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World History

The Genesis Account of Intelligent Design

weather women before weather map

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Genesis: the Geological Time Table and the RATE Findings

The Original Earth

Does Genesis Verify Pangea?

Weather Alert!

The Genesis Account of Intelligent Design

We have already discovered that Genesis is the most authoritative account of ancient history. That does not mean we cannot question it or compare it to other sources. Just remember that we have proven Genesis to be the most authoritative history book.

Remember that Moses writes in the ancient Hebrew verbs indicating that his report is nonfiction. Also, recall that he writes in a minimalistic style. His goal is not to tell everything he knows, but to direct the reader to the most important history.

I will use the New International Version unless I tell you differently.

Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

Be an excellent journalist and ask the six questions.

Moses begins with, “In the beginning God….” In the beginning of what? Of everything: time, space, matter…. Nothing existed except the Judeo-Christian God. I will use “God” for the Judeo-Christian deity.

Who? God

What? He created everything including humans.

When? Let’s get back to this. It deserves a section of its own.

Where? God is everywhere at once.

How? He spoke and various things appeared—except for humans. He made the man of dirt (“the dust of the earth”) and later made the woman from the man’s rib.

Why? Unlike many cultural stories who say humans were made to serve the gods, Moses says God created humans for company. He loved the puny little things and wanted them to choose to love him back. How weird is that?

Genesis: the Geological Time Table and the RATE Findings

Let’s return to “when.”

Moses says all of creation was completed in six days. On the seventh day, God rested. (Not that God was tired: he was setting an example for humans.)

Now, some people try to have their cake and eat it, too. They don’t want to seem unscientific, so they try to jam the Genesis account into traditional geological time.

They say, “Well, a day is a period of time like…an eon…or a geological era.”

Sorry, folks, the creation story is written with narrative verbs. The seven days are literal. (Although an eon of rest sounds inviting sometimes!)

How long ago was Creation Week?

The traditional Jewish date of the beginning of Creation Week is October 7, 3761 B.C. However, there is a 165 year period under debate. The traditional date used the genealogies in Genesis and added the years from then to when the date was calculated.

The traditional Christian date for Creation Week is 4004 B.C. Archbishop Ussher calculated this and added dates to the King James Bible when it was first published in 1611.

Ussher used all of the genealogies of the Christian Bible, which brought calculations to known dates in world history. He added the gap dates between the end of the New Testament to his own time.

Since then, other biblical scholars have checked his work, using all genealogies, known historical dates, and scientific findings.

Ussher was found to be almost correct. The actual date of creation was 4 or 6 years earlier.

In case you are wondering, the recalculation of geologic time, using all of the RATE findings, makes Ussher’s date scientifically defendable.

And, by the way, there is an enticing nuclear decay spike during Creation Week! What was its cause and effect? We don’t know yet.

The Original Earth

Genesis gives a unique, specific description of the creation of planet Earth that is as bizarre to our minds as good science fiction.

  1. Genesis 1:2 (chapter 1, verse 2) says, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
    1. All kinds of ideas clash in my mind!
      1. The earth was formless. Okay. (Struggle.) Got that.
      2. The earth was empty. That’s easy to understand.
      3. Darkness…well, yeah. Light hadn’t been created yet.
      4. The surface of the deep. What’s the deep? Deep what? Deep sea? That doesn’t seem likely since water gets its own note next. Deep as in the core of the earth? Maybe. How did an ancient Egyptian prince know this stuff?
      5. The waters. Okay. There were the waters and the deep. Got it. Sort of.
  2. After God created light, and then night and day (yes, a day began after sunset because the Earth was in darkness until light was made) Genesis 1:7 says, “God made the expanse and separated the waters under the expanse from the waters above it….God called the expanse ‘sky.’”

Does Genesis Verify Pangea?

Weather Alert!

  • Genesis 2:5b-6: “…for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth…but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” So…rain is an abnormal event!

Irrigation was the primary infrastructure interest in ancient Egypt and therefore of great interest to Moses.

Okay, my head hurts. I can’t take anymore.

I bet you could use a break, too.

Read it for yourself: Genesis 1:1-2:6

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