[Hephzibah Stephen]

The theory of evolution and evolution of languages as discussed by these experts completely contradicts the Bible.

They say some 200,000 years ago music evolved. But the Bible says Cain’s descendant Lamech‘s son Jubal was the father of all those who play the harp and flute. His brother Jabal was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. And as for Zillah, she also bore Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every craftsman in bronze and iron (Gen 4:19-22). They were all fully developed, fully functional human beings with the ability to think and create new things.

They all had one language until the Lord confused it at the tower of Babel. Gen 10:25 says, “To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided”. During the time of Peleg the earth was divided, language was not divided. When Lord God gathered the waters to one side and separated dry land, land was one mass. Due to the tectonic plate action, continental drift occurred and that is how the continents drifted apart. So people also moved with the land mass. People also moved from one place to another as people multiplied on the earth.

My understanding:

God created human beings in His image. It does not mean God looks like a human being. It means Man was created in the moral likeness of God with the capacity to love, do good, and to discern good and evil, etc. Because of sin, Man lost the wonderful relationship with the Creator God. After the flood, Noah cursed Ham and Nimrod his descendant who was a mighty hunter was instrumental in building the Tower of Babel. Because of his pride, God confused the languages and scattered the people. These people scattered all over the globe which was by now as different continents.
The basis of my understanding is the Bible.
Sola Scriptura!

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Noah’s flood. For God to have destroyed “all flesh” from the earth because of the wickedness of man is indeed a frightening image. To dismiss Noah’s flood as being mythical, a story fabricated to teach us a moral lesson, leads naturally to dismissing the prophecies of the final judgment as described in Revelation. Indeed Christ also referred to Noah’s flood as an historical fact, likening his surprise second coming to the surprise of those swept away by the flood. It appears that the factual occurrence of Noah’s flood is tied to many crucial Bible messages. Noah’s flood is portrayed not as a fable or parable, but as historical account.

Understanding the Flood: In the Hebrew language, they used the same word, pronounced “erets” to mean either “earth”, “land”, “ground”, “country”, or even “field”. Often the context in which it is used makes the meaning clear, but sometimes it is difficult to know how to interpret what is meant. Our modern image of the earth is as a round sphere, 70% covered by water and 30% by continents and islands. This stands in stark contrast to the usage in Genesis 1:10 “And God called the dry land earth.” We seldom use the word earth to mean a regional area of land as the ancient Hebrews did.
The next clue we find by returning to Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward”. Even if it isn’t clear who the Nephilim were, the Scriptures clearly state that they were on the earth before and after the flood. Didn’t the flood destroy all people on earth outside of Noah’s immediate family? Apparently not!

Water covering the Mountains: Gen 1:9,10 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. At this point the land mass was together and the water body was together. During the time of Peleg continental drift occurred and the various continents started drifting apart. During the flood of Noah, the land was together and so the mountains might not have been very high. High mountains came into existence only due to the movement of the Tectonic plates. The origin of the continents is also because of the Plate Tectonic movement only.

The flood was a historical account but could have been a local event.
Thoughts from: A Christian Physicist Examines Noah’s Flood and Plate Tectonics by Steven Ball, Ph.D. https://www.letu.edu/academics/arts-and-sciences/files/plate-tectonics.pdf

My Response: It is time we considered the questions God asked of Job. God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements, since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone?…Have you understood the expanse of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this” (Job 38:4- 6,18).
It is clear from God’s questions that Job did not have all the answers. And neither do we. Nor does Scripture give us the answers to all of these questions. While Scripture does inform us of who the Creator is and His relationship to man, the secrets of how God created the heavens and the earth are not included. The Bible says, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law”.
I rest my case there!

[Hephzibah Stephen]

I believe Adam and Eve were real people created by God. Jesus confirmed it when He said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female?” Mt 19:4. The Holy Spirit did not record the Book of Genesis as a means of teaching us how God made the Universe as a scientific book. The Holy Spirit recorded the Creation story to teach us the power of God and His purpose in creating Man so that Man can learn to love Him.
The Bible does not say the Earth is 6000 years old. The original creation of Gen 1:1 was perfect for God never creates chaos. Is 45:18 says that He did not create it as waste or desolate. Between verse 1 and verse 2, the fall of Lucifer happened and that created the chaos we see in verse 2. Job 38:4-7 makes it clear that the heavens were created first else the stars could not have rejoiced when the earth was created. The Bible does not mention the time that passed between verse 1 and verse 2. The eternity past could have been billions of years. Some say there were people before Lucifer’s fall but were wiped off in the flood and total darkness that resulted from Lucifer’s rebellion. Even if that is true, God created Adam and Eve in His own image after renewing / recreating the earth.

