As the theory of evolution began to be accepted by the intellectual world, many anti-God and anti-Bible criticisms came into being.  A system of Biblical scholarship known as the “Higher Criticism” influenced most of the theological students because it was taught at the theological seminaries. Evolution itself was a rejection of Creation and claimed God was unnecessary because all life could be accounted for by natural forces.  At that time a geologist named “Charles Lyell:” laid down what became the golden rule of geology, namely that all evidence should be examined by applying the principle “that everything in the past must be interpreted only by what is observed in the present.” Of course there was no evidence to support this assumption but it was eagerly seized by evolutionists as a tool because it gave them the millions of years needed to explain evolution.

The Teachings of “Higher Criticism”

Up to this time the Bible and particularly the Genesis account stood in the way of the evolution theory. The Genesis account recorded that the earth had experienced a Global flood.  Most geologists up to that time had found that the fossil record and the presence of sedimentary rock all over the earth’s surface had confirmed the Global flood of Genesis. This was a perfectly reasonable conclusion but with the introduction of Charles Lyell’s theory this situation began to change. Because “the present was the key to the past” as the theory claimed and no global floods were observed at present, it was assumed that it had not occurred and that the strata was laid down slowly over millions of years.

“Higher Criticism” theorized that in keeping with the evolution theory, language and religion had evolved from the simple to the complex. It was assumed that the first primitive men began language with grunts and growls and as they evolved upward they developed simple languages that gradually became more complex as they evolved higher up the evolutionary ladder. Along with this theory it was assumed that primitive man, not understanding the forces in nature began to worship these visible forces. This was called animism.  As men evolved more upward, as the theory claimed, they became more intelligent and developed a system of worship known as polytheism, the worship of many Gods. The higher they evolved and the more intelligent they became the nearer they approached monotheism, which of course was the worship of one supreme God.

The Influence of Evolution

Now we must bear in mind that every one of these systems was based on the theory of evolution. “Higher Criticism” was the scholarly system taught in the religious seminaries, particularly the protestant seminaries. What was the result? The ministers of religion that they produced were no longer Bible believers in the true sense. Even the archaeology that they learned was based for the most on the interpretations of the “Higher Criticism.” “Higher Critics” assumed that the Bible was just a collection of material produced by a conglomeration of writers. It was assumed for example that all prophecies in the Bible were in actual fact written after the event and not by the original authors, but inserted so as to appear that it was prophecy. The world in general swallowed the whole story to the extent that most historical branches of science like archaeology, geology, Biblical Scholarship, prehistory, paleontology were all affected by this philosophy.

False Assumptions

Before discussing the Genesis account it is necessary to briefly consider some of these teachings to see how scientific they really are.

Consider the evolution of language. These evolutionary assumptions contradict the evidence. Studies of ancient languages have revealed that the exact opposite of what evolution asserts is observed. Rather than languages gradually evolving from the simple to the complex it has been noted that ancient languages are far more complex than more modern languages. The change is not from the “simple to the complex” but rather from the “complex to the simple.” As an example; compare English, which is fairly modern to the more ancient Latin or Greek. Older languages are even more complex.

An article in “Science Illustrated” of July 1948 (p. 63) states: “Older forms of the languages known today were far more difficult than their modern descendants . . . man appears not to have begun with a simple speech, and gradually made it more complex, but rather to have gotten hold of a tremendously knotty speech somewhere in the unrecorded past, and gradually simplified it to the modern forms.”

Linguist Dr. Mason also points out that “the idea that ‘savages’ speak in a series of grunts, and are unable to express many ‘civilized’ concepts, is very wrong,” and that “many of the languages of non-literate peoples are far more complex.

George Gaylord Simpson, “The Biological Nature of Man,” Science, Vol. 152, 22 April 1966, p. 477. “Many other attempts have been made to determine the evolutionary origin of language, and all have failed. … Even the peoples with least complex cultures have highly sophisticated languages, with complex grammar and large vocabularies, capable of naming and discussing anything that occurs in the sphere occupied by their speakers. … The oldest language that can reasonably be reconstructed is already modern, sophisticated, complete from an evolutionary point of view.”

