The Age of the Earth is unknown from the Bible

Faith & Science Conversation
121

Hi St.Roymond,

Thanks for airing you views above questioning my understandings by saying they did not come from the Heavenly Father. That’s very understandable. Well, here is what my Heavenly Father has downloaded to me for a response.

When, after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, His Apostles began to teach and preach new and true understandings of the Old Testament Scriptures, the very said Scriptures of the Jewish ecclesiastical authorities, those authorities were offended gravely. So too was Saul offended, who later became the Apostle Paul and my namesake. And the Jewish religious establishment set about to put an immediate halt, by all means possible, to the new understandings of the Jesus’ Apostles. Because those understandings ran contrary to the understandings of the Jewish religious authorities themselves and openly showed how grossly false their teachings were from said Scriptures. That all happened at the moving forward of God’s plan to openly evangelize the world. It was a new spiritual era. But this change of focus was unknown to the entrenched Jewish religious establishment. They received no notice.

Well the Jewish ecclesiastical authority had a summit to decide on their course of actions to stamp out the dissension of Jesus’ Apostles eschewing their newly revealed Scriptural understandings by the Holy Spirit who was sent down from their Heavenly Father for said express purpose. But St.Roymond, please read what happened at the summit:

Acts 5:34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
Acts 5:35 And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.
Acts 5:36 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
Acts 5:37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
Acts 5:38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
Acts 5:39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
Acts 5:40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

Yes, my Heavenly Father has given you, St. Roymond, His counsel from His Holy Scriptures as reflected from the mouth of Gamaliel. I notice that David Campbell, the paleomalacologist, has remained silent over many days after I answered his many hard challenges and does not even respond in my private one to one conversations with him that the Forum’s technology allows. Just perhaps, David Campbell is seeing things differently now (:pray::pray::pray:).

Well, you know St.Roymond, the Jewish ecclesiastical authorities did not live up to God’s admonition via Gamaliel. Surprised? No, but they continued their relentless oppression against Jesus’ Apostles in order to try to stamp out their new teachings from the Holy Spirit, which teachings were heresies to them. And so the authorities commissioned my namesake, Paul, who at the time was called Saul, to spearhead their assault against Jesus’ Apostles. Just think of how much they spurned and disdained Gamaliel in that they went and commissioned Saul, the top student Pharisee out of Gamaliel’s Pharisee Seminary. And we know how Saul’s story ended with Jesus Himself stepping in and enlisting Saul (Paul) into His own ministry and teaching Paul Himself, His understandings of Scripture, while Paul was in Arabia for three years before returning to Jerusalem to begin his new ministry. So the main weapon then that the Jewish ecclesiastical authorities began to use against Jesus’ Apostles was turned around by Jesus and aimed right back at them but with the much greater fire power of the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You know, St.Roymond, I just wrote this message below to my fellowship group yesterday:

“I believe my Heavenly Father stopped me from doing evening Bible Studies to move me on to Biologos Forum :pray::pray::pray:. The multitudes of persons on the evening list had gotten enough witness from my Heavenly Father.”

Yes, for a time I was writing two Bible Studies daily, and I thought I had stopped writing one of them. But no, I now realize that I still write two daily :pray::pray::pray:.

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Dear St.Roymond,

The reason why day one is so stated by me as the very beginning of time is because of what God said:

Genesis 1:5 (YLT) and God calleth to the light ‘Day,’ and to the darkness He hath called ‘Night;’ and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day one (CARDINAL NUMBER).

You see God’s day one began at evening just as the other days of the creation began also at evening.

Thanks,
Paul Aarons

123

I put my position to accept Adam and Eve as historical.

But the story of Adam and Eve (new creation) itself show that they both sinned. Besides, if they cannot sin (unable to disobey a command), to me, it’s strange that they were given a command. It’s just as if someone say to a blind person : “don’t keep on looking at me like that”.

And since there is a tree of life, I think Adam and Eve, even before the fall, were already subject to death, meaning that even if they didn’t sin at all, they could still die. Only if they keep on eating the fruit of the tree, then they can keep on living.

I think it’s not just Adam, but all humans were created in the image of God and I’m sure you knew the verse.

I thought only God knows man’s mind ?

