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Genesis is the book that all other scripture is founded on. It shows us mans initial relationship with God, and mans subsequent fall from grace. The book of Genesis tells us that God is Creator, and tells us why we also need him as a Savior. It is for this reason, I believe that Genesis is attacked by critics, more than any other book in the bible.
The Creation account as told by the Holy Bible is the Inspired Word of God.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV)
The bible was written by men inspired by God:
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2 Peter 1:21 KJV)
While it is true that in some places the Bible contains parables (such as the parable of the sower and the seed, Matthew 13:3-23. It is clear both from the context, and from Jesus, who states that it is a parable, v. 18: “ Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower “), and poetry (the book of Psalms) it is clear that this is not the intention of the author of Genesis. Whether a story in the Bible is a factual event or a parable is always clear from the context of the story.
The account of Creation is a literal account of events that actually took place. Jesus himself taught the Creation account as an actual event, and not a parable. Why should we do any less?
Though the Bible has been translated into many languages, we have verification from copies of the original manuscripts (the Dead Sea Scrolls for example) that the word of God has not been perverted.
Jesus is God. In Revelation 1:8(KJV) Jesus said:
"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
The Old Testament of the Bible was in existence at the time of Christ. He studied it, and taught from it. Some may wonder if there are errors in the bible. We must remember that Jesus is the son of God, and he too knows everything. Had there been any factual errors (due to translating or copying) of the Old Testament we can be assured that he would have made this known at that time. The fact that he accepted it as the perfect written word of God should give us confidence in it as well.
I prefer the King James version of the Bible. It appears to be the closest to the original manuscripts (Read: "New Age Bible Versions: An Exhaustive Documentation of the Message, Men & Manuscripts Moving Mankind to the Antichrist's One World Religion" by G.A. Riplinger)
What follows is the account of Creation as found in the book of Genesis followed by my comments on each verse. A look at fossil men and fossil apes follow this commentary.
I pray that this will be a blessing to all who read it.
Question:
"Who wrote the Bible?"
from S.C.P. 2/6/02
My response:
God wrote Genesis 1:1-2:4 directly, as he did the Ten commandments. There was no one else around to witness the events of the Creation.
All other scripture was written by men who were inspired by God (2 Timothy 3:16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:."(KJV). These words were approved by Jesus (God in the flesh) when he came to earth. Adam wrote Gen 2:4b-5:1 Noah compiled the records of Adams descendants and himself recorded the events of the flood (Gen 5:1-6:9). Noah's sons wrote Gen 6:9b-10:1. (The Genesis Record pg 28)
It is important to keep in mind that the numbering of chapters and verses is a new addition to scripture. It was not part of the original text.
God is omniscient. This means that he knows everything.
Gods book never changes. Whereas books of men’s alleged human ancestors have to be rewritten and changed constantly.
1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Here we have the first verse in the Bible. It does not attempt to explain where God came from, it simply states as fact that God exists. Elsewhere in scripture we see that God had no beginning, and he has no end ( I will be adding these references). God created space and time, therefore his is not confined to them as we and our universe are.
The universe is clearly the result of an intelligent designer, but it is important to keep in mind that it was the God (of the bible) that designed it. Not some impersonal unknowable force. The problem with the intelligent design movement is that it does not give credit where credit is due. It doesn’t tell us that God made the earth.
In the beginning - This is the beginning of time. There were not eons of time prior to this for other life to have lived and died (also death did not enter the earth until Gen 3).
The earth was neither a molten mass that cooled, or a frozen mass that warmed up (both have been suggested as evolutionary explanations)
Dr. Robert Gentry discovered that the radioactive decay of primordial polonium in granite produces microscopic discoloration halos. These halos indicate instant formation of these rocks bearing witness to the instant creation of the earth by God ("Creation's Tiny Mystery" by Dr. Robert Gentry, published by: ESA)
Question:
"Where was God when he has not yet created the Heavens, galaxies, planets,
and everything else...?"
Christopher B.
5/18/01
Answer:
The Bible does not tell us what God did before He created the earth. He must not have felt it was important for our understanding of his love, grace, and mercy.
The book of Isaiah chapter 43 verse 10-11 (KJV) says:
"Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour."
Deuteronomy 4 verse 35 (KJV) also tells us:
"Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him."
