead of being divided in two - light and darkness. Also, the sun shining on the earth would create a day and night as the earth rotated.
4) “and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.” - the purpose of the stars, planets, constellations, etc. is to be for 1) signs - astrology is not meant here. The celestial bodies have and will be used by God as signs portending things he has told us to look for. There was a prophecy about a star concerning Christ’s birth in the Scriptures. That is why the wise men were led by the star. At the end of the age, we are told that celestial signs will herald the Day of the Lord. God uses these bodies to give us signs of things He is about to do. But usually He tells us what those signs are. There is a theory that is being promoted nowadays that the zodiac signs were originally given by God to tell the gospel in the stars (before mankind had the written Scriptures), but were corrupted by paganism. Jewish traditions tell us that the world was created in the fall around the middle of September. The constellation that corresponds to September is Virgo the Virgin or stands for the first coming of Christ. The last zodiac sign before Virgo is Leo the Lion, corresponding to Christ, the Lion of Judah coming as King of Kings at His second coming. Having done a study on this, (which one day I may present as a blog study) interestingly there is a tremendous amount of evidence that this may indeed be true, even to the significance of the names of the stars in the constellations, however other than the Bible mentioning the names of some constellations, we have no positive proof this is so, so this falls under the heading of speculation. 2) for seasons - even with a temperate climate, there apparently were seasonal changes and the movement of the stars would help them keep track of this. 3) for days and years - the marking of the passing of time was important. The moon would provide a monthly calendar and the passing of seasons would measure a year. The seven day week was instituted by God although it is not clear how long this was observed by mankind, before being re-instituted at the giving of the Law of Moses.
5) “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so” - Obviously the main light-givers are the sun and moon, however the stars were put there to shine as lights also. This tells us that God did not create the rest of the heavens with an intent to have it inhabited. Earth was the first, main and most important or central creation (in importance, not in location). All else was created for the earth and us. There are no aliens on other planets. We are God’s first and foremost creation for whom the universe exists. We (by our sins and redemption) determine what happens to the entire universe. By our sin the entire universe came under the curse. By our redemption by Christ at the end of time, the curse will be lifted. An entirely new heavens and earth will be created at the end of the millennium on this planet. We are the only creation of this kind. We are the ones God created for fellowship with Him. There is no other creation on other planets. It would not fit with God’s plan as laid out in the Scriptures. Everything in the universe exists for our pleasure and purpose. We are not just another planet He created. The universe was created around this planet. To believe in aliens negates everything the Bible teaches from beginning to end. Alien manifestations are demons, fallen angels, or nephilim masquerading for purposes of deception to lead people from God (and to set up an end time delusion).
When God says “and it was so” He is saying that it happened exactly the way you are reading it. That it is not to be re-interpreted or changed, that the way He said it happened is the way it happened.
6) “And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day” - The sun was created to be the chief light and warmth giver. It was put at the exact distance from the earth so as to not burn or freeze it. The solar system’s order was set into motion here. Our orbiting the sun creates the seasons and allows us to view different constellations. At this time the entire solar system would have been fashioned with the other planets orbiting the sun also. Something that is not immediately known at this point, but becomes more evident as one studies the Scriptures, is with whom the sun is associated. At the beginning of Chapter 2 it says, “And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.” We know that the heavens and the earth encompass everything that was made. What is the meaning of “all the host of them?" Some interpret this to simply mean all the vegetation, animals and Adam and Eve. If one looks at the Hebrew though, there is more meaning to it than this. It is the Hebrew word “tsaba” or (in the feminine form) "tseba'ah". It is a word which in other texts means to mass or assemble an army for war. The word used here literally means a mass of persons, in the military sense such as an army which is organized for war. Adam and Eve did not constitute a mass of persons and they certainly weren’t a military army. Whenever the word “host” is used in Scripture it is in connection with a mass of people that are acting as an army, and when referring to men, generally is connected with the battles fought. e.g. the captain of the host.
