Creation and an Old Earth - One Possibility

[Vendtre]

19 minutes ago, Teditis said:

Those are some interesting thoughts and points that you make and I would agree that it would be a lot to fit into

a 24-hour period.

I see Chapter 2 as a summary of what God did in Chapter 1 and then some additional information that "fleshes-out"

how life proceeded afterwards. I never saw it as describing merely one 24-hour period though. What makes you think that folks

are reading Chapter 2 as a single 24-hour period?

Verse 27 of chapter one states man and woman were made as part of day 6.  Chapter 2 gives details of what happened between the creation of man and the creation of woman.  Since both man and woman were created on day 6, if you believe day 6 was only 24 hours long then everything between the making of man and the making of woman had to take place in less than 24 hours, so chapter 2 would have to be a 24 hour period... If you ascribe to the 24 hour view

[ARGOSY]

5 minutes ago, Teditis said:

To me, those verses say that all that was stated happened on Day 1. No?

The darkness was an unknown period that existed before the first 24 hour day. The first 24 hour day is associated with light.  Sure its possible that the the period of darkness occurred within that 24 hours, but the verse does not even hint at that.

[Guest Teditis]

In my Bible Chapter 2 reads...

[Gen 2:1-9 ESV] 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground-- 7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

So to me, this highlighted part implies this section is a summary of what God did and that it covered many days, not just one.

[Guest Teditis]

6 minutes ago, ARGOSY said:

The darkness was an unknown period that existed before the first 24 hour day. The first 24 hour day is associated with light.  Sure its possible that the the period of darkness occurred within that 24 hours, but the verse does not even hint at that.

I think that it clearly implies that it occurred in that 24-hour period because it implies nothing else.

Nothing else is hinted at...

To draw anything further from the text would be "inference" by the reader... that's my take on it.

[ARGOSY]

11 minutes ago, Teditis said:

In my Bible Chapter 2 reads...

[Gen 2:1-9 ESV] 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground-- 7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

 

So to me, this highlighted part implies this section is a summary of what God did and that it covered many days, not just one.

The land existed under the waters in verse 1.  For an indefinite period of darkness.  Then in day 1 there is light. This starts off the 7 day period.  Then in  those 7 days God start prepares the land and the sky for human habitation.

The dark and watery earth never had light, land, sky and biological life.  These are what are produced in the 7 days, if we read what is produced in the 7 days without adding in extras (like the universe hahaha)

In day 1 there is light

In day 2 there is sky (in between the sea and the clouds)  THIS IS NOT THE UNIVERSE FOLKS)

In day 3 there is ERETS which means "dry land" ( THIS IS NOT THE PLANET FOLKS)

In Genesis 2 and Exodus as well, the same two words are used, the words for DRY LAND and the SKY

Thus the sky and the dry land were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done

4 These are the generations of the sky and the dry land when they were created,

[Guest Teditis]

That still doesn't speak to some time period prior to Day 1...

This "indefinite period of darkness" you speak of seems to be of your own making.

It's simply not in the text.

*He called forth light to separate the darkness (night) from day(time).

Edited February 10, 2016 by Teditis

[ARGOSY]

20 minutes ago, Teditis said:

 

I'm not seeing what you seeing.  The day starts with the light. Without light and darkness one is unable to count off the first 24 hour day, and so the darkness was not necessarily within 24 hours. The period before the light cannot therefore be counted. But even if we agree to disagree on that point my other point still stands. 

ie even if the land and the sky were created within the first 7 days, nothing is said about the universe and the planet earth. Because the bible's own definition for the meaning of those two Hebrew words has nothing to do with the planet earth and the universe. The bible itself defines those words as meaning the "expanse" between the waters; and the "dry land".  I prefer to stick with the bible's meaning.

 

 

[Guest Teditis]

2 minutes ago, ARGOSY said:

 

I'm not seeing what you seeing.  The day starts with the light. Without light and darkness one is unable to count off the first 24 hour day, and so the darkness was not necessarily within 24 hours. The period before the light cannot therefore be counted. But even if we agree to disagree on that point my other point still stands. 

ie even if the land and the sky were created within the first 7 days, nothing is said about the universe and the planet earth. Because the bible's own definition for the meaning of those two Hebrew words has nothing to do with the planet earth and the universe. The bible itself defines those words as meaning the "expanse" between the waters; and the "dry land".  I prefer to stick with the bible's meaning.

 

 

Remember how Jewish people count their days... from sundown (night) to sundown... from darkness to light and back to darkness.

[ARGOSY]

21 minutes ago, Teditis said:

Remember how Jewish people count their days... from sundown (night) to sundown... from darkness to light and back to darkness.

Well like I said,  even if we disagree on that point, my other point stands.

[other one]

Do you all realize that if you do take all the descriptions of creation in both Genesis and the prophets as literal you end up with a flat round earth with a hard canopy over it, and God living on top of it.  All setting on 4 pillars for a foundation.