Divine Origin and Sacred History: Genesis in Job (Part 5)

So far we’ve been able to identify a meaningful alignment with the most significant events recorded in the annals of earth and human history – Creation (Part 1), the Fall and the Curse (Part 2), the Flood (Part 3), and the post-Flood era (Part 4). The last of these is the world-wide Dispersion.

In the beginning, God blessed the first inhabitants in order that they might fill and discover His glory and provision throughout the perfect primordial landmass (Gen.1:28-31). After Creation’s canvas had been purged by the Flood, God similarly blessed Noah. The purpose of Noah’s replenish commission was to facilitate the reconciliation through the “Seed Remedy” (see Scripturosity article “The Gospel Message”) and the restoration of Edenic fellowship. The command to “replenish” the earth was to ensure that the promised seed would be far less vulnerable to the certain assaults that would come from heaven’s archenemy and nemesis of mankind – Satan (see Scripturosity article “The Dark Cherub”).

When a vast majority of the growing populous chose (or were perhaps forced, in some cases) to follow Nimrod (see Scripturosity article “The Tyrant of Babel”) in defiance of God’s order, the Judge of heaven took preemptive action by confusing the languages at Babel and forcing the smaller language groups to strike out on their own in search of new and suited regions for settlement (see Scripturosity article “Human Diversity” – Part 1 & Part 2).

Notice in one of Job’s answers, a reasonably inferred reference to the Babel Dispersion (12:17-25). Job seemed to be aware of a divinely directed judgment that overturned the purposes of the powerful and influential through a language and understanding barrier (v.20). “He maketh them to stagger like a drunken man (v.25).” Try to picture the scene in and around the rising Babel Empire when God introduced the tongues.

It is worth noting that a number of the tribal names mentioned in Job are first encountered in the Genesis Table of Nations.

Uz (Genesis 10:23 w/ Job 1:1)

Sheba (Genesis 10:7,28 w/ Job 6:19)

Ophir (Genesis 10:29 w/ Job 28:16)

Ethiopia (same as Cush; Genesis 10:6 w/ Job 28:19)

Seba (same as Sabaeans; Genesis 10:7 w/ Job 1:15)

Another interesting association is in the mention of the hostile tribe from Chaldea in Job 1:17. In Genesis 11 (vv.28,31) Abraham’s childhood is connected to a place called Ur of the Chaldees. Some scholars speculate that Ur may be the satellite kingdom of Nimrod – Uruk called Erech in Genesis 10:10.

Concerning the limited mention or absence of some of the family tribes historically beyond the Table of Nations, Henry Morris gives this speculative assessment (The Remarkable Record of Job; p.32).

“In addition to the tribes and nations named in the early chapters of Genesis and those known from ancient secular history, many, for some reason (perhaps lack of ability or industry, degenerate habits, or disease), could not compete successfully and eventually died out. These most likely included ‘cave men’ and others now identified only by fragmentary fossils and crude artifacts and often mistakenly classed as evolving hominids or ape-men.”

While we will commit article content to the topic of cave men and the anthropological interpretations of evolving hominids at a later time, it is relevant to our introductory overview (and particularly the Dispersion) to note that Job makes mention of nomadic, and sometimes degenerate, cave dwellers during a couple of his responses.

“He (God) taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way (12:24).”

“They were driven forth from among men…To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys, in the caves of the earth, and in the rocks (30:5,6).”

Indeed, when we start with Scripture and assign the proper historical designation to discovery, the mysteries of science and nature are drawn more clearly into focus.

The evolutionary history of humanity is told as a fortunate yet unspectacular blip on our 4 billion year old earth. Jared Diamond, professor of geography at UCLA and acclaimed author, constructs such a context in his book The Third Chimpanzee.

“To place human evolution in a time perspective, recall that life originated on Earth several billion years ago, and that dinosaurs became extinct around sixty-five million years ago. It was only between six and ten million years ago that our ancestors finally became distinct from the ancestors of chimps and gorillas. Hence human history constitutes only an insignificant portion of the history of life.”

The author of a July 2006 National Geographic article entitled “The Downside of Upright,” Jenifer Ackerman, depicts the rise of mankind this way.

“Scientists are the first to admit that much work needs to be done before we fully understand the origins of bipedalism. But whatever drove human ancestors to get upright in the first place – reaching for fruit or traveling farther in search of it, scanning the horizon for predators or transporting food to family – the habit stuck. They eventually evolved the ability to walk and run long distances. They learned to hunt and scavenge meat. They created and manipulated a diverse array of tools. These were the essential steps in evolving a big brain and a human intelligence, one that could make poetry and music and mathematics, assist in difficult childbirth, develop sophisticated technology, and consider the roots of its own quirky and imperfect upright being.”

The Bible represents a far different history of humanity; one that has reflected a clear favor from the beginning. It is a detailed history of primal intelligence and development with a record of immediate communication, sovereign delegation, and absolute volition at the start (Genesis 2:15-17). The record is one of exponential inventive development from discoveries of first causation. The survivors of the Flood had the benefit of starting civilization afresh with this learned and applied knowledge from the lost world.

400 years later, Job offers some insights that reflect the advanced scientific appreciation of the world in which they lived. Interestingly and counter to secular anthropology, this was during a time when some men were still choosing to live in caves and whose remains have been misinterpreted as pre-human.

The evolutionary narrative requires that the cave dwellers of European and Middle Eastern paleoanthropological fame (aka Neanderthal) were a hominid convergent species that evolved separately from the modern humans arising from Africa (see Scripturosity article “Out of Africa”). Just as Johannes Kepler embraced a heliocentric model of earth’s movement because of the simplicity of motion and beautiful order, so is the biblical model human history superior to evolution’s tortuous tale of impossible probability. You really have to admire the faith of its proponents who insist, beyond reason, that a disregard of the sacred chronicles is somehow necessary for their intellectual credibility.

“Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge (The Creator – Job 38:2)?”

Read Full Post »

Divine Origin and Sacred History: Genesis in Job (Part 3)

        The Flood

Not only do we find distinct references to Creation, the Fall, and the Curse, but the book of Job continues to amaze with specifics about The Flood of Noah’s day.

Keeping in mind the Genesis record of human debauchery and continual evil in the days preceding the Great Purge (see Scripturosity article series “Who were the Giants of Noah’s Day?” Parts 1,  2,  3), notice the following reflection in the third discourse of Eliphaz (22:15-18). “Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: Which said unto God, Depart from us…Yet He filled their houses with good things…”

Not only was knowledge of the Flood fresh, but it was established that the trigger was divine and that man’s wickedness was the reason.

How could Eliphaz be so emphatic about that?

Do you recall the setting that we established earlier (see Scripturosity article “Understanding the Book of Job” – Part 2)? The chronology places the events in the book of Job at or around 2,000 BC, which would be 300-400 years following the Flood. Noah lived 350 years after the Flood. Shem lived 502 years after disembarking outliving Abraham and dying when Isaac was 130 years old. The survivors from the lost world were undoubtedly revered (or loathed) figures in the rebounding population with tremendous respect and consideration given to their words.

It is easy to see how the Flood account could be so vivid.

Job, in particular, had an acute sense of the historicity of the Flood. We can make that claim based on his multiple references.

“He (God) is wise in heart and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered? Which removeth the mountains (intimating that mountains were a part of the created, antediluvian landscape), and they know not: which overturneth them in His anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place (intimating a different axial attitude), and the pillars thereof tremble (9:4-6).”

In this passage (vv.1-10) Job acknowledges both God’s creative exploits and His destructive force. It is His world; He can break it if He chooses to. “Who will say unto Him, what doest thou (v.12)?”

“Behold, He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: He shutteth up a man (in this hydrologic, judgment context, this man must be Noah; Gen. 7:16), and there can be no opening. Behold, He withholdeth the waters (atmospheric and subterranean) and they dry up: also He sendeth them (the waters) out, and He overturneth the earth (12:14,15).”

Job’s point to his “friends” was that God has, in the past, chosen to set one man apart, uniquely, for the purpose of accomplishing that which is unprecedented. He did it with Noah; now God was doing it again with him.

He recognized that the post-Flood landscape was dramatically different from the topography of the early earth as a result of judgment at God’s hand.

“…by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (2 Pet.3:5,6).”

“For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again…through the scent of water it will bud…As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not…If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come (14:7-14).”

Job uses the phenomenal retreat of the Flood waters and subsequent ecological rebirth to express his faith in a hope beyond the grave.

“He (God) hath compassed (determined the extent of) the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end (26:10).”

Job reflects on God’s promise kept since the time of Noah’s altar and takes comfort in His faithful maintenance on earth. “…And the Lord said in His heart, I will not…again smite any more every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (see Scripturosity article “Noah’s New World” – Part 1).”

 Job continues in his answer to Bildad (26:11-14) exposing the egotism and ignorance of the friends by highlighting the power necessary for Creation and the authority requisite for global judgment as merely “parts of His ways.” Simply put, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He mocked their folly in claiming to be His worthy delegates (v.2-4). The sovereign dynamic that formed the mountain ranges and towering peaks has the right to demand humility of the creatures that inhabit them (v.12).

“He (God) putteth forth His hand upon the rock; He overturneth the mountains by the roots. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; His eye seeth every precious thing (28:9,10).”

Job seems to have been aware of or conceptualized “run-away” or catastrophic plate tectonics as well as appreciated the destructive hydrologic flows that cut the deep, stratified canyons during the Flood-water retreat (see Scripturosity article “Noah’s New World” – Part 2). To Job, every phenomenon of nature was a signpost pointing the observer to the Creator/Redeemer.

With regard to the Flood and its signature left all over the earth, Henry Morris offers the following (The Remarkable Record of Job, p.28).

“The Noahic flood marked a great discontinuity (break from the established sequence), both in the course of human history and in the normal operation of the natural processes that God established supernaturally in the beginning. The rates of most geological processes (such as erosion, sedimentation, tectonism, and volcanism) were vastly accelerated during the year after the Flood. God finally allowed the Flood to run its course, after which all these rates gradually slowed, though much “residual catastrophism” persists even to the present day.”

The earthquakes and volcanoes that we experience today are reminders of when the Creator judged His earth “with the earth (Gen.6:13).” These are only remnant tremors and eruptions compared by magnitudes to the geologic events that continued to shake the earth beyond the retreat of the waters (see Scripturosity article “Is Earth’s Fire Responsible for its Ice?”).

When God finally breaks heaven’s silence in the discourse, He amplifies His authority in Job’s life by taking credit for an intimate management of the Flood; from its initiation to its cessation. “…Who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb…and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hither to shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed (38:8-11)?”

His message to Job (and all that come across this record) was, “I am the God of the Flood; I’ve got a pretty good grasp of your situation.”

Read Full Post »

Divine Origin and Sacred History: Genesis in Job (Part 2)

                      The Curse

Beyond its allusions to Creation (see Scripturosity article Genesis in Job – Part 1), the next reference to the primeval history of Genesis remarkably detailed in the book of Job is the Fall of Man and nature’s Curse.

There is no way to intellectually reconcile faith in a good and loving God with the suffering that so indelibly defines our world without an intrinsic understanding of the cause for nature’s groaning.