We know that angels were created to operate in the sphere of this universe. Their prime directive, as it were, is found in Heb. 1:14 - ministers to the heirs of salvation. They act as guards or bodyguards, Ps. 91:11, protectors - Dan. 6:22, rescuers - Acts 12:7, carry out judgment - Gen. 19:3, Matt. 13:41-42, messengers from God to man - Dan. 10:12, Luke 1:13,28; comforters - Gen. 21:17, territorial protectors - Dan. 10:13, 12:1, keepers or overseers of various elements of nature - Rev. 7:1, and they are associated with stars or keepers of them, Deut. 4:19, Judg. 5:30, Job 38:7, Dan. 8:10, Rev. 1:20, 12:4. In the last cases in Revelation, angels are referred to as stars.
Scripture also refers to angels as the host of heaven. Deut. 4:14-19, 1 Kings 22:19, 2 Chron. 18:18, Luke 2:13. So to call them "the host" is a common way of referring to them. It makes sense, since they are an army for God. They do battle with demon/fallen angels on our behalf. Daniel 10:12-14.
Since we know that this verse (Gen 2:1) is talking about a host that is an army of persons, we are left with the dilemma of who they are. Since they aren’t human (only Adam and Eve existed at that point), the natural conclusion is that they are the angels. And there are Scriptures to back this up. Neh. 9:6 divides God’s creation into the following categories: the heavens, the heaven of heavens with their host (the angels/stars) the earth and all that pertains to the earth (vegetation, animals, and man), the seas and all the life in them. It also adds that the host of heaven worships the Lord. This clearly puts the creation of angels in the creation week as this is what this verse is describing. It mentions the heavens (the initial creation of space-time-matter), the creation of the heavens and their host (stars and angels), the earth (and its inhabitants and vegetation), and the seas with its life. All of creation is contained in those four things. Job 38:4-7 says that the angels (morning stars) shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid, which would put their creation sometime during the first few days.
Since the Scriptures show that angels have jobs of overseeing people, nations, and nature, it is reasonable to believe that when they are called stars, it is because every star has an angel overseer that keeps it under control. This indicates that when the stars were created, the host were assigned to them. So now we have more evidence as to when the angels were created. This is important in that we have to consider Satan’s original role in creation. His name is Lucifer or light-bearer. He was second to God as far as importance goes. What in the universe is as important to earth as the light-bearer for the earth or the sun? The sun is the source of life for earth. Without it everything would die. It gives light and warmth. It is the center of our solar system. As the overseer of this body, Satan would be the most important person as far as earth is concerned, hence his pride. He saw himself as the ruler of earth (the sun does rule the day) and when God turned the ownership of earth over to Adam, he was probably furious. That Satan did not fall until after Adam was created is evident in that after creation was finished, God said everything was good (we will get to that verse shortly) and He rested for the day. Satan had to have fallen after that, probably soon after God told Adam he had dominion. We know from Ez. 28 that Satan walked in Eden in his splendor or unfallen state, so his fall did not happen before the end of creation week. By getting Adam to sin, the dominion of the earth was forfeit over to Satan. He now really was the Prince and power of the air. (Not only the power in the sense that he has actual power, but the sun also gives us power - solar power.) This is why God especially hates the worship of the sun by pagans. And it explains why Satan has them worship that particular body. Of all the pagan symbols, the sun seems to reign supreme, and for good reason. It represents Satan, because he is its overseer. That Satan is in charge of the sun and now has ownership of planet earth is crucial to understand, as without this knowledge, sections of Revelation are not nearly as understandable. It all hinges on this knowledge. This is why it is important to begin our study of the end times here in Genesis.
7) “and the lesser light to rule the night” - the moon was created to be a reflective light. There was a reason for this. We didn’t need another brilliant light or heat source as the sun was sufficient for earth’s needs. What was needed was a much more mellow light source for the night. Reflective light works nicely for that. Plus the orbit of the moon around the earth creates the phases of the moon which are important for marking time, as well as controlling the tides. When God gave the Israelites the laws, the New Moon was an extremely important sign to watch for to mark their months and celebrations. Incidentally, there are reasons to believe that initially the earth was in a different orbit and the moon took exactly 30 days to orbit the earth and the earth took exactly 360 days to orbit the sun. More on this much later.
