All posts tagged: Genesis

Video: Is Genesis history?

This video is definitely worth a watch if you want to get a different side of the story of the creation and evolution debate. Well produced. If nothing else, watch the first two minutes. I found their explanation of the worldwide flood fascinating. One Christian geologist believes the massive mountain ranges were created after and by the flood. I did a podcast recently on dinosaurs and pulled one verse out of Genesis to explain why the dinosaurs disappeared., an no there demise wasn’t caused by a flood.

Photo: Nick Kenrick/Flickr/Creative Commons

Evidence of Noah’s flood found in China?

In nearly every culture in the world, there are a stories from their ancient past of a massive flood that wiped out the world — from Eskimos in the Northern Arctic to aborigines in Australia. According to an article in the Washington Post, the Chinese have a story of a flood that covered their mountains and hills. Ancient Chinese emperor Yao wrote: “The flood is pouring forth destruction. Boundless and overwhelming, it over tops hills and mountains. Rising and ever rising, it threatens the very heavens.” Compare his account to how Genesis describes Noah’s flood: 18 The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. (Genesis 7:18-19 NASV) Recently archaeologists uncovered evidence of a massive flood that hit China about 4,000 years ago. This included the remains of small children trapped by the waters. Their dating would put it in the time frame of the …

Mayan Temple Photo: Brian Hoffsis/Flickr

A nugget from the begats

When we encounter a genealogy chapter in the Bible, where the King James version quaintly drones on about how “Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber,” our eyes quickly glaze over and bounce down to the next chapter. But now and then, there is a nugget in these lists, such as one we find in Genesis chapter ten: 25 Two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. (Genesis 10:25 NASV) The verse inserts a small note about something significant that happened in the days of Peleg. It says the earth (our terra firma) was divided. The Hebrew word means to cleave apart or divide and the tense suggests it was a continual act, that it started and continued to do so. It was such a historic event, that Peleg was even named after what happened. According to Barnes commentary, as a noun Peleg refers to a brook or canal and because that is a natural divide in …

Photo of Atlantic ocean off of Brazil by Tiago Fioreze/Wikipedia

Where did all the water come from?

For years, scientists have struggled to explain waters existence on earth. Their best theory is that it was alien — that comets laden with ice hit the earth filling our oceans. However, there is a new theory gaining ground that confirms the Biblical account. Geologists last year found a diamond that suggested deep beneath the earth’s surface there are massive oceans of water. This is exactly what the Bible says. We are told in Genesis 1, that when God formed the earth he created waters above and below (Genesis 1:7). In fact, the water below was a major source of the water used to fill the earth during Noah’s flood when the fountains of the deep exploded gushing water to the earth’s surface. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. (Genesis 7:11 NASV) In 2014, scientists from the University of Alberta were …

Children playing in Thailand Photo: Khanh Hmoong/Flickr

What is the most important thing you can do for your child?

The Bible is full of advice on child-rearing. Experts in the field have written hundreds of books and I hate to even delve into this area. Admittedly what I will be sharing doesn’t receive the same press as many popular theories, nevertheless it may help your child develop a proper Biblical view of our Heavenly Father – that God loves us and only has our best interests at heart. To understand this principle, we must look at Genesis 1: 26, where God says, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” The word ‘image’ (Hebrew tselem) means to be a representative figure. It is used throughout the Old Testament to describe idols or as the King James version quaintly called them ‘graven images’ (cf. Isaiah 45:20). This means humans functioned as idols of God, not those cut from stone or hewed from wood. But the choice of “tselem” is curious because it begs the question — who were men and women supposed to represent God to? If we are all created in …

The Creation of Adam is a fresco painted by Mich3langelo between 1511 and 1512 on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel in Rome.

DNA research confirms Adam and Eve

In a newly released documentary, The Genetics of Adam and Eve, Dr Georgia Purdom of Answers in Genesis (AIG) says there is compelling genetic evidence showing that humans are direct descendants of one man and one woman as the Bible records. Before joining AIG, Purdom, who has a PhD in genetics from Ohio State University, was a biology professor and wrote a number of published papers in scientific journals including Journal of Neuroscience, and the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. Purdom says those who believe in millions of years of evolution dismiss the story of Adam and Eve as little more than a myth. They believe that humans can not have descended from a single man and woman as the Bible states insisting instead humans have multiple contributors to our genetic code. In her documentary, Purdom looks at the findings of geneticist Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson. Also a Christian, Jeanson, who has a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University, has used his expertise in the field of genetics to prove Adam and Eve’s existence. Jeanson …

As in the days of Noah: Is history repeating itself with manipulation of human genes?