2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
This was the original state of the earth. There was nothing and no one here before us. The bible is not saying there was any type of judgment on the earth prior to this.
The earth had no life at this time or prior to it.
The word "was" Gen 1:2 is the Hebrew hayetha and is the regular Hebrew verb of being (Morris pg 49). It is not the word haphak which would denote a change of state or being (i.e.: it does not and cannot mean "became" without form and void)
In his book "The first 100 words" Charles Taylor explains that "It's true that the word sometimes means 'became' , but (a) such a translation is rare and (b) when it means 'became' it is normally preceded by a preposition meaning 'to'. However , this preposition is absent in Genesis 1:2, hence it is most unlikely that it could mean 'became' on that basis. It is even less likely that the word should be translated 'had become'. " (pg 6)
It is clear from both the Hebrew language and the context of this word, that the earth was without form and void. It did not "become" this way by destruction of a previous world.
My page on "Why The Gap Theory is wrong" will explain this in more detail.
Click here to read in this browser window or Click here to read in a new browser window
Question from a reader:
"In Genesis 1:2 we read that the spirit of God
moved upon the face of
the waters. If it was with out form and void,
where did this water come from? In
chapters 6 and 7 the waters were made."
Thanks, Ray R. 2/23/01
Answer Coming soon
3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
God is able to simply speak and his words obey him.
God creates physical light and physical (not spiritual) darkness.
"I form the light, and create darkness..." Isaiah 45:7 (KJV)
Many years later, God asked Job a very important question: Job 38:19(KJV) "Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,"
Job could not answer. But God knows.
Light is merely a form of energy. It was non existent in a world not get "energized" and does not imply a dark (evil) spiritual state, nor does it hint at judgment (as Lucifer had not yet "fallen" until after day 7). This is an important point, as energy cannot create itself (Morris pg 52). God is not the origin of spiritual darkness (evil) "in him there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
4 "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
God means to convey a normal 24 hour cycle of a literal day. The presence of "evening and morning" signifies this is a day just as we would understand it today. This is the first time that the word "day" is used in scripture. It cannot be used here figuratively to mean anything other than a normal 24 hour day, because the first time a word is used, it must first be used literally to establish its normal meaning. It can only be used figuratively after establishing its literal meaning.
If you study Hebrew you would see that the fact that the word "day" is followed by a number (the word "first") demands that it be taken literally.
A day to God is the same as a day to us - 24 hours. So it took God 144 hours to create the earth and all that is in it, and all of space and the other planets. My page on "The Gap Theory" will explain this in more detail. Click here to read in this browser window or Click here to read in a new browser window
Question from a reader:
"How could it be a morning without a sunrise?"
Pierre C. 9/24/01
Answer:
A day is determined by the rotation of the earth, not whether or not the sun rises.
Some people argue that there could not be evening or morning before the sun was created. However, we see a temporary light source (when God created light) in the verse 3.
Some claim that the sun was already in existence, but just became visible on this day, the result of the dissipation of a thick cloud cover. But the sun was created in this verse, it did not merely become visible.
The Hebrew word "asah" means 'make'. It is used that way throughout this chapter*. It applies also to the suns creation on this day.(* Jonathan Sarfati)
In the same way that all the water was brought together on day 3 to form the oceans, the light might have also been gathered together here to form the sun.
Many cultures have worshipped the sun as the source of life. But by waiting until day 4 to create the sun, God is showing us that the earth existed before the sun, and that he not the sun is the giver of life.
6 "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Firmament is translated from the word raqiya‘.
There has been much discussion as to what the firmament was. The most thorough treatment of this subject is detailed in a book by Joseph Dillow called "The Waters above" (published by ICR ISBN: 0-8024-9198-7, 1982). Here Dillow cites biblical evidences for the earth's primeval vapor blanket.
Contrary to what some critics may claim, the bible never claims that the firmament was a solid dome. ("Is the raqiya‘ (‘firmament’) a solid dome? Equivocal language in the cosmology of Genesis 1 and the Old Testament: a response to Paul H. Seely by James Patrick Holding, published in: Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal 13(2):44–51, 1999)
The presence of a vapor canopy would allow light in, but filter out ultraviolet radiation. The collapse of this canopy at the time of the flood (Gen 6-9) in addition to genetic breakdown within our own bodies has effected our health and shortened our lifespan.
