101 Scientific Facts & Foreknowledge Psalm 19:1-3 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the

e firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Jeremiah 10:12 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Science means knowledge, and true science always agrees with the observable evidence. Scientific research continues to unfold the wonders and mysteries of our universe. Interestingly, there is one book that has anticipated many of these scientific facts. That book is the Bible. This booklet presents 101 scientific facts found in the Scriptures. Many of these facts were penned centuries before they were discovered. Scientific foreknowledge found only in the Bible offers one more piece to the collective proof that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of the Creator. How does this affect you? The last several pages provide the answer you need to read them carefully.

1. The earth free-floats in space (Job 26:7), affected only by gravity. While other sources declared the earth sat on the back of an elephant or turtle, or was held up by Atlas, the Bible alone states what we now know to be true He hangs the earth on nothing. Visit: Modern Science In An Ancient (ICR)

2. Creation is made of particles, indiscernible to our eyes (Hebrews 11:3). Not until the 19th century was it discovered that all visible matter consists of invisible elements. Visit: All About Atoms (Jefferson Lab)

3. The Bible specifies the perfect dimensions for a stable water vessel (Genesis 6:15). Ship builders today are well aware that the ideal dimension for ship stability is a length six times that of the width. Keep in mind, God told Noah the ideal dimensions for the ark 4,500 years ago. Visit: The Arks perfect dimensions (Answers In Genesis) Safety investigation of Noahs Ark in a seaway (Answers In Genesis) Noahs Flood and the Gilgamesh Epic (Answers In Genesis)

4. When dealing with disease, clothes and body should be washed under running water (Leviticus 15:13). For centuries people naively washed in standing water. Today we recognize the need to wash away germs with fresh water. Visit: -Why do I need to wash my hands?

5. Sanitation industry birthed (Deuteronomy 23:12-13). Some 3,500 years ago God commanded His people to have a place outside the camp where they could relieve themselves. They were to each carry a shovel so that they could dig a hole (latrine) and cover their waste. Up until World War I, more soldiers died from disease than war because they did not isolate human waste. Visit: The First Book Of Public Hygiene (Answers In Genesis) Modern medicine? (Answers In Genesis)

6. Oceans contain springs (Job 38:16). The ocean is very deep. Almost all the ocean floor is in total darkness and the pressure there is enormous. It would have been impossible for Job to have explored the "springs of the sea." Until recently, it was thought that oceans were fed only by rivers and rain. Yet in the 1970s, with the help of deep diving research submarines that were constructed to withstand 6,000 pounds-per-square-inch pressure, oceanographers discovered springs on the ocean floors! Visit: Springs of the Ocean (ICR)

7. There are mountains on the bottom of the ocean floor (Jonah 2:5-6). Only in the last century have we discovered that there are towering mountains and deep trenches in the depths of the sea. Visit: Numerical Simulations Of Precipitation Induced By Hot Mid-Ocean Ridges (ICR)

8. Joy and gladness understood (Acts 14:17). Evolution cannot explain emotions. Matter and energy do not feel. Scripture explains that God places gladness in our hearts (Psalm 4:7), and ultimate joy is found only in our Creators presence in Your presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11).

9. Blood is the source of life and health (Leviticus 17:11; 14). Up until 120 years ago, sick people were bled and many died as a result (e.g. George Washington). Today we know that healthy blood is necessary to bring life-giving nutrients to every cell in the body. God declared that the life of the flesh is in the blood long before science understood its function. Visit: Life in the Blood (ICR)

10. The Bible states that God created life according to kinds (Genesis 1:24). The fact that God distinguishes kinds, agrees with what scientists observe namely that there are horizontal genetic boundaries beyond which life cannot vary. Life produces after its own kind. Dogs produce dogs, cats produce cats, roses produce roses. Never have we witnessed one kind changing into another

kind as evolution supposes. There are truly natural limits to biological change. Visit: Things You May Not Know About Evolution (ICR) Creation - Evolution (ICR) Evolution and the Bible (ICR) The Fossil Record: Intermediate Links (ChristianAnswers.net) Archaeopteryx A Feathered Reptile? (ChristianAnswers.net) The Ape-Man: Missing Link (ChristianAnswers.net) Biological Evolution Darwin's Finches (ChristianAnswers.net)

11. Noble behavior understood (John 15:13; Romans 5:7-8). The Bible and history reveal that countless people have endangered or even sacrificed their lives for another. This reality is completely at odds with Darwins theory of the survival of the fittest.

12. Chicken or egg dilemma solved (Genesis 1:20-22). Which came first, the chicken or the egg? This question has plagued philosophers for centuries. The Bible states that God created birds with the ability to reproduce after their kind. Therefore the chicken was created first with the ability to make eggs! Yet, evolution has no solution for this dilemma. Visit: What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? (ICR) The Egg/Chicken Conundrum (ICR)

13. Which came first, proteins or DNA (Revelation 4:11)? For evolutionists, the chicken or egg dilemma goes even deeper. Chickens consist of proteins. The code for each protein is contained in the DNA/RNA system. However, proteins are required in order to manufacture DNA. So which came first: proteins or DNA? The ONLY explanation is that they were created together. Visit: Things that are Made (ICR) Evolution Hopes You Don't Know Chemistry: The Problem with Chirality (ICR) Origin of Life: Critique of Early Stage Chemical Evolution Theories (ICR) The Origin of Life: Theories on the Origin of Biological Order (ICR)

14. Our bodies are made from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7; 3:19). Scientists have discovered that the human body is comprised of some 28 base and trace elements all of which are found in the earth. Visit: The elements of the periodic table sorted by their presence in human body. (Lenntech) The Bible is a Textbook of Science (ICR)

15. The First Law of Thermodynamics established (Genesis 2:1-2). The First Law states that the total quantity of energy and matter in the universe is a constant. One form of energy or matter may be converted into another, but the total quantity always remains the same. Therefore the creation is finished, exactly as God said way back in Genesis. Visit: Modern Scientific Discoveries Verify the Scriptures (Institute For Creation Research)

16. The first three verses of Genesis accurately express all known aspects of the creation (Genesis 1:1-3). Science expresses the universe in terms of: time, space, matter, and energy. In Genesis chapter one we read: In the beginning (time) God created the heavens (space) and the earth (matter)Then God said, Let there be light (energy). No other creation account agrees with the observable evidence.

17. The universe had a beginning (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 1:10-12). Starting with the studies of Albert Einstein in the early 1900s and continuing today, science has confirmed the biblical view that the universe had a beginning. When the Bible was written most people believed the universe was eternal. Science has proven them wrong, but the Bible correct. Visit: Modern Scientific Discoveries Verify the Scriptures (Institute For Creation Research)

18. The earth is a sphere (Isaiah 40:22). At a time when many thought the earth was flat, the Bible told us that the earth is spherical.

Visit: Does the Bible Teach a Spherical Earth Did Bible writers believe the earth was flat? (CristianAnswers.net)

19. Scripture assumes a revolving (spherical) earth (Luke 17:34-36). Jesus said that at His return some would be asleep at night while others would be working at day time activities in the field. This is a clear indication of a revolving earth, with day and night occurring simultaneously.

20. Origin of the rainbow explained (Genesis 9:13-16). Prior to the Flood there was a different environment on the earth (Genesis 2:5-6). After the Flood, God set His rainbow in the cloud as a sign that He would never again judge the earth by water. Meteorologists now understand that a rainbow is formed when the sun shines through water droplets which act as a prism separating white light into its color spectrum. Visit: What causes a rainbow? (CristianAnswers.net) The Rainbow And The Cloud (ICR)

21. Light can be divided (Job 38:24). Sir Isaac Newton studied light and discovered that white light is made of seven colors, which can be parted and then recombined. Science confirmed this four centuries ago God declared this four millennia ago!

22. Ocean currents anticipated (Psalm 8:8). Three thousand years ago the Bible described the paths of the seas. In the 19th century Matthew Maury the father of oceanography after reading Psalm 8, researched and discovered ocean currents that follow specific paths through the seas! Utilizing Maurys data, marine navigators have since reduced by many days the time required to traverse the seas. Visit: Modern Scientific Discoveries Verify the Scriptures (Institute For Creation Research)

23. Sexual promiscuity is dangerous to your health (1 Corinthians 6:18; Romans 1:27). The Bible warns that he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body, and that those who commit homosexual sin would receive in themselves the penalty of their error. Much data now confirms that any sexual relationship outside of holy matrimony is unsafe. Visit Sex Habits Linked to Early Death, Disability (Fox News)

24. Reproduction explained (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:24; Mark 10:6-8). While evolution has no mechanism to explain how male and female reproductive organs evolved at the same time, the Bible says that from the beginning God made them male and female in order to propagate the human race and animal kinds.

25. Incalculable number of stars (Jeremiah 33:22). At a time when less than 5,000 stars were visible to the human eye, God stated that the stars of heaven were innumerable. Not until the 17th century did Galileo glimpse the immensity of our universe with his new telescope. Today, astronomers estimate that there are ten thousand billion trillion stars thats a 1 followed by 25 zeros! Yet, as the Bible states, scientists admit this number may be woefully inadequate. Visit: The Stars of Heaven (Institute For Creation Research)

26. The number of stars, though vast, are finite (Isaiah 40:26). Although man is unable to calculate the exact number of stars, we now know their number is finite. Of course God knew this all along He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name (Psalm 147:4). What an awesome God! Visit: The Stars of Heaven (Institute For Creation Research)

27. The Bible compares the number of stars with the number of grains of sand on the seashore (Genesis 22:17; Hebrews 11:12). Amazingly, gross estimates of the number of sand grains are comparable to the estimated number of stars in the universe.

Visit: The Stars of Heaven (Institute For Creation Research)

28. Rejecting the Creator results in moral depravity (Romans 1:20-32). The Bible warns that when mankind rejects the overwhelming evidence for a Creator, lawlessness will result. Since the theory of evolution has swept the globe, abortion, pornography, genocide, etc., have all risen sharply. Visit: Evolution and the American Abortion Mentality (ICR) Is Creation One of the Traditional Values? (ICR) Darwin's Influence on Ruthless Laissez Faire Capitalism (ICR) Would China Benefit from Christianity? (ICR)

29. The fact that God once flooded the earth (the Noahic Flood) would be denied (2 Peter 3:5-6). There is a mass of fossil evidence to prove this fact, yet it is flatly ignored by most of the scientific world because it was Gods judgment on mans wickedness.

30. Vast fossil deposits anticipated (Genesis 7). When plants and animals die they decompose rapidly. Yet billions of life forms around the globe have been preserved as fossils. Geologists now know that fossils only form if there is rapid deposition of life buried away from scavengers and bacteria. This agrees exactly with what the Bible says occurred during the global Flood. Visit: The Origin of Coal (ICR)

31. The continents were created as one large land mass (Genesis 1:9-10). Many geologists agree there is strong evidence that the earth was originally one super continent just as the Bible said way back in Genesis.

32. Continental drift inferred (Genesis 7:11). Today the study of the ocean floor indicates that the landmasses have been ripped apart. Scripture states that during the global Flood the fountains of the great deep were broken up. This cataclysmic event apparently resulted in the continental plates breaking and shifting. Visit: Recent Rapid Uplift of Today's Mountains (ICR) Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics, and the Bible (ICR)

33. Ice Age inferred (Job 38:29-30). Prior to the global Flood the earth was apparently subtropical. However shortly after the Flood, the Bible mentions ice often By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen (Job 37:10). Evidently the Ice Age occurred in the centuries following the Flood. Visit: Recent Rapid Uplift of Today's Mountains (ICR) Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics, and the Bible (ICR) The Ice Age and the Genesis Flood (ICR)

34. Life begins at fertilization (Jeremiah 1:5). God declares that He knew us before we were born. The biblical penalty for murdering an unborn child was death (Exodus 21:22-23). Today, it is an irrefutable biological fact that the fertilized egg is truly an entire human being. Nothing will be added to the first cell except nutrition and oxygen. Visit: Is the unborn human less than human? (CristianAnswers.net) Cloning: Redefining When Life Begins Exposing Flaws in the Preembryo-Embryo Distinction (ICR)

35. God fashions and knits us together in the womb (Job 10:8-12; 31:15). Science was ignorant concerning embryonic development until recently. Yet many centuries ago, the Bible accurately described God making us an intricate unity in the womb. Visit: Does The Human Embryo Go Through Animal Stages? (ICR)

36. DNA anticipated (Psalm 139:13-16). During the 1950s, Watson and Crick discovered the genetic blueprint for life. Three thousand years ago the Bible seems to reference this written digital code in Psalm 139 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect [unformed]; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Visit: Curiously Wrought (ICR)

37. God has created all mankind from one blood (Acts 17:26; Genesis 5). Today researchers have discovered that we have all descended from one gene pool. For example, a 1995 study of a section of Y chromosomes from 38 men from different ethnic groups around the world was consistent with the biblical teaching that we all come from one man (Adam) Visit: One Blood: The biblical answer to racism (CristianAnswers.net) Where Did The Races Come From? (ICR)

38. Origin of the major language groups explained (Genesis 11). After the rebellion at Babel, God scattered the people by confounding the one language into many languages. Evolution teaches that we all evolved from a common ancestor, yet offers no mechanism to explain the origin of the thousands of diverse languages in existence today. Visit: Language, Creation and the Inner Man (ICR) On the Origin of Language (ICR)

39. Origin of the different races explained (Genesis 11). As Noahs descendants migrated around the world after Babel, each language group developed distinct features based on environment and genetic variation. Those with a genetic makeup suitable to their new environment survived to reproduce. Over time, certain traits (such as dark skin color for those closer to the equator) dominated. Genesis alone offers a reasonable answer to the origin of the races and languages.

Visit: Where did the human races come from? (CristianAnswers.net) Evolution and Modern Racism (ICR)

40. God has given us the leaves of the trees as medicine (Ezekiel 47:12; Revelation 22:2). Ancient cultures utilized many herbal remedies. Today, modern medicine has rediscovered what the Bible has said all along there are healing compounds found in plants.

41. Healthy dietary laws (Leviticus 11:9-12). Scripture states that we should avoid those sea creatures which do not have fins or scales. We now know that bottom-feeders (those with no scales or fins) tend to consume waste and are likely to carry disease. Visit: The Dietary Law (Pacific Heath Center) Bulletin Of The History Of Medicine (Johns Hopkins Institute)

42. The Bible warns against eating birds of prey (Leviticus 11:13-19). Scientists now recognize that those birds which eat carrion (putrefying flesh), often spread disease. Visit: The Dietary Law (Pacific Heath Center) Bulletin Of The History Of Medicine (Johns Hopkins Institute)

43. Avoid swine (Deuteronomy 14:8). Not so long ago, science learned that eating undercooked pork causes an infection of parasites called trichinosis. Now consider this: the Bible forbid the eating of swine more than 3,000 years before we learned how to cook pork safely. Visit: The Dietary Law (Pacific Heath Center) Relationship between pork consumption and cirrhosis. (NCBI) Bulletin Of The History Of Medicine (Johns Hopkins Institute)

44. Radical environmentalism foreseen (Romans 1:25). Two thousand years ago, Gods Word stated that many would worship and serve creation rather than the Creator. Today, nature is revered as Mother and naturalism is enshrined. Visit: Earth Day, Environmentalism, and the Bible (ICR) The Bible, Creation, and Ecology (ICR) The Hyper-Environmentalists (ICR)

45. Black holes and dark matter anticipated (Matthew 25:30; Jude 1:13; Isaiah 50:3). Cosmologists now speculate that over 98% of the known universe is comprised of dark matter, with dark energy and black holes. A black holes gravitational field is so strong that nothing, not even light, escapes. Beyond the expanding universe there is no measured radiation and therefore only outer darkness exists. These theories paint a seemingly accurate description of what the Bible calls outer darkness or the blackness of darkness forever. Visit: The Outer Darkness (ICR)

46. The Second Law of Thermodynamics (Entropy) explained (Psalm 102:25-26). This law states that everything in the universe is running down, deteriorating, constantly becoming less and less orderly. Entropy (disorder) entered when mankind rebelled against God resulting in the curse (Genesis 3:17; Romans 8:20-22). Historically most people believed the universe was unchangeable. Yet modern science verifies that the universe is grow(ing) old like a garment (Hebrews 1:11). Evolution directly contradicts this law. Visit: Modern Scientific Discoveries Verify the Scriptures (Institute For Creation Research) Cosmic Evolution: The Big Bang and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (ChrisitanAnswers.net)

47. Cains wife discovered (Genesis 5:4). Skeptics point out that Cain had no one to marry therefore the Bible must be false. However, the Bible states plainly that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters. Cain married his sister.

