This is topic A few thoughts on 'TIME' in forum Bible Topics & Study at Christian Message Boards.


To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://thechristianbbs.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=007751

Posted by thefixer (Member # 8837) on :
 
I remember once, a long time before Jesus came into my life, someone told me that the earth was only around 6,000 years old. He said that someone had studied the Old Testament and by chronologically adding up all the ages of the people listed they came up with that figure. Of course, my immediate response was to ask how that took into account archaeological evidence of the dinosaurs. You can probably imagine the debate we got into over that issue alone.Well a long time has past. I now walk with Jesus and He has shown me the truth. Anyone who looks can see it. Follow along with me as I attempt to clarify.
Scripture describes the different aspects of God's work of creating everything as being divided into 'DAYS'. Now in human understanding a 'day' is the time it takes the planet to revolve one complete time, usually divided into 24 equal periods. Okay, hold that thought for a minute.
Now let us talk about the nature of God. We all, I hope, agree that God is a Spiritual being. As such He lives outside of what we perceive as physical existence. One of the things that we know is that physical existence is restrained and contained within a 'space/time continuum. That is to say everything relating to physical life occupies a particular 'space' at a particular 'time'. If we do away with either of these we cease to exist in the physical realm. That being said along with our understanding that God is 'spiritual and not physical, then it follows that God lives outside of 'time and space'. are you following?
Now let's go back to Genesis and the measurement of the creation. I asked myself, "Why would God distinguish the divisions of His creation as 'Days'" He doesn't measure time in human concepts, 'time doesn't exist where He is'. What I have come to understand is that when the Spirit communicates with us He wants us to be able to understand the things He is giving us. Imagine the difficulty in trying to convey something that is completely and utterly out of a person's capability to grasp. If God knows anything, He knows our limitations, and would communicate in concepts that would be easily understood. Hence 'DAYS'.
"A day is as a thousand days and a thousand days as a day". This is God's instructing us not to think that He uses the same measure that we do. I would hope that we all understand what becomes of the human body after death. It returns to the earth from which it has always been a part of. This 'death' of the body enters us into a different state of existence, the 'spiritual'. We return to our original God created state. And as such, we immediately pass out of the realm of 'time/space'.
By the way, God did create the dinosaurs and the universe is really, really old.
Let us all strive to keep from placing our human limitations upon who, what, and where God is. On what can be done by, and when something will be done by, God. It is only through the gift of His Spirit that we can attain a true understanding of His nature.
Your brother in Christ, LeRoy (thefixer).
 
Posted by oneinchrist (Member # 6532) on :
 
Hello LeRoy,
I see what you are saying, but I personally think it is a stretch to make direct application of the vs. "one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day" to the Genesis account of creation to support the idea that creation may not have taken just 6 days, but rather thousands or even millions of years.

When the word "day" is used as in the context of the creation account I believe that it means more something like sunrise to sundown......In other words.....I believe that it had more to do with "light and darkness" than the "24 hour clock" as we know it and relate to time.

With love in Jesus, Daniel
 
Posted by thefixer (Member # 8837) on :
 
Dear brother Daniel,
My Bible reads that God called the light He had created 'day' and the darkness 'night'. It says they were divided but gives no indication of their lengths. There are several indications as to how God relates to 'time' in scripture. In Revelation, Jesus referred to himself as the 'First and the Last' with the implication that He also exists in between. God is said to be 'Omnipresent' which indicates He can be everywhere at the same instant, thus He must reside outside of 'space'. As far as human knowledge goes, if something is outside of 'space' it is also outside of 'time', since neither can exist without the other. So, what reason would God have to name the light 'day'? Isn't it logical to assume that He did this for our benefit? So that a simple human understanding could grasp what He was trying to convey, namely that He created everything, without us becoming overwhelmed in thinking about the enormity of 'time'?
Now that mankind has grown in their understanding of the natural laws that He created to govern what we know as time, we can begin to see the complexity and awesomeness of His plan. It took the guidance of the Spirit for me to see and understand how God relates to 'time'. It has answered a lot of questions I had about the nature and substance of God and where all who follow His Son will reside with Him.
I hope you can find some usefulness in these things, I know that they don't have a bearing on our salvation. It is just something that was on my heart and the Spirit saw how I would find comfort in this revelation.
May the Spirit always find ways to calm comfort you.
Your brother in Christ, LeRoy (thefixer).
 
Posted by Caretaker (Member # 36) on :
 
God bless you Brother Leroy.

Genesis 1:
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
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.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.


The Word of God is true. The designation "evening and morning" as a day is the same as elsewhere in the Word. God is outside of time yet in the Word God delineates time within His creation from the first day of creation.

Man's science rejects God, and extends their theory of origins out eons of time to attempt to make it all fit without the supernatural.

Why should we compromise God's Word to give in to man's flawed perspective?

God created all in its maturity. Adam was a physical adult on his first day.

God created Light BEFORE He created sources of light.
 
Posted by Caretaker (Member # 36) on :
 
It might be helpful to differentiate between micro-evolution which is observable modification within species, and macro-evolution which is separation above the level of the gene pools, a change from one species into an entirely different species which is outside the realm of observable science.

God created the genesis "kinds".

Genesis 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 his kind: and it was so.

The macro-evolutionary theory is entirely dependent upon the production of viable mutations which in turn can reproduce an entirely new species, outside of their "kind".

A mutation is primarily sterile and not able to produce a viable zygote. To accept macro-evolution one would also have to accept two simultaneous mutations with identical genes and the ability to reproduce in such volume as to sustain a new species.

Macro-evolution is not scientifically provable, and there is no evidence within the geologic column or the fossil record.

Fossils appear suddenly within the Cambrian period, and entirely after their "kind".

The pre-Cambriun layer would be the layer of silt laid down by Noah's flood and the depository embedding of the dead from the most vulnerable upwards. There are no fossils in the layers prior to the pre-Cambriun.

Science declares that the dinosaurs predates man by millions of years. The Word of God declares that all life was created after its "kind", and death came with Adam's sin.
 




Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.5.0