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Genesis 1:26-27 God Created Man

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , on September 29, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Man is made in the image of God. This point is made twice in the opening statement of verse 26. The point that humanity is made in the image of God is repeated a third time at the end of the passage in verse 27.

God introduces the idea of creating man in verse 26. “Let us make man…” In verse 27, He repeats on three occasions, that He created. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God is pretty emphatic that He is the One who made man. This was not left to random chance and primordial slime.

Note, the text does not say that an ape was made millions of years ago and over time it evolved into homo erectus then to neanderthal and eventually into modern day man. We still have monkeys, apes, and man, but no transitional species? The transitional species are extinct? How convenient. There is no statement in the Bible of “transitional species” or “missing links” any where in the text. Fossil evidence does not support intermediate, transitional, or missing links.

“If pressed about man’s ancestry, I would have to unequivocally say that all we have is a huge question mark. To date, there has been nothing found to truthfully purport as a transitional species to man…If further pressed, I would have to state that there is more evidence to suggest an abrupt arrival of man rather than gradual process of evolving.”

Richard Leakey, one of the world’s foremost paleoanthropologist, 1990

Man, in addition to apes and monkeys, was made on day six, not millions of years ago.

Man’s purpose is defined by God. The purpose of man is to rule over animal life. Man is to rule over fish, birds, cattle, and creeping things. He is to rule over the entirety of the earth.

“…I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science…it is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw(s) and holes as sound parts.”

Charles Darwin to Asa Gray

Romans 3:4 May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “THAT YOU MAY BE JUSTIFIED IN YOUR WORDS, AND PREVAIL WHEN YOU ARE JUDGED.”

God is truth.

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Genesis 1:24-25 Day 6, Land Animals

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , on September 22, 2011 by paulthepoke

Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Day six of creation brings land animals to life. Per usual, God’s order and man’s order are different. The following observations are courtesy of Ken Ham.

Bible: Trees before land animals

Science: Land animals before trees

Bible: Birds before reptiles

Science: Reptiles before birds

Bible: Whales before land animals

Science: Land animals before whales

Bible: Mammals (cattle) before “creeping things”

Science: Insects before mammals

Bible: Bats before land animals

Science: Land animals before bats

Bible: Birds before dinosaurs

Science: Dinosaurs before birds

Bible: Flowering plants before insects

Science: Insects before flowering plants

Bible: Dolphins before dinosaurs

Science: Dinosaurs before dolphins

Bible: Pterosaurs before land reptiles

Science: Land reptiles before pterosaurs

Bible: Flying insects before land insects

Science: Land insects before flying insects

Bible: Reptiles were created after birds

Science: Birds evolved from reptiles

There are three “kinds” or categories of animals listed in these two verses: cattle, beasts, and creeping things. Again, there is the phrase, “after their kind…” The word to consider is “kind”. It is the Hebrew word “miyn”. It means kind or species. In this case, it is applied to land animal life.

The land animals have “nephesh” just as the sea creatures and birds of day five. Nephesh is the Hebrew word for “creature” in the above verse. Strong’s Concordance defines nephesh as: soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion, that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, the inner being of man.

God saw this was good or “towb” in the Hebrew. Strong defines “towb” as good, pleasant, agreeable (to the senses), pleasant (to the higher nature), excellent (of its kind), rich, valuable in estimation. Everything was made in total perfection prior to the creation of mankind.

Darwin himself in his 1859 book The Origin of the Species did not actually address how species originated. The creation of species he later called an “abominable mystery.” Science clings to this man’s views as the foundation of their work and world view.

God created the world in His order. God’s order is not the same as science. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

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Genesis 1:21-23 Icthyology and Ornithology, God’s Version

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , on September 15, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:21-23 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

Two classifications of animals are noted in the verse above, sea creatures and flying creatures. As an example, let’s look at how God divides and classifies a bird. The example is the mourning dove.

Class 1: Day 5
Class 2: Winged/Air
Class 3: Winged/Flying creatures, “owph” in the Hebrew
Class 4: Bird
Class 5: Living
Kind: Dove kind,  “yownah” in the Hebrew
Sub-kind 1: dove
Sub-kind 2: mourning dove
Others within the kind: passenger pigeon (now extinct), turtle dove, fantails, pouters, Jacobins, tumblers, homing pigeons, carrier pigeons.

