Why the Gap Theory is unacceptable

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Nov 12, 2015
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Oh! Okay.

What type of literature is: in the beginning was the word and He was God and He was the light through which everything was created?
Still wondering...never got an answer. I want to check my hermeneutics, now that I have been given the parameters. :)
 

trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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Genesis 1 and genesis 2 are NOT separate accounts. Genesis 2 is a focused look at day 6 of Genesis 1 and is more concerned with relationships than with process.

Gen 2:19-20
19 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.
20 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
KJV


This is even more limited than all the animal families. we can eliminate aquatic life, and all invertebrates. We have left probably less than 1800 genera. However, we are told in Gen 1 that God created them by kind; so we are dealing with less than 200 families.
1. There is no evidence that Genesis 2, when it says "all animals" means only "all kinds of animals". Its just your presupposition. Gen 2 says "all animals God created".

2. You are still counting just genera living today. But in the history of planet, there were many more of them. If you believe in an instant creation and young earth, you cannot count just today´s living animals/kinds. Adam had to name dinosaurs, for example, in your view.

3. Genesis 2 and 1 are different stories, probably by different authors.
Gen 1 has Adam created as the last creation, Gen 2 has Adam created as the first creation.

4. When were waters created?

5. What do you do with the problem, that if we would count all animals ever living in billions years of the planet, they would not fit into young Earth? Too many of them.

6. What do you do with the problem, that Earth had so many meteorites impacts that if it would be in 6 000 years, it would wipe out all life many times?

7. From basic families (you say 200) its impossible in just 6000 years (even more with global flood 4000 years ago) to get so many animals and species we have today and see in fossils. How do you deal with this problem?
 
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phil36

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2009
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There are many excellent commentaries available with a theological focus. Mine is the only one I'm aware of with a purely linguistic focus. I am showing what words mean in context including idiomatic shadings. There are many other resources for people to sort out their theology. It is noteworthy, IMO, that one's theology ought not to depart very far from what the words mean; otherwise one's theology might turn out to be wrong.

Hi MarcR,

I am sure there are a few commentaries that deal with the linguistics..that's if you read the academic commentaries and not popular level ones! (I think we have had this conversation before.. in that conversation the commentaries you said you used where not academic level! I think Fauset, brown was one of them.)

As I stated before I am sure that scholars who disagree with you are fully aware of the Hebrew language (linguistics and its idiomatic shadings). In other words it is how one interprets the very same text. I don't believe that you are the only person who understands the Hebrew language or to ever written about it.. here's what you say:

There are many excellent commentaries available with a theological focus. Mine is the only one I'm aware of with a purely linguistic focus
Shouldn't commentaries have a theological focus? They certainly should, or else they are pointless, do commentaries go into detail on the language used for the hard to understand subjects or hotly debated theologically areas.. yes they do in different degrees.. From easy to read popular level to Academic ones.

It's sounds like you have not written a commentary but your own take on a lexicon with maybe some theological thought. For in your own words 'I am showing what words mean in context including idiomatic shadings'.

Anyhow, the point is, scholars who write commentaries on the OT are scholars in Hebrew, linguistic, practices and customs of OT time period.. all in different fields and with different theological backgrounds and especially in the academic publishing. Is yours an academic publication? You make a staggering claim!

I think the point you may be missing in what I am saying is that there are those who disagree with your interpretation of the very same text.. and yes they are scholars in Hebrew.. its not just you.
 

MarcR

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
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1. There is no evidence that Genesis 2, when it says "all animals" means only "all kinds of animals". Its just your presupposition. Gen 2 says "all animals God created".

2. You are still counting just genera living today. But in the history of planet, there were many more of them. If you believe in an instant creation and young earth, you cannot count just today´s living animals/kinds. Adam had to name dinosaurs, for example, in your view.

3. Genesis 2 and 1 are different stories, probably by different authors.
Gen 1 has Adam created as the last creation, Gen 2 has Adam created as the first creation.

4. When were waters created?

5. What do you do with the problem, that if we would count all animals ever living in billions years of the planet, they would not fit into young Earth? Too many of them.

6. What do you do with the problem, that Earth had so many meteorites impacts that if it would be in 6 000 years, it would wipe out all life many times?





