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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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Genesis 1:11-13 God’s Taxonomy

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , on July 12, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:11-13 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Remember back in the day when we all studied the Linnaeus classification system? There was Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. This is man’s idea of classification. Biblically speaking, this system is heretical. I am not naïve, I am sure science sees God’s system as antiquated and simplistic.

How does God classify? It is different in comparison to how man classifies. 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 verse 11, there is the word “vegetation” or “deshe’” in the Hebrew. It could be translated to mean vegetation or grass. Either way, grass has seed. It is a plant and it is vegetation.

These created plants were brought forth with maturity and capable of reproduction with “seed” or “zera’” in the Hebrew. The word is translated: seed, sowing, offspring, semen, descendants, posterity, or children. This is the same term used in Genesis 3:15 by God in response to the fall of man and to sin. This verse is in reference to the seed of the woman and the seed of Satan. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Yes, Satan has a seed.

When it comes to vegetation, according to God, there are two types: 1) plants yielding seed and 2) fruit trees with fruit yielding seed contained within the fruit (Bodie Hodge, www.answersingenesis.org ). This is much cleaner and less complicated in comparison to man’s classification system.

All plant life was created before animal life. The idea of plant life and vegetation created on Day 3 before the sun and animals is in direct contradiction with evolutionary science.

There was evening and there was morning, a third day. Remember, darkness first to start the day.

How God divides species and man divides species are not the same. This will become much more obvious when animals are taken into consideration. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.

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Genesis 1:11-13 Botany Created

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , on July 7, 2011 by paulthepoke

Genesis 1:11-13 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

It is on the third day of creation with the development of plant life that science gets turned upside down. This is where what one believes determines how one sees the world. People will see the world through one of these two prisms. The following observations are courtesy of Ken Ham.

Bible Life was created on the land first with plants.

Science: Life started in the oceans.

Bible: Plants were created before

Science: Plants after the sun.

Bible: Plants were created on Day 3; Insects were created on Day 6

Science: Plants and insects evolved together mutual benefit.

Bible: Land plants were first.

Science: Sea organisms were first.

Bible:  Atmosphere was created before plants.

Science: Plants produced oxygen rich atmosphere.

Bible: Fruit trees were created before fish.

Science: First fish evolved long before fruit trees.

Bible: Simple plants before fruit trees.

Science: Fruit trees before other plants.

Bible: Trees before land animals.

Science: Land animals before trees.

One reason God made the plants first is they were intended to be food. The planet was created for animal life and man so there would be a food source available immediately. Plants, fruits, and vegetables were created mature and ready to eat. Genesis 1:29-30 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. Man was created to be a vegetarian. Animal life was created to be vegetarian. God did not approve man being a carnivore until after the flood which is approximately 2,000 years after creation (Timeline provided by Ken Ham).

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 1:9-10, Land on Day 3

Posted in Creation with tags , , , , , , , on June 28, 2011 by paulthepoke

Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.

Another day and another difference, evolutionary science says that dry land was first, then the oceans appeared. From the evolution perspective, matter has always been.

God says the sea was first, then dry land appeared. Matter did not exist until God created. The idea of water first and land out of water is noted in the New Testament in 2 Peter 3:5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water…

Observation: God said for the waters to be gathered in one place. The waters have a name, “seas”. Initially, water covered the entire surface, a literal water world. Next land appeared. The land has a name, “earth” or “erets” in the Hebrew.

There are creation scientists who argue for the original land mass being large and single. Some of these creation scientists include researchers at the Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org), Ken Hamm (www.answersingenesis.org).  Names for this land mass and its configuration include Rodinia and Pangea. Think about our planet today. We have land masses or continents, not a single land or super continent. The creationist argument for seven continents and the current land configuration is due to the events of Noah’s Flood. That is a discussion for another day.

God could have and may have made the land masses in their current configuration just as well. We don’t know for sure.  Science does not know definitively either. We were not there.

and God saw that it was good.

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Genesis 1:3-4 Day 1, Let there be light

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

Genesis 1:3-4 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

At this point the critic launches an objection. How can you have light without the sun? After all, the sun was created on day four and this is day one. How can there be day and night without the sun for the initial three days? This question shows the bias in the belief system of the evolutionist. The evolutionist assumes that the sun and the stars were present before the earth. Genesis states the earth was created before the light (day one), let alone the sun, moon, and stars (day four). Because of their bias, science makes a leap of faith and decides the Bible is not true.

Evolution is a belief system. It is a theory. Can these scientists go back in time? Were these scientists present to observe precisely what happened? Science can not go back and test. They must deal with the present. According to their doctrines of the Scientific Method, science can not replicate or reduplicate what happened. Their theory can not be proven in a lab. By their standards, science fails miserably. At the very least, scientists should realize their hypothesis is false and reconstruct another hypothesis. As Ken Ham accurately points out in The Genesis Solution, “The conflict is really a battle between two religious beliefs”.

The sun is not needed for light. There are also many types of light, not just visible light. Short-wave light includes ultraviolet light, X-rays, and others. Long-wave light includes infrared light, radio waves, and others. Light is produced by friction, by fire, by numerous chemical reactions, as well as the nuclear reactions of atomic fission and fusion, which is what we think is occurring in the sun. (Sunlight Before the Sun, John D. Morris, Ph.D.)

Light is energy. We know from verse two that the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). In effect, there is movement or energy over water. Note, land was not present yet. Land does not occur until day three. 1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. Follow the thinking. God = light = energy = movement. God (light) is separate from darkness, just like His creation. God (light) is good, just like His creation. God can accomplish His will without the sun, He has other means. Isaiah 45:7 The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.