With regard to the evolution of religion the same is observed. The trend in ancient religions is that the further one goes back in time their pantheons narrow down to fewer Gods. The evolutionary assumption only appears reasonable to an evolutionist. The Bible agrees with the facts, and records that mankind started with belief in one supreme God and then men multiplied their Gods as their number grew. (See “The origin of Religion” also on this site.)

(Traces of a primitive monotheism by Frank F. Ellinwood) Dr. Ebrard shows conclusively that the facts all lead to another conclusion, that gross idolatry is a degeneration of mankind from antecedent and purer forms of religious worship…. He first treats of the civilized nations of antiquity, the Aryan and Indian religions, the Vedas, the Indra period of Brahmanism and Buddhism; then of the religion of the Iranians, the Avesta of the Parsees; next of the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptians, the Canaanites, and the heathen Semitic forms of worship, including the Phoenicians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. His second division is devoted to the half-civilized and savage races in the North and West of Europe, in Asia and Polynesia (Tartars, Mongols, Malays, and Cushites); then the races of America, including a minute examination of the relations of the different races here to the Mongols, Japanese, and old Chinese immigrations.”[127]

Ebrard himself, in summing up the results of these prolonged investigations, says: “We have nowhere been able to discover the least trace of any forward and upward movement from fetichism to polytheism, and from that again to a gradually advancing knowledge of the one God; but, on the contrary, we have found among all the peoples of the heathen world a most decided tendency to sink from an earlier and relatively purer knowledge of God toward something lower.”[128]

The Genesis account is written very much like the script for a Hollywood movie documentary. It starts with a panoramic view of the universe.

(Genesis 1:1)In [the] beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This is basically a scientifically accurate statement. Modern science has shown that an expanding universe implies that in the distant past the universe had a beginning and therefore had to be created. The second law of thermodynamics requires that the universe started off in a high state of order and has degraded over time. Evolution, contradicts both of these facts

The Bible speaks for Itself

Religious scientists, although producing excellent scientific work have further confused the people’s understanding of Genesis by interpreting scripture according to their church’s traditional belief. They incorrectly claim that creation was accomplished in seven twenty-four hour days. They also make the Bible appear ridiculous by concluding that the sun was created on the fourth day. The Bible does not support these ideas.

If you or I looked up into the sky and saw all the vast numbers of stars and Galaxies, we would use the same words as Genesis chapter one to describe what we see, namely “heavens” for our starry universe and “earth” for our planet.

Genesis 1:1 says that the heavens (the universe with its many stars) and the earth. (the planet earth) were all part of the creation at the beginning. Obviously the heavens with its many stars must have provided light, so the religious interpretation of the sun and moon being created on the fourth day is obviously incorrect.

The fact that the earth was in darkness even though there were stars in the heavens is a strong indication that something was screening the light from reaching the earth. What could this be?

Astronomers see clouds of gas elsewhere in the universe so obviously something similar could prevent the light from reaching earth and this is supported by the bible.

Genesis 1:1 says that “in the beginning God created the heavens and earth”.

No time period is mentioned so it could be millions of years or instantly, science has no quarrel with this Biblical statement. We should appreciate however that a creator had no need to start off the universe as a dot and then cause it to expand. He could just as well have created it, very much like we see it today and just having the appearance of age.

Adam was created having the appearance of age as we shall see. The scientific method is limited to following a certain line of reasoning, that we recognize as “cause and effect” but once we bring in a creator then the picture changes. As a first cause and with the immense power and wisdom to create this universe, we cannot place limitations on his creative powers as to what is possible or not.

