Monthly Archives: October 2018
A Nutshell History of the World
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isaiah 46:9-10)
World history can evenly be divided into three segments of 2,000 years each: from creation to Abraham; from Abraham to Jesus; and from Jesus to the present. I realize that academic historians and anthropologists with Ph.D. degrees will disagree, but they have earned the right to be wrong; so I will acknowledge their opposition and move on.
Beginning with Genesis 1, the Bible records the creation in just six 24-hour days. Genesis 2 details the creation of man – Adam and Eve. Genesis 3 records the Fall of man and the first promise of Messiah. This event probably took place less than a month after creation. I come to this conclusion because God instructed Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). Considering God’s assessment of His “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31), Adam and Eve were perfect human specimens and should not have had any trouble reproducing.
Additionally, a woman’s menstrual cycle lasts about 28 days. It takes 14 days for the ovary to release a ripened egg (ovum).[1] The ovum has another week where it is ready for fertilization. If not fertilized within that week, it will be sluffed off in the menstrual period, and the cycle begins again. Considering this, the Fall may have been less than two weeks after creation.
Genesis 4 records the first murder – Cain killing his brother Abel – and the ungodly descendants of Cain. Genesis 5 records the Godly descendants of Seth (Adam’s son to replace Abel). That genealogy records a period of about 1,658 years.[2], [3] When reading the genealogies recorded in Genesis 5, one must keep in mind that these records are from event to event – the age of the father at the birth of that son. Furthermore, the birth of the named son does not demand that he be the firstborn as precluded by the common phrase “and he begat sons and daughters (Genesis 5:4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 26, 30). Therefore, one can employ simple addition to add up the ages of the father at the birth of the named son.[4]
Genesis 6-9 records the depravity of man that brought God’s judgment upon the Earth through the Global Flood. Only Noah, his family. and all the animals that God brought to the Ark were saved. The animals included dinosaurs, and the Bible does mention dinosaurs although not by that name. Sir Richard Owen first coined the word dinosaur in 1841. The King James Bible was published in 1611, more than 200 years before the word “dinosaur” was invented. Before that time, these creatures were collectively known as “dragons.” The Book of Job names two of these creatures, Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40-41), whose description is unlike anything known to modern man.
The Flood lasted 370 days (Genesis 7:11; 8:14), based on a 360-day year. After the Flood, the Earth was still in turmoil with a lot of active volcanos and much warmer oceans. These factors contributed to the Ice Age that followed.[5] The Book of Job, considered by many Bible scholars as the oldest book in the Bible, speaks more about snow, ice, and cold than any other book of the Bible suggesting that the earth was experiencing the Ice Age at that time. Creation scientists believe the Ice Age lasted only about 200-400 years, but there was only one, not many as the secular scientists suggest.
Genesis 10 is called the Table of Nations. It records the descendants of Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and where they settled around the world after their dispersion at Babel. Shem’s descendants ultimately led to the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 3:36).
Finally, Genesis 11 records the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues/languages. This event is the origin of all the ethnic groups (not “races”) in the world. Neanderthals were among those that scattered at Babel. Recent scientific discoveries show that Neanderthals are/were 100% human. Genesis 11 also records the genealogy of Abraham through whom God would bless all the nations of the earth 2,000 years later. The rest of the Old Testament deals with the history and the future history of Abraham’s descendants.
The future history concerns the coming of Messiah to rule all nations from His throne in Jerusalem. The Old Testament records future history in two parts. At His first coming/advent, “He came to His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). He was crucified, buried, but He rose from the dead after three days and ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9-10; Ephesians 1:19-23). From there we await His return – His second coming (John 14:1-3; Acts 1:11). At that time, He will fulfill the future history recorded by the Old Testament prophets concerning His reign on earth. The time of His second advent draws near. As there were six days of creation and a Sabbath day of rest (Genesis 1:1-2:3), so have there been six millennia of history, and we await the seventh millennium (Revelation 20:1-7) of rest where Messiah will rule the nations with a “rod of iron” (Psalm 2:9; Revelation 2:27; 12:5; 19:15).
At the end of the millennial reign of Christ, world history ends and eternity, for us, begins. Are you ready? See my page on “Securing Eternal Life.”
