I would like to jump ahead to chapter 5 of Genesis for a moment, and then go back to chapter 4.
The fifth chapter of Genesis is the genealogy of Adam and Eve. It gives us the ages of some of Adam's children (and their children’s children).
Many times in the Old Testament we see the life span of humans reaching great ages. Many as old as 900 years.
The Bible tells us that:
Adam lived 930 years. (Genesis 5:5)
Seth lived 912 years.(Genesis 5:8)
Methuselah lived 969 years.(Genesis 5:27)
And Noah lived 950 years. (Genesis 9:29)
Many people wonder how, or if this is possible.
"These great ages are not presented in the Bible as if they are in any way extraordinary for their times, let alone miraculous."
Carl Wieland
Creation Ex Nihilo 20(4):10–13, September–November 1998
What is the answer? Did humans once have a much longer lifespan? If so, why is it that many people today do not live to be 100?
The answer I believe in part lies in the state of the earth when God first Created it, compared to the sin wrecked world we live in today.
When you look at the age of the Patriarchs (Adam's descendants) in Genesis you will see two things. One, is that from Adam to Noah the average life span was somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 years. These people lived in a very different world than we do today (this was at a time before the flood described in Genesis). God Created the earth perfect. But when Adam sinned this world began to decay.
Then when the flood came, things really got wrecked. Some Creationists believe that the pre-flood vapor canopy (the firmament in GEN 1:6 ) would filter out radiation, and hold in incoming solar heat making the earth a warmer place to live. This "expanse" separated the "waters above" from the "waters below" in the Creation week. I believe that the firmament may have collapsed at the time of the flood.
As a result harmful radiation can enter the earth more easily than before, bringing with it all kinds of damaging effects.
The life span of man has been declining since the flood. The average age of man quickly dropped to less than 100 in the 200 years after the flood.
(chart from AIG)
Some critics claim that the 900 years of life mentioned in the Bible were not literal years. They claim that back then people counted each month as a year. They claim that you have to take the age given in the Bible and divide by 12 months.
This is wrong for many reasons. The Bible tells us how old the patriarchs were when their children were born. Cainan was 70 when his son was born. If you divided the age by 12, then that means he would have had a child at 5 years old. - This is impossible.
Also Moses compiled Genesis. He could clearly differentiate between a month and a year. He did so many times in his writing.
Also, when Jesus came to earth he taught us many things. If the Patriarchs did not live as long as the Bible claims then Jesus would have told us.
The ages given in Genesis are literal years.
Rather than evolving, we are degenerating. And will continue to do so until Christ returns.
Neanderthal man - Why did they look the way they do?
This page will show you that these people were human, but had odd facial features resulting from living to great ages.
---------------------- Why do Neanderthals look the way they do?
The Neanderthal morphology is one of the most misunderstood in all of anthropology. Many people claim that Neanderthals were primitive, dimwitted cave men. The truth is Neanderthals were fully human.
Neanderthals did look a little different than we do today. The question is "How different?" and "Why did they look this way?"
Compared to people living today, the Neanderthal adults had a more prominent brow ridge and some also had a chinless appearance. These features do not make them less human, nor do they make them primitive.
The bible describe people in the early parts of Genesis that lived for hundreds of years. One of the things that we have learned from modern science is that the bones of the head and face continue to grow through our entire adult life (though at a slower rate than when we are children).
What would the faces of people who lived for hundreds of years look like? Dr. Jack Cuozzo has studied both the Bible and the Neanderthal remains in depth, he believes these people would look like (and consequently are) the Neanderthals.
I recommend Dr. Jack Cuozzo's book: "Buried Alive: The startling truth about Neanderthals" which explains in detail his research and uncovers some tampering with fossils (some people changed them to make them look more ape like than they actually were).
"Buried Alive"
"Bishara, Treder, and Jacobsen recently wrote in the American Journal of Orthodontics that after the normal growth period for modem man is finished (18 to 25 years), growth still continues in the face and head.’ They measured the same 15 men and 15 women with precision cephalometric (measurable) x-rays over a time frame of 21 years."
"Hrdlicka also emphasized that overall the results are not entirely uniform but the general tendency is clear. He believed that adult growth of the head was a fact not to be ignored."
"Therefore, it can be concluded that with the exception of the females of one isolated Indian tribe in the United States, all other groups of peoples studied by the aforementioned anthropologists showed the following: a skull whose proportions changed as it aged with the lengths gaining the most, the widths next, and the heights the least.
"T. Wingate Todd in 1924 measured 448 male skulls for thickness of the bone itself in various places. He found a sporadic thickening of the cranium (skull) during later life. He also found no evidence of real dimunition in thickness of the cranium (skull) with increasing age.’(12) It has long been a myth in our society that aging was synonymous with bone loss. Here we find a top scientist early in this century contradicting that opinion. The skull gets thicker in certain places with age."
"Buchi studied 200 Swiss adults and separated them into six age classes. He concluded in 1950 that aging resulted in gains in diameter of the head and face and also of the long bones.(23)"
This also explains the robusticity of Neanderthal post-crania.
Thompson and Kendrick in 1964 used cephalometnc (measurable) x-ray analysis of 71 men aged 22-34 years. They took measurements once a year. They saw that without much attrition (wear) of the teeth the vertical dimension of the face increased significantly. (24) Kendrick and Risinger in 1967 measured the same 71 men and reported increases in head length and facial depth.(25)
"Susanne in 1977 published a work done on 44 Belgian men. Susanne measured their heads twice between the ages of 25 and 60 years and found consistent increases in head length and head width, also demonstrating gains in the lengths of their faces, their noses, and their ears. He found a decrease in the size and thickness of the. lips, too.(27)"
"When are the Bible-believing people going to wake up and put two and two together? If there were genuinely old people who lived in the past, don’t you suppose they would have undergone the same changes in the face and head that the aforementioned studies have described? If so, where are the remains of these people? Do you think that the museums have any skulls of these very old people? Do you think the museums would ever consider this type of reasoning? The answer to the latter question is no, since the museums and secular universities are dominated by evolutionists who do not believe that the Bible has anything valuable to say in the area of science or history." Dr. Cuozzo
I was surprised at first to find how many people had never heard that the Bible teaches Adam and his descendants lived for hundreds of years. Then I realized, if no one knew this fact, then no one could apply that fact to the fossil record and interpret it correctly.
If you have any questions on Creation, Evolution, or just want to say "Hi" please feel free to email me.
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