The Record of Creation

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Harvest 1874

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As there appears to be quite a few religious fundamentalist on this forum we have decided to post our own thread on this subject which we believe more accurately depicts the creation work. As with most subjects the pendulum generally tends swings to far one way or another, we hope to show there is a middle ground which coincides with common sense and with the Holy Scriptures.

The record of creation as presented in the opening pages of the Bible is accepted by believers as inspired of God and accurate, even honest skeptics have been impressed by its uniqueness. Of scores of ancient creation accounts, whether from Sumeria, Egypt, China, Persia or elsewhere, the biblical record is the only one that approaches a scientific framework, this despite what our evolutionist friends are led to believe, but of course this is not entirely their own fault as many Christian extremist and/or religious fundamentalist have completely disregard many basic scientific principles and have given them plenty of material to ridicule.

Thus it is that many professed Christians lacking sound reason have only contributed to the problem, totally demeaning the scriptural account both before the world and before the skeptic. The Bible, in contrast depicts the work of creation in a definite, reasonable order that agrees with modern science despite what some may believe.

“We read in 1 Tim 6:20, "O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust (the truth), avoiding the profane and idle babblings and oppositions (contradictions) of science, falsely so called." This passage the church nominal has ever been ready to quote when an investigation of nature's laws seemed to develop ideas or theories at variance with her cherished opinions; forgetting sometimes to obey the equal injunction. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Paul did not blow hot and cold. In the first place he did not say "science." The word he used means knowledge or wisdom in a more general sense. Secondly, he clearly indicates that it must first be proved to be a vain babbling under the name of wisdom before it is rejected.

Strange to say the church [falsely so called] professing to walk in the light and in the knowledge of God instead of being a leader in the advancement of true science and philanthropy, has not only been a dead load dragging behind, but has often bitterly opposed every advancing step.”

In examining areas touched upon by both science and the Bible, we need to observe certain precautions. Some scientific conclusions may be based largely on theory and conjecture; likewise some biblical interpretations may be based on an incorrect understanding of the text. It is only when the science is factual and the Bible is correctly interpreted that we can expect to find harmony between the two.

Let us now examine the creation account from a logical manner, or as the Lord admonishes us, “Come let us reason together”, (Not speaking, i.e. telling God what we think or imagine, but rather listening to what he has to say upon the matter, comparing what little we know with EVERYTHING that he knows that we might come to a logical conclusion on the issue.) Please understand that much of what we present here in our opening remarks regarding events which may have taken place prior to the actual work of creation, that is the work of preparing the earth for man is speculative at best nevertheless there does seem to be some grounds to support what is purpose, so please bear with us.

In this study we will be taking another look at the creation account as outlined in Genesis, however in order to properly lay a foundation for our particular position on this subject it will prove necessary that we first venture a bit into speculation that is with regards to events proceeding the creative days. There are of course as many theories on what preceded Gods work as it relates to the readying of the earth for man as there are theories on the Genesis account itself. Our object here however is to find a way in which both natural laws and the Word of God can coincide one with another, naturally with the LORD’s Word taking precedence.

As a Christian always bear in mind that it is the theory which must be harmonized with the divine testimony, NOT the other way around.

NATURAL LAWS

“The universe obeys certain rules—laws to which all things must adhere. These laws are precise, and many of them are mathematical in nature. Natural laws are hierarchical in nature; secondary laws of nature are based on primary laws of nature, which have to be just right in order for our universe to be possible. But, where did these laws come from, and why do they exist? If the universe were merely the accidental by-product of a big bang, then why should it obey orderly principles—or any principles at all for that matter? Such laws are consistent with biblical creation. Natural laws exist because the universe has a Creator God who is logical and has imposed order on His universe.”

Everything in the universe, every plant and animal, every rock, every particle of matter or light wave, is bound by laws which it has no choice but to obey. The Bible tells us that there are laws of nature—“ordinances of heaven and earth” (Jer 33:25). These laws describe the way God normally accomplishes His will in the universe.

God’s logic is built into the universe, and so the universe is not haphazard or arbitrary. It obeys laws of chemistry that are logically derived from the laws of physics, many of which can be logically derived from other laws of physics and laws of mathematics. The most fundamental laws of nature exist only because God wills them to; they are the logical, orderly way that the Lord upholds and sustains the universe He has created. The atheist is unable to account for the logical, orderly state of the universe. Why should the universe obey laws if there is no law-giver? But laws of nature are perfectly consistent with biblical creation. In fact, the Bible is the foundation for natural laws.” (“God & Natural Law” by Jason Lisle, Ph.D.)

So in essence the natural laws which we hope to coincide with the Word of God were in fact of His own creation, so it shouldn’t be all that difficult to arrive at some logical conclusions in our study, but first before we begin let us first take a closer look at the opening statement of Genesis, as we wish to explain the reasoning for the statement, “In a beginning” in our posts opening diagram.

We will continue with our next post.
 

Episkopos

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In a beginning?

בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים

There is no definite article that would read "the" for beginning. But there may be other reasons....

The way the Hebrew is laid out it can mean..."Creating, God created"

IOW the same way that the bible uses emphatic speech...as in, verily verily...

Or maybe it is both the Father and Son getting involved?
 

JesusIsFaithful

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@Harvest 1874 The problem here is that modern science has been corrupted by that false science the evolution theory. They make the evolution theory as if it cannot be bendable and law while the laws of science are bendable and without saying so, not to be considered as law.

If you consider what macro evolution is.... it is about a leap from one life form to a different altogether life form.

Because of the lack of transitional fossils in the fossil records, and the huge gaps in that fossil records, Punctuated Equilibrium or Rapid Macroevolution was proposed because evidence does not support Gradual Macroevolution any more. Stephen Jay Gould and other leading evolutionist scientists favor this theory. The irony is that Gould believed there was an explosion in the fossil records that dates back to Cambrian Period, and to tap that capacity, there had to have been a global flood.

Think about that for a moment as evolutionists continue to use the evolutionary geographical timetable in realigning this new theory when there is no way they can prove how old the earth is when they get errant dating results as proven within known human history, like a living mollusk, carbon dated as 2,300 years old ... dead.

Yet the Bible links Jesus Christ by genealogy back to Adam. Jesus confirmed the first marriage, and Paul said that death was not in the world before Adam fell.

Then the irony of the laws of science is being overlooked for macroevolution to happen and that is that extra genetic information is not going to pop out of nowhere to be added to a living organism's DNA.

Then modern science gets even more corrupted when you look across the internet searching for the definitions of micro evolution and macro evolution, you will find that at some dictionaries's sites and universities, they keep the definitions separate, and then some blur the lines of the two, and a few wind up looking like they are saying the same thing.

It gets worse when contenders for the evolution theory says that both gradual and rapid macroevolution are true.

So if you are referring to real science that can be observed and proven, fine, but when it comes to that evolution theory, it is a false science; period. It will always exists in the realm of the imaginations.

A con artist can see them creating the term of "micro evolution" as borrowed from the Law of Biogenesis in trying to make macroevolution more believable, but I reckon only the Lord can help you prove real science to know you are looking at false sceicne that is the evolution theory.
 
