ZOT! Does Fossil Record Discredit Literal Biblical Interpretation?

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[ReasonedThought]

The poster on the link says that since the fossil record and carbon-dating says the earth is millions of years old but the biblical record shows an earth roughly 6000 years old. The proof for that is here http://home1.gte.net/bridavis/timeline.htm. Anyway the question is, how can Christians like myself reconcile this? Has science discredited a literal interpretation of the Bible of our Lord?

[DocRock]

"When you say day and night, evening and morning, in the context of the above, there was no Earth in existence to have day and night, evening or morning."

I didn't say it, I just quoted scripture and I respectfully disagree that in context, the Earth was in existence. My post started in Gen 1:5, but in Gen 1:1, we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

So, did you check out the halos site?

[Republican Wildcat]

Fossilized Troll.

[Republican Wildcat]

Very highly recommended if you need help with Final Fantasy games. :-)

[concretebob]

Actually it's a mis-translation, which has been documented.
The context of the phrase is that the Earth did become without form and was void.
IOW, something happened to cause God to start over again.

[concretebob]

Well, assuming the Jewish calendar is correct, and assuming Revelations is correct, a day can be 1000 years, or it can be any amount of time God decides He wants to make it.
God didn't make our "day", humans decided what a day was.
Notice that it is the dragon, "Satan, he deceiving (in the present) the whole habitable world", cast down to EARTH. This future event is described as occurring at the mid-point, day 1260 of Daniel's 70th Week, with 1260 days remaining of the tribulation.
So if the Tribulation occurs in the 70th week of Daniel, how many years in a week?

[concretebob]

trying to prove or disprove with science, that which can only be accepted with faith bores me.

[DocRock]

"So if the Tribulation occurs in the 70th week of Daniel, how many years in a week?"

7 years in one of Daniel's weeks. (70 weeks = 490 years)

[DocRock]

"trying to prove or disprove with science, that which can only be accepted with faith bores me."

Roger that! Good night one and all!

[zip]

Darn, you're right. The Bible said God created the world in 3995BC. I had never noticed that before. UR sooo smart. /sarcasm off

[MarineBrat]

Hi Doc:

I didn't say it, I just quoted scripture and I respectfully disagree that in context, the Earth was in existence. My post started in Gen 1:5, but in Gen 1:1, we read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

OK, I guess I didn't follow it closely enough.

So, did you check out the halos site?

I went there but It was difficult for me to find much enthusiasm for it. I've been the scientist type all of my life, and I dislike allowing my spiritual Christian side to intermingle with my more pragmatic scientific side. I guess you could say I'm bi-polar in that regard... and actually I've never felt the need to fuse the two. God is whatever God is, and I don't have the need or desire to express a definition, as I expect to find out one way or the other soon enough, though I am Christian in my spiritual beliefs. I do find myself turned off by some Christian persuasions though if they are particularly exclusionist, i.e. "you'll never get to heaven unless you think just like us."

As a Catholic who went through the Catholic school system, I was never required to read the bible growing up. I have no problem when there are incompatibilities between religion and science. Jesus is my Liaison to God, and science is my window to the world. In my heart there's no argument between the two because I have no need to define them.

Ah well, I'm rambling here and I guess I should just be quiet. Have a great evening!

[Hajman]

Actually it's a mis-translation, which has been documented.

The context of the phrase is that the Earth did become without form and was void.

IOW, something happened to cause God to start over again.

This is a point that's partially valid. Yes, the context is that Earth did become that, but that requires only a prior event caused the Earth to become without form or void. That event is explicitly stated in Genesis 1:1 as the creation of the Earth, for that caused the Earth to become (or 'to be') without form or void. There's nothing in context which specifies or infers that something started over again, but rather that it just started (same mistake made with replenish). If you look at the other terms along with become from hayah [Strong's 01961], you'll see that their context is 'to be' (to be, become, come to pass, exist, [to] happen, take place, come to pass, to become like, to be instituted, be established, etc). None require the necessity of replacing a prior existance, nor do any infer this. Only the 'to replace' definition of 'become' could be translated that way, and there's no reason to do such, either in context, or for the term hayah itself, when the term explains Genesis 1:1 just fine in context, and doesn't provide any other context to be interpreted by.