7. From basic families (you say 200) its impossible in just 6000 years (even with flood before 4000 years) to get so many animals and species. How do you deal with this problem?
1) Gen 2:19 does NOT speak of ALL ANIMALS! It speaks of BEASTS of the FIELD and BIRDS.

BEASTS of the FIELD is limited to 4 legged animals exclusive of forrest dwellers and mountain dwellers.

2) You know very well that I do not believe in an instant creation and young earth. I believe in a gap theory.

3) we disagree here. I see 1 story with 1 author.

4) If my gap theory is correct; in a previous creation.

5) I believe in a gap theory so I need not deal with that!

6) I believe in a gap theory so I need not deal with that!

7) Beasts of the field refers to fout footed land animals exclusive of forrest dwellers and mountain dwellers.

I believe that dinosaurs and many other extinct life forms were part of a previous order of creation
 

slave

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2015
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The words “In the beginning” reinforce the thought of Godcreating the heavens and the earth out of nothing. There is really noneed to theorize; since God has so spoken, let men simply believe.How absurd for finite minds to search out the works of God which He performed at the beginning! “By faith we understand that theworlds have been framed by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3).


“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This heaven is not the firmament immediately surrounding the earth;rather, it points to the heaven where the stars are. It has notundergone any change since it was created, but the earth is no longer the same.


To understand the first chapter of Genesis, it is of utmost importance that we distinguish the “earth” mentioned in verse 1 fromthe “earth” spoken of in verse 2. For the condition of the earth referred to in verse 2 is not what God had created originally.

Now we know that “God is not a God of confusion” (1 Cor. 14:33). Hence, when it states that in the beginning God created the earth, whatHe created was therefore perfect. So that the waste and void of the earth spoken of in verse 2 was not the original condition of the earthas God first created it. Would God ever create an earth whoseprimeval condition would be waste and void? A true understanding of this verse will solve the apparent problem.



“Thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formedthe earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste,that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else”(Is. 45:18). How clear God’s word is. The word “waste” here is“tohu” in Hebrew, which signifies “desolation” or “that which isdesolate.” It says here that the earth which God created was not awaste. Why then does Genesis 1:2 state that “the earth was waste”?This may be easily resolved. In the beginning God created theheavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). At that time, the earth which Godhad created was not a waste; but later on, in passing through a greatcatastrophe, the earth did become waste and void. So that all which ismentioned from verse 3 onward does not refer to the original creationbut to the restoration of the earth. God created the heavens and theearth in the beginning; but He subsequently used the Six Days toremake the earth habitable. Genesis 1:1 was the original world;Genesis 1:3 onward is our present world; while Genesis 1:2 describesthe desolate condition which was the earth’s during the transitional period following its original creation and before our present world.


Such an interpretation cannot only be arrived at on the basis of Isaiah 45:18, it can also be supported on the basis of other evidences.The conjunctive word “and” in verse 2 can also be translated as“but”: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, butthe earth was waste and void.” G. H. Pember, in his book Earth’sEarliest Ages, wrote that


....the “and” according to Hebrew usage - as well as that of mostother languages - proves that the first verse is not a compendiumof what follows, but a statement of the first event in the record.For if it were a mere summary, the second verse would be theactual commencement of the history, and certainly would notbegin with a copulative. A good illustration of this may be foundin the fifth chapter of Genesis (Gen. 5:1). There the openingwords, “This is the book of the generations of Adam,” are acompendium of the chapter, and, consequently, the next sentencebegins without a copulative. We have, therefore, in the secondverse of Genesis no first detail of a general statement in thepreceding sentence, but the record of an altogether distinct andsubsequent event, which did not affect the sidereal [starry]heaven, but only the earth and its immediate surroundings. And what that event was we must now endeavor to discover.

Over a hundred years ago, Dr. Chalmers, the well described here Science enthusiast, pointed out that thewords “the earth was waste” might equally be translated “the earthbecame waste.” Dr. I. M. Haldeman, G. H. Pember, and othersshowed that the Hebrew word for “was” here has been translated“became” in Genesis 19:26: “His wife looked back from behind him,and she became a pillar of salt.” If this same Hebrew word can betranslated in 19:26 as “became,” why can it not be translated as“became” in 1:2?