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Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 2

Genesis

VERSE 1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning...

The original Hebrew text translates it thus,

b·rashith bra aleim ath e·shmim u·ath e·artz

in·beginning he-created Elohim » the·heavens and·» the·earth

“As noted the qualifying "the" does not appear in the Hebrew and hence a more accurate translation would be "a beginning."

In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“This is not the beginning of God, but the beginning of His physical and visible works. God has no origin, nor initiation, nor genesis. He has neither end nor termination. “He is from everlasting to everlasting.” (Psa 90:2) He existed before time itself, (Isa 43:12). His life principle is like a circle unending without origin or end. Like a perfect circle try to find where it begins or ends. This is a mind boggling concept. God is self-existent, self-contained and self-perpetuating. This is not an attempt to define God for God cannot be defined. He can only be encountered. Only a vague perspective can be grasped. God is a spirit, eternal and unchangeable. “Ten Bad Mistakes about God” Pages 234-235

We are to remember that this beginning relates NOT to the universe as a whole, but merely to our planet. Then it was that ‘the morning stars sang together’ and all the angelic sons of God ‘shouted for joy’ - when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth and ‘made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness its swaddling band’ (Job 38 4-11).

Even yet a still earlier beginning is mentioned in the Bible; a beginning before the creation of those angelic sons of God; as we read in John 1:1- 3: ‘In a beginning was the Word (the Logos, the divine mouthpiece, the representative), and the Logos was with (ho Theos) the God and the Logos was (Theos) a God: the same was in the beginning with (ho Theos) the God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’

The Greek article “ho” precedes the first word ‘God,’ in this verse, and does not precede the second word ‘God,’ thus intentionally indicating or distinguishing between God the Father and the Son of God in a case where without the article, the reader would be left in confusion.

The “Only Begotten” has the highest distinction above all other beings, for he is “The beginning of the creation of God– the first born of every creature”, “the First and the Last”, (the only) direct creation of God (Rev 3:14; Col 1:15; Rev 2: 8).

“For by him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist.” (Col 1:16-17).

The LORD formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else” (Prov 8:22 New Living Translation).

Other beginnings came in turn as the various angelic orders were one by one created; and these beginnings were in the past, so that their hosts could shout for joy when our earth’s creations, related in Genesis, had their beginning.

A possible synopsis would be the following,

1)
First there was and always will be God.

2) Then came the very first beginning, our Lord, the first born and only direct creation of God through whom all subsequent things were to be made, but not by means of His own power or by His own authority, but by the power and authority of the Father, the author of all creation.

3) Following this came the future abode or dwelling place for the various angelic orders soon to be created, “In my Father's house are many mansions (conditions or levels of being)… I go and prepare a place for you” (John 14:2, 3) it would seem but natural that an abode or dwelling place would first precede the creation of these new beings even as the dwelling place of man was prepared before his arrival.

4) Then comes the angelic hosts themselves. Although we are not thoroughly advised as to how many exact orders of spirit beings exist, that is besides angels the scriptures do mention “Seraphim” and “Cherubim,” and that some of these possessed more authority than others, whether this implies that they were of a different type or level of angelic being or simply were given more authority is not precisely clear.

5) Next came the beginning in which God (through his Son, then known as the Logos, recall once again Col 1:16 above) created the heavens and the earth, the cosmos, the universe with its untold millions upon millions of galaxies, stars, and planets, around which one star a small but insignificant planet was created, how long a time existed between this beginning and that which begins in Verse 2 of Genesis is unknown. It is very much a possibility that it encompassed billions of years; remember “He who inhabits eternity has no need to be in a hurry”. All of God’s plans and purposes are working out according to his own will and his own pleasure and naturally according to his own “due time”.

6) And then it was, the time appointed, the beginning of the work of creation as outlined in the Genesis account the preparation of the earth for the arrival of God’s earthly sons.

In the beginning God created

Why? Why should God create? Why should he feel the need to create anything if he is immortal, self-existing and in need of nothing?

Is it true that God does not need anything?

The answer we seek may be found in the very character or nature of God. God is love, (1 John 4:8) love is unselfishness, "Love seeks not her own."

God is love, and love gives. “If love, (and therefore, God) has one preeminent need or quality that need is GIVING. God created so that He would have beings for which He could GIVE or share blessings.”

Our God is a benevolent God, a giving God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, the giver of life and breath to all things.

I believe Brother George Tabac summed it up rather nicely when he stated,

“How can one begin to describe the awesome attributes of our God, the great first cause, who is from everlasting to everlasting, a being who was eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing beyond his being to make him happy, because he was infinitely perfect and complete in himself. Therefore when we consider the reason why God began his creation, we believe it was not for his own pleasure or companionship. But rather it was because of what the apostle John told us, that GOD IS LOVE! It was God's love that was the motivating factor in the creation of angels and man.

He wanted to create other beings NOT for his pleasure, but for their pleasure. He created life simply so that others could enjoy all the blessings and joys that life has to offer. Thus we see the creation of other intelligent beings demonstrates LOVE as one of the prime attributes of our God.”

Continued with next post.
 

Jay Ross

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I wonder if the Phrase, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." could justifiably be reduced to just, "First, God created the heavens and the earth."

Where the same expression, "In the beginning", is used elsewhere in the OT, the expression is qualified as to the time period being considered, i.e. "In the beginning of the Reign of . . . " something happened.

However, In Genesis 1: 1 the Hebrew text phrase is indicating the very first thing that God did during the Creation period.

Shalom
 

Enoch111

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In a beginning?
בְּרֵאשִׁית, בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים
There is no definite article that would read "the" for beginning. But there may be other reasons...

Exactly. And that is why EVERY ENGLISH TRANSLATION has "In THE beginning..."
New International Version
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
New Living Translation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
English Standard Version
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
New American Standard Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
King James Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
International Standard Version
In the beginning, God created the universe.
NET Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
GOD'S WORD® Translation
In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
Jubilee Bible 2000
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
King James 2000 Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
American King James Version
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
American Standard Version
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
Darby Bible Translation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
English Revised Version
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Webster's Bible Translation
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
World English Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Young's Literal Translation
In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth --


There is only ONE BEGINNING for this universe, this earth, this world, and the human race. Therefore "In THE beginning..." is both theologically and logically correct.
 

Harvest 1874

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@Harvest 1874

If you consider what macro evolution is.... it is about a leap from one life form to a different altogether life form.

When the evolution versus creation debate started in the 1800s, the ground rules were clear. At that time the issue was plain and simple. Everybody knew Genesis recorded all the cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth reproduced "after his kind." There was the "dog kind;" the "horse kind," the “bird kind”, and etc. “Specie" was understood by all to be a "Genesis kind."

The question was -- Did a one-cell living organism evolve in complexity from one Genesis kind to another Genesis kind and finally culminate in humankind? Now evolutionists have changed the rules. They changed "specie" to refer to minute classifications of possible variation within the Genesis kind.

After decades of experimentation, scientists have produced many exotic varieties of fruit flies. Each variety has been designated a "specie." As a result, some claimed they proved evolution from one specie to another. But it remained self-evident that all the numerous varieties were still fruit flies. What they did prove was a sort of "micro-evolution" within a Genesis kind. However a change from one Genesis kind to another Genesis kind -- a macro-evolution -- was not demonstrated.

