Whether you take the Bible literally, or as an interesting story, fact is, Nature came before humankind. Before living creatures. At the end of the Third day of Creation, the world was formed, but neither human, nor animal, nor creepy thing existed.
God created the Paradise of Nature first. And that is when life began, after the Third Day. But In The
Beginning:
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"In the beginning when God created* the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God* swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day."
I was an inquisitive child. Thanks to my Aunt Helen who gave me Ray Bradbury's book, "R IS FOR ROCKET", at around age 8, I began to gain interest, insight and knowledge of the world. I can't say I was truly "self-aware" then, just that a seed was growing, a seed that might continue to grow, or may have died.
I don't recall what age I was when during a Sunday school class, I had a burning question for my Sunday school teacher, a man named Joel. What I couldn't understand is where the dinosaurs fit into the origin of humankind.
In my own mind, it was Day Four and after that stuck.
And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day."
I was an inquisitive child. Thanks to my Aunt Helen who gave me Ray Bradbury's book, "R IS FOR ROCKET", at around age 8, I began to gain interest, insight and knowledge of the world. I can't say I was truly "self-aware" then, just that a seed was growing, a seed that might continue to grow, or may have died.
I don't recall what age I was when during a Sunday school class, I had a burning question for my Sunday school teacher, a man named Joel. What I couldn't understand is where the dinosaurs fit into the origin of humankind.
In my own mind, it was Day Four and after that stuck.
Here we have Nature, plants and then the creation of all the different kinds of animals and creepy things. The end of the Fifth Day. And Humankind has not yet been created. Yet, my Sunday school teacher told me dinosaurs came before man, when the Earth was without form. And he was wrong. It didn't make sense to me then that dinosaurs ruled the world before mankind. Growing up, man always came first somehow. We were superior to everything within creation. That is what I was taught. Man had to have come before the dinosaurs, if man's dominion was real. Yet, archeology taught, dinosaurs came first. My teacher's answer to my question didn't settle well; it made me curious.
And then I found out why.
Man; Humankind didn't come first. Plants, Trees, Animals and Creepy things did, as did the dinosaurs. It wasn't until the end of the Sixth Day that God made Man and Woman. The reason is self awareness. The whole story as to why Darwinism and Creationism seem to conflict is what happened on the Sixth day of Creation?
Did humans evolve, or were they "Created" by God? The answer is "YES" to both questions. What the Old Testament of the Bible teaches is, God looked upon the Earth and All that had been Created. Whether the story of Genesis says so or not, Hominids already existed... and on the Sixth Day God Created the first humans:
"Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."
The Old Testament tells the story handed down over generations of Humankind's origin. It's a fascinating and remarkable story. The mere fact the story was handed down over many generations to find itself in print is extraordinary!
In my next post - the "Temple of Time" and our origin... the Sixth Day.
I like you series and personal touch on this debate Bob.
ReplyDeleteThank-you Slamdunk...
ReplyDeleteI've wanted to share this story for many years now. Finally I can.