Post # 1
Introduction.
My name is Mervyn and I am a senior who is interested in growing my personal faith and relationships with God and people, so I am open to information that is helpful. I have read through the Bible yearly using the “Our Daily Bread” series as a guide for about 10 years, but I am not a professional or scholar.
Why “My Moss”? This blog is a Journal or memoirs of the “moss” I’ve gathered over the years in my Christian journey; from church, the media and personal Bible reading. Overall, I believe it is essential to love God and my neighbor above being “right – in my own eyes”. I will be posting musings and speculations, as well as accepted points of view in regards to common Christian questions, such as, can we reconcile the Bible with science today? Some scientists agree that both the Creation Theory and the Theory of Evolution have a point where Faith is required. This post, and some others to follow, will be concerned with examining when the Bible says something in the realm of science, is it consistent with science?
Creation Notes.
Let’s start at the very beginning. The earliest time reference in the Bible is actually John 1:1, not Genesis 1:1, as some assume. John 1:1 says, ” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” So two persons of the Trinity are mentioned here who then began to create things, as indicated in verses 2 & 3. {The third person is mentioned in Genesis 1:2b – “And the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) moved upon the face of the waters.”}
What did they create first? Job 38:4-7 gives a possible clue. Verses 4 & 7 say, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?……….When the morning stars (angels) sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy?” It is apparent that God must have created the host of angels prior to anything physical. Let’s also consider the phrase “I laid the foundation of the earth”. The earth is our foundation, but what is the earth’s foundation? I believe it is held in place by its orbit around the sun, plus its relationship with the rest of the universe. That is no surprise, but the Bible doesn’t say in what order the heavenly bodies were created, how long it took or how long ago it happened – only that angels witnessed the whole process. A most significant, but subtle fact was that ALL the angels sang together and they ALL shouted for joy ! Why is that so remarkable? Well, some time later, Lucifer, one of the three Archangels – ( Michael and Gabriel are the others ) – rebelled, was defeated, cast out from heaven to earth and had his name changed to Satan. Lucifer’s fall is described in Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-19, and also Luke 10:18 – where Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.” Jesus was the Word of the Old Testament who became flesh, as the New Testament describes.
So far these things must have happened before Genesis 1:1, because Satan was already waiting in the form of a serpent to tempt Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. What significance does all this have to my personal faith? Based on the above, I believe the earth is very old, as scientists have estimated.
A very important and contoversial question arises. Did God indicate if the earth and heavenly bodies were created as flat discs or spheres?
In their extensive essay, “Heaven and its Wonders, and Earth: The World the Biblical Writers Thought They Lived In”, authors Dr. Robert Price and Reginald Finlay Sr. prove to their satisfaction that the Bible wording teaches that the earth is a flat disc (published online). On the other side, Dr. Karl Coke, a theology professor and Hebrew scholar, believes the term ‘circle of the earth’ in Isaiah 40:22, definitely could mean Sphere or orb (The Karl Coke Evangelistic Association in his book “A Proper Education”). He claims that early scientists taught the earth was a flat circle and convinced the church to believe and teach it as a doctrine; however, the church was later reluctant to change one of its doctrines when scientists began to discover what is known today.
When discussing this with my small group, one person asked, “What were the sailors thinking about back then in being afraid of falling off the edge of the world, if they should inadvertently sail over the horizon? Wouldn’t the water in the oceans have drained away like a great waterfall previously?” Did God foresee such a problem and decide to make the earth spherical with gravity to hold things in place?
I’ll speculate on what else may have happened prior to Adam next.
