MAN IN OUR OWN IMAGE - Questioning Answers in Genesis
By Arthur Bud Chrysler
© 2024 Arthur Chrysler
FOREWORD
This study is not intended to create division among believers despite the provocative title, but is presented as a biblically-sound alternative to the Young Earth Creationist position.
God has a purpose and a plan for all of His creation. The Bible manifests the Lord Jesus Christ and makes clear the plan of salvation through His shed blood; that He died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
The Young Earth Creationists posit that the Bible also states when the creation of the universe began. The late Dr. Henry M. Morris, Young Earth Creationist and former president of the Institute for Creation Research and professor of hydrology in the institute's division of graduate study and research, wrote:
- "Therefore, if we really want to know anything about this creation period... then such knowledge can be acquired only by divine revelation. And that is exactly what we have here in this marvelous first chapter of Genesis, the divinely revealed record of the creation and formation of all things: how long it took, what the various events and divisions were, what the order of development was, the relations of the various components, and all the other data which man could never be able to determine for himself through his own scientific observations" (Henry M. Morris, The Genesis Record, 1976, p. 81).
- "Consequently, the account of earth history as recorded in Genesis fixes the creation of the universe at several thousand, rather than several billion, years ago. The exact date may be as long ago as 10,000 B.C., or as recently as 4000 B.C., with the probabilities (from Biblical considerations, at least) favoring the lower end of this spectrum" (Henry M. Morris, The Genesis record, 1976, pp. 45-46). And there is this from Ken Ham:
- "The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 make it clear that the creation days happened only about 6000 years ago" (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book 1, 2006, p. 26).
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God (Psalm 90:2).
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun (Psalm 19:1-4).
Charles Baker, President Emeritus of Grace Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrote:
- "However we look at God's creation, we cannot comprehend its magnitude. The size of the universe has something to say about its age. If there are objects visible which are one billion light years distant, then it has taken light one billion years to reach the earth. It must be admitted that astronomers can only roughly estimate such great distances, but allowing for a large margin of error it would appear that the universe must be many, many times the six thousand year age which many of the flood geologists hold" (Charles F. Baker, A Dispensational Theology, 1971, p. 199).
"Speak unto the Children of Israel"
During the Time of Moses – ca. 1400 B.C. (Late Bronze Age Period 1550 – 1200 B.C.), the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai and wrote them with His own finger on tablets of stone (Exodus 20:1; 31:18). But it was Moses who recited Lord’s words to the Children of Israel:
Leviticus 25:1-2 – And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.
Deuteronomy 5:1 – And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.
Exodus 20:8-11 – Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Deuteronomy 5:4–25 consists of the re-telling of the Ten Commandments to the younger generation who were to enter the Promised Land. Moses’ reciting of the Fourth Commandment in Deuteronomy chapter five is virtually identical with his reciting of the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter twenty. However, it is important to note that the comments found immediately after the Fourth Commandment in each book differ from one another.
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 – Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
Interestingly, the phrase “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…” is absent in the Deuteronomy account of the fourth Commandment – which goes on to say that nothing more was added:
Deuteronomy 5:22 – These words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
So, according to Deuteronomy 5:22, there is good reason to posit that the statement, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…” was never spoken by the Lord or written in the two tables of stone. According to E. W. Bullinger, Deuteronomy 5:15 is a parenthetical break in Moses’ recital of the fourth commandment, in view of their shortly having servants of their own (The Companion Bible, 1974, p. 246). If we agree with Bullinger regarding the parenthetical statement, then we may infer that Moses’ closing statement in Exodus 20:11 could also be parenthetical in nature.
In Deuteronomy, Moses’ comments, after reciting the fourth commandment (“and remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt…”), are historical remembrance; as the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, they should allow their own slaves one day of rest per week. This is in keeping with Deuteronomy’s humanistic emphasis and concern for the social good.
In Exodus, Moses’ comments, after reciting the fourth commandment (“for in six days…”), are mainly theological; harking back to the creation story in Gen 1:1-2:4a, where God rests on the seventh day after the work of creation (Gen 2:2).
The idea that comments made in Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:15 may be parenthetical, and attributed to Moses, does not mean that those verses are of any lesser importance, or to be disregarded, but it allows us to put them in their proper context – Those verses do not reflect claims, made by the Lord God, that He created all things in six days.
As he makes his case for a young earth, Ken Ham, founder and chief executive officer of Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter, mistakenly holds to man’s traditional teaching that the Lord Himself spoke the words, For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is:
- “Now, when the Creator God spoke as recorded in Exodus 20:1, what did He (Jesus) say? As we read on, we find this statement: ‘for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day’ (Exodus 20:11).”
“Jesus said clearly that He created in six days. And He even did something He didn’t do with most of Scripture – He wrote it down Himself. How clearer and more authoritative can you get than that?” (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book 1, 2006, p. 258).
The Pattern -
The examples of a pattern of six days of man’s activity and one day of rest corresponding to the length of time it took the Lord God to make heaven and earth and then rest, are instructive. But there are similar patterns found elsewhere in Scripture where the parallel reference is to years, not to days; the emphasis, then, being on the pattern itself:
Exodus 21:2 – If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
The emphasis being on the pattern (not the duration) is clearly seen in Exodus 23:10-12, where the pattern begins with reference to “years” and ends with reference to “days”:
Exodus 23:10-12 – And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: But the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard. Six days shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.
Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Daniel 9:2 both speak of the seventy-year Babylonian captivity but when this same seventy-year period is mentioned in connection with the Sabbath, the familiar pattern of six (in this case sixty) and one (in this case ten) appears once again:
II Chronicles 36:21 – To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years (not stated as seventy years but incorporating the pattern of six and one).
The pattern of six-and-one, in Scripture, corresponds to the time that elapsed while the Lord God made heaven and earth and rested. Decades, years, or days are used interchangeably within the pattern. The duration of time that was incorporated within it is irrelevant; the pattern alone is the focus.
Consequently, the pattern used by Moses in his personal statements recorded in Exodus 20:11 mirrored man’s ordinary working days with the time it took for God to make heaven and earth. The pattern used by Moses recorded in Leviticus 25:3-5 echoed man’s ordinary working years with the time it took for God to make heaven and earth, and the author of II Chronicles 36:21 paralleled man’s decades with the time it took for God to make heaven and earth. Relative to these patterns, then, how long did it take God to make heaven and earth? Did it take Him years, decades, days, or perhaps eons?
