At the time Genesis was written, the sky was God's tent with lots of little lights on it.
None on earth had conceived of a galaxy. Or that our itty bitty earth was on one of the wings of an average-sized galaxy.
Bible scholars, The Earth is the only planet in the universe with life, state the Bible.
by jam 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Dismissing servant
According to bible history the planet earth was created before the sun, the moon and all the stars. In that way the earth has a special role in the creation myth in genesis.
If I remember it thigt the sun was created after the green plants according to genesis. Maybe God didn't know about the photosyntesis!
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frankiespeakin
Dis,
If I remember it thigt the sun was created after the green plants according to genesis. Maybe God didn't know about the photosyntesis!
That poses a problem if we use the 7000 year long creative day as promulgated by the Wt corporation. If we use instead a 24hour day plants can suvive a couple of days with out sun.
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St George of England
There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in,
They are ever so small, that's why rain is thin.
Spike Milligan
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Christ Alone
If I remember it thigt the sun was created after the green plants according to genesis. Maybe God didn't know about the photosyntesis!
I hear stuff like this all the time as if Genesis was written and supposed to have been taken literally. The Genesis account is written in a poetic way that contains numbering patterns. It was never meant to be a scientific account of creation. Day 1, 2, and 3 directly match day 3,4,and 5. They were not to believe that light proceeded the sun and stars. It was a poetic pattern. The Hebrews were obsessed with numerica patterns. Every number had a meaning.
Day 1: Light is created or formed. It is filled on Day 4 with sun and stars
Day 2: Sky and seas are formed. It is filled on day 5 with birds and fish
Day 3: Land is formed. It is filled on Day 6 with animals and man
JWs hold to a twisted branch off of fundamentalist understanding of Genesis.
But to understand and apply Genesis 1 correctly, we have to consider genre and intention. Too often these chapters are read as if they present a purely straightforward (read literal) historical and even scientific account of cosmic and human origins. They are thus read against modern science.
If one reads Genesis 1 and 2 closely and with knowledge of contemporary ancient Near Estern texts, it is impossible to believe that the original author wanted his audience to read the text literally.
First think of the days of Genesis. “Day” typically means a twenty-four hour period. When it means something like “period of time,” it occurs in a formula like “day of the Lord.” In addition, each of the six creation days are described as having an “evening and a morning.” Those who want to read the creation days as literally 24 hour days will often point to these facts as indicating that we are dealing with a real day, not a period of time. That seems very reasonable until we note that the sun, moon, and stars aren’t created until the fourth day. But to have a literal “day” there has to be a sun, moon, and stars! These heavenly bodies define what a literal day is. Attempts to argue that God manipulated the light and the darkness of day one in a 24 hour period are a far-fetched and strange. These are not literal days, but a figurative way to present the fact that God ordered creation. The first three days are realms that are filled by the second three days, so the light/darkness realm of day one are inhabited by the sun, moon, and stars of day four. The sky/sea realm of day two are filled by the birds and fish of day five, and the land of day three is filled by the animals and humans of day six.
Second, we must remember that a fundamental principle of biblical interpretation is to read a text in the light of its original context. The first audience simply was not interested in HOW the creation came into existence, but WHO brought it into existence and WHY. Again, Genesis 1-2 was not written against Darwin, but against rival ancient Near Eastern claims. The Enuma Elish of Babylon attributed creation to Marduk and the Canaanite version pointed to Baal. Both of these ancient creation myths saw creation as a result of divine conflict between creator gods and deities that represented the chaotic waters which they defeated and controlled. In contrast, the Bible identifies YHWH as the creator and since there are no rival gods there is no conflict either. God created the “earth as a formless void,” a watery mass and created the habitable world from it. The watery mass was not there from the beginning.
In a word, Genesis 1 proclaims that God ordered creation. It is not concerned with how God did it. To use Genesis 1 to reconstruct the process of creation is a misuse of the text.
So to bring in photosynthesis and other modern scientific understandings is to concern oneself with something that the original audience was not concerned with. The creation account was not literal.
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BluesBrother
The Bible may be silent about the question of life elswhere, but the WTC have stated :
"Things in Which It Is Impossible for God to Lie", book in 1965 , page 385/385
"To all eternity our earth will bear a distinction such as no other planet throughout endless space will enjoy. To all eternity, throughout all creation, it will be a glorious showpiece to Jehovah’s praise. Not that it will be the only planet that will ever be inhabited, but that it will be the only planet to which the Creator of all good things sent his only-begotten Son to become a man and die sacrificially to recover the planet’s inhabitants from sin and its penalty death.................."
We were never sure what they meant
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Phizzy
The problem for the believers who feel that the Devil is real, and that there is some sort of contest between him and God, as per Revelation, is that if the devil has been "confined to the vicinity of the Earth" this MUST mean that there is no life elsewhere, otherwise the devil would say "Hey, let me have ago at that lot"
or if he had already had a go at misleading them all, the "question", the sovereignty stuff, would have been answered.
The difficulty will come when incontovertible proof of life elsewhere, not spirit beings, but carbon based stuff like us, comes to light.
The whole "I can piss higher up the wall than you" contest between God and Satan will be for nothing, or rather, be proved to be a total fiction, as in fact are the two protaganists in the story.
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mP
ChristAlone:
The Hebrews were obsessed with numerica patterns. Every number had a meaning
MP:
Its called numerology and goes hand in hand with astrology which we can find everywher ein the Bible.
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mP
Jam
My wife friend told her, the bible states, "the earth is the
only place in this universe that God made for habitation".
Have anyone read a scripture that states or indicate this???
MP:
Most of christianity is made up, this as well. Make a bet she will never be able to find a scripture that includes half the keywords of your challemge.
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Dismissing servant
"My wife friend told her, the bible states, "the earth is the
only place in this universe that God made for habitation".
In that case; why did he bother create billions of solar systems with planets?