CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S WORD
Hebrews 10:23
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;”
A lot of our difficulties with the text in Genesis could be resolved if we would only have confidence in God's word.
For example, I have, on a number of occasions, explained how it is possible to have light without a source. God must have made light on Day One even though He made the source of light on the Earth – i.e. the Sun – three days later. This explanation would be offered in answer to a question about the existence of light. But different people might ask that question in different ways.
Jim might ask how it is possible for the days of the creation week to be real days. After all, he says, we measure the length of a day by the Sun that wasn't made until Day Four, so the first three days at least could not have been real days. Jenny, on the other hand, says, "I know God made the world in six real days, but I don't understand how there could have been light before the Sun."
Jim and Jenny both ask about the creation of light and the Sun. But Jim starts from the point of view that the Bible cannot be correct because he cannot figure out how to reconcile it. Jenny, conversely, starts by believing the Bible, but wants to understand more about the implications. Jim is trying to find reasons not to have confidence in God's word. Jenny, on the other hand, is wanting to learn more because she does have confidence in God's word.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your word, which is always true. Help us to trust You and to trust Your word even when we don't quite understand what it means. Help us to learn more about You and Your ways. Amen.
Hebrews 10:23
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;”
A lot of our difficulties with the text in Genesis could be resolved if we would only have confidence in God's word.
For example, I have, on a number of occasions, explained how it is possible to have light without a source. God must have made light on Day One even though He made the source of light on the Earth – i.e. the Sun – three days later. This explanation would be offered in answer to a question about the existence of light. But different people might ask that question in different ways.
Jim might ask how it is possible for the days of the creation week to be real days. After all, he says, we measure the length of a day by the Sun that wasn't made until Day Four, so the first three days at least could not have been real days. Jenny, on the other hand, says, "I know God made the world in six real days, but I don't understand how there could have been light before the Sun."
Jim and Jenny both ask about the creation of light and the Sun. But Jim starts from the point of view that the Bible cannot be correct because he cannot figure out how to reconcile it. Jenny, conversely, starts by believing the Bible, but wants to understand more about the implications. Jim is trying to find reasons not to have confidence in God's word. Jenny, on the other hand, is wanting to learn more because she does have confidence in God's word.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your word, which is always true. Help us to trust You and to trust Your word even when we don't quite understand what it means. Help us to learn more about You and Your ways. Amen.
THE END OF A SPACE MISSION
1 Corinthians 3:19
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”
The Cassini-Huygens Mission, which ended in 2017, was, by any stretch of the imagination, a remarkable human achievement. Launched on October 15, 1997, the craft was active for nearly 20 years before its final descent into the oblivion of Saturn's gravity on September 15, 2017. The use of the Internet in schools was in its infancy, but I remember, as a teacher, using the school's IT laboratory with students to track the launch and to find information on how it was going to get to Saturn.
Cassini-Huygens took seven years to reach Saturn. In order to save fuel, an extremely complicated orbit was calculated to use planetary gravitational fields to accelerate the craft enough for its long journey to Saturn. This involved two close approaches to Venus, one to the Earth, and another to Jupiter, which finally whipped the craft off in the right direction for the rendezvous with the ringed planet and its moons.
The complexity of the calculations required to power the craft to Saturn relied on the predictability and measurability of gravitational forces elsewhere in the Solar System. Such confidence in calculations was only possible because these universal constants display the wisdom of God. NASA's brilliant scientists did not assume that their work would be hindered by random evolutionary chance in the way that all these planets behaved. Yet, part of their mission was the vain search for the evolution of life on one of Saturn's moons. Evolution-minded scientists often cannot see the irony or the inconsistency of such an approach – a reliance on divine design in an attempt to prove such design does not exist!
We see, once again, Lord, that You have blessed many people with intelligence and skill. We pray that such people will also gain the wisdom which can only come from acknowledging You as Lord and Savior. Amen.
1 Corinthians 3:19
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”
The Cassini-Huygens Mission, which ended in 2017, was, by any stretch of the imagination, a remarkable human achievement. Launched on October 15, 1997, the craft was active for nearly 20 years before its final descent into the oblivion of Saturn's gravity on September 15, 2017. The use of the Internet in schools was in its infancy, but I remember, as a teacher, using the school's IT laboratory with students to track the launch and to find information on how it was going to get to Saturn.