The next two verses focus on the earth and the sequence of procedures that God introduced to bring the earth to a condition fit for man’s habitation. Six stages are referred to and referred to as six days. These days were not 24 hours long as the churches teach. However I will show the scriptural proof for this statement later.

Just like In our documentary movie we zoom in to get a better view of planet earth.

(Genesis 1:2) 2 Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of [the] watery deep; and God’s active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.

From our view in outer space the earth appears to be swaddled in a cloud of some sorts and so it appears formless. The Bible describes when the earth was in just such a situation in the book of Job.  God asks Job at

(Job 38:4) “Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth? Tell [me], if you do know understanding?” (verse 9) When I put the cloud as its garment And thick gloom as its swaddling band,

(Job 26:7) He is stretching out the north over the empty place, Hanging the earth upon nothing; At verse 10 “He has described a circle upon the face of the waters, To where light ends in darkness.”

The camera zooms in further through the cloud and the earth, completely covered with water, is revealed. Everything is in darkness with no light reaching the earth, from the sun.. The commentary explains that God’s spirit or active force is at work over the waters accomplishing creative activity. Then the voice of God is heard to say: “Let light come to be”

(Geneses 1:3,4) And God proceeded to say: “Let light come to be.” Then there came to be light. 4 After that God saw that the light was good, and God brought about a division between the light and the darkness. 5 And God began calling the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day.

With the removal of the obstruction between the sun and the earth, light strikes the planet with its water covering for the first time.

We see a view similar to what the astronauts saw from their space vehicle. The water-covered earth appears to be a circular body with one side illuminated and the other side in darkness. Obviously the light comes from the nearest star, our sun.  God then names the lighter side of the earth, “day” and the darker side “night”.

The word day has by now acquired two clearly defined meanings. One meaning is for one of the stages of creative activity following the creation of the heavens and the earth and starting from the expression “Let light come to be” and the second meaning applied to the daylight hours experienced by man. The dark side of the planet God called “night.”. If we were in outer space like the astronauts were, this is exactly what we would have seen.

The Length of the Creative Days

To accurately know the length if the creative days, we need to look at the seventh day of the creation series.

According to scripture God proceeded to rest on the seventh day. This day stands in relation to the other six days and at Hebrews chapter 4, the apostle Paul shows that even in his “day” after thousands of years from Adam, God’s rest “day” was still in operation. God was still resting. If the 7th “day” was thousands of years in length then the preceding 6 creative days were each thousands of years long, counting from the time that God said “let light come to be.”.

(Hebrews 4:3-5) . . .: “So I swore in my anger, ‘They shall not enter into my rest,’” although his works were finished from the founding of the world. 4 For in one place he has said of the seventh day as follows: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,” 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter into my rest.”

(Hebrews 4:9-10) . . .So there remains a sabbath resting for the people of God. 10 For the man that has entered into [God’s] rest has also himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.

The context of Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 shows that the Jewish nation never entered into God’s rest because of their disobedience. Paul shows that humans still have a hope of entering into God’s rest. This implies that even at this moment God is still resting and therefore His rest day must be at the least many thousands of years long. This shows that the creative days were not 24 hour days but each lasted for thousands of years..

The Second Creative Day

Genesis 1:6-8) 6 And God went on to say: “Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.” 7 Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. 8 And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.

This may be a little harder to understand and so I have used a diagram to illustrate what actually occurred.

“Let an expanse come to be in between the waters and let a dividing occur between the waters and the waters.”

The commentator explains “Then God proceeded to make the expanse and to make a division between the waters that should be beneath the expanse and the waters that should be above the expanse. And it came to be so. 8 And God began to call the expanse Heaven. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day.”

During the second creative period God created a division in the waters. How? By raising some of the water into the heavens and so leaving an expanse between the waters covering the earth, later called the sea and the waters above the expanse, which may have been in the form of clouds. The expanse between the waters he called heaven. Later birds would fly in this expanse and so we see that it referred to our atmosphere, which we also refer to as heaven today.