Time for review, there is the phrase, “after their kind…” The word to consider is “kind”. It is the Hebrew word “miyn”. It means kind or species. In this case, it is applied to aquatic life and winged, flying life.

Classification courtesy of Bodie Hodge, www.answersingenesis.org

In comparing plants and animals, there is a key difference. Animals have “nephesh” and plants do not. Nephesh is the Hebrew word for “creature” in the above verse. Strong’s Concordance defines nephesh as: soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion, that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, the inner being of man.

The word “blessed” in the verse is a Piel stem verb in the original Hebrew. Piel stem verbs indicate intensive or intentional action. Translated, God is intensively and/or intentionally blessing these animals. God’s command is simple. Bear fruit, be fruitful and become many, become numerous, multiply. The idea is of fullness and abundance. Life was created to be abundant, prolific, and successful.

There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

How God divides species and man divides species are not the same. This is not patterned after Linnaeus. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

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Genesis 1:20 Day 5

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , on September 9, 2011 by paulthepoke

 Genesis 1:20 Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.”

Day five once again pits God and the order He created versus man and how he explains the order of what he observes. What one believes will determine how one sees the world. God created water life first, then He created the birds that fill the sky. The following observations are courtesy of Ken Ham.

Bible:  Birds were created before land animals.

Science: Land animals were before birds.

Bible:  Whales were created before land animals.

Science: Land animals were before whales.

Bible: Land plants were created before sea creatures.

Science: Sea creatures were before land plants.

Bible: Starfish were created before earthworms.

Science: Earthworms were before starfish.

Bible: Birds were created before reptiles.

Science: Reptiles were before birds.

Bible: Whales were created before land animals.

Science: Land mammals were before whales.

Bible: Bats were created before land animals.

Science: Land mammals were before bats.

Bible: Birds were created before dinosaurs.

Science: Dinosaurs were before birds.

Bible: Dolphins were created before dinosaurs.

Science: Dinosaurs were before dolphins.

Bible: Pterosaurs was created before land reptiles.

Science: Land reptiles were before pterosaurs.

Bible: Flying insects were created before land insects.

Science: Land insects were before flying insects.

As one assesses the comparisons above, it is obvious there are clear contradictions in classification. One example is God classifies bats with the birds and flying creatures. Unlike man who classifies bats with mammals. Read Leviticus 11:13-19 ‘These, moreover, you shall detest among the birds; they are abhorrent, not to be eaten: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the kite and the falcon in its kind, every raven in its kind, and the ostrich and the owl and the sea gull and the hawk in its kind, and the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, and the white owl and the pelican and the carrion vulture, and the stork, the heron in its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat. Look what is included at the long list of all these birds. God considers the bat as a bird.

In the Genesis verse above, look at the word “teem” or “sharats” in the Hebrew. It means to teem, swarm, or multiply according to Strong’s Concordance. Look at the word “swarms” or “sherets” in the Hebrew. It means teeming or swarming things. The idea is that sea life was created with great abundance. The same idea of abundance is communicated in regards to bird life. The text is noted with a “polel” verb form in the Hebrew describing the “flying” activity of the birds. It indicates a swarming flight.

Darwin himself in his 1859 book The Origin of the Species did not actually address how species originated. The creation of species he later called an “abominable mystery.” Yet science holds this man’s views as the foundation of their work and world view.

God created the world in His order. God’s order is not the same as science. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

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God is Immutable

Posted in Creation with tags , , , on September 1, 2011 by paulthepoke

Deuteronomy 4:19 “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

The context of this verse in Deuteronomy is idolatry of any form of the creation. God is talking and He clearly states do not worship the objects of creation. These items were created and they have no power. Simply stated from the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20:5 “You shall not worship them (idols) or serve them (idols); for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me…” Why worship created objects when you can worship the One who created them?

Throughout history, mankind has worshipped the sun, moon, and stars. Man has been disobedient and continues to reap the consequences of their idol worship. This choice alone has ramifications towards grandchildren and great grandchildren. The Greeks worshipped Apollo god of the sun after the original sun god Helios. The Egyptians had Ra. Israel’s neighbors worshipped the moon. We have Jeane Dixon and Astrology and horoscopes, clearly much more sophisticated.

