#9 THE GREAT FLOOD

     As we consider different aspects of the Old Testament in the next several posts, we need to remember its contributing authors were separated from God by the wall Satan had built. And, because they were unable to see God in His fullness, they did not have the whole picture of what had happened or was happening. So, we are going to take the circumstances of different events and use information we find in the New Testament to put together a more precise understanding of the events than what the Old Testament writers shared. In this post, we are going to look at the flood that occurred in the days of Noah (Genesis 6-9).

     Before we  consider the cause of the flood, I want to respond to the notion that the story of the flood is just a fairy tale. One of the reasons people might believe this fairy tale theory  is because, if we look at the way the earth’s land masses are arranged, visualizing a flood gigantic enough to cover the whole earth’s surface is pretty impossible. I have an answer to this quandary. Since Genesis 1:9 tells us God pulled all the seas into one place and dry land appeared, we can infer that there was just one land mass on our earth as God began the creation process. And, science agrees that when our earth was first formed, there was just one land mass. To explain how our earth looks today, science theorizes that over billions of years, the one mass drifted into the continents that are present today. But, I propose that there is a different explanation found in the Bible.

     First, Genesis 2:10-14 tells us there were four rivers passing through the land mass that was formed in Creation. Next, even though many people may not know this, there was much more going on during the forty days of rain than just the rain itself. Genesis 7:11 (KJV) says “…the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up…” Let me ask you, how are the fountains of great deep (or ocean) broken up? Anyone who has taken high school earth/space science knows the answer–by earthquakes and volcanoes. So, here’s the scenario of what possibly transpired during the forty days: While the rain inundated the one land mass with four rivers and while that rain caused massive flooding, constant volcanic activity and constant earthquakes were ripping apart the layers of earth underneath the water that was next to the one land mass. With the land mass under water, the violence of what happened during those forty days literally turned the earth  upside down and inside out. Then, when all the activity stopped and the flood waters dissipated, the face of the earth was forever changed. The one land mass and one “sea” were now many.

     If we think about it, this theory could solve some of the discrepancies between science and the Bible. For example, it explains why scientists have found skeletons and other artifacts that seem out of place. How many times have we seen videos of the power of flood waters to move objects long distances? I imagine there were many humungous tsunami throughout the whole earth during those forty days. Also, the fact that water and heat both were present during the Great Flood probably skews the methods scientists use to date fossils and other artifacts. With that in mind, it makes sense that the turbulent waters covering the earth and the heat from the volcanoes could well have made objects date older than they really are.  Thus, taking into consideration that, as I wrote before, Creation took place in eternity and that the great flood could have changed the face of the earth, then perhaps science and the Bible are not so far apart after all.

    Now, let’s go on to discuss the cause of the flood. As John 10:10 and I Peter 5:8 tell us, Satan’s purpose has been to steal, kill, and destroy anyone he can. In the days of Noah, Satan had managed to ensnare practically the whole human race into turning away  from God and into choosing evil which in turn led to tremendous violence. Because God is faithful and He allows people to choose life or death (Deuteronomy 30:15-20), He could not stop Satan from killing those who were so blatantly choosing the curses–let me repeat, Satan killed them because he held the power of death (Hebrews 2:14) and because God has nothing to do with evil (James 1:13, 17). Fortunately, there was one man who found grace in the sight of the Lord, and God presented him with the way of escape from the destruction that was soon to come upon the earth. Noah found grace because his heart was towards God and he walked with God (Genesis 6:9). And, through Noah, God was able to keep Satan from achieving his determined purpose of destroying God’s Creation.  Because of Noah’s willingness to walk with Him, not only was God able to protect him and his family along with animal life from the destruction, but God was also able to make a covenant with Noah that never again would all flesh be destroyed by a flood. So, just like in the Garden of Eden, Satan gave his best shot at wiping the good that had invaded his kingdom, but he did not succeed.

     In the next several posts, we are going to discuss Job and his trial. Contrary to popular belief, Job did find his answers from Elihu and God, and through discussing what happened to Job, we will find new answers to some very old questions.

