The Old Testament Review

This is part 3 of 6 of the third chapter of my book, Biblical Glasses.

I like to think about the first 1000 years of life on earth. Everywhere was a new frontier! People moved about with their families and animals all over the world. They explored God’s creation, but many of them grew away from God as they went. The Biblical lineage shows Adam’s son, Seth, his son, Enosh, his son, Kenan, his son, Mahalel, his son, Jared, his son, Enoch, his son, Methuselah, his son, Lamech, and his son, Noah. Noah was born in 3057 B.C., just 1056 years after creation and only 126 years after Adam’s death! Noah could have possibly known and even had conversations with Seth, the son of Adam.

By this time, the human and animal populations were substantial, as life spread all over the world. God grew increasingly angry at the people in the world because of their sinful ways. So before Noah turned 500 years old, God told him to build an ark. This must have seemed strange, because God had not been involved in the lives of men like He was before sin existed. Noah was the only man on earth who still loved God. Noah and his sons were the only men still worshipping God; that is why God chose them. On a side note, secular historians show the first human civilization, the Sumerians, growing up in the Tigris/Euphrates river valley around this time in history, again fitting quite well with the Biblical timeline.

Noah, probably over a period of 120 years, built the ark to God’s specifications, despite much ridicule from his neighbors. Experts have estimated that the ark, described in the Bible to be at least 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, and forty-five feet high (three stories), would have been able to withstand a worldwide flood. The funny thing is that Noah probably built the ark in a field nowhere near a large body of water. People must have thought he was loony! Then the rains came; their last thought before perishing in the raging waters was probably that Noah was not so crazy after all.

God brought a pair of each kind of animal to Noah. He did not bring two of every animal, just two of every kind. There were two dogs—not two Labradors, two German Shepherds, two Poodles, etc. You see, natural selection is absolutely true as we learned in chapter two. Two dogs reproduce to create a dog. Over time, breeding and natural selection can result in different types of dogs, but they are still dogs. In fact, scientists in Europe recently determined that all dog species, from a St. Bernard to a Chihuahua, originated from a female wolf very recently! Professional breeders can change the breed of a dog within a couple generations by selective breeding. We see this occurring all over the place. Think of cattle breeding! Some are designed for dairy products; others are designed for beef. Evolution requires two dogs to produce another type of creature. This has never been observed, because it is impossible. It never happened! It will never happen naturally.

One question that arises with Noah’s ark full of animals asks how wolves laid next to lambs without eating them. The Bible says all animals were herbivores before the flood (see Genesis 1:30 compared to 9:3). The animals were friendly with each other until after the flood, when meat-eating was first allowed.

When the rains came, it was possibly the first rain ever to come on the earth. The Bible tells of water coming up from the ground to provide for plants, animals, and humans during pre-flood life, like an irrigation system. Remember that God created the sky on day two to separate the waters below from the waters above. Well, now God was unleashing the waters above upon the earth! It rained for forty days and forty nights.

While there is no certain evidence either way, some flood researchers say a meteor shower may have come through the Milky Way Galaxy during this time and had magnificent impact on our planet. Perhaps, icy fragments of these meteors broke away and formed rings around the outer-lying planets of our galaxy. It is interesting that Saturn’s rings have been dated as only a few thousand years old! Some pieces of these icy meteors may have hit Mars, accounting for the evidence of water on the planet. Finally, fragments may have hit the backside of the moon. The pieces that missed the moon could have come toward earth, where they would have impacted at the poles, knocking the earth off its original axis and causing a rapid freezing effect.

All flood scholars acknowledge a vast amount of rain—enough to flood the whole world—would have had catastrophic environmental and climate-changing effects. Compile these effects with tremendous earth-shifting earthquakes and volcanic activity, and the result is an ice age that develops rather quickly.

An ice age caused by a rapid freezing effect explains why archaeologists find mammoths and other animals frozen standing straight up. They are often found at the poles eating tropical plants. How did tropical plants get to the north and south poles? Well, there is reason to believe the earth before this catastrophe had a temperate climate all over. It was beautiful day after day; then the rains came.

The ice age that occurred as a result of post-flood climate changes may have helped in natural selection and speciation among humans, plants, and animals. Keep in mind that speciation, or variation, does not constitute macro-evolution, which requires a gain of previously absent genetic information. Speciation represents a loss of genetic information.

