4e) Interpreting the Biblical Creation Account
The information as presented by Ms Kelly exemplifies the central issue that this treatise is addressing. For very altruistic reasons these days, we have Christians defaulting into very non-Christian beliefs and feeling okay about it. Recall the original comments on how our future ministers are answering the questionnaire on their Christian beliefs. It's very human to default to a system of beliefs that feels right to each of us, rather than to trust in God. For this reason again I emphasize that what is missing here is a rationale explanation for the Biblical accounts. We need to show the Logic and not just the Supernatural, which is behind the Biblical accounts. Specifically in this case we need to show that Creation Stories as presented in Genesis make sense in terms of a consistent Big Picture model, which does not contradict any factual scientific observations. We also need to investigate the claims that evolution is science but creation is religion.
These are the key positions we absolutely need to discredit:
- That evolution meets the definition of science and does not represent
an alternative to religion that one can "believe in."
- That creationism does not meet the definition of science, and therefore
should not be given "equal time" in science classes.
- That creationist ideas are based on faith alone and not on the scientific
method;
- That Biblical accounts are contradictory and illogical, and not to be taken
as facts.
- That modern evolutionary theory is the best present-day scientific
explanation of the existence of life on Earth
- That such a conviction is in no way at odds with our belief in a Creator God.
- That "scientific creationism" should not be taught in the public
schools.
I'll deal with some of these in subsequent chapters. You see, Ms Kelly needs
to discredit the Bible as unscientific, before she can make room for believing
the Evolution Theory. After all, she says right there in black and white, that
evolution theory is the best present-day explanation of the existence of life
on Earth. That means that life came from non-life and was not specifically
created by the Creator God as the Bible indicates. We'll look at that
unscientific nonsense next. First, let's look at Genesis 1 & 2 and see if
we can make sense of them, given that we (like Ms Kelly and other scientists)
believe in a personal Creator God.
Following my model, this is how I would interpret these two chapters in
Genesis:
First, God (ie the Image of God in the Angel
Universe, Michael the
- It clearly tells us that He created both the earth and the heavens (ie the universe of empty space around it) at this time.
- The Earth is spinning and its rotations mark the days, without any sun.
- The other objects outside the Earth were not created until the fourth day and
God had already been talking to the angels. So we know the angels are not
living in this new 3-dimensional universe.
- This universe was dark/empty and the earth, unlike later planets, was covered
with water.
- Light is created first because electromagnetic energy is the fundamental
building block of all thought universes, and the angels can use it to sense
("see") what is happening.
- He clearly tells the readers that it is the Spirit of God, ie His thoughts, that is doing the creative work. As in the
model, God creates by thinking. Thinking is related to (a form of)
electromagnetic energy.
- Next He creates our atmosphere and then He creates habitats by separating the
land from the water. Later He creates life forms to live in them.
- The Sun is created only a day after the plants, but not until the fourth day.
All the stars and planetary bodies are created in this short period, as the
day/night cycle is started. They are created for signs not for habitats. They
signify our God's awesome attention to detail.
- After populating the habitats with fish and animals etc, he creates man and
woman, already mature. Man is made in the image of the angels, as indicated by
Michael, the archangel. God has thought Himself into the angel universe as an
angel Himself. He is speaking to the angels when He says, "Let us make Man
in our image." Indeed, all the reports we have of angels in the Bible
indicate that they look like humans but have additional supernatural
characteristics. These Men and Women who He told to populate the earth were the
"sons of God" referred to later in Genesis 6:1,2. These human beings
represent those angels who had not yet chosen to follow Lucifer (ie heaven before sin).
I indicated earlier that God did all this quickly, because the angels were watching. He also did it quickly because He had to. For example, the plants (third day) would not survive if He had waited eons before the next day, when He created the Sun. Hence, I suggest that each day had to in fact be on the order of 25 hours. (Note: I believe the Earth shrunk a bit after the Great Flood and thus its rotational rate sped up to conserve momentum. Hence the length of the day may well have shortened to 24 hours at that time. Our biorhythms still seem to follow a 25-hr per day cycle.) Genesis 1 presents a general account of the creation of our universe. Furthermore, it is logical that God would create objects to look like what the angels would recognize. If he creates a 100-year old tree, it must have 100 rings in it. It is no more logical to believe that God created only a single point source, which exploded into this universe over countless eons. In fact there is no evidence to support the processes that would be required, eg entropy is increasing everywhere, not decreasing. Things are getting more disordered not more ordered.
Genesis 2 is focusing on the beginning of this human drama. This is the story of Adam, who is not necessarily the first human. Adam is never identified as the first human. Adam is created after all the events of Genesis 1. God isolates a special place on Earth, called the Garden of Eden. It is as close to heaven as possible with only 3 dimensions. In this drama, God isolates His creation of Adam, because Adam is the first human who will follow Lucifer's path, which led to sin; and Adam will demonstrate that the wages of sin are self-destruction. Adam is the first key character in this drama, and he enters the stage after the initial conditions are established. The Bible always follows this pattern. Key events are addressed when they will be recognized as milestones in the history of Mankind. Supporting events may be brushed over or ignored as in any story. As such, I have to read these accounts keenly to see this detail, but it all fits together.
God tells us that Adam is made from the dust of the earth, and after sin enters this world, He tells us that to dust we must return (Ge 3:19). God's architecture tells me that He knows Adam will make the choice that leads to death. Adam and all of his descendents are made from the stuff of this earth, ie bacteria are included in our basic composition and bacteria will return our elements to the earth one day. In another demonstration of His attention to detail, He uses this intricate mechanism for plants, animals and man, to ensure their temporary existence. Notice that the angels and the original humans called the "sons of God", were not made of earth. I contend that this indicates that they do not have bacteria inherent in their chemistry as we do. Their bodies were not created to pass away but to live forever after. We say that angels are immortal, but actually they can cease to exist if God ever stops thinking of them and they can degrade over time as the demons are doing. I say they will eventually die due to sin entering their world, but it takes quite a bit longer than it will take for us.