Notes:
[1] “Female Reproductive System” – https://tulsafertilitycenter.com/female-infertility/female-reproductive-cycle.php
[2] “Age of the Earth” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2018/10/14/age-of-the-earth-2/
[3] “Age of the Earth” – https://erniecarrasco.com/2014/02/23/age-of-the-earth/
[4] James J. S. Johnson, J.D., TH.D, “How Young Is the Earth? Applying Simple Math to Data Provided in Genesis” – http://www.icr.org/article/how-young-earth-applying-simple-math-data-provided/
[5] Jake Hebert, Ph.D., “Was There an Ice Age?” – http://www.icr.org/article/was-there-ice-age
Filed under Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Creation, Evangelism, Origins, Religion, Salvation, Second Coming of Christ, Theology
Angels
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. (Psalm 91:10-11)
I often get asked, “When did God create angels?” That is an understandable question since the Bible often speaks of angels. The word “angel” in Hebrew is mal’âk and aggelos in the Greek. In either language, the word means “messenger.” The English word “angel” appears 203 times in the Bible, and that does not account for the plural form or other terms that describe them.
The Bible names only three angels, Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel. In the Old Testament, we read of “the angel of the Lord,” who is God Himself, the pre-incarnate Jesus. We know this because, in context, the “angel” speaks “as God,” not “for God.” Regular angels always deliver a message “from” God and give credit to God for the message – “thus saith the Lord.” The “angel of the Lord” always speaks as God. For example, the first appearance of the “angel of the Lord” is in Genesis 16, when Sarah cast out Hagar, and the “angel of the Lord” appears to her in the wilderness. “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude” (Genesis 16:10, emphasis mine). A regular angel might have said, “The Lord will multiply thy seed,” but this angel assumes the responsibility. A regular angel cannot do that, but God can.
With all the mention of angels in the Bible – and if we believe the Bible is true – angels are real creatures. Since they are real, God created them, and if God created them, He must have created them some time during the creation week. The question is, when did He do that?
The Bible does not say when the angels were created. The Bible is “a love letter from God to man,” therefore it deals mostly with the relationship between God and His prized creation –mankind. While the Bible is accurate when it describes scientific facts (the water cycle, bird migration, cosmological phenomena, etc.) or records history, that is not its main purpose. Therefore not everything that God does is revealed to us. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
Angels were created to serve God’s purpose for man, and they mostly fight for us in “the unseen realm.” Only occasionally do they enter our dimension which is why the writer to the Hebrews encourages hospitality. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2).
However, the Bible does not focus on them too much probably to discourage the worship of them. “Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Colossians 2:18). In addition, man was created superior to the angels. “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:2-3, emphasis mine).
Therefore, we can understand why God did not include the creation of angels in the creation account. The Bible says, “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18). The earth was created for man, not for angels, and that is the focus of the creation account.
However, we can know that angels were created (they are immortal, not “eternal” in the same way as God is eternal) very early on in the creation. In God’s response to Job, He says, “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7, emphasis mine). The “morning stars” and the “sons of God” is speaking of the angels. They were there to witness God’s creation. Therefore we can surmise that they were probably created on Day One or no later than Day Two, but the Bible does not say for certain. We can also surmise that Satan[1] (Lucifer) was among those angels when we read Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19. I believe that the reason Satan hates humanity[2] so much is that he, having been created the greatest of the angels, observed God create man in His own image and give man dominion over all of His creation. In Texas, we would say, “That really chapped his hide.”
Man lost his former estate in the Garden of Eden, but the fact remains that God created man to be superior to the angels. His will is to redeem mankind from that fallen state, and He gave us His Word both in written form – the Bible – and in physical form – Jesus, the Word – to accomplish that end. Angels are not the main focus of the Bible.
Notes:
[1] “Why Satan?” https://erniecarrasco.com/2014/11/02/why-satan/
[2] “Marring the Image” https://erniecarrasco.com/2015/05/24/marring-the-image/
Filed under Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Creation, Religion, Satan, Theology
Age of the Earth
“And the earth was without form and void” (Genesis 1:2)
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:11)
Many Christians find it difficult to believe that the universe and the earth are only about 6000 years old. After decades of assault from all sides by evolutionists touting that billions of years of evolution are well-established scientific fact, Christian scholars, intimidated by the prospect of appearing uneducated while at the same time desiring to uphold the veracity of the Bible, seek compromises that attempt to “shoehorn” evolution into the simple text of the creation account recorded in Genesis.
Several of the compromises exist today even though solid biblical and scientific scholarship has shown them to be false. The Gap Theory,[1] for example, attempts to squeeze billions of years between Verse 1 and Verse 2 of Genesis 1 supported only by vivid imaginations and extra-biblical Jewish writings and traditions but offers zero biblical backup. The Day-Age Theory mistranslates the normal meaning of “day” into indefinitely long periods of time. The Day-Age Theory, when examined carefully and critically presents several problems. Then there is Theistic Evolution that makes out God to be some cosmic tinkerer or experimenter as if He could not get it right the first time.