Regardless of exactly how the flood occurred naturally, it definitely affected the earth in a major way. Before the flood, there were likely no continents. The earth was possibly represented by Pangaea, one large continent, and one large sea. Then the rains came. Mountains were raised, rivers and canyons were carved, and fossils were formed. It is interesting that the oldest living thing is a tree in California; the 4500-year-old “Methuselah Tree” fits perfectly with the end of the flood and is aptly named after the oldest human ever to walk the earth, Methuselah (3426–2457 B.C.), who lived 969 years as the Bible tells us.

The Bible tells us the flood covered the entire earth for several months. As the waters slowly receded, Noah sent out a dove (a symbol of peace) to search for dry land. The first time, there was nothing. The second time, there was an olive branch (a symbol of peace). The third time, the dove did not return; it had found land. The flood was over; God’s judgment was momentarily complete.

Days or weeks later, Noah’s ark settled in the mountains of Ararat in present day Iran. Some archaeologists claim to have found evidence of the ark in the mountains, but we rarely hear of it. God gave Noah a symbol, the rainbow, as His promise to never again judge the entire world with a flood. We see God’s symbol today, usually after a rain storm. The Bible says: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands” (Psalm 19:1). Sadly, many seem to miss the signs of creation.

When Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives stepped off the ark, the world was a very different place. For the first time, we have a landmark to see exactly where the new world (as we know it today) began. From the mountains of present day western Iran, Noah and his sons settled the Middle East, likely between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. God told the population of eight to “be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1).

Noah’s three sons were Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Ham, which means “dark, hot, or burnt,” and his descendants eventually settled into Egypt, Africa, and Asia. Shem, which means “named or renowned,” and his descendants eventually settled into the Middle East and northern Africa. Japheth, which means “opened, enlarged, fair skinned, and of light complexion,” and his descendants eventually settled into Europe and Russia. I say eventually, because the people did not follow God’s instructions right away. It took another punishment from God at the Tower of Babel to make them spread out all over the world.

As mentioned earlier, secular history shows the first civilization as the Sumerians; we find evidence of them around the time of the flood. It is likely that either the flood wiped out the Sumerians, and evidence we find is left over from the flood, or the Sumerian civilization was founded by Noah’s descendants soon after the flood.

Further testimony of the flood lies in the hundreds of flood stories circulating throughout nearly every culture in the world. Consider the Epic of Gilgamesh as just one example. These flood accounts would not have developed worldwide if the event did not actually occur. Nor would the accounts have spread worldwide unless a small population of people survived the event to tell their children and grandchildren about it! Additionally, secular scientists and historians have determined that the human population definitely bottlenecked at some point in recent history; perhaps this bottleneck took the population down to only eight people after a cataclysmic worldwide flood!

“The descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth are evidenced, not only by Biblical history, but also in archaeological, anthropological, biological, ethnographical, ethnological, etymological, geological, and secular history.” Although the Bible follows only the lineage of Shem in full detail, we can be sure the lineages of Japheth and Ham continued in a similar manner. They definitely intermarried at locations where both groups of people lived, giving us the diverse ethnicity and so-called racial differences. Recalling our prior discussion of skin shades, it is interesting that the genetic difference in melanin, the skin tone-determining pigment, is almost too little to measure. It represents only about one-fiftieth of one percent (.0002) of our DNA!

The Biblical lineage shows Noah’s son, Shem, born 100 years before the flood. Shem and his wife had many sons and daughters, but Arphaxad, who was born after the flood in 2456 B.C., continued the Biblical lineage. The Bible lists Arphaxad’s son, Cainan, and his son, Shelah, and his son, Eber, and his son, Peleg, and his son, Reu, and his son, Serug, and his son, Nahor, and his son, Terah, and his son, Abram.

Around the time of Eber, the inhabitants of the post-flood world were not following God’s command to fill the earth. In fact, most people lived near each other under the reign of Nimrod, a descendant of Ham, and built the Tower of Babel. Babel is Hebrew for “babbling.” The Tower of Babel was likely a ziggurat used to practice astrology and worship the sun, moon, and stars. Because of their disobedience and evil ways, God caused the people to speak different languages. Unable to communicate, they spread out all over the world and thereby filled the earth, according to His command.

An interesting testimony to the events we have described so far in this chapter lies in the ancient Chinese language. Ancient Chinese words were made of symbols; the symbol for create was made up of breath, dust, walking, and alive. In other words, God created man by crafting him from the dust of the ground and breathing life into him to be alive and walk around. The symbol for devil or tempter was made up of garden, man, privately, and trees. Perhaps it came from the creation account in Genesis, where the devil privately tempted man to eat from the tree in the Garden of Eden. The ancient Chinese symbol for boat was compiled of the symbols for eight, people, and vessel. Of course, the flood account mentions eight people, Noah’s family, surviving the flood in a large vessel called an ark. Finally, the Bible mentions the Tower of Babel incident as God confusing the tongues or languages of the people so they would spread out on a journey all over the world. The ancient Chinese symbol for confusion was represented by symbols for tongue and right leg, meaning that “to confuse is to set out on a journey with a new tongue [or language].”