This variation within specie, a Genesis kind, is now what is commonly referred to as "evolution" and applied to validate Darwinism by our evolutionist friends.

As to the issue of carbon dating:

The most common method employed by science to date the age of an object is through the use of Willard Libby’s radiocarbon dating (radiometric dating), when radiocarbon dating was initially used, the origin of life was estimated in the hundreds of thousands of years. Today, the estimate of the origins of life and the species, as we know it, has been considerably reduced to less than 50,000 years.

This measuring technique (radiocarbon dating) uses the half-life cycle of carbon-14 and converts it to years. It should be noted, the Carbon-14 Dating Method does not measure ages. It measures samples.

The correlation between samples and age is made through a set of assumptions. One of the main assumptions of C-14 dating is that the atmospheric radiocarbon level has held steady over the age range it is being applied. If the level changes, higher or lower, due to solar eruptions, earth’s magnetic fields, or shielding cosmic rays impinging on the earth, the data collected will show longer periods than what actually exists. Another assumption is statistical sampling. Were there enough samples? Was the size of the sample large enough? How much variance is allowed in the sampling procedure?

Therefore radiocarbon dating is not very reliable beyond 40,000 to 50,000 years. Another method of dating objects employed by scientist is through the use of Potassium-argon dating, which is more reliable for dating objects older than 50,000 years, however it should be noted that whereas carbon–14 dating can be done only on organic remains, K/A dating can be used only for inorganic substances: rocks and minerals.
 

Harvest 1874

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I wonder if the Phrase, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." could justifiably be reduced to just, "First, God created the heavens and the earth."

Where the same expression, "In the beginning", is used elsewhere in the OT, the expression is qualified as to the time period being considered, i.e. "In the beginning of the Reign of . . . " something happened.

However, In Genesis 1: 1 the Hebrew text phrase is indicating the very first thing that God did during the Creation period.

Shalom

Keep in mind that this account of "creation" relates only to the visible spectrum, the heavens (the universe, stars, galaxies and etc.), and the earth as they pertain to man, all of which is his abode or dwelling place.

But more specifically it is an account of creation as it relates to the preparation of the earth itself for the arrival of man.
 

Harvest 1874

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Exactly. And that is why EVERY ENGLISH TRANSLATION has "In THE beginning..."
New International Version
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
New Living Translation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
English Standard Version
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
New American Standard Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
King James Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Holman Christian Standard Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
International Standard Version
In the beginning, God created the universe.
NET Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
GOD'S WORD® Translation
In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
Jubilee Bible 2000
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
King James 2000 Bible
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
American King James Version
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
American Standard Version
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
Darby Bible Translation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
English Revised Version
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Webster's Bible Translation
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
World English Bible
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Young's Literal Translation
In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth --


There is only ONE BEGINNING for this universe, this earth, this world, and the human race. Therefore "In THE beginning..." is both theologically and logically correct.

Your point is taken, the only reason we say "in a beginning" is to distinguish this beginning and its work, from those previous beginnings, such as the creation or beginning of the spiritual abode or home of the angelic host, and then of course the creation or beginning of the angelic hosts themselves.
 

Jay Ross

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Keep in mind that this account of "creation" relates only to the visible spectrum, the heavens (the universe, stars, galaxies and etc.), and the earth as they pertain to man, all of which is his abode or dwelling place.

But more specifically it is an account of creation as it relates to the preparation of the earth itself for the arrival of man.

Perhaps the notes provided within the Net Bible translation would be helpful here in this thread.
 

JesusIsFaithful

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When the evolution versus creation debate started in the 1800s, the ground rules were clear. At that time the issue was plain and simple. Everybody knew Genesis recorded all the cattle, creeping things and beasts of the earth reproduced "after his kind." There was the "dog kind;" the "horse kind," the “bird kind”, and etc. “Specie" was understood by all to be a "Genesis kind."

The question was -- Did a one-cell living organism evolve in complexity from one Genesis kind to another Genesis kind and finally culminate in humankind? Now evolutionists have changed the rules. They changed "specie" to refer to minute classifications of possible variation within the Genesis kind.

After decades of experimentation, scientists have produced many exotic varieties of fruit flies. Each variety has been designated a "specie." As a result, some claimed they proved evolution from one specie to another. But it remained self-evident that all the numerous varieties were still fruit flies. What they did prove was a sort of "micro-evolution" within a Genesis kind. However a change from one Genesis kind to another Genesis kind -- a macro-evolution -- was not demonstrated.

This variation within specie, a Genesis kind, is now what is commonly referred to as "evolution" and applied to validate Darwinism by our evolutionist friends.

I don't think there is enough discipline in science, let alone online dictionaries and universities that would agree with that assessment above.

It sounds good, but I still just see it as borrowing from the Law of Biogenesis in creating that term microevolution since life comes from similar life also involves variations within the species.

As to the issue of carbon dating:

The most common method employed by science to date the age of an object is through the use of Willard Libby’s radiocarbon dating (radiometric dating), when radiocarbon dating was initially used, the origin of life was estimated in the hundreds of thousands of years. Today, the estimate of the origins of life and the species, as we know it, has been considerably reduced to less than 50,000 years.

This measuring technique (radiocarbon dating) uses the half-life cycle of carbon-14 and converts it to years. It should be noted, the Carbon-14 Dating Method does not measure ages. It measures samples.

The correlation between samples and age is made through a set of assumptions. One of the main assumptions of C-14 dating is that the atmospheric radiocarbon level has held steady over the age range it is being applied. If the level changes, higher or lower, due to solar eruptions, earth’s magnetic fields, or shielding cosmic rays impinging on the earth, the data collected will show longer periods than what actually exists. Another assumption is statistical sampling. Were there enough samples? Was the size of the sample large enough? How much variance is allowed in the sampling procedure?

Therefore radiocarbon dating is not very reliable beyond 40,000 to 50,000 years. Another method of dating objects employed by scientist is through the use of Potassium-argon dating, which is more reliable for dating objects older than 50,000 years, however it should be noted that whereas carbon–14 dating can be done only on organic remains, K/A dating can be used only for inorganic substances: rocks and minerals.

There is something called the reservoir effect also for why marine life would have less absorption of carbon 14 than land animals.

Then there is that mist atmosphere that covered the whole earth before the flood had happened. It is not like as it is today. So is there a reservoir effect somewhat to be applied to that to give an appearance of age when there isn't one?

Then you have only the after affects of the global flood recorded in the Bible; the questions should be obvious; what caused the mist to form clouds to rain for the first time? What caused the fountains of the deep to gush forth its waters ( was the mid Atlantic Ridge by that formation was where the mist watered the whole earth? Was that also the source of the fountains of the deep came forth? What would cause that to happen? )

What caused the moon to move slowly away from the earth as it is measured today?

If God created everything and said it was good, then there would be no craters on the moon and no asteroids impact on the earth. That means those impact happened at the time of the global flood. That started the moon to move slowly from the earth, causing the mist to condense into clouds and rain for the first time. This would also cause the tides to rise. And with that many recorded asteroid impacts on earth, tsunamis galore. No wonder there are many super volcanoes and regular volcanoes erupting and earthquakes and that ring of fire. Can science really get an accurate dating from any method out of that mess on how old the earth is? It is obvious to me that the global flood brought on the ice age.

