Comments for January 1

What about this word firmament (ch.1.7)(AV, KJV - different words used in NIV)? Just what can it refer to? Maybe just sky or heaven. The Hebrew word raqiya occurs 17 times and is only translated firmament (in the AV). Most of the occurrences are in Gen 1 but 6 are elsewhere: Ps. 19:1 Ps.150:1 Eze 1:23-26 (3 occurrences) Dan. 12:3. When you have looked these up, you are left wondering if there is more to this word. Does it also refer to the glory of God? Just a thought.

2 v24 Here we have a two stage process, both of which apply equally (or maybe more so) to our allegiance to God, as well as to marriage, as shown in the passages below

First we must leave: Psa.45:10, Matt.19:29, Luke 14:33
Then we must cleave: Deut.10:10, Josh.23:8, Acts 11:23, Mal.2:14-16, 1Cor.6:16-17

ch 1 - The Genesis record is so simple in the way it lays out the days of creation. A straight forward reading of the text cannot but lead to the view that creation took six literal 24 hour periods. Anyone who wishes to dispute this is importing scientific theory to explain plain text. There is no Scriptural basis for a non literal reading of the Genesis creation text.

ch2:8 The garden planted in Eden is echoed in the vineyard planted [Isaiah 5:1-2] and the planting of Israel as a noble vine [Jeremiah 2:21]

All these plantings show that God is concerned to work with man and that he commences the work with the planting

A SUITABLE HELPER

When God created Adam he put him in the garden he had planted in Eden to work it and take care of it. Adams job was to be the gardener, taking care of the creation of God, helping it to grow and mature. God also had Adam name all the animals, but among them all Adam could not find a helper that was suitable for him. So God created Eve, a woman, from one of Adams ribs to be a companion and a suitable helper for Adam.

God has a plan for your life. He has a job for you to do. Adams job was to be a gardener; Davids was to be king; Jesus was to save the world from sin and death; and the Apostle Pauls was to preach. Whatever the plan God has for our life or the job he has given us to do, if we are married, God has provided our partner to be a suitable helper for us as we live out his plan in our lives.

The ideal situation is that the husband and wife have one vision which they both work towards and help each other on the way.

Husbands: Esteem and appreciate the help your wife gives.
Wives: Help, support and encourage your husband as he does the work God has given him.

1:26 Whereas Adam was created in the image and likeness of God Adam's children were in his image and likeness (Genesis 5:3) - what a contrast!

2:18 In saying that it is not good for man to be alone we have the first indication of fellowship. Man needs the company of like-minded people - exemplified in a wife who answers to him. A picture of Christ and the ecclesia.

What a Blessing to know that our Heavenly Father can take total chaos and create out of it, a functional, dynamic, God glorifying creation.

Your personal life might, at this point in time, resemble the state of things that existed right here at the beginning of time on this planet... dark, turbulent, sad, dysfunctional and "lifeless".

But the powerful creative words of our Loving Heavenly Father can change all that, even as they changed the face of this globe in just 6 days, 6,000 years ago.

The God of the Bible can transform your life into a dynamic, vibrant, fully functional creation that will give HIM glory for ever and ever.

How?

By opening your heart to HIS gracious message in HIS wonderful book, the Bible.

Is it hard, I hear you ask? No. The simplest of folk can understand this wonderful book, and the most intellectual will never exhaust its wonders and beauty.

Why not begin this New Year with a resolution to let this Word into your life every day for the year. Download the free audio player and listen to the Bible being read to you while you read the words yourself and follow the comments offered for each reading.

Share this service with your friends and family and spread the joy of being a part of Gods New Creation.

2:21 The hole in Adam's side brought forth the woman, his helper. So the hole in Christ's side gave birth to His bride - us, the ecclesia.

A basic point but worth mentioning. The creation account speaks of ‘evening and morning’ (Gen 1:5 etc:) whereas we usually speak of the day starting in the morning.  Genesis sets the scene for how Scripture speaks of days.

Gen 2:25 Whereas Adam and Eve were ‘naked’ and ‘not ashamed’ this changed with their sin. However we can be ‘not ashamed’ through our hope (Rom 5:5)

Gen 1:2-3  The 33rd. Psalm explains creation so clearly, that is easy for us to miss just what he is saying.  “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”  This is exactly what is recorded in the account of creation.  Gen. 1:2.  “The Spirit of God” The word spirit and the word breath in the Psalm are the same.  Ruach 7307.  Then starting in verse 3, we see the phrase “and God said” repeated as each day of creation begins.

Nine verses in Gen 1 (v.3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26,29) begin And God said...

We cannot help but remember that 'In the beginning was the Word'.

The Aramaic version is consistent and renders it firmament in every place.
Rotherham's is consistent in rendering it expanse.
 
A science program on the radio yesterday spoke of the thing we call 'space' as having weight.
 
I would think of it as God's dwelling place, a place of substance,  having weight, though to mankind looking up, it seems endless emptiness except for the stars, comets, galaxies, even northern lights that to us, reflect the glory of God and his angels, etc..
 
I found this comment in an old Christadelphian magazine.
 “The Heaven”—Hashshamayim. Only in the plural (dual), from a root to be high, the firmament, the starry expanse above the earth and high up from it. Heaven, God’s dwelling-place, and hence by metaphor, God and the angels in the divine rule over mankind and all creation. Also by subordinate metaphor, the kings, princes, and governors among mankind, who rule the common people as the heavens govern the earth.

In the following passages the word in the original is the same, and comparison yields the conclusion above stated.   “God called the firmament heaven” (Gen 1:8).  “Lights in the firmament of heaven,” the sun and moon (v.14-15).  “Give ear, O ye heavens,” Moses to the rulers of Israel (Deut 32:1). “Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place,” Solomon’s prayer (1Kin 8:30).  “Elijah went up . . . into heaven” (2Kin 2:11). “I create new heavens” (Isa 65:17).  “Thy kingdom (O Nebuchadnezzar) shall be sure unto thee after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule” (Dan 4:26).

The heaven is put before the earth in Gen 1:1 (“the heaven and the earth”) because that is the true and natural order. There was a time when there was no earth (Prov 8:23); but there never was a time when there was no heaven, in the highest sense of God’s dwelling place. And even in the subordinate sense, there is doubtless much in heaven that is older than earth—the sun, for instance. An uninspired speculator of Moses’ time might easily have represented the earth as older than heaven; and it would scarcely be as foolish to say that the earth was eternally pre-existent, as to say “There is no God.”

[Vol. 47: The Christadelphian : Volume 47. 2001, c1910. The Christadelphian, volume 47. (electronic ed.). Logos Library System (Vol. 47, Page 222). Birmingham: Christadelphian Magazine & Publishing Association.]
 
An easy way to remember the order of 'leave' and 'cleave' is the addition of C - or Christ.  We leave the things of this world, and cleave to him.

Gen 1:2 - "was" according to the NIV can also be translated "became" which perhaps would allow for a pre-Adamic creation.  Gen 1:5 - darkness before light is how creation both natural and spiritual occur. Heb 11:3 - the NT supplements the process of how creation started.

Gen 1:21 - "creature" [Heb. "nephesh" (5315) means a breathing creature, animal, beast, body, man, person, life, soul, etc.]; the waters were not teaming with immortal souls swimming around, and nowhere do we read "immortal soul(s)" in the Bible. In Psa 49:12-20 - we read that man and beast upon death go to the "grave" [Heb. "sheol" (7585) means grave, hell, pit, etc.].

Gen 2:2-3 - seventh day of rest. 2Pet 3:8 - a day is as 1000 years. A millennial day of rest Heb 4:3-9;Rev 20:4.

Gen 2:7 - KJV translates man became a living "soul" whereas the NIV translates man became a living "being". The word for both soul and being is the Heb. "nephesh" (5315).

Gen 2:17; Rom 6:23 - the result/wages of sin is death. Interestingly, there is no mention of immortal soul in the Bible.

The first two chapters of Genesis firmly establish Yahweh (Gen 2:4) as the creator of heaven and earth and all things found therein.  The things of creation, which we see around us, give testimony to the existence of the One who made them (Rom 1:20).  All men can see the LORD's handiwork, and yet many have slipped into idolatry (Rom 1:21-23).  Today, the god of Evolution is worshipped and Yahweh is denied.  When judgement comes, true believers will be saved and idolatrous liars will be cast out (Rev 22:14,15).

Gen 1 Notice the way that the language of this chapter is used – in reverse – to mark the destruction of Egypt in the plagues

2:15 Adam’s word to ‘dress and keep’ the garden signifies the work of the priest who was to Num 3:38 ‘keep the charge’ of the sanctuary – the Hebrew is the same on both occasions.

Gen 1 It was recently pointed out to us that it is only at the completion of the second day that the phrase "God saw that it was good"  has not been recorded. (note Gen 1:4,10,12,18,21,25) We are however told in Gen 1:31 that everything "was very good." Has any one got a thought why we are not told that the work of day two was not concluded with this phrase as the other days were?

2:16 The command from God in the Garden of Eden was the first test of faith. Adam and Eve knew that God existed. They had to believe that he would keep His word. That is what faith is – believing God is reliable. Rom 4:21

Yahweh is the creator of all things, including scientific laws.  But in His book, The Bible, He chooses not to define creation in scientific terms.  He simply asks us to believe His simple overview of creation. However, scientists, in general, have dismissed the Bible creation account and have substituted their own hypotheses.  They demand that people choose between the Bible or science.  This is not necessary as the Bible and science are not in conflict.  In his readable book, Bible and Science, John C. Bilello, a respected scientist, discusses these aspects.  Please contact me for details on how to acquire this book.

2:1,3   ‘Finished’ and ‘rested … and made’ is quoted in Heb 4:3,4,9 as part of an argument about the future kingdom of God. Therefore we can conclude that God’s resting was to show that there will be a time of rest. It is not simply that God had finished creation so had a rest. There is a deeper spiritual lesson here.

The first five books of the Bible (The Pentateuch) was originally one scroll.  Nobody knows when they were divided into five separate books.  However, all agree that Moses was the writer of The Pentateuch.

Gen 1:1      Both Mark 1:1and John 1:1  echo the creation language in their gospel highlighting the fact that the whole creation activity centres around God’s plan of redemption in Jesus.

Gen 1:31 First Principles>Hell
1. The orthodox concept of Hell Fire is false. Three points rule out the orthodox concept of hell fire:
    1. If hell exists, it was created. God is the creator of everything and He created everything very good. Hell in the orthodox concept was not very good so it wasn't created so it doesn't exist.
    2. The doctrine of hell depends on the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. But the soul is mortal Gen 2:7.
        Body + breath = life. Soul sinned, therefore it must die Gen 3:19-22. One must eat of the tree of live to live for ever. Mortality of the soul is confirmed in Psa 146:3-4.
    3. Hell Fire disagrees with the judgement. Resurrection and judgement are confirmed in John 5:29, 1Cor 15:22, Heb 9:27
2. Bible teaching on Hell.
The once popular theory of hell as a place of eternal torments, is untrue. The original, unspoilt meaning of hell was an unseen or covered place. Hell in the Bible often means the grave. (In the Old Testament, the original Hebrew word SHEOL occurs 65 times, being translated 31 times hell, 31 times the grave and three times pit. In the New Testament the original Greek word HADES occurs 11 times, being translated 10 times “hell” and once the grave.)
Sometimes in the New Testament the original word for hell is GEHENNA, a term associated with the valley of Hinnom, a place near Jerusalem once the scene of idolatrous burnings and consequently so abhorred by the Jews of later Bible times that it was used as a place for the destruction of refuse and the dead bodies of animals and criminals, being continually kept burning for this purpose. It is therefore fittingly used to describe the future judgement.
    1. Teachings from Old Testament Scriptures - go to 1Sam 22:6.
    2. Teachings from New Testament Scriptures -
        The Greek words are Hades - translated into hell 10 times, into Grave once. Go to Acts 2:27 for Hades, and to Matt 9:43-48 for Gehenna, which occurs another 11 times. (There is another Greek word, Tartarus, found only once, this being in 2Pet 2:4 and this word is not of significance as a first principle).
First Principles> For more first principle topics, go to Acts 8:12.

