KingdomRose said:
(1) WHY doesn't the context of Genesis 1 allow for longer periods of time than the 24-hour day?
I think I answered this already. But, here goes again... and perhaps with a bit more detail.
Also the The Hebrew context does not allow for anything other than 24 hour days in Genesis 1. James Barr, Professor of Hebrew Bible at Vanderbilt University, former Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford said,
"Probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1-11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that (a) creation took place in a series of six days which were the same as the days of 24 hours we now experience; .. Or, to put it negatively, the apologetic arguments which suppose the "days" of creation to be long eras of time, the figures of years not to be chronological, and the flood to be a merely local Mesopotamian flood, are not taken seriously by any such professors, as far as I know.".
Also...
"Some serious hermeneutical hopscotch is needed to deny the literal meaning of the six days.
1. The ordinance of the Sabbath is now doubtful if six days is not literal (Ex. 20:11).
2. If the First Adam is allegorical, then the Second Adam is as well.
3. A literal Adam is required in Romans.
4. The Apostle clearly described Adam as the first human sinner—not whatever millions of human-like beings in the presumed evolutionary chain.
5. Death came through Adamic sin, an explanation from Scripture that is cast aside in the notion of millions of years of death and destruction prior to Adam assumed by evolution.
The context of Genesis 1 clearly shows that the days of creation were literal days. First, yôm (day) is defined the first time it is used in the Bible (Genesis 1:4-5) in its two literal senses: the light portion of the light/dark cycle and the whole light/dark cycle. Second, yôm is used with “evening” and “morning.” Everywhere these two words are used in the OT—morning and evening— either together or separately and with or without yôm in the context, they always mean a literal evening or morning of a literal day. Third, yôm is modified with a number: one day, second day, third day, and so on, wherein everywhere else in the Old Testament indicates literal days. Fourth, yôm is defined literally in Genesis 1:14 in relation to the heavenly bodies.
In Mark 10:6 we have the clearest—but not the only—statement showing that Our Lord was a young-earth creationist. Therein He states that Adam and Eve were at the beginning of creation, not billions of years after the beginning.
Belief in millions of years undermines the Bible’s teaching on death and on the character of God. Genesis 1 teaches six times that God called the creation “good,” and when God finished creation on day six, He called everything “very good.” Man and animals and birds were originally vegetarian (Genesis 1:29–30), plants are not “living creatures,” as are people and animals). But Adam and Eve sinned, resulting in the judgment of God on the whole creation. Instantly Adam and Eve died spiritually, and after God’s curse they began to die physically.
The serpent and Eve were changed physically and the ground itself was cursed (Genesis 3:14-19). The whole creation now groans in bondage to corruption, waiting for the final redemption of the saints (Rom. 8:19–25), when we will see the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21; Col. 1:20) to a state similar to the pre-Fall world—there will be no more carnivore behavior (Isaiah 11:6–9) and no disease, suffering, or death (Revelation 21:3-5)—there will be no more Curse (Revelation 22:3).
To accept millions of years of animal death before the creation and Fall of man contradicts and destroys the Bible’s teaching on death and the full redemptive work of Christ. It also makes God into a bumbling, cruel creator who uses—or can’t prevent—disease, natural disasters, and extinctions to mar His creative work, without any moral cause, yet calls it all “very good.”
Scripture teaches that death is the result of the Fall. Evolution says that death is the mechanism of improving the gene pool. According to evolution, then, death is good, and part of the world which cannot be eliminated. Death is no longer the intruder that the Scripture says it is.
Leviticus law says that death is bad. Life is part of the camp, and death is to be outside the camp. If Our Lord conquered death, how can evolution be true, when evolution says that death is how progress comes to the world? Revelation 21:4 tells us explicitly: death shall be no more. One possible answer is that the Fall is only resulting in spiritual death, not physical death. This is inconsistent with Genesis 3 when compared with Genesis 5. The refrain “and he died” is a reflection on the curse of the Fall. Revelation tells us that the first death and the second death are related, but for the grace of God. Christianity proclaims that physical death is wrong. When will you get over the death of your loved one? Ultimately, at the Resurrection! Christianity is never reconciled to death. If evolution is true, then God pronounced death good. This is blasphemous.