These will be restored during the millennial reign of Christ (Psalm 148:4, 6)
Psalm 19:1(KJV) "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
I have heard a few people claim that the firmament would have allowed men to grow to great heights. And while it is true such a vapor canopy would do much to improve our health (filter out radiation) it would not cause us to be giants. The effect that the firmament had on the earth can not be known completely without more information from God. Alleged skeletal remains of giant humans are at best sketchy. This is not to say there were not "giants" as the bible calls them (see Genesis 6) at one time. But there is no evidence that this was the norm.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
This is quite a bit different that what many people believe. Those who believe in the so called "Big Bang" (click here for more info on the Big Bang) believe that the earth was a hot molten mass. We see here in scripture that this is not the case.
Psalm 24:1 (KJV) "The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein."
| Despite what some people say, there is no where in the bible that claims the earth is flat. In fact it told us thousands of years ago that it was round. | 
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Job 26:7 tells us that the earth is suspended in space.
"He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." Adam and his family would know that the earth was round from looking at the sun and the moon, and also by having direct conversations with God |
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The book of Revelation speaks of four angels standing on the four "corners" of the earth.
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree." Revelation 7:1 King James Version Some have taken this verse to mean that the bible teaches that the world was flat. But these are not corners as in a square, they are cardinal directions, like north, south, east, and west. The bible teaches that the earth is round. This is clear in many passages, but one of the most clear is Isaiah 40:22.
"It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth"
The Hebrew word for circle here is chuug (verify) which means a "compass, circle, or sphere"
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Christians are often accused of believing that the earth is the center of the Universe, and that everything revolved around it. But it was Aristotle (384–322 BC) who taught this, not the Bible.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
The present day oceans were not the same as the seas (by definition smaller than an ocean). The borders of the oceans today formed after the waters receded from the flood (Gen 6-9). The day will come in the new earth when there "will be no more sea" (Rev 21:1) but there will still be waters above the heaven (Psalm 148:4,6).
God asks Job (Job 38:16) if he has entered into the springs of the sea. We didn't even know there were springs in the sea until recently. God told us about them thousands of years ago.
The many stratified layers that exist in the earth today do not represent geologic periods of millions of years. Many of these layers formed during the flood of Noah (Genesis 7).
The Bible does not tell us how many continents there were when he Created the earth. It may be that there was just one large continent (Pangaea), that later separated at the time of the flood. This would have occurred quickly in a period of a few months, not over millions of years as evolutionists claim.
John K. Reed has edited a book on plate tectonics called: "Plate Tectonics: A Different View" which may give some insight into this issue.
Question:
"Is there any mention of Atlantis in the Bible? It's claimed that it disappeared 11,000 years ago, which conflicts with the timeline you've derived from the Bible.
Furthermore, everyone claims to have found it, but in different locations around the world."
Blaine C. 1/14/02
Answer:
I do not believe Atlantis ever existed.
Most likely the story was borrowed from the flood account, and the land that was lost was simply the preflood world, that was wiped out by water.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
The first life on earth was plant life. This was not the result of evolution
The Bible tells us that plants can never evolve into other "kinds" of plants. They can only produce variations of their original "kind".
Roses can produce a variety of roses, but they can never produce a banana for instance.
Both 1 Corinthians 15:38 and Luke 6:44 speak of the inability of trees to change outside of their "kind". The seeds they produce will only produce trees of the same "kind".
We can not define the biblical term "kind" with any of the Linnaean categories. (See 'Variation, information and the created kinds', Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 5(1), 1991, pp. 42-47.)
But this is not the fault of the term 'kind', it is actually due to inconsistencies in the man-made classification system..." (Jonathan Sarfati in response to the PBS-TV series "Evolution" Episode 1: Darwin’s Dangerous Idea).
If animals classified as different species can interbreed then it is clear that they are both part of that created "kind". There are some instances though where there has been such loss of information (and degenerative mutations) in a species that even though they are both the same "kind" of creature they can not produce offspring.
Trees in the Garden of Eden would have numerous rings in them even though they were not old. The rings would serve to strengthen the trees and were not there in an attempt to make them appear older than they actually were. Some trees produce more than one ring per year, so counting the rings is not always an accurate way of telling their age.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
At this time all plants were still "good". Roses did not have thorns, berries were not poisonous, and pitcher plants did not "eat" insects. Plants which are now poisonous were not this way when God created them (including harmful drugs like marijuana). This changed in Genesis 3 verse 18.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Question:
"How could plants survive before the sun and water were even existent?"