PART TWO
The Tablets
When Moses presented the Ten Commandments to the Children of Israel, he was reciting what the Lord had spoken, and written to him (Exodus 31:18; 32:15-19; 34:28). Consider the possibility that Moses compiled the first chapter of Genesis in a similar way, but in this case, echoing information that had been originally spoken and written to Adam.
When Adam was created, he had the ability to understand God and to speak with God. According to Genesis 5:1, he apparently had the ability to read and write. In this sense, you could say that Adam hit the ground running! What is the first thing that Adam would have read? Adam would have read the same thing we read in Genesis 1:1-2:4, which ends with (in the Septuagint version), “This is the book of the generation of heaven and earth, when they were made….”
- “The second tablet or series of tablets extends from the latter part of the fourth verse of the second chapter of Genesis to chapter 5:2 and contains an account of the beginning of man upon the earth, the Garden of Eden, the Fall, and the murder of Abel. …The one person who knew all the facts, about the Fall, is stated to be the source from which the account came. This second tablet takes the story up to the birth of the sons of Lamech. Soon after this Adam died; the concluding words of the tablet are, ‘This is the book of the origins of Adam.’” (P. J. Wiseman, New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis, 1946, pp. 73-74).
book; Strong’s 5612 – cepher; writing; from #5608 – caphar; to score with a mark, to inscribe.
generations; Strong’s 8435 – toledah; decent, i.e. family; history: - birth, generations.
Notice the Hebrew word ‘toledot’, as it appears in Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures:
- “toledot F. pl. (1) generations, families, races, Nu. 1:20, seqq. - according to their races, Gen. 10:32; 25:13; Exod. 6:16. Hence genealogy, pedigree, Gen. 5:1. As a very large portion of the most ancient Oriental history consists of genealogies, it means – (2) history, properly of families. Gen. 6:9, “this is the history of Noah.” and thus also applied to the origin of other things. Gen. 2:4, “this is the origin of the heaven and earth.” (Gesenius's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, Translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, 1901, p. 859a).
Before God rested (ceased) from all His work He had made, He had one last thing to accomplish – He would communicate with man (them):
Genesis 1:28-31 – And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (they were able to understand the spoken word). And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Turning ahead now to Genesis 2:15-24 will help to make a point.
Genesis 2:15-24 – And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Notice that the events described in Genesis 2:15-24 must have taken place before God rested (ceased) from all His work He had made, the description of which is mentioned earlier in Genesis 2:1-3 – Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Why is there a description of God still working found after the description of God resting (ceasing) from all His work? The answer is that there are two eyewitness descriptions here, from two different perspectives – As will be shown, one description from the Lord God (Gen.1:1-2:4a), and one from Adam (Gen.2:4b-5:1a).
If Wiseman is right about the colophons coming at the end of each of the eyewitnesses' accounts, it would indicate that the book of Genesis is made up of tablets which were written or owned by an eyewitness to the events described therein. These “family records” would have been eventually compiled by Moses, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in the Late Bronze Age (1550 – 1200 B.C.) and should be considered historically reliable. Dale Dewitt, author and former professor of theology at Grace Christian University for over 40 years, adds this:
- “… there is good reason to think in terms of the writing rather than oral transmission of the traditions of Genesis in the Bronze Age. The evidence is clear for the writing of “books” in that period. …The cultural background of the patriarchs includes the development of writing and its application to bookmaking and record-making. Since the format of such a Bronze Age “book” can be traced in Genesis, there is reason to place the original writing of the history as well as the history itself in the Bronze Age” (Dale S. Dewitt, Bible and Spade, The Generations of Genesis, 2011).
- “Being Jewish, Moses would have had access to the family records of his ancestors (cf. Gen. 5:1; 10:1; 25:19; etc.) which were no doubt brought down to Egypt by Jacob (Gen. 46). …We can conclude that Moses, using the family records which had been passed on to him, compiled the Book of Genesis. …Moses could have copied his material from such records just as Hezekiah’s men copied from Solomon’s writings to complete the Book of Proverbs (cf. Prov. 25:1)” (Norman L. Geisler, A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, 1978, pp. 37-38). In 1913, Swiss Egyptologist and Biblical scholar Edouard Naville wrote the following:
- “The review of the facts has led us to conclude that the Pentateuch and the earlier writings of the Old Testament were originally written in Babylonian cuneiform. Therefore, they were written not in books, but on tablets. …We can easily separate the first four: the creation of heaven and earth, the creation of mankind, the generations of men as far as Noah, and the deluge.”
PART THREE
The Work of the Six Days
Wiseman’s “tablet theory” was cautiously received by some Bible scholars but when, as a result of his new perspective, he broke from tradition and introduced an entirely new way to interpret the account of creation, those scholars were not so quick to follow. The most common type of data used in support of the six days of Genesis chapter one being days of creative activity is based upon traditional interpretations of the Bible, so it serves as our point of departure in investigating the possibility that those six days were days of revelation.
Job 38:4-7 – Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Job 38:21 – Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
As we learn from the Book of Job, the eyewitnesses to the acts of creation did not include man. But, there was an Eyewitness who gave us a written account.
In 1958, Wiseman suggested that the “days” of Genesis chapter one may be days of revelation, not days of creative activity (Revelatory-day view). According to this view, God took six days to reveal (verbally and written) details about Himself and His creation.
- “The days of Genesis chapter one are intended to be literal days, but not of creation, and the time occupied in the events described may well be as long as the ‘geological’ interpretation asserts” (P. J. Wiseman, Creation Revealed in Six Days, 1958, p. 128).
- “We are expressly told that each of the six days was divided by ‘an evening and a morning’. Why these six ‘evenings and mornings’? Why were they introduced? For God’s sake or for man? Endless difficulties have been created in thinking that Almighty God, the Creator, ceased His work of creating the world as the evening drew on and recommenced it as morning light appeared. Was it necessary for God to cease from His work of creation when darkness came on, and to wait till morning light dawned before He could resume? This idea needs only to be stated in this blunt fashion in order to enable us to see that the cessation for the six mornings and evenings was to meet man’s necessity for rest. God had no need of a nightly rest, “He fainteth not, neither is weary.” (P. J. Wiseman, Creation Revealed in six days, 1958, pp. 37, 38).