Then you have the most common sense of limiting radiocarbon dating when you cannot go past known written history of mankind to confirm anything.

The genealogy in the Bible limits mankind to about 6,000 years.

I believe in the time of Peleg in the Bible, that was when the one land continent was divided as the area known as the Atlantic Ocean today dropped in the day of Peleg because of the weight of the land over where the fountains of the deep used to be has caused it to collapsed. There is certainly enough evidence around to support that "theory" of land dropping into the ocean.

But I digress. The Bible pretty much tells me that mankind cannot date any thing accurately within history, let alone past 6,000 years. Science do not take in account of the devastation of Noah's flood as to why any dating method would be askew.
 

Episkopos

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The Record of Creation, Part 2

Genesis

VERSE 1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning...

The original Hebrew text translates it thus,

b·rashith bra aleim ath e·shmim u·ath e·artz

in·beginning he-created Elohim » the·heavens and·» the·earth

“As noted the qualifying "the" does not appear in the Hebrew and hence a more accurate translation would be "a beginning."

In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“This is not the beginning of God, but the beginning of His physical and visible works. God has no origin, nor initiation, nor genesis. He has neither end nor termination. “He is from everlasting to everlasting.” (Psa 90:2) He existed before time itself, (Isa 43:12). His life principle is like a circle unending without origin or end. Like a perfect circle try to find where it begins or ends. This is a mind boggling concept. God is self-existent, self-contained and self-perpetuating. This is not an attempt to define God for God cannot be defined. He can only be encountered. Only a vague perspective can be grasped. God is a spirit, eternal and unchangeable. “Ten Bad Mistakes about God” Pages 234-235

We are to remember that this beginning relates NOT to the universe as a whole, but merely to our planet. Then it was that ‘the morning stars sang together’ and all the angelic sons of God ‘shouted for joy’ - when the Lord laid the foundations of the earth and ‘made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness its swaddling band’ (Job 38 4-11).

Even yet a still earlier beginning is mentioned in the Bible; a beginning before the creation of those angelic sons of God; as we read in John 1:1- 3: ‘In a beginning was the Word (the Logos, the divine mouthpiece, the representative), and the Logos was with (ho Theos) the God and the Logos was (Theos) a God: the same was in the beginning with (ho Theos) the God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.’

The Greek article “ho” precedes the first word ‘God,’ in this verse, and does not precede the second word ‘God,’ thus intentionally indicating or distinguishing between God the Father and the Son of God in a case where without the article, the reader would be left in confusion.

The “Only Begotten” has the highest distinction above all other beings, for he is “The beginning of the creation of God– the first born of every creature”, “the First and the Last”, (the only) direct creation of God (Rev 3:14; Col 1:15; Rev 2: 8).

“For by him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and unto him; and he is before all things, and in him all things consist.” (Col 1:16-17).

The LORD formed me from the beginning, before he created anything else” (Prov 8:22 New Living Translation).

Other beginnings came in turn as the various angelic orders were one by one created; and these beginnings were in the past, so that their hosts could shout for joy when our earth’s creations, related in Genesis, had their beginning.

A possible synopsis would be the following,

1)
First there was and always will be God.

2) Then came the very first beginning, our Lord, the first born and only direct creation of God through whom all subsequent things were to be made, but not by means of His own power or by His own authority, but by the power and authority of the Father, the author of all creation.

3) Following this came the future abode or dwelling place for the various angelic orders soon to be created, “In my Father's house are many mansions (conditions or levels of being)… I go and prepare a place for you” (John 14:2, 3) it would seem but natural that an abode or dwelling place would first precede the creation of these new beings even as the dwelling place of man was prepared before his arrival.

4) Then comes the angelic hosts themselves. Although we are not thoroughly advised as to how many exact orders of spirit beings exist, that is besides angels the scriptures do mention “Seraphim” and “Cherubim,” and that some of these possessed more authority than others, whether this implies that they were of a different type or level of angelic being or simply were given more authority is not precisely clear.

5) Next came the beginning in which God (through his Son, then known as the Logos, recall once again Col 1:16 above) created the heavens and the earth, the cosmos, the universe with its untold millions upon millions of galaxies, stars, and planets, around which one star a small but insignificant planet was created, how long a time existed between this beginning and that which begins in Verse 2 of Genesis is unknown. It is very much a possibility that it encompassed billions of years; remember “He who inhabits eternity has no need to be in a hurry”. All of God’s plans and purposes are working out according to his own will and his own pleasure and naturally according to his own “due time”.

6) And then it was, the time appointed, the beginning of the work of creation as outlined in the Genesis account the preparation of the earth for the arrival of God’s earthly sons.

In the beginning God created

Why? Why should God create? Why should he feel the need to create anything if he is immortal, self-existing and in need of nothing?

Is it true that God does not need anything?

The answer we seek may be found in the very character or nature of God. God is love, (1 John 4:8) love is unselfishness, "Love seeks not her own."

God is love, and love gives. “If love, (and therefore, God) has one preeminent need or quality that need is GIVING. God created so that He would have beings for which He could GIVE or share blessings.”

Our God is a benevolent God, a giving God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, the giver of life and breath to all things.

I believe Brother George Tabac summed it up rather nicely when he stated,

“How can one begin to describe the awesome attributes of our God, the great first cause, who is from everlasting to everlasting, a being who was eternally self-sufficient, needing nothing beyond his being to make him happy, because he was infinitely perfect and complete in himself. Therefore when we consider the reason why God began his creation, we believe it was not for his own pleasure or companionship. But rather it was because of what the apostle John told us, that GOD IS LOVE! It was God's love that was the motivating factor in the creation of angels and man.

He wanted to create other beings NOT for his pleasure, but for their pleasure. He created life simply so that others could enjoy all the blessings and joys that life has to offer. Thus we see the creation of other intelligent beings demonstrates LOVE as one of the prime attributes of our God.”

Continued with next post.


A different language uses different rules. Hebrew has no indicator for singular like in English...using the letter "a" to denote there is "a" something or other.

For example... In Hebrew "I see a man" is just "I see man" (ani roeh ish)

So then it is better to say..."In beginning" or to begin with or "At the beginning"... or some other formulation that makes sense in English.
 

Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 3

We continue with our examination Gen 1:1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In the beginning God created the heavens

Some students of the word are of the opinion that the “heavens” here mentioned refer to firmament, the atmosphere which surrounds the earth rather than the starry heavens themselves, note the following remarks,

“It is commonly assumed that these “heavens” are in reference to the starry heavens, the universe above, that Verse 1 refers to a time long ago when the universe as well as the various stars and planets including the earth came into existence, however some are equally convinced that this reference to “heaven” refers not to any point remote from the earth, but rather to the underside of the canopy which surrounded the earth at the time. This expanse located between the core of the earth and beneath the canopy was occupied at the time by super-heated gases which suspended the canopy above. The evidence in support of this position is based upon Verses 6- 8 of Genesis in which after God had created a “firmament” (the expanse or atmosphere), which separated the waters which were above from those which were below He referred to it as the “heaven”.