A naturalistic explanation of human emergence is that death and misfits and suffering and mutations eventually brought about man. The biblical explanation of life’s inherent pain and misery is that man brought death. “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men…(Romans 5:12).”

According to the Bible, suffering is a remnant phenomenon of the Curse placed on the creation at the time of Adam’s sin. His disobedience would be shown to have implications far more reaching than his own mortality. Man’s obedience to God had been key to the preservation of Paradise. Now perfection became flawed and innocence condemned. All of creation was cursed with mankind because of mankind.

John Calvin wrote the following concerning the curse and what we see in nature today…

“The Lord…determined that his anger should, like a deluge, overflow all parts of the earth, that wherever man might look, the atrocity of his sin should meet his eyes. Before the fall, the state of the world was a most fair and delightful mirror of the divine favour and paternal indulgence towards man. Now, in all the elements, we perceive that we are cursed. And although the earth is still full of the mercy of God (Psalm 33:5), yet at the same time appear manifest signs of his dreadful alienation from us, by which, if we are unmoved, we betray our blindness and insensibility.”

It is fascinating to find in the writings of Job, a keen awareness and comprehension of creation’s Curse.

“Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” said the Lord to Adam, “Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee (contrasting the previously cooperative earth that he dressed and kept)…In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Gen. 3:17-19).”

Job ended his discourse with his “comforters” with a reminder of the Curse’s strangle-hold on their environment. “Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley (31:40).”

Earlier he prays within earshot of the others, “Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt Thou bring me into dust again (10:9)?”

Elihu sarcastically advised with a similar acknowledgement, “Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment…If He set His heart upon man, (or) if He gather unto Himself His spirit and His breath (Gen.2:7); All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust (Job 34:10-15).”

Job references the Curse and the futility of protecting your offspring from its effects in 14:1-4. In protest of the friend’s insistence of his guilt based solely upon the tragic turn of circumstances, Job recounts of the testimony of old, “Man that is born of woman is few of days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not… Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.”

Job had a remarkable grasp of the sentence of sorrow placed upon woman at the time of the Fall (Gen.3:16).

Woman’s curse was an engagement of sorrow. There is something very interesting; however, about the words translated “sorrow” in verse 16. They actually represent two different Hebrew words.

The first sorrow, the sorrow that is to be “greatly multiplied,” is defined by Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon as “pain” or “toil” and specifically “of travail.”

The second “sorrow” (“…in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children…”) is a different word. It is defined (B-D-B) similarly as “pain, hurt, toil,” also noting travail but it points out that the same word is found in Proverbs 10:22. This passage is contrasting sorrow as the antithetical reality to the Lord’s blessing. There is no allusion to or connection to physical pain at all. This word in its very essence is probably best defined by Ungers Bible Dictionary as “grief arising from the privation of some good we actually possessed.”

The “sorrow” that was to be “greatly multiplied” is descriptive of the physical pangs of childbirth. The second “sorrow” of Genesis 3:16 is referencing the inevitable grief that will now be associated with protecting and rearing offspring after the Curse.

Job was simply saying, “My suffering is the result of original sin and the curse – nothing more.”

Eliphaz aligns with Job’s perspective in his previous comments. “Yet man is born into trouble, as the sparks fly upward (5:7).” He follows up with a similar recognition, “What is man, that he should be clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous (15:14)?”

Bildad offered the same appreciation for the initial context of Job’s circumstances. “How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of woman (25:4)?”

Job even expresses knowledge of the original sin, references the catalyst, and makes personal application. “If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquities in my bosom: Did I fear a great multitude…or the contempt of families…that I kept silence, and went not out of the door (31:33,34)?”

This record makes it quite clear that Job and those with whom he associated had a coherent appreciation for the history of mankind as it was preserved from the beginning and eventually compiled by Moses. Either their knowledge was based on an indirect passing down through oral tradition or they had a more direct access to the Sacred Annals in some way. Regardless, the references cannot be considered coincidental.

The next article in this series will address the chronicled recognition of a hydrological cataclysm that had rocked the earth only a few short centuries prior.

Read Full Post »

Divine Origin and Sacred History: Innocent Suffering and a Loving God (Part 2)

The previous article (Part 1) highlighted the observation that “the conditions under which earth’s inhabitants currently live do not reflect the original design and intent of the Creator.” The next acknowledgement necessary to rationalize suffering in a divine economy is this.

2) God views everything from an eternal, restoration perspective.

This is why an appreciation for a literal, historical Genesis is so critical to a right philosophical outlook on life. With that as our intellectual starting point, we can understand that His sovereign direction and purposes on planet Earth are orchestrated with the big “restoration” picture in mind.

We are advised by the great Apostle and first-century evangelist to the Jews, “that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2 Peter 3:8).” While some scholars insist that this is a template for interpreting the “days” of Creation Week to be indeterminate periods of millennial extent, context clarifies the true meaning. The purpose of the passage is to identify prophetically “the last days” provoking a holy life-style of diligent expectation in the reader. Peter forecasts the skepticism and rejection of biblical authority that will define the culture as God’s calendar winds down. The permeating ridicule will be focused on the biblical account of earth history – primarily Creation and the Flood. Peter is simply drawing a parallel between the past judgment of water and the certainty of a fiery destruction “by the same word (v.7)” in the future. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise (v.9)” to return and restore Edenic fellowship. It matters not that a few thousand years have passed; it is only as days to the sovereign Judge of heaven and earth. As generations have come and gone through millennia on planet earth, the Creator is simply looking forward to tomorrow when the cursed matter will be destroyed, earth will be re-made, and His image-bearers “shall be His people (Rev. 21:3).”

