Category Archives: Genesis

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March 6, 2015

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Genesis, Life Questions, Origins

Is Evolution like Mathematics?

On the last two Sundays of March the Everlasting Truths team will be airing a two part special broadcast on the debate between creation and evolution. In the weeks leading up to that broadcast, I will be answering several common questions related to origins, science and the Bible.

Many who are of a scientific bent lament the folly of those who believe in creation and accuse creationists of rejecting science. They scoff at creationists and say things like, “rejecting evolution is like rejecting modern medicine” or ask in disbelief, “do you refuse to believe 2+2=4, as well?”. The assertion, at times implied but most often stated is that evolution is proven science. Evolution is just like bacterial and viral models of medicine or like the certainty of basic mathematical equations. Is this a valid claim?

Without arguing about evidence or presuppositions, the legitimacy of this allegation can be considered through a right understanding of the different methods by which scientific conclusions are reached. The first, and primary means, is through what is often referred to as the scientific method. The scientific method is the process by which a problem is considered, a hypothetical solution is suggested, predictions are made, tests are performed, results are analyzed, the hypothesis is refined, more tests are run and after a long series of proving and disproving possible hypotheses, a model is developed which provides a generally accepted answer to the original problem.

The second means of reaching scientific conclusions is used in those cases where direct testing is not possible. In this method a problem is considered, a hypothetical solution is suggested, predictions are made, available evidence is analyzed, and the hypotheses and predictions are refined to agree with the available evidence. As new evidence becomes available the hypothesized model is then refined further and further.

Medical sciences are for the most part observational sciences. An explanation for the source of a disease can by suggested, tested, observed, refined and repeated until the genuine source can be shown with a high degree of certainty. Most mathematics fall into the same category. Much of science takes place in the realms of observational science. However, a number of scientific endeavors take place in the other realm, the realm of conjectural sciences. These kinds of sciences include some portions of quantum physics, consideration of the ultimate structure of the universe (or multiverse if you subscribe to that hypothesis), questions regarding the growth of the universe and beliefs about the development of mankind. The fact that a branch of science is not entirely observational does not make it illegitimate. However, one must recognize the answers provided by conjectural sciences are not of the same quality or reliability as those provided by observational sciences.

Evolution is a valid scientific model. It offers a possible explanation by which to explain the origins of all things. As a scientific model it is constantly being refined as additional data is discovered. However, comparing the evolutionary model to a well-proven scientific theory, like gravitational theory, is nonsense. Evolution is not testable by repeatable experiments. It can only be compared to observations made by scientists in the world and adjusted to match the current observations. Despite its wide acceptance among scientists, evolution is not like math and medicine.

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February 13, 2015

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Genesis

Who are the sons of God in Genesis 6?

Genesis 6:1-4 says, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

The identification of the sons of God referred to in this passage is very difficult. The Bible gives us no definite information on which to reach a firm conclusion. We may never know for certain what is the right answer. However, a plausible guess can be offered. When faced a difficult Biblical question with limited Biblical information to build from, search for an answer that is most reasonable, includes the least amount of unprovable conjecture and best lines up with what is known from other, clear, teachings in the Bible.

After Adam and Eve sinned, they had two sons, Cain and Abel. In a fit of rage, Cain killed Abel and was driven into a distant land called Nod because of his rebellion against God. Cain married and had kids and the kids had kids and so forth. After Cain was driven out, Adam and Eve had another son named Seth. Seth and his family apparently stayed in the region with Adam and Eve. A major part of Seth’s family remained faithful and obedient to God while Cain’s family continued in rebellion against God.

During the days of Noah the entire world was divided into two population groups, those who worshiped God and those who didn’t. It is my opinion that the males of Seth’s family who continued to worship God were called the sons of God.  Adam lived for nearly a thousand years after being created by God in the garden of Eden. Those of Adam’s family that stayed with him and continued to worship God might very reasonably be called the children of God. Those who did not might very well have been called the children of men.

What about the phrase, “the same became mighty men . . . men of renown”? Some have connected the statement about giants in the earth with the men of renown born as a result of the coupling of the sons of God and daughters of men. However, Genesis 6:4 does not say that. The verse says there were giants on the earth and also the descendants of the sons of God and daughters of men became men of renown. The men of renown need not be gigantic beings or some sort of demigod. The mighty men are nothing more than the great men of the pre-flood days, probably those mentioned in Genesis 4.