If that is the case, then I think there’s no need any Bible verse. Someone else can also say that God showed him a vision, where in his vision, he saw Adam+Eve eat the fruit at the 8th day.

Did you mean if Adam+Eve have a baby before the fall, their baby is forever a baby (ageless) ? Please cmiiw.

The Age of the Earth is unknown from the Bible

Agree, because I think the Bible is not meant to count the age of the universe.

Thanks.

124

Nice story, but it isn’t what the text says.

You’re great at puffing yourself up, making yourself an authority greater than any in church history, changing what the scriptures say to fit your imagination. Meanwhile others here have been doing what is highly praised by St. Luke:

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

We have examined the scriptures and found that what you say is not so.

125

That wasn’t the issue – you claimed that time began at evening, but time began in Genesis 1:2 – meditating is something that takes time, and that’s what the Spirit was doing already before God commanded light to be.

126

Yes. To say something was made from dust was an ancient near eastern way of saying that creature was mortal. I think the term that best describes what the scripture relates is that these two were “provisionally immortal”, i.e. if they had continued in righteousness.

Though there’s a problem in that the literary type is not meant as history, so asking what would have happened is pointless. But it is a feature of that ancient literature that it can be taken literally in order to understand the lesson, thus we read not to ask what might have been true of these characters but to ask what it means for us – and in this case it is an admonition to continue in righteousness. Of course that doesn’t mean we will achieve that very well at all, but then we have the rest of the story, we have the Redeemer concerning whom it was promised that He would “crush the serpent’s head”.

That’s exactly why the apostle informs us that no scripture is to be interpreted privately, and why the Bereans were praised for checking the words of the apostle against the scriptures, and why the Holy Spirit appoints teachers in the church – which is done as Aaron was appointed by God, not through some inner sense that he was to have that job but through being commission by Moses God’s appointed representative.

That would be one of those fruitless questions we are warned about! Pretty much any question that falls into the category of “What would have happened if…?” is fruitless.

Right. Nothing in the scriptures was meant to be for adding up and making a calendar. The genealogies are definitely not suited for that given that ancient genealogies often skipped generations, sometimes even only listing those considered important.

Where the text mentions that something happened “in the year of” someone or something or “in the year that” or “when/while” something happened, then it is suitable for assessing a date since that is why the information is given, but otherwise nothing is meant for that.

2 Likes
127

To the Forum,

I am a retired CPA, who my Heavenly Father causes me to officiate soccer (English football), which is needful physical exercise for maintenance of my body as I age fast. So today I am loaded with youth soccer games in the hot sun for good vitamin D :joy:. So when I get home and I have rested enough then I will aim to respond to comments above as my Heavenly Father enables me so to do. Thanks very much for your continued interest in these discussions. I am gaining in spiritual understandings by them and I hope the same with you​:pray::pray:.

128

Hello Karma,

And welcome to the discussions. I don’t recall responding to you before, but my memory is faltering more and more daily now. Well, I most certainly believe that you have made the right choice here to agree with the Scripture that Adam and Eve were historical. I have never found where I have gone wrong ultimately, in accepting (believing) what the Bible states. For I learned the spiritual understanding of this allegorical verse spoken by Jesus Christ, very early on in my Christian life:

Matthew 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Yes, my adversary ultimately being that I am a sinner is Jesus Christ and His white throne judgment at the end of the world. It makes good sense for me to agree with Him while I am in this physical life with Him lending me breath to exist. This is the only time in a reprobate sinner’s life that he/she will be in the way of physical life with Jesus Christ. For at physical death, the unsaved soul goes directly to the flames of hades as Jesus shows in Luke 16 with the soul of the rich man. That rich man on death was no longer in the way of physical life with his Adversary, Jesus Christ. He was eternally now separated from Jesus Christ who he had not agreed with when he had the opportunity in his physical life.

But I will end here for this writing for I am here wanting to discuss my gap in the Biblical Calendar and I hope to be back soon enough to look at your other comments and see if I am given a response from my Heavenly Father.

Thanks very much,
Paul Aarons

129

Hi again St.Roymond. Thanks for your avid postings on this topic.

