Creation and an Old Earth - One Possibility

[HAZARD]

This doctrin is too simple for most men to understand, so they reject it.

2 Peter 3:5-7 expresses this clearly in plain human language, "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing (emerging) out of the water and in the water:

Whereby the world "THAT THEN WAS," being overflowed with water, PERISHED:
 

But the heavens and the Earth, "WHICH ARE NOW," by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."

This is where people become confused and say the world "that then was," was the world before Noah's flood, but this cannot be because:

If the world that "THAT THEN WAS" is that between Adam and the flood of Noah, then God created The heavens and the Earth "WHICH ARE NOW" since the flood of Noah. Noah and his family lived prior to his flood and after it.

The world "THAT THEN WAS PERISHED" and everything in it also perished. What change could Noah's flood make to the heavens?

None, for floods on Earth can never cover the heavens. The earth, vegetation, the heavens, all remained the same after Noah's flood.

Peter, in (2 Peter 3:3-7) taught that scoffers were totally ignorant of the flood that destroyed the social system and the earth "THAT THEN WAS" (lucifers flood). These scoffers all knew of Noah's flood and still know today. This proves that the truth of the flood that destroyed the original creation was hidden from them, while they knew about Noah's flood.

What was it that the scoffers were ignorant of unless it was the destruction of the social system before Adam?

This is the doctrin of which men are still ignorant of, which they call "THE GAP THEORY." Peter said that the scoffers were willingly ignorant of this truth showing that it is a clear doctrin of Scripture if men would stop being ignorant of it. There are many Scriptures that make this doctrin clear; so;

"If any man wants to be ignorant, let him be ignorant," as Paul expressed in (1 Cor. 14:38).

 

[hmbld]

12 minutes ago, HAZARD said:

hmbid wrote,

 

When was "In the beginning?" If it was 6000 years ago then the Word must have had a beginning also and not be an eternal being, because scripture says "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was with God." John 1:1. And, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John 1:3. You say, IN THE BEGINNING GOD CREATED, and IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD. 

They cannot both be in the beginning 6,000 years ago, so which is it?

Your saying that you believe the Word who was God and was with God, John 1:1, like the Earth which you say was created 6,000 years ago, is not an eternal being but had a beginning around the same time He created everything? See how ridiculous this is to say there was no gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

 

 

All things were created that have been created, "in the beginning", which occurred in 6 days.  Jesus, the word, has no beginning, but was present in the beginning of the world.  Jesus was before time was.

 

[Kan]

The Bible does not assume that we are the only world that God has created. 

So if we run into riddles about the beginning, and what God had to do before He made earth - who's to blame for that?

But I would not ever venture to say that putting Lucifer on this planet, before the six days of creation, is in anywise going to satisfy God.

If we "consider the heavens" as the Psalmist declares, the universe is immensely vast and old, and has billions of stars, planets and planetary systems, not just one lousy speck of dust called earth.

If we are going to expand in thought, then let's bypass the gap theory altogether, because it is nothing, if not true at all.

When God says that it took 6 days to make the earth, it does not mean it was made some time before that and then trashed by a pre creation flood. God means what He says.

But let's say we forget the word of the Lord, and just resort to an academic analysis, based on the English translation of the Bible, of the gap theory in Genesis.

It fails. It is not even hinted at, not even by a metaphor.

Whoever concocted those texts together has done so without any reference to the rules of grammar, and comprehension. It is an artwork, if anything at all, a decoupage of words, glossed over with prose.

[Riverwalker]

On 1/5/2016 at 6:47 AM, Saved.One.by.Grace said:

No one is saying He didn't.  Aren't you following the discussion?  We are all taking the scriptures literally.  There's a question involving the meaning of what God inspired the writers to record.  To me, it's a discussion among mature Christians, not necessarily helpful for evangelizing.  YEC may be a stumbling block: it was to me.

1 Corinthians 1:23  but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

The truth is often a stumbling block, but it cannot be discarded because it may cause someone to stumble.

Part of coming to Christ is over coming your petty objections and setting aside your minor squabbles

[SavedOnebyGrace]

I am not an Adventist but found the following article interesting with respect to the creation account.  This is all information I was already aware of but it's tied together nicely in this article.