I think the sons of God were the obedient descendants of Seth. As the world’s population increased, the descendants of Seth and the descendants of Cain began to mingle and intermarry, thus the sons of God married the daughters of men.

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February 4, 2015

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Genesis, Origins

Have they found Noah’s ark?

Nope. Thanks for asking and reading.

Well, I guess that wasn’t quite long enough of an answer, so let me elaborate. Noah’s ark is the large ship built by Noah according to the commands of God given in Genesis 6. This massive vessel was at least 450 feet long, 150 feet wide and fifty feet tall. Noah, his family and the animals with them floated across the waters throughout the year long flood. (The Bible does not teach a 40 day flood, but 40 days of catastrophic rain. From the time Noah got on the ark to the time he got off was over one year.) As the flood waters began to go down, the ark landed in the mountains of Ararat. Not Mt. Ararat, but the mountains plural. Somewhere in the range then identified as the Ararat mountains was the arks resting place. Presumably the ark rested in the Zagros mountain chain that runs north to south along the eastern Iran border into western Turkey. The ark has never been found.

The absence of the ark or archeological evidence of an ark does not disprove the validity of the flood account. The mountains where the ark might have landed are very rugged and snowcapped. A thorough archaeological search throughout that region is impossible at this time. Even if an expedition could be mounted, the possibility of finding the ark is very low. Being a large wooden vessel, there is no reason to assume that the wood did not rot and waste away. How many wooden houses can be found today that have been abandoned for 100 years? It is very unlikely that a wooden boat would survive nearly 4,500 years. Besides this, When Noah and his family left the ark, it would not be unreasonable for them to scavenge wood from the ark to build homes. As the families grew and expanded, the ark would have provided a ready supply of wood for construction, cooking and heat. It is not unreasonable to assume the ark was dismantled and put to other uses as Noah’s family began to rebuild after the destruction of the flood. The ark has not been found and there is no reason to expect it will be.

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January 9, 2015

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Genesis, The Bible

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Where did the people of Nod come from?

In Genesis 4 the Bible says that Cain, after being cursed by God to wander and be an exile on the earth, settled in the land of Nod.  That simple statement, added with the assertion that Cain knew his wife, has caused some to speculate that the land of Nod was the dwelling place of another race of people not descended from Adam and Eve. If the people of Nod are not another race , where did they come from and how did Cain settle in the land of Nod?

As was already answered, nothing in Genesis 4 requires that Cain met people in the land and married into their clans. We don’t know if Cain and Abel had any other siblings at the time of Abel’s murder, but we do know from Genesis 5:4 that Adam and Even had other sons and daughters. It is not at all unreasonable to think that as the population of the world increased they spread out from around Eden into other lands. All the members of the first generation would have married siblings or children of siblings. The genetic mutations we are concerned about now would not have been a problem, only after generations would mutations have crept into the gene pool and the danger of close intermarriage (consanguinity) come into being. In the first generations after Adam and Eve, human population would only have increased by familial intermarriage.

After years of exile, Cain settled in a desolate land that came to be called Nod. Cain married, had children and his descendants populated the land first settled by their forefather. Instead of Cain joining the people of Nod, the people of Nod were descended from Cain. He settled in that region and become the father of the land of Nod.

Interestingly Nod means wandering. Since Cain was condemned by God to wander away from his parents and siblings as an exile, it makes perfect sense that the land where Cain eventually settled would be called the land of Wandering. It is not strange that Genesis gives the place of his settling a name in the fashion it does. We do this today when talking about historical figures. In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, there are many places that have interesting historic significance. The early explorers that came through the area settled in places with names like Michilimackinac, Sault Ste. Marie and L’Anse. Many of these places were not given names until after they were settled, some were not given these names until much later, but it is very rare to hear any one say, “he settled in the place which would eventually be called . . .” We find the same thing in the Bible. Places were at times referred to by the names they would later be given in history. The fact that the land is called Nod does not require there to have been a people in the land that had already named it. Rather, the land Cain settled was eventually called Nod, the land of wandering.