Board index ‹ Assorted Bible Questions

[Not an Ounce]

Simply that.

[jimwalton]

Yes. The cosmos was to be His temple (Isa. 66.1), and Earth was to be the place where He interacted with the humans He had created (Gn. 1.26-28; 2.15). Humans were to care for the planet as representatives of God (Gn. 1.28), e.g., to have responsible stewardship over it. Also, humans were to live here in fellowship with the God who had made them (Gn. 2.15).

[Not an Ounce]

Soooo why did creatures like dinosaurs come first?

[jimwalton]

Creation is a process. It's still in process. To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. Some people think they and their spouse were "made for each other." Then why date others first? It's how we learn, it's the process of life, it's on a time continuum. We understand this; it's not rocket science.

It's my understanding that possibly the composition of the atmosphere was different then—in the time of the dinosaurs. I don't really know, but if so, it was possibly more suited to their lives than ours. Possibly, then, the atmosphere had to evolve or be changed (say, by a asteroid strike and series of volcanoes), whatever, to be suitable for human life. Possibly the dinosaurs and the condition of the Earth then were part of the way oil and gas reserves were built up for modern human consumption and our energy use. Possibly dinosaurs were just part of the fantastic stream of life that our planet continues to exhibit in all its glorious diversity and evolutionary process. Possibly the long build-up (4.5 billion years) to the emergence of humans maybe 6 million years ago was just part of evolutionary process. "Civilization" as such didn't really emerge until around 10,000 years ago.

We're part of a long chain of emergent life, but humans are the species capable of a relationship with God, which is where the Genesis account kicks in, possibly around 6,000 BC. Why 4.5 billion years to get to us if God intended Earth for humans? Because God is a God of process. All things in their time.

[Not an Ounce]

So some things in the diary are made up? Like Adam and Eve, and the 7 day stuff?

[jimwalton]

Not at all. Nothing is made up. Adam and Eve were historical persons, but not the first hominids. They possibly were representatives of the first hominids that had evolved to the point where they were morally culpable and spiritually capable, and God took them out from among the others (Gn. 2.15) to reveal Himself to them.

As far as the 7-day stuff, I take the account of Genesis 1 to be an account of how God ordered the cosmos to function, not about its material manufacture. Periods of light and periods of dark alternate in sequence to give us the function of time. The Earth functions to bring forth vegetation. The sun, moon, and stars function to give us seasons. Humans function to maintain the world with responsibility. It's about function, not about manufacture.

Therefore, it's a temple text, not a chronological account of manufacture. All temple dedications in the ancient world were 7-day events where on the first 6 days, the attributes and actions of the great deity were acclaimed and celebrated, and then on the 7th day the deity would come to "rest" (he would come to live and engage with his people) in the temple. That's what we're seeing here. The 7 days are a dedication ceremony of 7 24-hr days of rehearsing and celebrating the greatness of God, and on the 7th day He came to live there and engage his people. Nothing fictional or metaphorical here.