myth-one.com wrote:
onewithhim wrote:You say that the original caretakers were NOT made of the dust of the earth. Then what does this mean?
Genesis 2:7,8,KJV: "And the LORD God
formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul."
Those verses are obviously referring to the creation of man.
The original caretakers of the earth
were not men.
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Once again, you cannot understand this if you do not understand the apparent contradiction in Genesis 1:1,2 and verse 31:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. (Genesis 1:1-2)
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:31)
Formless, void, and dark is not the same as very good.
So God did
not create anything formless, void, and dark.
Likewise, God did not create a "dark hunk of elements" first as you have claimed previously.
There is no reason to believe that God ever made anything that was not originally created as good!
Then why does verse two state that the earth was without form, void, and dark after being created in verse one?
Other translations of the original Hebrew text indicate that something occurred and the earth had reached this state. For example, the New International Version of the Bible renders the same verses as follows:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty; darkness was over the surface of the deep... (Genesis 1:1-2)
That is, God originally created the heavens and the earth good in verse one, and over a period of time the earth had become formless, void, and dark.
Between verse one and verse two a period of time obviously occurred. Based on current scientific estimates, the time period between verse one and two was approximately 4.55 billion years. This is the current estimated age of the earth.
The following "creation" described in detail beginning in Genesis 1:3 is actually a re-creation of a decimated earth originally created good in verse one. This re-creation can be traced back to approximately 6,000 years ago. This idea that the creation described in detail in Genesis is actually a re-creation of a decimated earth is supported by other scripture verses:
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they (mankind) are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)
Renue means to restore to an original condition.
God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1 and gave dominion over the earth to
Lucifer and angels under his control.
But sin produces chaos -- where sin is defined as the transgression of the commandments of God.
Rebelling against God by Lucifer (Satan) and a third of the angels resulted in the good earth as originally created in Genesis 1:1 reaching a state of no form, void, and dark in Genesis 1:2.
So in Genesis 1:3, God returns and begins a re-creation of a decimated earth as described in verse two.
The obvious first step was to turn the lights back on:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)
Mankind was created and given dominion over the earth in this
re-creation of the decimated earth.
Plan "A" was giving immortal beings dominion over the earth.
That did not work out.
Plan "B" was giving mortal man dominion over the earth.
Man is being groomed to replace the immortal beings which failed in plan "A."
The immortal angels had no choice in the matter.
Mankind must individually
choose to accept or reject taking part in everlasting life, after experiencing a short taste of human life.
I'll respond to your comments one at a time (as I hope you will do with my posts).
1) Yes, you are right, Gen.2:7 refers to the creation of man. It seems that after man was created,
then God created the Garden of Eden, placing Adam---the man---in it. So, how can you say that the original caretakers were angels?
2) I don't understand why you question God's statement in verse 31 of the first chapter. He had just created everything on the earth, including man. Chapter 2 is not recording what happened after Gen.1:31. Chapter 2 is simply an
overview of what happened in chapter 1. These two chapters are giving us the same situation, just a bit more detail about Adam and Eve in chapter 2. Chapter 2 also gives the commandment to stay away from the one tree in the middle of the Garden, which chapter 1 did not mention. Again---more detail about the man. Chapter 1 had more detail about the creation of everything else.
3) You say that God "did not create anything that was formless, void and dark." Well, he obviously did, because Gen.1:1 says he did. And this was before he created all the things that he wanted the planet to have---vegetation, animals, people, etc.
4) You hang a lot of importance on the word "Now" in the NIV's rendering of verse 2. I believe it is an inordinate amount of importance. (This is the way the New World Translation renders it also, and probably other versions as well.) It doesn't necessarily mean that there had been something going on between verses 1 and 2 that was not recorded. Your view of this is a lot of imagination and assumption. Your reliance on the word "Now" is puzzling. People use it often, even when accentuating what they are about to say: "
Now, look here! Listen to me!
5) I do believe that the planet is 5 billion years old. Verse 1 in chapter 1 does not have a problem with that. It took God 5 billion years to create that dark, formless, desolate planet. He then went on the make things on it that he finally deemed "very good."
6) Psalm 104 does not speak of the original creation of man. It is a poem of sorts that is meant to praise God for all of his works, things that took place even in King David's time.
"How many your works are, O Jehovah! You have made all of them in wisdom. The earth is full of what you have made. There is the sea, so great and wide, teeming with countless living things, both small and great....All of them wait for you to give them their food in its season. What you give them, they gather. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are disturbed. If you take away their spirit [life-force], they die and return to the dust.
If you send out your spirit, they are created, and you renew the surface of the ground." (Psalm 104:24-30)
Doesn't this just show us that God creates life by giving a fetus, whether animal or human, the breath of life? This He does daily, even now. How this convinces you somehow that God didn't create humans until much later in the creation process than what we have always gleaned from Genesis chapters 1 and 2, I don't have a clue.
7) You say that the "immortal" angels had no choice in the matter of who takes care of the planet, right? I disagree. All of God's intelligent creations always have had a choice as to what they would do, in any situation. He doesn't create robots.
8) I agree that all humans must choose whether or not they want to live in the universe with YHWH as their Ruler, or not. The ones that do choose to obey Him and have a loving relationship with Him will live on this earth forever, just as YHWH wanted it in the first place, as exemplified in the first 2 chapters of Genesis.