Cassini-Huygens took seven years to reach Saturn. In order to save fuel, an extremely complicated orbit was calculated to use planetary gravitational fields to accelerate the craft enough for its long journey to Saturn. This involved two close approaches to Venus, one to the Earth, and another to Jupiter, which finally whipped the craft off in the right direction for the rendezvous with the ringed planet and its moons.
The complexity of the calculations required to power the craft to Saturn relied on the predictability and measurability of gravitational forces elsewhere in the Solar System. Such confidence in calculations was only possible because these universal constants display the wisdom of God. NASA's brilliant scientists did not assume that their work would be hindered by random evolutionary chance in the way that all these planets behaved. Yet, part of their mission was the vain search for the evolution of life on one of Saturn's moons. Evolution-minded scientists often cannot see the irony or the inconsistency of such an approach – a reliance on divine design in an attempt to prove such design does not exist!
We see, once again, Lord, that You have blessed many people with intelligence and skill. We pray that such people will also gain the wisdom which can only come from acknowledging You as Lord and Savior. Amen.
FOUNTAINS OF THE DEEP
Genesis 7:11-12
�In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.�
The Flood began with two geophysical events � the bursting forth of Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven. But what could these events have actually looked like?
Starting with the Fountains of the Great Deep, this would appear to be a reference to volcanic activity. We can envisage cracks opening up in deep points of the pre-Flood ocean. Possibly magma came through these cracks, but also we expect that a lot of super-heated water would emerge, thrown at supersonic speed high into the atmosphere. In other words, these fountains would have been similar to the ocean floor springs that exist today, but on a larger and more violent scale. This would have been the main source of the overwhelming majority of the floodwaters which covered the Earth. And after the water had been thrown high into the atmosphere, it would have returned to the Earth as torrential rain, so this is probably what is meant by the Windows of Heaven � more correctly, the Floodgates of Heaven. There would not have been enough moisture in the pre-Flood atmosphere to produce the amount of floodwater required, whereas the mechanism suggested, called Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, flows from Scripture, and seems to fit scientific observations.
Father God, we are humbled when we think of the amazing power of Your creation and the truth of Your word that You did everything exactly in the way that You said. Amen.
Genesis 7:11-12
�In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.�
The Flood began with two geophysical events � the bursting forth of Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven. But what could these events have actually looked like?
Starting with the Fountains of the Great Deep, this would appear to be a reference to volcanic activity. We can envisage cracks opening up in deep points of the pre-Flood ocean. Possibly magma came through these cracks, but also we expect that a lot of super-heated water would emerge, thrown at supersonic speed high into the atmosphere. In other words, these fountains would have been similar to the ocean floor springs that exist today, but on a larger and more violent scale. This would have been the main source of the overwhelming majority of the floodwaters which covered the Earth. And after the water had been thrown high into the atmosphere, it would have returned to the Earth as torrential rain, so this is probably what is meant by the Windows of Heaven � more correctly, the Floodgates of Heaven. There would not have been enough moisture in the pre-Flood atmosphere to produce the amount of floodwater required, whereas the mechanism suggested, called Catastrophic Plate Tectonics, flows from Scripture, and seems to fit scientific observations.
Father God, we are humbled when we think of the amazing power of Your creation and the truth of Your word that You did everything exactly in the way that You said. Amen.
THE LAND OF THE DINOSAURS
Psalm 104:6
�Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.�
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the large dinosaur book that I had as a child was the large number of pictures showing large sauropods walking through forests of giant ferns, eating their leaves. My child-like trust in the abilities of scientists led me to assume that there must have been some way for these clever adults to know what the habitat and living conditions of these dinosaurs were.
A lot of the images that I had seen had to be guesswork and imagination. Nevertheless, there was actually some solid scientific foundation to their storytelling. That is that fossils of dinosaurs are very often found in the same rock layers as fossils of gymnosperms � non-flowering plants, such as ferns, and including giant ferns. The evolutionary explanation for this is that dinosaurs and gymnosperms lived in the same era and therefore were fossilized into the rock layers at similar times.