After the incident at the Tower of Babel, the population spread all over the world, and the Biblical lineage continued to Abram. Abram was born in 2036 B.C. By this time, there were dynasties beginning to form in China, and Egypt was entering its Middle Kingdom. The ice age was likely coming to an end; the earth was much like it is today. Job had likely already experienced his extreme suffering. (Many scholars believe Job lived in the Orient around 2200 B.C.) Peoples’ lives were becoming shorter; it was rare to find someone over 200 years old at this time. The Bible says that God has since put a limit on our age at 120 years. Not surprisingly, no one today lives over 120 years of age.

The Old Testament Review

This is part 2 of 6 of the third chapter of my book, Biblical Glasses.

What happened before the time of Jesus Christ?

Besides condemned to physical death for their sin, Adam and Eve were also banished from the Garden of Eden, earthly paradise, unable to eat from the Tree of Life. They were forced to struggle and sweat in the fields for their food, as all of creation was punished for man’s sin. The Bible says:

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For
the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the
will of the One Who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be
liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the
children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the
pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Romans 8:19-22).

Eve was subjected to the pain of childbirth because of sin. She gave birth to Cain and Abel, and you know the story. They were preparing to offer a sacrifice to God (as a means of repentance for their sins); Abel offered the best lamb in his flock, while Cain’s offering was apparently less meaningful. God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected Cain’s. Cain got jealous and killed Abel. Then Cain was sent away from the family; he settled in the land of wandering (Nod), married his sister or niece, and raised a family. At age 130, Adam fathered Seth. Seth carried on the family lineage through the Bible.

You may be wondering how Adam could have lived to age 130, much less father a child that late in life. You may also wonder how Cain got married in the land of Nod, when he was the first child ever born in the entire world! Well, Adam actually lived to be 930 years old and father many more children! He obeyed God’s command to be fruitful and fill the earth.

The explanation is quite simple; keep in mind Adam was the first human, made physically perfect by a perfect God. He had no errors in his genetic code. Think of yourself as a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, etc. You are not nearly as perfect as Adam! Adam contained the necessary genetic information for all the so-called races of people, all the eye shapes, nose shapes, hair types, muscle structures, skin shades, ear lobe varieties, etc. There is only one race: The human race!

Cain married either his sister or his niece. This was fine because of the purity in the human race. God had just created the perfect man and woman! The human race was pure enough to marry relatives without risk of deformation until the time of Moses. Only then was incest forbidden (see Leviticus 18). Later in the Bible, God commanded His chosen people, the Jews, to avoid intermarriage with other groups of people. He was not concerned with skin shades; He was concerned about spiritual purity. The Bible says: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness” (2 Corinthians 6:14)?

Going back to creation, remember that God separated the waters below from the waters above to make the sky on day two. The water above was possibly a different atmosphere than the one we tear up today. Perhaps it allowed for cleaner, nutrient-rich air and even a longer lifespan. Life was so different then; we cannot expect to understand it. There is very little Precambrian (pre-flood) evidence to examine. People were likely very strong and very tall. The Bible mentions giants and a king who required a bed thirteen feet long (see Deuteronomy 3:11)! People before the flood may have had an atmosphere that allowed for them to live large.

The dinosaurs lived primarily before the flood, when the atmosphere allowed for them to live to old ages and therefore grow to monstrous sizes. See, reptiles never quit growing; unlike mammals, they grow until they die. The older dinosaurs were probably the largest. But did you know that the average dinosaur was only four feet tall and weighed only a hundred pounds, about the size of a sheep? Dinosaurs and man lived together before the flood. Every living thing was vegetarian according to the Bible. That is hard to believe after going to school for twelve to sixteen years learning about evolution. It is even harder to believe after watching the Discovery Channel and movies like Godzilla and Jurassic Park. Remember, science proves that dinosaurs did indeed exist, but it shows nothing about dinosaur lifestyles.

For example, a complete T-rex skull fossil was found, providing evidence that the T-rex had large, pointy teeth. What does that tell us? It tells us this particular T-rex had large, pointy teeth. It does not tell us what the creature ate. In fact, Panda bears have incredibly large, pointy teeth, but they eat primarily plants. Piranha have razor sharp teeth, but most species eat only plants! Dinosaurs ate nothing but plants until after the flood; there is no viable evidence that suggests otherwise.