Visit: Where did Cain get his wife? (CristianAnswers.net) Cain's Wife: It Really Does Matter! (ICR)

48. Incest laws established (Leviticus 18:6). To marry near of kin in the ancient world was common. Yet, beginning about 1500 B.C., God forbid this practice. The reason is simple the genetic mutations (resulting from the curse) had a cumulative effect. Though Cain could safely marry his sister because the genetic pool was still relatively pure at that time, by Moses day the genetic errors had swelled. Today, geneticists confirm that the risk of passing on a genetic abnormality to your child is much greater if you marry a close relative because relatives are more likely to carry the same defective gene. If they procreate, their offspring are more apt to have this defect expressed. Visit: The Blind Gunman (ICR)

49. Genetic mixing of different seeds forbidden (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:9). The Bible warns against mixing seeds as this will result in an inferior or dangerous crop. There is now growing evidence that unnatural, genetically engineered crops may be harmful.

50. Hydrological cycle described (Ecclesiastes 1:7; Jeremiah 10:13; Amos 9:6). Four thousand years ago the Bible declared that God draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man (Job 36:27-28). The ancients observed mighty rivers flowing into the ocean, but they could not conceive why the sea level never rose. Though they observed rainfall, they had only quaint theories as to its origin. Meteorologists now understand that the hydrological cycle consists of evaporation, atmospheric transportation, distillation, and precipitation.

51. The sun goes in a circuit (Psalm 19:6). Some scientists scoffed at this verse thinking that it taught geocentricity the theory that the sun revolves around the earth. They insisted the sun was stationary. However, we now know that the sun is traveling through space at approximately 600,000 miles per hour. It is literally moving through space in a huge circuit just as the Bible stated 3,000 years ago!

52. Circumcision on the eighth day is ideal (Genesis 17:12; Leviticus 12:3; Luke 1:59). Medical science has discovered that the blood clotting chemical prothrombin peaks in a newborn on the eighth day. This is therefore the safest day to circumcise a baby. How did Moses know?! Visit: Biblical Accuracy and Circumcision on the 8th Day (Apologetics Press)

53. God has given us just the right amount of water to sustain life (Isaiah 40:12). We now recognize that if there was significantly more or less water, the earth would not support life as we know it. Visit: The Anthropic Principle: Is the Earth Fine-Tuned for Life? (ChristianAnswers.net)

54. The earth was designed for biological life (Isaiah 45:18). Scientists have discovered that the most fundamental characteristics of our earth and cosmos are so finely tuned that if just one of them were even slightly different, life as we know it couldn't exist. This is called the Anthropic Principle and it agrees with the Bible which states that God formed the earth to be inhabited. Visit: The Earth: Unique in All the Universe (ICR) Design in Nature: The Anthropic Principle (ICR)

55. The universe is expanding (Job 9:8; Isaiah 42:5; Jeremiah 51:15; Zechariah 12:1). Repeatedly God declares that He stretches out the heavens. During the early 20th century, most scientists (including Einstein) believed the universe was static. Others believed it should have collapsed due to gravity. Then in 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble showed that distant galaxies were receding from the earth, and the further away they were, the faster they were moving. This discovery revolutionized the field of astronomy. Eisntein admitted his mistake, and today most astronomers agree with what the Creator told us millennia ago the universe is expanding! Visit: The Battle for the Cosmic Center (ICR)

56. Law of Biogenesis explained (Genesis 1). Scientists observe that life only comes from existing life. This law has never been violated under observation or experimentation (as evolution imagines). Therefore life, Gods life, created all life. Visit: Chemical Evolution: Spontaneous generation; Stanley Miller Experiment (ChristianAnswers.net) Evolution is Biologically Impossible (ICR) The Myth Of Chemical Evolution (ICR) Virgil's Aeneid, by Chance Alone? (ICR) The Origin of Life: Theories on the Origin of Biological Order (ICR)

57. Animal and plant extinction explained (Jeremiah 12:4; Hosea 4:3). According to evolution, occasionally we should witness a new kind springing into existence. Yet, this has never been observed. On the contrary, as Scripture explains, since the curse on all creation, we observe death and extinction (Romans 8:20-22). Visit: How did bad things come about? (CristianAnswers.net) Extinction (ICR) Chicxulub and the Demise of the Dinosaurs (ICR)

58. Light travels in a path (Job 38:19). Light is said to have a way [Hebrew: derek, literally a traveled path or road]. Until the 17th century it was believed that light was transmitted instantaneously. We now know that light is a form of energy that travels at ~186,000 miles per second in a straight line. Indeed, there is a way of light. Visit: Light travels in a path was foretold in the Bible hundreds of years before scientists discovered it (creationists.org)

59. Air has weight (Job 28:25). It was once thought that air was weightless. Yet 4,000 years ago Job declared that God established a weight for the wind. In recent years, meteorologists have calculated that the average thunderstorm holds thousands of tons of rain. To carry this load, air must have mass.

60. Jet stream anticipated (Ecclesiastes 1:6). At a time when it was thought that winds blew straight, the Bible declares The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. King Solomon wrote this 3,000 years ago. Now consider this: it was not until World War II that airmen discovered the jet stream circuit.

61. Medical quarantine instituted (Leviticus 13:45-46; Numbers 5:1-4). Long before man understood the principles of quarantine, God commanded the Israelites to isolate those with a contagious disease until cured. Visit: The First Book Of Public Hygiene (Answers In Genesis) Modern medicine? (Answers In Genesis)

62. Each star is unique (1 Corinthians 15:41). Centuries before the advent of the telescope, the Bible declared what only God and the angels knew each star varies in size and intensity! Visit: The Stars of Heaven (Institute For Creation Research)

63. The Bible says that light can be sent, and then manifest itself in speech (Job 38:35). We now know that radio waves and light waves are two forms of the same thing electromagnetic waves. Therefore, radio waves are a form of light. Today, using radio transmitters, we can send lightnings which indeed speak when they arrive.

64. Laughter promotes physical healing (Proverbs 17:22). Recent studies confirm what King Solomon was inspired to write 3,000 years ago, A merry heart does good, like medicine. For instance, laughter reduces levels of certain stress hormones. This brings balance to the immune system, which helps your body fight off disease. Visit: Benefits of Laughter (Personal-Development.com) Humor and Laughter: Health Benefits and Online Sources (helpguide.org)

65. Intense sorrow or stress is harmful to your health (Proverbs 18:14; Mark 14:34). Researchers have studied individuals with no prior medical problems who showed symptoms of stress cardiomyopathy including chest pain, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, and even heart failure following a stressful incident. Visit: The Physical Dangers of Stress (Fitness Article)

66. Microorganisms anticipated (Exodus 22:31). The Bible warns Whatever dies naturally or is torn by beasts he shall not eat, to defile himself with it: I am the LORD (Leviticus 22:8). Today we understand that a decaying carcass is full of disease causing germs.

67. The Bible cautions against consuming fat (Leviticus 7:23). Only in recent decades has the medical community determined that fat clogs arteries and contributes to heart disease.

68. Do not consume blood (Leviticus 17:12). A common ritual in many religions in the ancient world was to drink blood. However, the Creator repeatedly told His people to abstain from blood (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 3:17; Acts 15:20; 21:25). Of course, modern science reveals that consuming raw blood is dangerous.

69. The Bible describes dinosaurs (Job 40:15-24). In 1842, Sir Richard Owen coined the word dinosaur, meaning terrible lizard, after discovering large reptilian-like fossils. However in the Book of Job, written 4,000 years earlier, God describes the behemoth as: the largest of all land creatures, plant eating (herbivore), with great strength in its hips and legs, powerful stomach muscles, a tail like a cedar tree, and bones like bars of iron. This is an accurate description of sauropods the largest known dinosaur family. Visit: The Great Dinosaur Mystery (CristianAnswers.net) How Do The Dinosaurs Fit In? (ICR) Did Dinosaurs Survive The Flood? (ICR)

Dragons in Paradise (ICR) Leviathan (ICR) Dinosaurs And The Bible (ICR) Dinosaur Mania and Our Children (ICR)

70. Pleasure explained (Psalm 36:8). Evolution cannot explain pleasure even the most complex chemicals do not experience bliss. However, the Bible states that God gives us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). Pleasure is a gift from God.

71. Life is more than matter and energy (Genesis 2:7; Job 12:7-10). We know that if a creature is denied air it dies. Even though its body may be perfectly intact, and air and energy are reintroduced to spark life, the body remains dead. Scripture agrees with the observable evidence when it states that only God can give the breath of life. Life cannot be explained by raw materials, time, and chance alone as evolutionists would lead us to believe. Visit: Breath And Spirit (ICR)

72. Origin of music explained (Psalm 40:3). Evolution cannot explain the origin of music. The Bible says that every good gift comes from God (James 1:17). This includes joyful melodies. God has given both man and angels the gift of music-making (Genesis 4:21; Ezekiel 28:13). Singing is intended to express rejoicing in and worship of the Lord (Job 38:7; Psalm 95:1-2). Visit: Music or Evolution Musicevidence of creation (Answers In Genesis)

73. Our ancestors were not primitive (Genesis 4:20-22; Job 8:8-10; 12:12). Archeologists have discovered that our ancestors mined, had metallurgical factories, created air-conditioned buildings, designed musical instruments, studied the stars, and much more. This evidence directly contradicts the theory of evolution, but agrees completely with Gods Word. Visit: Ancient civilizations and modern man (Answers In Genesis)

The mystery of ancient man (Answers In Genesis) Language, Creation and the Inner Man (ICR)

74. Cavemen described in the Bible (Job 30:1-8). Four thousand years ago, Job describes certain vile men who were driven from society to forage among the bushes for survival and who live in the clefts of the valleys, (and) in caves of the earth and the rocks. Therefore cavemen were simply outcasts and vagabounds not our primitive ancestors as evolutionists speculate.

75. Environmental devastation of the planet foreseen (Revelation 11:18). Though evolution imagines that things should be getting better, the Bible foresaw what is really occurring today: pollution, destruction and corrupt dominion. Visit: Creation and the Environment (ICR) The Bible, Creation, and Ecology (ICR)

76. The seed of a plant contains its life (Genesis 1:11; 29). As stated in the Book of Genesis, we now recognize that inside the humble seed is life itself. Within the seed is a tiny factory of amazing complexity. No scientist can build a synthetic seed and no seed is simple!

77. A seed must die to produce new life (1 Corinthians 15:36-38). Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:24). In this verse is remarkable confirmation of two of the fundamental concepts in biology: 1) Cells arise only from existing cells. 2) A grain must die to produce more grain. The fallen seed is surrounded by supporting cells from the old body. These supporting cells give their lives to provide nourishment to the inner kernel. Once planted, this inner kernel germinates resulting in much grain.

78. The order of creation agrees with true science (Genesis 1). Plants require sunlight, water, and minerals in order to survive. In the first chapter of Genesis we read that God created light first (v.3), then water (v. 6), then soil (v. 9), and then He created plant life (v. 11).

Visit: What is the order of events in the biblical Creation? (CristianAnswers.net)

79. God created lights in the heavens for signs and seasons, and for days and years (Genesis 1:14-16). We now know that a year is the time required for the earth to travel once around the sun. The seasons are caused by the changing position of the earth in relation to the sun. The moons phases follow one another in clock-like precision constituting the lunar calendar Evolution teaches that the cosmos evolved by random chance, yet the Bible agrees with the observable evidence.

80. The Bible speaks of heaven and the highest heavens (Deuteronomy 10:14). Long before the Hubble Space Telescope, Scripture spoke of the heaven of heavens and the third heaven (1 Kings 8:27; 2 Corinthians 12:2). We now know that the heavens consist of our immediate atmosphere and the vast reaches of outer space as well as Gods wonderful abode.

81. Olive oil and wine useful on wounds (Luke 10:34). Jesus told of a Samaritan man, who when he came upon a wounded traveler, he bandaged him pouring upon his wounds olive oil and wine. Today we know that wine contains ethyl alcohol and traces of methyl alcohol. Both are good disinfectants. Olive oil is also a good disinfectant, as well as a skin moisturizer, protector, and soothing lotion. This is common knowledge to us today. However, did you know that during the Middle Ages and right up till the early 20th century, millions died because they did not know to treat and protect open wounds?

82. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). We are only beginning to probe the complexity of the DNA molecule, the eye, the brain, and all the intricate components of life. No human invention compares to the marvelous wonders of Gods creation. Visit: Mankind- The Pinnacle of God's Creation (ICR)

83. Beauty understood (Genesis 1:31; 2:9; Job 40:10; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Matthew 6:28-30). Beauty

surrounds us: radiant sunsets, majestic mountains, brightly colored flowers, glowing gems, soothing foliage, brilliantly adorned birds, etc. Beauty is a mystery to the evolutionist. However, Scripture reveals that God creates beautiful things for our benefit and His glory. Visit: Beauty (oldpaths.com)

84. Strong and weak nuclear force explained (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3). Physicists do not understand what binds the atoms nucleus together. Yet, the Bible states that all things consist or are held together by the Creator Jesus Christ.

85. Atomic fission anticipated (2 Peter 3:10-12). Scripture states that the elements will melt with fervent heat when the earth and the heavens are dissolved by fire. Today we understand that if the elements of the atom are loosed, there would be an enormous release of heat and energy (radiation).

86. The Pleiades and Orion star clusters described (Job 38:31). The Pleiades star cluster is gravitationally bound, while the Orion star cluster is loose and disintegrating because the gravity of the cluster is not enough to bind the group together. 4,000 years ago God asked Job, "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?" Yet, it is only recently that we realized that the Pleiades is gravitationally bound, but Orion's stars are flying apart.

87. Safe drinking water (Leviticus 11:33-36). God forbade drinking from vessels or stagnant water that had been contaminated by coming into contact with a dead animal. It is only in the last 100 years that medical science has learned that contaminated water can cause typhoid and cholera. Visit: The First Book Of Public Hygiene (Answers In Genesis) Modern medicine? (Answers In Genesis)

88. Pest control (Leviticus 25:1-24). Farmers are plagued today with insects. Yet God gave a sure-

fire remedy to control pests centuries ago. Moses commanded Israel to set aside one year in seven when no crops were raised. Insects winter in the stalks of last years harvest, hatch in the spring, and are perpetuated by laying eggs in the new crop. If the crop is denied one year in seven, the pests have nothing to subsist upon, and are thereby controlled.