If you were an observer in space how would the earth have looked to you? The earth apparently was surrounded by a canopy of cloud. If we descended through this cloud we would enter an expanse or atmosphere which we would also call heaven. Below us the earth would have been completely covered by water.

The 3rd Creative Day

(Genesis 1:9-13) . . .And God went on to say: “Let the waters under the heavens be brought together into one place and let the dry land appear.” And it came to be so. 10 And God began calling the dry land Earth, but the bringing together of the waters he called Seas Further, God saw that [it was] good.

Scientists would describe this as a wrinkling of the earth’s crust resulting in the formation of deep water basins. In to this the water flowed until dry land began to appear. The Bible says that the waters were brought to one place and this is so. Even though there are seven seas, they are all interconnected and form one body of water. However the Bible also called these collections of waters Seas.

11 And God went on to say: “Let the earth cause grass to shoot forth, vegetation bearing seed, fruit trees yielding fruit according to their kinds, the seed of which is in it, upon the earth.” And it came to be so. 12 And the earth began to put forth grass, vegetation bearing seed according to its kind and trees yielding fruit, the seed of which is in it according to its kind. Then God saw that [it was] good. 13 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day.

This third creative day also saw the appearance of grasses, vegetation and trees, some yielding fruit. The important expression from our point of view is the statement that the vegetation produced after its kind. This is a scientific fact. We never see one kind of plant changing into another as the theory of evolution suggests. It is also interesting that I have never quite figured out where plant life fits into the evolution theory.

Evolutionists believe that life started in the sea. They teach that simple chemical substances collected together to form a cell and from then on the cell evolved, However, here is the rub. Scientists tell us that this is impossible in our present atmosphere because these chemical substances would simply be destroyed in our atmosphere. What is the evolutionist’s solution?

Evolutionists simply imagine that there was a different atmosphere composed of other gases that would not destroy these particles of life. Where is the evidence for this other atmosphere? There is none.

Remember that Charles Lyell’s book on how the evidence was to be interpreted was based on the assumption that the “present is the key to the past.” That assumption was used to dispose of the Global flood of Noah’s day, because supposedly no global floods occurred today.

Because our present atmosphere would make it impossible for a cell to form, they simply assume that the earth must have had an atmosphere more favourable for the formation of a cell originally. But in taking this line of thought they rejected their own philosophy that the  “present was the key to the past.”

Certainly there are no examples of such a primitive atmosphere today. This kind of prejudicial thinking, show the real motivation of evolutionary scientists. But can we call this true science?

Now here are a few other problems for evolution. Plant life had to appear first as the Bible shows. Why? Because plants were needed to clear the carbon from our atmosphere and also required to supply the oxygen. Did plants change into animals?  How could slow forming animals handle the food problem with slow forming digestive systems.

The 4th Creative Day

(Genesis 1:14) . . .And God went on to say: “Let luminaries come to be in the expanse of the heavens to make a division between the day and the night; and they must serve as signs and for seasons and for days and years.

The Sun seen through the Canopy during the Day.

The appearance of the sun and moon and stars in the heavens can only appear to be the result of the clearing of the atmosphere by the vegetation so that these became visible in the sky. The canopy may have also thinned or became more transparent for these luminaries to appear.

The Moon and Stars seen through the Canopy at night.

15 And they must serve as luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth.” And it came to be so.

The Bible went to great lengths to assure us that these luminaries were not created at this time by using a different Hebrew word, which is translated as “make” and not “create.” The commentary shows that God was responsible and the purpose that these luminaries fulfilled

16 And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and also the stars. 17 Thus God put them in the expanse of the heavens to shine upon the earth, 18 and to dominate by day and by night and to make a division between the light and the darkness. Then God saw that [it was] good. 19 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day.

Creation scientists say that the sun and the moon were created on the fourth creative day, but this is just their church teaching and not science. The Bible does not support this teaching but is more in harmony with science.