Gen 1:3;2Cor 4:6.  Gen 1:27;Matt 19:3-5Mark 10:6.   Gen 2:7;1Cor 15:45-46.  Gen 2:24;Matt 19:3-5Mark 10:8Eph 5:31.

Gen 1:26,27,31 -  The appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact. Now researchers are suggesting the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. Not only is it recently suggested to possess a critical function, but scientists now find it appears in nature a lot more often than before thought. 

Gen 1:26 - "God said, 'Let us make man in our image...'"  Who was around besides God at this time? It would have to be the angels. Gen 19:1-5;Heb 13:2.

The creation account can be summarised as follows:

First day - Light. This is interesting as the sun, moon and stars are not yet created. Take a look at Rev 22:5

Second day - God puts a firmament (an expansion of space) between the waters that are above & below the firmament.

Third day - Land and sea and plant life.

Fourth day - Sun, moon and stars.

Fifth day - Fish & fowl.

Sixth day - Land animals and man.

Seventh day - God rested.

So,  why did God create the earth? Isa 45:18 informs us that it was created to be inhabited, and Rev 4:11 informs us that all things were created for God's pleasure.

2:18  there is no such word as helpmeet.  It's one of our inventions which we hear regularly.  God provided help for Adam, a help that was meet, suitable, fit (ESV) for him.  In French, the word used here, literally translated, means someone who corresponded to Adam.

This wasn't just a casual partner.  This was someone who would work with Adam, who complemented him and, as such, forms the prototype of husbands and wives to come.

Gen 1 We should realise that the Genesis account of creation is not for the purpose of describing what actually happened with the physical creation but it has more to do with highlighting God’s purpose to fill the world with his glory through people. This is seen from the way in which Heb 11:3 says that ‘we understand that the worlds (ages) were framed by the word of God’ – notice that Hebrews carefully avoids physical creation type language.

One of the Bibles themes is that of "Beginning" - and our God is a God of New Beginnings.

Just as He created function and order out of chaos way back in the beginning... so He has continually worked in His Creation to bring about valuable new beginnings.

Noah is a classic case in point - a point in history which teaches us about listening, preparing and Baptism... or New Beginning.

Abraham is another classic case.... where God took a man and his family in their old age, spoke to them, led them on the journey of their lifetime... and gave them many New Beginnings in a new land.... far away from where they might have envisioned they would end their days.

Moses leading God's people out of Egypt.... was a new Beginning... just as Joshua leading God's people into the Land of Promise was a new Beginning.

David becoming king, Babylon taking Judah captive, Judah returning from captivity... were all new Beginnings.

Then the greatest of New Beginnings we find in Jesus.

So... this new year (a year that will bring New Beginnings for us all) why not look for the theme of "beginning" as HIS story unfolds.... and remember :-) .... not EVERY time the word "Beginning" occurs in the Bible does it have to refer back to Genesis 1:1.

God is a God of New Beginnings... "be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ..."

Oh... and when you come to read John again this year... try to read his references to "beginning" as relating to the "New Beginning"... the new "Creation" in Jesus Christ.

ie... John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God... etc"  

Unlike Matthew and Luke, who both provide a genealogy for Jesus (Mark, portraying Jesus as a servant doesn't do this... because a servant's genealogy is pointless)... John starts his genealogy for Jesus at the "beginning" of Jesus' ministry.... the "beginning of the New Creation". [Why not do a search in John on "beginning"? You will find many times the context takes us back to the "beginning" of Jesus' Ministry.... not the "Beginning" mentioned in Gen 1:1]

How it all began: Eden the source of life

In Gen 1:20-23 it is clear that God made a few of every fish and bird, then commanded them to spread across the globe, filling the sea and sky. In other words, life started somewhere and spread, just as it did with the land dwelling animals and people. We know this because He commanded the same thing to mankind as He did to the fish and birds: "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth" (1:28). Then in chapter 2 we take a step back and find out that all this actually happened in the garden of Eden. There were presumably no animals created outside that Garden, or else Adam wouldn't have been able to name them (2:18-20). And there were no plants, because Mankind was needed to till the ground before they could grow (2:5). So the picture in Genesis is of all life starting in, or near, Eden, and spreading outwards gradually. The fish and birds would spread quickly, taking other organisms and plant matter with them wherever they went, spreading plaintive out too. And mankind and land animals would follow more slowly. This explains how at the time of Noah all the animals were nearby enough to climb into the ark. And why God designed most plant seeds to be carried by birds and beasts.

1:14   The details of creation and in particular the seasons being ordained by God is spoken of in Psa 104:14 as a basis for worshipping God.

                                                       The first recorded words of God

God's first words penned in the pages of the bible are "Let there be light". This may seem to be so simple and casual a statement but there lies a deep principle in it that the Creator of heaven and earth himself did lay down and which we will do well to give heed to.

The Principle: Before anything can been done there must be light.

We are in this world as it were a people in darkness; geographers without a compass.That light does not come from the wisdom of this age but from the "true light that gives light" as John testifies.We shall wear out ourselves in vain if we embark on our spiritual journey without the blessing of heaven.  What a blessing we will do ourselves if we start, not only this new year but everthing, big or small, with the light of God!

Gen 1:1-2

"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..."

Between these two verses we find Bible scholars placing "Satan's" fall, and geologists providing undeniable evidence that the world is millions of years old! According to the "HEbrEW-CHALDEE LEXICON of the OLD TESTAMENT" By F.W. Gesenius (1846), Gesenius says that the conjunction, waw, ("And") at the beginning of verse 2 is a "waw copulative word." A copulative word according to "Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary" is a word that "joins together coordinate words or word groups and expressing addition of the meanings." There is a grammatical connection between these two verses.

The word, "and" connects and establishes specific relationships between complete sentences. In English grammar, "and" used to begin a sentence is grammatically correct IF you are showing a sequential relationship to the preceding sentence. This is what we see here in Gen 1. If verse 2 were a reconstruction of verse 1, then it would be connected with an adverbial conjunction. In other words, Scripture would read: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Afterward the earth was without form and void; and darkness covered the face of the deep..."

The earth being without form and void does not mean that the earth was made waste and empty prior by God's judgment.  Rather, it sets forth the creation scene with which God began His creation work. Verse 2 is simply a statement of a view of the earth before its creation was completed.

God made a declarative statement in Gen 1:1, which was then followed from verses 2-31 with a definitive account of His creation work through the elohim, or angels, during the time frame of, "In the beginning."  This "beginning" covered the six days, ending on the seventh day when God rested. To believe otherwise is to delve into realms simply not revealed to us.

Gen 1:24

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing; and beast of the earth after its kind: and it was so.”

“Kind” is miyn, # <4327>, and refers directly to “species kind.” We read further in Lev 18:23 that it is confusion to lie with different species other than their own. The word, “confusion” is # <8397>, tebel, “mixture, unnatural bestiality.” Scientists, in the interest of scientific advancement, have totally disregarded this injunction, and have mixed the various species in their laboratories!

Scientists want to study how cells develop in living creatures rather than in petri dishes. These horrific experiments have created a nightmarish scenario. Animals implanted with human cells have become so advanced that a human brain can now be trapped in a mouse’s body making the mouse a “humous.” These mice have human brain cells, and can be genetically engineered to produce human sperm and eggs, and then through in vitro fertilization would produce a child whose parents are mice! Pigs grow human hearts with human blood in their veins, monkeys grow human larynxes, and sheep have received cells from goats producing what Scientists call, “geep.” Sheep also have human livers, hearts, brains, and other human organs available later for transplant into humans. At present, we have no federal guidelines, no ethical boundaries to prevent these monstrous experiments.

A Religion Correspondent wrote in an article on www.timesonline.co.uk the following: “Human-animal hybrid embryos should be legal says Catholic Church.” The correspondent goes on to say: “The Roman Catholic Church has called for women to be allowed to give birth to human-animal hybrids created in the laboratory”! In direct violation and total disregard of the divine order, these Scientists with their repulsive transgenic hybrids have opened Pandora’s Box to apocalyptic horrors of molecular biological nightmares beyond our wildest imagination.

Gen 1:3

“And God (Elohim) said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God (Elohim) saw the light, that it was good: and God (Elohim) divided the light from the darkness.”

From the very beginning of creation, God created the light first and then separated the light from the darkness, the day from the night. This principal is carried on throughout Scripture, which shows us that the children of light, or Spirit were to be separate from the children of darkness, or Flesh.

The doctrine of separation is grounded in the holiness of God. Believers must be separate from sin and worldliness in order to be separated unto God. He took us out of darkness and brought us into His marvelous Light (1Pet 2:9), and we are exhorted as His children to walk in the Light (Eph 5:8-9).

This coming year let us come with a renewed mind, a renewed heart, a renewed faith, a renewed life, and a renewed spirit. The way of life is narrow (Matt 7:14), but in the infinite mercy of God it is within the reach of all who give their whole lives and energies to obtaining it.

A New Year's Message

The world’s first “new year” was happy and prosperous. It was ushered in with rejoicing and praise when all the “morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy (Job 38:7). From that first bright and prosperous new year, we pass our years as a tale that is told, and are actors in but a short chapter of a very long story.

In 46 B.C.E., the Roman Emperor, Julius Caesar, first established January 1 as New Year’s Day. January is named after Janus, the Roman god of doors and gates, and is pictured with two faces; one looks to the past, and the other looks ahead toward the future. This symbolizes the connection with the ending of the old and the beginning of the new.

We stand between the old and the new, and curiously blend both into our present experience. We reflect on the twelve months past and ask if they were months of progress, stagnation, or positive in the attainment of those qualifications that give peace and righteousness now, and unutterable joy in the endless future that awaits us. Some people may gloze and doze over the Bible in a dreamy way; others may find this line of reflection lugubrious, but not to those with wisdom. It is only in the Bible that we learn the secret of a satisfying and rewarding life in the present, and only in the Bible can we learn how to obtain everlasting life in the future. The old year has passed, and men die, but God’s purpose goes on (Isa 40:6-8).

We can look back into history, and forward into the future as God unfolds it, and we may gain a glimpse of just a fraction of the greatness of our Heavenly Father. If we cultivate peace with God, then we are at peace within ourselves despite any sadness, loss, or any ominous events that may occur around us. The poet, Alfred L. Tennyson speaks of “ringing out the old, and ringing in the new; ringing out the false, and ringing in the true.” Indeed, in Eph 4 and Col 3 we are admonished to, put off the old man, and put on the new man, “which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

The peace of Eden was broken and remains broken, and the sound of drums and trumpets of war has never been wholly absent. Yet, through it all, we hear and see the purpose of God being worked out. We are witnesses of, and unwilling actors in, these days of the breaking of God’s peace, but let it not break our inner peace. Let us look forward with great anticipation when the old things have passed away, and all things have become new.

2:7   Man was made of the ‘dust’ – a point he is reminded of – Gen 3:19 – after his sin.

Gen 1:5 provides the Divine formula for a day being a 24 hour period.“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”   The Hebrew word for “first” in this verse is not the word for “first” as it would be used in a ranking or sequence, e.g. second, third, fourth, fifth etc. See, Strong’s Concordance H<259>. It means “properly united” “that is one”. 

God is informing us that the uniting of an evening and a morning, constitute one day. Strong’s Concordance has a different Hebrew word for “first” when meaning a ranking or sequence of numbers.  See, Strong’s H<7223>.  For example, Exo 12:15, uses “first” meaning the “first in place, time or rank” in which a sequence occurs.  Meaning first chronologically as in, first dayof the seven days of unleavened bread).  We know 24 hours has to elapse for a complete cycle of day, evening, night and morning.   To what authority do we appeal if we were to suggest that this is not so when the Lord began the Word of life with the seven literal days of His creative work?

Gen 2:21-22  Eve was created from a rib taken from Adam.  The Hebrew word for “rib” H<6763> is used elsewhere in Scripture to help us to develop our understanding of the relationship between Christ and his bride.

In Exo 25:12 we find the next occurrence of the Hebrew word for “rib”.  In this verse it is twice translated as “side”.  The sides of the Ark or it’s “ribs” remind us of the way Adam’s bride was created and make the connection between the Ark with its mercy seat and the means of forgiveness for the faithful. 

1Kings 6:5 Solomon’s Temple had “chambers” or “ribs” (see margin, KJV) constructed round it.  God’s house was constructed with “ribs”.  Reminding us of the Adam’s bride and the faithful worshippers in the Temple and the faithful bride of Christ.