Now personally I have no problem with either as regardless of whether the reference were in respects to the “firmament” or the starry heavens this would in no way detract from the fact that both the universe and the planet earth (the physical globe) came into existence long ago, long before the work of creation as narrated in the Genesis account, however… just for the sake of argument let us take a look at the original Hebrew translation once more that we might determine the facts for ourselves.

In Verse 1 note the Hebrew “e·shmim” is used with the qualifying “the” added, i.e. the·heavens,

b·rashith bra aleim ath e·shmim u·ath e·artz

in·beginning he-created Elohim » the·heavens and·» the·earth

In the beginning God created the heavens”, which appears to invoke special emphasis to these “heavens”.

Now take a look at the same as found in Verse 8 and you will note that the same special emphasis is not indicated in the latter, the qualifying “the” is absent.

u·iqra aleim l· rqio shmim

and·he-is-calling Elohim to· ·atmosphere heavens

Both are plural but one has special emphasis thus possibly distinguishing a difference between the two “heavens”.

Another thought is this, in the opening verse it states that God created the heavens and the earth, the heavens (the universe) apparently preceding the creation of the earth, whereas in Verse 8 it appears that the earth existed prior to the creation of the firmament or heavens (the atmosphere).

The evidence seems to favor the idea that the “heavens” spoken of in Verse 1 refer to the cosmos, the starry heavens.

VERSE 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

The original Hebrew translated.

u·e·artz either theu u·beu u·chshk ol - phni theum

and·the·earth she-became chaos and·vacancy and·darkness over surfaces-of abyss

u·ruch aleim mrchphth ol - phni e·mim

and·spirit-of Elohim vibrating over surfaces-of the·waters

The Emphasized Bible, Rotherham’s Edition a version highly rated for its translation accuracy translates it thus,

Now, the earth, had become waste and wild, and darkness, was on the face of the roaring deep,-but, the Spirit of God, was brooding on the face of the waters.” (Gen 1:2)

There is some dispute over whether it should be read as, “And the earth was” and/or “And the earth became

It is very much a possibility that too much has been read into this phrase “had become” with opinions veering from one extreme to another, with some implying that there was a world which existed before this world, a world inhabited by angels or by both angels and men a world which God had to destroy because it had become destructive and evil, that it was at this time that Lucifer fell none the lease of which is scripturally sound. Why should angels who were given a heavenly abode wish to confine themselves to an earthly sphere? As for men we are expressly informed that Adam was the first man that no human sons existed prior to him.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the best answer, this phrase “became” simply implies that the earth was in a stage of formation evolving from a mere collection of matter into a celestial body or planet and that in consequence this formation naturally involved many volatile (wild and inhabitable) stages of development as the earth crusts was still in its infancy. Thus the earth at this stage “had become” a waste and wild world covered in waters both upon its surface and in the swaddling band or canopy which shrouded it in darkness.

"At first the earth was but a mass of energy, and as an earth (a stable world) it was as yet, unformed, and as far as life was concerned, empty and void. Then we saw that the water and gaseous matters were thrown away from the center core, forming a great cloud, or deep, around that core. Since there would be too much earthly material in this deep for the sun’s rays to penetrate to the surface of the core, it would have been true that "darkness was upon the [inside] face of the deep," even though the sun shone upon the outside, even as it now shines upon the planets which still have their canopies, the gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.” (Rings and Canopies, Appendix)

“The Hebrew word Bar'a, "created" in Gen 1:1 comes from the root Barah, meaning "to fill." So by "creating" the heavens and the earth, God really "filled" the heavens and the earth to the ancient Hebrew mind. Think about that for a moment. As far as we know there was at some point only God and the rest was void. So God filled that void, so to speak, with what we now call the heavens with all those stars, galaxies and things we probably don't even know about.”

"In the beginning God filled the heavens and earth" filled the void which was empty of substance, with respects to the universe he filled it with galaxies, stars, and planets, and the earth he filled with life.

Continued with next post.
 
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Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 4

Although we believe that Prov 8:22-31 is speaking specifically in regards to the earth itself, nevertheless we do appreciate the interpretation as given in the Ferrar Fenton Translation.

"The LORD formed me (the Logos, our Lord in his prehuman existence, the personification of wisdom), the first of His plans, Before He began to create; And I was enthroned from of old, Ere the first preparations of earth; When Space was not made I revolved; Before the deep springs of the sea; before that the mountains were set, I revolved ere existed the heights; ere the earth and its circuit was made, And before the first dusts of the worlds.”

"When He formed the suns (the heavens, the universe) I was there, when their circuits were settled in space, when arranging the clouds from above, When controlling the fountains in space; When He fixed His decree for the sea, That the waters should not pass the shore; When He fixed His decree for the land, I was there with delight, day by day. I rejoiced in His presence the while; I rejoiced in the circling of earth, and rejoiced in the children of men.”

Consider the foregoing for a moment, “Here in the Eighth Chapter of Proverbs, Solomon speaking of Jesus, the Logos, under the symbol of wisdom, puts these words into his mouth: I existed before as yet he had created space. That is to say, when the great supreme architect began to put his plan into execution, he seems to have pushed back the walls of “nothingdom”, and created space. He sowed space with the constellations of the heavens.”

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The above photo was taken by the WFC3/IR camera on Hubble in late August 2009 during a total of four days of pointing at a relatively inconspicuous and dark area of space for 173,000 seconds of total exposure time, what was revealed amazed everyone, multitudes of galaxies yet unseen.

When you have the time you will want to see this video (The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D) it will truly open your eyes to the sheer immensity of our universe.

In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, that is to say the expanse of space composing the known universe with its multitudes upon multitudes of heavenly constellations (Galaxies, estimated at over 100 billion), each of these composed of billions of stars, many of which are believed to be surrounded by untold trillions of satellites (i.e. Planets), and amongst one of these small and possibly rather insignificant stars He placed or brought into existence the earth. How exactly he accomplished this feat that is the creation of the universe, whether with a “big bang” as some scientist purpose or in complete silence and order as is His known characteristic is unknown we have but the theories and opinions of men to guide us where the Scriptures are silent.

The Big Bang Theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the early development of the Universe.”

“According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and where does it come from? Well, to be honest, we don't know for sure. Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at the core of "black holes." Black holes are areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite density (a mathematical concept which truly boggles the mind). These zones of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity. Where did it come from? We don't know. Why did it appear? We don't know.

After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (wha-la, the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe. It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.” (“Big Bang Theory- An Overview”)

The following is a quote from the opening of a book entitled “The God Particle” written by the Nobel Prize winner physicist Leon Lederman, the book itself is of no great importance to our study here as it simply deals with a case for building a Super Conducting-Super Collider, but the opening quote is very pointed.

“In the very beginning, there was a void, a curious form of vacuum, a nothingness containing no space, no time, no matter, no light, no sound. Yet the laws of nature were in place and this curious vacuum held potential. A story logically begins at the beginning, but this story is about the universe and unfortunately there are no data for the very beginnings-none, zero. We don't know anything about the universe until it reaches the mature age of a billion of a trillionth of a second. That is, some very short time after creation in the big bang. When you read or hear anything about the birth of the universe, someone is making it up-we are in the realm of philosophy. Only God knows what happened at the very beginning.”