Obviously there were other heavenly bodies in existence because God had said “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The heavens were composed of heavenly bodies like the sun and moon and stars, so there appearance in the sky on the fourth day pointed to something else. Apparently by this time the canopy had either thinned or become more transparent, or else the expanse (the atmosphere) had cleared to the degree that the sun and moon appeared as luminaries or were seen dimly through the canopy. Possibly with increased clearing of the atmosphere the stars also appeared.

This process could have continued up to the flood, when finally the canopy collapsed and the sun moon and stars were seen with absolute clarity for the first time.

This is a perfectly logical explanation and scientists can find no fault with it. Furthermore it is indirectly supported by the Bible’s account of the appearance of the rainbow for the first time after the flood and also with God’s declaration that the rainbow would serve as a sign that he would never destroy the earth again by water.

Rainbow after the Flood

As the canopy had collapsed trade winds occurred for the first time as the earth was no longer in a hothouse condition and the temperature differential between the equator and the poles provided the motive power for the trade winds. Rain occurred and the rainbow was caused by the sunlight shining through the raindrops. This was one of the main points that convinced me personally, that the Bible was divinely inspired. The fact that all this harmonized perfectly with modern science is amazing.

Critics of the Bible sometimes venture that the great ages of men at the time is because humans counted time differently to us. The Bible shows that this is not so. God had said that these luminaries would serve as signs for days, months, seasons and years. One cycle around the sun marks our year. The days are measured from sunrise to sunset. The moon dominates our nights and decides the lengths of our months.

The year at that time consisted of 360 days or 12 months of 30 days each as I will show later.. We use the Gregorian Calendar today. From the 3rd creative day it seems that the atmosphere was approaching the time when it would be suitable for breathing creatures.

The 5th Creative Day

(Genesis 1:20-23) 20 And God went on to say: “Let the waters swarm forth a swarm of living souls and let flying creatures fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of the heavens.” 21 And God proceeded to create the great sea monsters and every living soul that moves about, which the waters swarmed forth according to their kinds, and every winged flying creature according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good. 22 With that God blessed them, saying: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the waters in the sea basins, and let the flying creatures become many in the earth.” 23 And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day.

Whales after their “Kind”

Scientists also agree that the first life forms were sea life. Again we see God’s specific command that living creatures reproduce after their kind. So sea life and bird life were created on this day. The Bible treats them all as “living souls” and they reproduced according to their kinds.

The 6th Creative Day

(Genesis 1:24-25) . . .And God went on to say: “Let the earth put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal and wild beast of the earth according to its kind.” And it came to be so. 25 And God proceeded to make the wild beast of the earth according to its kind and the domestic animal according to its kind and every moving animal of the ground according to its kind. And God got to see that [it was] good.

Buffalo after their “Kind”

God created animal life. Unlike the popular religious teaching that animals have no souls and that humans have immortal souls within them, the Bible refers to both animals and humans as living souls capable of dying. They are all referred to as living souls according to the Original Hebrew text. God made domestic animals as well as wild beasts. How does evolution account for the fact that some animals prefer human company to their own kind?  Other animals that we use like cattle and sheep appear to show no fear of man but seem happy to have humans looking after them. Evolutionists have no explanation for this behavior. The Bible shows that God made domestic animals. Yes it is possible to tame wild animals but they normally prefer the wild to human company.

Towards the end of the 6th creative day God created man.

Chapter 2 goes into a more detailed picture of the creation of man, because we need to know why the human race is in the unhappy condition that it is in today.

At verse 26 of chapter 1, God is shown to be speaking to someone else. A comparison with other scriptures indicates that he is speaking to his firstborn Son, his first creation.(Colossians 1:15,16)

This son worked along with God as a master worker according to (Proverbs 8:22 and verse 30,31) and shared in creation.

God created man in his image and intended man to have dominion over all other life forms on earth. In this way humans were given an assignment of looking after the earth and were to reflect God’s qualities in their way of handling the assignment.