Additionally, we must understand that human reasoning and sympathies will never approach the mind of Almighty God. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than you’re your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8,9).”

We would sympathize and lament the incomparable loss and physical suffering of the biblical character, Job. God rejoices that the record of Job’s faith and courage will serve as a perpetual example of hope to future generations navigating the Curse and seeking context for their own suffering. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope (Rom.15:4).”

God has preserved in text the information necessary to answer where we’ve come from, why we’re here, why we struggle, why the innocent suffer, how to prosper, and what happens at life’s end. The key is letting the Record speak.

The purpose of Scripture is not to provide for posterity a history of the ancients or to compile the philosophies of devout thinkers or to offer a moral compass for future civilizations. The purpose of Scripture is to draw mankind back into the fellowship for which he was created. The theme is redemption. The details are neither comprehensive nor peripheral. [In fact, it appears that John wanted to include more in his writings, but was kept in check by the Holy Spirit (21:25).] Every fact, feature, and philosophy has reclamation relevance.

Beginning with the Promise put forth at the Serpent’s garden sentencing (3:15), the Bible remarkably stays on point; the product of human birth would defeat the Deceiver and defuse the Curse. The Old Testament is the forecast; the New Testament is the fruition.

Dr. Luke detailed an interesting encounter between the resurrected Christ and a couple of disciples on their way to Emmaus. As Christ spoke with these retrospective travelers, the conversation turned to the Scriptures. “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Lk. 24:27).”

What was the Lord saying? It’s always been about Me.

A vital part of “rightly dividing” Scripture is to appreciate the over-all purpose for its existence and preservation. The 30,000 foot perspective of the Bible is “restoration.” The purpose of Scripture is to draw mankind back into the fellowship for which he was created. The details of record are relevant to that purpose.

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans (10:9), clarifies the requisite that initiates this restoration and ensures the timeless life purposed for humanity from the beginning.

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus…” (In other words, before one can assert “believer” status he/she must acknowledge and agree with Jesus’ personal claim to God’s throne – Jesus is Lord, the rightful heir; God’s Son.) “…and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead…” (Accept that the physical validation of Christ’s authority – the Resurrection – is absolutely historical and accurate.) “…thou shalt be saved (restored to Edenic eternality from the lasting consequences of sin’s separation).”

For more detail and clarity concerning God’s restorative intent, see the popular Scripturosity article “The Gospel Message.”

Read Full Post »

Divine Origin and Sacred History: Innocent Suffering and a Loving God (Part 1)

One of life’s most profound paradoxes and faith’s most obtrusive stumbling blocks is the reality of innocent suffering. How is the rational seeker to intellectually reconcile the cruel injustices of this world with the loving, just, merciful God of the Bible?

Charles Darwin candidly revealed in his autobiography the pivotal role that this inquiry played in the development of his worlview (p. 75).

“A being so powerful and so full of knowledge as a God who could create the universe, is to our finite minds omnipotent and omniscient, and it revolts our understanding to suppose that his benevolence is not unbounded, for what advantage can there be in the sufferings of millions of lower animals throughout almost endless time? This very old argument from the existence of suffering against the existence of an intelligent first cause seems to me a strong one; whereas, as just remarked, the presence of much suffering agrees well with the view that all organic beings have been developed through variation and natural selection.”

Daily, from the various news outlets, we are reminded of the pain and misery that is inherent to living. We see children from African nations with obvious signs of starvation. We see families changed forever in the blink of an eye when an impaired or distracted driver crosses the center-line. We see entire third-world villages slaughtered because of racial or religious bigotry.

Both in sincerity and skepticism the question has been asked, “How could a loving God allow such suffering?”

In order to rightly assimilate such a delicate inquiry, there are a few acknowledgements that are crucial.

1) The conditions under which earth’s inhabitants currently live do not reflect the original design and intent of the Creator.

Following His creative finale on Day 6, the Record says that God took inventory of all that He had made and concluded that it was “very good (Gen.1:31).”

The word translated “good” in English is literally defined by Hebrew scholars (Brown, Driver, and Briggs) to mean excellent. They assign a literal definition of the word translated “very” to be exceedingly.

Omniscient, omnipotent, Perfection qualified the 6 day expression of His eternal genius as “exceedingly excellent.” The most natural and logical conclusion based on this summary is that death and suffering had not yet been permitted access.

“And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good…”

Henry Morris writes in his book Many Infallible Truths, “The best way to understand God’s original purpose in creation is to study the final consummation of that purpose when all things have been reconciled.”

We understand from Peter’s letters and John’s revelation that the present earth will be destroyed (2 Peter 3:7) and a new earth with a restored, Day 2 atmosphere (Revelation 21:1) will be introduced.

Isaiah offers some prophetic hindsight into the “very good” original creation with a look ahead to the ecosystem of the new earth (11:6-9).

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”

God’s original and eternal favor toward man above the rest of creation is amplified in the recorded vision of the Apostle John. “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God (Rev. 21:3).”

This prophetic telescope gives us a good view of the natural harmony and the unimpeded fellowship that characterized the original creation.

This is what God intended. This was His original design.

When Adam sinned, everything changed. God was forced, by His character, to disassociate with this debase intrusion that defined humanity’s new reality. God’s response to sin testified further of his favor toward mankind with an ingenious plan of restoration that would preserve every detailed facet of and satisfy every intricate demand of His glorious character. We are currently living in a sovereign detour necessitated by the Creator’s intolerance of sin, but initiated because of His desire to bring Eden’s fellowship full circle.