Furthermore, the word “became” in 2:7 (“and manbecame a living soul”) is the same word as is found in Genesis 1:2.So that it is not at all arbitrary for anyone to translate “was” as“became” here: “In the beginning God created the heavens and theearth, [but] the earth became waste and void.” The earth which Godcreated originally was not waste, it only later became waste.
 
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trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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1) Gen 2:19 does NOT speak of ALL ANIMALS! It speaks of BEASTS of the FIELD and BIRDS.

BEASTS of the FIELD is limited to 4 legged animals exclusive of forrest dwellers and mountain dwellers.

2) You know very well that I do not believe in an instant creation and young earth. I believe in a gap theory.

3) we disagree here. I see 1 story with 1 author.

4) If my gap theory is correct; in a previous creation.

5) I believe in a gap theory so I need not deal with that!

6) I believe in a gap theory so I need not deal with that!

7) Beasts of the field refers to fout footed land animals exclusive of forrest dwellers and mountain dwellers.

I believe that dinosaurs and many other extinct life forms were part of a previous order of creation
Ah, OK, I somehow thought you believe in a young earth, my mistake, now I understand your logic better.

1) By "all animals" I meant just what the text in Gen 2 says. I.e. no "kinds", but "animals".

3) Why is Adam created as the last one in Gen 1 and as the first one in Gen 2? Why are titles of God changed? Elohim vs Adonai in Hebrew, God vs Lord God in Septuagint

7) field = forest and mountains?
 
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trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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When do you place your gap? Do you believe in billions of years of evolution from simple trilobits to complex dinosaurs, mammals and homo genus... and then something happened, it was destroyed and God created everything we see today in 6 days?
 

abcdef

Senior Member
Mar 30, 2016
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Your mention of air, water, earth, and fire could be a little simplistic, but light is a form of energy, and energy and matter are interconvertible. Photosynthesis is what allows plant life to flourish. But the water mentioned in Gen 1:1-2 was actual water (which was converted into vapor later on). There is much that is hidden from view.
Brother N6,

The creation story was written 3000 yrs ago.

Bringing modern science into the formula to attach modern definitions to the words and events distorts the description of the events.

Moses could explain the events perfectly from the understanding of the world at that time, 3000 yrs ago.

----

When we begin to read the story, we want to apply our modern understandings to it. We say, "How can there be life without the sun?" Or, "The earth was created before the sun."

You see, we are stirring our modern knowledge of science into a story 3000 yrs old.

Before people understood the science behind the creation, say the 1800's or so, the story was accepted as literal, some still hold to those traditional understandings.

But by the investigation of the world around us we have seen that the story CANNOT be literal, speaking of Gen ch 1, only.

The does not prove that the creation story is wrong, it only proves that the literal understanding of the story is less than perfect. The story is still true, it is just a symbolic representation of the creation.

An explanation of the creation, to people who were mainly tribal herdsmen and farmers, without the details.

------

When we read the story, we should apply the symbolism to the events and entities, then the story becomes clear.

Good and evil, light and dark, mixing and separating, heaven above and darkness below away from God, all these principals should be recognized, and the literal understanding diminished.

We should face the fact that the story cannot be literal. As symbolism the story is shown to be perfect, as literal it is not perfect.

Why should we try to hold on to our traditions of being literal, when the truth is shown that it is symbolism from 3000 years ago?

-----

So the waters described in Gen 1:1-2, can be understood as literal, if you look at the story from the viewpoint of 3000 yrs ago. From the viewpoint of modern science we see that it cannot be literal.

But taken as symbolic, the story remain true from both viewpoints.
 

MarcR

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
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Hi MarcR,

I am sure there are a few commentaries that deal with the linguistics..that's if you read the academic commentaries and not popular level ones! (I think we have had this conversation before.. in that conversation the commentaries you said you used where not academic level! I think Fauset, brown was one of them.)