The Doctrine of Original sin: I agree with St. Augustine on this issue of ‘original sin’. According to St. Augustine’s (354-430), sin is transmitted to all humanity and leaves an uncontrollable inclination to sin. Salvation from this “original sin” can be achieved only by the grace of God. Adam originally had perfect DNA1 (Genesis 1:31, Deuteronomy 32:4), and yet there was no original sin found in him at the start. Sin nature came about when Adam sinned.
Adam was ‘made’ in the image of the Triune God. His life also came from God when God breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7). Even though his entire body was formed with DNA- flesh, and bones, the immaterial life -spirit, was from God. It was independent of Adam’s body, since it was “breathed” into it.
Genesis 5:3 says, “And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth”. While Adam was created in the image of God, Seth through whom mankind descended, came in the image of Adam. By this time the ‘fall’ had happened and ‘sin’ had entered Adam. This is the basis of ‘Original Sin.’ That is why human beings inherently have an inclination to sin we need the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and the grace of God for salvation.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Dear Arul
Welcome to this program.
I hope we will be able to learn from each other too.
God is good.
Hephzibah

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Evolution: Darwin defined evolution as “descent with modification,” the idea that species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor. The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is natural selection. Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor. In this model, each species has its own unique set of heritable (genetic) differences from the common ancestor, which have accumulated gradually over very long time periods.

Intelligent Design: History as revealed by palaeontology can be reconciled with common descent. But it cannot be reconciled with the specific Darwinian thesis of gradual, unguided evolution, without the numerous saltations (Saltation : abrupt evolutionary change; sudden large-scale mutation ) and “explosions” that are not supposed to happen. New genetic characters cannot appear suddenly by saltation. The latter can only explained by admitting the possibility of intelligent direction.

Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific set of beliefs based on the notion that life on earth is so complex that it cannot be explained by the scientific theory of evolution and therefore must have been designed by a supernatural entity.

Theistic evolution: (God-guided evolution) is a theological view that God creates through laws of nature. Its religious teachings are fully compatible with the findings of modern science, including biological evolution. Theistic evolution is not in itself a scientific theory, but includes a range of views about how science relates to religious beliefs and the extent to which God intervenes. It rejects creationist doctrines of special creation, but can include beliefs such as creation of the human soul.

Modern theistic evolution accepts the general scientific consensus on the age of the Earth, the age of the universe, the Big Bang, the origin of the Solar System, the origin of life, and evolution.

Creation: Creationism is the belief that the universe and the various forms of life were created by God out of nothing (ex nihilo).

I cannot accept Big Bang theory of creation. A random explosion cannot create order. Try throwing down a glass bowl. It produces absolute chaos. But the world we live in is full or order. It cannot be the result of a random explosion.

I cannot accept Darwin’s Evolution. While living beings evolve over long periods of time due to natural selection, one specie cannot become another over time. When man ate raw flesh, his teeth and jaws were stronger. Now our teeth have become quite weak. Two people are affected with Covid. One with a weak immune system dies while the other one lives. And procreation happens through the stronger person. That is natural selection. But an elephant can never become a rat. If man came from Monkeys, why are there monkeys still? Monkey cannot become a Man in a flash. It has to happen over billions of years. Then where are the WIP parts? WIP – work in progress. That is why Gunter Bechly, a Palaeontologist says that Palaeontology does not support Evolution and he himself who started out as an atheist became a believer after much study of palaeontological evidence.

I cannot accept Theistic evolution because it is also similar to Darwin’s Evolution.

I believe in Creation as described in the Bible. The Intelligent Design theory talks about an Intelligent Creator and so in a way it supports the Creation story of Genesis. I cannot believe God created the chaos of Gen 1:2. When God created in Gen 1:1, the creation must have been beautiful and orderly. But the devil who is the fallen angel must have brought upon the Creation the chaos that existed in Gen 1:2.

Bibilical Evidence:
Isaiah 14:12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!

So the angels and Cosmos were already in existence BEFORE Gen 1:1.
Did you ever wonder how Satan entered the Serpent to tempt Eve when the creation of the devil was not mentioned in Gen 1? Because they existed before that.

Job 38:4-7
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?
Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:4 clearly says that the stars and sons of God (Angels) shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth was laid. So they existed before that.

Holy Spirit did not record the creation story as a scientific journal but as the revelation of the nature and power of the Creator for Man to have fellowship with Him.

The Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, Pages 75-83 gives a lot of insight into Creation and science.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Good to see you again in this forum Hema.
Let us learn together.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Yes, me too!!!

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Good to see you too Ajit.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

I am Hephzibah Stephen, an old student of Theon.
I worship in CSI Redeemer Church, Annanagar, Chennai.
I hope to learn a lot about these 11 chapters of Genesis
in the weeks ahead.
Thanking Theon for this opportunity.
You may call me as Hephzibah.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

I am Hephzibah Stephen, an old student of Theon.
I worship in CSI Redeemer Church, Annanagar, Chennai.
I hope to learn a lot about these 11 chapters of Genesis
in the weeks ahead.
Thanking Theon for this opportunity.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Yes brother Richard
We have to thank the Lord for this time in our lives.
Hephzibah

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Yes brother Abiola, I agree with you one hundred percent.
Any opportunity to learn is to be welcomed
Hephzibah

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Yes brother Mohansunderaj. We have to wait and watch.
Hephzibah

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Dear Hema
I understand the timing of cosmic destruction little differently.
I agree with you when you say all stars, sun, moons and all other cosmic elements would be destroyed completely. The earth will also be destroyed at this time.
But the Bible says it will be “as in the days of Noah”, that is , life will be going on on planet earth when Jesus comes. After cosmic destruction, earth will become unlivable.
After cosmic destruction new heaven and new earth will come into existence.
Hephzibah

• This reply was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by Hephzibah Stephen.

[Hephzibah Stephen]

Yes, indeed.

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