89. Soil conservation (Leviticus 23:22). Not only was the land to lay fallow every seventh year, but God also instructed farmers to leave the gleanings when reaping their fields, and not to reap the corners (sides) of their fields. This served several purposes: 1) Vital soil minerals would be maintained. 2) The hedge row would limit wind erosion. 3) The poor could eat the gleanings. Today, approximately four billion metric tons of soil are lost from U.S. crop lands each year. Much of this soil depletion could be avoided if Gods commands were followed.

90. Animal instincts understood (Job 39; Proverbs 30:24-28; Jeremiah 8:7). A newly hatched spider weaves an intricate web without being taught. A recently emerged butterfly somehow knows to navigate a 2,500-mile migration route without a guide. God explains that He has endowed each creature with specific knowledge. Scripture, not evolution, explains animal instincts. Visit: Instinct, Wise Behavior, Unlearned Knowledge And Abilities (oldpaths.com)

91. Animals do not have a conscience (Psalm 32:9). A parrot can be taught to swear and blaspheme, yet never feel conviction. Many animals steal, but they do not experience guilt. If man evolved from animals, where did our conscience come from? The Bible explains that man alone was created as a moral being in Gods image.

92. Pseudo-science anticipated (1 Timothy 6:20). The theory of evolution contradicts the observable evidence. The Bible warned us in advance that there would be those who would profess: profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge (science). True science agrees with the Creators Word.

93. Science confirms the Bible (Colossians 2:3). These insights place the Bible far above every

manmade theory and all other so-called inspired books. In contrast, the Koran states that the sun sets in a muddy pond (Surah 18:86). The Hadith contains many myths. The Book of Mormon declares that Native Americans descended from Jews which has been disproven by DNA research. The Eastern writings also contradict true science. Visit: DNA Evidence And The Book Of Mormon (CristianAnswers.net)

94. Human conscience understood (Romans 2:14-15). The Bible reveals that God has impressed His moral law onto every human heart. Con means with and science means knowledge. We know it is wrong to murder, lie, steal, etc. Only the Bible explains that each human has a God-given knowledge of right and wrong.

95. Love explained (Matthew 22:37-40; 1 John 4:7-12). Evolution cannot explain love. Yet, Gods Word reveals that the very purpose of our existence is to know and love God and our fellow man. God is love, and we were created in His image to reflect His love. Visit: Is Man a "Higher" Animal? (ICR)

96. The real you is spirit (Numbers 16:22; Zechariah 12:1). Personality is non-physical. For example, after a heart transplant the recipient does not receive the donors character. An amputee is not half the person he was before loosing his limbs. Our eternal nature is spirit, heart, soul, mind. The Bible tells us that man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

97. The cause of suffering revealed (Genesis 3; Isaiah 24:5-6). The earth is subject to misery, which appears at odds with our wonderfully designed universe. However, the Bible, not evolution, explains the origin of suffering. When mankind rebelled against God, the curse resulted introducing affliction, pain and death into the world.

98. Death explained (Romans 6:23). All eventually die. The Bible alone explains why we die The soul who sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:20). Sin is transgression of Gods Law. To see if you will die, please review Gods Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). Have you ever lied? (White lies and fibs count.) Ever stolen? (Cheating on a test or taxes is stealing.) Jesus said that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Have you ever looked with lust? Then youre an adulterer at heart. Have you ever hated someone or called someone a fool? If so, the Bible says you are guilty of murder (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15). Have you ever used your Creators name (Lord, God, Jesus, or Christ) in vain? This is called blasphemy and God hates it. If you have broken these commandments at any time, then by your own admission, you are a blasphemer, a murderer, an adulterer, a thief, and a liar at heart. And we have only looked at five of the Ten Commandments. This is why we die.

99. Justice understood (Acts 17:30-31). Our God-given conscience reveals that all sin will be judged. Down deep we know that He who created the eyes sees every secret sin (Romans 2:16). He who formed our mind remembers our past offense as if it just occurred. God has declared that the penalty for sin is death. Physical death comes first, then the second death which is eternal separation from God in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:8). God cannot lie. Every sin will be judged. His justice demands it. But God is also rich in mercy to all who call upon His name. He has made a way for justice to be served and mercy to be shown.

100. Eternal life revealed (John 3:16). Scientists search in vain for the cure for aging and death. Yet, the good news is that God, who is the source of all life, has made a way to freely forgive us so that we may live forever with Him in heaven. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God desires a loving, eternal relationship with each person free from sin, fear, and pain. Therefore, He sent His Son to die as our substitute on the cross. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Jesus never sinned, therefore He alone qualified to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross. He died in our place. He then rose from the grave defeating death. All who turn from their sins and trust Him will be saved. To repent and place your trust in Jesus Christ, make Psalm 51 your prayer. Then read your Bible daily, obeying what you read. God will never let you down.

101. The solution to suffering (Revelation 21). Neither evolution nor religion offers a solution to suffering. But God offers heaven as a gift to all who trust in His Son. In heaven, God will wipe

away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:4).

The Bible is inspired by the Creator. Therefore it is no surprise that lifes ultimate questions are answered within its pages. The Bible reveals the purpose of our existence. Scripture alone explains where our conscience came from. And no other source explains the root cause of death. Seeing that all die, wouldnt it be wise to search for the remedy in the only book that proves it was inspired by God? The Bible offers the only remedy for sin, suffering, and death. Gods Word presents the only perfect, sinless Savior one who died for our sins and rose from the dead. Jesus is the Creator (John 1; Colossians 1). He said I and My Father are one (John 10:30). He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). And He promises His followers: I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish (John 10:28). Your eternal destiny will be determined by your choice. There is only one provision for sin. Jesus died in your place. Only by faith in Christs finished work will you be saved. This is Gods free gift offered to all. Please do not let pride, religion, opinions, or love for sin separate you from God. No sin is worth an eternity in hell. Please heed Jesus words Repent, and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). If you do, you will live in heaven with our awesome Creator forever! IS THE EARTH 6000 YEARS OLD? Steven Collins [www.stevenmcollins.com] The answer to this question has caused a seismic divide between Christians and the modern scientific community. Both sides think that there is no possible way of reconciling their respective differences on this question. Many Christians, thinking that the Bible teaches that the earth and all life on it can be no more than 6,000 years old, answer this question in the affirmative. The scientific community, seeing physical evidence which indicates that the earth and physical Universe is much older than 6,000 years, answers this question in the negative. Additionally, scientists have heard so many Christians assert that the Bible teaches the earth is only 6,000 years old that they reject the Bible as unscientific because of that Christian assertion. Who is right? The answer may surprise you. I believe that each side has a lot of truth on its side, but they have been in disagreement because of a misunderstanding about what the Bible actually says on this subject. Rather than hold back my personal views on the subject until the end of this research report, I will give you my conclusions at its beginning and then substantiate them with biblical and secular evidence. First I shall state categorically that I am a Christian and a biblical literalist who believes that a Creator Being authored the Bible and that it is infallible in its original, inspired texts. I also believe that the book of Genesis teaches that mankind and the species now living on the surface of the earth cannot be older than approximately 6,000 years, and I also believe that God created mankind and all such current species in a literal six-day week of 24-hour days and that he rested on the seventh day. These statements should place me in the mainstream of those

Christian denominations which affirm a literalist understanding of the Bible. Now I have a surprise affirmation for the scientific community. To the scientific community I state that I agree with you that the physical evidence indicates that the Universe and the earth are far older than 6,000 years. However, I state to the scientific community that you have misjudged the Bible. You have rejected the Bible as unscientific because of an oft-stated Christian assertion that the Bible teaches that the earth itself is 6,000 years old. The Bible makes no such statement. When we combine all the biblical statements about creation and take them literally, the Bible actually agrees with scientists that the earth itself is far older than 6,000 years. To my fellow Christians, I state that this research report will show that a literal application of the scriptures will show that while mankind and the species on earth are no more than 6,000 years old, the earth on which mankind and other modern species now live is far older than 6,000 years. This research report will reconcile the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the biblical assertions of a 7-day week of creation circa 6,000 years ago and the scientific assertions that the earth is millions or billions of years old. It will do so by showing that the Bible is in agreement with the scientific community about the ancient age of the earth and Universe, an age of dinosaurs long before mankind, etc. However, this research report will also give the coup de grace to the theory of evolution. I believe many scientists have rejected Creationism because they can see the earth has to be older than 6,000 years so they reject the Bible as unscientific because they think it asserts the earth is no more than 6,000 years old. They have embraced evolution as the only possible alternative. This research report will show biblical creationism is actually the only scientific option. I invite all readers to consider the evidence in this research report and come to your own conclusion on the matter. Lets first consider the assertion that the earth is no more than 6,000 years old. Where does it come from? That statement is nowhere in the Bibleplease check your concordances and confirm it for yourself. That assertion began as an assumed corollary to the research of Archbishop James Ussher, who lived during the 16th and 17th centuries AD and whose calculations and chronologies are sometimes cited as date-references for many chapters in the Bible. In a King James Version of the Bible in my library, Archbishop Usshers proposed dates first appear with the 12th chapter of Genesis where a date of 1921 BC is cited. I allow that other biblical translations may list other dates for chapters of the Bible. Archbishop Ussher faithfully tried to calculate the time of Creation Week by calculating the life spans of biblical characters and their lineages backward from known dates in ancient history. His research resulted in a date of 4004 BC for Creation Week. Indeed, the Encyclopedia Americana notes that this date was widely accepted until the impact of the scientific revolution in the 19th century. Note that the authority of the Bible was accepted in Western cultures until the scientific revolution occurred. That scientific revolution spawned the theory of evolution as an alternative explanation for life on earth when physical evidence began to indicate that the earth had to be older than 6,000 years. Archbishop Usshers chronology and respect for biblical accounts were discarded by the scientific community in the 20th century. However, a critical mistake was made by both churchmen and scientists. Usshers chronology specifically attempted to date when Adam and Eve, the first humans, were created during Creation Week. His

chronology calculated human life spans to determine when the first humans were made. His chronology did not specifically date when the earth itself was created. Churchmen and scientists have both mistakenly assumed the two dating systems are congruous. They are not, as this report will demonstrate. In fact, I dont think Archbishop Ussher was too far off in his dating of the events of Creation Week. There is evidence that he may be fairly accurate in his calculations, but this report is about the age of the earth, and to that subject we return. The first chapter of Genesis contains the primary creation account in the Bible, but there are other scriptures which add important pieces of information about the original creation of the earth that are not in the Genesis account. We must combine and consider all the biblical accounts about the original creation in order to have the full picture. When we do this, the Bible and scientific facts come into complete agreement. Lets start at the beginning in the first chapter of Genesis. Please specifically notice that Gods very first creative words on the first day of the seven-day Creation Week do not begin until Genesis 1:3. Gods very first creative words on the first day of Creation Week were Let there be light and there was lightGod divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. There is nothing in this verse about God creating the earth or the Universe on the first day. On the first day of Creation Week, God simply created the daylight and nighttime portions in a 24-hour day by dividing the light from the darkness. This cycle of days and nights replaced a pervasive darkness which Genesis 1:2 states had previously been extant upon the entire surface of the earth. Genesis 1:2 records the earth was already in existence prior to the beginning of the Creation Week account. Obviously, if the earth already existed prior to Creation Week, it was rotating on its axis around the sun just like it does today, but there were no daytime and nighttime portions to its daily rotational cycle. What happened which created the pervasive darkness on Genesis 1:2 all over the earth? Well fully answer that question later in this report. Notice more about what Genesis 1:2 records prior to anything being spoken or done by God on the first day of Creation Week. Genesis 1:2 (describing conditions on earth prior to the Creation Week account which begins in verse 3) records that: And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The Hebrew word translated the deep is the same word which often refers to the earths oceans during the biblical periods after mankinds creation. Also, the Hebrew word translated earth is the same word for earth in the biblical periods after the creation of mankind. Do you realize the significance of these statements in Genesis 1:2? Genesis1:2 records that the earth and the oceans and a pervasive darkness were already present before Creation Week began! Therefore, ipso facto, the earth itself has to be indefinitely older than anything created during Creation Week. Genesis 1:2 depicts a darkened, lifeless, flooded earth which is already in existence before God does anything in Creation Week. For how long had the earth circled the sun in this darkened, lifeless state? The Bible does not say. The text allows for it to be a short time or a very long period of time. Other factors give us more information to better understand how long the earth was in a lifeless condition before Creation

Week, and well examine them later. Lets now consider some little-noticed scriptures in the Bible about the creation of the earth.. In Job 38, God is speaking to an afflicted man named Job about many aspects of what God did when He first created the earth and the entire Universe. He says to Job: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...Who laid the measures thereof?...Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? God speaks of making the clouds in verse 9, setting the boundaries of the oceans in verses 8-12, and there is a reference to polar icecaps in verses 29-30 where the waters of the deep are frozen. In verse 33, God asks Job if he knows about the ordinances (laws) of heaven? In other words, God asks Job if he knows about the laws of the Universe which govern its movements and its composition. In Isaiah 45, God also makes references to the time when he first made the heavens and the earth. In verses 12 and 18, God states: I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commandedFor thus says the LORD who created the heavens: God himself that formed the earth and made ithe created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am the LORD; and there is none else. [Emphasis added.] Notice that while this verse asserts God made the heavens and the earth and created man upon that earth, God does not state that he made mankind on the earth as soon as the earth was created. It is very important to note that God Himself said that when he first created the earth, he made it NOT in vain, and that he formed it to be inhabited. Job 38s account indicates that when the earth was created, it was so beautiful the morning stars sang and the sons of God shouted for joy! Whoever the morning stars and sons of God were, would they have sung and shouted for joy if the earth was originally created as a dark, flooded, lifeless place as Genesis 1:2 states it was before Creation Week began? I think not. I believe they shouted for joy and sang because God made a beautiful, verdant earth which was originally created in a state which teemed with life. He says he made it to be inhabited at the time he first created the earth, not long afterwards. However, this scripture does not state God made mankind to initially inhabit the earth. Furthermore, this passage makes no allowance for any evolutionary creationism in which a long period of chaos and lifelessness existed from which evolution developed life forms over eons. The earth was made to be inhabited at its beginning. It was not initially created as a lifeless, darkened, flooded mess. What happened to the beautiful earth that inspired heavenly beings to sing and shout for joy and which was made to be inhabited? How do we reconcile this seeming conflict? It is easy when we consider all the Bibles creation accounts together. The original creation of the earth and Universe to which God refers in Job 38 and Isaiah 45 is not the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. The creation accounts in Job 38 and Isaiah 45 refer to the original creation which is barely mentioned without any additional details in Genesis 1:1! Genesis 1:1 states: In the beginning, God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth.[Emphasis added.] The Hebrew word translated heaven in Genesis 1:1 is the same word translated heavens in Isaiah 45:12 and 18. Genesis 1:1 is a reference to the time when God initially created the heavens and the earth, not to the later Creation Week account when he created mankind and the other current life forms now on the earth.