God’s view on this topic as well as any other has not changed. He cannot change. God is immutable. This aspect of His character is defined in the Old Testament. Malachi 3:6 “For I, the LORD, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. This same concept is noted in the New Testament. James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. The fact that God does not change should be reassurance that what He says is true.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

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Genesis 1:16 God is Immense and Omniscient

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , on August 25, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:16b He made the stars also.

How big is the universe? What is the scale of the universe? Is it round or flat or some other shape? Is the universe finite or infinite? The reality of the situation is we don’t know for sure. What we think we know is what we can observe. Tom Murphy (January of 2006) does provide some points of comparison in a paper he has written. Consider these points.

1)      The moon is 1.25 light seconds from earth.

2)      The sun is about 8 light minutes from earth.

3)      Jupiter is about 40 light minutes from sun.

4)      Pluto is about 5.5 light hours from the sun.

5)      The center of the Milky Way is about 25,000 light years away.

6)      The galaxy Andromeda is about 2,000,000 light years away.

7)      The edge of the visible universe is about 13,700,000,000 light years away.

http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/phys10/universe.pdf

This is the universe God has created. Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places so I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD. If we were capable of going to Andromeda, God is there. If we were to hide anywhere in the Milky Way, God is there. God is ridiculously immense and He is everywhere. He is omnipresent. There is no place in the universe or on Earth where God is not. It is impossible to hide from God.

2 Chronicles 2:6 “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him? This same concept is essentially restated in 1 Kings 8:27.

Psalm 139:7-12 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.

Regardless of the darkness of space, God is there and He can find us.

Framework of study provided by Systematic Theology, The Doctrine of God, Chester McCalley

http://wordoftruthkc.org/

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Genesis 1:16b God is Omniscient

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , on August 18, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:16b He made the stars also.

Psalms 147:4-5 He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.

God is omniscient. God knows all things completely, including past, present, future, actual, and possible. -Chester McCalley

God knows all of us personally and in great detail. His omniscience encompasses many aspects of our lives and all other topics. He knows about all of us before we were born to the number of days appointed in our lives. The following examples in Psalm 139 demonstrate the depth of God’s knowledge as it relates to our individual lives.

Psalms 139:13 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. The same concept of being known to God before conception is noted in regards to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Psalms 139:2-4 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows every little detail of our lives, all 7 billion of us (population estimate as of October 2011).

Psalm 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Psalm 139:17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

God knows all things as it relates to time. His knowledge extends across all aspects of time: past, present, and future.

Past-Acts 15:18 SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.

Present-Psalm 33:13 The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men;

Future-Isaiah 42:9 “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

Hypothetical-Matthew 11:23 And you people of Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to the place of the dead. For if the miracles I did for you had been done in Sodom, it would still be here today.

There are no secrets with God. Psalm 90:8 You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.

Framework of study provided by Systematic Theology, The Doctrine of God, Chester McCalley

http://wordoftruthkc.org/

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Genesis 1:16-19 Here Comes the Sun

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , on August 13, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:16-19 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

Notice the repetition of the purpose of these two lights. The greater light is to govern the day. This is restated two times in the verses above. The lesser light is to govern the night. This is restated two times in the verses above. According to Strong’s Concordance, the idea and definition of “govern” is as follows. The Hebrew word is “memshalah”. It means: rule, dominion, realm, domain.

The sun and the moon are to provide light on the earth as noted in the verses above. This is a restatement of Genesis 1:15 “and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

The sun and the moon are to separate light from dark as noted in the verses above. This is a restatement of Genesis 1:14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night…

The Psalmist confirms these concepts and purposes of the sun and moon in Psalm 136:8-9 The sun to rule by day, for His lovingkindness is everlasting, the moon and stars to rule by night, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.

God is very clear about the intent and purpose of the creation of these heavenly bodies.

Isaiah 40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing.

As of 2010, Universe Today and European Space Agency have attempted to estimate the number of stars in the universe. The Milky Way Galaxy has approximately 200 billion stars. The average galaxy contains between 1011 and 1012 stars. Astronomers estimate there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion (10% variance at best) galaxies in the universe. When the number of galaxies is multiplied by the number of stars per galaxy, you get between 1022 and 1024 stars in the universe. Remember, this is the best estimate of man based on what he can observe. There are likely more.

Consider Isaiah 40:26 from a semantic perspective. Various linguistic estimates account for one million words in the English language. Think of the vocabulary of God to name ALL of these stars. All stars are accounted and personally named. Our vocabulary is ridiculously limited in comparison. This number of stars created and noted makes Matthew 10:30 a walk in the park from a counting perspective.