The purpose of Scripture is to draw mankind back into the fellowship for which he was created. The theme is redemption. The details are neither comprehensive nor peripheral. Every fact, feature, and philosophy carries reclamation relevance.

Beginning with the Promise put forth at the Serpent’s garden sentencing (3:15), the Bible remarkably stays on point – the product of human birth would defeat the Deceiver and diffuse the Curse. The Old Testament is the forecast; the New Testament is the fruition.

Since the Curse, many have suffered and all have died. The ancients may have lived nearly 1,000 years, but they all died. In the context of purpose as represented in the Genesis record, death is only the passage through which Adam and the Sethite line necessarily crossed to realize the fellowship that was forfeited in the flesh. One day Adam and the whole of his race, who valued the promise of the Creator, will realize the terrestrial perfection of the original creation in what the book of the Revelation calls the “new earth.” “Oh death, where is thy sting?” A belief in a literal, historical Genesis will liberate the believer to a life of bold purpose. Though death and suffering is our history and our heritage, it is certainly not our end.

Read Full Post »

Biblical Relevance in Modern Culture: Answering Skeptics (Part 3)

This article is one of a series designed to offer a reasoned defense of the true creationist position in response to representations, claims and rebuttals published by “America’s skeptic,” Dr. Michael Shermer.

 

A college professor for 20 years, teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science, Dr. Shermer has emerged as one of the most respected voices of reason in this generation. He is the Founding Publisher of “Skeptic” magazine, is a monthly columnist for “Scientific American,” and is currently the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society. He has authored more than 10 books primarily focused on science and reason with multiple appearances on various television shows and documentaries over the years.

 

In his book, “Why People Believe Weird Things,” Dr. Shermer commits a full chapter to “Confronting Creationists” trying his best to represent (or not) various planks of the “creation” platform and then offering a philosophical, naturalistic rebuttal to each claim. These articles will focus on Dr. Shermer’s representation of the creationist position and respond to his instruction on how to answer their assertions.

 

The purpose of this short series is not to encourage confrontation with skeptics, but to give answers to those seekers who may be at the same reflective crossroads that Michael Shermer found himself when his faith was challenged by the intellectual flair of naturalistic belief during his graduate training at California State University.

 

Alleged creationist claim #3 – Education is a process of learning all sides of an issue, so it is appropriate for creationism and evolution to be taught side-by-side in public school science courses. Not to do so is a violation of the principles of education and the civil liberties of creationists. We have a right to be heard, and besides, what is the harm in hearing both sides?

 

Author Shermer elaborates, “Exposure to the many facets of issues is indeed a part of the general educational process, and it might be appropriate to discuss creationism in courses on religion, history, or even philosophy but most certainly not science; similarly, biology courses should not include lectures on American Indian creation myths.”

It is interesting that opponents of the biblical model of origins refer to their counter-paradigm as an –ism. The intimation is that creation is appropriately relegated to a philosophy while evolution is regarded as a scientific fact (or at least so close to being a fact that the uninitiated should not be encumbered with the dubiousness of its status).

I agree with Shermer that a balanced “exposure” is key and that informational suppression is counter to the general education process. But how does an intellect like Michael Shermer reconcile the classification of one cosmogony as philosophical but scientifically invalid and the other as the only appropriate historical axiom from which to contextualize every scientific discipline? This is a disingenuous misrepresentation and a gross suppression of reason. Both are models – theories that help the observer to make sense of the data.

Perhaps if schools consider the study of origins to be requisite to a well-rounded education, the contrasting paradigms ought to be presented in a philosophy or a world culture class. But to claim that evolutionism is satisfactorily scientific and that a creation cosmogony carries no weight to the lab is intellectually insincere.

“There is considerable harm,” warns Shermer, “in teaching creation-science as science because the consequent blurring of the line between religion and science means that students will not understand what the  scientific paradigm is and how to apply it properly.”

This has become the favored war-cry from the evolutionary trenches. Teaching creation as a viable cosmogonical option will only confuse the students and discourage would-be scientists from pursuing a science-centered career. Ultimately, it will weaken our national defenses and stifle medical research putting innocent lives at risk.

Shermer clarifies his distortion, “If the universe and Earth are only about ten thousand years old, then the modern sciences of cosmology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, paleontology, paleoanthropology, and early human history are all invalid (not just biology)…all science becomes meaningless (p.53).”

The only “blurring” that is taking place is the line of distinction between operational and forensic (reconstructive) science (see Scripturosity article “Blinded By Science” – Part 2). One’s assigned age to the Earth or another’s cosmogonical axiom does not validate or invalidate the scientific disciplines in which they operate. All operational science can function freely and accurately from the perspective of either philosophical starting block – whether it happens to be a literal Genesis or Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology.

By way of personal experience, recently I benefitted from the scientific research of the inventor of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine when I herniated one of the disks in my lower back (reminding me of nature’s Curse and adding me to its chorus of groaning). Having the distinct pleasure of meeting and dining with him during a trip to Long Island, it became clear that Dr. Raymond Damadian is not only a man of faith, but is a committed Christian and a young-earth creationist. Clearly, his preferred model of origins did not negatively influence his scientific discoveries or medical inventions.

Because my professional career is in energy exploration, I interact with geologists on a daily basis (see Scripturosity article “Oil, Oil, Everywhere” – Part 2). While the majority of these scientists subscribe to a deep-time, uniformitarian model of earth history, some of the most talented and successful within the profession contextualize their observations from a globally encompassing hydrologic catastrophe as detailed in the Genesis chronicles.

Origins suppositions, while they are certainly influential in worldview development, do not affect operational science.