The initial creation of the earth and heavens is the subject of the creation accounts in Job 38 and Isaiah 45. The Genesis 1:1 account merely mentions that there was an original creation of the heaven and earth at an indefinite time prior to Creation Week, but the Job and Isaiah narratives add more information about that original creation. These accounts reveal that when God originally formed the earth, he made it to be inhabited (i.e. a place which supported life). Job 38:9 mentions the initial creation of the earth included clouds. This means the earth was initially created with an atmosphere and a water cycle. This means the earths atmosphere had breathable air and the water circulation cycle of evaporation, condensation into clouds and rainfall upon the earth was also present. The evaporation and condensation of water indicates that there were heating and cooling cycles upon the earths original surface. This argues for daylight and nighttime portions within a day as the earth rotated on its axis after its initial creation. Job 38:8-12 adds this original creation not only had clouds and oceans, but it also had dry land. Verses 10-11 record that God set boundaries (bars and doors) on the ocean and decreed that its waves could go no further. Waves break upon beaches of dry land and go no further as the waters recede back to the ocean. There had to be dry land in the initial creation of the earth for waves to break upon a shore. Gravity and atmospheric pressure also keep water levels in their place, so both these forces also had to be present when God initially made the earth. Job 38:9 refers to a thick darkness, but I believe this refers to the normal nighttime portion of the earths rotation on its axis. Genesis 1:2s darkness was unending and that account mentions a flooded earth which no longer had dry land (a fact attested to by the account in Genesis 1:9 which states that God made dry land again appear during Creation Week). What the Bible is actually describing in Genesis 1:1, Job 38:4-12 and Isaiah 45:12 & 18 is the initial creation of the earth and Universe by God. The originally-created earth was a place of land, oceans and clouds and it was created to be inhabited. It was so beautiful and verdant the morning stars and sons of God sang and shouted for joy! Who were these morning stars and sons of God and why were they so excited? They were excited because God had made a stunningly-beautiful place for them to live. One thing is certain. These morning stars and sons of God couldnt have been Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:7 states that Adam was formed from the dust of the earth after the earth was created, and Eve was created soon after Adam. Genesis 1:26-28 add that Adam and Eve (the first humans) were not created until the sixth day of Creation Week. Therefore, Adam and Eve could not have sang and shouted for joy at the original creation of the earth because the Bible plainly states they were created out of the elements of the earth at an unspecified time after the earth was created. The morning stars and sons of God had to be angelic/spirit beings who lived prior to the creation of the physical Universe. The word star is used a number of times in the Bible to indicate angels. Examples of this imagery are found in Revelation 1:20 and also in Revelation 12:3-4 where the dragon (Lucifer/Satan) caused the third part of the stars of heaven (the angels) to fall. Isaiah 14:12-15 also refers to angels as stars in its account of Lucifers rebellion against God. Jude 13 refers to angels as stars after their fall. We do not know how many angels there are or how many eventually rebelled, but Revelation 5:11 gives a glimpse of a heavenly scene at Gods throne at which over 100,000,000 angelic beings are present. Since Lucifer led

1/3rd of the angels to rebel against their Creator, the number of rebellious angels had to run into many millions of angels. Jude 1:6 also refers to the time of Lucifers rebellion against God. It states: And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness Notice that Lucifer and his rebellious angels left their proper place of habitation when they rebelled against God. Where was their proper place of habitation? Isaiah 14:12-15 gives us the answer. In this account of Lucifers angelic rebellion, verse 13 records that Lucifer thought he could dethrone his own Creator and exalt himself over the entire heavenly realm. Verse 14 states that Lucifer ascend[ed] above the heights of the clouds when he left his normal habitation and tried to exalt himself to be like the Most High. Putting Jude 1:6 and Isaiah 14:12-15 together, it is evident that Lucifers first estate or place of habitation was the earth itself because Lucifers original habitation had clouds over it. Clouds are indicative of a planetary atmosphere, and Job 38:9 recorded the earth had clouds when it was first created. Lucifer was given authority by God over the original earth, the angels upon it and whatever physical life forms lived upon the initial creation of the earth. It is evident that at some point after the heavenly beings shouted for joy when God first made the earth to be inhabited, God delegated to Lucifer and his complement of angels the supervision of the physical earth. The earth was their place of habitation. When Lucifer later rebelled by leaving his place of habitation to ascend to heaven in a rebellion to dethrone God, Lucifer was defeated and hurled back down to their proper place of habitation. Jesus Christ stated in Luke 10:18 that he had seen Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Jesus had to be referring to his own pre-existent Divine state (John 1:1-3, 10-14, 17:5, Philippians 2:5-11) when he saw Satan hurled down to the earth. Since the pre-existent Jesus was the one who made all things in the first place (John 1:1-3), he very likely was the one who threw Lucifer (later called Satan) back to his original place of habitation. However, the beautiful earth that God originally made to be inhabited by Lucifer and many angels was destroyed in the course of this heavenly warfare. Jude 6 records that Satan and the angels who left their proper place of habitation were placed in chains under darkness. Jude 13 likens them to wandering stars amidst the raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. This post-rebellion state of the earth (with raging waves and darkness) sounds exactly like Genesis 1:2 which records the earth became without form and void (KJV) and that darkness was upon the face of the deep. How different the post-rebellion earth was from the earth that was originally created! The original earth was beautiful and inhabited with an atmosphere, clouds, dry land, etc. The post-rebellion earth was a darkened and flooded earth which had no sunshine or dry land. Given what Job 38 and Isaiah 45 tell us about the earths beautiful original creation, something catastrophic befell the earth between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Scientists now know that the earth has experienced several periods of mass extinction. The Bible agrees. Such an event happened between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

In Genesis 1:2, we are told that the earth was without form and void just prior to the beginning of Creation Week in Genesis 1:3. The Hebrew word translated without form is tohu, which also means waste, wilderness, or empty place. However, Isaiah 45:18 specifically records that when God first made the earth, he did not create it in a tohu state but rather formed it in a habitable state! Lets insert this distinction into the Genesis account. God originally created an earth in Genesis 1:1, which, according to Isaiah 45:18, was not tohu, but in Genesis 1:2, the earth had become tohu. The explanation for this radical change in the earth is explained in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation 12:4 and the book of Jude. Lucifer and his angels who had inhabited the verdant earth left the earths atmosphere to rebel against God and dethrone their Creator! They lost this heavenly war and were hurled back to the earth by God. We can only imagine how spirit beings fight each other in the heavenly dimension, but the Bible gives us indications that the physical consequences of such a war resulted in an extinction level event for the earth and all physical creatures on its surface. This tohu state of the originallybeautiful earth was a result of Lucifers rebellion and the subsequent war in heaven. When Lucifer and his rebellious angels were hurled back to earth (Luke 10:18), this heavenly war wiped out all physical life on the earth that Lucifer had governed. The earth was surely devastated during the heavenly war (after all, planet earth was the home base of the losing side). Do spirit beings hurl comets, meteors, etc. at each other or at each others domains during a heavenly war? This would account for the pock-marked appearance of planets and moons all over our solar system. It is obvious that many meteors or other objects (large and small) have impacted on the surfaces of the planets and moons in this solar system. Evolutionists think that these impacts happened over eons of time. That is possible, but it is more likely that many of our solar systems impact craters were made during the heavenly war between Lucifers angels and Gods angels. It is sobering to think that our own solar system was the source of a heavenly rebellion in which millions of spirit beings rebelled against their Creator King. It is no wonder this solar system shows a lot of residual damage. Indeed, the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars may constitute the remnants of a planet which exploded during this heavenly war. One even wonders if the habitation of Lucifer and his angels was only the earth or did it include our entire solar system? Science has found some evidence which argues that Mars once had an atmosphere and flowing water. Perhaps more than one planet in this solar system had a verdant surface prior to Lucifers rebellion, and only the earth itself had its surface and life restored by God after that rebellion. If scientists ever find evidence of anaerobic or fossilized life forms on Mars, it will not prove evolution. It will actually indicate that Gods initial creation of life in this solar system included more planets that just the earth. The Bible is silent on this possibility so whatever Science finds will not conflict with anything in the Bible. It is likely that God hurled more than Lucifer and his angels back to the earths surface. There may have been a storm of physical objects hurled down upon the earth at the same time the rebellious angels were thrown to the earths surface. One very large impact, known as the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan region of Mexico was large enough all by itself that scientists have surmised that its damage could have rendered the world of the dinosaurs extinct. When the original earth was destroyed, its dry land (Job 38:8-11) was immersed in a global flood, and the earths surface was darkened. What the Bible may be describing in Genesis 1:2 was something

akin to a nuclear winter which existed in the aftermath of the annihilation of the dinosaurs and all physical life on the earths surface. How long did the earth stay in the darkened, flooded state described in Genesis 1:2? We do not know, but Jude 13 indicates the fallen angels roamed the landless, darkened oceans for an unspecified period of time. Was it a few weeks or millions of years? We simply cannot say. The Bibles narratives allow for this period of time to be an indefinitely long one or a very short one. The concept of time for spirit beings is entirely different than it is for us humans. What we humans perceive as eons of time may be perceived as a short period of time by spirit beings. These ages of the angels living peacefully on earth in their original habitation, the time of Lucifers rebellion and the destruction of our earth as well as the subsequent period of flooded darkness all took place before Creation Week ever began. How could Lucifer ever think that he could possibly overthrow the Creator who had brought him into existence? Such an action sounds like sheer madness. Some have opined that vanity and pride alone motivated his rebellion. Isaiah 14:12-15 records that Lucifer had an attitude of selfexaltation at the time of his rebellion, so that could be all the explanation that is needed. However, I think the answer goes much deeper than that. Before resuming the narrative of how old the earth may be, the following digression will outline my view of what motivated Lucifers rebellion. It is not necessary that the reader agree with my viewpoint, but I offer it for your consideration. To examine this subject in greater detail, we will consider another account of Lucifers creation and his downfall. That account is found in Ezekiel 28:12-17. Ezekiel 28:12 begins as a lamentation for the king of Tyre, but the following verses make it clear that this is a typology for Lucifer himself. Verse 13 states that the subject of this lamentation was in Eden, the garden of God. No human king of Tyre was ever in Eden, but this is a lamentation about a ruler who began noble and right and turned to the dark side. Indeed, the ruler who is the subject of this lamentation invented the dark side when he sinned. Verse 12 adds tha tthis ruler was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13 adds that he had a bejeweled appearance and he must have been gifted in music as tabrets and pipes (musical instruments) are mentioned. Verse 13 adds that this ruler was a created being who was brought into existence by God. Verse 14 states he was the anointed cherub that covereth (KJV) that God set on the holy mountain of God. Verse 15 cites God as saying to this ruler you were perfect in your ways till iniquity was found in you. After he became iniquitous, God cast him as profaneout of the mountain of God. Verse 17 pronounces that God would cast this corrupted ruler to the ground because his heart was lifted up because of his beauty, wisdom and brightness. This account can only refer to the creation, and subsequent corruption, of Lucifer. Biblical accounts indicate cherubim are mighty and high-ranking angels. Lucifer was called a covering cherub which may indicate that his wings at one time covered the throne of God (Exodus 25:10-22 shows the Ark of the Covenant was constructed to depict cherubs whose wings would cover the mercy seat of the ark). Remember that the angels shouted for joy when God first created the earth? Lucifer was apparently given the choice assignment of being the ruler of the beautiful, new earth, and he had a large number of angels assigned to him.

I think we too quickly overlook the fact that Ezekiel 28:15 records that Lucifer was perfect in [his] ways from the day that [he] was created. He sealed up the sum (verse 12) of wisdom and perfect beauty. Lucifer may have been the mightiest and most gifted angel that God ever made. When God makes something or someone perfect, it is logical that it will not go bad for a very, very long time. Lucifer could have overseen and ruled the earth for eons in righteousness before he became lifted up in his heart and became corrupted. His period of righteousness as a governing angel could have lasted millions or billions of years (as we understand time). The Bible simply doesnt say how long Lucifer was righteous before he went bad. Also, did he just snap and go bad in an instant or did the process of corruption develop slowly over a long time and come to an irrevocable transformation only when he rebelled openly against God and initiated a war in the heavens. I think the latter option is the correct one. Keep in mind that time (as we humans define, experience and understand it) only exists on earth and in the physical realm. This may sound surprising, but it is true. Consider that our human definitions of time are divided into days, months, weeks, years, etc. Have you ever considered that we define our continuum of existence as we do only because we live on the earths surface? One revolution of the earth on its axis is called a day. One lunar cycle is called a month. One orbit of the earth around the sun is called a year. All other units of time are either subsections or multiples of these units of time. If astronauts could travel throughout the solar system or beyond it, how meaningful would such terms as days, hours or years become if humans ceased to experience time in earthly terms? If astronauts could travel at warp speed around the Universe, would our earthly units of time have any meaning? No. Einsteins theory of relativity revealed that time is a variable aspect of the time-space continuum. Experiments have shown that as speed accelerates greatly, a person traveling at a very great speed would experience time at a different rate than someone who is not moving at a great rate of speed. If this is a known aspect of our physical dimension, how might time be different in the perspective of spirit beings who dont have bodies which die and who may not be bound to the earths surface? James 4:14 states that our human life spans are like mere vapors or temporary mists which are over in a moment when viewed from the perspectives of spirit beings. II Peter 3:8 states one day with the Lord is like a thousand years for us, and Peter was likely citing a similar observation made by David in Psalm 90:4. If we apply these time comparisons literally, it would mean that mankinds entire history of approximately 6000 years is so far no more than a six-day project for God. Now lets consider the time of Lucifers rule over the earth when he and his angels lived on this planet as their first estate and before they ascended above the clouds in a rebellion against their Maker which resulted in their being cast down back to earth after a war in heaven. How long did Lucifer reign over angels on earth in a perfect state before his rebellion? Isaiah 14:13 states that Lucifer did have a throne from which he launched his rebellion to overthrow God. I think Lucifer reigned a very long time on earth before he went bad, and I believe the scientific fossil record (which scientists believe records life forms over many millions of years) supports such a viewpoint. What was it that caused Lucifer to be lifted up in vanity to try and dethrone his own Creator? What could possibly give Lucifer the idea that he could win a war against the Creator God who had made Lucifer and his angels?