Well, this past Friday, I was mowing my backyard and strapped on my headphones to listen as usual to ‘Christian’ YouTube. And guess what popped up? Yes, it was a pastor teaching his congregation about Adam relquinshimg God’s likeness at the moment he sinned and then Adam’s own likeness, due to his sin, was born within Adam. Now the pastor also included the ‘image of God’ as changing but the ‘image of God’ is nowhere mentioned as being changed in the Genesis 5 Passage which the pastor read to his congregation.

Now St.Roymond, I know if I asked this pastor if the Bible tells him the age of the Earth that he would without a doubt say yes. For I greatly suspect that he is of the YEC community based on his sermon.

Well, I copied out for you, St.Roymond, the relevant portion of the pastor’s sermon which begins around minute 16:35:

“Something that’s interesting, people talk about all the time, is that we are made in the image and likeness of God. People say, ‘Oh, they’re made in the image of God.’ This is partially true, there’s a verse in First Corinthians that talks about this, on top of Genesis. But the problem is when Adam sinned, he now had a new likeness and image right? There’s still some ability to understand that God had given to humanity. But, we are all after sinning, we being made in sin, are in Adam’s own likeness and image and every person after Adam has that sin nature in them, right? Adam was not made that way but now he passes on that image and likeness. Look at Genesis 5:3 we’ll see this says: “And Adam lived 130 years and begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his name Seth.” Now this is a subtle, subtle verse. Like okay, yeah he had a son, that’s cool, in his own likeness, but what is his likeness? What is his image? Yes, God made him in his image but he fell, he sinned. Look, we learned a
lot more detail about this in Romans 5. So let’s turn there. Look at Romans 5 12-
21, it says “wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men.””

Above, the pastor shows correctly the change due to sin, whereby Adam relinquished God’s likeness for Adam’s own likeness. But the pastor is oblivious to the fact that God stated that Adam lived 130 years and gave his own likeness, which he possessed, to Seth:

Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Yes, God showed the change of likeness above but shows no change of image. So how long did Adam exist having God’s likness in his first generation generations is plural)? God does not state in Adam’s first generation because age is only a factor when sin and death enters the equation. But as soon as Adam sins which begins his second generation, then age is the primary factor for now Adam was living to die:

Genesis 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Genesis 5:5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

And, St.Roymond God accounted for all the days daily while Adam lived 930 years because God was counting daily the days of sin existing in this world, counting them off one by one to the preordained time of sin’s extinction. Yes, here is the principle of counting the cycles of evenings and mornings to the final extremity of sin:

Ecclesiastes 7:27 Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account:
Ecclesiastes 7:28 Which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.

That one man who the Preacher found who was upright and without sin is Jesus Christ. For all others have sought out many clever devices to hide their sins.

Well, that’s enough on my gap for now for you to consider. But there is more, a whole lot more, all covered by the entire Bible.

And I am posting the link to the pastor’s sermon below for your interest:

NOTE: I believe I was told that I could link to outside material if I was using the material to support my arguments. If my memory is wrong, then I apologize to the moderators for posting a link to outside sources. And they can delete this post and I will resubmit without the link. Thanks.

130

Hi again Karma,

I love this comment of yours for I see deep searching sincerity in it. Yes, Adam and Eve were a new creation but they were a natural creation in their physical bodies:

1 Corinthians 15:44B….There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam (a historical person) was made a living soul; the last Adam (Jesus Christ, a historical Person)) was made a quickening spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:47 The first man (Adam) is of the earth, earthy (dust): the second man (Jesus Christ) is the Lord from heaven.

Now I paraphrased in brackets above some terms to help your understanding.

But below is the verse I was thinking of when I stated that the new creation cannot sin:

1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his (God’s) seed remaineth in him (the elect who is saved): and he (the seed) cannot sin, because he is born of God.

That seed is the new creation (new man) placed in the body of an elect of God at the moment of salvation and it is spiritual not natural:

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man (the seed or new man) be in Christ, he is a new (spiritual) creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

AND,

Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man (the seed, the new creation), which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

So, Karma, I apologize for the confusion I caused you. I should have spelled it out clearly because writing on the Forum is not like writing to my fellowship group, some of which have gotten thousands of daily Bible Studies, evening meditations, and spontaneous Biblical writings throughout the years. So I don’t usually spell things out very plainly in my communications with my fellowship group.

As time allows, I hope to read others of your comments and respond if my Heavenly Father gives me a response.

