Answers to Questions about Genesis ch.1-11, Part 1
First 2 chapters and some good reasons to take it literally
History or metaphorical poetry? The Creation, the sanctity of life, sex and marriage, fatherlessness and teen suicide
Bonus – ant brains, covid deaths and surveillance of naysayers
Ant brains (excerpt from Jeff Childer’s ‘Coffee and Covid’ Feb.6)
“In as little as ten minutes, ants can be trained to successfully identify urine from cancer patients even without sweeteners. According to the study, one species of ant, tiny formica fusca, only needed one “training session” to form a long-term memory — which is several days in ant brains. Then researchers successfully challenged the ants with urine samples without sweets nine more times before the busy little insects started losing interest.
The technique won’t go anywhere, of course, because ants can’t make pharma the kind of profits that patented designer cancer moon shot drugs can. But I was struck by how well the ants are outperforming our supercomputer artificial intelligences and billion-dollar medical establishment.
How big would you guess the brain of an ant brain is? Not too big, I’d say. Take that, AI. But, to be fair, ants can’t write your woke middle-school essay on the Spanish genocide of the Incans so you can explore other interests than schoolwork. So there’s that.”
Covid deaths…
More and more evidence is popping up that indicates the covid vaccines and boosters and masks were not as effective as we were being told. Not only that, but the risk of certain side effects and even death was higher than we were told. The Twitter files released by Elon Musk have highlighted just how much any voices of dissent were being neutralized, suppressed, or cancelled.
From Jeff Childer’s Coffee and Covid 2/1/2023 - scroll down to his excerpt from Newsweek’s op-ed headlined, “It’s Time for the Scientific Community to Admit We Were Wrong About COVID and It Cost Lives Opinion.”
(This op-ed was written by a self-described 7th-year medical student who started by admitting he was originally all-in for the lockdowns, vaccines, and boosters — like any good scientist. But he’s since changed his point of view, and in the op-ed’s second full paragraph, he let them have it.):
“I can see now that the scientific community from the CDC to the WHO to the FDA and their representatives, repeatedly overstated the evidence and misled the public about its own views and policies, including on natural vs. artificial immunity, school closures and disease transmission, aerosol spread, mask mandates, and vaccine effectiveness and safety, especially among the young. All of these were scientific mistakes at the time, not in hindsight. Amazingly, some of these obfuscations continue to the present day.”
Surveillance of naysayers
The naysayers who disagreed with public policy on covid were spied on. Dossiers were compiled. They were continually suppressed, cancelled, or accused of disinformation, or all three. Big Brother is here. I’m grateful for Justin Hart’s substack articles for digging out and exposing the truth. But Christians are not to be afraid. We do not fear persecution, or imprisonment, or even death. Our trust is in Jesus; not any worldly government.
Now, finally on to our main topic…
Genesis chapters 1-11 - history or metaphor?
First, the style. Genesis is written in a step by step, blow by blow historical style. The main body of text doesn’t sound at all like poetry. There are some poetical lines like “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of man.” Gen.2:23 but except for these few exceptions, the rest is definitely written for us to take as history. To assume it’s metaphorical would require a violent twisting of the obvious intent of the script.
The first chapter is totally sequential like literal history. Chapter 2 is an overview with more details of parts of the creation process.
Second, Jesus refers to these early chapters as if they are literal history, and He ought to know – He was there! (see John 1:1-14). He quoted from both chapter one and two when asked about marriage. He referred to Noah’s Flood when describing what people would be doing when the end comes. Why would he base such important teachings on anything that wasn’t real?
The creation – ch.1-2
I used to think the first verse was an action verse. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
I thought it meant God created the galaxies and stars and moons and earth first, and then developed the earth from the original water-covered globe. By the way, right off the bat we see that evolution cannot be reconciled with the bible. They can’t both be right. Evolution theory (I’ll just call it “the theory” from here on to save space) says that earth was a fiery ball and needed millions of years to cool off before it was possible to have life-sustaining water.