Read Full Post »

Biblical Relevance in Modern Culture: Answering Skeptics (Part 2)

This article is one of a series designed to offer a reasoned defense of the true creationist position in response to representations, claims and rebuttals published by “America’s skeptic,” Dr. Michael Shermer.

 

A college professor for 20 years, teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science, Dr. Shermer has emerged as one of the most respected voices of reason in this generation. He is the Founding Publisher of “Skeptic” magazine, is a monthly columnist for “Scientific American,” and is currently the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society. He has authored more than 10 books primarily focused on science and reason with multiple appearances on various television shows and documentaries over the years.

 

In his book, “Why People Believe Weird Things,” Dr. Shermer commits a full chapter to “Confronting Creationists” trying his best to represent (or not) various planks of the “creation” platform and then offering a philosophical, naturalistic rebuttal to each claim. These articles will focus on Dr. Shermer’s representation of the creationist position and respond to his instruction on how to answer their assertions.

 

The purpose of this short series is not to encourage confrontation with skeptics, but to give answers to those seekers who may be at the same reflective crossroads that Michael Shermer found himself when his faith was challenged by the intellectual flair of naturalistic belief during his graduate training at California State University.

 

Alleged creationist claim #2 – Science only deals with the here-and-now and thus cannot answer historical questions about the creation of the universe and the origins of life and the human species.

 

This is a straw-man statement assigned incorrectly as the position of the biblical resistance. I would like to assume that these examples are simply based in an ignorance of the true creationist viewpoint or that Mr. Shermer actually heard this defense from a misinformed biblical enthusiast. But my suspicion is that opponents of the creation model are either not careful to research the true position or they intentionally misrepresent the claims in order to distract or re-route the debate into a more defensible posture.

I completely agree with Shermer when he says, “Science does deal with past phenomena, particularly in historical sciences such as cosmology, geology, paleontology, paleoanthropology, and archeology.” He even acknowledges that “there are experimental sciences and historical sciences.”

Experimental sciences do measure and test and analyze in the “here-and-now.” Historical sciences, however, require that the informed observer use these measurements and analyses to construct past scenarios that best fit the evidence. What most naturalists are unwilling to concede is that observation is always preceded by presupposition.

One Harvard University paleoanthropologist, David Pilbeam, finally came to grips with the lack of substantive checks and balances within his field of study with this candid assessment in a 1978 article in Nature magazine entitled “Rearranging Our Family Tree.”

“Theory shapes the way we think about, even perceive data…We are unaware of our many assumptions.”

“Conflicting visions of these human ancestors probably says more about our conflicting views of ourselves than about the actual fossil data.”

“In the course of rethinking my ideas about human evolution, I have changed somewhat as a scientist. I am aware of the prevalence of implicit assumptions and try harder to dig them out of my own thinking…Theories have, in the past, clearly reflected our current ideologies instead of the actual data…I am more sober than I once was about what the unwritten past can tell us.”

Albert Einstein admitted during an interview with German physicist, Werner Heisenberg, “…on principle, it is quite wrong to try founding a theory on observable magnitudes alone. In reality the very opposite happens. It is the theory which decides what we can observe.”

That is why Michael Shermer and like-minded proponents of naturalism can say, “Evolutionary biology is a valid and legitimate historical science.” Likewise, when the Genesis account of origins is overlain as the forensic axiom, the experimental sciences reveal remarkable harmony with the record.

The evolutionists like to present themselves as unimpaired paragons of objectivity, but the truth is no evidential scrutiny is unaffected by a preexisting interpretational bias. In fact, it was a philosophical struggle that changed Charles Darwin’s worldview and his interpretation of every natural observation (see Scripturosity article “Darwin’s Un-natural Selection”).

Read Full Post »

Biblical Relevance in Modern Culture: A Day at the Museum

Several years ago I was asked to teach Biblical Worldview Studies at Western Pennsylvania Theological Institute – an education branch-ministry of Harvest Baptist Church in Natrona Heights, PA. With my primary research focusing on origins and the history of the ancients, senior pastor and institute principal, Kurt Skelly suggested that I consider offering a trip to the Creation Museum (on the Cincinnati Beltway in Kentucky) as an option for additional class credit for the students. Having already introduced a small group to the museum only a few months earlier (giving me a slight grasp of the logistics necessary),  I agreed.

Four years and multiple trips later, the Creation Museum tours have become a favored event on our church calendar. In an attempt to accommodate as many travelers as possible, my wife, Sheila and I have begun appointing two dates each year for the trips. Generally, one tour is scheduled for the spring or summer and another is organized for the time when most families are on vacation from work and school between Christmas and New Year.

Our most recent tour was conducted on Friday, August 5^th. (Because of the heavy weekend attendance and the featured speakers during the week, we found that it was most profitable to visit on Fridays.) This last group was 28 strong bringing our cumulative traveler total to 282! You can see mention of this trip on Ken Ham’s blog.

Upon arrival and following the distribution of the tickets, we gathered at the “green screen” for a group photo (pictures are made available to visitors at the end of the day with a selection of thematic backgrounds to choose from).

From there we went over to the Special Effects Theater featuring a presentation called “Men in White.” This is a tremendous place to start the day because it sets the framework of inquiry and discovery that will define the tour. The theater is equipped with multiple screens, surround sound, animatronics, and seats that move and spray water! While it is tremendously fun and entertaining, the message challenging the secular-worldview establishment and demonstrating nature’s evidential harmony with the history found in the biblical book of Genesis is profound.