Other compromises probably exist, but recently I heard a new one. Someone wrote in with the perfect solution to the age of the earth problem. He said:
I believe that the earth is young, 6000 years old, but when I look at Genesis 1: 9-10, I see that what God called the earth is DRY land, not the whole planet. In other words, it is the DRYNESS of the land that is sticking up above the surface of the seas that God had just made that is young or new or 6000 years old. This isn’t my opinion, the Bible describes this. So verses 1 and 2 plus Day 1 and Day 2 need to be interpreted using what Moses says the earth is. So you see trying use dates given by dating techniques to work out how old the ‘earth’ is a waste of time. I personally doubt that it would be possible to date the age of anything. This is because I think anything God makes would always be ‘as new’, until we get to when sin occurred here and then the flood. Using the context approach, entirely within chapter one, it is easy to see what ‘heaven’ is as well. The universe was made instantly by God’s word for sure, but that wasn’t Moses’ focus in Genesis. Another question to ask using the context approach is, ‘Why did God do what He did in Genesis One, the climax of which is Adam and Eve?
What the writer suggests is that the first two days were long periods of time – millions or billions of years, but the appearance of land on the third day is the starting point for counting the age of the earth. I can commend him for taking a hard look at Scripture, however, his disadvantage, it appears, is that he is relying strictly on the English translation of the Bible. The original language, Hebrew, makes things very clear. The Hebrew word for “day” is yôm. Yôm, in the Old Testament nearly always refers to a normal 24-hour day, especially when it is associated with an ordinal number: first day, second day, third day, etc. If that were not clear enough, God clearly defines what a day is: “And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Genesis 1:5). So, one cannot add extensive periods of time to the creation account without doing harm to the text.
Genesis 1:9-10 is another place where the English language fails to translate the Hebrew precisely. In my King James Bible, the word “land” is in italics meaning that the word was inserted in the text for clarity to the English reader. Literally, the phrase should read, “let the dry appear: and it was so. And God called the dry Earth.” (vv. 9-10). The Hebrew word translated “earth” is ‘erets, and it can mean soil, ground, land (as in a plot of land or as a region like “the land of Egypt), and in a greater sense, the planet Earth. Context determines the meaning, which makes me wonder why the translators capitalized the word “Earth” when the context is referring to the “dry land” and not to the entire planet. The conclusion that it is only the “dryness” that is 6000 years old contradicts the definition of yôm given in Verse 5 (and the rest of Scripture).
Reading in its normal context, giving the words their normal meaning, the creation account recorded in Genesis 1 clearly states that God created the universe, the earth, and everything upon the earth in six 24-hour days. One must either accept that or reject it, but woe to them who attempt to add to or take away from that Word to make it fit the whims of sinful men (Deuteronomy 12:32; Revelation 22:18).
Since the writer was convinced that the 6000-year age of the earth started with the appearance of dry land, I did not expound any further on the age of the earth. However, some of the readers of this blog may still doubt since “experts” in the field of anthropology place the beginning of human history between 8000 BC and 5000 BC with “civilization” beginning around 3000 BC. According to biblical chronology, creation happened around 4000 BC, and man was “civilized” from the beginning. Many biblical scholars question this date because they fear appearing ignorant among the “experts.” The Bible presents a straightforward chronology in the “begats” cited in Genesis 5. Biblical scholars that doubt the accuracy of this chronology suggest that there may be gaps of hundreds or even thousands of years in these generations. However, a careful examination of the text reveals no such gaps. The years recorded in Genesis 5 are from event to event – from the age of the father to the birth of that son. For example, Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born or conceived (Genesis 5:3); that is 130 years from Creation. Seth was 105 years old when Enos was born or conceived (Genesis 5:6); that adds up to 235 years from Creation. Enos was 90 years old when Cainan was born or conceived (Genesis 5:9); that adds up to 325 years from Creation and so on. The table below breaks down the timeline.
Image Credit: Institute for Creation Research
Add to these the genealogies recorded in Genesis 11 (included in the table above), and we learn that Abraham was born between 1,948 to 1,985 years after Creation or around 2018 BC. The year of Abraham’s birth is pretty well established +/- 100 years, so given the chronology recorded in Genesis, all of Creation is not much more than 6000 years old. Of course, many will argue that, but their argument is against Scripture. Personally, I would be careful about challenging God on the accuracy of His Word. To question what we do not understand is one thing. To deny the veracity of God’s Word is something else altogether. According to Scripture, the Earth is only about 6000 years old.
Notes:
[1] “No Gap” https://erniecarrasco.com/2015/10/18/no-gap/
[2] JAMES J. S. JOHNSON, J.D., TH.D, “How Young Is the Earth? Applying Simple Math to Data Provided in Genesis” – http://www.icr.org/article/how-young-earth-applying-simple-math-data-provided/
Filed under Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Creation, Evolution, Religion, Theology
Ernie's Musings 