Eze 41:6-9 Ezekiel Temple is constructed with “chambers” or “ribs” the same Hebrew word as in Gen.2:21-22.

Gen 1:11-12 - "herb yielding <2232>" can mean not just yielding but also sowing..."tree yielding <6213>" yielding in this instance can mean "to do, fashion, accomplish, make, etc." -- also, trees were made on the third day so perhaps this echos the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. 

Gen 2:2-3

“And on the seventh day God (Elohim) ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day… And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work…”

The Russian mathematician and atheist, Dr. Ivan Panin was a mathematical genius who was exiled from Russia because of his active participation in plots against the Czar. He went to Germany where he became an outstanding lecturer, but several years later moved to the United States and became a U.S. citizen and a Harvard Scholar. It was in 1890 that he discovered the Bible’s mathematical structure and its extensive numeric codes, which led to his conversion.

The numeric value of a word is the sum total of the word, and this roused Panin's curiosity to toy with the numbers behind the words and for the next 50 years he painstakingly combed through the pages of the Bible.  Dr. Panin concluded that the laws of probability exceeded into the billions and said: “If human logic is worth anything at all we are simply driven to the conclusion that if my facts I have presented are true, man could never have done this.” He further stated: “We must assume that a Power higher than man guided the writers in such a way, whether they knew it or not, they did it and the Great God inspired them to do it” (cf. 2Pet 1:21).

Numbers hold an important place in the works of God. Of all the sciences, the science of mathematics is the only science considered to be exact, and unless proved mathematically, all other branches of science are but theories or opinions. Amazingly, by logical mathematical proof, we can show that the Word of God is full of these implications. Everything created by God is mathematically perfect. Ivan Panin, in his book, “The Inspiration of the Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated,” writes about discovering thousands of mathematical patterns not found anywhere outside of the Bible. It is absolutely fascinating reading! Panin died at Aldershot, Ontario, Canada on October 30^th, 1942 at the age of 87.

The number seven is very prevalent throughout Scripture. In the Book of Revelations we read of seven golden candlesticks, seven letters to seven churches, a book sealed with seven seals, seven angels standing before the Lord with seven trumpets, seven thunders and seven last plagues.

God seals the number seven also in His creation as if woven into the very fabric of nature. While examples could be given in volumes, consider these few:

The Bible declares man’s years to be three score and ten (10x7).

The human embryo is formed in 28 (4x7) days.

The gestation period of man is 280 (40x7) days.

Every cell in the body is renewed every 7 years.

Creation was completed in 7 days.

The Earth is 49 (7x7) times larger than the Moon.

The Moon takes 28 (4x7) days to encircle the Earth.

The gestation period of the mouse is 21 (3x7) days.

The gestation period of the cat      is 56 (8x7) days.                                           

The gestation period of the dog     is 63 (9x7) days.                                     

The incubation of bird eggs is always in a multiple of 7 days. The canary is 14 (2x7) days, and the emu is 56 (8x7) days. Though the incubation period time factors differ considerably, all these time factors are in multiples of seven days!

Scientists tell us that the cells of the human body are renewed every 7 years.

Scientists confirm that the human body is made of the same 14 (7x2) elements found in a handful of dust.

Our pulse beats slower on the 7^thday, according to God’s seventh day of rest.

The sun’s light is made up of 7 distinct colours as evidenced by the rainbow.

In music there are 7 distinct notes that climax in a chord or octave at the beginning of a new 7.

God’s creative work is mathematically perfect. Sir Isaac Newton said: “This could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” Albert Einstein once stated, “The Scientists religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the perfect harmony of natural laws which reveals intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”

The number 7 is often referred to as “God’s Seal” and the “number of spiritual perfection.”  The numerical structure of the Bible is the subject of numerous volumes, but none are more provocative than the works of Dr. Ivan Panin. There is no human explanation for this incredible and precise structure. We simply sit back and gasp as we ponder on the skillful handiwork of our Heavenly Father.

Gen 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Of all the planets in our solar system, God named one planet - Earth. All the other planets were named by fallen man and were given the name of pagan gods! The names given to the planets in our solar system are the Roman gods and goddesses. This is because the people who named the first known planets were the Romans. The Assyrians, Babylonians, and Greeks had names, but the Roman names have stuck as they are the most recently preserved in Western society. Here is the list of the eight main planets, Pluto being a dwarf planet:

Mercury - named after the Roman mythological counterpart of Hermes, the Greek god of messengers, commerce, thieves, and sports. Named as such because of the speed at which it revolves around the Sun.

Venus - named after the Roman mythological counterpart of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Earth - named by God

Mars - named after the Roman mythological counterpart of Ares, the Greek god of war.

Jupiter - named after the Roman mythological counterpart of Zeus, the Greek king of the gods.

Saturn - named after the Roman god of agriculture and harvest, Saturn. He is the Roman mythological counterpart of Cronus (Kronos), the Greek titan who fathered Zeus.

Uranus - named after the Greek mythological Father of the Sky, Ouranos. "Uranus" is the Latin translation of "Ouranos".

Neptune - named after the Roman mythological counterpart of Poseidon, the Greek god of the seas.

Pluto – named after the Roman god of the underworld and counterpart of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld.

Gen 2-3

When God created Adam and the woman, He created them with different traits and established different roles for them. He designed them to be different in order to bring about a mutual benefit in the marriage relationship, and enable them to accomplish His will in their lives.

God first created Adam and gave him dominion over all His creation. He was to oversee, tend to the garden, and care for all that God had made.  The woman was created from Adam’s rib, thus making him the head of his wife (1Tim 2:13), and were in every aspect truly, “one flesh.”  Adam had the preeminence because he was the source of his help-mate and in the same manner as the head of man is Christ, whose head is God (1Cor 11:3).

God had created the woman to be Adam’s helper - to assist him in all the responsibilities He gave him. There was a loving, cooperative relationship between the two, as they worked side by side, Adam directing the work, his wife supporting him. Together, they were a team and together they would fulfill their respective roles. These different roles continue today, though not necessarily followed. God made man and woman this way that they might compliment one another in fulfilling His will in their lives as “joint heirs,” if you will. At this time, they had perfect fellowship with God.

After they sinned, they attempted self-justification. Adam blamed, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat” (Gen 3:12). He was indirectly also blaming God! His wife followed his example and blamed the serpent! God then proceeded to pass His judgments:

The serpent the “most subtil” than any of the beasts was made the lowest of all the beasts. The judgment and effects of sin extended to all the animal kingdom (Jer 12:4).

The woman’s sorrow and conception would be multiplied – the length of the pain in childbirth was increased. Because of the woman’s fallen carnal nature, she would have a strong desire to rule over her husband, but it would be the husband who would rule or have power over her. The headship would remain the same; she would be in submission, a tough submission for sinful flesh – a constant battle.

The man would have to toil the garden under great hardship. Before the fall, labour was easy, and the land easily yielded its crops, but now the plants were also affected by sin. Man would return to dust again from which he was taken - in other words, the dying process began on all of creation. Trusting in God’s promises, it was then that Adam called his wife, Eve, the “mother of all living” (Gen 3:15,20).

Though the woman sinned first, ultimately, Adam was made more culpable than the woman because he was not deceived. He did what he did fully knowing what he did (1Tim 2:14)! While their fellowship with God was broken, God did not leave them without hope. His judgments came with mercy.

Sin changed everything that God once pronounced as “very good” (Gen 1:31). Their descendants inherited their fallen sinful nature even before ever committing sin! “In Adam all sinned” (Rom 5:12), and all die, but “in Christ shall all be made alive” (1Cor 15:22).Nothing would ever be the same. Sin changed what was originally God’s intention for all mankind. Because of Adam’s choice, sin changed the whole character and condition of mankind throughout all time. While the message is one of man’s failures, it also demonstrates God’s mercy to save the sinner gone astray.

Gen 1:1-4  We begin our daily Bible readings for the year with the first record of good works.  God created the light (v.3) and the divine assessment was, “God saw the light that it was good.”  Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry taught his followers to “let their light shine” (Matt 5:16) so that men would “see their good works and glorify” their heavenly Father.  The “good works” the disciples were exhorted to display was the preaching of the Gospel. This would be like a light shining in the darkness that would give the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2Cor 4:4-6).

This must be our goal in the time that remains till the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2:21     The ‘deep sleep’ that God brought upon Adam was a pattern of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Just as the ‘bride’ was brought to Adam when he woke Mary Magdalene was brought to Jesus immediately after his resurrection John 20:14-16

Gen 1:3-5; Gen 1:14-19.

What is the explanation for God's creating of light on Day 1, and the sun, moon, and stars on Day 4?

An important point to make before getting around to trying to answer the question is that the actual heavens and earth were already in existence and had been so "x" number of years prior to what can be described as the 6 days' creation. So geologists and archaeologists who tell us that the earth and fossils found in the earth are so many millions of years old - their findings and integrity don't need to be really questioned. And they are not necessarily contradictory to what the Bible has to say about creation. Therefore, if this is true, what is being described throughout this chapter and with somewhat more detail in ch. 2 is God's making of the earth inhabitable.

What follows then is one way to read this. This chapter gives the story of "Creation" not necessarily as it took place, but as it was revealed to Moses (or perhaps, to Adam and Eve and through them and oral retellings of it to Moses later on). And the order here would be that which an onlooker would see things happen (if there were one alive to see it, which obviously was not the case).

First, chaos on a globe wrapped in thick cloud. The vapor thins out, and light (from the sun) percolates through. As this process continues, the separation between waters on the earth and in the sky takes place, followed by another separation - sea and land. Then vegetable growth appears. The mist then gradually dissipates, and the heavenly bodies are finally revealed. But, once more, emphasis needs to be put on the fact that this is the order of the Divine revelation.

Gen 1:1

A reader writes: “Even the most vociferous protagonists of evolution do not question the fact that the earth was created without form, void and dark… The NIV uses the word 'Now' to link the two verses together.”

My reply: I have come across teachings that openly state the earth was not originally created formless and void and cite Isa 45:18 (RV) then Jer 4:23-26 from which they conclude a catastrophic event must have occurred to cause the earth to become waste, but what this event was is not known except that it involved disobedience and God’s final judgment on the then civilization. Dr. John Thomas in his book, Elpis Israel, speaks of “pre-Adamic inhabitants.” He writes on Ch 2, page 11: “Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adamic world have been brought to light by geological research… Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six days into six thousand years.”

Conclusions of this nature come from the one word we read in Gen 1:28: “…replenish the earth,” and compare it with Gen 9:1: wherein Noah and his sons were told to, “replenish the earth.” It is the same Hebrew word in both places, mala, # <4390>, and means both to “fill” and “replenish.” “Fill” is appropriate for Gen 1:28 since Adam and Eve were the only inhabitants at that time, and “replenish” is appropriate for Gen 9:1 because the earth was previously inhabited. The context is our guide.

The 1984 NIV edition I have uses the word, “AND” throughout Gen 1 as does the Septuagint version, which is considered the most accurate Hebrew translation into Greek.

Gen 1:1

“In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth.”

In 1973 a scientific conference was held in Poland to commemorate the 500^th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus. It was here that Dr. Brandon Carter, astrophysicist from Cambridge University, introduced the “Antropic Principle,” Antropic derived from the Greek word, anthropos, and means “man.” He proposed that the precise balance of all the multitude of forces including gravity, electro-magnetism, and the strong nuclear force of the Universe were so fine-tuned in such a precise manner as to allow life to exist on Earth. In 1984, Dr. Robert Jastrow, astronomer and agnostic, also concluded that life could not survive if the characteristics that make up our solar system were even slightly different. He admitted that “the Universe was constructed within very narrow limits, in such a way that man could dwell in it. It is the most theistic result ever to come out of science, in my view” – The Intellectuals Speak Out About God.

Further complexity, however, has been introduced to Bible students by claiming that there is a significant time gap from the creation of the Universe to the creation of the Earth. It opens the door to all the evolutionary trappings of the formation of the Universe in terms of billions of years! It is known as “The Gap Theory.” The Gap Theory supposes there was a “gap” of time between the two distinct creations - the Universe and the Earth, between verses one and two. It serves only to support and reconcile the time scale of the Universe with the astronomical theories that allow for the Big Bang Theory - one big explosion that matter clumped together to form our galaxies, sun, moon, stars, and planets. It feeds into the “Day-Age Theory,” which allows for thousands or millions of years between each creation day despite the fact that the Bible tells us the “evening and the morning” were one day. They deny the very foundations of Scripture (cf. Psa 11:3)! I am not a scientist, but my observation has always been that explosions create disorder, not order.