Source Spectrum Magazine: Genesis Account

[arphax]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2016 at 2:10 AM, Kan said:

The Bible does not assume that we are the only world that God has created. 

So if we run into riddles about the beginning, and what God had to do before He made earth - who's to blame for that?

But I would not ever venture to say that putting Lucifer on this planet, before the six days of creation, is in anywise going to satisfy God.

If we "consider the heavens" as the Psalmist declares, the universe is immensely vast and old, and has billions of stars, planets and planetary systems, not just one lousy speck of dust called earth.

If we are going to expand in thought, then let's bypass the gap theory altogether, because it is nothing, if not true at all.

When God says that it took 6 days to make the earth, it does not mean it was made some time before that and then trashed by a pre creation flood. God means what He says.

But let's say we forget the word of the Lord, and just resort to an academic analysis, based on the English translation of the Bible, of the gap theory in Genesis.

It fails. It is not even hinted at, not even by a metaphor.

Whoever concocted those texts together has done so without any reference to the rules of grammar, and comprehension. It is an artwork, if anything at all, a decoupage of words, glossed over with prose.

Although it isn't clearly stated that the earth is the center of all God's creation throughout the ages, it wouldn't be a strong argument to say because the universe is infinitely immense that we might not be alone.  That is life on the larger scale.  What about life on the smaller scale?  In the microscopic?  Just as we are always probing further and further into outerspace and never finding an end, so we also are probing further into the human body do past the cellular and molecular levels and never finding an end to it all.  My feeling is we never will in this life for the simple fact that God wants to prove to us that His wisdom and ways "are past finding out."  "Who can know the mind of God?"   And if we consider that Jesus Christ only had to come down once from heaven to be the Lamb of God, I wouldn't think any other race would have been.  Just my 2 cents.

 

We know that "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows forth His handiwork.."   I would not be surprised at all to one day find out we WERE the only spiritual beings created in the physical realm.

Edited February 3, 2016 by arphax

[coheir]

ecc8:17

Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

[ARGOSY]

On 1/9/2016 at 9:10 AM, Kan said:

The Bible does not assume that we are the only world that God has created. 

So if we run into riddles about the beginning, and what God had to do before He made earth - who's to blame for that?

But I would not ever venture to say that putting Lucifer on this planet, before the six days of creation, is in anywise going to satisfy God.

If we "consider the heavens" as the Psalmist declares, the universe is immensely vast and old, and has billions of stars, planets and planetary systems, not just one lousy speck of dust called earth.

If we are going to expand in thought, then let's bypass the gap theory altogether, because it is nothing, if not true at all.

When God says that it took 6 days to make the earth, it does not mean it was made some time before that and then trashed by a pre creation flood. God means what He says.

But let's say we forget the word of the Lord, and just resort to an academic analysis, based on the English translation of the Bible, of the gap theory in Genesis.

It fails. It is not even hinted at, not even by a metaphor.

Whoever concocted those texts together has done so without any reference to the rules of grammar, and comprehension. It is an artwork, if anything at all, a decoupage of words, glossed over with prose.

There are no riddles. The bible is a literal book. But the literal wording allows for an ancient universe and planet.

Its a fallacy that God took six days to make the earth. The Hebrew word for "earth" is  "eret" and this word means "land" and does not mean "planet earth".

The dry land was created on the third day, NOT the planet. Genesis 1:1 is clear the planet already existed in a watery state, before creation week even started. Then land was created on day 3. 

  And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas

 

So an old earth and old universe is a perfectly acceptable belief system for a bible literalist.    Sure, dry land, the expanse of the sky and all biological life was recent, but nothing in Genesis 1 implies the universe and planet is a recent creation. That question is left open.

[ARGOSY]

On 1/8/2016 at 1:05 AM, hmbld said:

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth + everything created in 6 days, including man + complete listing of begats from Adam to Jesus = no gap!

 

 

I don't see how you can say "everything created in 6 days" when the watery planet clearly existed before the first day, and only the "Dry land" was created in day 3?

The bible says nothing about "planet earth" being created within those 6 days.  

[enoob57]

Anything outside of the 6- 24 hour period creation is perverting the simple hermeneutic of what is stated ...
We give an account of everything word we say so this will be addressed by God to each individual

Mt 12:36-37

36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
KJV

It is interesting to note that God holds each word as He does His own that we call The Word of God!
Love, Steven