Biblical Creation Romans 1:20 – 23 - PowerPoint Presentation

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Biblical Creation

Romans 1:20 – 23

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How old is the earth? The universe?

Bible

Earth ~ 6,000 years

Universe ~ 6,000 years

Science

Earth ~4.5 billion years

Universe ~14.5 billion years

This can be very confusing to our children and even adults

Science presents the Big Bang, old Earth, and evolution as proven facts

Schools, museums, national parks, media, entertainment, etc.

The assumptions are not given or talked about

Outline

Look at some assumptions/shortcomings

Finish with a look at whether Genesis gives a literal or figurative account of creation

Slide3

What is Science?

Studying the natural world through observation and experiment, and developing models to describe it and make predictions

 

 

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What is Science?

Operational Science

A systematic approach to understanding that uses observable, testable, repeatable, and falsifiable experiments to understand how nature commonly behaves

Goal: model the way the world works and make predictions about what will happen

Historical (Origin) Science

Observe the world today and use models to describe what happened in the past

Goal: gain knowledge about the past

Biases

Naturalism and materialismProverbs 9:10

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Periodic Table – Success

Mendeleev’s table

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Incomplete model leads to revolution

~ 1900

 Seemed that most of the fundamental problems of physics had been solved

A couple of sticky points…

Rayleigh-Jean, Wien

Max Plank

Birth of Quantum Mechanics

Energy is quantized

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Big Bang Theory

Some issues…

The universe’s expansion is accelerating, not slowing down

The motion of objects in galaxies is non-

Kelparian

(or non-Newtonian)

Space is extremely flat, and the temperature is homogeneous

Hubble constant disagreement between universe expansion rate measurements and the microwave background radiation

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Big Bang Theory Assumptions

Dark energy is needed to reconcile the accelerating expansion of the universe

Dark matter is needed to reconcile the observed non-Newtonian motion

~95% of all matter and energy is undetectable and unknown, but needed to make the theory work

Cosmic Inflation: faster-than-light expansion of the universe within the first fraction of a second

Not based on observations

Added to the model to fix problems with the model

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Evolution – Lack of evidence

Macro evolution has never been seen

Fossil record of man and ape is very sparse

~95% of all fossils are marine invertebrates, ~4.7% are algae and plants, ~0.2% are insects and other invertebrates, ~0.1% are vertebrates (only a fraction of the vertebrates consist of primates)

Many who specialize in the evolution of man have never seen an original hominid fossil and less have handled one

Reconstructions can seem very convincing

No “missing link” ever found

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Reconstruction gone awry

Nebraska Man – The Ape of the Western World

Fossil found in 1917

Submitted in 1922 – one month later it was announced as the first anthropoid ape From America

All that was found was one tooth

Further excavation in 1925 led to the conclusion that the tooth came from an extinct type of pig

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DNA – The Impossible Chance

Number of possible events in the universe based on the number of elementary particles and Big Bang age of the universe: Calculations range from

10

50

to 10

140

Probability of producing a single 150-amino-acid functional protein is about

1 in 10

164

To have a 50-50 chance of happening you need 0.5 x 10

164

24 orders of magnitude between the probability and number of opportunities

About a trillion

trillion

to 1 against

This doesn’t include the start of life, only a building blockScience cannot describe the start of life

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Biblical Creation

Gen 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

Gen 1:1 – 2:1 – God created everything by speaking

Day

Created

1

1. Gen 1:1 – Heavens and Earth

2. Gen 1:3 – Light

2

3. Gen 1:6 – Firmament (expanse, Heaven vs. 8)

3

4. Gen 1:9 – Land (Earth vs. 10)

5. Gen 1:11 – Vegetation

4

6. Gen 1:14, 16 – Sun, moon, stars

5

7. Gen 1:20 – Sea creatures, birds68. Gen 1:24 – Land animals

9. Gen 1:27 – Man

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Biblical Creation

Genesis 1:31 – 2:2



six days

Exodus 20:11  for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.Exodus 31:17

 for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earthLuke 13:14 

the ruler of the synagogue said to Jesus “There are six days on which men ought to work…” This is clearly a reference to the fourth commandment which refers to the days of creation. It seems that the new testament Israelites believed in a literal six days for creation

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Why do some Christians doubt a literal 6 days?

Because they believe that science has proven the world to be billions (4.5 billion) of years old

The argument doesn’t come from the Scriptures, but rather from an outside influence that dictates how we look at God’s word. Instead, God’s word should be the foundation of how we view everything else. When people allow the outside influence to shape their view of God’s word, they need to twist the Scriptures to fit that view.