[Addendum 1/8/11. When studying and posting about Revelation, and studying how Islam fits into the end times, it came to my attention that Allah was originally known as the moon god. That is the symbol they use - the crescent moon. Now it is easy to see why Allah plays such an important roll in the scheme of things. He is a reflection of the sun's "god".]
8) “he made the stars also” - God does not seem to place great importance upon them as compared to the earth or even the sun and moon. Another indication that they are uninhabited. They are also more simple in their make-up compared to the earth. Mainly balls of gases - hydrogen and helium for example. A very interesting piece of information is the work that has been done lately involving the “music of the spheres”. Kepler had suggested that the planets give off musical notes. All celestial bodies vibrate. Musical tones are simply regular vibrations. Scientists started measuring and recording these vibrations and indeed it is true. The planets and stars do give off musical notes. In fact as the planets make their orbits and their vibrations change with their wobbling, they produce a melody. There have been actual tape recordings made of this “music” which I will try at some point to tag along to this blog so that it can be heard. Missionaries in Alaska have said that there are times when they believe they can hear musical notes. There is a field in the sky up there made of ice crystals. This may act as a radio transmitter. The hydrogen canopy in its crystalline form would have acted as a crystal radio antenna and it is quite possible that in the mornings when the sun was rising, the vibrations hitting the canopy would have been audible and thus people would have heard the morning stars singing. God does tell us that all of creation praises Him, now we know scientifically that the very stars and planets sing His praises.
9) “And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 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. And evening and the morning were the fourth day. - It is reiterated as to what the purpose of the lights are. Perhaps God knew that in our day, there would be much speculation and belief that there is life on other planets, and He wanted to make sure we understood exactly what their purpose is. God again declares that all is good and perfect and untainted by sin. The fourth 24 hour period has elapsed.
1) The earth was still nothing more than water. For dry land to appear out of the water, chemical reactions had to start occurring to transmute all of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms into the elements that would become solid ground. As the land formed, underground reservoirs would accept the water run-off, and the subterranean chambers of waters in reserve for the flood would be created. At this time the land would have been one land mass. Even secular scientists agree that the continents were once connected (like a jigsaw puzzle if you pushed the continents we now have together). They have named this the pangaea. This pangaea would have not had the high mountains (Rockies, Himalayas) and low ocean valleys that we have now. It might have had rolling hills, but that is all. Scientists know that the very high mountain ranges are the result of the tectonic plates pushing against each other and heaving the land masses up and down. When we get to Noah’s flood, we’ll see how catastrophic that was for the world.
Genesis 1:10 “And God called the dry land Earth: and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”
1) “And God called the dry land Earth” - since God made the dry land from the original water, God chose to call the dry land by the same name as the waters which we first created(Gen 1:1).
2) “and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas” God renames the waters. The odds are, there were only seas, not the huge oceans we have now, as the majority of water was either in subterranean reservoirs or in the water vapor canopy. The earth would actually have been a different size too.
3) “and God saw that it was good” - again God comments on the purity of his creation, untainted by sin.
Genesis 1:11-13 “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. 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. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”
1) Not only had rocks and minerals been formed, but there was fertile soil that contained the chemicals and nutrients from which God would call forth the complex plants and instill self-reproducing information or DNA within them. The term after his kind refutes evolution which goes from one kind to another. Species do not and cannot cross. They reproduce after their own kind. This is a problem for evolution since they can find no missing links. This original DNA would have a tremendous amount of data to allow for all the variations that we find within species. This information has gradually been lost over time, so that present day representatives of species would not have nearly the same amount of information present in their DNA that the original creation had.