And thus we are not going to delve any further into discussing this theory or any other theory on the origins of the universe as these are readily discussed all over the internet and if anyone is curious they can take a look for themselves. As for ourselves we are content that it was the Work of God who created the universe that it was he “who stretched out the heavens like a curtain, and spread them out like a tent to dwell in.” (Isa 40:22), it was not the result of some hap-hazard accident or the by-product of a big bang. He is a God of order, not chaos; nothing takes place without his approval and direction.

In our next post we will take a look at some of the evidence which shows the care in which the Lord took in the placement and surroundings of the earth in our Galaxy.
 

Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 5

The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.” (Psa 19:1-4 New Living Translation)

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“The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy some 100,000–120,000 light-years in diameter which contains 100–400 billion stars. It may contain at least as many planets as well. The Solar System is located within the disk, about 27,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of a spiral-shaped concentration of gas and dust called the Orion–Cygnus Arm. The stars in the inner 10,000 light-years form a bulge and one or more bars that radiate from the bulge. The very center is marked by an intense radio source named Sagittarius A which is likely to be a supermassive black hole.”

Milky Way - Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way
“Determining the structure of our own Galaxy (and where exactly we reside in it) has been a longstanding problem for astronomers because we are inside it. In order to map the Milky Way, scientists need to accurately measure the distances to objects within the Galaxy. Measuring cosmic distances, however, also has been a difficult task, leading to large uncertainties. The result is that, while astronomers agree that our Galaxy has a spiral structure, there are disagreements on how many arms it has and on their specific locations.”

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At one time it was believed that our Sun was located about halfway between the center of the galaxy and its edge located within a small, partial arm that is known as the Orion Arm, or Orion Spur, nestled between the Perseus Arm and the Sagittarius Arm, however new studies find that it is a little closer to the center of the galaxy than previously thought, and that what was once thought to be but a spur may indeed be a more prominent feature of the Milky Way perhaps even a major structure or branch of the Perseus Arm itself that or possibly an independent arm segment.

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The diagrams above show the position of the sun in relation to the various spiral arms of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen from above the galactic "north pole." Each hatch mark along the side of the first diagram represents 5 kilo-parsecs, or 16,300 light-years.

“A team of astronomers has taken an important step toward mapping the Milky Way by accurately measuring the distance to the star-forming region W3OH in the Perseus spiral arm, the nearest arm to us. This long strand of stars streaks out of the Milky Way’s disk in the same manner as others seen in galaxies across the universe.

Until now scientists had difficulties figuring just how far away spiral arms are, and various measurements and techniques had discrepancies ranging by a factor of two. The new results are from a telescope nearly the size of Earth. The astronomers used the Very Long Baseline Array, taking observations from several telescopes stretching from Hawaii to the Virgin Islands, to create the resolution of a telescope nearly 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) in diameter.

“We have established that the radio telescope we used, the Very Long Baseline Array, can measure distances with unprecedented accuracy — nearly a factor of 100 times better than previously accomplished,” (Mark Reid of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

In doing so, they determined that W3OH is 1.95 ± 0.04 kilo-parsecs away. That’s about 36,000,000,000,000,000 miles.”

Scientists figure out our place in Milky Wayplace-milky-way/#.UvZPUo2Ybce

Continued with next post.
 

Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 6

Location is Everything

“The Sun and our Solar System have been located in a stable orbit within our galaxy for the last 4.5 billion years. This orbit lies far from the center of our galaxy and between the spiral arms (of Perseus and Sagittarius). The stability of our position is possible because the sun is one of the rare stars that lie within the “galactic co-rotation radius (Likewise referred to as the GHZ or “Galactic Habitable Zone).” Just as there are habitable zones located in solar systems so too with respects to galaxies. Typically, the stars in our galaxy orbit the center of the galaxy at a rate that differs from the rate of the trailing spiral arms. Thus, most stars located between spiral arms do not remain there for long, but would eventually be swept inside a spiral arm. Only at a certain precise distance from the galaxy’s center, the "co-rotation radius," can a star remain in its place between two spirals arms, orbiting at precisely the same rate as the galaxy arms rotate around the core. (Mishurov, Y.N. and L. A. Zenina. 1999. Yes, the Sun is Located near the Co-rotation Circle. Astronomy & Astrophysics 341: 81-85.).

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“The estimated Galactic habitable zone ranges between 23,000 to 29,000 light years from the Galactic center. Interestingly, our Earth lies exactly in the center of the Galactic habitable zone. Although this is a distinct possibility viz. the idea of a “Galactic habitable zone” it would seem unlikely that this “habitable zone” would extend within the spirals themselves as there would be far too many stars in close proximity one with another in these areas, nevertheless in the areas located between the spirals there could possibly be billions of stars encompassing this habitable zone with billions of future habitable worlds awaiting development.

Why is it important that we are not in one of the spiral arms?

First of all our location outside the spiral arms puts us in the safest location in the galaxy. We are far removed from the more densely occupied areas, where stellar interactions, (gravitational forces between stars) can lead to disruptions in planetary orbits. Located within these spiral arms of various gases and dust are the birthing grounds of many young blue stars. If our planetary system had been located near one of these stars we might not have lasted as long as we have.

“An example of a blue star is the familiar Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion and the 6th brightest star in the sky. Astronomers calculate that Rigel is approximately 700 to 900 light-years away, and yet it appears almost as bright as a star like Sirius which is only 8.3 light-years away. The temperature of Rigel is approximately 11,000 Kelvin; it’s this high temperature that accounts for Rigel’s color. Rigel puts out about 40,000 times the energy of the Sun.

An even more extreme example of a blue star is the blue super-giant Eta Carinae, located about 8,000 light-years away in the Carina constellation. Again, Eta Carinae is 10 times further away than Rigel, and yet from our perspective it’s only a little dimmer. The surface temperature of Eta Carinae is 40,000 Kelvin, and it shines with much of its radiation in the ultraviolet spectrum. Since this wavelength is invisible to our eyes, we perceive it as blue. All told, Eta Carinae is blasting out 1,000,000 times the energy of our Sun.

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Blue stars burn through their fuel at a tremendous rate. With 150 times the mass of the Sun, Eta Carinae has only been around for a few million years and it’s expected to detonate as a supernova within the next 100,000 years. Our Sun, in comparison, has been around for 4.5 billion years and is expected to live another 7 billion years.”

Blue Stars - Universe Today
http://www.universetoday.com/24362/blue-stars/#ixzz2tOunjY1M
It would not bode well for us to be even remotely close to a star going supernova (i.e. closer than eight parsecs, 26 light-years), at this distance the gamma rays from a supernova could penetrate the earth's magnetic field and induce a chemical reaction in the upper atmosphere (the outer layer of the ionosphere also known as the magnetosphere), which would then strip away the upper atmosphere including the ozone layer to an extent that the surface of the earth would then be bombarded by harmful solar and cosmic radiation. So you can see the benefit of our having resided outside of the spiral arms. “The 4.5 billion year longevity of earth’s relative peaceful existence (the time needed to prepare the earth for the eventual arrival of man) would not have been possible in most other locations in our galaxy.”