Humans were to subdue the earth. What did God mean by subduing the earth?

According to Chapter 2, that gives us a detailed account of Adam and Eve’s creation, humans could have extended the earthly paradise to the ends of the earth, under God’s direction. We lost the opportunity of accomplishing these assignments under God’s direction, when Adam chose independence as a way of life. This explains why mankind blunders around making mistakes that have resulted in the forming of deserts and other problems with the ecology..

26 And God went on to say: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.” 27 And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. 28 Further, God blessed them and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.”

From verse 29 onwards God explained that the vegetation was for man and beast’s benefit and would serve as food for them.

29 And God went on to say: “Here I have given to YOU all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To YOU let it serve as food. 30 And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul I have given all green vegetation for food.” And it came to be so. 31 After that God saw everything he had made and, look! [it was] very good. And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day.

The 1st chapter ends with 6th creative day being completed.

Chapter 2 up to verse 4 gives a brief sum up of the six days and explains that God now proceeded to rest on the seventh day. An Important point to notice is that God had completed his creative activity and began his rest confident that everything that he had purposed would be realized by the time that he finished his rest. That is why he blessed it and made it sacred. As I have shown before God’s rest is thousands of years long and is evidently still in process with matters proceeding to the final realization of his purposes.

(Gen 2: 1-4 )Thus the heavens and the earth and all their army came to their completion. 2 And by the seventh day God came to the completion of his work that he had made, and he proceeded to rest on the seventh day from all his work that he had made. 3 And God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred, because on it he has been resting from all his work that God has created for the purpose of making. 4 This is a history of the heavens and the earth in the time of their being created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven

Why the Earth Was Watered by a Mist

At Genesis chapter 2 Verses 5 and 6 the Bible recalls the conditions that existed before the third creative day, doubtless to explain why the earth was watered by a mist.

You might recall that on the 2nd creative day God caused a division in the waters. The waters above the expanse formed a canopy. The expanse he called heaven, which referred to our atmosphere. Dry land appeared early on the 3rd creative day and at this point there was no rain or vegetation or humans and a mist watered the land because of the canopy. Conditions under such a canopy would result in a hothouse condition, without trade winds because of the even climate. As the canopy was still there at the time man was created, the climatic conditions were probably the same at that time.

(Genesis 2:5) Now there was as yet no bush of the field found in the earth and no vegetation of the field was as yet sprouting, because Jehovah God had not made it rain upon the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground. 6 But a mist would go up from the earth and it watered the entire surface of the ground.

Man Gets Created

n Genesis Chapter 2 The Bible focuses on a detailed account of God’s creation of man and the woman. From verse 7 God explains the procedure that he adopted in creating the man and also the woman.

Genesis 2:7 And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul.

All the elements of the earth are found in the dust of the earth. so God fashioned these ingredients into a man. Notice that God said that the man became a living soul and not that he had a soul put into him, as false religion’s teach.

The definition of man is exactly what the medical men of science have found to be true. There is no physical evidence of anything surviving the death of a person or “living soul.” Once a person dies he is dead, and unconscious and feels nothing. This harmonizes with what the Bible teaches and harmonizes perfectly with scientific observation.

(Ecclesiastes 3:19) For there is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit, so that there is no superiority of the man over the beast, for everything is vanity.

The word spirit referred to is the life force (Hebrew “ruah”with the basic meaning of wind or air in motion)

Notice that the Garden of Eden was more in the nature of a park. A number of references give the impression that Moses, who lived after the flood and is credited with writing the Genesis account, was also referring to more ancient documents. For example from verse eleven it seemed necessary for him to give additional information to identify places that existed before the flood.