As I stated before I am sure that scholars who disagree with you are fully aware of the Hebrew language (linguistics and its idiomatic shadings). In other words it is how one interprets the very same text. I don't believe that you are the only person who understands the Hebrew language or to ever written about it.. here's what you say:



Shouldn't commentaries have a theological focus? They certainly should, or else they are pointless, do commentaries go into detail on the language used for the hard to understand subjects or hotly debated theologically areas.. yes they do in different degrees.. From easy to read popular level to Academic ones.

It's sounds like you have not written a commentary but your own take on a lexicon with maybe some theological thought. For in your own words 'I am showing what words mean in context including idiomatic shadings'.

Anyhow, the point is, scholars who write commentaries on the OT are scholars in Hebrew, linguistic, practices and customs of OT time period.. all in different fields and with different theological backgrounds and especially in the academic publishing. Is yours an academic publication? You make a staggering claim!

I think the point you may be missing in what I am saying is that there are those who disagree with your interpretation of the very same text.. and yes they are scholars in Hebrew.. its not just you.
Even the popular commentaries involve some linguistics. My point was that I do not approach my commentary with a fixed theological position that my translation must fit. Rather I focus on what the words say and let the meaning of the words drive my theology. That sometimes results in adjustment of my theological stance. most such instances are NOT drastic changes.
 

MarcR

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
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Ah, OK, I somehow thought you believe in a young earth, my mistake, now I understand your logic better.

1) By "all animals" I meant just what the text in Gen 2 says. I.e. no "kinds", but "animals".


3) Why is Adam created as the last one in Gen 1 and as the first one in Gen 2? Why are titles of God changed? Elohim vs Adonai in Hebrew, God vs Lord God in Septuagint

7) field = forest and mountains?
1) Gen 2:19-20

19 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.
20 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.
KJV

beast of the field MEANS 4 legged animals exclusive of forest dwellers and mountain dwellers.
you keep going back to all animals but not all animals are spoken of.

3) God created ALL ANIMALS in Gen 1:20-23. In Gen 2:19-20, after God had created Adam last and put him in the garden, God created a SPECIFIC SUBSET of animals for Adam to name.


7) ha sawdeh means literally the flat ! With the pashtah over the final he, it refers to flat land in cultivation.
 

PennEd

Senior Member
Apr 22, 2013
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You are quite correct. At least not human advocacy. As mentioned in my post the best support for it is the Hebrew text.

Personally I have no need to reconcile Scripture with Science so called. The idea that any living organism happened accidentally is absurd. My post was in response to PS' attempt to make the 6 days of creation into ages. That linguistically doesn't work.
If someone believes in 'old earth' creation; the Gap theory works linguistically. Whether it works theologically is a question I frankly haven't explored.
I don't really have an opinion one way or the other on the gap theory. I don't have a problem with it either.

As for the seeming age issue in regards to evolution, I don't understand why we can't accept that God could have created the Earth with a "built in" age.

I don't think anyone word have an issue with Adam bring created as a fully grown man and not an infant.

The same could apply to the Earth itself.
 

trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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3) God created ALL ANIMALS in Gen 1:20-23. In Gen 2:19-20, after God had created Adam last and put him in the garden, God created a SPECIFIC SUBSET of animals for Adam to name.
That would be another creation after six days. It would contradict:

"And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made."

Gen 2:2

7) ha sawdeh means literally the flat ! With the pashtah over the final he, it refers to flat land in cultivation.
I neither know Hebrew nor I trust masoretic text, so I am not able to discuss this.
 

Nehemiah6

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2017
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Why is Adam created as the last one in Gen 1 and as the first one in Gen 2?
Trofimus,
You are under the impression that Gen 1 and Gen 2 are different "stories". Actually they are not, and the two chapters can be easily harmonized, as below:

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which wereunder the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 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.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 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.
12 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.
2:
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
2:
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 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:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 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.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 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.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
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.
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.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
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.
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.
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.
2:
7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
2:
8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
2:
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
2:
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
2:
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
2:
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
2:
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
2:
14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
2:
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
2:
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
2:
17 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.
2:
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
2:
19 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.
2:
20 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.
2:
21 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;
2:
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
2:
23 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.
2:
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
2:
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
1:
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
1:
28 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.
1:
29 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.
1:
30 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.
1:
31 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.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2:
2 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.
2:
3 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.
2:
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Why are titles of God changed?
As long as God is involved with creation apart from man, He is called Elohim (God). As soon as man appears on the scene He becomes LORD God (YHWH Elohim) which includes His personal name and implies a personal relationship with man. God had a personal relationship with Adam and Eve as long as they remained without sin. Indeed He came to fellowship with them in the Garden of Eden -- And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8).
 

trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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So, some of you say that Gen 1 and Gen 2 are about the same thing and can be harmonized.