And yet there is still another reason why our position outside the spiral arms is to our benefit, have you ever stood in the darkness while someone was shinning a bright light in your direction? How well were you able to perceive objects outside the glare of this blinding light? Now consider if our vantage point were that of one taken from within the spiral arms amongst the bright young stars (take Rigel for instance which shines with a luminosity 130,000 times the brightness of our sun), it might have been possible to see a small fraction of what was outside this glare, but for the most part our vision of the universe would have been greatly impaired, and of course this does not even take into consideration the stellar dust and various other nebula gases residing in the spiral arms obstructing our view. No our present position has not only allowed us to gain valuable insight into our own galaxy, but likewise to visualize the sheer immensity of the universe itself.

At one time many imagined even as they imagined at one time in regards to the earth that our galaxy was the center of the universe, but now from our unique perspective located outside the spiral arms and with the aid of modern instrumentality (specifically the Hubble Space Telescope) we have come to realize that our galaxy is but one of hundreds of billions of galaxies within the known universe. Now when we gaze into the heavens and witness this most wondrous sight we truly understand how, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”

(Excerpts taken fromCreation or Evolution?)
 

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The Record of Creation, Part 7

The Importance of our Position in the Solar System

In the solar system, there likewise exists a special zone where life can exist, an area where water for the most part remains in its liquid state. This zone is called a Habitable Zone. If we calculate the range of the Habitable Zone in the solar system, it becomes 0.95 – 1.15 AU (Astronomical Unit: 1 AU = distance from Earth to Sun). Thus, if the location of the Earth was 5% closer to the Sun, all of the water on Earth would have boiled and if 15% further away from the Sun, all water would have frozen.

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The little green area in the diagram above shows the Habitable Zone and it is only 0.05% of the area of orbital plane occupied by planets. Amazingly, our Earth is located right in the center of the Habitable Zone. The circles outside of the Habitable Zone represent the orbits of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

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Another important factor for the Earth to remain in the Habitable Zone is that the Earth has to maintain a circular orbit around the sun. If the Earth had an elliptical orbit with an eccentricity larger than 0.1, all the water upon the earth would freeze at points A and C, and boil at points B and D. Luckily (?), the Earth has a very small eccentricity and rotates around the Sun in near perfect circular orbit.

Is it a coincidence or God’s design?

The Importance of the Size of our Sun

The size of the Sun is important for life on Earth. If we had a small Sun, the habitable zone also becomes small and the distance from Sun to the habitable zone would become much closer than the current one. However if the planet were too close to star (as for example, Mercury), tidal lock between the planet and star could occur with one side of the planet always facing the sun and extremely too hot for life, and the other side facing away to cold.

Now if we had a large Sun we would have had the advantage of a much larger habitable zone, with the possibility of life on one of our sister planets, however with this large sun comes possible disadvantages, for the lifetime of the star is inversely proportional to its size. If our Sun were much larger than the current one, it would consume most of its hydrogen gas in a relatively short period of time. If it ran out of hydrogen fuel, it would gradually expand and engulf the Earth.

Another condition needed is that Sun has to be a single star. Unlike our sun, more than 50% of stars are binary systems. If we had two Suns we would most likely have had a much smaller habitable zone, and of course very strange weather patterns. Luckily (?), we have only one Sun that is just right size and has an estimated (?) lifetime of another 7 billion years.

The Importance of our Moon and its Size

The Moon plays an important role for life on Earth because of its size. Compared to other planets, the Earth has exceptionally large moon (that is in relation to the size of the Earth). The radius of Earth’s moon is 1,740 km whereas that of the Mars’ moon is only about 10 km. Because of its large size the Moon helps stabilize the rotational axis of the Earth and maintains its tilt angle of 23.5 degrees all the time. If there were no Moon, the Earth’s rotational axis would be wobbling and causing unfavorable climate change.

Another important role for the Moon is in producing tides and helping to maintain Earth’s marine ecosystem. The tides mix nutrient-rich fresh water with sea water and provide nutrients to plankton which forms the basis of the marine food chain. If we didn’t have the Moon, we couldn’t have ocean tides. Without the tides the sea might possibly be covered in red tide and eventually wipe out most marine life.

Coincidence or God’s design?

(Excerpts taken fromCreation or Evolution?)
 

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The Record of Creation, Part 8

The Time before Creation

As alluded to in our previous posts a clear distinction must be drawn between the beginning of the earth’s creation, i.e. the creation of the physical globe or earth itself (Verse 1), and its subsequent ordering (or bringing it to life) in the epoch days as narrated in the scriptures. Since the time interval between the events in Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 is not stated, the Bible does not commit itself as to the age of the earth (nor to the heavens), even if the lengths of the epoch days were clearly stated. Consequently, there is no conflict between science and the Genesis account as to the actual age of the earth itself. Many scientists have speculated that the earth may be a little over four billion years old (4.5 being the generally accepted age), with this particular estimate we have no qualms.

To the true believer that which is written is enough, however in order to properly present our case before the skeptic or non-believer I believe we need to establish some basis upon which to present our view as some might imply that we were simply coming into the middle of the story rather than at its true beginning.

Now one of the chief stumbling blocks which most theories encounter when attempting to harmonize with the scriptures, notwithstanding the ridiculous idea held by our religious extremist friends who believe in the seven days of creation theory composed of literal twenty-four hour periods is the statement made in the Verse 2 of the opening of Genesis viz. “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” the latter part of this statement being the troubling part.

In other words according to the divine record in the beginning (that is the beginning of the work of preparing the earth for the arrival of mankind); darkness was upon the face of the deep, no light shone upon the surface of the earth, the world at that time was in complete darkness and covered in waters. Now naturally when the earth (the physical globe) was first being formed light must have shone upon its surface, but that was something which must have transpired long before the events being described in the Genesis account. The fact that it is stated that “darkness was upon the deep,” can only imply one of two things, either the sun had not yet been created yet (another one of the ridiculous beliefs held by many extremist) or a much more reasonable view, the sun was there, but something was inhibiting its light from shining upon the face of the earth.

Here is where I believe we must begin if we are to properly present our case; we must attempt to explain how conditions might have led up to this condition of things just prior to the Lord’s work in preparing the earth for the arrival of man. And so let us look to see if we might fine amongst the many theories derived of men as to how the earth was formed the one which most likely leads up to the condition of the earth as described in the opening remarks of Genesis, “The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep…

From the Solar Nebular dust the Earth Emerges

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The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old…While as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world.” Prov 8:22, 26

The nebular hypothesis is the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar System. It suggests that the Solar System formed from nebulous material… According to the nebular hypothesis, stars form in massive and dense clouds of molecular hydrogen—giant molecular clouds (GMC). These clouds are gravitationally unstable, and matter coalesces within them to smaller denser clumps, which then rotate, collapse, and form stars. Star formation is a complex process, which always produces a gaseous protoplanetary disk, proplyd, around the young star. This may give birth to planets in certain circumstances, which are not well known. Thus the formation of planetary systems is thought to be a natural result of star formation…The protoplanetary disk is an accretion disk that feeds the central star. Initially very hot, the disk later cools in what is known as the T tauri star stage; here, formation of small dust grains made of rocks and ice is possible. The grains eventually may coagulate into kilometer-sized planetesimals. If the disk is massive enough, the runaway accretions begin, resulting in the rapid—100,000 to 300,000 years—formation of Moon- to Mars-sized planetary embryos. Near the star, the planetary embryos go through a stage of violent mergers, producing a few terrestrial planets.” (Nebular hypothesis)

“There are two main theories as to how the earth may have been formed both involve accretion or the sticking together of molecules and particles: one of these is Homogeneous accretion the other Heterogeneous accretion.