-The Hajman-

[utahguy]

the biblical record shows an earth roughly 6000 years old. The proof for that is here tp://home1.gte.net/bridavis/timeline.htm.
I know the reasoning behind that old, old. misnomer. Don't believe everything you read, my friend.

It assumes that Adam & Eve were the first people on Earth. The Bible clearly states in Genesis that on the sixth day God created "all races"

(And no, a day isn't one of our days and it isn't a thousand years. think of "day" as a time period. Read ALL of 2nd Peter, ch2, I think it's vers 2 & 3, and also remember that thousand was the largest difinitive number they had in those days)
On the eigth time period he created Adam & Eve. Which answers the question: Where did Cain get his wife? Clearly stated he went to the land of Nod, east of Eden.
but if you believe that website, how could that be?

Hope this helps.

[PilloryHillary]

What in the HECK are you talking about?

[Hi Heels]

[Frank L]

"First you faith shouldn't depend on what 'men say'. That aside- read a translation of the Bible, not a paraphrase or modern english one- The opening will accurately say- "In the beginning the earth BECAME void. and next, in the command to Adam and Eve the Lord told the to 'go and REplenish the earth'. In my book, you can't REplenish or REfill what has not be previously filled."

Um, no. You're blending verse 1 and 2 together. Vs. 1 reads, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

Verse 2 reads, "and the earth was..." The word for was is HYH, qal perfect 3rd masculine singular. It is properly translated as "was" not "became."

[concretebob]

Ya'll wanna jump in here?
God wrought destruction on the heads of the rebellious "sons", with power that cannot be imagined. Satan is described as a snake trying to escape the judgment of God .
It is symbolized by the constellation Draconis, which winds itself between the big and little dipper, which represented to the ancients, the flock of the good sheperd and the stronghold of the saved.
God brought a fire out of Satan's midst, in the center of his greatest planetary kingdom. The planet Rahab exploded sending pieces of itself into the orbits of the interior terrestrial worlds.
Asteroid impacts on the surface of mars rocked the planet, oceans washed over its dry land. The martian atmosphere was blasted into space.
On earth virtually the same catastrophes took place -- DESTROYING CITIES CREATED ON EARTH BEFORE THERE WERE EVEN ADAMS.

Jeremiah 4:23-2:
I looked on the earth, and beheld it formless (laid waste) and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and, behold, they quaked.
And all the hills were shaken. I beheld and lo, there was no man (Adams); and all the cover of the skies had fled.
I looked, and, behold, the fruitful place was a wilderness; and all its cities were broken down before the face of Jehovah, before his glowing anger.
For so Jehovah has said. The whole land shall be a desolation;
yet I will not make a full end.

Jeremiah looked into the ages before Adam and described the destruction of the earth.

[concretebob]

There were no men, (descendents of Adam), yet there were cities which were destroyed by God's wrath - who dwelt in these cities?

Never in history, since the creation of Adam, has man been completely destroyed from the earth, we ourselves are descended from Adam. The inhabitants of these "cities" were in fact the angelic host, the B'nai Elohim, before the rebellion.
The exact words of Genesis 1:2 "and the earth was (became) formless and void", are recorded in chapter 4 verse 26 of Jeremiah.
The majority of Christian scholars believe Gen. 1:2 means that the earth was created in an imperfect state. Genesis 1:1 lays the reality of creation out clearly:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The next sentence, "and the earth was formless and void", is in error in most English translations.
It should read, "and the earth became formless and void." The Hebrew word translated "was formless" in English versions of the Bible is "toh-ho" a verb which means, "to lay waste".

God does not create confusion, He creates order out of nothing. Satan on the other hand, corrupted what God had already created in perfection.

[concretebob]

If you read the ancient Sumerian and Hindu texts, you will find references to events which were ancient when those texts were written.
Sumerian text pre-dates Biblical events by thousands of years.
Who were they talking about?

[concretebob]

But, 490 years only puts us back to 1515, the middle of the Dark Ages. The 70 Weeks of Daniel, I thought, referred to the amount of time it would take for Israel to become a nation.
That happened in 1948.
70 years in a week, would be 4900 years, which would put the beginning of the 70 weeks, at 2895 BC.
I am working backwards from 2005.
Assuming 2012 as the End of Days, that would put it somewhere around 2702 BC.
ARRRRRGGGHHHH I hate math...especially negative numbers..

[muir_redwoods]

Yes

Why do you ask?