The best quote I can give comes right from the Bible in Exo 20:11. “For in six days the LORD (Yahweh) made heaven and earth…” There is no gap! This very statement covers both Gen 1:1 and all the subsequent verses. God made Heaven first to support life on Earth then created in the right order those things needed to support vegetable, animal, and human life. Could God not create Heaven and Earth in one day and subsequently continue to build thereon each within their day? “Is any thing too hard for the LORD (Yahweh)” (Gen 18:14)? The Universe was created to support life on Earth so there was no need to have a Universe billions of years old before God proceeded to continue His creation of Earth.

Gen 2:19 Adam was a literal person, not a figurative or metaphoric character. For evidence we have Christ's geneology directly traced to Adam (Matt 1:1-16;Luke 3:23-38).

In a similar vein, just as Adam was flawed, I happen to share that unfortunate trait in abundance, and no doubt have a number of inadvertently flawed posts. So please be careful. Be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11;2Tim 3:16-17).

A New Year’s Message

The New Year presents to us new beginnings, where bygones are bygones. New Year to the older generation holds hope, thanksgiving and gratitude as they witness the dawning of another New Year. New Year brings on a time of reflection and contemplation with new resolutions. New Year is a time when many would like to start anew their relationships, forgiving those who have wronged them, and asking forgiveness from those they have wronged. New Year is the day when we strive to be accepting of our differences and bridge the gap; the greatest gap to be bridged being our relationship with God and His Son.

Why not start the New Year with a prayer, a prayer that this New Year will be fruitful as we grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ? Let us appreciate the year God has given us, the blessings we have, and be filled with gratitude for all that we have received and continue to receive. May this New Year be centered on God, through whom we live and move and have our being.

To some the New Year may start off with some uncertainties of what may lie ahead. Life is not always smooth sailing; often it is more like a roller coaster ride, but through it all may we glorify God each and everyday as the LORD opens up another chapter in our lives. May we live each day with more meaning, inviting God to lead us in His way and holding on to Him, He will sustain us.

May each day unite us, joining our mind and heart, and with hands on the plow continue steadfastly upholding and sustaining one another in love as we journey Zion-ward. No matter what storms we may face, united and determined we can make it and through God we can find peace even in a troubled world.

Let this New Year be the start of a new adventure with motivations, along with things to ponder as a new chapter in the Lamb’s Book of Life opens. Listening to exhortations at: http://www.youtube.com/user/RugbyChristadelphian/ will certainly enhance our possibilities to grow spiritually. After all, this is our whole purpose in being here, for without God life is like a pencil without a point.

Gen 1

A reader writes: .. “I read with great interest the comment you made on today's Genesis reading about the age of the earth vs. the age of the universe.
I find your comments on the readings usually very pertinent, insightful and helpful - particularly your comments on divorce and remarriage. FINALLY I've found an answer to this great Christadelphian hobby-horse that makes sense and is in harmony with the whole of Scripture!
Some years ago, Bro. ------- ------ (------- Ecclesia UK) who is a prominent scientist and member of the Royal Society gave an address at our ecclesia in which he stated that it had recently been discovered and proven mathematically that for "Big Bang" (i.e. the birth of the universe) to have panned out the way it has done, it had to be under intelligent control within 10 to the minus 32 of a second i.e .0000000000 (31 noughts in fact)0001 of one second. So who was the source of that intelligence?  There can only be one answer... Yahweh! Bro. ------ also stated that scientists who believe in evolution have done their level best to cover up this 'inconvenient truth'!
And if we stop to think for a moment, the universe being created by a 'big bang' controlled by Yahweh could also explain why Yahweh is not bound by time in the way we are i.e. He is outside its control BECAUSE He is not bound by the time constraints we know and experience BECAUSE He pre-existed Big Bang and thus time as we know it - which commenced at the instant Big Bang started! This concept takes some getting your head round! I have thus no problem accepting that the universe and the earth could be billions of years old: What I know for sure is that sometime around 6,000 years ago to quote Genesis 1:2, 'The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (of the
earth). 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.' And thus the present order of Creation as we know it was begun on earth - in six literal consecutive days I believe.
As Bro. Thomas points out: there may well have been previous creations by Yahweh before this one - which would explain where the ancient fossils come from - AND where the angels came from. We just don't know... we weren't there. We can only take what's recorded in the Genesis record at face value - and not try and read into Genesis what isn't there!
And another thing we DO know is that Yahweh created the earth for a purpose - to fill it with His glory by manifesting that glory in the culmination of that (I believe literal) six-days of creation - man.
Sadly, as we shall read tomorrow, man thought he knew better, but Yahweh provided in the shedding of the blood of the animal (and wouldn't it be an interesting coincidence if it was a male lamb!) skin coverings to provide a "covering" for Adam & Eve's nakedness of sin.
I do try to keep an open mind on Yahweh's Word - not a firmly closed one! It's very refreshing to see that you do too!…”

My reply: … Thank you for your feedback and I am pleased to learn that you have taken the time to examine for yourself the D&R issue, and in putting the pieces of the puzzle together (all Scripture on the subject), got the complete picture. Scripture must harmonize and if it does not, we know there is something wrong somewhere.

From dinosaurs, to DNA, to carbon dating, they run smack-dab into the Theory of Evolution. Indeed, for evolution to be true, the Earth must be billions of years old.

There are Scientists who tell us that dinosaur fossils found still had soft tissue and red blood cells that looked fresh, and that these fossilized bones could not be billions of years old, but possibly only thousands. Other Scientists, however, claim they are billions of years old. There are Scientists who tells us our oldest spiral galaxy is 10 billion years old, while other Scientists say that spiral galaxies cannot be billions of years old because  within billions of years they would be twisted beyond recognition and wouldn’t be seen as spirals by us and use this as proof that the universe is much younger than originally thought. Some Scientists say the oceans get saltier every year and if they were millions of years old, the water would be so thick we could practically walk across them by now. Other Scientist deny this is so.

I am not inclined to believe that the Earth is billions of years, not just because it opens the door to Evolutionists, but  because sin introduced death, and these animals prior to creation died. Scripture tells us death was introduced into the world in Genesis 3, so how could there be bones of dead creatures before the fall? Furthermore, Scientists do agree that some of the the fossils of these animals were diseased, some had cancer, and there is evidence of one animal eating another. Yet, God pronounced His creation as “very good” prior to the fall of man. These fossils according to the Genesis record cannot be older than creation of the Earth, after which sin entered into the world.

So, what is the truth? Since God is silent on a pre-Genesis, or pre-Adamic creation, as Dr. John Thomas puts it, everything is, therefore, conjecture and supposition, which came about to firmly plant the validity of evolution and explain these "billion" year old fossils, Earth and Universe. We really do not know. For this reason, it is best to stick to what we do know and the rest God will reveal to us in due time. It is as you say, "only take what's recorded in the Genesis record at face value."

1:2      That the earth was “without form” is quoted – Jer 4:23 – as part of Jeremiah’s description of the impact of Judah’s sinful behaviour on His creation. Not that literally the earth was “without form” but that His glory was hidden by their behaviour. 

Firsts in Scripture

Gen 1:1-4 The first recorded words of God are found in this opening chapter of our Bible.  “God said, let there be light: and there was light.”(v.3).

Also, the first record we have of a Divine assessment is to be found in this first chapter of Genesis, “God saw the light that it was good:”(v.4). This was also the first declaration of good works.  It was God’s creative work that had overcome darkness, “…and God divided the light from the darkness.”(v.4).

As we read the Bible throughout the year ahead we will see that the theme of light overcoming darkness is a recurring theme. God who created the light also created His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus is described as, “the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”(John 1:9).

The light created by God at creation was necessary to sustained life in the natural world.  In the same way, the saving work of Jesus can give us life.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world:”.  If we walk in that light, following Jesus then we “shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12) which can sustain us until Jesus returns.

Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  Notice the order of creative events first the heavens then second, the earth.  The prophet Isaiah draws a spiritual lesson for us from this order established at creation, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa 55:8).

Gen 1:1 In the beginning. Much has been said in our community over the appearnt gap theory. The numerical value of the first words we read here is 999, if we go to Isa 29:16 we see that we sometimes attempt to turn upside down the potters clay through lack of undertsanding, what do we get if we turn Gen1 upside down 666!!!

The only think we as his clay need to understand is Psa 33:6

Gen 1:4 seperation of light from darkness is our main priority just as we read in Malachi yesterday we are to speak continually on Gods word and our coonversation should only be with those of like mind  if we do we shall be enlightened. Psa 18:28 and why Jesus was born John 3:19

Gen 1:8 No mention of good? Because no fruit/glory had yet been produced?

Gen 1:11 Producing fruit!

Man and animals were made as living things but man was given something slightly different he was made in the likeness of the Elohim. Likeness relates to Glory 1Cor 11:7 man was created to give glory to God. Man wasnt made to be saved he was made to reflect Gods glory. God manifestation NOT human salvation!

Man was told to have dominion over the beasts of the field, Psa 8the serpant was such a creature but man failed to have dominion over him so spiritually we are to have dominion over the carnal mind/flesh. The longer man goes on putting God to one side the more we see carnal lusts taking over man see Eze 38:20 for their outcome. 

SO the principle is that we as Gods creation are to have dominion over the flesh in doing so we give glory produce fruit to Yahweh.

Animals cannot overcome carnal thinking like the serpant they cannot understand his word and only question it the only way we can tame our carnal thoughts is to fill our minds with the word.

So from Gen 1, we are to seperate from darkness and dwell in light, and we are to prduce fruit for our creator John 15:2 and have dominion over the carnal mind.

Gen 2:4 Generations talks of beggetting, but also speaks of development Gods purpose the word "made" should be appointed Yahweh appointed the heavens and the earth. But there was no creature that could reveal his glory. And thats what Yahweh made creation in particular man. Num 14:21Isa 49:3 We also see the first use of the covenant name so manifesting his name was the development man was to undergo. DO we continually develop as we study Gods word or do we think "I have been baptised thats enough"?

Bro Thomas in Elpis Israel tells us Man was created with moral sentiment whereas animals thought only by instinct, where does moral sentiment fit in with evolution? An animal cannot rise above his carnal lusts and instincts how does man if he evolved from apes?

Gen 2:5 What is needed fro fruit? WATER 1Cor 3:8 The word husbandry in 1 cor 3 is farm or garden we are his produce which he wants to grow into fruit bearing trees and so he provides the spiritual water. Psa 1

Gen 2:8 Gardening and trees!

Another lovely principle that Adam was planted in a garden. The theme of gardening is carried all through scripture we see its creation here in Genesis and we see a future garden in Isa 60:13 we see Adam failed in a garden and Christ overcame (carnal thinking) in a garden, he was taken to his death and buried in a garden and ressurected in a garden.

The garden was figuartivly a sanctuary where man and God could dwell together that is the only way man and God can have fellowship by seperating himself away from the world  around Gods word. SO adam was created outside the garden taken in to recieve direct instruction from the Elohim.

Planted- we are planted Isa 5:21Cor 3:9

We are planted trees fruit bearing trees of all different varieties and uses. Psa 92:12 (the word court means enclosed area/ garden).To show Gods glory Isa 61:3

Gen 2:9 2 trees

Of course we have 2 specific trees in v9 of Gen 2, we have the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

This tree of evil gave a form of knowledge that man was not to partake of, why did Yahweh forbid them to eat of it?  Because the knowledge it gave was carnal, the thinking of the flesh. Just like the beasts of the field and the serpant but there is nothing wrong in carnal thinking is there?

If you’re an animal!

Here then is why we are to separate from the world because they think like animals. God wanted man to listen to the angels, hear their instruction and to gradually increase to that which has a heavenly mind and be led to the tree of life.

Instead they gained a mind of an animal, remember we have minds not much better than animals.

And so our 1^st parents broke that first commandment when they took of that tree and they failed to subdue the beast of the field.