(Genesis 2:8-15) Further, Jehovah God planted a garden in E’den, toward the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 Thus Jehovah God made to grow out of the ground every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food and also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. 10 Now there was a river issuing out of E’den to water the garden, and from there it began to be parted and it became, as it were, four heads. 11 The first one’s name is Pi’shon; it is the one encircling the entire land of Hav’i·lah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. There also are the bdellium gum and the onyx stone. 13 And the name of the second river is Gi’hon; it is the one encircling the entire land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is Hid’de·kel; it is the one going to the east of As·syr’i·a. And the fourth river is the Eu·phra’tes. 15 And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of E’den to cultivate it and to take care of it.

In referring to verses 8-15 we see that God started off man with a good start. By planting a garden in a park called “Eden” (which means pleasure) God made sure that Adam had good living conditions and so he put the man in this place. God then commanded the man to cultivate it and to care for it. If we put this together with God’s command for the human pair to increase and multiply and fill the earth then we can discern what God’s purpose actually was.

Man’s Dependence On God

God intended the humans to extend the paradise conditions as they multiplied, until the whole earth was a paradise inhabited by perfectly happy, healthy people. At this point the record shows that God gave a warning to the man regarding the eating of a certain tree in the garden on which he had placed a prohibition. This has been the source of much speculation and controversy but fundamentally the whole matter is quite simple to understand,

(Genesis 2:16-17) And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. 17 But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”

Religions have speculated that the fruit of the tree was an apple, and some religions have even said that the fruit symbolized sexual intercourse, implying that sexual desire was a sin. All of this is nonsense. From a scientific point of view, we are all living in a universe dominated by the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This law is based on the fact that all processes involve energy and proceed in one direction to a build up of entropy. This means that a lot of energy had to be put into the creation of the universe at the beginning and if left to itself the universe will run down. This is probably best illustrated by the construction of a house. It takes a lot of energy to build the house, and if the house is left to itself, the natural forces will ultimately reduce it to dust. If we are going to maintain the house we have to put work into it.

According to science all processes operate under this law, so therefore even Adam who was not immortal, needed God’s help to continue living. At the least God would have to ensure that there was always food for Adam so basically Adams’ future depended on his creators care. If he was to live indefinitely, this could only be by a maintenance program provided by his creator Jehovah God. Being created in the image of God he had certain powers that animals did not have. Rather than a few simple instincts, he could exercise free will, which was a wonderful privilege. If used incorrectly though it could mean disaster for the man, as God did not intend obligating himself to maintain the man indefinitely if the man chose to wilfully disobey him. We can see the logic in this, because imagine what damage a man like Hitler could do if he lived forever.

What was the tree of knowledge?

Let us consider how this would work in practice. God simply warned man what would be the consequences of disobedience. Adam needed nothing. His every need was supplied. To illustrate what God meant Adam was prohibited from eating from a tree that God called “the knowledge of good and bad.”

The moment God warned Adam not to eat from the tree Adam knew what was good and bad. If Adam chose to eat from the tree, his disobedience implied that he wanted to be like God deciding for himself what was good and bad

This was rebellion against God’s Sovereignty. Because God runs the universe on trust, rebellion could not be indefinitely permitted. The permission of disobedience would send a message to the rest of his creation that Jehovah had failed to live up to his name. We must realize that Satan, (a disobedient spirit son of God) evidently misunderstood God’s way of exercising sovereignty over the universe. Thinking that the limitations that God places on his use of power was a weakness on God’s part. He evidently concluded that If, God intended to populate the earth with perfect humans he would either not allow Adam and Eve to die or he would have to create new humans. In either case this would create doubts regarding God’ ways. In this way he was challenging God’s sovereignty. I have discussed this in more detail in other articles on this site.

Other Criticisms of Genesis

To establish the logicalness of Genesis it may be necessary to discuss some points that critics have made of the account. Many regard the long ages of the Bible characters in the Genesis account has being impossible.

The sequoia trees in USA have been clocked at being over 3000 years old and even turtles have been found to reach ages of 200 years so longevity is no problem, however why is modern man’s lifetime so short?