Dinosaurs are perhaps the most influential creatures used to support evolutionary claims, but the evidence about dinosaurs actually supports creation! The word dinosaur, which means terrible lizard, does not appear in the Bible, because dinosaur was not coined as a word until 1841. The Bible discusses dinosaurs, such as behemoth, in the Book of Job and even mentions dragons, such as leviathan, throughout the Bible.

A detailed discussion of the evidence for recently living dinosaurs must be saved for another time; however, I want to mention a couple interesting facts about them. Allosaur bones were found engulfed in un-decayed organic material, suggesting the creature lived recently. Un-fossilized dinosaur bones have been found in Alaska, suggesting living dinosaurs were there no more than 200 years ago. Sculptures, carvings, and drawings of various dinosaur kinds, such as Apatosaurus and Pterodactyl, have been found by archaeologists studying remote, yet fairly modern civilizations, like the Native American Indians. Explorers in the African Congo have repeatedly returned with eyewitness accounts of Mokele-Mbembe, a living Apatosaurus relative. Many eyewitnesses have reported their sightings of Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, Champ, the creature of Lake Champlain, and China’s legendary Lake Tianchi Monster, each a purported sea-dwelling Plesiosaur, a relative of the dinosaur. We hear of knights slaying fire-breathing dragons; even the nation of China relies on the dragon as its national symbol of pride. I do not know if there are any living dinosaurs, other than komodo dragons and iguana-type creatures, today, but I feel confident many dinosaurs survived into the Dark Ages and a few lived into the twentieth century. For what reason, other than that dinosaurs and dragons actually lived, would so many accounts of dinosaurs and dragons exist?

Living for 930 years allows for many children to be born. Adam and Eve did not populate the earth alone. Their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, etc., could have populated the world to several million people rather quickly. In fact, it probably happened within 1500 years! An example was given with a single pair of mammoths doubling, conservatively, every seventeen years. Within 500 years, they could have born a population over a billion mammoths.

Think about it: If Eve had a child every five years (conservative estimate) starting at age 110 and continuing to age 710, she would have had 120 children. You may think no woman could bear that many children, but keep in mind Eve was the perfect woman; she was physically flawless! I know it is not politically correct to make the following statement, but here it is anyway: One of the reasons women were created by God was to have children!

Say half of Eve’s children were girls, and ten of those girls had no children of their own. The other fifty girls each had a child every five years of their lives, starting at age 100 continuing to age 600. Now the population is over 5000. Say then half of those 5000 people are girls and have a child every five years from age 100 to 500. Now the population is up to 200,000. If half of those children are girls and have a child every five years from age 100 to 500, then the population would be eight million. All this happens by the fourth generation of Adam! The math may be off, but you get the picture. Even if there was a high mortality rate, population grew quickly.

Tomorrow, in part 3, we'll discuss Noah and the flood.

The Old Testament Review

This is part 1 of 6 of the third chapter of my book, Biblical Glasses.

Without going into much detail, I want to briefly explain the Biblical timeline of the 6000-year young earth. It all started in 4113 B.C. with Adam. (I use this date based on my own calculations; see Appendix A. Biblical scholars, considering complete Biblical genealogies from Adam to Christ, date the beginning between 4200–3700 B.C. Some young earth scholars grant that the genealogies, if incomplete, allow the earth to be a maximum of 10,000 years old.)

As Adam named some of the animals on the sixth day of creation, he probably realized there were none like him. Perhaps Adam was lonely, because God said: “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Genesis 2:18). So God created Eve by taking one of Adam’s ribs; Adam called her woman, because she came from man.

Which came first, the male or the female? Creationists answer this question quite easily: The male! People often ask, “Why did God take Adam’s rib to make Eve? Why didn’t He just make her from the dust of the ground, like He did with Adam?” God used part of Adam, because He wanted to show that their marriage relationship was based on being one flesh. Adam and Eve were married, which is how we get the idea of marriage today. God did not create Eve by using Adam’s foot; He did not want her to follow behind Adam. God did not create Eve by using Adam’s head; He did not want her to be Adam’s boss. God used Adam’s rib, because He wanted Eve to be by Adam’s side as his lifelong companion.