Isaiah 40:28 – Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Genesis 1:3-5 – And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
light; Strong’s 216, ore; from 215; illumination or luminary: bright, clear, + daylight, morning, sun.
ore; Strong’s 215, to be luminous: break of day.
If the “work” of the six days speaks of actual creative activity, then what would have been the source of the light and point of reference (sunrise/sunset) in days one through three? As to the source of light, it has been suggested that the light in days one through three consisted of the glory of God and the Lamb was the light thereof: Revelation 21:23 – And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. But as we read on, we find that there is no night there: Revelation 21:25 – And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. Days one through three in the first chapter of Genesis include night. Therefore, the source of the light in days one through three in the first chapter of Genesis would differ from that of Revelation 21 in that the latter consists of only light, and the former alternates between light and darkness.
When one sees the first light of day, what is the source of that light? The answer is, the sun; the same sun which produced light on the first day!
day; Strong’s 3117, yowm; to be hot (as the warm hours), from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next.
Genesis 1:6-8 – And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
firmament; Strong’s 7549, raqiya; from 7554; an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky: - firmament.
raqa; Strong’s 7754, to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand by hammering; beat, make broad, spread abroad, stamp, stretch.
If you really want to know what the firmament is, go outside on a clear night and look up!
Psalm 19:1 – The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Isaiah 45:18 – For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
When Isaiah states “…he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited…,” he is referring to a later phase of earth’s creation which is described in Genesis 1:9-13. Envision the Earth as it exists today, composed of seas and dry land with grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit.
Genesis 1:9-13 – And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
The earth was no longer “without form.” There were now mountains and valleys and other defining characteristics. Notice the phrase "and God said" is used a second time as the creative activity transitions from inorganic material to life.
Genesis 1:14-19 – And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Within the revelatory-day view, the problem associated with the fourth day disappears because these are not held as days of creative activity, but of divine revelation. This view posits that the Lord God chose the fourth day to tell Adam about the sun, moon and stars which allows for the sun to have been the source of the light and point of reference (sunrise/sunset) in days one through three.
In 2018, I wrote to retired professor Dale Dewitt as to his thoughts on Wiseman's theories. He kindly replied:
- "On Wiseman's 'Creation Revealed in six days' I have little to say. Genesis one's "And God said" portions could be read as a compacted series of divine revelations as they are elsewhere in the Old Testament, though normally separated in series by larger quantities of prophetic speeches in that part of the Old Testament. I am glad to hear that you are trying to think critically about Hamm's and others' theories.
PART FOUR
The Earth Inhabited
God here begins to reveal how He filled the void. In filling the void, the creation of man would be God’s greatest achievement, being crowned with honor and glory, and God saved this part of His revelation for the last day.
Genesis 1:20 – And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
creature; Strong’s 8318, sherets; from #8317; a swarm, i.e. active mass of minute animals.
Strong’s 8317, sharats; to wiggle, i.e. swarm or abound, creep, move.
IN MY OWN BACK YARD – While playing with my children in the field behind our home in Michigan, I found a large (3” diameter) trilobite fossil. After a little research, we learned that our find could be from what geologists call the Cambrian strata of the Paleozoic Era, and evidence of one of the earliest creatures of God’s creation. Photo: Arthur Chrysler.
Charles Baker wrote:
Charles Baker wrote:
- “…We believe that the Bible teaches that the various kinds of life were created directly by God, and we do not believe that the facts of science disprove this fact. Some evolutionists would have us believe that a cross-section of the rocks shows a gradual development from simple one-celled animals in the lowest to the most complex, highly developed animals in the highest stratum, but this is not the record of geology. The first undisputed traces of fossil animal life occur in the Cambrian strata and of these Edwin K. Gedney states: ‘About two thousand species of life have been found in the Cambrian strata in which all the phyla of animal life except the chordates or vertebrates, and most of the great classes, are represented. This constitutes a third great geological fact, that all the invertebrate phyla appear contemporaneously with marked suddenness in the Cambrian differentiated into phyla, classes, and orders and with no clear indication as to how they developed into this condition if they did develop at all.’ Gedney also quotes A.H. Clark (Smithsonian Institute): ‘So, we see that the fossil record, the actual history of the animal life on the earth, bears out the assumption that at its very first appearance animal life in its broader features was in essentially the same form as that in which we now know it… Thus, so far as concerns the major groups of animals, the creationists seem to have the better of the argument. There is not the slightest evidence that any of the major groups arose from any other.’
“Petoskey stone” composed of a fossilized coral, found by the author in Gaylord, Michigan. Photo: Arthur Chrysler. This fossil contains glacial striations; therefore, two different eras are represented here - the Devonian strata of the Paleozoic Era, and the Ice Age striations of the Cenozoic Era! This fossil was naturally polished by an Ice Age glacier. When stones have been glacially transported, as this example from the Devonian strata in Michigan, they may retain striations, indicating abrasion as they were transported on the underside of a sliding glacier.
Genesis 1:21 – And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
creature; Strong’s 5315, nephesh; a breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality; used very widely in a lit., accommodated or fig. sense (bodily or mental).
Genesis 1:22 – And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Genesis 1:23 – And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1:24 – And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
There is a marked difference between the “creature” (Hebrew – sherets), mentioned in Genesis 1:20, and the “creature” (Hebrew – nephesh) mentioned in Genesis 1:21-24. The former had a simple, wiggling body, while the latter had a breathing body and self-awareness. There is also a marked difference between the “creature” mentioned in Genesis 1:24, and “man in our image, after our likeness” mentioned in Genesis 1:26. The former consists of body (flesh) and soul (self-awareness), while the latter consists of body (flesh), soul (self-awareness), and spirit (God awareness).
Genesis 1:25 – And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The phrase “beast of the earth” gives reference to a wide variety of pre-Adamic creatures. The end of the last glacial period (Younger Dryas) witnessed the extinction of what remained of these creatures, including woolly mammoths, mastodons, Neanderthals, giant sloths, and saber-toothed tigers. There is evidence for an extraterrestrial impact that may have contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling.
Death Before Sin
Genesis 2:15-17 - And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Death is separation. Physical death is separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death, more importantly, is separation of the soul from God. God told Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit he would “surely die.” Adam did sin, but his physical death was not instantaneous; God had a different type of death in mind - spiritual death. An example of this separation from God is seen in Genesis 3:8: And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. They had lost their intimate connection with God and would have been considered spiritually dead.