Now I’m not so sure that the first verse describes the first action. That verse very well could be an overview of the details that come next, just like the 1st vs. in ch.2 is a summary of what came before.
It’s interesting that in this opening statement we’re not told who God is. And as we read on, it’s important to know that the Hebrew word translated “God” is “Elohim”, which is plural. So when we get to vs.2, where the “Spirit of God” is “moving over the surface of the waters”, and put this together with John 1:1-14, we can understand that God the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus the Son, were all there, plural, in the beginning.
The case for ordinary 24 hr days
The question that always comes up is whether the 6 days were literal 24 hr days or not. Any Hebrew scholar will tell you that that’s the clear meaning of the original text. To make sure we understand it that way, each day is given a number. You don’t do that when you’re using the word “day” to mean an age or an era. The numbers, “one day”, a “second day”, etc. nail down the meaning. But just to make sure, it also says “there was evening and morning” each time. So any attempt to make the 6 day creation as a metaphor for long ages is a ridiculous twisting of scripture. You’re free to question its truth if you want to, but you don’t have license to question what it’s actually saying.
The question we should be asking is why did it take 6 days? If God can do anything, why didn’t he just snap his fingers? He must have had a reason. Consider this: if God is omniscient, he knew that the alternative explanation for our existence would be the theory and its supposed millions of years history. By detailing the sequence of his creation, he gave believers several clear signs that the said theory is not true. This could be a test. What are you going to believe; the “science”, or the Bible?
“Some are attracted to the false to the false Day-Age view because they think that if the time scale of Genesis were stretched out, then it would match the long-age/evolutionary order. But this view is naïve, as will be shown….(need link)
The orderly, logical sequence
Light, then dry land, then plants and trees and flowers, then stars for signs and moon light for the night, marine life and birds, then land animals, and finally, humans. The order of creation is in direct conflict with the theory at several points. In contrast to Genesis, the theory seems incredibly convoluted. Abiogenesis, the idea that life formed spontaneously by random chance, sometimes called “the warm soup theory”, has no viable scientific evidence. Single-celled organisms changing into multi-celled with no agreement on how this could have happened. One kind of plant or animal changing into another kind, but with no undisputed transitional forms! An upward progression from supposedly ‘simple’ to complex, but we keep finding out there’s no such thing as a ‘simple’ form of life. Dinosaur scales changing into feathers! Really? Whales coming up on land, then losing their legs and going back to the ocean?!
Genesis chapter One, on the other hand, is brief, with not a single word wasted, but there’s so much in there. I’ll just mention a few points, but you should read it for yourself and meditate on it. What could be more important than knowing where we came from? If we were created by God, as it says, then he is sovereign and we need to know how he wants us to live, and we’d better obey him!
“God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light.” Such power is unimaginable for us. He speaks, and it just happens! Each day of creation was like that.
The week
All civilizations have reckoned time by the daily and annual movements of the sun and the monthly movement of the moon, but where does the week come from? On the 7th day, God rested. Later, he commanded the Israelites to observe the 7th day as a holy day of rest. It turns out that the principle of taking a day of rest from work once a week has been proven to be very beneficial for our well-being both physically and mentally.
Jesus commanded his followers to remember his death with the continuation of the “Lord’s Supper”, which we call communion. The early church understood this to be weekly – a weekly reminder of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us out of love.
Man
“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it;…” Gen.1:26-28
There’s that plural again – “Let us “ - for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The idea of being made in God’s image is really emphasized here, being mentioned 3 times. I take it to mean that all the good things about man, like love, and joy, and peace; all the blessings and virtues, come from God, and to that extent we are like him. In fact, these are the very things that are hard for atheists and evolutionists to understand or explain. How does an atheist explain love? Agapé love; complete selflessness; not the same as romantic love.
The animal rights activists don’t believe there’s a difference between man and the rest of the animal world. So they consider whales and trees just as important as people. But if the bible is true, they’re wrong. Being made in God’s image sets man apart. None of the rest of the creation was made in his image. Each day, God said what he had made was good. But after making man on the 6th day, he said it was very good.
