Archive for icthyology

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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