In starting a study of the Bible it seems natural to start
at the beginning. Genesis 1 and 2 give a detailed account of the creation. The
creation is something you must be able to believe if any of the rest of the
Bible is to be credible.
The creation took place over 6 days. Many “learned” people
try to argue that creation took place over millions of years through evolution.
However, the word “day” itself is commonly understood at 24 hours. If the
creation took place over millions of year, a different word would have been
used.
In addition to the definition of the word “day” Genesis 1:5
shows us the separation of light and dark as the cycle from day to night making
specific reference to morning and evening. This sets the cycle of days into
motion. In each of the other days of creation, morning and evening are referred
to as a period of time for the work God did on that day.
Further, Gen. 1:14 refers to stars being created to be used
as signs for seasons, days, and years. None of which would not happen without
the rotation and revolution of the earth.
The progression of creation indicates Day 1: Creation of the
earth, light, day and night; Day 2: Separation of waters into land based water
and water in the atmosphere; Day 3: Creation of plant life on dry ground; Day
4: Creation of the sun, moon and stars; Day 5: Creation of fish and birds; Day
6: Creation of man and land animals; Day 7: God rested.
It is important that God rested on the 7th day.
This gives man an example and sets a pattern of days and weeks, further
solidifying evidence that the days were 24 hour days. If days were thousands or
millions of years as some may suggest, it would not make sense for man to rest
for a millennium.
Genesis 2 gives a more detailed account of the creation of
man. This is important because it gives the steps Got went through to create
man, thus eliminating confusion over evolution. It clearly shows how man was
created, in the image of God, to look as man does today. Gen. 2 also shows God
giving Adam a wife to be a companion to him.
In Genesis 3 we see the first temptation and sin. The
serpent tempts Eve and convinces her to eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil. He does this by telling her that, if she eats of the fruit she will
not die but be as Gods and know of good and evil. Up to this point, Adam and
Eve only knew of good. There was no evil in the world.
After eating of the fruit, Adam ate it too. They both saw
they were naked, clothed themselves in fig leaves, and hid from God. God called
for and confronted Adam. After Adam told God that they had eaten the fruit God
passed judgment on them. They are cast out of the Garden of Eden and In his judgment
he did five things:
1.
Judgment of man: Man would now eat in sorrow and
sweat. Man would now have to work for his food.
2.
Judgment on woman: Pain in childbirth, men to
rule over them
3.
Nature: Man would no longer live in a paradise
where everything is perfect, but would not have to deal with thorns, perhaps
this is when animals started to want to eat people.
4.
The serpent: Made to crawl on the ground
5.
Satan:
God foreshadows the defeat of Satan by Jesus Christ
In his judgment God actually helps Adam prepare for survival
with his new knowledge. God never intended for man to know evil. Knowing evil
is a huge burden for man. In order to handle evil that would come, man needed
to be strong. God requiring man to work to survive, helped to prepare man to
resist and fight off evil.
We then see the birth of Cain and Able, two brothers. Cain
kills Able over jealousy concerning God’s acceptance of their sacrifices. After Cain kills Able God passes judgment on
him and drove him out. Able married one of his sisters and started a city and
named it Enoch after his son. Enoch became very close to God and is the first
person in the Bible to go to heaven without dying.
The last part of the Creation Stage of the Bible gives us
Noah. At this time, the world had become do evil, that God says the thought of
man were evil continually. It seems there were no good thoughts. God felt sorry
and wished he had never created man. He decided to kill all of his creation
except Noah and his family. He instructed Noah to build a large three story
barge and take a pair of every type of animal on the ark. He promised to send
waters to flood the entire earth.
Noah did as God instructed. Rains came for forty days. Noah
and his family stayed on the ark until it rested on dry land. They then came
out and God commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth.
Lastly, in the Creation Stage is Nimrod who suggests building
a tower to reach the heavens and walk with God. God saw this and decided to
stop man. Up to this point, everyone spoke the same language. God confused men
so they spoke differently and couldn't understand each other. Because of this,
they grouped together by people they could understand and moved away to different
areas. This gives us the different ethnic groups we have today.
In just 11 chapters
of the Bible and about 2000 years, if math serves, man was created in
perfection, became corrupted, murdered, became so corrupt he had to be
destroyed, was destroyed except for one family, repopulated and became arrogant
and corrupt again.
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