Noel 9/2001
Answer:
Water has been present since Day 1.
There was also a light source in existence (verse 3). So for plants to wait one day for the sun to be created is not a problem.
The bible is clear, there was light before the sun. After Christ returns there will again be light without the sun. (see Revelation 21:23)
For those people who think each day of Genesis was a long period of time, how is it that plants could survive years without the sun? I think God did this on purpose, to reinforce the scriptures that say each day in Genesis is a literal day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
God created the sun, moon and stars to light the sky and also to mark time. This means that the light from them had reached the earth by day 6, and also more importantly this verse tells us that Adam could conceive of not only days but "years" (Hebrew "shanim"). This is a big problem for those who try to say that the days of Genesis were actually years or millions of years, but that God told them they were days, because they were not smart enough to understand the concept of years. This is also a problem for those who reject the old ages of the patriarchs. Because we see here that days and years are defined by the earths relation to the sun. Therefore these long ages of the patriarchs truly were years, and not seasons as some choose to believe.
Dr. Don DeYoung & Dr. John Whitcomb have written a great book called: "Our Created Moon: Earth's Fascinating Neighbor" which answers many questions on the moon.
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
According to Genesis 1:15 the light from the stars reached the earth on the day that they were created. Some are troubled by some studies which seem to indicate that it takes millions of years for the light from stars to reach the earth. Is there a solution? I cannot emphasize enough, that when mans theory is in conflict with scripture, we must take the word of God as absolute authority. Even if it would take millions of years for starlight to reach the earth in the present, that does not mean that it would have to take millions of years in the past. The key to the past is not the present.
Some possible solution are:
1. Light was created on it's way to the earth.
The same God who made the stars, can make the light from the stars appear instantaneously.
2. The speed of light has slowed down since God created it. If this is true, then it would take longer for light to reach the earth today than it did when God first made the sun and the stars.
I think a combination of the two may be correct. But we must also consider the possibility of red shifts, and the that God expanded the universe during the flood (read "Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe" by D. Russell Humphreys Master Books, ISBN: 0890512027, also in an updated and expanded video form), which would cause the red shift, and also mean that light did not originally have as far of a distance to go.
Isaiah 40:22 (and 17 other verses in scripture) seem to indicate God expanded the universe.
| Read the book "Starlight and Time" by Dr. D. Russell Humphreys for more info on star distance and the speed of light. | 
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I believe the light was created "on its way" (Morris pg 65). In the same way he created Adam a grown man, and the trees with fruit already on them. We know that Adam was able to see the stars when he was created just two days later. He and his descendants used them to determine "seasons", "days", and "years"
God also used a star to lead the wise men to Christ’s birth.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
God created the stars and named them.
"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host [angel or star?] by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth."
Isaiah 40:26 (King James Version)
He also knows how many stars there are.
"He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names."
Psalm 147:4 (King James Version)
He also named the constellations:
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?"
Job 38:31-33 (King James Version)
God did not want us to use the stars in astrology but in astronomy (God forbids astrology in Isaiah 47:12).
There is also evidence that he may have placed the gospel in the stars. (pg 572, Defenders Study Bible).
Job 9:8 tells us that God "spreadeth out the heavens" which could be in reference to an expanding universe. This would also alter the time it would take for light to reach the earth.
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The greater light is of course the sun, and the lesser light which rules the night is the moon, which of itself does not shine, but reflects the light from the sun to the earth. |
God did not put the stars or the sun in place for us to worship.
Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 19 says:
"And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars-all the heavenly array-do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven."
In the new heaven and earth there will be no need for the sun or the moon (Rev 21:23) they will be lit by the Glory of God.
Question:
"I wanted to know what you make of the mention of the sun standing still in in Joshua 10."
Chris G.
Answer:
This could be accomplished by slowing down the rotation of the earth for one day. There would be no detrimental effects from this as the God who made the earth to rotate can certainly cause it to stop or slow down for a short period of time. I would like to ask otherwise well meaning Christians not to spread the story of NASA finding a missing day with their computers. This is an urban legend with no basis in reality.