From a Young Earth Creationist perspective -
The fossil record, showing evidence of animals eating each other, diseases like cancer in their bones, violence, plants with thorns, and so on, may be read as the pages of God's other book, exposing what may have occurred between the first "And God said" and the second "And God said." This would explain the Ice Age extinction of the megafauna before the creation of man in God's image and the animals we see today.
Young Earth Creationists maintain that belief in an old earth is synonymous with belief in the evolutionary process. It is not. Just because there may have been time for evolution to occur doesn't necessarily mean that it did. The YECs should use scripture to make their point (Gen. 1:1, 21, 25, 27) rather than to willfully ignore the pages of God's other book and to subtract aeons from the record of a Creator who is from everlasting.
Romans 5:12, 17-19 -
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Another mistaken belief -
To be without Christ is to be spiritually dead. Paul describes it as “being alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18). To be separated from the life of God is synonymous with being dead. The natural man, like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, is isolated from God. When we come to a saving knowledge, the spiritual death assigned to us is reversed. Before salvation, we are dead (spiritually), but Jesus gives us life. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,” (Ephesians 2:1).
When the distinction is made between physical death and spiritual death, and the mention of death put in its proper context, it is possible to comprehend the idea that many creatures lived and died a physical death long before the creation of man in God's image. The belief of physical death before the fall does not in any way undercut the gospel. It was spiritual death that entered upon the fall, and it is spiritual death from which we are delivered. I will try to explain this further by commenting throughout the following verses about the raising of Lazarus:
John 11:24-26 - Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again (from physical death) in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead (physical death), yet shall he live (spiritual life): And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (spiritually, but will experience physical death, unless he is caught away to meet the Lord in the air). Believest thou this?
Colossians 1:12-23 - Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.
According to Scripture, all things were created by Him and for Him; therefore it is not necessary for us to discount "millions of years" simply to build an argument against evolution. The Bible is very clear about God's creative activity, moreover, the earth has not ceased to reveal "the things of Him from the creation of the world." The Apostle Paul introduces us to God's other book - the book of Nature: Romans 1:20 - For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
The Grand Canyon in Arizona is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet). Consider it a Bible in nature (yes, God wrote two books!); each layer of sediment represents a page of revelation which fits in perfectly with the creation story of the Holy Bible. That God made all things "after their kind" is also confirmed by the Apostle Paul: I Corinthians 15:38-41 - But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
It was after the creation of man in God's image when we read, And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (Genesis 1:31).
The following information relates to something that existed before the second use of the phrase "And God said" during the sixth day of the creation story, and should be categorized under "beast of the earth."
Neanderthal fossils were first found in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1857. Other similar remains have been found elsewhere in Europe and Israel. In Israel, the first Neanderthal was found in Upper Galilee - Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh (Arabic: “Cave of the Robbers”).
Genesis 1:21 – And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
creature; Strong’s 5315, nephesh; a breathing creature, i.e. animal or (abstr.) vitality; used very widely in a lit., accommodated or fig. sense (bodily or mental).
Genesis 1:22 – And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Genesis 1:23 – And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1:24 – And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
There is a marked difference between the “creature” (Hebrew – sherets), mentioned in Genesis 1:20, and the “creature” (Hebrew – nephesh) mentioned in Genesis 1:21-24. The former had a simple, wiggling body, while the latter had a breathing body and self-awareness. There is also a marked difference between the “creature” mentioned in Genesis 1:24, and “man in our image, after our likeness” mentioned in Genesis 1:26. The former consists of body (flesh) and soul (self-awareness), while the latter consists of body (flesh), soul (self-awareness), and spirit (God awareness).
Genesis 1:25 – And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The phrase “beast of the earth” gives reference to a wide variety of pre-Adamic creatures. The end of the last glacial period (Younger Dryas) witnessed the extinction of what remained of these creatures, including woolly mammoths, mastodons, Neanderthals, giant sloths, and saber-toothed tigers. There is evidence for an extraterrestrial impact that may have contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling.
- “As for the Neandertal… these early anthropoids cannot be dismissed as mere apes in their mentality, for their remains are accompanied by stone implements, such as arrowheads and ax heads; and charred remains indicate strongly the use of fire for cooking purposes. Especially in the case of Neandertal deposits, there seems to be evidence of burial with adjacent implements as if there was some sort of belief in life after death (necessitating the use of such implements-or their spiritual counterpart-by the deceased). Some crude statuettes have likewise been discovered which may possibly have had cultic purposes, and some of the remarkable paintings discovered in some of the caves may have been of Neandertal origin…. It is most unlikely that these earlier anthropoids can be brought within the timespan indicated by the genealogical lists of Genesis 5 and 11. Either we must regard these lists as having no significance whatever as time indicators, or else we must reject these earlier humanlike species as being descended from Adam at all” (Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1974, pp. 196-197).
- Archer knows well the significance of the genealogical lists of Genesis 5 and 11 and rightly concludes “we must reject these earlier humanlike species as being descended from Adam at all.”
- “…it seems best to regard these races as all prior to Adam’s time, and not involved in the Adamic covenant. We must leave the question open, in view of the cultural remains, whether these pre-Adamic creatures had souls (or, to use the trichotomic terminology, spirits). But the implication of Genesis 1:26 is that God was creating a qualitatively different being when He made Adam (for note that the word rendered ‘man’ in Gen 1:26-27 is the Hebrew ‘Adam’), a being who was uniquely fashioned in the image of God. Only Adam and his descendants were infused with the breath of God and a spiritual nature corresponding to God Himself. Romans 5:12-21 demands that all mankind subsequent to Adam’s time, at least, must have been literally descended from him, since he entered into covenant relationship with God as the representative of the entire race of man. This indicates that there could have been no true genetic relationship between Adam (the first man created in the image of God) and the pre-Adamic races. …They may have been exterminated by God for reasons unknown prior to the creation of the original parent of the present human race. Adam, then, was the first man created in the spiritual image of God, according to Genesis 1:26-27, and there is no evidence from science to disprove it” (Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, 1974, pp. 198-199).
Death Before Sin
Genesis 2:15-17 - And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Death is separation. Physical death is separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death, more importantly, is separation of the soul from God. God told Adam that in the day he ate of the forbidden fruit he would “surely die.” Adam did sin, but his physical death was not instantaneous; God had a different type of death in mind - spiritual death. An example of this separation from God is seen in Genesis 3:8: And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. They had lost their intimate connection with God and would have been considered spiritually dead.
