(See Romans 14:2, 1 Timothy 4:1-4.)
29 February 2008
All Ceatures Great and Small: The Lord God Drowned Them All
You'd think that when God repents, he'd behave better afterwards. But not the God of the Bible; he's at his worst after making a public confession.
Take the flood, for example. God creates all creatures great and small and declares them "very good" in Genesis 1:31. He then makes them not so good in 3:17-18 (either immediately in an evil re-creation or through 1656 years of God-directed super evolution), repents of ever having made them in 6:7, and finally drowns them all in 7:21-23.
What was the point of all that? If God was trying to punish people for misbehaving, then why did he drown the animals, too?
24 February 2008
Evolution Creationist Style: It all happened in 1656 years
In the beginning, God created everything good. No predators, parasites, pathogens, pain, disease, or death for any of God's creatures. Every living thing (except for maybe the plants) lived forever in a vegan paradise that was all "very good."
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. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:30-31
But Adam screwed all that up by sinning (or whatever) and God cursed the ground causing thorns and thistles to grow (Genesis 3:17-18), creating the cruel and brutal place that we see today. It went from "very good" to "no country for old men" in just 1656 years.
How do we know this? The Bible tells us so. Here's how.
| Years after the creation of Adam | |
|---|---|
| And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son ... and called his name Seth: Genesis 5:3 | 130 |
| And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos. Genesis 5:6 | 235 |
| And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan. Genesis 5:9 | 325 |
| And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel. Genesis 5:12 | 395 |
| And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared.Genesis 5:15 | 460 |
| And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch. Genesis 5:18 | 622 |
| And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: Genesis 5:21 | 687 |
| And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech. Genesis 5:25 | 874 |
| And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: Genesis 5:28 | 1056 |
| And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Genesis 7:6 | 1656 |
Okay, so the flood happened 1656 years after the creation of Adam. But how do we know that creation had completed its transformation (evolution?) from kind and gentle to cruel and brutal by the time of the flood?
Well, again the Bible tells us so.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Genesis 6:11-13
The whole earth "was filled with violence" (God made it that way), so God had to kill everything on earth to make it less violent. Fair is fair.
So nature was "filled with violence" by the time of the flood. The only question is how did it get that way? Did God re-create it immediately after Adam's fall in a second "there will be blood" creation? Of did it evolve naturally without God's involvement in the 1656 years between fall and flood?
Can some Bible believer clarify this for me?