 

     Please feel free to comment on this post–just remember, if any comment is disrespectful to any person, it will be deleted.

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, July 21st 2009 | Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in THE BEGINNING

#6 CREATION TIDBITS

     Henry David Thoreau once said, “All perception of truth is the detection of an analogy.” In other words, we can test the truthfulness of concepts by comparing them to things we already know are true. For instance, in my last post, I compared creation with the manufacture of a car to look at the possibility that God did not start time until He finished the creation process. Since time is based on motion, comparing it to something that moves makes sense. I believe several other analogies will also help us understand the beginning of our world.

     A number of people in our world disavow the concept that any kind of intelligent design was involved in the beginning of our universe–in other words, they believe that everything just happened by chance. Okay, let’s check that out. Wherever you are sitting, look around at everything that is man-made. Name one thing that was not designed before it was made or manufactured. Even those designs that happened by serendipity still came about through human thought and effort. Now, is not correct to say that the most complex human inventions are nothing compared to the intricacies of the natural world? If those human inventions were designed, why wouldn’t the natural world be designed? Logic tells us Someone designed our world.

     A superficial reading of Genesis 1 would suggest that God, in creating our world, took a role similiar of  a magician waving a magic wand. And, I think that notion, along with the insistence by some believers that God created everything in six 24-hour days, hinders a number of people from believing He is the Creator. An answer to that is an analogy found several places in the Bible where God is likened to a potter (Isaiah 45:9–cross reference from there). If God did create our world in eternity, then He had the “time” to individually make each piece of His pottery collection. So rather than looking at God as being a supernatural magician, let’s look at Him as being an artist.

     Now, let’s continue with the analogy of a pottery collection. As we consider the artist’s collection ( and that all pieces were made of the same material), we would not think it unusual that different pieces had many of the same elements  So, looking at that collection as a whole, would we state that the mug evolved into a soup tureen, which then evolved into a serving platter, which then evolved into a vase, which then evolved into an object d’art? All those pieces share the element of a handle, so they had to evolve one from the other, right? Of course not! The potter makes each piece individually.

     Because DNA had not been discovered when Darwin worked out his theories, he was stuck in trying to explain why a child shared the traits of his/her parents. As Darwin gathered quality information without any understanding of the underlying structures of life, he was stuck with the hypothesis that one form of life evolved into another form which then evolved into another form , etc. over a vast number of years. As I thought about an analogy that would test his theory, the best I came up with is this: the process of the evolution of a single-celled organism into a complex human being is like a single oak tree standing in a 384 square-mile dirt field evolving into New York City. Think about it!

     Before I close, I want to leave the analogies to discuss something in Genesis 1 and 2 that had bugged me. Have you ever noticed that the two accounts of Creation in those chapters seem to be totally different? That fact really bothered me, so I started asking God to explain why. One day, when I was teaching point-of-view to my creative writing students, the answer dawned on me. Genesis 1 was written from God’s point-of-view–readers “see” what God saw when He created our world. However, Genesis 2 is written from Adam’s point-of-view. (Remember he wasn’t there as God created the majority of  Creation because he was the last form of life created.) As far as Adam was concerned, he was the first thing God created and then the plant life and animal life followed. The fact that there are two different points-of-view in Genesis 1 and 2 is so important to understand because the rest of the Bible also contains two points-of-view–God’s  and the human. And, just like Genesis 1 and 2, those two points-of-view do not always agree. This fact makes it vital that we read the Bible critically and look at more than just what a passage says. As with most other written materials, what the Bible says and what it means may be two entirely different things.

     My next post will discuss what really happened in the Garden of Eden–did you know the Garden of Eden was the first crime scene in the world?

     Please feel free to comment on this post–just remember, any comment that is disrespectful of any person will be deleted.

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, July 13th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in THE BEGINNING

#5 CREATION ROCKED!