One of these humans has to make the decision to follow Lucifer, so in that
sense, Adam is the first man. Yes, I say that God knew Adam would fall. He had
to fall because this was a drama about the consequences of that falling away
from God. We'll get deeply into the rationale behind this statement in the
chapter 6. This is why, "from the beginning", God had a plan for the
salvation of Man. God would one day remove His Image, Michael, from the angel
universe and think of Himself as Jesus Christ, His Image in our human
universe. We acknowledge this when we
believe that God (Michael) gave up everything and became a human. The way God introduces His Image into our
world is to have Jesus born of a virgin by His Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can uniquely call Jesus Christ
the “Son of God”.
God places the trees of choice in this garden stage. They are the key stage
props between which the human star, Adam must choose. The "Tree of
Life" represents wanting to have God know everything about you and sharing
your life with Him completely as He continues to think of you forever
after. The "Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil" is choosing to experience any alternative to a
relationship with God. All such choices are evil and eventually lead to
self-destruction. When Man chooses to "know good and evil", he has
chosen to experience the alternatives just as a number of the angels had done.
At this point in Genesis 2, there were many men, sons of God, but they did not need to work the ground as it was originally created. Food was abundant and immediately accessible for these original vegetarians. As God/Michael said, it was all very good. Men and women populated the earth, but when Adam was created he was isolated in the garden of Eden. He was taught to work and care for the garden; skills he would later need. Men and women were created as two partners that need each other to procreate. Knowing that mankind will isolate themselves from God in this drama, God applies His incredible attention to detail right at the beginning. His message to mankind is that they need Him for life and together they will have life more abundantly. Human marriage is analogous to the relationship between God and His created beings, His Church, as was pointed out in the Old Testament traditions and by Christ when He walked the earth. The stage was now set for the drama to begin.
God instructs Adam about the special tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam is not to eat its fruit, because he doesn't need it to survive and to be completely happy. He should trust that God is right about this. After God has distinguished that particular fruit from all the others, eating it anyway will be a demonstration of losing trust in God. Please notice that this fruit would seem to be equivalent to any of the others. It is only unique because God made it unique when He said not to eat it. Adam will decide to trust his own judgment (just like many nominal Christians and Theistic Evolutionists) instead of God. He does it for altruistic reasons. This initial "sin" will cause Adam to self-destruct (eventually). Adam is alone at this point - Eve has not yet been created. Adam's decision alone, to eat this fruit will decide the fate of mankind.
Again, when God says he created animals from the ground, I say it means that
they too follow the bacteria model and are temporary. After bringing the
animals into the Garden (as He would one day bring them to the
To continue the story, Lucifer must eventually introduce his need for proof of free will into the Garden (see Chapter 6) as he had earlier done in heaven (ie in the angel universe). Note that until the ascension of the risen and glorified Christ back into heaven as an angelic being again (ie Michael, only now an angel with holes in His hands), Lucifer/Satan was still living with the other angels; both the good and the bad angels. The early Bible book of Job has Lucifer participating in their routine council meetings. The jury is still out on the consequences of his quest for proof and many angels are still watching the human drama unfold before they make their personal decision.
So, Lucifer has access to Adam and Eve and he is able to sell them on his idea that they will not surely die if they experience the consequences of putting their trust in things other than God (eg in their own ability to survive independent of God). Sin enters this universe when Adam decides to experience what Lucifer and his followers have been experiencing as they try to separate themselves from God. After this decision, Adam and Eve know something about the alternatives to trusting only in God, but they too still need to experience the long-term consequences. The angels are all watching this drama. God must remove His special blessings and allow Adam and Eve to give the Lucifer plan a go. So He must banish them from the Garden and now they have to work hard to survive and to procreate. Being banished from the garden of Eden and from the tree of life, also symbolizes that sin has cut man off from God's gift of everlasting life. He will eventually die. However, he will be able to survive long enough to procreate, because God is not going to just stop thinking about them. God's plan is to allow His created beings to make their own decisions and to experience the consequences, so He keeps them alive by thinking of them, but He does not pull their strings. They must self-destruct over time, to prove His point, so we all have to go through this drama to the bitter end. The prolonged story of Mankind living through this sin drama from one generation to the next, affords countless opportunities to play out all the ramifications of evil choices and their consequences. This is not just a story about one man’s decision to fall. Each individual in the progression of generations has his own decisions to make and consequences to experience. Yet for the angels it’s the story of mankind that contains their lesson. They will experience evil by watching us do evil and yet not doing it themselves. The wages of sin is death, therefore we each will die, but they will not. Instead, they will learn about evil so that it will one day never arise again in the kingdom of heaven.
Adam's banishment from
For now I'd like to end this discussion with the thought that this earth might well have been older than the Biblical accounts of lineage. For one thing, these records start with Adam and as I have suggested, Adam was likely not the first human. It may have been quite a few years, even millennia are possible, before Adam was created, but the drama only begins with him. I don't think this is critically important in terms of the primary Bible messages. However, when we are trying to correlate the Biblical accounts with the observable records, this becomes more important. The Bible has to make sense in terms of all the observable evidence, so we need a big picture model that satisfies both records when interpreted correctly. Did I say that? What I mean is that we can have errors in either our interpretation of the Bible or in our interpretation of the rocks and ice cores, but there is indeed one truth out there and that is what we need to model.
1 October 2001, Updated 30 December 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike