Reconciling 6 Days with 13.7 Billion Years

[Vine Abider]

29 minutes ago, Tristen said:

My second comment is a matter of context. I did not ever suggest, in any sense, that my credentials should impact how my arguments are assessed. I made passing mention of my credentials as part of my background information – which was provided to combat the suggestion made by @Vine Abider that one’s conclusion on the issue of origins is a consequence of upbringing, rather than thoughtful, prudent, diligent consideration of the topic.

I respect your comment . . .  And by the way, I love the two PhDs I know (though one does drive me a little crazy sometimes).

[Tristen]

31 minutes ago, Vine Abider said:

I respect your comment . . .  And by the way, I love the two PhDs I know (though one does drive me a little crazy sometimes).

Yup - we're not aliens; just normal people (mostly) - like everyone else. We have strengths and insecurities; we make mistakes and get things wrong at-least as much as we get things right; we "love", and we drive the one's we love "a little crazy sometimes".

 

[Revelation Man]

On 12/9/2022 at 7:51 PM, tim_from_pa said:

I teach "passive" vs "active" creation.  God did not need billions of years to make anything, but for whatever reason He allowed this long, long time.

God lives in all time at once, so what took billions if years in our unique Space Time Continuum universe means nothing to God, He was living in the beginning and ending of our universe all at the same time. 

As a man called by God for 38 years I wrote a semi blog on this a few years back. I actually find it hard to fathom that people see the Universe as like what, 6000 years old? I don't get it tbh. They allow language to trip them up. The word YOWM doesn't just mean day, I can show it being used for months, years, TIME PERIODS, and about 50 things. 

The old Hebrew had like 4000 words, modern English has 500,000 or more, do they had a different way of writing, you used YOWM as a time period then you described the time period. 

And thus has nothing to do with Evolution, God created all things. I might come back in a bit and copy paste my old blog that used the WMP Space Probe to show how old the Universe is by radar. By the way, the 400 million years of Darkness matches Gen. 1:1-3 and there was DARKNESS on the face of the DEEP, then light came afterwards. And light has to be reflected/refracted, and God used the Waters to do so, by creating a Bio-Dome for our atmosphere that entraps moisture.

 Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form(it was not THERE YET, Smile), and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep(the WMP Space Probe shows 400 Million Years of DARKNESS). And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Sun light just outside our Atmosphere is not very illuminating, but inside our Bio-dome it reflects the Light via Moisture in the air)

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And yes, Man is only 6000 years old, men keep records, so who were those "men" that they have fossils of they say going way back? Well, as I tell atheists, how can you or anyone measure WHEN God placed His spirit into mankind? LOL, this drives the crazy, there were no human being until God placed His Spirit into Adam & Eve, that is when we became Human Beings, in God's Image, Amen. 

Edited May 20, 2023 by Revelation Man

[Fallen into Grace]

There is no reconciling. Earth is around 6 thousand years old not billions. God created the world in six days. God made it simple we make it complicated.      

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[FreeGrace]

On 12/7/2022 at 9:33 PM, Tristen said:

A common strategy for those promoting the secular, long age, model, is to find a grammatical pause in the text, and insist that all that storytelling about time and evolution can be squeezed in between sentences. 

The only evidence that the first verses of Genesis should be understood differently (in any language) comes from those with an agenda to rewrite Genesis history to conform to their own preferred model of history.

As an evangelical born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, I disagree.  There is a completely logical explanation of why the earth is as old as scientists have measured it.  Notice I said "measured" it.  The theories of Darwin are based on the fact that he was mad at God because his young daughter died.  The measurement of earth's age was done scientifically before Darwin was born.

The traditional translation of Gen 1:1,2 creates a contradiction with Isa 45:18.

Gen 1:1,2 "God created the earth 'tohu' (formless)

Isa 45:18 "God did NOT create the earth 'tohu' (NASB - waste place).

The LXX (Septuagint) was written in seeveral centuries BC, when the Koine Greek was still a living language, unlike today.  And the scholars were fluent in Hebrew.  v.2 begins with "de" which is the Greek conjunction of contrast, translated as "but".

Then, researching how several words in Gen 1:2 are translated elsewhere in the OT, we  find this:

v.2 AND the earth WAS FORMLESS

'and' is "but" in the LXX

The verb "was" is the verb of existence, ie:  to be or become.

The EXACT SAME FORM of this verb occurs 111 times in the OT and is translated as "became/become" in 59% of them.  In only 4% of the time is it translated as "was".

The word "tohu" is translated as "waste place", "wasteland" "chaos" in 70% of all occurrences in the OT.

Putting all this together, v.2 is:  BUT the earth BECAME a WASTELAND.

This removes any contradiction with Isa 45:18 and shows a time gap between v.1 and 2.  

Therefore, Genesis 1:2ff isn't about original creation, but rather, a restoration of the planet for man's existence and use.

All this without any outside agenda, bias, etc.  

The NT also supports Genesis 1 being a restoration of the planet.

Heb 11:3 - By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The Greek word for "formed" is 'katartizo' and is translated as "mend, fix, adjust, repair" in the NT.  In an ethical sense, it means "complete".

It is translated as "restore" in several verses with the meaning of "complete".

Gal 6:1 -  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

1 Peter 5:10 - And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

One more thing:  if the traditional translation of Gen 1:2 is correct, there is the inexplicable problem of "apparent age" of the earth and universe.  Why would God create the earth and universe with apparent age?  That is deception.

The argument that Adam was created as a mature man with "apparent age" is bogus because Adam was created to perform various jobs, which he couldn't do as an infant.  

One would have to argue that the universe and earth also "perform specific functions" to argue for "apparent age", which isn't possible.

[FJK]

6 days, 144 hours.

Does God's clock run at the same speed of our clocks?

[FreeGrace]

1 hour ago, FJK said:

6 days, 144 hours.

Does God's clock run at the same speed of our clocks?

God set the time for earth.  God is eternal (timeless) and doesn't use a clock.

[JimmyB]

17 hours ago, Fallen into Grace said:

There is no reconciling. Earth is around 6 thousand years old not billions. God created the world in six days. God made it simple we make it complicated.      

Well, so much for science.  LOL!

[BeyondET]

18 hours ago, FJK said:

6 days, 144 hours.

Does God's clock run at the same speed of our clocks?

Clocks like 20 cosmic years.

[The Barbarian]

On 6/19/2023 at 6:11 AM, FreeGrace said:

 The theories of Darwin are based on the fact that he was mad at God because his young daughter died.

Darwin continued to research and extensively revise his theory while focusing on his main work of publishing the scientific results of the Beagle voyage.^[35] He tentatively wrote of his ideas to Lyell in January 1842;^[38] then in June he roughed out a 35-page "Pencil Sketch" of his theory.^[39] Darwin began correspondence about his theorising with the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker in January 1844, and by July had rounded out his "sketch" into a 230-page "Essay", to be expanded with his research results and published if he died prematurely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species

Emma died in 1851.   Hard to imagine the hatred and evil of the person who started that vile rumor.   Don't help them.