     With the inferences we have already made about God’s absolute love, the Secret of the Most High, the Wrath of God, and the kingdom of evil (all covered in previous posts) as a backdrop, let’s look at the account of Creation found in Genesis 1. We are going to explore beyond the surface of what is written to find a deeper meaning that will help transform our understanding of why the world is the way it is.

     Have you ever wondered where God created our world? We know our earth is part of the universe, but the universe wasn’t present when our earth was created. According to Genesis 1:2, 9, our planet was created in a place where there was darkness along with the physicality of water and soil. Remember when we talked about the characteristics of the alternative to God–of the place where Satan had established his kingdom of evil? They included darkness and physicality. What if God went to that alternative, to the Wrath of God, to create our world? I’ll tell you, if this is what happened, then Genesis 1 carries meaning that goes way beyond the actual creation process.

     The first thing in this creation process that God did was to make the proclamation, “Let there be light!” and, guess what, light appeared (Genesis 1:3). Let’s think about this for a moment–Satan had set up his kingdom in the place of darkness and I imagine he was confident that God would not be an issue for him. After all, God has nothing to do with evil (James 1:13, 17), so Satan probably believed God would just leave him alone. Imagine his surprise and dismay when he heard God’s voice speaking “Let there be light!” or, in other words, when he heard God say, “I AM here!” But, God didn’t stop there. Genesis 1:4 goes on to say that God saw that the light was good, so we can surmise God’s intention was to bring good into the place of evil. However, Genesis 1:5 goes on to let us know God did not intend to destroy the kingdom of evil. Instead, He created a distinct partition between the two kingdoms when He separated the light (Day) from the darkness (Night). 

    Looking at the terms “day” and “night,” I personally believe they have nothing to do with our 24-hour day for three reasons: 1.) the very earliest a 24-day could have existed was after the fourth day when the sun, moon, and stars were created; 2.) the creation process was much like a manufacturing process; and 3.) I Thessalonians 5:5 uses the same terms in the capacity of describing two kingdoms. So, let’s start with the mechanics of time–our whole “time system” is dependent upon the rotation of our earth upon its axis and the revolution of our earth around the sun. Without the presence of the sun, there would be no time. So the 24-hour day could not have existed before the sun. And, do  you realize that since there is no time without the  specific rotation and revolution of our earth, our divisions of time (minutes, days, years, etc.) are meaningless anywhere but here on our earth? So, the 24-hour day is earth-centered and is strictly a function of the earth’s movement.

     Now, let’s go on to consider an example of a man-made thing that moves, like a car. Here’s a question for you–when do you put a car in motion (i.e., drive it)? The obvious answer, when it comes off the assembly line, when all the work on the car has been finished. What if God didn’t start the motion we call time until He completed the whole creation process? Genesis 2:1 (NASB) hints at this with these words written about the end of the sixth day, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.” What if God created our universe in eternity and then, when He was finished, started time? Boy, would that explain a whole lot–like why scientists have measured the age of our universe as 13.7 billion years. Let’s face it, when we talk about billions of years ago, we’re pretty much talking about eternity.

     Now, if creation took place in eternity, then perhaps the phrases “the first day,” “the second day,” etc. would be like naming the stages of the process God went through to create everything (much like the departments on an assembly line building cars–framing, body, engine, etc.). Then, Genesis 1 would be describing the scope and the sequence of that process which brought our world into existence. (Also, can you imagine Satan’s consternation at seeing one good thing after another invading his kingdom?)

    Finally, let’s look at what I Thessalonians 5:5 (NASB) says, “for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night or of darkness.” This verse supports the inference that the terms “day” and “night” represent two kingdoms in the same location. This concept may be a little hard to grasp, but perhaps a scientific discovery can help us visualize how this can be. Ron Cowen wrote in the April 11, 2009 issue of Science News (p.16), “Before the first galaxies, before the first stars, there was light–the brilliant glow of radiation created during the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago” (www.sciencenews.org). This light–known as the cosmic background radiation–is invisible to the naked eye, permeates our entire universe, and is remarkably consistent no matter where it’s measured (www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/universes/html/infla.html). So, this means that when we are looking out into the universe, not only is there darkness that we can see, but there is light that we can’t see. Thus, everything that exists in our universe exists both in the darkness and in the light. Likewise, everything God created was created both in the darkness and in the light.  