When God makes a commandment he makes it to be fulfilled, at some stage a man would have to refuse to take of that tree of evil to refuse the animal lusts we all share to fight back against that carnal thinking.

That man was teh Lord Jesus Christ.. How did he do it?

Rom 8:6 “to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” There are those 2 trees one bought death the other life and peace. Christ had a choice as we do eat of the tree of life or take of the tree of evil, one will bring death one will bring eternal life. And we know he chose the tree of life because he chose to apply his knowledge of the word into his life, and that’s how that commandment was fulfilled because he never took of that tree of knowledge he never let that carnal thinking that rebellion to take root. He always had dominion over that animal thinking. Heb 5:14

That word Exercise is the word Gymnasium, and means to practice or train, but it doesn’t mean to exercise or train our muscles. The word discern has a root meaning to discriminate or analyze a situation to train our minds.

Paul is telling us I want you to recognize what is good from what is evil, train your minds to analyze a situation consult scripture and make the right choice and that’s wisdom.

 Rotherham puts it like this, “to them by reason of habit have their organs of perception well trained for discriminating both good and evil.”

How do we get access to the tree of life? Prov 3:8, Isa 32:16, Psa 104:16 by Gods word!

Gen 2:18 Woman.

Here we see the complete isolation for man is not beneficial, not only in natural life, but also in spiritual life, the Elohim are a group of individuals who work together for the glory of God. As Adam was made in a likeness to the Elohim they declared that Adam too would require companionship one he could share fellowship with. So a help meet was required for Adam, a “suitable helper COMPLETING him” is the best translation.

And here quite beautifully we see the creation of a woman who was created to help man on becoming a heavenly minded individual. That then is how we should see our husbands and wives.

Gen 2:19-20 naming the animals.

It is suggested by one author that the Elohim had already given the animal names so were testing Adam, to see whether he shared the same perception of character as themselves to see whether Adam was indeed in their likeness.

It appears that Adam rose beautifully to his test, his mind did indeed elevate to one perhaps of a heavenly minded man and we have recorded at least one success in Adams probation not only that but he also perceived it was not good he was alone.

 This perception Adam had for appreciating nature and indeed the true reason for being partnered with a woman and respect she deserves is sadly lost today in modern man, (think of Charles Darwin here) as man gains a mind more and more in line with the beast of the field and all its carnal ways it loses appreciation of Gods creation just as like the river flowing downhill out of the garden.

Gen 2:21

We have something unique here amongst creation which is sadly lost amongst those who do not accept the creation account that a woman was made from a man. The females of all the other species were formed out of the earth so they had no special and natural bond like a man and woman should have. 

A male of the animal species could not say bone of my bones or flesh of my flesh. Adam had a natural sympathy and love for his wife because she was part of him perhaps a similar relationship between child and mother. He also had in a type to die for her existence.

This sympathy was not only in a physical way but in a mental and intellectual one, she was a reflection of him as he was of the Elohim.

The relationship between animals and their partners is pure lust and an attraction based only on a physical basis. That is why they wear colourful displays and revealing markings to attract their mate. These mating rituals are based on carnal lust.

 By the way I am not talking about animal kingdom I am talking of those women who wear short skirts or low cut tops those men who like to show off their efforts down the gym!

The way a brethren and sisters dresses is a reflection on their state of mind whether they are thinking like an animal or a heavenly minded individual a brother or sister who is worthy of being bought forth to her future husband the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ sets the example. Eph 5:25  Christ isn’t looking for the outward appearance is he? He is looking to his wife his ecclesial bride to be a reflection of him, one who is achieving the same thing that of dedicating her life into pleasing the father.

Gen 2:25 Naked in being innocent of sin before each other and God.

A child has no shame in nakedness it is only when a child begins to develop sinful lusts does it begin to become ashamed of its body.

Adam and Eve then were like children in their nudity, they had no shame because they had no sinful lusts in their minds they had no propensities, their minds were innocent of sin, void of carnal thoughts the readiness to do evil like we have was also missing from their minds.

The nature of Adam, us and Christ.

Adam was created very good no propensites or lusts upon creation Yahweh could not have put them there 1John 2:15 = No natural desire to sin or glorify God. empty mind. Death capable and sin capable.

US was created as Adam after the fall (not good) = Sin prone and a mind not naturallly capable of glorifying God death bound.

Christ was created after Adam (but begotten of God) so not good (Luke 18:19) = Natural desire to sin but a mind naturally seeking to glorify God, death bound and sin capable.

1:29-30 "Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the ^]surface of all the earth, and every tree ^]which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; ³⁰ and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that ^]moves on the earth ^[ar]which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. 

In the brginning both man and beast ate only plants. Death was not part of creation. After the flood we know it was different because God (Gen 9:3) gave Noah every living thing as meat for him. It is interesting that during God's reign it would appear that we may go back to the original state of eating only plants. Certain that would be the case when death is destroyed.

Isa_11:7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Gen 2:20-25

“… but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him… This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh… because she was taken out of Man…”

The word “rib(s)” in vv. 21,22 comes from the Hebrew word, tsela, # <6763> and means, “… a side, lit. (of a person)…” This word everywhere else in Scripture is translated, corner (Exodus 30:4), side (2Sam 16:13), and chamber (1Ki 6:8). More often, though, it is translated as side. This is the only place where tsela is translated as rib. The Theological Word Book of the Old Testament says, “Conceivably this means that God took a good portion of Adam’s side, since the man considers the woman to be ‘bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh.’”

The woman was not made from man’s head to rule over him, she was not made from his feet to be inferior, she was not made from his back to be his follower, but from man’s side noting companionship, a suitable helper. This was the woman’s role with man. Woman is never shown in Scripture to be inferior to man; however, Scripture does show the distinct relationship of a woman to man and vice versa. It was God’s stated plan that man and woman should be one not in just physical union, but working together with a one common purpose in life.

Gen 1:28,31

“And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it... And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good...”

A reader writes: “...I've always been somewhat ambivalent about but uncertainly came down on the side of a sexual awakening DURING or AFTER the Fall, not BEFORE it - mainly based on what Bro. Thomas writes in Elpis Israel...”

My reply: Procreation is indicated before the fall of Adam and Eve and not a result of the fall. It came under the sentence of “very good.” Just because we read in Gen 4:2 of Adam knowing his wife Eve after the fall does not mean that procreation itself was sinful or the result of sin.
But, this verse is more than just about procreation. God wanted His children, created in His image, to become “fruitful” or “abundantly productive” – in the sense that He wanted His children to be like Him (cf. Matt 5:48). Therefore, being “fruitful” was to develop a personal relationship with God in developing character to His honour and to His glory. Adam and Eve were to be also spiritually prepared to bear fruit. Thus, they would be in the position to have a family centered upon God. In this they failed and Cain was the first fruit of this failure. They succumbed to the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life and in these areas where they failed, Christ, the second Adam, succeeded.

1:12    This little detail about the way in which the earth brought forth fruit is the basis for Jesus’ comment –Mark 4:28 – in the parable of the sown seed.

Gen 1:1-31 – These are the first revealed God breathed words we have recorded in human history. To second-guess what came before Genesis or, to speculate on how the creator performed this work, is a fruitless exercise.  Simply, we are not told. The purpose of God’s Word preserved in the pages of the Scriptures is to call out a people from amongst humanity and to teach all who will listen and respond what He requires of us in order to be saved from our dying nature.  The purpose of God’s calling is that the glory of God will be manifest throughout the earth by those who are faithful (Isa 61:3).

The events revealed on each of the days of creation should be accepted as they stand.  Events from each of these creative days are drawn on elsewhere in Scripture to instruct us with spiritual lessons.  If the events in Genesis chapter 1 are challenged and understood as being merely symbolic then the question arises as to what were the literal events on which the symbolism is based? 

First we have to understand and believe the literal events before we can begin to appreciate the spiritual lessons drawn from them.  1^st Adam was from the earth, the 2^nd Adam the Lord from heaven (1Cor 15:45-49).  The following are examples of Scriptures predicated on an acceptance of the literal Genesis account.

If the Genesis record is only symbolic then the spiritual lessons drawn from it rely on undefined and uncertain meanings.  Let us rather accept that when God spoke things happened (Psa 33:4-6).

Significance of numbers (in part from Andy Walton - "The Wonderful Numberer" youtube):

Every Hebrew letter has an associated number, and every Greek letter has an associated number. 1 followed by 24 zeros is a NASA estimate of the number of stars, and the grains of sand have been roughly calculated to a similar number. There is symbolism and meaning in numbers (Mark 8:19-21).

1. "one" (as in the first day) - God (Deut 6:4), oneness, unity, truth, not division, one (God) is in every single number.

2. "two" (as in the second day) - divide or divided (Lev 20:26), division, God's ways vs man's ways, apart, severed, separate, separation, good and evil.

3. "three" - seed, seeds of grass herb tree woman serpent (Gen 26:4;Gen 3:15), descendants, reproduction, multiplication, the resurrection on the 3rd day allowed for the seed of Christ to reproduce, seed of the serpent (sin), seed of the woman (Jesus).

4. "four" - the complete earth. other symbols are the sun which can symbolically be Jesus, the stars which can symbolically be Jew and Gentile saints to inherit the earth, and the moon which can symbolically be the faithful ecclesia which reflects the light of Jesus. 4 seasons, 4 directions, all people (Jew and Gentile), etc.

5. "five" - life, living. Life in the water and the heavens, life is salvation and believers are drawn out of the waters of baptism from death to life (Rom 6:4). Grace enables true believers to have life. David took 5 stones out of the water.

6. "six" (man was created on the sixth day) - Man. Man without God is like a beast of sin (Rev 13:18), man with God is like a son of God, image of God.

7. "seven" - rest. completion, perfection, millennial day of rest (Heb 4:4-6).

8. "eight" - a new beginning, a new way, resurrection, the 8th day of the week would be Sunday. Eight were saved on the ark which was a new beginning (1Pet 3:20). 

9. "nine" - the end, finality, judgment.

10. "twelve" - government, rulership.

11. "153" - 1-5-3 God will create a type of mini gods in the kingdom age (John 21:1-11); it has been calculated by some that Jesus blessed 153 people in 48 separate incidents; Christ would make the apostles fishers of men.

Gen 1:1

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth…” 

From time in-memoriam, men have tried to figure out when “in the beginning” was. We know from this passage that everything has a beginning, and what this verse also tells us is that God created time when He created the universe and earth.

God created time – and the “evening and the morning were the first day,” etc. Plato wrote: “Time, accordingly, was created along with the heavens; in order that, coming into being together, they might also be together dissolved, if ever their dissolution should take place.”

Albert Einstein wrote back in 1915 when he completed his work on the General Theory of Relativity that time is fundamentally bound to matter and gravity and that without matter there would be no time. There would be no concept of time without the universe. Einstein proved that “space and time, matter and energy are locked together in the most intimate embrace.”

The Bing Bang Theory is analogous to Einstein’s saying that matter and time are inextricably bound, but then also teach that matter in the universe could randomly bring parts together (space rocks) to form planets. As ridiculous as the teaching of the Bing Bang Theory is, Scientists did recognize this important principle, that time and matter are inextricably bound!

Nothingness is a difficult concept for us because when we think of existence, we think of it in terms of our senses, touch, feel, see, hear and taste. Before creation, there was nothing in space and nothing in time because there was no space or time! If there was no time, then there could not be anything that was “before” the creation.

It is a mistake to talk about what God created “before creation” because the concept of time did not come to be until the creation week. God exists and He exists outside of time. To believe otherwise is to deny who God is. Our ability to trust God’s promise of salvation relies upon our ability to trust everything He says about history from beginning to end. If we cannot trust His claims about the past, how can we trust His promises about the future?

Before creation, there was no time. Time is a measure of change on a scale of before and after. Therefore, when (if we may use that word at all in speaking of eternity) there was no change, there was no time. Time began to be when changing beings came into existence. Time is a restless continuous set of changes. Ahead is a moment we call future: it quickly changes into the present, which then quickly changes into the past.

God is eternal and does not exist in individual moments in time. He is outside of time. This does not contradict John 1:1, which holds that in the beginning was the Word and the Word took form. This Word is what brought about creation (cf. Psa 33:6-9).