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

This is not a scientific argument. God’s word is history.

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Creation Week Overview

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

As the week progresses, the creation process becomes more complex.

Day 1, Genesis 1:3–5              Light created.

Day 2, Genesis 1:6–8              Sky created.

Day 3, Genesis 1:9–13            Water and land separated, plants created.

Day 4, Genesis 1:14–19          Sun, moon, stars created.

Day 5, Genesis 1:20–23          Sea and flying creatures created.

Day 6, Genesis 1:24–2:1         Ground life (livestock, insects, animals) and man created.

Day 7, Genesis 2:2–3              Sabbath, rest, week created.

When one takes an overview of the creation week, it is obvious this chain of events does not fit the order of modern thinking. Every day of the creation week will be in opposition to current scientific thought. For example, plants (day 3) were created by God before the sun (day 4) was on the scene. From an evolutionary perspective, could plants survive millions of years without the sun for photosynthesis? That fact alone is at odds with many theories of the origins of life. Evolution holds to the opinion that the sun was present before plants. Evolutionists think these processes take millions of years.

Compare the Bible’s account of creation to the most widely accepted Astronomy view, The Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang states the universe was created approximately 13.7 Billion years ago. The Bible states the creation is approximately 10,000 years old based on genealogies from Adam. The scientific experts speak in billions of years. God’s view is less than 10,000 years. At this point, who is more specific? Who is more precise, man or God?

The Big Bang Theory states there was a hot, massive explosion point from a “singularity” that occurred and the universe continues to expand. The Bible states God created our world out of nothing. God spoke the creation into existence. There is no mention of an explosion in the Bible. God talked. Scientists have no explanation what caused their Big Bang. Scientists have no explanation where their “singularity” came from. Where did the mass of the explosion come from in the Big Bang? How did that mass get there? And people who believe in a Biblical account of creation are accused of believing in fairy tales? Information regarding the Big Bang was obtained from http://big-bang-theory.com/.

The age of the earth is a separate issue according to science. According the U.S. Geological Survey, the earth is 4.54 billion years old plus or minus 1% (real specific!). According to science, the earth showed up 9.16 billion years later after the Big Bang. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth (Genesis 1:1).

In regards to the development of life, The Big Bang Theory and evolution are at odds with each other. The Big Bang Theory states a universe 100 billion years old is not adequate for the development of a single cell (Answers to Evolution, Rose Publishing). According to theorists, life should not even exist on this planet for at least 95 billion more years. Scripture says the creation of life was completed in six days. There was no evolution from primordial slime to highly complex life forms in the Bible. We did not become more complex over time with gradual changes that took millions of years. We were created fully operational.

From man’s perspective, don’t let the facts get in the way.

1)      Even if all the data point to an intelligent designer, such a hypothesis is excluded from science because it is not naturalistic. Todd, Scott C., “A View from Kansas on the Evolution Debates,” Nature (vol. 401, September 30, 1999), p. 423. Mr. Scott is Biology Professor at Kansas State University.

2)      And I use that trust to effectively brainwash them. . . . our teaching methods are primarily those of propaganda. We appeal — without demonstration — to evidence that supports our position. We only introduce arguments and evidence that supports the currently accepted theories and omit or gloss over any evidence to the contrary. Singham, Mark, “Teaching and Propaganda,” Physics Today (vol. 53, June 2000), p. 54.

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

This is not a scientific argument. God’s word is history.

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Genesis 1:1 In the Beginning…

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

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The Hebrew word for God is “Elohim”. Elohim is a masculine, plural noun. It means divine, majestic, and great. There may be a hint of the Trinity in the plurality of the noun. He is the one, singular true God. He is the creator. He started time and space as we know it.

If one is looking for proof that God created or God exists, you are wasting your time. It is assumed. God is eternal and self-existent. God always has been and always will be. God was before the creation. In Genesis 21:33 God is called the eternal God. Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God. In the Hebrew, God is referred to as El Olam (Everlasting God). Olam means perpetual, forever, continuous, always, eternal.

YHWH (scholars refer to this as the Tetragrammaton, Greek for four letters) is the proper name of the Hebrew God of the Bible. The correct spelling is YHWH. Note there are no vowels in this term. Vowels from the name Adonai were substituted and the term Yahweh emerged. Jehovah is a word that has been translated to English from the Hebrew, Yahweh. The name for LORD is Jehovah. It means the existing one. This name is so sacred, Jews refuse to pronounce it. The name is first introduced in Exodus 3:14 when Moses and God are having a discussion. His name is a statement of existence. Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

All three members of the God-head (Father, Son, and Spirit) are active in the process of creation. See Psalm 104:24-31 and Isaiah 40:12-14 for general information on creation.

Malachi 2:10 indicates the Father is the creator by way of rhetorical question. “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously each against his brother so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? In the New Testament,                1 Corinthians 8:6 tells us yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.

The Son was part of the creation process. Colossians 1:15-16 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

The Holy Spirit was involved in the creative process. Genesis 1:2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.  Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

In today’s world, man frequently questions creation and how it came to be. Under the guise of science and enlightenment, the creation and Creator are explained and rationalized away. We are nothing more than mere slime, mutated monkeys, or random chance in the eyes of today’s experts. Why should we believe them? Do they really know? Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”

In chapters 38 and 39 of Job (general information on creation), God is having a discussion with a man, Job. God asks the fundamental question in verse 4. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding…”

When man questions us as believers of the Bible (ultimately God) for what we believe, how do we respond? When man questions the creation and the Creator, we could borrow a line from God and ask man one simple question.

Were you there?

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