Bible Question: Is there any timeline of when the world was created? |
Bible Answer: As a Christian who is also a physcial scientist at a university, I summarize my thoughts on this topic, see below. My inspiration for the scientific side of this discussion comes from "The Genesis Question", by Dr. Hugh Ross. For previous posts by me on this topic, see the thread starting at message #46773, which can be found by using the Quick Search window on the upper right. Here's my interpretation of Genesis. I have shared this with one of my pastors at my church, and he has no objections to what I have said. I expect others on this forum will want to share their views as well. 1) God created Adam. Gen 2:7 God planted the Garden of Eden. Gen 2:8 Scripture does not say how long it was between the time of Adam's creation and his arrival in the Garden. 2) God created Eve in the Garden. Gen 2:22 Scripture does not say how long Adam lived before God created Eve. 3) Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Gen 3:6 Scripture does not say how long Adam and Eve lived in the Garden before they disobeyed God. 4) God walked in the Garden and Adam and Eve hid themselves from him. Gen 3:8-9 Scripture does not say how long it was after eating the apple that Adam and Eve hid themselves from God. 5) Because of the serpent's role and the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the world was cursed by God. Gen 3:14-19 The curse brought humanity: conflict with the serpent (Gen 3:15), pain (Gen 3:16), dominance of the husband over the wife (Gen 3:16), surviving on the meager fruits of painful toil (Gen 3:17), and death and decay (Gen 3:19). 6) The curse is contrasted sharply with the Garden, implying life in the Garden had none of the troubles of the Fallen world, most notably death and decay. As these are how we measure time, in both the cosmic and personal sense, our Fallen understanding of time is wholly inadequate to understanding time in the Garden, before the Fall. Peter alludes to God's view of time in 2Peter3:8b "... with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day." 7) Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden and entry was barred by cherubim and a flaming sword. Gen 3:23-24. 8) We are the decendents of Adam and Eve, Gen 3:20. We live in that same Fallen world and likewise cannot access the Garden in ANY way, including through the use of logic to infer anything about the timing of Creation or the nature of the Garden, as might be extrapolated by science after examination of the Fallen world. I conclude: Science is constrained to reveal the nature of the Fallen world only and cannot address it before the Fall in any way whatsoever. If the Fallen world appears by all scientific measures to be very old, that fact has no bearing on when Creation was established nor the nature of the Garden before the Fall. |
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Ray | ||
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RobertJenkins | ||
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BB187 | ||
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CMOORE | ||
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mensah mensah | ||
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vcjhn316 | ||
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windy | ||
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Parable | ||
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paty | ||
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pleasure |