Major long-age compromises

Gap theory

: There is a gap of indeterminate time between the first two verses of GenesisTheistic evolution: God directed the evolutionary process of millions of years or possibly set it up and let it runProgressive creation: God intervened in the process of death and struggle to create millions of species at various times over millions of years

Framework hypothesis: The events of Genesis 1 are interpreted as poetical rather than historical narrative

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Why do some Christians doubt a literal 6 days?

Thought to consider

A long-age theory also changes the order of creation using an evolutionary model

Biblical account of creation

Evolutionary order of existence

Earth before the sun and stars

Stars and sun before the earth

Earth is initially covered in waterEarth initially a molten blob

Oceans first, then dry landDry land first, then oceans

Life first created on land

Life started in the oceans

Plants created before the sun

Plants came along after the sun

Land animals created after birds

Land animals existed before birds

Whales before land animals

Land animals before whales

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Hebrew word for day

Yom

A period of light as to contrast night

A 24-hour period

TimeA specific point of timeA yearA long but specified amount of time (age, epoch)How do we know which is being used here?

ContextSimilar uses in other passages

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Hebrew word for day

For each day, the phrase “So the evening and the morning were the ____ day.” is used – Genesis 1:5, 1:8, 1:13, 1:19, 1:23, 1: 31

Outside of Genesis 1,

yom

is used with a number 359 times and each time it means an ordinary day. Outside of Genesis 1, yom

is used with the words “evening and morning” 23 times. “Evening and morning” appear in association, but without yom, 38 times. All

61 times, it refers to an ordinary day. Outside of Genesis 1, yom is used with the word “night” 53 times and each time it means an ordinary night.

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Hebrew word for day

For each day, the phrase “So the evening and the morning were the ____ day.” is used – Genesis 1:5, 1:8, 1:13, 1:19, 1:23, 1: 31

The plural of

yom

, which does not appear in Genesis 1, can be used to indicate a longer period of time, such as “in those days…” Adding a number here would not make sense. In Exodus 20:11 when a number is used with the plural, in clearly refers to six ordinary days.

Evening and morning indicates a normal 24-hour day. Otherwise, this would seem to indicate a very long period of light followed by a very long period of darkness.

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What about 2 Peter 3:8?

“But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day.”

CONTEXT: God will keep His promise (second coming of Jesus) even though it seems like it has been so long to us (vs. 1 – 7)

The rest of the verse says, “a thousand years is as one day.”

With God, waiting a day is like waiting a thousand years and waiting a thousand years is like one day. This may sound complicated, but it just means that God is outside of time and not limited by it like we are. It has nothing to do with the days of creation

Contextual conclusion: Don’t lose hope because you think it has been too long. God is patiently giving all a chance to repent (vs. 9)

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What about 2 Peter 3:8?

Thoughts to ponder

If the plants made on Day 3 were separated by millions of years from the birds and nectar bats (created Day 5) and insects (created Day 6) necessary for their pollination, then such plants could not have survived.

Yucca plant and yucca moth example:

The yucca moth is the only pollinator for the yucca plant and the yucca plant is the only source of food for the yucca moth. They can’t survive without each other.

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What about 2 Peter 3:8?

Thoughts to ponder

Adam was created on Day 6, lived through Day 7, and then died when he was 930 years old (Genesis 5:5). If each day were a thousand years or millions of years, how do you reconcile Adam’s age at his death?

If these verses are taken to mean that one day meant a thousand years or more, then to be consistent, one should take Jesus to be in the grave for three thousand years and Jonah to be in the belly of the fish for three thousand years

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Romans 5:12, 8:18 – 23

As a result of sin

Sin entered the world (5:12)

Death entered the world through sin (5:12)

Creation subjected to futility (8:20)Creation subjected to the bondage of corruption (8:21)Also, as a result of sinGround cursed with thorns and thistles (Gen 3:17 – 18)

However, under long-age theories Fossil records are interpreted to be millions of years oldFossil records consist of the death of billions of creaturesThorns exist in the fossil recordsThis would all be well before the first sin

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Romans 5:12, 8:18 – 23

Scripture says man and animal were originally vegetarian

Gen 1:29 – 30

However, under long-age theories

Creatures are not all vegetarianHow do you deal with man under long-age theories?Evolution?Separate from the rest of creation?

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For the interested reader

Pocket Guides (Answers in Genesis)

A Pocket Guide to Astronomy

A Pocket Guide to

ApemenA Pocket Guide to Six DaysA Pocket Guide to A Young EarthUniverse By Design, Danny FaulknerSignature in the Cell, Stephen C. Meyer