Could God have created the world in six days? He could have done it in the blink of an eye...if he took six days...why not four billion years? The point of the Genesis story isnt' HOW God created but rather THAT God created. Eden...a tool used to show that it was man who caused his own fall by trying to be like God in deciding what was good and what was evil. The flood...more than likely borrowed from the Chaldeans...there were several devastating floods back in the prehistory of man...but never one cataclysmic worldwide flood.
Hi Yeru, thanks for your explanation and so noted. Plus I don't blame someone for having that position if you look at it from a scientific point of view as far as trying to explain miracles, which the Flood was. Of note, the Bible does mention a concentration of the postdeluvian population in Babylon and that's the basis for the religious concepts of the flood and other concepts being spread to many other cultures, thus "Babylon the Great". But I don't mind the opinions of others based upon their perception, after all, I've often quipped that many atheists, for instance, only lack a face-to-face encounter with an angel or two to change their minds about god and the spirit world. But in the absence of that, its reasonable to doubt it I suppose.
The problem with me is I'm DEEP into the prophecies of the Bible and the chronology and am finding these prophecies fulfilled in amazing ways just when predicted. So I don't believe the Bible is just another book from some culture that had reference for a solo Creator. Take for instance the jubilee cycle, a time when the Jews were to celebrate returning home and freedom, basically. 1947 is the year the Jews regained their homeland and left official exile. What a jubilant year for them. But it's exactly, EXACTLY the 50th jubilee after 455BCE. That is, the 70-weeks pattern relating to the Messiah coordinates with the jubilees which are 10 per 70 weeks (490/49=10). So 455BCE was a jubilee, the year the Jews returned from Babylon (a date, by the way I can confirm extra-Biblically thanks to the VAT4956). I'm not quite in a position to consider something like that as an accident.
The Bible also prophesied a time of distress when two-thirds of the Jews were be exterminated just before returning to their homeland. That happened. It was the HOLOCAUST. And the chronology involved requires it during a 70-week period between the 62nd week and the 63rd week, a 7 year period calculatable, if you count the 70 weeks from 36CE, from 1940 to 1947. A coincidence?
Not really. Too many priophecies have come true right exactly when it was said. So when I look out in the night sky and I see this moon, which allegedly simply fell into Earth's orbit by accident and established an elliptical orbit just like that, a perfectly round planet just the right size, and then the rest of the "solar system" with all the planets circling the sun in the same general narrow horizontal plane instead of variant orbits, it's easier to recognize there's a God who planned it.
As far as the days of creation, they were 7,000 years each. Why God took that long, I don't know, but my impression was that it probably didn't really take that long, it's just in God's scheme of things, the eventual plan was to have a Earth's pattern fit into the JUBILEE cycle, so that the creation of man, generally fell during a "rest" period along with 1000 years of God's rule being the 7th day of a 7,000-year long day, and ultimately that same Sabbath milllennium would also be the 49th year leading to the 50th jubilee which began another Creative Week. So I agree with you; probably god could have done everything in a much shorter time, but since he really wanted to establish the pattern of sevens, he drew it out so that man arrived close to the seventh Creative day and man would be 7000 years old when the next Creative Week started.
So, no. The above and other things more personal relating to God puts me in a position to be more "objective" about what the Bible truly is, an exception book from GOD who chose the Jews to provide salvation for mankind, and at one point, he will become "active" enough again to be plainly visible to all who will know the FACTS regarding God. In the meantime, he can observe just who believes the Bible or not, etc as a test and depending upon those who have "faith" and act on it, they get more privileges with respect to the kingdom and the millennium. Then finally, on JUDGMENT DAY, everybody will come back, believers and non-believers, atheists and creationists and then they all will know the REALITY.
Oh well, so much for WHEN we all get to "see" God. Some sooner than others. But one day, everyone.
JC