From a Young Earth Creationist perspective -
- "The book of Genesis teaches that death is the result of Adam's sin (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12, 8:18-22) and that all of God's creation was 'very good' upon its completion (Genesis 1:31). All animals and humans were originally vegetarian (Genesis 1:29-30). But if we compromise on the history of Genesis by adding millions of years, we must believe that death and disease were part of the world before Adam sinned. You see, the (alleged) millions of years of earth's history in the fossil record shows evidence of animals eating each other, diseases like cancer in their bones, violence, plants with thorns, and so on. All of this supposedly takes place before man appears on the scene, and thus before sin (and its curse of death, disease, thorns, carnivory, etc.) entered the world" (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book 1, 2006, p. 36).
The fossil record, showing evidence of animals eating each other, diseases like cancer in their bones, violence, plants with thorns, and so on, may be read as the pages of God's other book, exposing what may have occurred between the first "And God said" and the second "And God said." This would explain the Ice Age extinction of the megafauna before the creation of man in God's image and the animals we see today.
Young Earth Creationists maintain that belief in an old earth is synonymous with belief in the evolutionary process. It is not. Just because there may have been time for evolution to occur doesn't necessarily mean that it did. The YECs should use scripture to make their point (Gen. 1:1, 21, 25, 27) rather than to willfully ignore the pages of God's other book and to subtract aeons from the record of a Creator who is from everlasting.
Romans 5:12, 17-19 -
12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Another mistaken belief -
- "Those who accept the evolutionary time frame, with its fossil accumulation, also rob the Fall of Adam of its serious consequences. They put the fossils, which testify of disease, suffering, and death, before Adam and Eve sinned and brought death and suffering into the world. In doing this, they also undermine the meaning of the death and resurrection of Christ. Such a scenario also robs all meaning from God's description of His finished creation as 'very good' (Ken Ham, Tim Lovett, The New Answers Book 1, 2006, p. 136).
To be without Christ is to be spiritually dead. Paul describes it as “being alienated from the life of God” (Ephesians 4:18). To be separated from the life of God is synonymous with being dead. The natural man, like Adam and Eve hiding in the garden, is isolated from God. When we come to a saving knowledge, the spiritual death assigned to us is reversed. Before salvation, we are dead (spiritually), but Jesus gives us life. “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins,” (Ephesians 2:1).
When the distinction is made between physical death and spiritual death, and the mention of death put in its proper context, it is possible to comprehend the idea that many creatures lived and died a physical death long before the creation of man in God's image. The belief of physical death before the fall does not in any way undercut the gospel. It was spiritual death that entered upon the fall, and it is spiritual death from which we are delivered. I will try to explain this further by commenting throughout the following verses about the raising of Lazarus:
John 11:24-26 - Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again (from physical death) in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead (physical death), yet shall he live (spiritual life): And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (spiritually, but will experience physical death, unless he is caught away to meet the Lord in the air). Believest thou this?
Colossians 1:12-23 - Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.
According to Scripture, all things were created by Him and for Him; therefore it is not necessary for us to discount "millions of years" simply to build an argument against evolution. The Bible is very clear about God's creative activity, moreover, the earth has not ceased to reveal "the things of Him from the creation of the world." The Apostle Paul introduces us to God's other book - the book of Nature: Romans 1:20 - For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
The Grand Canyon in Arizona is 277 miles long, up to 18 miles wide and attains a depth of over a mile (6,093 feet). Consider it a Bible in nature (yes, God wrote two books!); each layer of sediment represents a page of revelation which fits in perfectly with the creation story of the Holy Bible. That God made all things "after their kind" is also confirmed by the Apostle Paul: I Corinthians 15:38-41 - But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
It was after the creation of man in God's image when we read, And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (Genesis 1:31).
The following information relates to something that existed before the second use of the phrase "And God said" during the sixth day of the creation story, and should be categorized under "beast of the earth."
Neanderthal fossils were first found in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1857. Other similar remains have been found elsewhere in Europe and Israel. In Israel, the first Neanderthal was found in Upper Galilee - Mugharet el-Zuttiyeh (Arabic: “Cave of the Robbers”).
- "In 1925, on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and under the general supervision of Professor John Garstang, director of the School and of the Department of Antiquities, an Oxford student, Mr. F. Turville-Petre, excavated two caves just at the edge of the plain at its northern side, Mugharet el-Emireh and Mugharet ez-Zuttiyeh… Here (Mugharet ez-Zuttiyeh), under a large boulder and deep in the layer of man-made deposits, amid flints of the Mousterian type, Mr. Turville-Petre came upon four pieces of a skull now famous as the "Galilee man… When the boulder was tilted over and the brown fragments of skull lay revealed, a new chapter was begun in the prehistory, not only of Palestine, but of the world, for they provided for the first time that similar races were making and using similar flint tools in Asia as well as Europe." (Chester McCown, The Ladder of Progress in Palestine, 1943, pp. 19-21).
Galilee Man – from the book Researches in Prehistoric Galilee 1925-1926 by F. Turville-Petre, and A Report on the Galilee Skull by Sir Arthur Keith, London, 1927.
- “The next discoveries in Palestine of skeletal remains of this race were made by joint expeditions of the British School of Archæology and the American School of Prehistoric Research in the Wady el-Mughara group of caves. This group is on the western slope of Mount Carmel, near the Crusaders' Castle at Athlit and some 3.2 km. from the Mediterranean shore. Of the three caves excavated two have yielded eleven more or less complete skeletons of the Neandertal race and isolated fragments from several additional skeletons. Ten of the skeletons are from the Mugharet es-Skhūl (Cave of the Kids). A fairly complete female skeleton, a massive lower jaw of a male, and fragments of additional skeletons are from the Mugharet et-Tabūn (Cave of the Oven)” (George Grant MacCurdy, Prehistoric Man in Palestine, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 76, No. 4, 1936, pp. 523-24).
Associated Press photo in the author’s possession, dated September 5, 1967. Most of the skeletons were embedded in hard breccia. They were removed in blocks of the enveloping breccia to London, where the task of cleaning was assigned to Mr. T. D. McCown of the American School under the supervision of Sir Arthur Keith of the Royal College of Surgeons.
John Garstang, a British archaeologist, mounted an expedition to gather evidence regarding the date of the fortifications at Jericho. He dug from 1930 to 1936 and promptly published his findings in a series of preliminary reports. Garstang concluded that the residential part of the city (City IV) came to an end about 1400 B.C., based on pottery found in the destruction debris and on scarabs recovered from nearby tombs. He ascribed the destruction to invading Israelites.