Question:
"If God made all things in the beginning and pronounced them very good, why do the Moon, Mars and other Planets have scars and craters on them? What do you think caused this?"
Scott P. 4 Nov 2000
Answer:
The craters in the moon, and on other planets might have been from various things (meteors etc) hitting them. Some have suggested that this occurred just before the flood, and that a meteor may have been the cause of the flood itself. I would like to see more research done in this area. All these things most likely occurred after the Fall of Man (Genesis chapter 3).
Question:
"The other night while momentarily watching a TV evangelist I was surprised to find out that we never went to the moon at all."
Answer:
This person is mistaken. There is no question that we did in fact land on the moon. I am aware of the video claiming that it was all a hoax. There is nothing biblically wrong with us exploring the moon. God does not forbid it, and we certainly have the technology to do it.
The book: "Destination: Moon; The Spiritual and Scientific Voyage of the Eighth Man to Walk on the Moon" is written from a Christian perspective by Col. James Irwin, the lunar vehicle commander for Apollo 15.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis does not say that the sun is not a star, it says it is greater than the moon, which we call a planet, and also that the sun is more significant than the other stars.
Comment from a reader:
"Being newly heated by the Sun, a completely frozen earth would take years to melt and warm up to a degree suitable for life. Years, not a few hours like you claim it is said in the Bible."
- Pierre 9/23/01
My response:
The evidence supporting a frozen earth is lacking. We have evidence that part of the earths surface was covered in ice during an ice age following the flood in Genesis chapter 7. Only small areas were effected, it did not cover the entire earths surface. There was only one ice age, not many, and it only lasted a few generations, not thousands of years.
The sun did not need to warm the earth up on Day 4, as the earth was not frozen to begin with.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
The flying creatures were not "brought forth" from the water, as is mistranslated in the Authorized version (See pg 68 "The Genesis record" by Henry Morris), but rather "swarmed abundantly" in the water after they were created.
The Hebrew word "oph" (sometimes translated "bird") is best translated as "flying creatures". So the animals created in this verse are not only birds, but all flying creatures. This would include flying reptiles (like the pterosaurs*), flying insects, bats and others.
The word "sherets" is translated in the King James as (moving?). It literally means a swarm, or proliferation, and refers to creatures that proliferate in the oceans (Taylor, pg 62, The first 100 words). It is a general term which includes mammals, fish, reptiles, and insects. The word signifies great numbers and we know there are thousands of creatures that once lived in the sea that are now extinct.
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*Isaiah chapter 30 verse 6 mentions a pterosaur in more detail.
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Some have scoffed at the bibles alleged mistake in calling the bat a "bird" (Lev. 11:13, 19), when in fact there is no error in scripture here. The Hebrew word translated as "bird" is `ôwph, and simply means 'winged/flying creature' thus it could refer to any number of animals: birds, bats, pterosaurs etc. It is derived from `ûwph meaning 'to fly'.
Those who believe in evolution claim that birds evolved from dinosaurs (or that they shared a common ancestor). But Genesis tells us that birds and flying reptiles (pterosaurs) were both created on the same day (Day 5), and that dinosaurs (and other land animals) were created after birds (Day 6). This verse is yet another reason why you can not believe in both Creation, and Evolution.
The fossil evidence for dinosaur to bird evolution is lacking. All animals have some similar structures. We need to think critically, is there more than one interpretation of this data? Having a few structures in common can be interpreted as evidence for a common designer (God made them both) rather than just as evidence of a common ancestor (evolution).
In addition all animals were more complex in the beginning. So finding unique structures is part of this original complexity.
It may well be that some (not all) dinosaurs had feathers. I do not feel that this has yet been proven, but it is possible. An animal can have feathers for reasons other than flight. Keeping it warm for instance.
Penguins and ostriches have wings, but can not fly. This does not mean that they are not birds.
If a dinosaur had feathers, but no wings this would not make it a bird. For the same reason that a spider having hair does not make it a mammal.
Read my page on alleged dinosaur-bird transitions for more evidence against the theory that dinosaurs evolved into birds:
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| Many birds have gone extinct since Adam sinned. But the Bible says that God cares so much about his creation, that not a single bird can fall from the sky without him knowing and caring. But he also tells us we are much more important than "many sparrows"
"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."