The problem with wanting to be respectable in society by believing in evolution is that the resurrection of Christ, the miraculous nature of the virgin birth, the miracles of Christ are all equally distasteful to the secularists as is creation.
What is at stake here is the authority of Scripture, the character of God, the doctrine of death, and the very foundation of the gospel. If the early chapters of Genesis are not true literal history, then faith in the rest of Scripture is undermined, including its teaching about salvation and morality."
Quote above is from AskMr.Religion...posted Oct. 23 in the 'Gen1-3 Imagery' thread
KingdomRose said:
HOW does a longer "day" compromise the gospel?
*
The only reason I can think of to insert vast amounts of time into scripture is to allow for evolutionism.
Millions of years of suffering, death and extinctions contradict God's Word.
The Bible attributes physical death to sin...specifically referring to Adam. And here is the Gospel....
1Cor. 15: 21 "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive"Also see Rom. 5:12-19
3. The Bible refers to death as evil... it is the enemy.
1 Cor. 15:26 "The last enemy to be destroyed is death."
So... if physical death is evil... its hard to rationalize that with Genesis 1:31 where God calls His creation " very good". Obviously physical death did not exist until sin entered the world. And, we KNOW when sin entered the world.
ALSO...
If physical death already existed before sin... then why did Christ need to physically die and be resurrected? If the curse in Genesis 2 was only a spiritual death to Adam, then Christ only need to rise, or defeat, spiritual death. Clearly, in 1 Cor. 15:26, physical death was part of the curse which Christ conquers.
KingdomRose said:
(2) Is it not an important point that the writers of the Bible did not use a 24-hour day to mark off time until AFTER the Babylonian captivity? Genesis was written BEFORE that Babylonian experience.
No... the invention of clocks is not important.
Genesis 1:3
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4*God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5*God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
The Hebrew word YOM, like the English word day is easily understood by context.
KingdomRose said:
(3) You did not respond to my comments on God's rest day (post #233). I would appreciate something other than a general blanket statement, but specific responses to what I pointed out about that rest day, including the writer of Hebrews' statements.
I commented with this...
There are many things wrong with your suggestion that the 7th day continues.
a) You seem to believe that God blessed and sanctified and cursed the exact same day? Either that, or when did the 8th day begin?
b) Genesis is not saying that God wants us to share a literal 7th day rest from the 6 days of creation. He said He rested to typify for us a literal day of rest.
c) The narrative of the Hebrew text provides no basisfo believing the 7th day was any different length of time than the preceeding six days.
d) EVEN IF... the 7th day was a longer period than 24 hours it says nothing about the length of the other 6 days (Each with morning and evening)
e) The Hebrews text tells that God's creative activity ended with the beginning of day 7; it in no way suggests the 7th day has continued into the present.
f) God rested...past tense.
g) Hebrews is warning not to be disobedient like the Israelites in the wilderness. Because of their hard hearts they could not enter into a "rest" - Canaan. The Hebrew word used by David was 'menuwchah'... a word referring to a place, or abode of resting. Hebrews verses uses the same concept using the Greek word ' katapausis'.* Verse 9 of Hebrews 4 (You stopped too soon at v.6) promises a future day of rest. He uses a special word for Sabbath 'Sabbatismos' , which seems to suggest that when the believers work is complete, we will live with Christ in eternity...our rest. In Hebrews God uses the picture of the creations 7th day of rest to provide a picture Heaven...our future rest.
KingdomRose said:
(4) You didn't explain why you indicated that God cursed the 7th day, and I asked you to explain what you meant (post #267).
If you believe the 7th day continues, then you must believe that God blessed and sanctified that day...that He then cursed His creation the same day?