The late Roman Catholic Pope Pius XII asked Physicist, Stephen Hawking privately not to inquire into the Big Bang, itself, because it is fundamentally impossible to find out something that happened before the beginning of literal time. Augustine of Hippo put it this way:  “There was no then when there was no time.” Stephen Hawking is a great proponent of the Big Bang Theory being the beginning of time and space over 13 billion years ago!

There is no such thing as a prehistoric world (cf. Isa 55:11). History began when it was first recorded. We read in Heb 11:3: “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” In other words, the physical universe we see, hear, feel, and experience was created not from existing matter, but from a source independent of the physical dimension we can perceive. God is spirit (John 4:24), and God is timeless, not eternally in time, or beyond time. God does not change because change is limited to time and God existed before time (Mal 3:6; Col 1:17). Time was created by God as part of His creation to accommodate the workings of His purpose (2Pet 3:10-12), and this constitutes, “In the beginning.”

Gen 1:2

“And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Between verses 1,2, we have what the evolutionary Scientists call a “time gap,” or the “Time Gap Theory.” Verse 1 is the “Big Bang Theory,” between verses 1,2 is the “Time Gap Theory.” These two theories complement each other in that the Big Bang occurred in the beginning, which according to them was 13.7 billion years ago, then it took another 9.2 billion years for the universe to expand, then earth began to coalesce from interstellar matter created by the Big Bang to eventually form into the size and shape of our present earth, which took 4.5 billion years! If this weren’t enough, a thousand years is also placed between the subsequent verses of the creation day using 2Pet 3:8 as proof (please see my note on 2Pet 3:8).

Gen 1 speaks of six working days with God resting on the seventh, and if we believe that these days were each a thousand years apart, then God must have rested for seven thousand years (Gen 2:1-3! Who parted the Red Sea in Exo 14 approximately 2,500 years later? And, what did Jesus mean in John 5:17? It is belabouring the point. Scripture is quite clear that each day was confined to a day – evening and morning.

The Hebrew word for “day” is # <3117> yowm, and literally means, “… from one sunset to the next… continually…”- a 24 hour period. It is used over 2000 times in the Old Testament, 95% of the time referring to a normal day, the other 5% referring to “the day of the Lord” (Joel 2:1), a particular day.

The Greek word for “day” is # <2250>, hemera, “… (lit) the time space between dawn and dark, or the whole 24 hours…” In every single case where this word is used, it refers to a 24 hour day. This is consistent with the Old Testament use of the word, “day” (cf. Exo 20:11). Furthermore, Gen 1:13 clearly distinguishes between days, years, and seasons.

We have the Big Bang Theory, Time Gap Theory, and then the Day-Age Theory! Atheists do not care about the Biblical account, except to mock it; the Theists profess a certain allegiance to the Scriptures, but at the same time attempt to harmonize the Biblical account with the evolutionary scenario. These three theories they present are wrong - they are unproven theories. We need to be very careful not to embrace any of these theories, and that's all it is - theories. The Biblical text to the unbiased observer teaches the universe and earth were formed in six days.

Genesis 2

"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold; And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river [is] Gihon: the same [is] it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river [is] Hiddekel: that [is] it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river [is] Euphrates" Gen 2:10-14

Remember that while it is impossible today to find rivers that go from the same place to Ethiopia and Syria, this record is from before the flood. At the time of the flood water came from heaven and from deep reservoirs in the earth, so before this, when the water was not on the earth, there will have been far more land exposed. Presumably the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf were not in existence so that there was a land mass right from Africa to China.

Gen 1:3

A reader writes: “I noticed what you said about light and darkness  and since I am one day ahead in my readings I was interested in what you had to say.   You said God created light before darkness.   I am not in agreement with that, and I base my conclusion on the same verses you give as your proof  --Gen.1:2-5.  When the earth was without form, everything was darkness.   It was while "darkness was upon the face of the deep" that God then made light,   and this is why v.5 tells us the "evening" preceded the morning light.   This seems to be the correct way to view the question because it is repeated in v.8, 13, 19, 23 etc.”

My reply: In the context of light and darkness, God did not create darkness, it was there.  Scripture does not say God created the darkness. God is light and when God spoke, “Let there be light,” the light came. God created the light to separate day, or light from night, or darkness. This separation of night or darkness began with the creation of light. In doing this time was created. It is for this reason; we read that the evening and morning were the first day. With the dark part of the 24 hour period (12 night, 12 day) begins a new day of light. (cf. John 11:9,10). What an analogy! 

1:21,28         God created every living thing that moved. Adam was to have dominion over them. This did not happen after Adam and Eve sinned. However a time will come when a “river” will provide food for all living things that move – Eze 47:9 – which clearly draws on the creation record. The river which represents the life giving “water of life” provided by Jesus

How was Genesis compiled?

The first of the Books of Moses, the Book of Genesis, appears to have been compiled as a result of contributions by at least ten inspired writers.  The names of these inspired writers are not revealed.  Each record in Genesis overlaps with the previous one and adds progressively to what has gone before showing that God’s revelation is a continuous record.  The Hebrew word translated “generations’ in the KJV may be rendered “history” (Strong’s H8435).

This progressive revelation, may help us understand why there is some overlap in the Genesis account.  

Gen 1:26

“And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness…”

The late U.S. President, Calvin Coolidge, once said: “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” The problem with this quote is that it is a holiday lie. It is not the holiday spirit in us, but it is our human spirit created in the image and very likeness of our living God. Our humanity was made in the image and likeness of our Creator intended to be manifested year round.

As the holidays approach, people show caring and generosity prevail, and the love of the many overcomes the hate of the few. Our spirit is renewed, enthusiasm and merriment is brought out by our giving to those less fortunate than we. The holidays have become a time of sending good wishes, sharing important milestones, and sharing cherished memories with our family and friends. The holidays bring together the young and the old with giggles, hugs, ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ at the concept of wonderful happenings on those starry, cold nights, opening gateways in the bonds of truest love and friendship.

Coming from Roman Catholicism, I celebrated a lot of Christmases and New Years before coming to the Light of Truth. I remember the trees were clothed with snow and the country roads fluffed with velvet white. I lived in the country and could hear the haunting woods echo in the wintry air. There was the warmth of stories retold and sweet voices singing carols of praise as the town’s church bells chimed. The stars adorned the evening sky, and the moon’s pure rays rekindled our hope of Messiah’s birth. Strange, yet lovely, was the Magi’s tale that followed this unusual light twinkling on a silvery stem. Through the frosty night shone the light – the Light of the world who brought with him love, hope, peace, forgiveness, faith and mirth. How our hearts were warmed, and with gratefulness I turn the key that holds the past when “peace and goodwill towards men” were not just empty words. What a let down when it was all over and we reverted to our old selves!

With the passing of time, people have changed, and with it the world has changed. Peace, love, hope and goodwill to fellowman are almost a dream. The days are short, the nights are long, the skies, bleak and dreary, but through it all the Bright and Morning Star will shine triumphant at last. This Bright and Morning Star is within us, not just maybe two or three weeks out of the year, but every day of the year, and may we walk in his light, in his spirit, and in his humanity, manifesting our Saviour in the bonds of truest love and truest friendship until he comes to dispel the bleak and dreary skies and we will shine triumphant at last. When, we shall sing with fervent and uplifted voices, “Joy to the world, our Saviour is come, let earth receive her king.”

Gen 1:3

A reader writes: “John 1:3 ‘All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made’.  This might pertain to our world,  but I think it might pertain to everything God has ever done.  So did God create darkness along with all the  myriad of milky-ways?    Maybe He did,   and maybe the darkness of Gen.1:3 is restricted to our world."

My reply: According to Gen 1, heaven and earth were created in the darkness, and in order to sustain life on earth, God subsequently created the light - before even the sun. The night we have, or the darkness we have is due to the absence of light, but is not the same darkness; we still have light as reflected by the moon and stars. This is the direct result of their creation, and not to be compared with the darkness that existed prior when there was absolutely no light.
We know dark energy affects the Universe's expansion, but other than that, it is a complete mystery, and our earth comprises less than 5% of the Universe!

http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-is-dark-energy/ The darkness was just there before time. We can't go beyond what is written in the Word. Our finite minds would never be able to comprehend the infinite. The secret things belong to God, He knows what is in the darkness, or what dwells in the darkest places, and light dwells with Him (cf. Dan 2:22).

Of course, with the invention of telescopes, man has been able to venture far into the Universe more than ever imagined or made possible before, and we read in Psa 147:4,5, that God has names for every star and knows their number – we don’t. The stars are a diverse variety of colours, they have reflected light, the other planets and galaxies, likewise, within the realm of the sun, but they are all hanging on nothing (Job 26:7) in the darkness of the expanse. All of us have seen photos of this truth.
The physical universe is made up of time, space, and matter. All this was created by God. Darkness existed before this, it existed before time. God is a Spirit and exists apart of the physical universe, apart from time, we do not. In the finite, time exists, in the infinite, it does not and so we can never figure out or understand the one in conjunction with the other. We will know in due time when we are no longer shackled down by this mortal body.

John 1:3 reiterates what is written in Gen 1, and as already shown, it does not say, God created the darkness (again, not to be confused with the evening/night and other passages in Scripture). We don't know what God did before the creation of heaven and earth, and I doubt the apostle John was stating anything that dealt with anything prior to creation of which Scripture is silent and we know nothing about.

GENESIS - THE STORY OF OUR LIVES

Gen 1:1 begins with "In the beginning GOD" ... and you can go back 1 million years if you wish, but the fact remains that "in the beginning was God", the creator and sustainer of all the universe. The last chapter of Gen 50:26 ends with "a coffin in Egypt." And so the story of humanity goes - in the beginning we start with the pristine newness of life, but due to the nature we now possess - we all end up in a "coffin in Egypt".

And yet there is hope, since "by faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel: and gave commandment concerning his bones." Heb 11:22. And the Hebrew word for "coffin" is also the same word rendered "ark". So Joseph was buried in the "ark" - in otherwords, he was buried in the "Hope of Israel".

144 years passed away before the time came for Israel to leave Egypt, and because he had made them swear to take his bones back to the land of promise, they carried out Joseph's instructions Exo 13:19, and he was ultimately buried in the land of promise Gen 48:22.

Throughout the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel, they carried with them the tokens of the death of Joseph, as believers remember the death and resurrection of the Lord to this day 1Cor 11:24-26.

So the type is completed in the death of Joseph, and his confident expectation of a resurrection unto life eternal. May we likewise, as this New Year begins, never forget the hope to which we've been called, and may we remember that the Lord is our "ark", and we which have been buried with him in baptism look forward to that glorious day, when we shall be like him, in "the image and likeness" Gen 1:26.

DISCLAIMER: any of my posts throughout these daily readings may have misunderstandings or other types of errors. I don't profess to be an expert on the Bible or anything else, I'm just an average person with human frailties. So take heed, you have been officially warned :-)

CREATION OR EVOLUTION?

Over recent years, I have heard increasingly more debate about whether the creation account in Genesis is true, or whether some sort of evolution occurred over a much longer period of time. I have no fancy debates to offer to the argument, but what I would like to do is to stand back a moment and look at the differences between God and myself.

I have been on this earth less than fifty years. I wasn't around either 6000 years ago, or a million years ago, so I can't tell you what it was like. But God was. He's older than me, and He saw it all begin. He even left me a love letter describing what He wants me to know about it, which begins like this: "In the beginning..." in Genesis chapter 1.

Secondly, there are a few things I think I know quite a bit about, but I also always find that someone else will know more than me, or will have better insights than I have. If I can't compete with other people, there is no way I can compete in wisdom, knowledge or understanding with God. He will beat me every time. He knows best on everything. So if He said the world was created as described in Genesis 1 & 2, who am I to argue? He is much more clever than I am.

And lastly, even if this is just the way He wanted to tell it, and not the way it really was, it's what He wants me to believe. I know that my trust and belief in what He says is pleasing to Him.

When we argue about creation, who is more likely to be right? Me, you, or God? Is there anything He can't do?
 

Six days of creation and on the seventh day God rested:

Gen 1:3-5,31;Gen 2:1-3;Exo 20:11

A New Year's Message

The practice of making New Year’s resolutions goes back over 3,000 years to the ancient Babylonians. Nothing mystical occurs at midnight December 31st. There is no power in New Year’s resolutions. Yet, there is something about the start of a new year that gives us this feeling of a fresh start, a sense of anticipation; the slate wiped clean, a new beginning for each one of us.

