Did God Really Say…? Part 1

Background: The content in the following posts has been on my heart for a few years now, but I’ve balked at sharing it since hundreds of articles and books have already been written debating this issue. But it’s one I’m passionate about, because I feel it has consequences that reach waaaay further than the average Christian realizes. I’ve separated my thoughts into four posts for easier consumption, although it’s by no means an exhaustive write-up on the subject. Rather, it’s a common-sense girl sharing some of her common-sense thinking so she might encourage her fellow believers in Christ. I don’t expect those not holding to the Christian faith to agree with me on the following subject; still, I invite you to read along, if for no other reason than amusement. 😜

On that note, since I’ve committed to wading into the waters, might as well jump right into the deep end …

In the Beginning, God …

I’ll be honest: the six-day creation account in the book of Genesis is a hot-button topic for me. I get easily and extremely frustrated with well-known Christian teachers, Bible scholars, and pastors who don’t see the controversy in accepting man’s idea of the earth being billions of years old and trying to fit that belief into the creation account. I get even more frustrated with well-known Christian teachers, Bible scholars, and pastors who come out and claim that Genesis 1-11 is predominantly mythical, allegorical, or metaphorical—or doesn’t even qualify as a creation account! And I get beyond frustrated when these same people claim that God wasn’t able to make the ancient Hebrews understand the vast amounts of time needed for creation, so He simply explained it in words they could understand. As though these scholars feel the need to explain their anti-biblical stance, they add that they’re merely following the “science” on this creation issue, and Christians must stop insisting it took six days and focus instead on preaching the Gospel.

First of all, let’s remember what the Bible is: while it’s 66 individual books written over the course of about 1500 years (without chapter and verse breaks) by 40 different authors, it’s also one cohesive Book, the inspired, authentic, authoritative Word of God, with Jesus at the center. Jesus is the glue that binds these 66 books together. Some books are poetic in nature. Others are historical. Still others are letters to fledgling churches after Jesus’ resurrection. Over 25% of the Bible is prophetic, with some prophecies yet to be fulfilled. Taken from a 30,000-foot view, the Bible is God’s love letter to us, showing us where we came from, where we’re going, and why we have need of a Savior.

First Chapters

As readers, I think all of us would acknowledge the importance of first chapters, whether we’re reading a fiction novel or a non-fiction book, or even a memoir. Those first chapters are necessary in setting the stage for what’s to come in the rest of that book. As a writer, however, I understand on an even deeper level the importance of first chapters and what goes into them.

I would argue that anyone doing any type of writing—be the work fiction or non-fiction, blog post or news article, letter or announcement—spends a lot of time and thought on his/her first chapter, or first paragraph in the case of posts, articles, and letters. Even the SEO for a blog post wants to see that something in our first paragraph matches with the title we’ve given it. The more match-y, the higher our score and the better chance we have of finding engaged readers. (In case you’re wondering, my score for this was low.)

Therefore, if we humans are so concerned with how we begin our work; if we understand the importance of those first words, those first paragraphs, how much more would God care about how He opens His Book? In Genesis, God sets the tone for the rest of the Bible. He reveals whether He’s a reliable narrator. He introduces us to His character, and right there in Genesis 3:15, He reveals His goal to send a Savior to redeem mankind. Furthermore, Genesis not only contains too much detailed information for it to be considered a myth or allegory, but it is also written in a straight-forward, no-nonsense, historical manner. (See this article for further study.)

So, when scholars claim Genesis 1-11—the very first mini-chapters in the very first “chapter” of God’s Book—are mere allegories or metaphors or Moses was simply impacted by the myths in the surrounding nations; when they claim mankind is correct in his assumptions about how the world began and God was just trying to get around a language barrier, I have to wonder if these scholars realize they’re essentially saying that the God of the Universe has presented Himself as a liar in His opening pages. Because, in order for us to accept that our universe and planet are billions of years old when a frank reading of Genesis says it was a six-day creation week means God is a liar, a manipulator of language, and an unreliable narrator at the onset of His Book … even though the rest of Genesis and the Bible is all about how trustworthy and faithful and true and dependable and good He is and how He’s worthy to be honored and praised and worshiped.

A Language Barrier?

I also marvel at how arrogant we are as a 21^st century society to think that people were so dim-witted “back then” that they couldn’t understand the concept of long ages or millions/billions of years. And how blasphemous we are to think that God, the Creator of the Universe, the Creator of language and the human mind, could not adequately communicate the idea of vast amounts of time to His own creation!

Surprisingly enough, however, God did use language to adequately communicate vast numbers beyond a human’s comprehension. When He spoke to Abraham and later to Jacob about how many descendants they would have, He told Abraham in Genesis 15:5 to “‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” And God told Jacob in Genesis 28:14, “Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth…”

It serves to reason, then, that if God had taken millions or billions of years to create the world and everything in it, He would have used such language when recounting the events to Moses:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth over a period of years equal to the number of stars in the heavens. …And God said, ‘Let there be light…’ …and over a span of time that numbered the grains of sand on the shoreline, God separated the light from the darkness …And at last, after a lengthy passage of time, there was finally a semblance of evening, and there was finally a semblance of morning in that day in age.” Genolution 1:1-5

But it’s not just in the first chapters of Genesis where God tells us how long it took. After the Israelites had been in slavery for 400 years and God rescued them miraculously from the Egyptians, He reintroduces Himself to His chosen people through whom the Savior would eventually come, setting up law and order for their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. In the latter half of Exodus, we read the account of when God meets with Moses atop Mount Sinai, where He both speaks and writes with His own finger the commandments Moses and the Israelites are to follow (Exodus 31:18). In Exodus 20:8-11, God tells Moses, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ^10a but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. … ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Emphasis mine.)

God said it in Genesis and repeats it in Exodus, yet some biblical scholars want us to believe that Darwinian or macro-evolution is true. But if macro-evolution is true, then we would have to conclude that God not only lied in Genesis, but He also lied in Exodus. And if He lied in the first two books of the Bible, how trustworthy is He, really? Do biblical scholars realize what they’re asking their fellow Christians to believe about God? Do they realize they’re maligning God’s integrity?

I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for Part 2 …

Go to Part 2.