Posted on 11/11/2004 3:44:08 AM PST by Lindykim
it's just another book...
You are correct with regard to the need for accuracy. However, the accuracy of the messages of Scripture is not marred by accidental or minor errors in transcription, translation, or printing. For example, the truth or lack thereof of Biblical end time prophecies is not adversely affected if the number of the beast in Revelation 13:18 were 616, not 666, as a small minority of extant manuscripts indicates. As an analogy, the story of the siege and fall of Troy would not be adversely affected if some scribe misstated the number of Trojan warriors that Ajax had slain.
I concur with your statement. It is also possible that what you said previously is correct, that the universe was created over a period of billions of years, as is supposed by most scientists. If time is a relative measure, it is possible that the Biblical day was more than a 24 hour period, more or less. This is the position of Hugh Ross, a Canadian astrophysicist and an old earth creationist, and his ministry, Reasons to Believe.
However, the exegetical evidence indicates that the intent of the author of the book of Genesis was of some period like a 24 hour day. From the commentary in the NET Bible:
The exegetical evidence suggests the word “day” in this chapter refers to a literal twenty-four hour day. It is true that the word can refer to a longer period of time (see Isa 61:2, or the idiom in 2:4, "in the day," that is, “when”). But this chapter uses “day,” “night,” “morning,” “evening,” “years,” and “seasons.” Consistency would require sorting out how all these terms could be used to express ages. Also, when the Hebrew word yom is used with a numerical adjective, it refers to a literal day. Furthermore, the commandment to keep the sabbath clearly favors this interpretation. One is to work for six days and then rest on the seventh, just as God did when he worked at creation.
The consensus positions of the scientific community have changed over the years in numerous areas. For example, a century ago, many astronomers believed that there were irrigation canals on Mars. Albert Einstein, when asked if his theory of relativity was true, stated that he did not know if it were true, but that the theory worked better than Newtonian physics. He further stated with respect to our knowledge of the universe: "We know nothing about it at all. ... The real nature of things, that we shall never know, never." The British philosopher Karl Popper wrote: "We know that our scientific theories always remain hypotheses . . .. In science there is no knowledge, in the sense in which Plato and Aristotle understood the word, in the sense which implies finality; in science we never have sufficient reason for the belief that we have attained the truth." Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher, asserted that all scientific laws are based on fallacious arguments.
While you may be correct regarding the age of the earth and the universe, it must be remembered that science is fallible whereas Scripture is not.
My point was that because time is relative, the Biblical day referred to during the creation is precisely a 24 hour day. Because that would have been a very different reference frame, it is possible that for us looking at the universe now, that first day would appear to us to have lasted for billions of years. That is the meaning of the relativity of time; the duration appears different from the reference frame of the universe immediately after its creation than it does from our current reference frame. One and the same interval could be 24 hours from the early universal frame and say, 3 billion years from ours, and both measurements of the duration of the first "day" are equally correct.
Just to add a byte.
Without TIME, there is no movement.
We consider Energy and Matter as the two Things of which all is made. Neither exists without Time.
To be Eternal is to have no need of Time, Energy or Matter.
To make Light(Energy) is to make Space and Time and Matter at the same moment.
Your comments please.
Slingshot
To make Light(Energy) is to make Space and Time and Matter at the same moment.
I agree with your assessment, Slingshot. I've written on this topic in some detail recently, and it's posted here at FR. I'll find it and ping it to you.
It's so good to see you!
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