Don wrote:
We all need to reconcile what we read in God's two
books, of scripture and nature, and how best to do that depends on the
knowledge that we have at this present time.
Knowledge doesn't drop like manna from heaven on the blissfully unaware.
It has to be gained through diligent study. The trouble with
concordists in general is that they make insufficient allowances for
mistranslations that have occurred converting Hebrew into English.
History and science is quite kind to Genesis when long-overdue
corrections are applied.
Genesis One fits rather well if we understand the consecutive days of
creation as long periods of indefinite length rather than 24 hour
periods; if we understand the word translated "grass" as simply
vegetation, or plant life; if we know that conifers qualify as "fruit
trees" in Hebrew; if we know that God appointed the sun, moon, and stars
as timekeepers on Day Four rather than creating them out of thin air; if
we know that the Hebrew word translated as "fowls" or "birds" can also
mean flying creatures such as insects; and if we know that the Hebrew
word for sea creatures was mistranslated as "whales" in the KJV.
Genesis 2-11 concords if we understand that Adam lived roughly seven
thousand years ago and was first of the line of promise leading to the
Savior, not the head of our species; if we understand the flood as a
local event intended for Adam's kin, not universal extermination of all
land-based animal life; and if we know that the tower of Babel was a
Mesopotamian ziggurat built after the flood initially as a means of
saving life when the flood waters came every Spring.
~Dick Fischer~ Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org <http://www.genesisproclaimed.org/>
Received on Sat Jan 28 15:24:42 2006
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