We live in a world where seeing is believing, prayer is cast with doubts, and a saving faith practically non-existent. A lot of times this is because we feel the pressures of life and are so overwhelmed by them. Like Joseph, we feel we are in life’s pit and can’t get out. Whether we were thrown in, slipped in, or jumped in, we can get out of our pit, and as with Joseph, we need the kind of help that only Yahweh can give us.

We need to stop, listen, and consider. The mercy of Yahweh is our antidote to despair. Truly believe in His mercy, look for His mercy, cast ourselves on His mercy, and we shall find His mercy.

A New Year is unfolding, an unspoiled page in our book of time, an opportunity to put into practice what we have learned these 12 past months. Be it happiness, or be it sorrows, let us cherish the experiences that came from them, learn from them, and carry these reflections as part of our new beginnings. To deal with the future, we must understand the past. It is our time to walk afresh with Yahweh with a deeper commitment to living a life of faith and wherein love overcomes.

The old year is behind us; its record is made and cannot be changed, but the New Year gives us new opportunities and fresh hopes to stay the course, to forgive, to reconcile, and to leave behind all the problems life presents us.

If there ever was a place to learn about forgiveness, to practice forgiveness, to struggle with forgiveness, it is in the family, be they natural or spiritual families. Forgiveness is a continuous theme throughout Scripture and demonstrated with a very mixed up family (Gen 45:5; 50:20)!

Even the healthiest families have experienced undeserved mistreatment, untrue accusations over which we have no control. Joseph understood this. Through all his circumstances, he trusted in Yahweh, was faithful to Yahweh, and stayed true to Yahweh. He knew the pain of disillusionment, the pain of mistreatment, broken relationships, persecution, and hardship, but if we understand its cause and cure, as he did, that Yahweh loves us enough to use time to build patience and character that will enable Him to exalt us in due time, we can avoid being cynical. It just takes a sensitive heart, not one preoccupied with revenge, preoccupied with the blame game, preoccupied with the cares of this life, or filled with bitterness, hostility, or getting even. Do we remember what we ought to forget and forget what we ought to remember?

We cannot perform miracles, we never slew a giant, we never saw a burning bush, we never defeated pagan prophets, or wrote one word of Scripture, so what separates us apart? Well, Joseph didn’t do any of these things, either. It was Joseph's attitude that set him apart, and it is attitude that separates us - be it good or bad.

The grace of compassion and generosity is made complete with the grace of total forgiveness. With a right attitude, we see Yahweh with us and in our situations, and this enables us to accept both the good and the bad in our lives. Our life’s journey is from the pit to the pinnacle and may we live it full of grace and truth, as Yahweh would have us do.

Joseph’s book is closed, but ours remains open. Yet, the lessons learned from his life are still being written. Yes, the New Year presents many challenges. What lies ahead for us this year we do not know with absolute certainty, but may we be determined to lose more than just pounds.

Gen 2:16-17  Adam was given a clear instruction regarding obedience to the divine command not to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and evil. 

It would appear from the sequence of chapter 2; that following this commandment Eve was created from a rib taken from Adam (Gen 2:18-22).  If this is so, Eve could not therefore have been present to hear God’s command.  Therefore the responsibility was with Adam to carefully teach his bride the Word of God. 

Jesus the 2^nd Adam (1Cor 15:45-47) is the head of the ecclesia, his bride (Eph 5:23).  Jesus obeyed his creator in every respect.  In the closing hours of the mortal life of Jesus he was able say in his prayer to his heavenly Father.  I have given them the words……  (John 17:6-8)

v.6 “manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me”

v.7 “Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee”.

v.8 “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me;” (Joh 17:8) 

Also, see example of the prophet Moses, the one to whom Jesus was likened (Deut 18:18)  Like Jesus,  Moses was able to say, (Exo 24:3).

“And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.”

How attentive are we to the teaching of the head of our house, our Lord Jesus Christ?  Having read the scriptures, what do we do with the Words of life?

1:28   An example of how “dominion” can be seen at least in prospect for the glorified saints is when Paul was not affected by the poisonous snake – Acts 28:3

Gen 2:18

“And the LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”

In Gen 1, Yahweh summarized the chapter as, “It was good… It was good… It was very good.” However, in Gen 2, He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” Yahweh created the man, Adam, and out of the earth formed the man. Afterward, Yahweh took Adam’s rib and fashioned a woman, Eve. Eve was literally one with Adam being fashioned from his bone and of his flesh.  She became Adam’s wife and a helper suitable for him. The union was one of companionship involving physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental unity. This is what being ONE in a marriage is all about.

Adam and Eve did not have natural parents to leave, so the leaving applies to all their descendants. The leaving of parents is not limited to just parents, but entails a variety of family and friend relationships. The marriage relationship is our # 1 priority; it is the most important over any other relationship regardless of the circumstances. It is not mean abandoning our sense of responsibility to family, though.

Yahweh also set forth the cleaving (be strongly joined) to the wife. It is about being totally committed to the marriage. “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge...” (Ruth 1:16). This is real committed love!

If we do the leaving and the cleaving, we show our love and deep commitment to Yahweh. It is to understand and experience the love of Christ, otherwise, loving a wife like Christ loves the ecclesia would have no meaning (Eph 5:25). A woman out of fellowship with Christ is a woman out of fellowship with her husband. A man who does not apply the Word in the marriage, but abuses it, is a man extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, to live with.

Marriage is about consideration, commitment, companionship, trusting and caring. A successful marriage is the ability of both partners to adjust to the real person they inevitably realized they married. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance (1Cor 13:5-7).

Gen 1:28

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…”

Gen 1:2 has been used to prove that at some point God brought about a cataclysmic change to the earth, as the result of a Divine judgment. With it, the human inhabitants of this pre-Adamic cataclysm died and became the immortalized angels. All these suppositions are based on this one passage from the Bible! This, conveniently, accommodated the Gap Theory and proof that our earth is billions of years old! It would place all the fossil remains of pre-historic animals to pre-Adamic times and were terminated with humans before sin brought death into the world (Rom 5:12,14,15)! Up until sin entered, everything was declared “very good” (Gen 1:31).

Replenish is # <4390>, male, “… to fill… to replenish…” While replenish is the appropriate translation as deduced from the context in Gen 9:1, ”to fill” ought to have been used here  in Gen 1:28.

Bro. Garside wrote the following in 1911: “I remember many years ago being in the company of bro. R. Roberts and several others, including bro. Evans (formerly Hebrew Professor at Carnarvon College). The conversation turned on the pre-occupation of the earth. Had the earth been inhabited prior to the Genesis account of the present order of beings? Bro. Roberts said ‘Yes,’ for evil had been experienced, and Adam and Eve were told to replenish (fill again) the earth, just as Noah and his sons were commanded to replenish the earth after the flood. Bro. Evans said ‘No,’ that though the English word, replenish, might convey such a meaning, not necessarily. The original Hebrew word did not, and that it would be unsound exegesis to build a theory on such premises. Bro. Roberts saw and admitted the point.” (Emphasis added)

“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever…” (Deut 29:29).

Gen 1

Doubters and Scoffers continue to pour out their God-dishonouring and Bible contradicting teachings. It began soon after Dr. John Thomas re-discovered the Truth and continues to spiral downward to this day. The following was written by bro. T. Turner, Editor of the Fraternal Visitor, 1924, p. 302.  It is a stunning example to “take heed what ye hear” (Mark 4:24).

“There still remains the question as to whether Adam and Eve are to be regarded as individuals or types; and as to whether the garden, the serpent, and the trees were literal or symbolic.”

So much discussion has taken place in connection with the origin, nature and fall of man, that it might be assumed that accurate knowledge on these subjects forms an essential part of revealed knowledge. As a matter of fact such subjects did not enter into the teachings of Christ. He was well versed in the Hebrew Scriptures and led his hearers back through the prophets and the Psalms to Moses and the law. He referred to Abraham and used Noah as an example. But to Adam and what took place in Eden He made no reference. Of these events we have only one account, that which occurs at the beginning of Genesis, and the details of which are not amplified elsewhere. Paul used Adam as an illustration when writing to the Romans and to the Corinthians, thus showing that the Bible record was known to and accepted by the Jews at that time. But even Paul supplies no further information or amplification, and gives no critical consideration to the question as to how man was made.”

Perhaps, bro. T. Turner forgot the following Scriptures: Luke 3:38; Rom 5:12,14; 1Cor 15:21,22,45,47; 2Cor 11:3. Striving about with words to no profit, but to subvert the hearers, makes it so vital to follow the advice given to us in 2Tim 2:15,16. We can only rightly divide the Word, by comparing Scripture with Scripture. Isolated passages, which contradict other parts of Scripture tell us our interpretation of the isolated passage is wrong, as Scripture does not contradict itself. The Apostle Peter gives us a grave warning in 2Pet 3:16. He writes: "As also in all his [Paul's] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."

Gen 2:17

“… dying thou shalt die.”

Before the sin of our first parents, they were neither mortal nor immortal (cf. Gen 3:22). Their immortality was dependent on their obedience to Yahweh's command. After they sinned, biological changes took place, which began the process of aging and dying. The bodies’ living cells became mortal.

For thousands of years the quest for ways to remain young consumed explorers in search for magical ways to eternal youth or restore youth. Many myths and legends from around the world have been written captivating the imaginations of those wanting to reverse aging and living longer, if not eternally. After all, the longest living person recorded in the Bible was Methuselah who lived 969 years (Gen 5:27), the average life span being around 912 years! Decline in life span, however, began after the Flood. Today, man’s maximum life span is 120 years (Gen 6:3), the average being between 70 and 80 years (Psa 90:10).

From spring waters to Sulphur springs and magical potions, the quest for youthfulness remains, as Scientists search the causes of aging, sickness, and death and how to reverse them. What puzzles them is the body’s cells have the ability to reproduce and turnover, that in this process of renewing itself, the organs should barely age, yet it does! The body’s cell capabilities to reproduce and turnover do not function as they ought, and a lot of cells die without reproducing themselves! So, as we get older, the progressive loss of nerve cells affect our hearing, sight, smell, taste, and, hmmm, something else, but I just can’t remember! Science cannot offer any hope for eternal life, nor can it offer any significant lengthening of life.

The penalty of disobedience to Yahweh has always been great. Science cannot offer a solution, but Yahweh can, and His solution is in the person of His Son, Yahoshua Messiah, who “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2Tim 1:10). 

Gen 2:2

“… he rested on the seventh day from all his work, which he had made.”

Rested is the Hebrew word, shabath, # <7673>, from which we get Sabbath. God called the seventh day holy, but he did not command it as a day of rest to be kept until the days of Moses.

The command to keep the Sabbath came after the Exodus Passover (cf. Exo 12:11-17), and became Law in Exo 20:8-1; Deut 5:11-15. It was a sign between God and the nation of Israel (Exo 31:17). The Sabbath law was culturally contingent (Eze 20:19,20). It was part of the Civil Laws and connected with the Feast of Weeks, Passover, Feast of First Fruits (cf. Lev 23).  It was done away with in Christ; in him, he can provide not a weekly, but a permanent rest - Hebrew, shabath (Heb 4:9-11)! While Jewish interpreters believe Abraham and the other Patriarchs did not keep the Sabbath, we do know Abraham kept God’s requirements, commands, decrees, and laws extant in his day (Gen 26:5).

The law of commandments contained in ordinances were abolished – blotted out (Eph 2:15; Col 2:14).

God does not need to literally rest; He finished His Creation on the seventh day, and sanctified it (Gen 2:3), but the rest, or Sabbath, pointed to the Messiah, Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8), as our Sabbath rest, as read in Heb 4.

The Sabbath was the only Civil Law within the Ten Commandments; it is not a Moral Law, as the commands not to cook or travel have nothing to do with behaviour. The Moral Laws were not abolished, the Civil/Ceremonial and Judicial Laws were. The very fact that the New Covenant only repeats nine of the 10 Commandments is further testimony to this. Of course, God gave us a lot more than just nine moral Commandments. We have commands on homosexuality, marriages, divorces, stealing, lying, murder, etc. – all Moral Laws dealing with moral issues given throughout the Bible. Obedience to God's Moral Laws are meant to be kept daily, as we strive to perfect our characters – thought, word, and deed. If the Sabbath Law is a part of the Moral Law, as the other nine Commandments, it would have to be kept every day! Imagine being moral for only one day a week! Obviously, the Sabbath is not a Moral Law!