Later, when excavating the same city, Kathleen Kenyon ignored Garstang's records and came to her own conclusions regarding the Israelites. Of special importance, though, is Kenyon’s follow up excavation of the Neolithic strata. She distinguished two strata that had been occupied by people who did not make or use pottery (so-called pre-pottery Neolithic) and two other strata (pottery Neolithic) inhabited by people who did use pottery. Kenyon concluded that the settlement at the site goes back to 9000 B.C., thus giving Jericho the distinction, in Kenyon’s day, of being one of the world’s oldest cities. Kenyon’s discoveries, later confirmed by excavations at other sites, are the foundation of what we now know regarding a formative period that preceded and led to the historical periods.
John Garstang, a British archaeologist, mounted an expedition to gather evidence regarding the date of the fortifications at Jericho. He dug from 1930 to 1936 and promptly published his findings in a series of preliminary reports. Garstang concluded that the residential part of the city (City IV) came to an end about 1400 B.C., based on pottery found in the destruction debris and on scarabs recovered from nearby tombs. He ascribed the destruction to invading Israelites.
Later, when excavating the same city, Kathleen Kenyon ignored Garstang's records and came to her own conclusions regarding the Israelites. Of special importance, though, is Kenyon’s follow up excavation of the Neolithic strata. She distinguished two strata that had been occupied by people who did not make or use pottery (so-called pre-pottery Neolithic) and two other strata (pottery Neolithic) inhabited by people who did use pottery. Kenyon concluded that the settlement at the site goes back to 9000 B.C., thus giving Jericho the distinction, in Kenyon’s day, of being one of the world’s oldest cities. Kenyon’s discoveries, later confirmed by excavations at other sites, are the foundation of what we now know regarding a formative period that preceded and led to the historical periods.
Neolithic round tower, uncovered by Kathleen Kenyon, at Jericho.
As will be shown, the date of the creation of Adam is 3899 B.C. – roughly 5000 years after Jericoh’s first city, with its round tower. How is it that a city existed before the time of Adam? The answer is that those inhabitants of early Jericho (and other cities like Göbekli Tepe) fall under the category of “the beast of the earth” described in Genesis 1:24-25. They would have consisted of a breathing body and would have experienced self-awareness, but not God awareness. In my opinion, the study of these early inhabitants should fall under the category of Paleontology, not Archaeology.
As will be shown, the date of the creation of Adam is 3899 B.C. – roughly 5000 years after Jericoh’s first city, with its round tower. How is it that a city existed before the time of Adam? The answer is that those inhabitants of early Jericho (and other cities like Göbekli Tepe) fall under the category of “the beast of the earth” described in Genesis 1:24-25. They would have consisted of a breathing body and would have experienced self-awareness, but not God awareness. In my opinion, the study of these early inhabitants should fall under the category of Paleontology, not Archaeology.
- David Bressan, a science journalist who writes for Forbes wrote, “We live in a zoological impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared; and this is, no doubt, a much better world for us now they have gone. It is surely a marvelous fact, and one that has hardly been sufficiently dwelt upon, this sudden dying out of so many large Mammalia, not in one place only but over half the land surface of the globe. In 1876, Victorian naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace was already puzzled about the extinction of many large beasts at the end of the last Ice Age. Thirty-five genera of mammals, most of them of a large size like mammoths, disappeared during the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene some 10,000 years ago. Many hypotheses have since been proposed to explain this mass extinction.” (David Bressan, Did a Comet Wipe Out Ice Age Megafauna? 2017, Forbes). Neanderthals should be categorized among the “beast of the earth after his kind” (Gen. 1:25). After their extinction, Adam would be created as an entirely new creation – “man in God’s image” (Gen. 1:26) – having a body of flesh, possessing self-awareness, and, more importantly, possessing God-awareness.
- “Of all the subjects related to Creation the origin and age of man are probably the most important theologically. While the Christian believes that all lower forms of life were originally created by God, he is especially committed to the fact that man came into being as a special act of creation. This fact is being challenged more and more by the scientific world, so that the student of the Bible is confronted by a very real problem in defending his faith” (Charles F. Baker, A Dispensational Theology, 1971, p. 204).
PART FIVE "In Our Image, After Our Likeness" Genesis 1:26 – And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Notice here, again, the phrase "and God said" is used for the second time on the same day as God's creativity transitions from cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth to man in the image of God. Who is God, that man might be made in His image? The first use in Scripture of a name for God occurs in Genesis 1:1. The Hebrew word for God, in this verse, is Elohim. A short word-study, using Strong’s Concordance, will add much to our understanding of this name: 430 – Elohim; “plur. of 433; gods in the ordinary sense; but spec. used of the supreme God.” 433 – “Eloahh; from 410; a deity or the Deity.” 410 – “El; from 352; strength, mighty, Almighty.” 352 – “Ayil; from 193; strength, hence anything strong.” 193 – “‘Uwl; to twist, i.e. be strong; the body (as being rolled together); powerful; mighty, strength.” ‘Uwl is the root word, not stemming from any other word for God in Strong’s Concordance. When reading “rolled together” and “to twist,” one may wonder how these terms could possibly be describing God. But in association with “strength,” it is easy to envision rope as an example of what is being described.
Solomon shared this image of strength in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Notice the plurality in the following verses:
Genesis 1:26 – And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
Genesis 3:22 – And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us….
Genesis 11:7 – Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
In the Trinity, all three persons (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) represent Deity, though each person in the Godhead is distinguishable from the other. Each person of God is distinct in the sense that each one has a different role that each one fulfills (Hebrews 12:9; John 1:14; John 16:13). There is one God (I Timothy 2:5), but the divine nature subsists in three distinctions – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:16-17: And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
John 14:23:26 – Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
I John 5:7 – For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
The Trinity may also be seen in the creation story:
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 – …And the Spirit (Ruwach) of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 2:4 – These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) made the earth and the heavens.
Man, having been created in God’s image, after His likeness, also consists of three things – body (flesh), soul (self-awareness), and spirit (God awareness).