2) There are three classifications of flora mentioned in the Bible. These particular classifications represent all of the flora we have. Grasses would refer to all spreading ground-covering vegetation. Herbs would include bushes and shrubs, and trees would include all large woody and fruit bearing plants. These were brought forth as full-grown plants with the seeds in them. They would have the appearance of age without actually having the age, just as Adam was created full-grown. Many of these plants required pollination to reproduce. Since insects were not made until the 6th day of creation, these days could not have been anything other than 24 hour days. They could not have been long ages of time as theistic evolution proposes, since the plants would die off before they had a chance to reproduce. As mentioned before, the flora would be very lush due to the greenhouse effect. Also it would grow very large as there was a continuous growing season. Fossils show that mosses that grow one or two inches today grew two or three feet tall. One particular moss that grows 1 ½ feet today grew 120 feet then. Cattails that grow 6 feet now grew to 50 feet then. An interesting story is of a Japanese man who has a love of miniature plants. He brought a cherry tomato plant into his house, specifically in his basement, to grow. Since he didn’t have lights down there and at work he had fiber optic cable, he got the bright idea of running fiber optic cable from his roof down into his basement and placed it over the tomato plant. Now fiber optic cable transmits the light without the ultra-violet rays, just as the antediluvian canopy would. After a while the tomato plant was so big he had to move it to his laboratory. As the plant needed more carbon dioxide at the size it was, he created a tube system around the stalk and pumped pressure into it to enable the stalk to absorb more carbon dioxide. This would simulate the barometric pressure that the earth would have had at the beginning. After two years, the tomato plant was a 16 foot tree with hundreds of baseball sized tomatoes. The tree outgrew the lab at work, so he moved it (as a tourist attraction) into the lobby of a hotel. Some years back, the tree was 40 feet tall and had over 5,000 tomatoes on it. I have personally seen photos of this amazing cherry tomato tree.
3) This completed the third 24 hour period.
Genesis 1:14-19 “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, and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 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. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
1) “And God said, let there be lights” - God originally made light (Hebrew “or”), but now He made “ma-or” or light-givers. Light had been shining on the earth and now it was merely condensed into the generators that fill the universe. It did not take millions of years for the light to travel from distant stars. It already shone upon the earth from a full half-universe. Just as God created plants and animals and man full-grown, he created light-givers whose light was already in transit to the earth. The purpose of these heavenly bodies was to give light on the earth. They did so immediately. Also the tremendous distances that are cited for these stars are based upon questionable assumptions and hypothetical math in some cases. The speed of light which was always held as a constant for scientific calculations has been found not to be constant, so it creates an uncertainty in any calculations. Basically all we know of these distant bodies is not based on scientific facts, but on scientific assumptions and hypotheses. The Bible also tells us that God stretched out the heavens - Is. 40:22, 42:5, 45:12. Scientists tell us the universe is still expanding, so it is reasonable to assume that if God is still stretching out the heavens, that at creation things were much closer in proximity to the earth.
2) “in the firmament of the heaven” - this is obviously talking about the second heaven.
3) “to divide the day from the night” - originally light was on one side of the universe and darkness on the other. Now the light side is condensed into stars, set about the universe at different distances from the earth, and scattered around through the darkness so that all of space is now the same instead of being divided in two - light and darkness. Also, the sun shining on the earth would create a day and night as the earth rotated.
4) “and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.” - the purpose of the stars, planets, constellations, etc. is to be for 1) signs - astrology is not meant here. The celestial bodies have and will be used by God as signs portending things he has told us to look for. There was a prophecy about a star concerning Christ’s birth in the Scriptures. That is why the wise men were led by the star. At the end of the age, we are told that celestial signs will herald the Day of the Lord. God uses these bodies to give us signs of things He is about to do. But usually He tells us what those signs are. There is a theory that is being promoted nowadays that the zodiac signs were originally given by God to tell the gospel in the stars (before mankind had the written Scriptures), but were corrupted by paganism. Jewish traditions tell us that the world was created in the fall around the middle of September. The constellation that corresponds to September is Virgo the Virgin or stands for the first coming of Christ. The last zodiac sign before Virgo is Leo the Lion, corresponding to Christ, the Lion of Judah coming as King of Kings at His second coming. Having done a study on this, (which one day I may present as a blog study) interestingly there is a tremendous amount of evidence that this may indeed be true, even to the significance of the names of the stars in the constellations, however other than the Bible mentioning the names of some constellations, we have no positive proof this is so, so this falls under the heading of speculation. 2) for seasons - even with a temperate climate, there apparently were seasonal changes and the movement of the stars would help them keep track of this. 3) for days and years - the marking of the passing of time was important. The moon would provide a monthly calendar and the passing of seasons would measure a year. The seven day week was instituted by God although it is not clear how long this was observed by mankind, before being re-instituted at the giving of the Law of Moses.