Thanks so very much,
Paul Aarons

131

That shows a failure to understand the term “the image of God”. The first Creation account is a temple inauguration story – and unless the state of knowledge in this area has changed recently, it is also a very unique one – and every temple back then contained an image of the deity whose temple it was. That image was not actually considered to be the deity but was as close a representation as could be made by humans. A temple inauguration took seven days and proceeded in orderly fashion to the pinnacle of things prior to the arrival of the deity: the installation of the image of the deity in the focal place of the temple.
So when the Genesis writer tells us that YHWH-Elohim created man “in the image of Elohim”, he is telling us that in God’s temple that He Himself made, the image that represents God is humans. This status can’t be changed by anything we as the image do: we can do a good job of representing God or we can do a lousy job or we can do a mixed-up job, but we cannot escape our status as the image of God in this temple that He built for Himself.

Read your own citation! The pastor quoted the very verse you turn to.

Adam’s “first generation” would be Cain. The Hebrew word here, תּוֹלְדֹ֖ת, is the word for a genealogy; it means those whom Adam himself “generated”, and then those that they in turn “generated”.
You’re making up theology based in totally misunderstanding the words.

Of course it’s plural, because Adam generated more than one descendant, and his descendants generated more than one.

The writer doesn’t care about your definition of “age”; he plainly states that “Adam lived a hundred and thirty years”. The only way that Adam could be older than a hundred and thirty at that point would be if he spent years dead – years he didn’t live.

Adam’s second generation would be Abel, who was killed; or using the definition of generation for a genealogy, his second generation would be Enosh, at least as best we know because we aren’t told anything about Cain’s offspring. Thus Adam’s generations go Seth (first generation) and then Enosh (second generation).

That isn’t what the text says, it’s something you’ve invented based on a false idea of what “generations” means: it has nothing to do with Adam’s own life, it has to do with the lives that Adam generated. There are ten “generations of Adam” in the chapter, the ninth being Noah and the tenth his sons.

You should not be trying to lead a group in study of the Bible when you don’t even pay attention to what the text actually says.

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Hi Karma,

Your comments quoted here show that you are indeed a deep thinker on the Scriptures concerning the creation before Adam’s sin. It is true that Adam and Eve could have eaten of the fruit of the Tree of Life for this tree was not forbidden. Only the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was forbidden to Adam and by extension to Eve. For Eve was not created as yet at the time of the injunction placed upon Adam. Eve would later be created that day the sixth very close to its end.

Now the Bible does not state that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of life before they sinned. And God prevented them from eating of it after they sinned:

Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
Genesis 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

If they had eaten of the tree of life at anytime after their creation and whilst still in the Garden in Eden then they would have lived forever. The fact that they died is prima facie evidence that they did not partake of the tree of life any at all.

But to get back to your belief that Adam, from his creation, was already dying before he sinned, this command sheds light on your belief:

Genesis 2:16 (NKJV) And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
Genesis 2:17 (NKJV) “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

So Adam would only die if he disobeyed God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore the above commandment, being given on day the sixth, prior to Eve’s creation from Adam’s body, means that Adam was not yet subjected to physical death. And we know that there was no sin in the world at the end of day the sixth, for God declared His entire creation was very good:

Genesis 1:31 (YLT) And God seeth all that He hath done, and lo, very good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day the sixth.

Lastly, the Bible tells us that when Adam sinned that sin caused the death of all humans:

Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

I hope I have been able to assist your better understanding of the creation account. So, again, at a convenient time I will read some others of your comments and if my Heavenly Father inclines to respond then I will. Take good care.

Paul Aarons

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Hi St.Roymond,

Thanks very much for all your comments on my various posts over the last three weeks. I have responded to a lot of your comments so now I am taking a break to answer Karma’s comments, since Karma seems to have recently started to post on my topic. Hopefully when I am finished answering Karma and dependent on my availability from my own private ministry, I will again resume answering your comments as my Heavenly Father permits.

