Science in The Bible

1
Science in The Bible

• Lecture 2 (4/13/07)

2
Stuff

• e-Sword
• Website
• http//www.cornerstonesom.org/cwv103
• Answer to last week question
• How did you do on the Homework/Paper?

3
Review

• During my years as a teacher, and many times
  since then as I have spoken around the world,
  Ive had people use evolution as their excuse as
  to why the Bible couldnt be trusted. In fact,
  Ive found that evolution is one of the biggest,
  if not the biggest, stumbling block to people
  being receptive to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

4
Review

• I have many letters of testimony on file from
  people who admit that it was after they were
  shown that evolution was not scientific fact that
  the Lord opened their heart to the truth of His
  Word).
• by Ken Ham
• Why Wont They Listen?
• Link in Optional Reading assignment

5
Review Reading
6
2 World Views

• Everything is the result of a cosmic accident
• Big Bang First there was nothing and then it
  exploded
• We are the result of a deliberate design by a
  Designer

7
Creation Model

• God created the universe and everything in it in
  6 days

• Sin was the cause of death
• God destroyed the world by a worldwide flood
• Man was created in the image of God

God created ALL things
8
Evolution Model

• About 15 billion years ago the universe exploded
  into existence

• About 4.6 billion years ago the earth evolved
• About 3.5 billion years ago life evolved
• Humans evolved from ape-like creatures

Time, chance, and natural processes
9
Genesis

• Our understanding of Creation will flavor how we
  look at the entire Bible
• How much space does God devote to creation?
• How much to Salvation?
• Which cost the most?
• What do you think is the most important?

10
Genesis 11-5 One Day

• 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and
  the earth.
• 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.

11
Genesis 11-5 One Day

• 3Then God said, Let there be light and there
  was light.
• 4God saw that the light was good and God
  separated the light from the darkness.
• 5God called the light day, and the darkness He
  called night. And there was evening and there was
  morning, one day.

12
Genesis 11-5 One Day

• beginning
• formless and void
• waters
• light
• day
• evening
• morning

13
In the Beginning

• God existed before the beginning
• John 1724
• Father, I desire that they also, whom You have
  given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may
  see My glory which You have given Me, for You
  loved Me before the foundation of the world.
• John 175
• Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself,
  with the glory which I had with You before the
  world was.

14
Time

• Did it exist before the Beginning

15
Time

• Take a blank piece of paper
• Using any method you want, take no more than 15
  seconds to answer
• What time is it?
• Compare answers
• Now, take 1 minute to answer
• What is time?

16
Eternity

• What is Eternity?
• Lots of time?
• Another Dimension
• We live in 4 dimensions
• Is God bound by those dimensions
• 10 Actual dimensions?

17
Time

• Gods way of keeping everything from happening at
  once.
• Is a physical property affected by
• Mass
• Gravity
• Acceleration

18
Time

• Genesis 15God called the light day, and the
  darkness He called night. And there was evening
  and there was morning, one day.

19
  ???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Used over 2200 times in the OT
• Our word is the most important concept of time
  in the OT by which a point of time as well as a
  sphere of time can be expressed.

20
  ???? (yôm) day, time, year

• It can denote
• 1. the period of light (as contrasted with the
  period of darkness),
• 2. the period of twenty-four hours,
• 3. a general vague time,
• 4. a point of time,
• 5. a year

21
 ???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Genesis 1 Here time is conceived as linear and
  events occur successively within it. Moreover,
  from the biblical viewpoint mans behavior in the
  present determines his state in the future. Time
  is the defined arena in which it will be
  demonstrated that righteousness is rewarded with
  life and evil is punished with death. Such a
  viewpoint invests mans time with the greatest
  moral value and history serves as an instrument
  whereby Gods character can be displayed

22
???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Genesis 15God called the light day (def 1), and
  the darkness He called night. And there was
  evening and there was morning, one day (def 2?).
• Also Gen 18, 13, 19, 23, 31

23
???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Genesis 22By the seventh day God completed His
  work which He had done, and He rested on the
  seventh day from all His work which He had done.
• Genesis 24This is the account of the heavens
  and the earth when they were created, in the day
  that the Lord God made earth and heaven.

24
???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Which is it?
• God took a long period of time to bring forth
  each of the things listed under the six different
  days of creation
• OR
• Everything was created in six consecutive, solar
  days (24 hr periods)

25
Why do we care?

• Trying to reconcile long periods of time proposed
  by scientists with short periods of time proposed
  by theologians.
• Many claim that day in Genesis 1 is used in a
  figurative sense.

26
Let Scripture Interpret Scripture

• Well look at how others in the Bible view
  Genesis
• Remember that the Bible contains
• Literal language
• Figurative language
• Poetry
• Myth
• Historical Narrative

27
???? (yôm) day, time, year

• Exodus 208-11 (NASB95)
• 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
• 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

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???? (yôm) day, time, year

• 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord
  your God in it you shall not do any work, you or
  your son or your daughter, your male or your
  female servant or your cattle or your sojourner
  who stays with you.
• 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and
  the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and
  rested on the seventh day therefore the Lord
  blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

29
But

• Psalm 904
• For a thousand years in Your sight Are like
  yesterday when it passes by, Or as a watch in the
  night.

• 2 Peter 38
• But do not let this one fact escape your notice,
  beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a
  thousand years, and a thousand years like one
  day.