The Bible offers very little information, but I am going to offer you a hypothesis that could answer these questions. Please keep in mind that I am not certain of this and Im not making doctrine in this proposal. I am simply offering you a hypothesis to consider, because we know that Lucifer did rebel against God and launch an invasion into the heavens from his throne on earth, after which he and his angels were hurled back to this planet in ignominious defeat. When Lucifer launched his invasion against Gods heavenly realm, I think he expected to win his war. If Lucifer possessed only angelic powers, it would be madness for him to think he could successfully rebel against his own Creator. While such madness is possible, it does not account for another very important aspect of his rebellion. Revelation 12:4 indicates that Lucifer (the dragon) incited one-third of all the angels to join his revolt against their Creator. Did they all suddenly go mad together? I think the answer to this mystery is far deeper, and more awesome, than Christians have even imagined. What follows is intellectual grist for mature Christians to consider. It is not for the faint of heart. When Lucifer rebelled against the Most High God, he did so because something had happened which caused Lucifer to think that he was also a God who could fight his Creator on equal terms. Also, whatever that something was, it also convinced 1/3rd of the angels that Lucifer was, indeed, a rival God who could win a war against the Most High God. What follows is a hypothesis which explains what might have occurred. Surprisingly, this hypothesis is suggested and supported by the evidence under our feet in the scientifically-excavated fossil record. Scientific analysis of the earths strata argues that the earliest life forms found in the oldest strata of the earth were relatively small and innocuous and not as large or impressive as in later periods. Scientists call this the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era. Then life forms became more complex and larger as geologic time passed and the Paleozoic Period changed into the Mesozoic Era. The Mesozoic was the age dominated by reptiles. The Encyclopedia Americana states that the Triassic Period, the first phase of the Mesozoic Era saw the appearance of flying pterosaurscrocodiles, and marine reptiles plesiosaurs [as well as] mammal-like reptiles which included small predators and vegetarian species. The next Period of the Mesozoic Era was the Jurassic Period. This featured the bigger predatory and prey species of dinosaurs like those featured in the movie Jurassic Park. The Americana states of the Jurassic Period that abrupt and substantial changes in animal life separate the Triassic and Jurassic Periods [and that] the dinosaurs diversified greatly, producing many bipedal and quadrupedal carnivores and herbivores, including the largest land animal of all time (Brachiosaurus). [Some emphasis added.] The Cretaceous Period followed the Jurassic Period in the Mesozoic Era and it was also an age of large dinosaurs which were more heavily-armored and more deadly in their anatomic weaponry. The Americana states concerning the Cretaceous that pterosaurs grew to enormous size and that other dinosaur types included the T-Rex, ankylosaurs and triceratops. Ankylosaurs and triceratops were armored and weaponized prey species, and all dinosaur fans know about TRexs weaponry as a predator. Did you notice an inexorable trend as the geologic eons passed? Life forms began as rather innocuous species. They grew larger and more serpent-like (reptilian) over time, and they also grew more armored and deadly. There was a time when there were abrupt and substantial

changes in life forms on the earth and when dinosaurs diversified greatly. Scientists see rapid evolutionary changes in these instances. I see something very different. It is also noteworthy that the dominant life forms on earth (and the main combatant dinosaurs with more-specialized offensive and defensive anatomical weaponry) were all reptilian, serpentine or dragon-like in design. Genesis 1 indicates that the original Creator (the Elohim in the Hebrew tongue) of the Genesis Week creation made a peaceful world in which all creatures lived in harmony without conflict. The animals did not rip apart and eat each other in Eden. I John 4:8 says categorically that God is love, and Acts 3:20-21 prophesies that there will eventually come a time when our fallen world will experience a restitution of all things when Jesus Christ returns. Isaiah 11:6-9 indicates that the natures of all predators and creatures will again be peaceful in the Messianic Age (the millennium in Christian parlance) and that they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. This prophecy states that there will be no predatory nature in any animals after Jesus Christ returns. Malachi 3:6 declares that God does not change, and Hebrews 13:8 declares the same thing about Jesus Christ (he is the same yesterday, today and forever). God is not the author of a world in which huge animal creatures prey upon and rip each other apart in contests between offensive and defensive anatomical weaponry. The dinosaurian world dug up in the fossil record is entirely alien to the kind of Creation which is made by the Creator God of the Bible (Yahweh Elohim). It is clear that the dinosaurian age was climaxed by a time when physical, reptilian creatures battled with immense teeth, claws, armored plates, spikes and clubs built into their bodies. This leads to an obvious, but hitherto unspoken conclusion: it was not the peaceful Creator God of the Bible who made those armored, serpentine dinosaurs which could wage war upon each other. If the loving Most High God did not make that dinosaurian world, who did? This brings us back to Lucifer, who sat on the throne of earths prehistoric world, and who came to think of himself as a God who was the equal of the Most High. Millions of subordinate angels also must have considered Lucifer to be a God who could lead them to victory over the Most High God. When God creates things, they are perfect and peaceful. But sin can alter and mar what God makes. Lucifer was created perfect, but eventually fell from his exalted status and became sinful to the point he openly waged war against his Creator. (Isaiah 14:12-14, Ezekiel 38:12-15). How could this have happened? Lets review. While Isaiah 14 uses the name Lucifer (shining one), Ezekiel 28s prophecy about this covering cherub who was in Eden personifies Lucifer as a king of Tyre. Obviously, no king of Tyre was a covering cherub who walked in the Garden of Eden, so a very high spirit being is being personified in this account. Both accounts discuss a high spirit being who became corrupted, so we are discussing Lucifer in both accounts. Ezekiel 38 tells of Lucifers stellar origins. Verse 12 records of Lucifer: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13 states he was in Eden and that he was adorned with precious jewels and gold and that he had tabrets and pipes (musical instruments) on the day on which he was created. Gods Eden was a gorgeous perfect place for all the angels to inhabit. Remember that the angels shouted for joy when they first saw the earth created by God at its beginning (Genesis 1:1, Job 38:7, Isaiah 45:18). Ezekiel 38:14 says Lucifer was an anointed cherub that covers, indicating he had wings like the cherubs who covered the seat of God on

the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10-22). Ezekiel 38:15 states concerning Lucifer that he was: perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you. Lucifer was arguably the most perfect, gifted and powerful angel that God ever made. After his fall, Lucifer was renamed Satan and scriptures describe him as reptilian, dragon-like or serpentine in appearance (Genesis 3:1-14, II Corinthians 11:3,Revelation 12:3-4, 7-9; 15, 17; 13:2-4, 11; 16:3, 20:2). The earths prehistoric period was dominated by serpents and reptilian creatures with the dinosaurs being the largest serpents or dragons of all time! At some point after the dinosaurs attained their largest sizes and most-dangerous anatomical weaponry, they were annihilated. Do we see a connection between the physical and spiritual realms here? I think we do. Lucifer originally ruled in perfection over the earths creatures. They were small and rather nonthreatening. Scientists tell us this period of time lasted for millions of years. Then dramatic changes occurred. Large serpentine dinosaurs came into being in the air, land and sea. Here is what I think happened (but keep in mind I propose this as a postulate based on biblical accounts and scientific evidence). After millions of years (as measured in physical time), Lucifer may have approached God and asked if there could be more variety in the life forms on earth. Did Lucifer eventually ask for the right to make his own designs of physical life forms on earth? Did he ask once or repeatedly over a long period of time? We do not know. However, at some point, I believe God delegated to Lucifer some creative power to design new physical creatures to live on the earth ruled by Lucifer. This would have been unprecedented! Gods delegation of creative powers to Lucifer would have been seen by the other angels as a stunning and unique honor, which it was. I believe Lucifer received this incredible gift and began to make new life forms on earth which were mostly in the general image of Lucifer himself: serpentine and reptilian in form. Lucifer made many new reptilian designs for physical creatures and he made them larger and more powerful as the eons passed by. As the eons passed by, it may have been that Lucifer was the only being creating life forms (i.e. exercising God powers) as the Most High God in heaven simply watched things unfold. I think God had a deep purpose he did not share with Lucifer. In giving Lucifer creative powers to exercise on earth, God was testing Lucifer. God was doing a lab test to see if the most perfect angelic being ever made could successfully handle a dispensation of Divine powers. Hebrews 1:5-6 records that God never regarded any angel (including Lucifer) as his son who was begotten of God Himself. Angels are spirit beings, but they are not composed of the Divine Holy Spirit. If God delegated some creative powers to Lucifer on earth, it did not make Lucifer a son or a member of the Elohim. However, as Lucifer exercised creative powers over a succession of epochs on earth, Lucifer came to see himself as a God. The angels that served underneath his authority came to see him as one too. Above we noted that the Bible shows God creates perfect, peaceful things which do not hurt or destroy each other. The massive predatory dinosaurs had teeth for ripping massive chunks out of other dinosaurs bodies, while their massive prey could fight back with armor-plating, spear-like projections from their heads, defensive plates and armor, clubs or spikes on their tails or have such massive size (like the brachiosaurus) that a mere swing of their tails could kill a predator. Do we see a taste for blood sport being developed among Lucifer and his angels on earth in the

dinosaurian period? Did Lucifer sit like a Roman Caesar entertaining his subordinate angels with ever-greater dinosaurian combat games with the entire earth as the arena? As spirit beings, they were not threatened by the combat as the dinosaurs fought, competed and died as the angels watched. The fleshly beasts became just expendable objects for the amusement of Lucifer and his angels. Over time, beings developing a taste for blood sport would logically reach a point where they wanted to participate in the combat themselves. As the dinosaur age reached its apogee of large-scale combat and death, Lucifers mind conceived the unthinkable. After all, he thought, he was a God just like the Most High God. Why shouldnt he lead his loyal legions of angels into a contest with the Almighty and become the Top God himself? Isaiah 14:12-15 says this is exactly what occurred. Isaiah 13-15 states of Lucifer at the point he decided to rebel against God: For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of GodI will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Lucifer led his angels in a pearl harbor type of surprise attack against the very throne of God and there was war in heaven when Gods angels fought Lucifers angels. The archangel, Michael, was apparently the leader of the angels who stayed loyal to the Most High God (Revelation 12:7). How immortal angels fight each other is beyond human knowledge to describe. How long this war lasted we do not know. We do know that the home base of Lucifers invasion was the planet earth. It was the earth that was the fallen angels first estate (Jude 6), and they ascended with Lucifer above the clouds as they rose in rebellion against their Maker. Our entire solar system bears the marks of a cosmic war in heaven. The planets and moons are pock-marked with wounds made by heavenly objects hurled into this solar system like cosmic shrapnel. The asteroid belt is apparently the result of a planet which blew apart due to unimaginable stresses placed on it. During this war, I think God allowed it to progress to the point where every angels loyalty had been tested and determined. Each angel made a choice in this war. They could not stay neutral. When the Elohim (the God of the Bible) finally intervened directly in the war among the angels, Lucifer and his angels were quickly hurled like lightning back to the earth (Luke 10:18). Huge cosmic objects bombarded Lucifers home base as well (the Chixelub crater on/near Mexicos Yucatan Peninsula being one such example). Their collective impacts destroyed all the life forms that Lucifer had made, and the dinosaurs went extinct. Jude 6 says the rebellious angels were kept under darkness and were likened to raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness This post-destruction condition on earth sounds familiar. Genesis 1:2 states that before Creation Week occurred, the earth had become tohu. It was destroyed. That same verse relates the earth had darkness upon the face of the deep or the face of the waters. The earth, created to be inhabited and so beautiful that the angels shouted for joy, was not originally a lifeless, darkened, flooded orb. However, genesis 1:2 says it became one. How long the fallen angels roamed around like raging waves on the darkened, flooded

earth is unknown. It could have been eons, but a piece of scientific evidence implies that time may have been relatively short. You may have read about a prehistoric fish called the Coelacanth. Coelacanths were presumed to be an extinct prehistoric fish, and the Encyclopedia Americana relates that 25 genera of fossil coelacanths have been discovered. In 1938 a fisherman caught a living coelacanth in his fishing net and a few others have been found since in the Indian Ocean. Do these modern specimens of prehistoric fish date to an origin in the Luciferian period or were they re-created during Genesis Week? Either explanation would suffice to explain their existence, but Im inclined to opt for the former explanation. Coelacanths can live at great depths of the ocean so they thrive in an oxygen-poor environment. The catastrophes which obliterated all life on the earths surface when the dinosaurs were wiped out and the earth was flooded would not automatically guarantee that all deep aquatic life would be exterminated. The coelacanths found in the Indian Ocean are on the other side of the planet from where the Chicxulub crater was formed, so the destructive wave actions of that impact would have been less where the modern Coelacanths were found (literally, on the other side of the earth). Coelacanths surviving the Chicxulub impact would have plenty of organic detritus to scavenge for a long time, but the oceans would have become starved of oxygen in a predictable period of time since there were no plants on earth to sustain photosynthesis when the surface of the earth was darkened. The lack of oxygen would eventually have rendered even the Coelacanths extinct, unless the period of watery darkness was rather limited. Since God created the earth to be inhabited, its period of darkness and desolation would have run counter to his original will. This argues that God took creative action to bring forth life on the earth again before much time passed. The Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3 describes how God again turned the surface of the earth back into a verdant place teeming with life. The coelacanths are a graphic, living example that there is no such thing as evolution. As the Americana observes, Coelacanths are a life form that has been preserved almost unchanged for many millions of years. [Emphasis added.] Coelacanths prove that life forms do not evolve into new and different life forms over time. Life forms either adapt within their environmental capacities or they die. They continue to (in the words of Genesis) beget life after their own kind or they go extinct. The coelacanths clearly did not evolve into anything else. Yet contrary to all self-evident logic, the Americana goes on to opine that prehistoric coelacanths experienced massive evolutionary changes, and they crawled out of the oceans and became the ancestors of all land forms, including man himself. It takes incredible chutzpah to assert such a wild fantasy in the very same article that notes objective, observable scientific evidence confirming that coelacanths have been almost unchanged for millions of years. Such are the radical intellectual inconsistencies of the evolutionists! After Lucifer and his defeated angels were hurled back to earth, it was not just their physical realm which changed. Lucifers creative powers were withdrawn by God, and the rebellious angelic beings of light were all darkened as well. They lost much of their power and potency. Lucifer and his angels learned that what God gives, God can take away. Lucifer had exercised creative power for so many eons that he thought his delegated powers were permanently his to wield. He was wrong. His vanity had led Lucifer to make a terrible mistake. He had lost sight of the fact that he was merely a created being, and that his Creator would always be superior to any

and all creatures made by that Creator. Isaiah 14:12 laments How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Lucifers name was changed and he has become Satan, the Adversary of God, ever since. At an unknown point in time after the destruction of Lucifers kingdom on earth, God again recreated life on the earth. However, serpent-like creatures in the image of Lucifer no longer dominated the new creation. Mammals and mankind, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:2627), were the dominant life forms, and they were created in an Eden where all life forms lived peacefully. Genesis 1:3-31 describes that re-creation of life on the earth as occurring in a period of six, 24-hour days, each composed of an evening and a morning. God created new continents of dry land to emerge from the oceans, and he made both flora and fauna during that initial week. This was necessary as oxygen-breathing fauna and oxygen-producing flora had to come into existence at the same time for either group to survive. It is folly to think that one group could come into existence without the other. The oxygen-carbon dioxide ratio would not permit any life to live unless the atmospheric gases were balanced by an equivalent number of flora and fauna coming into existence at the same time. God also created a massive firmament of water vapor above the earths atmosphere (Genesis 1:6-8), accounting for the sudden absence of much of the earths water, allowing dry land to again appear above the oceans. God could also dig out huge depths to the ocean (i.e. like the Marianas trench) to accomplish the appearance of dry land. Verses 14-19 describe the creation of two great lights to rule the day and night. Clearly, there had to be a sun in order to warm the earth and for photosynthesis to occur when God made the original flora and fauna on the earth. This begs a question: If God created the sun during Creation Week, what happened to the light-source from the prehistoric period? Obviously, for prehistoric flora and fauna to exist, there had to be a light-source to both provide heat and to sustain photosynthesis (science has proven there were prehistoric plants as well as animals). Since Genesis 1:2 records everything went dark on the earth after Lucifers war against God, it is apparent that the prehistoric sun somehow went dark during the heavenly war or due to Gods actions. Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24 and Luke 23:45 all prophesy the sun will again be darkened at the end of our current age, so a darkened sun after the war in heaven would not a one time event. God, the Creator of all the heavens and the earth, can turn our sun (a star) on and off like we can turn a light switch on and off. Mankind, deeply deceived by evolutionary fables, will be terrified in the latter days of our age when it witnesses the shocking physical effects of another war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9) occurring in our solar system. This future war in heaven will be the opposite scenario of the first war in heaven. In the previous heavenly war, Satan and his angels invaded Gods heavenly realm. In the future heavenly war, Gods forces will counterattack. Jesus Christ will lead an immense army of spirit beings in an invasion of Satans kingdom (the earth) to dethrone Satan and bind all his angels and put down all human rebellion on earth (Revelation 19:11-21). Michael is revealed to be Gods chief angel in charge of his angelic armies (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 12:7). Lucifer/Satan (and all his angels) will be defeated and imprisoned for 1000 earth years while Jesus Christ and his resurrected and redeemed saints govern the earth (Revelation 20:1-4) in a way which returns earth to its original Eden-like status. At some point during this war, mankind will be permitted to see the spirit beings involved in this warfare (Matthew 24:29-30).