5) “And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and it was so” - Obviously the main light-givers are the sun and moon, however the stars were put there to shine as lights also. This tells us that God did not create the rest of the heavens with an intent to have it inhabited. Earth was the first, main and most important or central creation (in importance, not in location). All else was created for the earth and us. There are no aliens on other planets. We are God’s first and foremost creation for whom the universe exists. We (by our sins and redemption) determine what happens to the entire universe. By our sin the entire universe came under the curse. By our redemption by Christ at the end of time, the curse will be lifted. An entirely new heavens and earth will be created at the end of the millennium on this planet. We are the only creation of this kind. We are the ones God created for fellowship with Him. There is no other creation on other planets. It would not fit with God’s plan as laid out in the Scriptures. Everything in the universe exists for our pleasure and purpose. We are not just another planet He created. The universe was created around this planet. To believe in aliens negates everything the Bible teaches from beginning to end. Alien manifestations are demons, fallen angels, or nephilim masquerading for purposes of deception to lead people from God (and to set up an end time delusion).
When God says “and it was so” He is saying that it happened exactly the way you are reading it. That it is not to be re-interpreted or changed, that the way He said it happened is the way it happened.
6) “And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day” - The sun was created to be the chief light and warmth giver. It was put at the exact distance from the earth so as to not burn or freeze it. The solar system’s order was set into motion here. Our orbiting the sun creates the seasons and allows us to view different constellations. At this time the entire solar system would have been fashioned with the other planets orbiting the sun also. Something that is not immediately known at this point, but becomes more evident as one studies the Scriptures, is with whom the sun is associated. At the beginning of Chapter 2 it says, “And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them.” We know that the heavens and the earth encompass everything that was made. What is the meaning of “all the host of them?" Some interpret this to simply mean all the vegetation, animals and Adam and Eve. If one looks at the Hebrew though, there is more meaning to it than this. It is the Hebrew word “tsaba” or (in the feminine form) "tseba'ah". It is a word which in other texts means to mass or assemble an army for war. The word used here literally means a mass of persons, in the military sense such as an army which is organized for war. Adam and Eve did not constitute a mass of persons and they certainly weren’t a military army. Whenever the word “host” is used in Scripture it is in connection with a mass of people that are acting as an army, and when referring to men, generally is connected with the battles fought. e.g. the captain of the host.
We know that angels were created to operate in the sphere of this universe. Their prime directive, as it were, is found in Heb. 1:14 - ministers to the heirs of salvation. They act as guards or bodyguards, Ps. 91:11, protectors - Dan. 6:22, rescuers - Acts 12:7, carry out judgment - Gen. 19:3, Matt. 13:41-42, messengers from God to man - Dan. 10:12, Luke 1:13,28; comforters - Gen. 21:17, territorial protectors - Dan. 10:13, 12:1, keepers or overseers of various elements of nature - Rev. 7:1, and they are associated with stars or keepers of them, Deut. 4:19, Judg. 5:30, Job 38:7, Dan. 8:10, Rev. 1:20, 12:4. In the last cases in Revelation, angels are referred to as stars.
Scripture also refers to angels as the host of heaven. Deut. 4:14-19, 1 Kings 22:19, 2 Chron. 18:18, Luke 2:13. So to call them "the host" is a common way of referring to them. It makes sense, since they are an army for God. They do battle with demon/fallen angels on our behalf. Daniel 10:12-14.
Since we know that this verse (Gen 2:1) is talking about a host that is an army of persons, we are left with the dilemma of who they are. Since they aren’t human (only Adam and Eve existed at that point), the natural conclusion is that they are the angels. And there are Scriptures to back this up. Neh. 9:6 divides God’s creation into the following categories: the heavens, the heaven of heavens with their host (the angels/stars) the earth and all that pertains to the earth (vegetation, animals, and man), the seas and all the life in them. It also adds that the host of heaven worships the Lord. This clearly puts the creation of angels in the creation week as this is what this verse is describing. It mentions the heavens (the initial creation of space-time-matter), the creation of the heavens and their host (stars and angels), the earth (and its inhabitants and vegetation), and the seas with its life. All of creation is contained in those four things. Job 38:4-7 says that the angels (morning stars) shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid, which would put their creation sometime during the first few days.