One should realize that at present we are almost 6000 years from the time of Adam and Eve’s creation.

1.    Adam and Eve were perfect and God had originally purposed to maintain them forever if they were obedient to him.

2.    By discharging the first humans from God’s family they lost this maintenance program.

3.    Scientists have found that humans are exposed to harmful radiation from outer space. This sometimes damages the genes in our DNA. When the damage occurs in our reproductive organs then it is passed on to our offspring. That is why the human race is deteriorating. Furthermore humans were shielded from this radiation to some extent, before the flood of Noah’s day by the canopy that surrounded the earth. The scientific writer Donald Pattern in his book “The Biblical Flood and the Ice Epoch” states that the canopy prevented the mixing of ozone into our atmosphere before the flood. He says that ozone is poisonous and increases the aging process. As ozone after the flood was filtered down into our atmosphere this explains the shorter life spans and the predominant reasons why animals are smaller today.

4.    During the time of Moses God first introduced the prohibition on marrying close relatives

(Leviticus 18:6-7) . . .‘YOU people must not come near, any man of YOU, to any close fleshly relative of his to lay bare nakedness. I am Jehovah. 7 The nakedness of your father and the nakedness of your mother you must not lay bare. She is your mother. You must not lay bare her nakedness. . .

Most modern laws of this type are based primarily on genetic considerations. It is a known fact that marriage between close fleshly relatives is more likely to expose any offspring to genetic defects and diseases. This supports the conclusions regarding the deterioration of the human race. Consequently this affected our life span. Notice that Genesis shows that by the time of Abraham the ages had decreased from Adam’s 930 years to Abraham who lived to 175 years.

(Genesis 5:5) 5 So all the days of Adam that he lived amounted to nine hundred and thirty years and he died.

(Genesis 25:7-8) . . .And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, a hundred and seventy-five years. 8 Then Abraham expired and died in a good old age, old and satisfied, and was gathered to his people. . .

Other critics have said that people counted time differently. This is also a false idea.

Genesis chapter one showed that God put the luminaries into the heavens and that these could be used for counting time.

Further more we see that Noah counted his months as 30 day months.

(Genesis 7:11) . . .In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day all the springs of the vast watery deep were broken open and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.. . .

(Genesis 8:3-4) . . .And the waters began receding from off the earth, progressively receding; and at the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were lacking. 4 And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ar´a·rat

Notice that in the foregoing scripture a period of five months is referred to as being equal to 150 days. This amounts to a 30 day month,

I have discussed the evidence of the global flood of Noah’s day in my article “Was their a global flood” so there is no need to discuss It here.

So we see that when the Bible is considered and reasoned upon it harmonizes with scientific discovery although not with all the theories that abound. However a glance at the history of science shows the folly of treating theories as absolute. Science has changed down the centuries and theories have come and gone but the Bible has not changed and that is why when we compare it with the known facts of science it is truly remarkable. It has never had to be modified to keep up with the times. When it disagreed with the science of the day, science has had to make the change as later discoveries confirmed the Bible as being right.

The same thing has occurred with regard to the other sciences. Archaeology often disagreed with the Bible and was forced to rethink when later discoveries confirmed the Bible’s accuracy. Evolution is suffering the same fate, as more and more people realize that as a science it leads nowhere. Most of the advances in science have occurred when humans seeing the design in nature have studied and applied the principles seen therein. In this way without realizing it they have glorified the God whose name is Jehovah the author of the Bible.

This article was prepared with the intention of showing the truth regarding the Genesis account, I recommend that one goes further and examines other articles on my site that will help one to see the reasonable and logical use of the Bible in guiding ones life course. Knowledge of the truth will help us to have a happy life now and will also provide us with a successful future provided we harmonize our lives with the purpose of our creation.

This requires accurate knowledge of God’s purposes and a knowledge of what he wants from us..

Posted in Categories :- Religion, Science, all