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Homogenous accretion: Similar elements stick together, creating a solid mass. The heat generated in this process melts the particles. The heavier elements sink to the center because of gravity, creating the Earth's sold core. Out-gassing from this solid body creates the atmosphere.
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Heterogeneous accretion: First, particles of metal stick together, creating the Earth's core. Lighter elements stick to this core as it continues to cool. The gravity of this mass attracts most of the atoms that make up the atmosphere.

Both of those theories use the same basic idea -- about 4.6 billion years ago, the Earth formed as particles collected within a giant disc of gas orbiting a star. Once the sun ignited, it blew all of the extra particles away, leaving the solar system as we know it. The exact process probably included both homogenous and heterogeneous accretion.

Accordingly as these collisions continue and mass increased so too gravity eventually attracting much larger items (i.e. asteroids, meteoroids and comets), these collisions in turn form planetesimals some of which eventually collide with each other to form protoplanets. Heating continues to occur causing out-gassing, which in turn creates an atmosphere. Now exactly what this early atmosphere consisted of at the time is not certain.

At first, the Earth was very hot and volcanic. A solid crust formed as the planet cooled, and impacts from asteroids and other debris caused lots of craters. As the planet continued to cool, water filled the basins that had formed in the surface, creating oceans. Through earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other factors, the Earth's surface eventually reached the shape that we know today.” (“Where did the Earth come from?” By Tracy V. Wilson)

Continued with next post.​
 

Harvest 1874

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The Record of Creation, Part 9

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“The first era in which the Earth existed is what is known as the Hadean Eon. This name comes from the Greek word “Hades” (underworld), which refers to the condition of the planet at the time. This consisted of the Earth’s surface being under a continuous bombardment by meteorites and intense volcanism, which is believed to have been severe due to the large heat flow and geothermal gradient dated to this era.

Out-gassing and volcanic activity produced the primordial atmosphere, and evidence exists that liquid water existed at this time, despite the conditions on the surface. Condensing water vapor, augmented by ice delivered by comets, accumulated in the atmosphere and cooled the molten exterior of the planet to form a solid crust and produced the oceans.” Solar System History: How Was the Earth Formed? By Matt Williams)

The previous thoughts are generally accepted; however it is highly unlikely that liquid water could accumulate upon the surface of the planet at this early stage barring the tremendous heat being generated by the planet. However its accumulation in the atmosphere is not under dispute.

Note the following comments taken from another prospective.

The Earth formed under so much heat and pressure that it formed as a molten planet. For nearly the first billion years of formation (4.5 to 3.8 billion years ago) — called the Hadean Period (or hellish period) — Earth was bombarded continuously by the remnants of the dust and debris — like asteroids, meteors and comets — until it formed into a solid sphere, pulled into orbit around the sun and began to cool down. As Earth began to take solid form, it had no free oxygen in its atmosphere. It was so hot that the water droplets in its atmosphere could not settle to form surface water or ice. Its first atmosphere was also so poisonous, comprised of helium and hydrogen that nothing would have been able to survive.

Earth's early atmosphere most likely resembled that of Jupiter's atmosphere, which contains hydrogen, helium, methane and ammonia, and is poisonous to humans.” (“Earths Beginnings: The Origins of Life” By Eric McLamb)

“The Earth did not always have the same atmosphere as the one we depend upon today. In the earliest atmosphere, the molecules of H2 and He2 dominated. These the lightest of molecules did not stay long. They are light in molecular weight, and therefore require a large gravitational attraction to keep them. The Earth is about 1/3 too light in terms of mass. Additionally, the Earth was a homogeneous mixture of molten rock and chemicals that had not yet stratified into the layers we know today. Without an iron core, there is no magnetic field in the early Earth, required to magnetically hold some of these lightest elements (nor to deflect solar winds). Constant volcanism and the decay of radioactive elements everywhere kept the planet very hot. With a thin or perhaps no basalt crust, the molten planet made water accumulation impossible."

As the melting point of rock ranges between 2000 degrees Fahrenheit to twice that much, it must have been in that range of temperature on the surface of the earth with increasing heat toward the center until the maximum was reached. Water not under pressure cannot be heated beyond 212 degrees, but if confined the temperature may increase until the water turns to vapor exerting tremendous pressure in all directions. As steam it will expand if possible 1645 times or roughly one cubic inch (of liquid water) becomes one cubic foot (of water vapor). Consequently if there had been any water within the molten mass, it would have expanded and being lighter than the molten rock would have risen to the surface and escaped into the atmosphere.”

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In considering the tremendous heat produced by the molten earth some conception of what that heat must have been like is given to us by the heat radiated by the detonation of a thermo-nuclear explosion. A hydrogen bombs explosive center registers approximately 100 million degrees Celsius. We can see that all moisture would be converted to vapor as fast as atomic action produced it. This would also be true of other substances.

“The Hydrogen Bomb is a fusion weapon. The bomb gets its power from fusing atoms in hydrogen. In the reaction that causes the explosion for a Hydrogen Bomb, two atoms of Deuterium or Tritium hit each other to create a helium atom and neutrons. "The resulting energy is proportional to the difference in mass between the original atoms and the products of the collision." (MSN Encarta) In order for the explosion to work, an extreme amount of heat is necessary. A nuclear fission is necessary in order to generate that much heat (which would need to be as hot as the sun). The exact temperature would be about 100,000,000 K (Kelvins) or 99,999,726 C (Celsius) or 179,999,540 F (Fahrenheit). In order to achieve this, a nuclear fission bomb is placed at the center of the device. The fission reaction creates the immense temperatures needed for the fusion reaction to take place and the real explosion occurs.” (Hydrogen Bomb)


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A major impact of just one asteroid of only a few kilometers in diameter would release the energy of several million thermo-nuclear bombs, now multiply that by a constant bombardment of hundreds of such asteroids over this period, some possibly much larger than just a few kilometers and try to imagine the amount of heat being generated at that time. A 10-kilometer object would produce an explosion of 6 × 107 megatons of TNT (equivalent to an earthquake of magnitude 12.4 on the Richter scale).

The point is that practically every element or combination of elements can be reduced to vapor (or gas) by the application of sufficient heat, and then caused to expand, many of these to an even greater degree than that of water. Therefore we see that the requirement of law is that those elements which eventually made up the crust of the earth, would have been converted to gas, and would later have condensed to solid matter in earth’s atmosphere. Excerpts taken from “Rings and Canopies”

We will continue with our next post.