Let us return to Creation Week, which began in Genesis 1:3. After God made all the new kinds of species on the earths surface and in the skies as well as in the oceans, he made mankind on the sixth day. God (the Elohim) had learned that even the mightiest angel that could be made could not be trusted with Elohim-like, creative powers. Lord Actons observation that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely was apparently true long before Lord Acton ever lived. So God made a new type of creature. He made a man and a woman, but these were not animals. He made man and woman in the image and likeness of the Creator Elohim, but in a physical form (Genesis 1:26). Mankind was made for companionship and fellowship with the Creator God. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God prior to their fall in Eden. Perhaps if Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have received creative power to see if they, with the help of the Holy Spirit of the Elohim in their minds, could handle creative power. However, they fell when they were tempted and beguiled by the serpent who was none other than Lucifer/Satan (Genesis 3, II Corinthians 11:3). Thankfully, mankind can be redeemed because a member of the Elohim emptied himself (Philippians 2:5-11) and became flesh (I John 4:2, John 1:1-14) in the person of Jesus Christ. He became our atoning sacrifice when he gave his life to ransom mankind. All who repent and come to the Elohim (God) through Jesus Christ experience the forgiveness of sins and, ultimately, will be transformed into spirit beings in the future when Christ returns (Matthew 24:29-31, I Corinthians 15:42-53). The events postulated above are an expanded and detailed version of what some Christians call the gap theory (that there is a gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2). However, since the fossil record and archeological findings are entirely consistent with and supportive of the the gap theory, I believe the gap theory is quite factual and provable in both the scriptures and via the physical evidence underneath our feet. Efforts to fit the entire age of the dinosaurs and the entire fossil record into the last 6,000 years simply dont work. Given that God is a Creator Being of infinite age, there is no need to limit his entire creative efforts to merely the last 6,000 years. Also, since God made Lucifer perfect in his original angelic form, what God makes perfect will take a very, very long time to reach a point of terminal corruption. There are two other pieces of biblical evidence that supports the concept that Genesis 1:1 mentions (barely) an initial creation of the earth and Genesis 1:3 begins a detailed account of a later re-creation of life on the earths surface after all previous life on earth had experienced a global extinction. When Noah and his family were later saved from another Divinely-caused, global Flood, they walked out of the Ark into a very different world than the one they had previously lived in. The atmospheric canopy was gone, the continents and topography of the earth were different, atmospheric pressure was less due to the elimination of the weight of the canopy, the soils had many of their nutrients scoured off and washed into the oceans, etc. God gave Noah and his family a heavenly sign never previously seen by mankinda rainbowas a token of his promise that He would never again destroy the earth by a Flood (Genesis 9:8-17). The massive pre-Flood canopy of water vapor had apparently prevented the refraction of light in the pre-Flood atmosphere so that a rainbow could previously never be seen. That God said he would no more use Floods to destroy all life on earth strongly infers that Floods had been Gods established method of destroying corrupted life on earth and that he had used that method before!

Genesis 1:2 recorded that a global Flood had devastated the earth just prior to Creation Weeks account which began in Genesis 1:3. That God Himself indicated global Floods had been his usual method for destroying corrupted life and civilizations on earth, it strongly infers that the global Flood in Genesis 1:2 had also destroyed all physical life on earth (the dinosaurs and plants of the Luciferian world). The second point is in Genesis 9:1. There is no question that the pre-Flood world was full of human beings, animals and life forms which were wiped out by the Flood that Noahs family survived. Notice that God told Noahs family: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. The word replenish clearly is used in this situation to affirm that God wanted to re-fill the earth with life forms after the previous ones were annihilated. Keep this in mind and read Gods instructions to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, which was: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. God gave Adam and Eve the exact same instructions he gave to Noahs family after a global catastrophe had wiped out all life on earth. God is very consistent and does not change (Malachi 3:6). The fact that God gave these instructions to Noahs family after a planetary catastrophe wiped out a previously inhabited and developed earth indicates that God was telling Adam and Eve to refill the earth with life after a global catastrophe wiped out a previously-inhabited and developed earth. The difference, of course, is that no dinosaur life forms were preserved from the Genesis 1:2 global Flood so God started over with brand new types of life (mankind and mostly mammals) during the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. There is scientific evidence that mankind almost went extinct at some in the past. A cable-TV documentary called (it memory serves correctly) Supervolcanoes examined the remarkably homogeneous DNA among modern races and concluded that ancient mankind experienced a bottleneck in which perhaps only a few thousands members survived to replenish the human race on earth. The Bible reveals it was only eight people, with the biological diversity coming from the three wives of Shem, Ham and Japheth who were brothers with the same biological parents (Genesis 7:13). Ezekiel 28:14 states that Lucifer (and, therefore, all the other angels as well) are themselves created beings. There is no mention of the angels being created at any time during the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. The reason is that the angels were created eons before mankind. Indeed, they were created in the heavenly realm at a point prior to the existence of our earth because Job 38:4-7 reveals the angels were in existence before our earth was first created because they sang and shouted for joy when they watched the earth come into existence. Genesis 3:1 reveals the serpent (Satan) was present in Eden, but as a fallen deceiver. Satan had been hurled back to the earth when his heavenly rebellion and war failed (Luke 10:18), and they had wandered the earth in its flooded, darkened state (Genesis 1:2 and Jude 13) until God recreated new life on earth during Creation Week. God allowed Satan to test Adam and Eve and both of them fell for Satans lies and mankind became fallen along with Lucifer/Satan himself. The fossil record and the evident age of the universe (as manifested in the red-shift of light from far-distant stars) indicate it took eons for Lucifer to go bad and morph into the being we now know as Satan. The red-shift of light from distant stars is an especially persuasive piece of scientific evidence which supports a conclusion that the physical Universe could be billions of years old. Discover magazines August, 2007 issue describes the red shift as the stretching of light that indicates how fast the stars are receding and therefore how old they are relative to the

age of the universe, and the article mentions one stars red shift calculations result in an age of 13.2 billon years for that particular star. If the mathematics of these calculations are correct (and I, as a layman, have no reason to doubt them but neither can I confirm them), it indicates that the most distant stars have been receding away from a point of origin for at least that length of time. This would mean the physical Universe is at least 13.2 billions years old. If the red-shift of the light from the furthest stars argues that the Universe is billions of years old, that age is entirely consistent with a literal interpretation of the Bible. Will evolutionary scientists now accept the scriptures and the knowledge of God now that it can be seen that the Bible actually agrees with their very ancient view of the earths age? I doubt it. Romans 1:17-32 indicates that evolutionists invented their theory to hide their own sins and deceive themselves into thinking they will not be judged for those sins. Romans 1:28 states that those who do not wish to retain God in their knowledge are given over by God to a reprobate mind. So, a few more comments about evolution will be made before this report concludes. At the beginning of this report, it was noted that scientists reject the Bible because they think it is unscientific and incompatible with the discoveries of science about the physical Universe and earth. This report makes it plain that there is no such conflict. This means that the creation of life, as taught in the Bible, is a very scientific explanation for the origin of all species. Indeed, it is the only explanation that is possible. Evolution is an utter, scientific impossibility. The coelacanths confirm that no evolution has occurred over a time of millions of years! Above it was noted that the balance of atmospheric gases are kept in balance by equivalent numbers of flora and fauna exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. Both flora and fauna had to come into existence at the same time for this balance in atmospheric gases to come into existence at all. Genesis Week creationism affirms and explains this fact. Evolution, which opines that all life forms developed randomly and at different times, does not. Also, Genesis 1 relates that all types of modern species that came into existence in Genesis Creation Week are designed to perpetuate their species via procreation between males and females of each species. In order for any species to ever be able to reproduce itself, a mature male and a female of child-bearing age must come into existence not only at the same time but in the same place! Evolutionists dont realize it, but the older the earth is, the more it stacks the odds impossibly against evolution. If the earth is billions of years old, it means that every species had to have a mature male and female come magically into existence at exactly the same time and in exactly the same place during the last few billions years! Not only must they come into existence at the same time vertically (in time) they must come into existence horizontally (in geography) during their overlapping short lifetimes. What if a fully-developed male evolved magically into existence in ancient North America but a fully-developed female (of the exact same species no less!) evolved into existence in ancient Australia? They would never meet, much less reproduce. This immense barrier is the same for every species on earth that reproduces via sexual reproduction! It is an entirely separate impossibility for reproducing male and females to come into existence at the same instant in time with sexual genitalia and reproductive systems fully functional and able to work together to produce life! Genesis Week creationism affirms and explains this reality. Evolution does not.

Also, for any organism to live at all, its internal organs must all come into fully functioning existence at the same time. The moment any living being or creature has an internal organ that fails, the entire creature or organism dies and all the other organs fail with it. There is no way that living organisms can gradually develop their circulatory, neurological, skeleton-muscular, digestive, respiratory, reproductive, sensory organs, etc. in a gradual fashion. They all must come into existence at a single moment in time or the organism dies. Its been that way since the dawn of time. Some scientists have noticed this fact and called it irreducible complexity. When Darwins theory was proposed, scientists lack modern technologies revealing just how unimaginably complex life forms are at the cellular level. The idea that extraordinarily-designed and incredibly-engineered life forms could come into existence (in perfectly compatible male and female models!) by gradually developing their internal, interdependent organic systems over millions of years is sheer fantasy that no rational person should accept. Genesis Week Creationism affirms and explains the complexity of life forms. Evolution cannot explain it. Also, scientific observation of the world confirms that there is an inexorable law that things decay from more complex forms into simpler ones over time. Some call this the law of entropy. Radioactive elements decay into simpler elements over time. A car or house left to itself will decay over time back into the earth from which its constituent elements came. A recent cable-TV documentary called Life After Humans affirmed and described this process very well. It asserted that within hundreds of years, even New York City would be reclaimed by the elements. Streets, buildings, metallic objects, etc. would all decay into simpler forms. In order for evolution to exist, there would have to be an immutable, observable law that simple things automatically and inexorably recombine themselves into ever-more complex forms. It is an observable, testable fact that such necessary evolutionary trends dont exist. Creationist views affirm and explains this process (called entropy). Evolution does not. Finally, anyone can see that in our physical Universe, orderliness automatically moves toward chaos and disorder without outside intelligence acting upon matter. Consider your garden, does it automatically reorder itself into ever-more organized rows and orderly patterns if left to itself or does it deteriorate quickly into a chaotic weed patch unless someone maintains the orderliness? Will a house inexorably transform itself into a stately mansion with ever-more complex systems and accessories over time if left to itself? Of course not! It will inexorably decay from complex, organized forms into simpler, disordered forms until there is no evidence that it ever existed. For evolution to be true there would have to be observable, inexorable laws that natural elements automatically rearrange themselves into ever more orderly and complex forms. The evidence confirms that there is no such evolutionary process. Combining scientific evidence with a literal application of the Bibles narratives confirms the creationist viewpoint and exposes evolution as a scientifically impossible and foolish theory. David was entirely right when he wrote in Psalm 14:1 that The fool has said in his heart there is no God. Is an age for the Universe of over 13 billon years compatible with a literal reading of the Bibles texts? Yes, it is. The Bible indicates that the earth and the rest of the physical Universe is indefinitely old, but far older than 6,000 years. A literal understanding of the Bible allows for the earth and the Universe to be as old as scientists currently assert. If scientists discern new

evidence indicating the earth is either billions of years older or younger than current estimates, it will not affect the literality of the Bible at all. Gods questions to Job in Job 38 illustrate the confirmable fact that all the order and wonder of the Universe, the earth, its climate and its animal life did not just happen. Gods discourse acknowledges that all these things had to be specifically designed and engineered into a selfsustaining existence. This denies the theory of evolution as a cosmological explanation for the Universe. The theory of evolution is a fairy tale which has been force-fed to modern mankind. Why do evolutionists fight so hard to keep creationist concepts out of the classrooms? They realize evolutionary theory could never survive the scrutiny that would result from its having its fantasies compared to creationist facts. The scientific community asserts that the original physical creation of the universe began with a Big Bang in which an infinitely immense amount of matter was expelled out into the Universe from an infinitesimally small point of origin. They may be right or wrong, but the Bibles narratives allow for that theory to be correct. God did not state how he made the Universe in the original creation of Genesis 1:1, nor did he state how long he took to make it. If the Universe is everywhere expanding outward (as scientists assert), then the evidence does argue that the Universe is expanding outward from a point of common origin. For our purposes, it is enough to realize that an initial Big Bang is compatible with the Bibles accounts in terms of the scientifically-understood age of the Universe. The scientific community can debate within itself regarding the age of the Universe and the method of its origin. Once the religious community understands that the Bible does not put any limits on the age of the earth and physical Universe, the religious community can quit feeling threatened by the scientific debate about the origins and age of the physical Universe. The physical evidence so far amassed by the scientific community does not conflict with the Bibles accounts of creation. To answer the question in this reports title, the earth is not 6,000 years old. The Bible clearly states in Genesis 1:2 that the earth and its oceans already existed in a darkened, flooded, destroyed state prior to the beginning of Creation Week in Genesis 1:3, so the earths original creation has to pre-date the Creation Week by an indefinite period of time. However, the Bible explicitly states that mankind and all life forms now on the surface of the earth came into existence in a Divine creation approximately 6,000 years ago during a literal 6-day week. Given the complex interdependence of life forms on earth, they had to come into existence together to survive in a planetary ecosystem at all. The Bibles creation narratives are not discredited by scientific evidence. Indeed, the Bibles accounts are affirmed by scientific findings and the geologic record. When scientists assert that physical evidence indicates the Universe and earth are millions or billions of years old, that is entirely possible because they are discussing the original creation of the earth (the creation mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 1:1, Job 38:4-7, Isaiah 45:12, 18). Indeed, I think the biblical context of a Luciferian rule on the earth and the geologic/fossil record support such a conclusion. When Christian creationists assert that mankind and the current life forms were created in a six-day Creation Week approximately 6,000 years ago, they are correct because they are discussing the much more recent creation account which begins in Genesis 1:3.

Scientists and Christian creationists have been talking past each other all along because they are discussing different creations of God on earth which are eons apart! Genesis 1:1 is not describing the Creation Week account which begins in Genesis 1:3. Genesis 1:1 barely mentions that there was a primordial creation long prior to an extinction level event which caused the original inhabited and beautiful earth to become a lifeless, flooded, darkened orb in space in Genesis 1:2. Genesis 1:3 begins the account of how God re-created entirely new species during Creation Weeks re-creation of life on earth after the extinction level event described in Genesis 1:2. The original creation did not include mankind and it was a world dominated by reptilian, serpent-like creatures which went extinct in the extinction level event mentioned in Genesis 1:2. The second creation of life on earth featured mankind as the ruling species on earth and the animal world is now dominated by mammals, not reptiles. The extinction level event of Genesis 1:2 was the rebellion of Lucifer and the resultant war in the heavens (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-17, Luke 10:18, and Jude 6 and 13). The Bible and true science are in complete agreement. Christians and Creationists have nothing about which they need to apologize! It is the evolutionists who need to do the apologizing for duping mankind into believing such a grandiose fantasy. The evolutionists are running out of time. When Jesus Christ returns and establishes his millennial government on earth, all mankind will learn the truth about the origins of the earth and why mankind was created. It will be a time of global peace, prosperity and truth. May that time come soon

Are There Gaps in the Biblical Genealogies?