The dodo was a flightless bird that went extinct in 1681 (unless some remain alive undiscovered somewhere). The dodo may have been a flying bird originally that degenerated (in the years after Adam sinned, see Genesis 3) and lost the ability to fly. It may have also become too specialized, making it difficult for it to survive. The panda is another example of an animal becoming too specialized. The ostrich and penguin probably never flew however. Job 39:13-18 (add) seem to indicate they were always runners, not flyers. Penguins were likely created to swim only and not fly (Read my notes on Genesis chapter 6-9 on penguins and Noah's ark). |
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| God commanded the animals to create after "their kind", this means that birds would only produce other birds. This allows for variation within birds however. So the finches that Darwin saw were not evidence for evolution, but only evidence that birds produce a variety of other birds. There are limits to variation. |  |
Like myself, many of you may have been taught the old canard* (*unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story) about England’s Peppered moths.
| The trunks of trees became darkened from soot and pollution during the Industrial Revolution. The moths (Biston betularia) exist in light and dark forms. The light moths were now more visible and quickly eaten by birds. This resulted in a higher number of dark moths. |
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The genetic information for both dark and light forms was always present. The only observation was due to a shift in gene frequency due to natural selection within a created "kind" ("Goodbye, peppered moths A classic evolutionary story comes unstuck" by Carl Wieland published in: Creation Ex Nihilo 21(3):56, June-August 1999) which itself is a biblical concept. It did not show evolution in action.
The famous pictures that have littered textbooks for decades was actually staged. Dead moths were actually glued to the trees, as these moths don't rest on tree trunks ("Icons of Evolution" pg 138) And biologists have known this since 1980 (Icons of Evolution, pg 149). False information and doctored photos need to be thrown out of textbooks.
My high school biology textbook (which was brand new that year in 1991) still contained these fake photos as do many I've seen today in 2003. Jonathan Wells examined textbooks (all published after 1998) and 9 out of 10 still had this false information (Wells, pg 249). How many years will it take to abandon fraudulent claims?
University of Massachusetts biologist Theodore Sargent helped glue moths onto trees for a NOVA documentary. He says textbooks and films have featured ‘a lot of fraudulent photographs’.(J.A. Coyne, Nature 396(6706):35–36. and also The Washington Times, January 17, 1999, p. D8)
Both insects and bacteria have been claimed to "evolve" a resistance to pesticides. I have had many people challenge me with this, feeling as if they had observable proof of evolution. But what they fail to realize is that the resistance is already present in some of the insects of a population. When a pesticide is used, those without the resistance die, and those who have it survive. Those who survive will reproduce and pass this resistance on. This is not evolution however as no new genetic information is added to the insect. If a mutation occurs and a resistance is gained this is still is a loss of genetic information (the population as a whole now has less genetic information and diversity) not a gain.
"moving creatures" Gen 1:20 is the Hebrew "sherets", and is translated as "creeping thing" the 11 other verses in which it occurs (Morris pg 69). It may be synonymous with "remes", which is also translated "creeping thing" in Gen 1:24 etc. In Gen 1:20 it appears to refer to marine animals; invertebrates, vertebrates, and reptiles. (Morris pg 69)
Gen 1:20 plants came first and then marine creatures and birds were created at the same time, where evolution claims that marine organisms evolved first, then plants and then birds.(Morris pg 70).
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The words "great whales" is most often translated as "great sea-monsters". The word in Hebrew is "tannin", which is most frequently translated as "dragons" (pg 69, "The Genesis Record" by Henry Morris).
Dragons are real creatures that we would now call by the name "dinosaur". Some of these dragons lived in water (Aquatic reptiles: plesiosaurs, Kronosaurus etc) while others lived on land (Dinosaurs: Apatosaurus, T-rex etc).
None of these dinosaurs ("dragons") would have had sharp teeth, until the curse in Genesis chapter 3. Some (not all) according to scripture (Job 41) were able to emit fire. This too would have only been after the curse.
Question:
"I believe in Creation, but I can't help wondering about animals like frogs and butterflies. They start
out as different critters all together. Is this evolution?"
Ken S. 4/23/01
| Answer:
Butterflies and frogs are not going through any sort of evolution. They go through a change called metamorphosis. They have done this since the Day God made them. It is a preprogrammed design, just as we start as embryos and grow to adults.