After the theater, we perused some of the exhibits in and around the main lobby while we waited for our reserved showing at the Stargazer’s Planetarium (due to the popularity of this show and the limited seating it is necessary to make reservations). This is a great follow-up to the “Men in White” experience where worldviews are contrasted and challenged and intellects are stimulated. Now, in the planetarium, viewers are taken on a mind-boggling journey to the outer limits of the cosmos inevitably emerging in a state of wonder and worship. The only word that is appropriate is a word that truly should be reserved for the Creator – awesome!

Because we had visited on a Friday, we had the option of attending a special session offered in the Special Effects Theater. The featured speaker was Chris Russell and his presentation was titled “Is Genesis Relevant in Today’s World?” This one hour multi-media lecture demonstrated with humor and reason why so many Christians struggle with their faith. Mr. Russell challenged the assemblage to look at our world from the perspective of an historical Genesis rather than trying to shoehorn Genesis into the phenomenon that we observe in, on, and beyond our world. He illustrated the remarkable compatibility of natural observation with the events detailed in the Sacred Record. Many of our group considered this portion of the tour to be their highlight.

At this point everyone is generally getting pretty hungry, so we went over to Noah’s Café for a delicious lunch before continuing.

With the contextual foundation established in the morning, the group was now equipped to enter the main body of the museum. The tour begins by demonstrating that neither the secular nor the scriptural worldviews have a corner on the evidence. They are both viewing the same data and phenomena. The disparate conclusions are rooted in their axioms – the intellectual or philosophical points from which they approach any evidence.

Because the Bible is our starting point, the course of the museum directs the visitors to appreciate the authority of the Text and understand the historical decline of its impact on culture. Once the Bible and its message have been marginalized, then the preserving influence on culture is diminished. The exhibits represent the inevitable, societal degradation and the uninhibited effects of the historic Curse.

The group is then funneled into small theater that introduces the six days of creation and from there into a large room full of flat screen televisions broadcasting evidences from various disciplines of science and their beautiful compatibility with a Creator-based cosmogony.

Next we entered the “Walk Through History” which took us through the creation of man, the Garden of Eden, the Fall, the Curse, the great Flood of Noah’s day (including a demonstration of ancient maritime shipbuilding technique likely used to build the Ark), the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the world’s people groups.

The climax of the day is the experience of the “Last Adam Theater.” The film is narrated by a paleontologist who testifies to the viewer that the biblical worldview is more than just filling in the intellectual blanks left by evolution and embarrassing the proponents of “deep time” naturalism. It is all about directing the seeker toward the Creator and His redeeming sacrifice on our behalf. Using dramatic license, it offers perspective through the reflections of Jesus’ mother, Mary and the testimony of a Roman soldier at the crucifixion. The message from “the beginning” is, clearly, the restoration of forfeited fellowship and the Creator’s solution to mankind’s deficit. An appeal is made for the seeker to trust the purposeful sacrifice of the “Last Adam” (Jesus Christ) as personal payment for their inherent debt introduced by the first Adam.

Upon exiting the theater, we stepped into a coffee/snack shop where we all had refreshments before going up to the bookstore as the final stop of a most inspiring day.

If you have never prioritized the Creation Museum as a destination, plan to take a trip in the near future. Your intellect will be stimulated, your assumptions will be challenged, and your faith will be strengthened (and perhaps even initiated).

Feel free to contact me through the blog “Comments” or at dmarcj@penneco.com if you are interested in joining us or just learning how to maximize your own visit.

Read Full Post »

Table of Contents

The purpose of this page is to provide Scripturosity viewers with a “one-stop” topically sorted representation of the articles. Any article is easily accessed by typing the title into the “search” bar at the top of home page.

Top 10 by viewership popularity 

Gospel Message

She Shall Be Called Woman

Human Diversity (Parts 1–2)

The Age of the Earth – What Do the Rocks Say

Where Did Cain Get His Wife? (Parts 1, 2, 3)

Where Did the Billions of Years Come From? (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

Understanding the Book of Job (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Geological Support for the Genesis Flood (Parts 1, 2, 3)

The “Ark Encounter” Theme Park

Alien Infatuation

Biblical Commentary

Why Should I Care about the Genealogies?

The Last Days

The Mabbul

Yea, Hath God Said?

After the Similitude of Adam’s Transgression

In the Beginning…Love

Divine Intimacy – Creation’s Ripple Effect

The Gospel Message

Let’s Ride

Naked Truth (Parts 1-2)

A Gap in Reason (Parts 1-2)

Who Wrote Genesis? (Parts 1-2)

How to Read Genesis (Parts 1-2)

The Rainbow Covenant

Plant-ing Seeds of Doubt

The Genesis Serpent

Noah’s New World (Parts 1-3)

The Tyrant of Babel

The Curse of Eden (Parts 1-3)

An Historical Genesis – Why Does it Matter? (Parts 1-3)

I’ll Have a Steak!

Noah’s Vineyard (Parts 1-2)

Genesis and the Resurrection

Understanding the Book of Job (Parts 1-5)

Philosophy

Fertilizing the Roots of Racism

Creation Evangelism

Conscience and Intellect

Darwin’s Un-Natural Selection

Fact and Theory

Deep Time Warp (Parts 1-2)

Blinded By Science (Parts 1-2)

The Curse and the Second Law

Where Did the Billions of Years Come From? (Parts 1-4)

Legitimizing the Straw Man

Human Destiny (Parts 1-3)

Intellectual Invention

Will Science Find God?