But what if there is an alternative explanation for the layers of rocks and the signature fossils found within them?
Our best Flood model suggests that the rising floodwaters washed on to the land of the pre-Flood continent in waves. Therefore, the regions around the coast would get deluged before inland areas, which would presumably be higher ground. If the coasts were forested by large gymnosperms, and if the sauropods preferred living in such forests, then they would have been fossilized together and would be physically lower than areas inland, which perhaps housed mammals and flowering plants. So the rock layers could be indicative of environments rather than evolutionary eras.
We trust everything about Your word, Lord God � even when we struggle to understand it. Help us to trust You more and more. Amen.
Psalm 104:6
�Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.�
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the large dinosaur book that I had as a child was the large number of pictures showing large sauropods walking through forests of giant ferns, eating their leaves. My child-like trust in the abilities of scientists led me to assume that there must have been some way for these clever adults to know what the habitat and living conditions of these dinosaurs were.
A lot of the images that I had seen had to be guesswork and imagination. Nevertheless, there was actually some solid scientific foundation to their storytelling. That is that fossils of dinosaurs are very often found in the same rock layers as fossils of gymnosperms � non-flowering plants, such as ferns, and including giant ferns. The evolutionary explanation for this is that dinosaurs and gymnosperms lived in the same era and therefore were fossilized into the rock layers at similar times.
But what if there is an alternative explanation for the layers of rocks and the signature fossils found within them?
Our best Flood model suggests that the rising floodwaters washed on to the land of the pre-Flood continent in waves. Therefore, the regions around the coast would get deluged before inland areas, which would presumably be higher ground. If the coasts were forested by large gymnosperms, and if the sauropods preferred living in such forests, then they would have been fossilized together and would be physically lower than areas inland, which perhaps housed mammals and flowering plants. So the rock layers could be indicative of environments rather than evolutionary eras.
We trust everything about Your word, Lord God � even when we struggle to understand it. Help us to trust You more and more. Amen.
THE WATERS ABOVE
Genesis 1:7
�And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.�
The Scripture tells us that "God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse". The word translated as "expanse", or, in some versions, as "firmament", is raqia. This word is related to the concept of stretching out, rather like metal being beaten with a hammer. As such, it refers to the entire universe and not just to the atmosphere. So, the waters above must be beyond the edge of the universe.
This difficult concept can be understood better when we approach Scripture without preconceptions. Unfortunately, many of us in the creation camp approach this Scripture with one enormous presupposition. Let's just put it to one side for a moment.
In Genesis 1:14, God said "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night". If these lights are in the raqia, then the waters above must be beyond the lights; that is, beyond the Sun, Moon and stars.
Psalm 148:4 says, "Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!" This psalm was written after the Flood and still holds today. So, whatever theses waters above are � and it is not exactly clear what they are � they are still in place and did not disappear at the time of the Flood. This means that the universe is not infinite, whereas we are used to the evolutionary thinking that suggests that it is. But nothing is infinite except God alone.
When we consider Your heavens, Lord God, the work of Your fingers, we stand in awe of You and worship Your Holy Name. Amen.
Genesis 1:7
�And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.�
The Scripture tells us that "God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse". The word translated as "expanse", or, in some versions, as "firmament", is raqia. This word is related to the concept of stretching out, rather like metal being beaten with a hammer. As such, it refers to the entire universe and not just to the atmosphere. So, the waters above must be beyond the edge of the universe.
This difficult concept can be understood better when we approach Scripture without preconceptions. Unfortunately, many of us in the creation camp approach this Scripture with one enormous presupposition. Let's just put it to one side for a moment.
In Genesis 1:14, God said "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night". If these lights are in the raqia, then the waters above must be beyond the lights; that is, beyond the Sun, Moon and stars.
Psalm 148:4 says, "Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!" This psalm was written after the Flood and still holds today. So, whatever theses waters above are � and it is not exactly clear what they are � they are still in place and did not disappear at the time of the Flood. This means that the universe is not infinite, whereas we are used to the evolutionary thinking that suggests that it is. But nothing is infinite except God alone.
When we consider Your heavens, Lord God, the work of Your fingers, we stand in awe of You and worship Your Holy Name. Amen.
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