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It is likely that animals like frogs were created on Day 6 when land animals were created.
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The book of Jonah talks about a "great fish" that was large enough to swallow a man alive. This could have been one of many creatures erroneously labeled "pre-historic" such as the great fish "Dunkleosteus" known today only from fossils. |
Read my page on Jonah to see more info on the size of whales and also a fossil fish large enough to swallow a man Open in this window or Open in a new browser window
Evolution has failed to provide fossils for the evolutionary origin of fish.
"The geological record has so far provided no evidence as to the origin of the fishes..."
J.R. Norman (Assistant Keeper, Department of Zoology, British Museum of Natural History, London), "Classification and pedigrees: fossils' in A History of Fishes, Dr. P. H. Greenwood (editor), third edition, British Museum of Natural History, London, 1975, pg 343)
Many that have been set forth are hypothetical (i.e.: not based on fossils)
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Remains of giant turtles have been found. Were all animals able to grow much larger in the Garden of Eden? To be answered soon. |
Turtles with teeth:
Living anapsids (turtles) do not have teeth. But many fossil turtles do. Pareiasaurs had leaf-shaped teeth suggesting a herbivorous diet. This would have been the original diet of all turtles. As these creatures degenerated into millerettids, Acleistorhinus, lanthanosuchids, nycteroletorids, and the first procolophonoid their dentition changed. These had conical teeth allowing a insectivorous or carnivorous diet. And, apart from an egg tooth, as they continued to degenerate the teeth would be lost completely.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
This was the creation of all animals that live on land that are both living and (now) extinct. Dinosaurs are mentioned many times in scripture. Job 40:15 gives us one of the best descriptions of a sauropod type dinosaur called "Behemoth".
Click Here to read my commentary on Job 40
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There are nearly thirty other places in the Old Testament that mention "dragons". These are creatures we would now call dinosaurs.
The "cattle" mentioned in verse 24 comes from the Hebrew word "behemah" and are contrasted with the beasts of the earth, and therefore must refer to wild animals.
25 "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."
Animals can only produce varieties of the created kinds (new breeds and species). But they can never produce new "kinds" of animals this in itself shows evolution is not biblical.
1 Corinthians 15:39 speaks of the created differences between fish, mammals, birds and men. The barriers cannot be crossed.
1 Corinthians 15:39 (KJV)
"All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds."
This is in direct conflict with evolutionists who claim that fish evolved into amphibians, or that dinosaurs evolved into birds, or allege that apes evolved into man.
The Bible states clearly that man did not evolve.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Man was created with a clear distinction between he and the animals. Man was created not from evolved apes, but in the very image and likeness of God himself.
Each alleged ape-man will be discussed in detail in subsequent chapters. Click Here to see evidence that some of the so called Ape-men were merely misidentified (or extinct) primates, while others (Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon) were fully human
Another example of photos that have been purposely doctored to support evolution are those of Haeckel's embryos. Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) drew pictures of embryos of various vertebrates, claiming they were virtually identical in their earliest stages and evidence that we all shared a common ancestor. Wells states "biologists have known for over a century that Haeckel faked his drawings; vertebrate embryos never look as similar as he made them out to be." (Wells, pg 82). Wells documents that 10 of the 10 textbooks he examined (published after 1998) still have these fraudulent photos.
For more information on "Haeckel's lie" Click Here
The words "in our image" in verse 26 signify that God exists as the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. It is not referring to many Gods, but rather the Triune nature of the one (and only) God (the Trinity).
The trinity is most clearly spoken of in the King James version of 1 John 5:7:
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one."
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Here God tells us that he created "man" (humans) in his image. The creation of Eve the first woman is described in more detail in Genesis 2.
Read notes on Gen 2:7
Question:"Based on your study of the bible, have you come up with any guess at where the location of the garden of Eden would have been in present day today?"
Jason B. 9/6/01
Answer: We are not told where the Garden of Eden was. Adam and Eve were kicked out, and an angel (cherub) guarded it so they could not re-enter.
The flood of Noah (Genesis chapter 7) destroyed the pre-flood civilization and forever changed the continents of the earth. Therefore we would not expect to stumble onto the Garden of Eden today.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Again we see that God separates man from the animals by giving him authority over them. Not to use and abuse them like we sometimes do today, but to live with them and care for them.