Human life is sacred. We call this the sanctity of life. It’s the main reason Christians oppose abortion.
“male and female”. Only 2 genders? Wow! That’s an eye-opener. And so obvious when we look around. Oh, there is a 3rd gender – neuter – but that’s for English grammar, not people! LOL.
“be fruitful and multiply”. Speaking of grammar, that’s in the imperative mode, like a command. More about this later.
Chapter 2 gives us more detail.
“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” Gen.2:7-8
Dust, or dirt, can contain every element that is contained in the human body, so science actually agrees with the bible here. More later.
“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Imagine. All the beautiful trees and plants and flowers and fruits and vegetables, with no pests or diseases yet. Paradise. And only one little rule – don’t eat from one tree – all the rest are fine. More later.
Since the tree of life was in the garden, it’s implied that man could have lived in paradise forever.
“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
There are even practical advantages of not being alone and why 2 are better than 1. In Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, we’re given 3 of the benefits. We need each other! Part of being made in God’s image means we have a built-in desire for companionship.
So far in Genesis, this is the only thing that God said was not good – to be alone. But Christians have a wonderful promise – that we will never be alone – Jesus said “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Mt.28:20.
So after bringing all the kinds of land animals to Adam, God made woman from one of Adam’s ribs.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”
Life is sacred and marriage is sacred, because life was made by God and marriage between one woman and one man was instituted and thus ordained by God. The woman was Adam’s wife. It makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Marriage between a man and a woman made it possible to fulfill the command to “be fruitful and multiply”. So the result, children and a family is also ordained by God. The family unit is the bedrock of civilization.
Jesus affirmed the sanctity of both life and marriage when he quoted from both Gen.1:27 and 2:24 when tested on this by the Pharisees in Mt.19:4-5.
The Pharisees were asking Jesus about divorce. The bottom line in Jesus’ answer was “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” Between casual sex, the instability of “living together” without the commitment of marriage, and the high rate of divorce, we see a huge increase of single-parents in recent decades.
fatherlessness
God said a man shall be “joined to his wife”; not his girlfriend. ‘Living together’ and sex outside of marriage was not part of his plan for us. Neither was divorce. Rebelling against God’s plan for sex and marriage has caused so much trouble and heartache that it makes me weep, especially for the children born out of wedlock, to speak nothing about the ones that are aborted and killed before they’re born.
According to an article about “fatherlessness” in the “Vision Times” of Jan.27-Feb 9, 2023, “51% of all children in America right now are born out of wedlock”, compared to 4% in 1950. Janet Yellen was quoted in this same article saying clear back in 1995 that “…for children living in single parent homes, the odds of living in poverty are great.” Yellen’s co-author, Berkley professor George Akerlof, also said 28 years later “63% of all youth suicides come from fatherless homes.” The National Institutes of Health, according to this same Vision Times article, say that in “2020, suicided was the second leading cause of death between 10-14-year-olds”. Further, a 2003 study published in the Lancet “found that “the risk of suicide was more than twice as high among children in one-parent households compared with those living with both parents.”
The wreckage continues in other ways also. Pastor Kris Vallotton told interviewer Virginia Allen that “an exceptionally high ratio of fatherlessness is manifest among inmates, the homeless, high school dropouts, people with behavioral disorders, and those convicted of rape.”
The problem and the solution
Wouldn’t you agree that God’s plan for sex, marriage and the family is better? Rebellion against God’s plan not only affects the ones who think sex is fine without marriage, it affects all of us. Homelessness and crime are becoming major problems in our society. Teen suicide is breaking the hearts of the parents and friends of those teens. And to think the solution is right there in the first 2 chapters of Genesis! One man, one woman, joined together in a lifetime commitment sanctioned by our Creator. Our culture needs a reset!
Next week – The Fall, the curse, and the prophecy