I Thessalonians 5:23 – And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Dating the Creation of Adam -
The biblical narrative sets forth a precise chronology that is in harmony with all the years of contemporary history. This makes it possible to date the creation of Adam simply by following the Bible’s own continuous paper trail. The unfamiliar date of 3899 B.C., here stated, was obtained by following the Bible’s own paper trail, after calculating backwards from the absolute date of 925 B.C. assigned by archaeologists to the Bubastite Portal at the temple of Karnak in Egypt, which records Pharaoh Shehonq’s famous campaign to the southern Levant (I Kings 14:25-26).
Notice the plurality in the following verses:
Genesis 1:26 – And God said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….
Genesis 3:22 – And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us….
Genesis 11:7 – Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
In the Trinity, all three persons (the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) represent Deity, though each person in the Godhead is distinguishable from the other. Each person of God is distinct in the sense that each one has a different role that each one fulfills (Hebrews 12:9; John 1:14; John 16:13). There is one God (I Timothy 2:5), but the divine nature subsists in three distinctions – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:16-17: And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
John 14:23:26 – Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
I John 5:7 – For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
The Trinity may also be seen in the creation story:
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 – …And the Spirit (Ruwach) of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 2:4 – These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God (Jehovah Elohim) made the earth and the heavens.
Man, having been created in God’s image, after His likeness, also consists of three things – body (flesh), soul (self-awareness), and spirit (God awareness).
I Thessalonians 5:23 – And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Dating the Creation of Adam -
The biblical narrative sets forth a precise chronology that is in harmony with all the years of contemporary history. This makes it possible to date the creation of Adam simply by following the Bible’s own continuous paper trail. The unfamiliar date of 3899 B.C., here stated, was obtained by following the Bible’s own paper trail, after calculating backwards from the absolute date of 925 B.C. assigned by archaeologists to the Bubastite Portal at the temple of Karnak in Egypt, which records Pharaoh Shehonq’s famous campaign to the southern Levant (I Kings 14:25-26).
PART SIX
Biblical Paper Trail
Date Genesis 1:26-27 – Adam and Eve were created. 3899 B.C. Genesis 5:3 – Adam was 130 years-old when Seth is born. 3769
Gen 5:6 – Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos. 3664
Gen. 5:9 – Enos lived 90 years and begat Cainan. 3574
Gen. 5:12 – Cainan lived 70 years and begat Mahalaleel. 3504
Gen. 5:15 – Mahalaleel lived 65 years and begat Jared. 3439
Gen. 5:18 – Jared lived 162 years and begat Enoch. 3277
Gen. 5:21 – Enoch lived 65 years and he begat Methuselah (who lived 969 yrs.) 3212
Gen. 5:25 – Methuselah lived 187 years and begat Lamech. 3025 Gen. 5:28-29 – Lamech lived 182 years and begat Noah. 2843
Gen. 5:32 – Noah was 500 years-old and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 2343 Gen. 11:10 – Shem was 100 years-old and begat Arphaxad 2 yrs. after the flood. 2241
Gen. 11:12 – Arphaxad lived 35 years and begat Salah. 2206
Gen. 11:14 – Salah lived 30 years and begat Eber. 2176 Gen. 11:16 – Eber lived 34 years and begat Peleg. 2142 Gen. 11:18 – Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu. 2112
Gen. 11:20 – Reu lived 32 years and begat Serug. 2080 Gen. 11:22 – Serug lived 30 years and begat Nahor. 2050
Gen. 11:24 – Nahor lived 29 years and begat Terah. 2021 Gen. 11:26 – Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram. 1951
Gen. 25:26 – Isaac was 60 years-old when Jacob was born. 1791 Gen. 47:9 – Jacob was 130 years-old when arriving in Egypt. 1661
Genesis 12:10 – …Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there.... (1876 B.C.)
Galatians 3:17 – And this I say, that the covenant (Gen. 12:2-3), that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 1876 – 430 = 1446
I Kings 6:1 – And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 1446 – 480 = 966
According to I Kings 6:1, the fourth year of Solomon’s reign was 966 B.C.; therefore, Solomon became king in 970 B.C. (966 + 4) and his father, David, became king 40 years earlier in 1010 B.C. (970 + 40).
David reigned for 40 years (I Kings 2:11). 1010 to 970
Solomon reigned for 40 years (I Kings 11:42). 970 to 930
Rehoboam reigned 17 years (II Chronicles 12:13). 930 to 913 B.C.
I Kings 14:25-26 – And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboham, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 930 – 5 = 925 B.C.
Biblical Paper Trail
Date Genesis 1:26-27 – Adam and Eve were created. 3899 B.C. Genesis 5:3 – Adam was 130 years-old when Seth is born. 3769
Gen 5:6 – Seth lived 105 years and begat Enos. 3664
Gen. 5:9 – Enos lived 90 years and begat Cainan. 3574
Gen. 5:12 – Cainan lived 70 years and begat Mahalaleel. 3504
Gen. 5:15 – Mahalaleel lived 65 years and begat Jared. 3439
Gen. 5:18 – Jared lived 162 years and begat Enoch. 3277
Gen. 5:21 – Enoch lived 65 years and he begat Methuselah (who lived 969 yrs.) 3212
Gen. 5:25 – Methuselah lived 187 years and begat Lamech. 3025 Gen. 5:28-29 – Lamech lived 182 years and begat Noah. 2843
Gen. 5:32 – Noah was 500 years-old and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 2343 Gen. 11:10 – Shem was 100 years-old and begat Arphaxad 2 yrs. after the flood. 2241
Gen. 11:12 – Arphaxad lived 35 years and begat Salah. 2206
Gen. 11:14 – Salah lived 30 years and begat Eber. 2176 Gen. 11:16 – Eber lived 34 years and begat Peleg. 2142 Gen. 11:18 – Peleg lived 30 years and begat Reu. 2112
Gen. 11:20 – Reu lived 32 years and begat Serug. 2080 Gen. 11:22 – Serug lived 30 years and begat Nahor. 2050
Gen. 11:24 – Nahor lived 29 years and begat Terah. 2021 Gen. 11:26 – Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram. 1951
- Gen. 12:1-4 – Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
- Gen. 12:10 – 1876 B.C. – And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Gen. 25:26 – Isaac was 60 years-old when Jacob was born. 1791 Gen. 47:9 – Jacob was 130 years-old when arriving in Egypt. 1661
- Exodus 12:40-41 – Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
Genesis 12:10 – …Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there.... (1876 B.C.)