This also says that at one time even large animals like dinosaurs, elephants and tigers all peacefully lived with man, and obeyed him. How great a Creation must man be to be made in the very Image and likeness of God, and to have dominion over even the largest dinosaur.
Psalm 8 verse 3 says:
"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels [or some say, a little lower than God], and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;
The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth"
Psalm 8:3-9 (King James Version)
Verse 28 also says that man is to "replenish" the earth. Now we use the word "replenish" to mean "to fill again", however this was not the meaning of the word when the King James Bible was translated into English back in 1611. For in the 1600’s the word "replenish" meant "to fill", not to fill again. There is different Hebrew word that means "to fill again", had this been what God intended to say he would have used that word instead. For more info on this read my page on the "Gap Theory" (a theory that I do not accept).
There were no carnivorous animals, no death and no sin at this time, yet Adam is told to "subdue" the earth. What does this mean? The Hebrew word (kabash) does not mean to conquer the earth. It means ___. God did not want us to be ignorant of the earth, the creation or science.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
| Humans were created to be vegetarian. At this point in time no animals had ever died, so mans only option was to eat vegetation. |  |
Today we live in a world full of death and sin, and God now allows us to eat meat (See Genesis 9:3 when Noah gets off the ark.
The teeth of Adam, Eve and their descendants (the Neanderthals) had strong teeth superior to our own. Read "Buried Alive" by Dr. Jack Cuozzo for more information.
Question from a reader: "Why would God compare fruits and other vegetarian matter to meat, when Adam and Eve before they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil were sinless and vegetarian. They wouldn't know what meat was?"
Jim 5/17/02
The word translated "meat" in Genesis 1:29 is the Hebrew word 'oklah. "Strong's Hebrew Dictionary" gives the meaning of 'oklah simply as "food". There is nothing in the Hebrew or the context of verse 29 to suggest that this was anything other than vegetation.
30 "And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so."
Animals were created to eat only vegetation. Click Here for more info. Each creature would have had dentition specifically designed for this kind of diet. When we study the teeth of living animals and compare them to the same kind of animal in the fossil record we can see that these structures (jaws and teeth) have changed. The questions as to "How and when" can best be explained in a Creation to Degeneration model. This model (supported by Science and Scripture) shows that carnivores once had teeth designed for eating vegetation. Specific examples will be examined in more detail in chapter _ .
It was not until after Adam sinned that death came into the world. Humans could live alongside dinosaurs without fear of being eaten. My page titled: "There was no death before sin"
31 "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day"
God was pleased with the state of his creation. This implies that everything was still perfect. Satan had not yet been cast from heaven, and Adam had not yet sinned.
At this time in history everything was perfect. There were no mutations, there were no birth defects, or mental illness. These things occurred only after the earth was cursed in Genesis 3. They were never part of God's will for us.
Fossils can not exist in a perfect creation. Fossils are formed only when a creature has died, and no death occurred in the Garden of Eden until Genesis chapter 3. Even then it takes special circumstances for a creature to fossilize (i.e.: they need to be buried rapidly before they can rot. The conditions that existed during the flood - Read Genesis 6-9 are perfect for fossilization). So all fossils were formed in the years after Adam and Eve sinned and are not evidence of any prior judgment or inhabitants either man or animal (as there were none).
Everything that exists in this world, all plants, animals and humans alive and dead (or extinct) were created by God. There are no creatures alive or dead that God did not create. This verse also tells us that God and his word are one and the same.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
John 1:1-3 (KJV)
You don't need to see God to believe in him. He has given us enough evidence of his existance in the world that he created, that if we reject him we are without excuse:
Romans 1:20(KJV) "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"
Here is a joke that a reader sent me:
"One day a group of scientists got together and decided that humans had come a long way and no longer needed God. So they picked one scientist to go and tell God so.
The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you; We're to the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't You just go on and get lost."
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man. After the scientist was done talking, God said, "Very well, how about this? Let's say we have a man-making contest." To which the scientist replied, "Okay, great!"
"But," God added, "we're going to do this just like I did back in the Garden of Eden with Adam."
The scientist said, "Sure, no problem" and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God looked at him and said, "No, no, no. You go get your own dirt."
Click HERE to read Genesis chapter 2
If you have any questions on Creation, Evolution, or just want to say "Hi" please feel free to email me.
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