Since the Scriptures show that angels have jobs of overseeing people, nations, and nature, it is reasonable to believe that when they are called stars, it is because every star has an angel overseer that keeps it under control. This indicates that when the stars were created, the host were assigned to them. So now we have more evidence as to when the angels were created. This is important in that we have to consider Satan’s original role in creation. His name is Lucifer or light-bearer. He was second to God as far as importance goes. What in the universe is as important to earth as the light-bearer for the earth or the sun? The sun is the source of life for earth. Without it everything would die. It gives light and warmth. It is the center of our solar system. As the overseer of this body, Satan would be the most important person as far as earth is concerned, hence his pride. He saw himself as the ruler of earth (the sun does rule the day) and when God turned the ownership of earth over to Adam, he was probably furious. That Satan did not fall until after Adam was created is evident in that after creation was finished, God said everything was good (we will get to that verse shortly) and He rested for the day. Satan had to have fallen after that, probably soon after God told Adam he had dominion. We know from Ez. 28 that Satan walked in Eden in his splendor or unfallen state, so his fall did not happen before the end of creation week. By getting Adam to sin, the dominion of the earth was forfeit over to Satan. He now really was the Prince and power of the air. (Not only the power in the sense that he has actual power, but the sun also gives us power - solar power.) This is why God especially hates the worship of the sun by pagans. And it explains why Satan has them worship that particular body. Of all the pagan symbols, the sun seems to reign supreme, and for good reason. It represents Satan, because he is its overseer. That Satan is in charge of the sun and now has ownership of planet earth is crucial to understand, as without this knowledge, sections of Revelation are not nearly as understandable. It all hinges on this knowledge. This is why it is important to begin our study of the end times here in Genesis.
7) “and the lesser light to rule the night” - the moon was created to be a reflective light. There was a reason for this. We didn’t need another brilliant light or heat source as the sun was sufficient for earth’s needs. What was needed was a much more mellow light source for the night. Reflective light works nicely for that. Plus the orbit of the moon around the earth creates the phases of the moon which are important for marking time, as well as controlling the tides. When God gave the Israelites the laws, the New Moon was an extremely important sign to watch for to mark their months and celebrations. Incidentally, there are reasons to believe that initially the earth was in a different orbit and the moon took exactly 30 days to orbit the earth and the earth took exactly 360 days to orbit the sun. More on this much later.
[Addendum 1/8/11. When studying and posting about Revelation, and studying how Islam fits into the end times, it came to my attention that Allah was originally known as the moon god. That is the symbol they use - the crescent moon. Now it is easy to see why Allah plays such an important roll in the scheme of things. He is a reflection of the sun's "god".]
8) “he made the stars also” - God does not seem to place great importance upon them as compared to the earth or even the sun and moon. Another indication that they are uninhabited. They are also more simple in their make-up compared to the earth. Mainly balls of gases - hydrogen and helium for example. A very interesting piece of information is the work that has been done lately involving the “music of the spheres”. Kepler had suggested that the planets give off musical notes. All celestial bodies vibrate. Musical tones are simply regular vibrations. Scientists started measuring and recording these vibrations and indeed it is true. The planets and stars do give off musical notes. In fact as the planets make their orbits and their vibrations change with their wobbling, they produce a melody. There have been actual tape recordings made of this “music” which I will try at some point to tag along to this blog so that it can be heard. Missionaries in Alaska have said that there are times when they believe they can hear musical notes. There is a field in the sky up there made of ice crystals. This may act as a radio transmitter. The hydrogen canopy in its crystalline form would have acted as a crystal radio antenna and it is quite possible that in the mornings when the sun was rising, the vibrations hitting the canopy would have been audible and thus people would have heard the morning stars singing. God does tell us that all of creation praises Him, now we know scientifically that the very stars and planets sing His praises.
9) “And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 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. And evening and the morning were the fourth day. - It is reiterated as to what the purpose of the lights are. Perhaps God knew that in our day, there would be much speculation and belief that there is life on other planets, and He wanted to make sure we understood exactly what their purpose is. God again declares that all is good and perfect and untainted by sin. The fourth 24 hour period has elapsed.
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