Time’s Arrow, Time’s Archer

Anthropology

In the Beginning Was the Word

The Battle for Our History

The Longevity of the Ancients (Parts 1-4)

Who Were the Giants of Noah’s Day (Parts 1-3)

Mankind – Favored, Not Fortunate

She Shall Be Called Woman

Where Did Cain Get His Wife? (Parts 1-3)

Noah’s Ark (Parts 1-4)

The Tower of Babel (Parts 1-3)

Out of Africa

The Settlers of the Isles

Shem – The Seed of Blessing

The Peleg Event

Eber’s Other Son

Language – Created or Evolved (Parts 1-2)

Human Diversity (Parts 1-2)

Astronomy

Extraterrestrial Contact

Let There Be Light

The Heavens Declare

Alien Infatuation

Light Travel and the Age of the Earth

Earth’s Two Moons

Geology

The Age of the Earth – What Do the Rocks Say?

Oil, Oil, Everywhere (Parts 1-3)

What about the Flood Waters? (Parts 1-4)

Geological Support for the Genesis Flood (Parts 1-3)

“The Energy Within” Presentation (Parts 1-3)

Biology

The Orchard of Life’s Kinds

After Their Kinds

Natural Selection – Discipline or Dogma?

Light Travel and the Age of the Earth

Current Events

The Believer and Global Climate Change

The Ark Encounter Theme Park

Lecturing on Long Island

A Week at WalkRight

Jackie Robinson – Breaking the Color Barrier

Answers for Evo

A Day at the Museum

 

Read Full Post »

Divine Origin and Sacred History: Understanding the Book of Job (Part 5)

“The Précis”

By way of introductory perspective, Dr. Henry Morris offers this insightful approach in his commentary The Remarkable Record of Job (p.21).

“As we read Job, we need to keep in mind that not all statements – with the exception of God’s own words in chapters 38-42 – necessarily express divine truth, but all are correctly recorded by divine inspiration (In other words, keep in mind that much of the advice given to Job is faulty reasoning). On the other hand, many statements do indeed contain important truths, sometimes even brilliant scientific insights far ahead of their time, and spiritual truths confirmed and elaborated in later biblical revelation. Each passage must be evaluated on its own merits, in its own context, and in the broader context of Scripture as a whole. Even those statements that must be rejected as untrue or insufficiently true (e.g., claims that suffering is always a symptom of guilt) help us to understand human nature or some other aspect of truth, which does, indeed, make it ‘profitable’ for study (2 Tim. 3:16).”

While Job’s friends were never able to rightly reconcile divine expectation and sovereign governance with the clear reality of human tragedy and innocent suffering, many gems lay below the surface of their misinterpretations. Within the dialogue it is clear that they acknowledge Creation, original sin, and the great Flood as significant events in earth history.

One of the most common misunderstandings among novice and seasoned Bible students alike is concerning the advice of the younger man, Elihu. Many regard his counsel to be the earnestly awaited, sound voice of reason when, in fact, his pious message is founded on distortions of Job’s testimonies and is not dissimilar from the others concerning the reason for Job’s suffering. Despite his original, insincere attempt at humility, he disrespects the previous dialogues and elevates his contribution and presence above the others as being “in God’s stead…one among a thousand (33:6, 23).”

Henry Morris regards the words of Elihu as reflecting the “brash arrogant attitude of a novice theologian to a godly and respected patriarch (The Remarkable Record of Job, p.79).” In fact you will notice that Job does not dignify Elihu’s comments with even the slightest measure of a response.

The following overview attaches my basic descriptions to Dr. Morris’ general outline.

1. Prologue (Ch. 1-2) – Here we become introduced to the man, Job, his blessed circumstances, a dialogue that takes place in heaven between God and Satan, the grand experiment initiated, the unprecedented, back-to-back chain of horrific events that changed Job’s life in just moments, and the arrival of 3 friends.

2. Job’s desperate cries and questions (Ch. 3) – Here we see the very real struggle of a righteous man trying to contextualize everything that just happened with his belief in a sovereign Creator and his own destiny.

3. First round of discourses (Ch. 4-14) – Job’s friends try to bring perspective to his suffering, but from a flawed sense of divine interaction. They attribute Job’s extraordinary circumstances to punishment for hidden sin. Job responds defensively insisting on his innocence.

4. Second round of discourses (Ch. 15-21) – The argument continues with the friends confident of his guilt and consequential punishment and Job completely bewildered, yet unwavering in his innocence.

5. Third round of discourses (Ch. 22-31) – The friends apparently begin to lose a little steam with Eliphaz and Bildad countering briefly and Zophar remaining silent. Job responds with a lengthy evidential and philosophical retort.

6. Elihu’s discourse (Ch. 32-37) – These chapters report the observational perspective and insights of a young, self-important, self-promoting, spiritualistic philosopher. He even claimed to be the mediator (daysman; 9:33) that Job lamented had not revealed himself. He called himself “one among a thousand” with a special revelation and a word of rescue (ransom; 33: 23,24). Job refuses to acknowledge Elihu’s words with a response.

7. God’s challenge (Ch. 38-41) – Finally, God speaks. From a great whirlwind He rebukes Elihu and then the other three. The major portion of His response to Job’s circumstances and searching and the incredibly misconceived notions and flawed advice given by Job’s friends was framed in an exposition of Creation’s wonder (including an illustrative description of 3 remarkable, contemporaneous animals referred to as the unicorn, behemoth and leviathan).

8. Epilogue (Ch. 42) – In the final chapter, Job acknowledges God’s sovereignty and laments his own lack of faith and divine perspective. God vindicates Job and places him as the liaison to his friend’s repentance and restoration. Job’s health and prosperity are restored. He is blessed once again with children living to be “old and full of days (v.17).”

With this synoptical understanding of Job as your guide, allow yourself to be transported back to within a few centuries post-Flood. It is truly a remarkable snap-shot into earth and human history. But more than that, it is a tremendous devotional template of extraordinary trust in the character of the true God.

Read Full Post »