     The discovery of the cosmic background radiation has also led me to this question: this invisible light that exists everywhere we look, yet we can’t see it anywhere–I wonder if this light is God?

    In my next post, we are going to look at aspects of the actual creation process, then we will move on to what really happened in the Garden of Eden. Remember, you are welcome to comment on this post; just remember that any comment that is disrespectful to anyone will be deleted.

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, July 10th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in THE BEGINNING

#4 THE ORIGINAL SIN

     When we think about sin entering the world, we look at the account of Adam and Eve eating the “forbidden fruit” in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-19, Romans 5:12). However, although the pair was the conduit for the force of unbelief to enter into our world, they were not the creators of sin.  In fact, sin existed before our world was even created. In this post, I am going to pull the last three posts–God’s absolute love, the creation of evil, and truth and freedom–together to explain how evil became active and how sin came into being.

     Sometime after God created the alternative to Himself–the Wrath of God–He established the angelic realm. Although there is not a specific biblical account of how God created these spiritual beings, mentions of what happened in that process are sprinkled through the scriptures. By putting some of these together with what we have already discovered about God’s character, we can build inferences that will help us understand where sin came from.

     First, because God is the One who created the angels, we can surmise that the angels were created in the Secret Place of the Most High and that they existed in life, light, love, good, spirit, and truth. And, since the Wrath of God had already been created (as indicated in Jude 6) and since God does not demand His own way, we can also infer that every angel was free to choose between the Secret Place of the Most High and the Wrath of God. Think about this for a while–at the point of his creation, each of the angels knew truth and had  freedom of choice. This concept can be hard for us to understand because none of us have ever had access to complete truth nor have we ever had unrestrained freedom. (We are born without any knowledge of truth and are born totally dependent on other people who are there to take care of us.) Nevertheless, I think we can be confident that God created the angels with minds and wills of their own and with an understanding of the choice they had.

     Now, let’s look at one particular angel who changed the course of eternity through the free choices he made. Lucifer is described in Isaiah 14:12-17 and is symbolized by the king of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:12-19. Again, not getting hung up with verb tenses, we can work out what happened in these passages along with those in Jude 6 and Revelation 12:4:

–Lucifer was one of the most beautiful angels created by God–he was perfect and considered to be the “morning star.”

–He began looking at his own beauty and began desiring to be like God in that he wanted to rule over his peers.

–He knew he could never rule over God in the Secret Place of the Most High, so he began looking at the Wrath of God and decided he could set up his kingdom there.

–Lucifer let go of God (and of light, life, love, good, spirit, and truth) and moved into the Wrath of God. One third of the angelic realm freely moved with him. From that point on, these angels existed in darkness, death, hate, evil, physicality, and deception. Every one of those angels knew exactly what he was doing by making this choice.

     By letting go of God, Lucifer created sin which is simply unbelief or not holding onto God (John 16:9, Romans 14:23). Let me repeat, Lucifer created sin–he was the one who took the first step away from God. And, make no mistake about it, God had absolutely nothing to do with Lucifer’s choice–the angel himself conceived of the plan to set up his own kingdom and acted on that plan. By the way, through this process, Lucifer became Satan and became an enemy of God in that he hated God with everything he had.

     So, after Satan’s move and after one-third of the angels followed him, the alternative to God became inhabited. The Wrath of God was no longer inactive, and Satan set up a kingdom that he alone dominated. Now, in my next post, we are going to see how Satan’s kingdom became the launching pad for God’s next creation.

 

     Please feel free to comment on this post. Any comments that are disrespectful to anyone will be deleted.

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.

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patriciazell, July 8th 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in BEFORE THE BEGINNING