134

Hi once more St.Roymond. I just came indoor from spending over three hours pulling weeds from the grass surrounding my wive’s garden. She does not want any weed sprays in the whole entire yard much more around her garden with fruits and vegetables. But I love to weed out the grass as I posted before for it’s a quiet time for me to either meditate or pull up YouTube and listen to Christian programming. And the latter was my choice today. And immediately I opened up the YouTube App, a presentation by a Dr Terry Mortensen titled ‘Creation in Six Days or Millions of Years’ popped up. So I listened eagerly while my fingers clutched gingerly at weeds😂. Then when the presentation got to just before the 30th minute I listened even more acutely. For I heard Dr Mortenson stating that in God’s accounting for day one of the creation in Genesis 1:5, He used the Hebrew cardinal form of the number one. Then he went on to show that that day one started in the darkness of evening. And these two points he made matched perfectly with my daily Bible Studies from weeks ago and their portions that I copied earlier as posts here on Biologos, showing God starting off His counting of the days with the cardinal number for day one but for days two to six, He used the ordinal form of each number showing he was counting a series of days. Now my source on the cardinal and ordinal forms was the Blue Letter Bible’s Hebrew Interlinear, as I stated. So my Heavenly Father is showing me that I am not alone in what I wrote.

However, very sadly, much further along in the presentation, Dr Mortensen started out with Adam’s 130 years that he lived with his own likeness resulting from sin, and then added on sections of other lifespans in Genesis 5 and he stated that with all the other time statements from Scriptures the Earth is just over 6000 years old, which is the standard YEC position. I would love to be able to address my gap with Dr Mortensen directly but I have Googled him for contact information but to no avail as he is an employee of AIG and I am tired of writing through their cumbersome Internet ‘email’ window without any response.

But for full disclosure, I copied for your sake, this section of the YouTube transcript as spoken by Dr Mortensen:

“Genesis 1 and other passages give us good evidence that these days of Genesis 1, the days of the creation, were literal days. The Hebrew word yom is defined literally the very first time it’s used in Genesis 1 verse 5. God created the world in darkness, created the light in verse 3 and he separated the light from the darkness and he called the light day and the darkness he called night and there was evening and there was morning one day. So day is the light portion of the light-dark cycle and the whole light- dark cycle. And in Hebrew there is a word for one, the cardinal number one and there’s also a word for first, the ordinal number. In this verse it does not use the Hebrew word that we would translate first, it uses the Hebrew word ‘one’ and obviously it is the first day because the next day mentioned is the second. But I think it’s significant that it says one day. God has defined right here what a day is. It’s a cycle that involves an evening and a morning, the light and the dark of a day.”

135

Hi Karma,

All humans after Adam and Eve are made in the image of God, at their conception. But only Adam and Eve were created in the image of God. But my point was that Adam and Eve were the only persons to have had the likeness of God created in them. For after sin, all humans are conceived in the likeness of Adam. There is a distinct difference between the image of God and the likeness of God as is shown below by their separate mention in the same verse:

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Thanks so very much.

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Mortensen plainly doesn’t know what literary genre the first Creation account is. He’s mostly right about the meanings within the creation story, but his big mistake is to treat those meanings as though they apply outside the story.

His small mistake is to say, “the next day mentioned is the second”, because the Hebrew reads “a second day”; there is no definite article with the numbers until day six.

137

Hi St.Roymond,

My gap in the detailed Biblical Calendar affects every Biblical Calendar that purports to show a year of creation. So my gap, if true, is detrimental mostly to the YEC community of Christendom. And don’t ask if I have not been sending them (YEC) Bible writings on my gap daily and with no rebuttals from Scripture but excuses, there are a few. Now, St.Roymond, here below is what I just wrote to the attention of Ken Ham through the very restricted volume portal of AIG’s website (I wish they had a public forum​:pray::pray::pray:) and I had to dice it into two parts to send it in its entirety:

“You already affirm the truth that God counted and reckoned the six days of the creation as ordinary days each of 24 hours and that they were counted in this manner for an example:

Genesis 1
5. and God calleth to the light Day,' and to the darkness He hath called Night;’ and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day one (CARDINAL NUMBER).

Genesis 1
8. And God calleth to the expanse `Heavens;’ and there is an evening, and there is a morning – day second (ORDINAL NUMBER).

All, the other numbers of the rest of four days are ordinal numbers showing God counting in a series of days each day being bracketed by the clause ‘there is an evening, and there is a morning’.

However the seventh day changed the above format:

Genesis 2
2. and God completeth by the seventh (ORDINAL NUMBER) day His work which He hath made, and ceaseth by the seventh (ORDINAL NUMBER) day from all His work which He hath made.
3. And God blesseth the seventh (ORDINAL NUMBER) day, and sanctifieth it, for in it He hath ceased from all His work which God had prepared for making.