After the six day creation, everything was very good. There was no sin, no evil, and no death. Sometime later, Satan, disguised as a serpent, approached Eve and tempted her with a piece of fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God had previously told them that the sin of disobeying Him, which included eating the fruit from this particular tree, would bring about the consequence of death. God gave man free will, so man could choose to love and obey Him; but man does not choose to love and obey Him, rather man sins by disobeying Him. Adam and Eve ate the fruit, thereby disobeying God, and became aware of their nakedness. As they fell for Satan’s lie, sin entered the world; death would be the punishment.

Who is Satan? Where did he come from? Why was that tree there to begin with? All this could have been avoided, right? Did God know Adam and Eve would sin?

The Bible does not go into tremendous detail on Satan’s origin. We know he was one of God’s angels. His name was Lucifer, which means “star of the morning.” He gathered supporters among the angels and attempted a coup against God. The Bible presents Satan’s goal: To be “like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Satan wanted God’s job. God said no and banished him and a third of the angels from heaven. They were allowed to wander on the earth.

The Bible says: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The father of lies, Satan is supernatural, powerful, sneaky, and evil. He is the adversary of God. He knows God’s Word very well and still denies it. He knows Jesus is the Son of God but does not accept Him as Lord. He tries to stop us from knowing God the way God wants us to know Him. Perhaps Satan’s greatest trick so far is getting people to believe the lie of evolution! Predestined to lose the war with God, Satan still fights to win as many battles as he can, messing up the lives of humans.

When was Satan cast out from God’s presence? Since God created everything, including the angels, and everything was very good, scholars believe Satan rebelled against God sometime after creation was complete. Perhaps within the first hundred years of the world’s existence, Satan was banished from heaven. God probably spent time with Adam in the Garden of Eden before there was sin. Once Satan caused the first sin, the relationship between God and mankind was severely damaged. God’s perfect nature does not allow for transgression.

Recall our earlier discussion: Truth cannot tolerate error. God is truth; He cannot tolerate sin. In the Bible, the prophet Habakkuk says to God, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; You cannot tolerate wrong” (Habakkuk 1:13). Humans must be perfect and blameless, seen by God as righteous, to enter into His presence. So after Adam and Eve sinned, God, out of love and mercy, killed an animal (probably a lamb) to clothe and shield Adam and Eve from their shame (nakedness). It was the first death on the earth! It was also a symbol of the perfect sacrifice that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, would become to atone for our sin.

God forgave Adam for his sin, but their relationship was not restored; the consequence of sin was still in effect. In fact, we experience the consequences of sin everyday, and ultimately we will physically die because of it. The Bible says: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
The consequences of sin are compounded as sins mount up. Hearts are hardened to God’s will as tolerance of sinful behavior continues. The effects of sin include:

- Separation from God
- Physical death
- Spiritual death
- Decay/deterioration (Second Law of Thermodynamics)
- Disease/corruption
- Physical, emotional, and spiritual pain and suffering
- Sweat (a stench to the nostrils of God—see Genesis 3:19; Ezekiel 44:18)
- Sadness (robbed joy)
- Stress/worry/fear (lack of peace)
- Selfishness/evil desires
- Quenching the fire of the Holy Spirit

Why was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden to begin with? I speculate that the Tree of Knowledge represents man’s choice, disobeying God by going his own way, over the alternative option of obeying God, represented by the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve were given the opportunity to choose God’s way or their own, and they chose their own, just as we do today.

Could this have been avoided? Some say yes; others say no. As we will see in a moment, God is all-knowing, so He knew Adam and Eve would eat the forbidden fruit. Perhaps God, for His glory, allowed man to choose sin over righteousness in order to provide an awesome way for man to be forgiven, redeemed, and reconciled by grace through faith in the atoning, perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We sin today, because we were first sinners; we are not sinners, because we first sinned. Sin can always be avoided by obeying God, but the ability to obey God comes only from His Holy Spirit dwelling within us as Lord. The Bible says: “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Did God know this would happen? Yes! He is omniscient. Knowing something will occur in advance does not necessitate causing it to occur. I know at 10:00 A.M. it will be 11:00 A.M. in one hour, but I do not cause it to be 11:00 A.M. We may wonder how an all-knowing God could subject His creation to sin. But, had He prevented our choice, would we still be human? Would we be mere robots if God made our choices for us? Detailed answers to these and other questions must be saved for another occasion; in the meantime, the good news is that God, for His glory, had a plan to overcome our sinful nature (see 1 Peter 1:20). All the effects of sin listed above will be wiped away when God restores all creation to perfection for eternity.

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Additional Note: I have, since writing on this, come to a much better understanding of God's willingness and purpose for evil in His creation. The last paragraph above contains some things with which I now disagree. I'll elaborate in a later post down the road.