Print this ShareThis William Henry Green, "Primeval Chronology Bibliotheca Sacra (April, 1890), 285-303. The question of the possible reconciliation of the results of scientific inquiry respecting the antiquity of man and the age of the world with the Scripture chronology has been long and earnestly debated. On the one hand, scientists, deeming them irreconcilable, have been led to distrust the divine authority of the Scriptures; and, on the other hand, believers in the divine word have been led to look upon the investigations of science with an unfriendly eye, as though they were antagonistic to religious faith. In 1863, I had occasion to examine the method and structure of the biblical genealogies, and incidentally ventured to remark that herein lay the solution of the whole matter. I said: "There is an element of uncertainty in a computation of time which rests upon genealogies, as the sacred chronology so largely does. Who is to certify us that the antediluvian and ante-Abrahamic genealogies have not been condensed in the same manner as the post-Abrahamic?... Our current chronology is based upon the prima facie impression of these genealogies.... But if these recently discovered indications of the antiquity of man, over which scientific circles are now so excited, shall, when carefully inspected and thoroughly weighed, demonstrate all that any have imagined they might demonstrate, what then? They will simply show that the popular chronology is based upon a wrong interpretation, and that a select and partial register of ante-Abrahamic names has been mistaken for a complete one."

I here repeat, the discussion of the biblical genealogies above referred to, and add some further considerations which seem to me to justify the belief that the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 were not intended to be used, and cannot properly be used, for the construction of a chronology. It can scarcely be necessary to adduce proof to one who has even a superficial acquaintance with the genealogies of the Bible, that they are frequently abbreviated by the omission of unimportant names. In fact, abridgment is the general rule, induced by the indisposition of the sacred writers to encumber their pages with more names than were necessary for their immediate purpose. This is so constantly the case, and the reason for it so obvious, that the occurrence of it need create no surprise anywhere, and we are at liberty to suppose it whenever anything in the circumstances of the case favors that belief. The omissions in the genealogy of our Lord as given in Matthew 1 are familiar to all. Thus in verse 8 three names are dropped between Joram and Ozias (Uzziah), viz., Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:25), Joash (2 Kings 12:1), and Amaziah (2 Kings 14:1); and in verse 11 Johoiakim is omitted after Josiah (2 Kings 23:34; 1 Chron. 3:16); and in verse 1 the entire genealogy is summed up in two steps, "Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Other instances abound elsewhere; we mention only a few of the most striking. In 1 Chronicles 26:24 we read in a list of appointments made by King David (see 1 Chron. 24:3; 25:1; 26:26), that Shebuel[1] the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was ruler of the treasures; and again in 1 Chronicles 23:15, 16, we find it written, "The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer. Of the sons of Gershom Shebuel was the chief." Now it is absurd to suppose that the author of Chronicles was so grossly ignorant as to suppose that the grandson of Moses could be living in the reign of David, and appointed by him to a responsible office. Again, in the same connection (1 Chron. 26:31), we read that "among the Hebronites was Jerijah the chief;" and this Jerijah, or Jeriah (for the names are identical), was, according to 23:19, the first of the sons of Hebron, and Hebron was (v. 12) the son of Kohath, the son of Levi (v. 6). So that if no contraction in the genealogical lists is allowed, we have the great-grandson of Levi holding a prominent office in the reign of David. The genealogy of Ezra is recorded in the book which bears his name; but we learn from another passage, in which the same line of descent is given, that it has been abridged by the omission of six consecutive names. This will appear from the following comparison, viz.: Chronicles 6:3-14 1. Aaron 2. Eleazar 3. Phineas 4. Abishua 5. Bukki 6. Uzzi 7. Zerahiah 8. Meraioth Ezra 7:1-5 Aaron Eleazar Phineas Abishua Bukki Uzzi Zerahiah Meraioth

9. Amariah 10. Ahitub 11. Zadok 12. Ahimaaz 13. Azariah 14. Johanan 15. Azariah 16. Amariah 17. Ahitub 18. Zadok 19. Shallum 20. Hilkiah 21. Azariah 22. Seraiah Ezra

Azariah Amariah Ahitub Zadok Shallum Hilkiah Azariah Seraiah

Still further, Ezra relates (8:1, 2): "These are now the chief of their fathers, and this is the genealogy of them that went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of Artaxerxes the king. Of the sons of Phinehas, Gerhsom. Of the sons of Ithamar, Daniel. Of the sons of David, Hattush." Here, if no abridgment of the genealogy is allowed, we should have a great-grandson and a grandson of Aaron, and a son of David coming up with Ezra from Babylon after the captivity. This disposition to abbreviate genealogies by the omission of whatever is unessential to the immediate purpose of the writer is shown by still more remarkable reductions than those which we have been considering. Persons of different degrees of relationship are sometimes thrown together under a common title descriptive of the majority, and all words of explanation, even those which seem essential to the sense, are rigorously excluded, the supplying of these chasms being left to the independent knowledge of the reader. Hence several passages in the genealogies of Chronicles have now become hopelessly obscure. They may have been intelligible enough to contemporaries: but for those who have no extraneous sources of information, the key to their explanation is wanting. In other cases we are able to understand them, because the information necessary to make them intelligible is supplied from parallel passages of Scripture. Thus the opening verses of Chronicles contain the following bald list of names without a word of explanation, viz.: Adam, Seth, Enosh; Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are not told who these persons are, how they were related to each other, or whether they were related. The writer presumes that his readers have the book of Genesis in their hands, and that the simple mention of these names in their order will be sufficient to remind them that the first ten

trace the line of descent from father to son from the first to the second great progenitor of mankind; and that the last three are brothers, although nothing is said to indicate that their relationship is different from the preceding. Again the family of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, is spoken of in the following terms in 1 Chronicles 1:36: "The sons of Eliphaz: Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz and Timna, and Amalek." Now, by turning to Genesis 36:11, 12, we shall see that the first five are sons of Eliphaz, and the sixth his concubine, who was the mother of the seventh. This is so plainly written in Genesis that the author of the Chronicles, were he the most inveterate blunderer, could not have mistaken it. But trusting to the knowledge of his readers to supply the omission, he leaves out the statement respecting Eliphaz's concubine, but at the same time connects her name and that of her son with the family to which they belong, and this though he was professedly giving a statement of the sons of Eliphaz. So, likewise, in the pedigree of Samuel (or Shemuel, v. 33, the difference in orthography is due to our translators, and is not in the original), which is given in 1 Chronicles 6 in both an ascending and descending series. Thus in verses 22-24: "The sons of Kohath; Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son; Elkanah his son, and Ebiasaph his son, and Assir his son; Tahath his son..." The extent to which the framer of this list has studied comprehensiveness and conciseness will appear from the fact, which no one would suspect unless informed from other sources, that while the general law which prevails in it is that of descent from father to son, the third, fourth, and fifth names represent brothers. This is shown by a comparison of Exodus 6:24, and the parallel genealogy, 1 Chronicles 6:36, 37. So that the true line of descent is the following, viz.: In verses 22-24
Kohath

In verses 37-38

Kohath

Assir, Elkanah,

Amminadab Korah Ebiasaph Assir Tahath, etc.

Izhar Korah Ebiasaph Assir Tahath, etc.

The circumstance that the son of Kohath is called in one list Amminadab, and in the other Izhar, is no real discrepancy and can create no embarrassment, since it is no unusual thing for the same person to have two names. Witness Abram and Abraham; Jacob and Israel; Joseph and Zaphenath-peneah (Gen. 41:45), Hoshea, Jehoshua (Num. 13:16) (or Joshua) and Jeshua (Neh. 8:17), Gideon and Jerubbaal (Judg. 6:32), Solomon and Jedidiah (2 Sam. 12:24, 25), Azariah and Uzziah (2 Kings 15:1, 13), Daniel and Belteshazzar, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego (Dan. 1:7); Saul and Paul, Thomas and Didymus, Cephas and Peter, and in profane history Cyaxares and Darius, Octavianus and Augustus, Napoleon and Bonaparte, Ferretti and Pius IX. The genealogy of Moses and Aaron is thus stated in Exodus 6:

V.16. "And these are the names of the sons of Levi, according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred and thirty and seven years." 17. "The sons of Gershon...."

18. "And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred and thirty and three years." 19. "And the sons of Merari...."

20. "And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years." 21. 22. "And the sons of Izhar...." "And the sons of Uzziel...."

There is abundant proof that this genealogy has been condensed, as we have already seen that so many others have been, by the dropping of some of the less important names. This is afforded, in the first place, by parallel genealogies of the same period; as that of Bezaleel (1 Chron. 2:18-20), which records seven generations from Jacob; and that of Joshua (1 Chron. 7:23-27), which records eleven. Now it is scarcely conceivable that there should be eleven links in the line of descent from Jacob to Joshua, and only four from Jacob to Moses. A still more convincing proof is yielded by Numbers 3:19, 27, 28, from which it appears that the four sons of Kohath severally gave rise to the families of the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites; and that the number of the male members of these families of a month old and upward was 8600 one year after the Exodus. So that, if no abridgment has taken place in the genealogy, the grandfather of Moses had, in the lifetime of the latter, 8600 descendents of the male sex alone, 2,750 of them being between the ages of thirty and fifty (Num. 4:36). Another proof equally convincing is to be found in the fact that Levi's son Kohath was born before the descent into Egypt (Gen. 46:11); and the abode of the children of Israel in Egypt continued 430 years (Exod. 12:40, 41). Now as Moses was eighty years old at the Exodus (Exod. 7:7) he must have been born more than 350 years after Kohath, who consequently could not have been his own grandfather. This genealogy, whose abbreviated character is so clearly established, is of special importance for the immediate purpose of this paper, because it might appear, at first sight, as though such an assumption was precluded in the present instance, and as though the letter of Scripture shut us up to the inevitable conclusion that there were four links, and no more, from Jacob to Moses. The names which are found without deviation in all the genealogies are Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses (Exod. 6:16-20; Num. 3:17-19; 26:57-59; 1 Chron. 6:1-3, 16-18; 23:6, 12, 13). Now

unquestionably Levi was Jacob's own son. So likewise Kohath was the son of Levi (Gen. 46:11) and born before the descent into Egypt. Amram also was the immediate descendent of Kohath. It does not seem possible, as Kurtz proposed, to insert the missing links between them. For, in the first place, according to Numbers 26:59, "The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, whom her mother bare to Levi in Egypt," this Jochebed being (Exod. 6:20) Amram's aunt, or his father's sister. Now, it is true, that "a daughter of Levi" might have the general sense of a descendent of Levi, as the woman healed by our Lord (Luke 13:16) is called "a daughter of Abraham;" and her being born to Levi might simply mean that she sprang from him (comp. Gen. 46:25). But these expressions must here be taken in a strict sense, and Jochebed accordingly must have been Levi's own daughter and the sister of Kohath, who must in consequence have been Amram's own father. This appears from a second consideration, viz., that Amram was (Num. 3:27) the father of one of the subdivisions of the Kohathites, these subdivisions springing from Kohath's own children and comprising together 8600 male descendents. Moses' father surely could not have been the ancestor of one-fourth of this number in Moses' own days. To avoid this difficulty Tiele and Keil assume that there were two Amrams, one the son of Kohath, another the father of Moses, who was a more remote descendent but bore the same name with his ancestor. This relieves the embarrassment created by the Amramites (Num. 3:27) but is still liable to that which arises from making Jochebed the mother of Moses. And further, the structure of the genealogy in Exodus 6 is such as to make this hypothesis unnatural and improbable. Verse 16 names the three sons of Levi, Gershom, Kohath, and Merari; verses 17-19, the sons of each in their order; verses 20-22, the children of Kohath's sons; verses 23, 24, contain descendents of the next generation, and verse 25 the generation next following. Now, according to the view of Tiele and Keil, we must either suppose that the Amram, Izhar, and Uzziel of verse 18, or else that Amram, though belonging to a later generation than Izhar and Uzziel, is introduced before them, which the regular structure of the genealogy forbids; and besides, the sons of Izhar and the sons of Uzziel, who are here named, were the contemporaries of Moses and Aaron the sons of Amram (Num. 16:1; Lev. 10:4). This subject may be relieved from all perplexity, however, by observing that Amram and Jochebed were not the immediate parents, but the ancestors of Aaron and Moses. How many generations may have intervened, we cannot tell. It is indeed said (Exod. 6:20; Num. 26:59), that Jochebed bare them to Amram. But in the language of the genealogies this simply means that they were descended from her and from Amram. Thus, in Genesis 46:18, after recording the sons of Zilpah, her grandsons, and her great-grandsons, the writer adds, "These are the sons of Zilpah... and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls." The same thing recurs in the case of Bilhah (v. 25): "She bare these souls unto Jacob; all the souls were seven," (comp. also vv. 15, 22). No one can pretend here that the author of this register did not use the terms understandingly of descendants beyond the first generation. In like manner, according to Matthew 1:11, Josias begat his grandson Jechonias, and verse 8, Joram begat his great-great-grandson Ozias. And in Genesis 10:15-18 Canaan, the grandson of Noah, is said to have begotten several whole nations, the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgasite, the Hivite, etc. (Comp. also Gen. 25:23; Deut. 4:25; 2 Kings 20:18; Isa. 51:2.) Nothing can be plainer, therefore, than that, in the usage of the Bible, "to bear" and "to beget" are used in a wide sense to indicate descent, without restriction to the immediate offspring. [2]

It is no serious objection to this view of the case that in Leviticus 10:4 Uzziel, Amram's brother, is called "the uncle of Aaron." The Hebrew word here rendered "uncle," though often specifically applied to a definite degree of relationship, has, both from etymology and usage, a much wider sense. A great-great-grand-uncle is still an uncle, and would properly be described by the term here used. It may also be observed that in the actual history of the birth of Moses his parents are not called Amram and Jochebed. It is simply said (Exod. 2:1), "and there went a man of the house of Levi, and took a wife a daughter of Levi." After these preliminary observations, which were originally drawn up for another purpose, I come to the more immediate design of the present paper, by proceeding to inquire, whether the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are necessarily to be considered as complete, and embracing all the links in the line of descent from Adam to Noah and from Shem to Abraham. And upon this I remark 1. That the analogy of Scripture genealogies is decidedly against such a supposition. In numerous other instances there is incontrovertible evidence of more or less abridgment. This may even be the case where various circumstances combine to produce a different impression at the outset. Nevertheless, we have seen that this first impression may be dissipated by a more careful examination and a comparison of collateral data. The result of our investigations thus far is sufficient to show that it is precarious to assume that any biblical genealogy is designed to be strictly continuous, unless it can be subjected to some external tests which prove it to be so. And it is to be observed that the Scriptures furnish no collateral information whatever respecting the period covered by the genealogies now in question. The creation, the Flood, the call of Abraham, are great facts, which stand out distinctly in primeval sacred history. A few incidents respecting our first parents and their sons Cain and Abel are recorded. Then there is an almost total blank until the Flood, with nothing whatever to fill the gap, and nothing to suggest the length of time intervening but what is found in the genealogy stretching between these two points. And the case is substantially the same from the Flood to Abraham. So far as the biblical records go, we are left not only without adequate data, but without any data whatever, which can be brought into comparison with these genealogies for the sake of testing their continuity and completeness. If, therefore, any really trustworthy data can be gathered from any source whatever, from any realm of scientific or antiquarian research, which can be brought into comparison with these genealogies for the sake of determining the question, whether they have noted every link in the chain of descent, or whether, as in other manifest instances, links have been omitted, such data should be welcomed and the comparison fearlessly made. Science would simply perform the office, in this instance, which information gathered from other parts of Scripture is unhesitatingly allowed to do in regard to those genealogies previously examined. And it may be worth noting here that a single particular in which a comparison may be instituted between the primeval history of man and Genesis 5, suggests special caution before affirming the absolute completeness of the latter. The letter of the genealogical record (5:3) if we were dependent on it alone, might naturally lead us to infer that Seth was Adam's first child. But we know from Chapter 4 that he had already had two sons, Cain and Abel, and from 4:17 that he