Galatians 3:17 – And this I say, that the covenant (Gen. 12:2-3), that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. 1876 – 430 = 1446
I Kings 6:1 – And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 1446 – 480 = 966
According to I Kings 6:1, the fourth year of Solomon’s reign was 966 B.C.; therefore, Solomon became king in 970 B.C. (966 + 4) and his father, David, became king 40 years earlier in 1010 B.C. (970 + 40).
David reigned for 40 years (I Kings 2:11). 1010 to 970
Solomon reigned for 40 years (I Kings 11:42). 970 to 930
Rehoboam reigned 17 years (II Chronicles 12:13). 930 to 913 B.C.
I Kings 14:25-26 – And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboham, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 930 – 5 = 925 B.C.
- “Today the vast majority of scholars believe that the Bubastite Portal records a real Egyptian campaign by Pharaoh Sheshonq (Shishak) in the mid-to-late tenth century B.C.E. As concluded by Israel’s leading Biblical geographer Anson Rainey: “This inscription can only be based on intelligence information gathered during a real campaign by Pharaoh Sheshonq.” Kenneth Kitchen has called the reality of Sheshonq’s campaign during the reign of Rehoboam “beyond reasonable doubt.” If this campaign occurred in 925 B.C.E. and, as the Bible says, this was the fifth year of Rehoboam’s rule in Judah, Rehoboam would have become king, and Solomon’s reign would have ended in 930 B.C.E. (925 + 5)” (Yigal Levin, Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?, Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2012, pp. 48-49).
The Bubastite portal in Karnak. The pharaoh lists more than 150 towns (including Megiddo and other cities of ancient Israel) he conquered in 925 B.C. during his military campaign into Israel and Judah. This is a Glass slide in the author’s possession.
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At the site of Megiddo, a portion of a commemorative stela of Shishak (Sheshonq I) was found by the University of Chicago Oriental Institute excavations in 1926. The stela is undoubtedly related to the 925 B.C. campaign. Photo: D. Ellis/P. Van der Veen.
The solid archaeological evidence of Shishak’s campaign in 925 B.C., paired with I Kings 14:25-26, produces a reliable starting point for the Biblical paper trail. The trail ends at the time of God’s creation of man in His own image – 3899 B.C.
Ephesians 2:4-9 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Bibliography
Archer, Gleason. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Chicago: Moody Press, 1977.
Baker, Charles F. A Dispensational Theology, Grand Rapids: Grace Bible College Publications, 1971.
Bressan, David. Did A Comet Wipe Out Ice Age Megafauna?, Forbes Magazine, Apr 24, 2017.
Dewitt, Dale. The Generations of Genesis, Bible and Spade, 2011)
Geisler, Norman L. A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978.
Ham, Ken. The New Answers Book 1, Green Forest: Master Books, 2006
MacCurdy, George Grant. Prehistoric Man in Palestine, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 76, No. 4, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936.
McCown, Chester Charlton. The Ladder of Progress, New York: Harper Brothers, 1943.
Morris, Henry M. The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1976.
Naville, Edouard. Archaeology of The Old Testament Was The Old Testament Written In Hebrew? London: Robert Scott, 1913.
Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux. Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1901.
Wiseman, P. J. New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, LTD., 1946.
Wiseman, P. J. Creation Revealed in six days, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, LTD., 1958.
About the Author
Arthur B. Chrysler received his A.A. degree with high honors from Grace Bible College (Grace Christian University), Grand Rapids, Michigan. He participated as a volunteer in The City of David Archaeological Project of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, Jerusalem in the summer of 1984. The project was directed by Dr. Yigal Shiloh, with area supervisors Eilat Mazar, Yair Shoham, and Donald Ariel. Arthur co-authored the article Jerusalem - Large or Small: The Debate Goes On, which was included in an online feature of the Biblical Archaeology Society (September 19, 2006). In 2023 he wrote a study guide, “From Adam to Messiah the Prince – A Biblical Paper Trail,” published by Dispensational Publishing House, Taos, NM. From Adam To Messiah The Prince: Arthur Chrysler: 9781961110052: Amazon.com: Books. Arthur owned and operated Eastown Frame & Gallery for more than thirty-five-years before retiring in 2023. He is currently married, with five children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
The solid archaeological evidence of Shishak’s campaign in 925 B.C., paired with I Kings 14:25-26, produces a reliable starting point for the Biblical paper trail. The trail ends at the time of God’s creation of man in His own image – 3899 B.C.
Ephesians 2:4-9 - But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Bibliography
Archer, Gleason. A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, Chicago: Moody Press, 1977.
Baker, Charles F. A Dispensational Theology, Grand Rapids: Grace Bible College Publications, 1971.
Bressan, David. Did A Comet Wipe Out Ice Age Megafauna?, Forbes Magazine, Apr 24, 2017.
Dewitt, Dale. The Generations of Genesis, Bible and Spade, 2011)
Geisler, Norman L. A Popular Survey of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978.
Ham, Ken. The New Answers Book 1, Green Forest: Master Books, 2006
MacCurdy, George Grant. Prehistoric Man in Palestine, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 76, No. 4, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936.
McCown, Chester Charlton. The Ladder of Progress, New York: Harper Brothers, 1943.
Morris, Henry M. The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1976.
Naville, Edouard. Archaeology of The Old Testament Was The Old Testament Written In Hebrew? London: Robert Scott, 1913.
Tregelles, Samuel Prideaux. Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1901.
Wiseman, P. J. New Discoveries in Babylonia About Genesis, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, LTD., 1946.
Wiseman, P. J. Creation Revealed in six days, London: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, LTD., 1958.
About the Author
Arthur B. Chrysler received his A.A. degree with high honors from Grace Bible College (Grace Christian University), Grand Rapids, Michigan. He participated as a volunteer in The City of David Archaeological Project of the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, Jerusalem in the summer of 1984. The project was directed by Dr. Yigal Shiloh, with area supervisors Eilat Mazar, Yair Shoham, and Donald Ariel. Arthur co-authored the article Jerusalem - Large or Small: The Debate Goes On, which was included in an online feature of the Biblical Archaeology Society (September 19, 2006). In 2023 he wrote a study guide, “From Adam to Messiah the Prince – A Biblical Paper Trail,” published by Dispensational Publishing House, Taos, NM. From Adam To Messiah The Prince: Arthur Chrysler: 9781961110052: Amazon.com: Books. Arthur owned and operated Eastown Frame & Gallery for more than thirty-five-years before retiring in 2023. He is currently married, with five children, eight grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