So why is there no clause ‘there is an evening, and there is a morning’ used in connection with the seventh day? Well the verse states that God ceased from the work of creation. But by not showing the clause, God is also illustrating that He is no longer counting days starting with the seventh day even though the latter is still in the series as shown by the ordinal form of the number seven being used in the Hebrew. Yes, God’s gap of unaccounted for time had begun starting with the seventh day! And it would end when Adam sinned.

Part 3 to come showing God restarted counting days once more.”

Now St.Roymond, you can help the YEC community by proving my gap as false using just the Bible (Masoretic Text and Textus Receptus). Thanks so very much and I will read and comment on others of your comments that I have not yet addressed in time. I do love our interactions for they are not combative.

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Hi Karma, I did not forget you😂. What you stated is almost true. But sometimes we, humans, can know the minds of others as Jesus Illustrates::

Matthew 15:16 And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
Matthew 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart (mind); and they defile the man.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
Matthew 15:20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Thanks. I hope to get to others of your comments soon.

139

Hi again, Karma.

Your above comments were made in response to my saying that I learned my Gap (really God’s Gap, I just am the first to reveal it publicly) by the Holy Spirit. I do fully understand why you would make your comments because I would make the very same had I not been aware of the method by which my Heavenly Father teaches His Biblical truths:

1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1 Corinthians 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost (Spirit) teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Knowing the above declaration, when a person teaches from the Bible, it is understood and taken for granted that such a person is taught by the Holy Spirit even if the person does not actually come out and say so. The fact is that person believes it is so or he/she would not be assuming the role of teacher.

But also knowing the above declaration about the Holy Spirit being the Supreme Teacher of the Bible that He caused to be written and along with the fact that Satan is a counterfeit teacher:

2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers (many in Christendom) also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

We have to use great discernment in what we hear, see or read from others when it comes to the Scriptures. Hence, we must also follow this guideline:

1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Yes, I test the spirits as they speak, and I do my testing the way the Holy Spirit does His teaching which is to compare spiritual things with spiritual by the Holy Spirit’s working in me. That is why, I oftentimes when a person is falsely teaching the Scriptures, I can use the very same Scriptures and show why the teaching is false as my primary premise and then go on to other Scriptures as my secondary premise, which also are witnesses against the particular false teachings.

And Karma, this I just explained for you, is the very same method I encourage others in the YEC community or in my own fellowship to do if they don’t agree with my gap or with any other of my teachings. They can simply start with the Scriptures I use for illustrating my gap and then show from those said Scriptures why my teaching is false and then employ other Scriptures where their teachings witness against what I am teaching about my gap. We start with the Bible and never go out of it because it is the authority of the Christian Faith given to us by my Heavenly Father. Someone claiming a vision from God which God had not written in the Bible would be ultra vires the authority of Scripture! Do not pay heed to fables:

Titus 1:14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

Yes, the Jews had the Scriptures but they went ultra vires the Scriptures with their fables. Fables turn sheep away from the truth! The Holy Spirit’s understandings of Scripture turn sheep to truth and away from fables.

Karma, I hope I am helping to clear up any doubts and concerns and I must be off now but I hope to soon return and address your other comments to my post. Thanks so very much.

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Specifically on the topic of the gap, there is a long tradition of seeing Genesis 1:2 as representing an unspecified gap in the chronology. Historically, that is extremely important, as that gap was perceived as a place for pre-human geologic time once people started to look at the geological evidence on the age of the earth in the late 1600’s. It thus led into a modern understanding of earth history.

You are advocating a slightly different gap. However, that depends on the reliability of your interpretation. You’re claiming that it is divinely inspired. However, as the Montanists and many since then have demonstrated, such claims often lead to significant problems. If having an exact chronology is particularly theologically essential, why not make the times clearer in the biblical text? Why wait and reveal it to you after a few millenia? But if a general chronological framework is of value as background knowledge yet not essential, leaving that information to our best efforts at historical research makes sense. 1 Timothy 1 cautions against getting too caught up in genealogies and the like; it is always a challenge to beware of the possibility that my favorite issue is a distracting tangent.

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