“When men become intelligent in Moses and the prophets, sectarians disown them, and seek to expel them from their synagogues, but so long as they continue ignorant, grossly ignorant, of their testimony, they approve and commend them above measure!” Dr. John Thomas, 1857. Regretfully, it is not just the sectarians who behave in such a manner.

Gen 2:2

A reader writes: “You are so very kind to respond (and so quickly!). Great information [about the sabbath].”

My reply: It is very obvious the author of this book has taken verses from the Bible completely out of context and wrested them. The sabbath rest read in Heb 4:4-6 is synonymous with the millennial rest and corresponds to God’s rest on the 7^th day. In Heb 4:8-11, Paul shows it is future, and not all will enter into that that rest. We are still working to that end. No one has yet entered it, nor will anyone till Christ returns.

Today’s sabbath keepers are NOT the nation of Israel whom God addressed (cf. Exo 30:31; Exo 31:16,17). To them, the children of Israel, and through Moses, God gave laws, statues, and judgments of which only the Moral Laws in both the Old and New Testaments remain. If your friend is determined to keep the Sabbath, she would have to offer burnt offerings as required on the Sabbath, but only the Levite priests are allowed to do so (Lev 6; Num 3:6-9)! There is no getting around this without wresting Scripture (2Chron 31:3). The sabbath was part of the Ceremonial laws, Levitical rituals done away in Christ!

I know sabbath keepers are stuck on this word, FOREVER and PERPETUAL. Both words are # <5769>, olam, which also conveys the meaning of a “long time.” The feast of unleavened bread was forever – olam (Exo 12:17). The sheaf, drink, and meat offerings were forever – olam (Lev 23:10-14,41). Are they in effect today?

Psa 77:5: “I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient (olam) times” (cf. Prov 22:28; Eze 36:2).

Num 18:8: “… unto thee have I given them by reason of the anointing, and to thy sons, by an ordinance forever (olam).

Num 18:23: “But the Levites shall do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their iniquity: it shall be a statute forever (olam) throughout your generations…”

Sabbath keepers today DO NOT keep the sabbath as ordained by God. In keeping a “sabbath,” they profane God’s Holy sabbath and make Christ’s once for all sacrifice ineffectual (Heb 10:1-10)!

Furthermore, the burnt offering was a sacrifice for atonement—its purpose being an acknowledgement of the sin nature and a request for renewed relationship with God. God also set times for the priests to give a burnt offering.
Every morning and evening (Exo 29:38-42; Num 28:2-4)
Each sabbath (Num 28:9,10)
The beginning of each month (Num 28:11)
At Passover (Num 28:16-19)
With the new grain/firstfruits offering at the Feast of Weeks (Num 28:26,27)
At the Feast of Trumpets/Rosh Hashanah (Num 29:1,2)
At the new moon (1Chron 23:31)
The ultimate fulfillment of the burnt offerings was Christ's sacrifice in his death. His sacrifice, once for all time, atoned for our sins and restored our relationship with God. The shadow was replaced with the substance! Sabbath keepers today do not even understand the principle of the atonement (at-one-ment)!

Gen 2:2,3

A reader writes: “One statement frequently used by Sabbath-keepers is, ‘the believers in the NT worshipped on the Sabbath. They attended the synagogue and at other required times, attended the Temple’.  I’d like to hear your [further] comments on addressing this issue.”

My reply: Christ, born under the Law of Moses (Gal 4:4) was obliged to keep the Law of Moses; it was so with his disciples and other Judahites. Even after Christ’s death and resurrection, his disciples not only kept the Sabbath, but also kept the feast of Pentecost - “fifty” (Acts 2:1,2; cf. Lev 23:16) they observed the days of unleavened bread (Acts 12:3; Acts 20:6); kept the days of purification and animal sacrifices (Acts 21:26); temple worship (cf. Acts 24:11,12); kept feasts (Acts 18:21). They didn’t just keep the Sabbath, so why is it singled out? In the Sabbatarians’ case, they keep one Mosaic Law and break all the others (cf. James 2:10)! The Israelites were released from the Law of Moses by the sacrifice of Christ (Rom 7:6; Rom 10:4 Gal 3:24,25; Eph 2:15).

The Sabbath was under the ceremonial/sacrificial system requiring a burnt offering (Num 28:9,10). Nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to keep the Sabbath and to offer burnt offerings! Just because Christ’s disciples chose to do so after his resurrection and death, it does not mean it was in effect or even required to do so (cf. Acts 18:13 cp. 1Cor 9:20,21). The apostle Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was never one of them! In fact, he admonished against ceremonial rituals (Gal 4:10,11; cf. Acts 14:5,6).

The Mosaic Law prescribed many ceremonial rituals required to worship God, and they were not intended to continue as a form of worship under Christ. They were but “shadows,” till the “substance,” Christ, came. The only rituals we are commanded to keep are baptism (Matt 18:19) and the Memorial service (1Cor 11:23-26).

In Acts 15:28,29 (cf. Acts 21:25), only four things were required from Gentile converts. Sabbath keeping is not one of them! If Sabbath-keepers consider themselves only to be God’s children (cf. Exo 31:13-17), may I remind you that there was no Sabbath law before the time of Moses. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., therefore, did not keep the Sabbath as instituted by God through Moses at Sinai!

Gen 2:2

"And on the seventh day God ended his work..."

In the beginning, time synchronized perfectly. The lunar months were precisely 30 days and the solar years were precisely 12 lunar months (cf. 1Chron 27:2-15), making it a 360 day year. The new moon and vernal equinox always occurred at the same time on the say day! But, man always likes to invent new things and thought to change the times and festivals (Dan 7:25).

The ancient Roman/Julian calendar created by Romulus had only ten months, six of 30 days and four of 31 days for a total of 304 days. Their year began in March and ended in December. The calendar changed several times between the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

It was Numa Pompilus, second King of Rome, who later added the month of January, naming it Janus, the god of beginnings and endings, and this was followed by Februa. This added 50 days, making the year 354 days. To obtain sufficient days for his new months, he is then said to have deducted one day from the 30-day months (March-December), thus having 56 days to divide between January and February. But since the Romans had, or had developed a superstitious dread of even numbers, January was given an extra day. February was left with an even number of days, but as the month was given over to the infernal gods, this was considered appropriate.

This system allowed the year of 12 months to have 355 days, an uneven number. February had 28 days; March, May, July, and October 31 days each; January, April, June, August, September, November,  August, September, November, and December, 29 days. But then, to make the calendar corresponded approximately to the solar year, Pompilus ordered the addition of every other year a month called Mercedinus! It was inserted on the last days of February between 23rd/24th day with the remaining days omitted. Mercedinus consisted of 27 or 28 days and added 22 or 23 days to the year! In four years, it amounted to 4x355+22+23 or 1,465 days giving an average of 366.25 days per year!

Then, Pope Gregory comes along and via a Papal Bull modifies the Julian calendar and started the new year on January. Prior, it was in March! He omitted ten days from the Julian calendar to match the solar year so that Easter would fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox! Many countries did not accept his calendar at that time, so they had the new year celebrated in January, March, during the vernal equinox, September, during the autumnal equinox, and December, during the winter solstice! Eventually, most of the world's countries switched to the New-Style Gregorian calendar, a Catholic calendar, with its modifications from the Old-Style Julian calendar - both very much flawed!

Intercalation, or insertions, were the duty of the Pontifices, a college of priests of the Roman pagan system. Many of the reasons for doing so were kept secret due to a measure of ignorance and political corruption that existed. The intercalations were man-made, irregular, and times and seasonal chaos resulted! Despite all this, much of the modified Roman republican calendar was carried over into the Gregorian calendar now in general use.

Has anyone ever tried to combine the Egyptian calendar, which lost one day every four years with the Chinese calendar modified and adjusted through the years adding a month every leap year, giving them 13 months every three years? It is confusion! With all these changes, the day God designed as the seventh was lost in the re-arrangement of the months! Our seventh day today is not God's original seventh day.

Gen 1:2  The word 'spirit'

I find the word spirit used in the Bible for what science styles electricity, galvanism, magnetism, &c.; for mind, natural courage, natural force, life, instinct, ambition, apparition, demon, breath, disposition, a disease, words of truth, God, teaching unction, angels, the gospel, conscience, &c. any one may see that spirit is not to be rendered by one meaning in all the texts where it occurs. Its signification must be determined by the subject in text and context. This is the rule I work by; and by its aid I find no difficulty in making sense of all the passages where it is found.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Dec 1852

Gen 2:1-3

“… And on the seventh day God ended his work which he made; and he rested on the seventh day…”

Sabbatarians use Exo 31:17, that the Sabbath was instituted in Eden, and later being made part of the Sinitic Law (Decalogue), “was binding upon all men in all times; [and] that, in the nature of its relations to God and to man, it is irrepealable.” They claim that the Sabbath keeping is a moral issue that flows out of the very nature of God, and is unchangeable! God’s moral issues are unchangeable, true, as it is based on God’s character, which does not change throughout time.  This argument is futile since God cannot change (Mal 3:6), then what about the other feast days and laws that changed (Heb 7:12)? This shows the Sabbath is not a moral issue; Scripture identifies it as an ordinance, which eventually ended (Exo 12:14-17; 2Chron 2:4; cf. Lev 18:3-5; Num 28:9,10).

Further claims are made that Exo 20:11 gives us the obligation to keep the Fourth Commandment, that Sabbath- keeping was instituted at Creation, but keeping the Sabbath is not mentioned in Genesis at all! Sabbath-keeping was an ordinance not given till after the Exodus from Egypt – under the Law of Moses and it was specifically to the Israelites (Exo 31:13). If their argument is true today, it wasn’t true for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or any of the other patriarchs! While this is an argument from silence, neither can Sabbatarians prove from silence that there has been an unbroken line of Sabbath-keeping since Creation, which is what they claim!

Seventh-day Adventists hold, “that the Sabbath was instituted in Eden before sin entered, that it was honored of God, set apart by divine appointment, and given to mankind as a perpetual memorial of a finished creation.” If this were true, what happened to the seventh year, which God commanded be observed as the Sabbath year and the other Sabbaths given after the Exodus (Lev 23:24,25; Lev 25:4), which they selectively do not keep (cf. Gal 3:10-13)?

The Sabbath has all the characteristics of a ceremonial law and was specifically revealed as such (Lev 23:15-25; cf. Eze 20:19-21). Christ identified it as such (Matt 12:1-4); he also compared it to the sacrificial law (Matt 12:5; John 7:22,23). These laws were also ritual laws, in specifying the kinds of work they could and could not do. These laws, which were not timeless or moral, expired. Perpetual (Exo 31:16) and forever (Lev 6:18) are the in the Hebrew, olam, # <5769>, also defined as a “long time.” If these laws, described as “shadows” (not the real thing – Heb 8:5,13; Heb 10:1), and as a “schoolmaster” pointing to Christ (Gal 3:24,25), were to be forever, then why Christ’s sacrifice to abolish them (cf. Heb 7:18,19; Heb 8:13)? Clearly, Scripture teaches otherwise!

The Ten Commandments were not timeless, being given under the Mosaic constitution, and for this reason the nine moral commands were repeated under the New Covenant. Paul clearly stated that Christ blotted out the “handwriting of ordinances” nailing it to the cross (Col 2:14). The Sabbath was the only one out of the Decalogue, that Scripture stipulated was to be kept “throughout your generations” (Exo 31:13-16) out of the other nine (moral) commandments! This phrase indicates it was a temporary Ceremonial Law only for the nation of Israel to serve as a reminder of their Exodus from Egypt (cf. Exo 29:42; Lev 6:18; 10:9; Lev 23:14,31,41; Num 8:10; Num 15:15; 18:23)!

New Year’s Message – 2018

Time’s restless march has brought us one year nearer to Christ. What a year it has been! How pregnant with warning to those who would be found clothed and watching (Rev 16:15), how crammed with assurances to those who, like Paul, “groan within themselves… waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23). Well, the morning is about to dawn and may we be found ready!