[by Dean Smith] On April 18, 2015, scientists from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong, China publicly announced in the online journal Protein and Cell, they had edited the genes in a non-viable human embryo using a gene editing technique called CRIS PR-Cas9. This procedure enables them to remove genes, splice new ones in and basically recode any gene strand they want. They apparently modified a gene in a number of embryos thought to cause disease. It is less than exacting because of the 28 embryos they tampered with only seven attempts were successful. This is the first time that scientists have openly admitted to modifying human genes is an effort to create “designer” humans, even though in this instance the embryos did not survive, or so they said.

Yet another flood account uncovered — and they entered an ark two by two

[by Dean Smith] Irvin Finkel works at the British Museum based in London. He is also an expert on the ancient scripts used by the Babylonians, Sumerians and Assyrians. While exploring the cuneiform texts of the Ancient Sumerians, he came across one that describes a great flood. In some significant ways it is very similar to the Biblical flood account, but in other ways different. The account holds to the same basic theme. God destroyed the world with a massive flood, but a handful of humans and a representative of all the animals were saved by an ark that rode out the flood. According to the Finkel the text is old dating to about 1750 BC.

Was a Pharaoh’s violent death curiously connected to Joseph?

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a little known pharaoh who may have had a connection to Joseph. According to what was written on the tomb’s wall, his name was Senebkay. He had looted a nearby tomb of Pharaoh Sobekhotep I, stealing a cedar chest, suggesting Senebkay was not financially well off. The tomb found in Abydos had been ransacked by grave robbers. They even ripped apart Senebkay’s coffin, including his mummy, which was buried under a pile of debris. His body was found in January 2014.

What I saw in the doctor’s office

[by Dean Smith] I was waiting in the doctor’s office for an appointment when I saw it — another confirmation of the Book of Genesis. The waiting area is a large room with eight rows of padded chairs down the middle.  In the far corner, there is an enclosed play area for children. Only a choice few chairs have arms. I quickly sat in one of those. The room was half full of people with various ailments. Old to young. Mostly women.

What is a massive oak forest doing at the bottom of the North Sea?

Dawn Watson and Rob Spray were scuba diving about 300 meters off the the coast of Cley Next to the Sea, Norfolk, England when Dawn made an incredible discovery. Cley Next to the Sea is located on Britain’s North coast bordering the North Sea. Dawn found a forest of oak trees at the bottom of the ocean. This included complete, but now fallen trees, some with branches 24 feet long (8 meters). The forest, previously buried in the sand, was probably uncovered by a recent storm in the area. A survey of the forest suggests at one point it may have stretched from England to Europe, covering thousands of acres.

Did the Genesis’ flood separate England from Europe?

For decades, it was thought a land bridge that once connected Britain to Europe had disappeared through a combination of slow erosion and rising seas. Some believe this separation took place over one million years ago. However, that popular theory was tossed into the trash bin because of a 2006 study that was conducted on how England was populated. As part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project (AHOB), researchers scanned the English Channel several kilometers off the coast of Sussex looking for examples of human settlement.

Does God really want us to use Marijuana?

A Oklahoma politician is using a strange argument in her attempt to have Marijuana legalized in that state. According to KFOR.com, Senator Constance Johnson quoted the Bible when she along with attorney David Slane announced a petition drive pushing for pot legalization in the birth place of such stars as Will Rogers, Chuck Norris and Ron Howard. Citing Genesis 1:29, Johnson said that Marijuana was among a group of herbs God created for people to use. And God said, ‘See I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seeds, to you it shall be for food.” (Genesis 1:29 NASV) She said: “We’re putting forth Genesis 1:29 as the basis of this campaign. God created this wonderful, miraculous plant and we know that it has been vilified for the last 100 years, and it’s time to change that in Oklahoma.”

The world’s first antichrist?

In 1 John 2:18, the Bible warns that there will be many antichrists, before the final one shows at the end of the age. But, perhaps the first reference to an antichrist is found centuries earlier in the first few chapters of Genesis. After the flood, God commanded Noah and his family to spread out and fill the earth. Instead Noah’s descendants congregated in the valley of Mesopotamia. At this point, they were still one language (Genesis 11:1). The driving force behind this was a man named Nimrod. The word “Nimrod” literally means “we shall rebel.” The name itself sets the stage for what follows.

Do camel bones really disprove the Bible?

Claims that a study by an archaeologist from the University of Tel Aviv on camels disproves the Bible’s accuracy has certainly caught the media’s attention. Stories are appearing all over the web about the report. Professors Erez Ben-Yosef and Lidar Sapir-Hen were studying camel bones found in Israel that showed the animals had carried heavy loads indicating domestication. Carbon dating of the bones revealed the camels were from the 10th century B.C. The Bible on the other hand records Abraham using camels eight centuries earlier dating to around 2000 B.C. as recorded in the Book of Genesis. As a result, it is suggested someone tampered with the Genesis account adding camels at a later date believing they were used back then because camels were in common usage during that person’s time.