Matthew 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. –Jesus

All of this is “good” or “towb” in the Hebrew. It is defined in Strong’s Concordance as: good, pleasant, agreeable (to the senses); pleasant (to the higher nature); rich, valuable in estimation; appropriate, becoming.

We should know the drill, the evening is the start of the day. There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

 

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Genesis 1:14-15 Lights

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , on August 4, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:14-15 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

Here we go again, another day and another difference in how God created and man postulates over the creation. The Big Bang says an explosion took place approximately 15 billion years ago. Biblical genealogies back to Adam calculate the earth is less than 10,000 years old.

Science says the sun was present before the earth. God spoke the earth into existence on the first day and the sun was created on the fourth day.

Science says that the sun was present before other light on the earth. God says there was light which was created on day one other than the sun. This light separated day from night.

Science says the stars were before the earth. God says the stars were created on day four after the creation of the earth on day one.

Science says that the earth was created at the same time as the other planets. God says the earth was created first and the other planets were created later on day four. Observations and distinctions are from www.answersingenesis.org .

God does draw a distinction from the “light” created on day one and “lights” created on day four. The following is an excerpt from Dr. Henry Morris’ Defender Bible, www.icr.org

On the first day, God had said: “Let there be light” (Hebrew or). Now He says: “Let there be lights” (ma-or). Light energy was activated first, but now great masses of material (part of the “earth” elements created on the first day) were gathered together in one of the firmaments, or spaces, of the cosmos–the space beyond the waters above the space adjacent to the earth. These great bodies were set burning in complex chemical and nuclear reactions, to serve henceforth as “light-givers” for the earth.

Dr. Morris, www.icr.org , also has this observation regarding the “seasons”.

The establishment of “seasons” (and these were not simply religious seasons, but actual climatological seasons) indicates that the earth was formed with an axial inclination from the beginning, for this is the basic cause of its seasons.

God’s word is radically different than the opinion and imagination of man. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

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Genesis 1:14-15 Plan and Purpose, Prophetic Implications

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , , on July 27, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:14-15 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so.

God has a plan and a purpose for His creation from the beginning. These are not random events that occurred by chance from an explosion of a singularity. The cosmos were not blown willy nilly into existence.

There are multiple purposes for these lights and they are stated clearly. One, the lights are to separate day and night. Two, they are signs. Three, they are time markers (seasons, days, and years). Four, it is for light on planet earth.

These purposes are repeated and we are reminded throughout the Bible. The information is not contained specifically to Genesis. Look at a star filled sky at night. Granted, man has blinded himself from God’s truth with all the city lights. The night sky speaks to the honor, splendor, greatness, and abundance of God. The heavens are God’s handiwork. The heavens display His discernment, perception, and skill. It tells of the order and power of God. It gives us insight to who He is.

Psalms 19:1-2 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

The four seasons were ordained from the point of creation. Psalms 104:19 He made the moon for the seasons; the sun knows the place of its setting.

Psalms 74:16-17 Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun. You have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.

There are prophetic implications of Genesis 1:14-15. There will come a time in the future where God’s purpose in the heavens will be on display to humanity during the Tribulation. As stated in the beginning, these bodies will be used for “signs”. The Hebrew word for “signs” is “ ‘owth”. It means: sign, signal, distinguishing mark, banner, remembrance, miraculous sign, omen, warning, token, ensign, standard, miracle, or proof (Strong’s Concordance).

Joel 2:10 Before them the earth quakes, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness.

Joel 3:15 The sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.

The sun is progressively darkened, along with other signs, during the Tribulation as stated in the book of Revelation.

These are the words of Jesus Himself. The context is the Olivet Discourse. Matthew 24:29 “But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. The information Jesus is quoting comes from the prophets in the Old Testament. See Isaiah 13:10, 24:23, Ezekiel 32:7, Amos 5:20, 8:9, and Zephaniah 1:15 for more detail.

This is not some cute, little story that is made up by primitive man trying to explain his surroundings and how things came to be. It is not a limited philosophical and/or intellectual understanding. It has ramifications for the history and future of planet earth. The entirety of the Bible is a master plan that started “in the beginning”. For all we know, these ramifications could be coming sooner than we think.

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