must have had a daughter, and from 4:14 that he had probably had several sons and daughters, whose families had swollen to a considerable number before Adam's one hundred and thirtieth year, in which Seth was born. Yet of all this the genealogy gives us no inkling. 2. Is there not, however, a peculiarity in the construction of these genealogies which forbids our applying to them an inference drawn from others not so constructed? The fact that each member of the series is said to have begotten the one next succeeding, is, in the light of the wide use of this term which we have discovered in other cases, no evidence of itself that links have not been omitted. But do not the chronological statements introduced into these genealogies oblige us to regard them as necessarily continuous? Why should the author be so particular to state, in every case, with unfailing regularity, the age of each patriarch at the birth of his son, unless it was his design thus to construct a chronology of this entire period, and to afford his readers the necessary elements for a computation of the interval from the creation to the deluge and from the deluge to Abraham? And if this was his design, he must, of course, have aimed to make his list complete. The omission of even a single name would create an error. But are we really justified in supposing that the author of these genealogies entertained such a purpose? It is a noticeable fact that he never puts them to such a use himself. He nowhere sums these numbers, nor suggests their summation. No chronological statement is deduced from these genealogies, either by him or by any inspired writer. There is no computation anywhere in Scripture of the time that elapsed from the creation or from the deluge, as there is from the descent into Egypt to the Exodus (Exod. 12:40), or from the Exodus to the building of the temple (1 Kings 6:1). And if the numbers in these genealogies are for the sake of constructing a chronology, why are numbers introduced which have no possible relation to such a purpose? Why are we told how long each patriarch lived after the birth of his son, and what was the entire length of his life? These numbers are given with the same regularity as the age of each at the birth of his son; and they are of no use in making up a chronology of the period. They merely afford us a conspectus of individual lives. And for this reason doubtless they are recorded. They exhibit in these selected examples the original term of human life. They show what it was in the ages before the Flood. They show how it was afterwards gradually narrowed down. But in order to do this it was not necessary that every individual should be named in the line from Adam to Noah and from Noah to Abraham, nor anything approaching it. A series of specimen lives, with the appropriate numbers attached, this is all that has been furnished us. And if this be the case, the notion of basing a chronological computation upon these genealogies is a fundamental mistake. It is putting them to a purpose that they were not designed to subserve, and to which from the method of their construction they are not adapted. When it is said, for example, that "Enosh lived ninety years and begat Kenan," the well-established usage of the word "begat" makes this statement equally true and equally accordant with analogy, whether Kenan was an immediate or a remote descendent of Enosh; whether Kenan was himself born when Enosh was ninety years of age or one was born from whom Kenan sprang. These genealogies may yield us the minimum length of time that it is possible to accept for the period that they cover; but they can make no account of the duration represented by the names that have been dropped from the register, as needless for the author's particular purpose. 3. The abode of the children of Israel in Egypt affords for our present purpose the best Scripture parallel to the periods now under consideration. The greater part of this term of 430 years is left

blank in the sacred history. A few incidents are mentioned at the beginning connected with the descent of Jacob and his family into Egypt and their settlement there. And at its close mention is made of some incidents in the life of Moses and the events leading to the Exodus. But with these exceptions no account is given of this long period. The interval is only abridged by a genealogy extending from Levi to Moses and Aaron and their contemporaries among their immediate relatives (Exod. 6:16-26). This genealogy records the length of each man's life in the principal line of descent, viz., Levi (v. 16), Kohath (v. 18), Amram (v. 20). The correspondence in the points just indicated with the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11, and the periods which they cover, is certainly remarkable. And as they proceeded from the same pen, we may fairly infer from the similarity of construction a similarity of design. Now it has been shown already that the genealogy from Levi to Moses cannot have recorded all the links in that line of descent, and that it could not, therefore, have been intended to be used as a basis of chronological computation. This is rendered absolutely certain by the explicit statement in Exodus 12:40. It further appears from the fact that the numbers given in this genealogy exhibit the longevity of the patriarchs named, but cannot be so concatenated as to sum up the entire period; thus suggesting the inference that the numbers in the other genealogies, with which we are now concerned, were given with a like design, and not with the view of enabling the reader to construct the chronology. 4. As is well known, the texts of the Septuagint and of the Samaritan Pentateuch vary systematically from the Hebrew in both the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11. According to the chronologies based on these texts respectively, the interval between the Flood and the birth of Abraham was 292 (Hebrew), 942 (Samaritan), or 1172 years (Septuagint). Some have been disposed in this state of the case to adopt the chronology drawn from the Septuagint, as affording here the needed relief. But the superior accuracy of the Hebrew text in this instance, as well as generally elsewhere, can be incontrovertibly established. This resource, then, is a broken reed. Thus in the Hebrew text of Genesis 5, the ages of different patriarchs at the birth of the son named are quite irregular, and vary from sixty-five to one hundred and eighty-seven. But the versions seek to bring them into closer conformity, and to introduce something like a regular gradation. The Septuagint proceeds on the assumption that the patriarchs of such enormity longevity should be nearly two centuries old at the birth of their son. Accordingly, when, in the Hebrew, they fall much below this standard, one hundred years are added to the number preceding the birth of the son and the same amount deducted from the number following his birth; the total length of each life is thus preserved without change, the proportion of its different parts alone being altered. The Samaritan, on the other hand, assumes a gradual diminution in the ages of successive patriarchs prior to the birth of their son, none rising to a century after the first two. When, therefore, the number in the Hebrew text exceeds one hundred, one hundred is deducted and the same amount added to the years after the son was born. In the case of Lamech the reduction is greater still, in order to effect the necessary diminution. Accordingly the years assigned to the several antediluvian patriarchs before the birth of their son in these several texts is as follows: -Hebrew 130 105 Septuagint 230 205 Samaritan 130 105

Adam Seth

Enosh Kenan Mahalalel Jared Enoch Methuselah Lamech Noah

90 70 65 162 65 187 182 600

190 170 165 162 165 167 or 187[3] 188 600

90 70 65 62 65 67 53 600

A simple glance at these numbers is sufficient to show that the Hebrew is the original, from which the others diverge on the one side or the other, according to the principle which they have severally adopted. It likewise creates a strong presumption that the object contemplated in these changes was to make the lives more symmetrical, rather than to effect an alteration in the chronology. 5. The structure of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 also favors the belief that they do not register all the names in these respective lines of descent. Their regularity seems to indicate intentional arrangement. Each genealogy includes ten names, Noah being the tenth from Adam, and Terah the tenth from Noah. And each ends with a father having three sons, as is likewise the case with the Cainite genealogy (4:17-22). The Sethite genealogy (chap. 5) culminates in its seventh member, Enoch, who "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." The Cainite genealogy also culminates in its seventh member, Lamech, with his polygamy, bloody revenge, and boastful arrogance. The genealogy descending from Shem divides evenly at its fifth member, Peleg; and "in his days was the earth divided." Now this adjustment of the genealogy in Matthew 1 into three periods of fourteen generations each is brought about by dropping the requisite number of names, it seems in the highest degree probable that the symmetry of these primitive genealogies is artificial rather than natural. It is much more likely that this definite number of names fitting into a regular scheme has been selected as sufficiently representing the periods to which they belong, than that all these striking numerical coincidences should have happened to occur in these successive instances. It may further be added that if the genealogy in Chapter 11 is complete, Peleg, who marks the entrance of a new period, died while all his ancestors from Noah onward were still living. Indeed Shem, Arphaxad, Selah, and Eber must all have outlived not only Peleg, but all the generations following as far as and including Terah. The whole impression of the narrative in Abraham's days is that the Flood was an even long since past, and that the actors in it had passed away ages before. And yet if a chronology is to be constructed out of this genealogy, Noah was for fiftyeight years the contemporary of Abraham, and Shem actually survived him thirty-five years, provided 11:26 is to be taken in its natural sense, that Abraham was born in Terah's seventieth year. This conclusion is well-nigh incredible. The calculation which leads to such a result, must proceed upon a wrong assumption. On these various grounds we conclude that the Scriptures furnish no data for a chronological computation prior to the life of Abraham; and that the Mosaic records do not fix and were not intended to fix the precise date either of the Flood or of the creation of the world.

Who was William Henry Green? (1825-1900)

"Presbyterian theologian. Educated at Lafayette College (A.B., 1840) and Princeton Theological Seminary (1846), Green joined the faculty in 1851, beginning a career of teaching in Old Testament and Semitic studies. He wrote extensively and almost exclusively in his field of specialization and until his death was chairman of the Old Testament section of the committee that produced the American Revised Version (1901) of the Bible "Like his other 'Old' Princeton colleagues, he was firmly committed to the divine inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. He was resolute in his opposition to the mounting influence of biblical criticism in America. Among his contemporaries he took the lead in refuting the documentary hypothesis of the origin of the Pentateuch. These emphases were reflected in his two-volume General Introduction to the Old Testament (1898) and The Higher Criticism of the Pentateuch (1895)." R. B. Gaffin, "William Henry Green" Dictionary of Christianity in America (InterVarsity, 1990).

Comments of B.B. Warfield on Dr. Green

"The general fact that the genealogies of Scripture were not constructed for a chronological purpose and lend themselves ill to employment as a basis for chronological calculations has been repeatedly shown very fully; but perhaps by no one more thoroughly than by Dr. William Henry Green in an illuminating article published in the Bibliotheca Sacra for April, 1890. These genealogies must be esteemed trustworthy for the purposes for which they are recorded; but they cannot safely be pressed into use for other purposes for which they were not intended, and for which they are not adapted. In particular, it is clear that the genealogical purposes for which the genealogies were given, did not require a complete record of all the generations through which the descent of the persons to whom they are assigned runs; but only an adequate indication of the particular line through which the descent in question comes. Accordingly it is found on examination that the genealogies of Scripture are freely compressed for all sorts of purposes; and that it can seldom be confidently affirmed that they contain a complete record of the whole series of generations, while it is often obvious that a very large number are omitted. There is no reason inherent in the nature of the Scriptural genealogies why a genealogy of ten recorded links, as each of those in Genesis v. and xi. is, may not represent an actual descent of a hundred or a thousand or ten thousand links. The point established by the table is not that these are all the links which intervened between the beginning and the closing names, but that this is the line of descent through which one traces back to or down to the other. "In a word, the Scriptural data leave us wholly without guidance in estimating the time which elapsed between the creation of the world and the deluge and between the deluge and the call of Abraham. So far as the Scripture assertions are concerned, we may suppose any length of time to have intervened between these events which may otherwise appear reasonable. The question of the antiquity of man is accordingly a purely scientific one, in which the theologian as such has no concern."

B. B. Warfield, "On the Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race" reprinted in Biblical and Theological Studies (P & R, 1968), pp. 238-261.

Other conservative Christian scholars who accepted Green's conclusions:

y y y y

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol II, pp. 40-41. James Oliver Buswell, A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion, Pt II, ch IV. R. K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old Testament, pp. 147-52. Francis Schaeffer, Genesis in Space and Time.

[1]He is called in 1 Chron. 24:20 a son of Amram, the ancestor of Moses; for Shubael and Shebuel are in all probability mere orthographic variations of the same name. [2]In Ruth 4:17 Ruth's child is called "a son born to Naomi," who was Ruth's mother-in-law and not even an ancestor of the child in the strict sense. Zerubbabel is called familiarly the son of Shealtiel (Ezra 3:2; Hag. 1:1), and is so stated to be in the genealogies of both Matt. 1:12 and Luke 3:27, though in reality he was his nephew (2 Chron. 3:17-19). That descent as reckoned in genealogies is not always that of actual parentage appears from the comparisons of the ancestry of our Lord as given by Matthew and by Luke. [3]The number varies in different manuscripts.

First Footwear Dates to 40,000 Years Ago

Print this ShareThis 7/17/2008 by Dr. Fazale ("Fuz") Rana New Research Supports Biblical View of Human Origins

I woke up this mornin, feelin round for my shoes. Know bout at I got these old walkin blues. - Robert Johnson, Walkin Blues New research* by paleoanthropologists from Washington University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences indicates that modern humans were feelin round for their shoes earlier than previously thought. Anthropologists have great interest in the origin and natural history of footwear because it gives insight into a unique human cultural adaptation that assisted the spread of humanity around the

world. Humans make use of footwear for protection in all environments and insulation in cold climates. Unfortunately, footwear isnt readily preserved in the archeological record because it is often made from soft material. The oldest footwear dates back to only about 10,000 years ago. [Work reported in 2005], however, demonstrated that foot anatomy can indirectly shed some light on the footwear use. Research indicates that toes become less robust when shoes are worn. Interestingly, other parts of the skeletal anatomy are unaffected. The 2005 study indicated that footwear was worn by modern humans about 30,000 years ago. Still, the question remains as to when the first footwear was worn. A new opportunity to address the question surfaced recently with the discovery of modern human remains in a cave near Zhoukoudian, China. These remains date to about 40,000 years in age and include foot bones. As part of this new study, the researchers compared the toe size of Europeans, Inuits, and Native Americans. For this study, the Europeans included in the sample made extensive use of footwear, the Inuits used crude footwear, and the Native Americans spent a significant time barefoot. They found that toe size inversely correlated with use of footwear, demonstrating the strength of this method to indirectly detect footwear use. As part of the calibration, the scientists also examined the foot structure of Neanderthals and the near anatomically modern humans recovered in the Qafzeh-Skhul cave. The toes of both of these hominids were much more robust than even those of the Native Americans in the sample. Its not likely that these creatures used shoes. The researchers then determined that the toe size of the modern human remains recovered recently in China were consistent with extensive use of footwear. This find pushes the use of footwear back to 40,000 years ago. This discovery fits well with the biblical account of human origins as embodied in the Reasons To Believe (RTB) creation model. In short, the RTB model for humanitys beginnings asserts that God created Adam and Eve, in His image, through direct, miraculous intervention. (See Who Was Adam? for a detailed description of the model and the scientific support for it.) This model regards the hominids found in the fossil record as animals also created by Gods direct involvement. Accordingly, these creatures existed for a time and then went extinct. RTBs model considers the hominids to be remarkable creatures that walked erect, possessed some level of limited intelligence, and emotional capacity. This allowed these animals to employ crude tools and even adopt some level of culture much like baboons, gorillas, and chimpanzees. While the RTB model posits that the hominids were created by Gods divine fiat, they were not spiritual beings, made in His image. The RTB model reserves this status exclusively for modern humans. The RTB model treats the hominids as analogous to, but distinct from the great apes. Because of this, the RTB model predicts that anatomical, physiological, biochemical, and genetic similarities will exist among the hominids and modern humans to varying degrees. But since the hominids

were not made in Gods image, they are expected to be clearly distinct from modern humans, particularly in their cognitive capacity, behavior, technology, and culture. The early appearance of footwear among modern humansand the absence of any evidence for footwear usage among the hominids like Neanderthals and the near anatomically modern humansmatch the predictions made by the RTB model. The use of footwear is a diagnostic for the image of God. This behavior requires advanced cognitive ability, creativity, and problem solving skills to recognize that covering the feet offers protection from harsh terrain and cold. Designing and manufacturing the tools to make footwear, too, reflects these same qualities. Only humans made in Gods image get the walkin blues. *This study made science news headlines when first published. I discussed the scientific and biblical implications of this research on the June 9, 2008 edition of our podcast, RTBs Science News Flash. This podcast offers a unique Christian perspective on headline-grabbing discoveries. A free subscription is available through iTunes.