Some of you say that Gen 2 is a continuation of Gen 1 and its another creation, specialized to man/Eden.

And all of you are sure and its "clear" and "easy" :)
 

Zmouth

Senior Member
Nov 21, 2012
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7. From basic families (you say 200) its impossible in just 6000 years (even more with global flood 4000 years ago) to get so many animals and species we have today and see in fossils. How do you deal with this problem?
How many people do you think inhabited the earth 2,000 years ago?

1 million, 10 million, 100 million, a billion?

So if the world has grown to almost 10 billion people in just over 2,000 years, then how much do you think their population would have grown over a 100,000 years. While it is true, war, famine disease might have had some impact on the population, it would seem that there would be evidence of more areas populated by larger number of human inhabitants that had developed around the globe than what is found.

The genetic data demonstrates that the population of the Americas didn't migrate from the Mesopotamia region over
the Bering Strait to the Americas but rather from migrated from the Mesopotamia region to the Americas and up to the Bering Straight.


 
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trofimus

Senior Member
Aug 17, 2015
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How many people do you think inhabited the earth 2,000 years ago?

1 million, 10 million, 100 million, a billion?

So if the world has grown to almost 10 billion people in just over 2,000 years, then how much do you think their population would have grown over a 100,000 years. While it is true, war, famine disease might have had some impact on the population, it would seem that there would be evidence of more areas populated by larger number of human inhabitants that had developed around the globe than what is found.

The genetic data demonstrates that the population of the Americas didn't migrate from the
Mesopotamia region over the Bering Strait to the Americas but rather from migrated from the Mesopotamia region to the Americas and up to the Bering Straight.


You are talking about the size of population, I am talking about number of species.
 

MarcR

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
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When do you place your gap? Do you believe in billions of years of evolution from simple trilobits to complex dinosaurs, mammals and homo genus... and then something happened, it was destroyed and God created everything we see today in 6 days?
The Gap can be between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2; and/or between Gen 1:2 and 1:3.

The Sun, moon, stars, and other objects of outer space would be part of the previous creation.

In Gen 1:16, the word translated made יַּעַ֣שׂ can mean made or called forth, or made manifest, or allowed to be seen, among other things.

Where the word created יִּבְרָ֣א is used I take i quite literally. I do NOT accept the ideas of evolution or accidental creation.
 

trofimus

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Aug 17, 2015
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The Gap can be between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2; and/or between Gen 1:2 and 1:3.

The Sun, moon, stars, and other objects of outer space would be part of the previous creation.

In Gen 1:16, the word translated made יַּעַ֣שׂ can mean made or called forth, or made manifest, or allowed to be seen, among other things.

Where the word created יִּבְרָ֣א is used I take i quite literally. I do NOT accept the ideas of evolution or accidental creation.
My question was again not aboug Gen 1, but about earth history... where do you place your gap, when was the second creation.
 

MarcR

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Feb 12, 2015
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That would be another creation after six days. It would contradict:

"And God finished on the sixth day his works which he made, and he ceased on the seventh day from all his works which he made."

Gen 2:2



I neither know Hebrew nor I trust masoretic text, so I am not able to discuss this.


That would be another creation after six days. It would contradict: It would NOT! Genesis 2 is NOT after Genesis 1. It is ON the 6th day of chapter 1. Gen 2:19-20 is simply an additional limited subset of the animals created before Adam; created after Adam was created but on the day of his creation.
 

MarcR

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Feb 12, 2015
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My question was again not aboug Gen 1, but about earth history... where do you place your gap, when was the second creation.
As I said the gap is between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2 and/or between Gen 1:2 and Gen 1:3. We are not told specific times and I see no useful purpose in speculating.