30
Matthew 194-6

• And He answered and said, Have you not read that
  He who created them from the beginning made them
  male and female,
• and said, For this reason a man shall leave his
  father and mother and be joined to his wife, and
  the two shall become one flesh?
• So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What
  therefore God has joined together, let no man
  separate.

31
John 546-47

• For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me,
  for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe
  his writings, how will you believe My words?

32
2 Peter 31-7

• 2 that you should remember the words spoken
  beforehand by the holy prophets and the
  commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your
  apostles.
• 3 Know this first of all, that in the last days
  mockers will come with their mocking, following
  after their own lusts,

33
2 Peter 31-7

• 4 and saying, Where is the promise of His
  coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep,
  all continues just as it was from the beginning
  of creation.
• 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,

34
Psalm 1041-5

• Bless the Lord, O my soul!
• O Lord my God, You are very great
• You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
• Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
• Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain.
• He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the
  waters

35
Psalm 1041-5

• He makes the clouds His chariot
• He walks upon the wings of the wind
• He makes the winds His messengers,
• Flaming fire His ministers.
• He established the earth upon its foundations,
• So that it will not totter forever and ever.

36
4 Views of Genesis Time

• Literal Day Interpretation
• The Gap Theory (or Ruin and Reconstruction)
  Interpretation
• The Day-Age (or Concordist) Interpretation
• The Framework or Literary Interpretation

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Literal Day Interpretation

• The Genesis account is history
• Days are 24 hours
• The narrative gives the precise chronology
• This approach has been supported by most
  Christians throughout church history

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Literal Day Interpretation

• Genesis 15 -- Day definition associated with
  light/darkness cycle on the earth
• Exodus 201-11 Chiseled in stone by God
• Hebrew scholars agree that the text conveys the
  idea of literal days

39
Literal Day Interpretation Believers

• Typically affirm the earth is in the range of
  thousands of years old, not billions
• Deny macroevolution
• Affirm a worldwide flood in the time of Noah
• Deny the presence of death, disease, etc. before
  the fall of man

40
The Gap Theory

• Before Genesis 11 God created a perfect heaven
  and a perfect earth
• Between Genesis 11 and 12 the earth was flooded
  and cast into darkness
• Satan possibly ruler of first earth
• God re-created the earth a few thousand years ago

41
The Gap Theory - Reasons

• In multiple contexts, the Hebrew words tohu
  wabohu (formless and empty) refer to judgment
• Isaiah 4518 says God did not create the earth
  tohu
• The word for was in Gen 12 can also be
  translated became
• It would seem that God, being perfect, would
  never create the universe in a dark or chaotic
  state

42
Gap Theory Believers

• Place the claimed vast ages of geology between
  11 and 12, making the earth very old
• Affirm a literal 6 day creation thousands of
  years ago
• Deny the worldwide flood of Noah
• Accept the presence of death, etc as existing
  before the Adamic fall
• Gen 33 and Rom 512 refer only to spiritual death

43
Day-Age

• Days of Genesis are long ages more or less
  corresponding to the geological age system
• Yom has a wide range of meanings
• Genesis and geology seem to be highly coordinated
• Genesis does not indicate a completion of the
  seventh day
• Events implied on day 6 would probably require
  more than 24 hours

44
Day-Age Believers

• Affirm the earth and universe are billions of
  years old
• May or may not affirm macroevolution
• Deny a worldwide flood
• Accept death, etc before the fall of man
• Have to explain the difference between Gen 1 and
  geologic ages

45
Framework or Literary

• Genesis 1-11 understood as a rhetorical framework
  for the grand spiritual themes of creation
• Mans fall
• Reconciliation
• Sequence is logical, not chronological
• Days are for a tour of creations glory, not an
  account

46
Framework or Literary Reasons

• Days arranged in an aesthetic parallelism
• Day 1 Universe / Day 4 Universe components
• Day 2 oceans and atmosphere / Day 5 animals of
  the oceans and atmosphere
• Day 3 the land / Day 6 the animals of the land

47
Framework or Literary Reasons

• All chronology problems and science conflicts
  disappear with such a literary framework
• Words and numbers are repeated in sets of 3, 7,
  and 10 throughout the account

48
Framework Believers

• May or may not affirm macroevolution, antiquity
  of the universe, worldwide Flood, pre-Fall death
• Would have to explain how day can be interpreted
  sense in Gen 15
• Would have to re-interpret the traditional
  meaning of creation references in Scripture

49
Good Topic for Weekly Summary

• Which of these do you believe and why?

50
Time

• Genesis 15God called the light day, and the
  darkness He called night. And there was evening
  and there was morning, one day.

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Evening and Morning
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Time -- Measuring

• Celestial events (Eclipses)
• Solar years
• Lunar months
• Solar days
• Divisions
• Sundials
• Counting repeated events
• Pendulum
• Atom vibrations (Atomic clock)

57
Time -- Measuring

• Radiometric Dating
• Counting rings in trees
• Counting layers in
• Ice cores
• Sediment

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Radiometric Dating
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Summary

• Satan casts doubt on the validity of the Bible
• Bible supports 6 literal days for Creation
• Understand the concept of time and eternity
• Understand the basics of radiocarbon dating

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Reading

• http//www.answersingenesis.org/radio/pdf/carbonda
  ting.pdf
• Optional
• http//www.answersingenesis.org/radio/pdf/six_days
  _booklet.pdf
• http//www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/wwtl/cha
  pter8.asp