Cheryl Schatz

Don,

Gen 1 declares, as one example, that the sun is NOT a god, rather it was created.

Genesis 1 says no such thing. I don’t know which bible you are reading from. Genesis 1 also doesn’t say that the earth is NOT god or that plants are NOT god. We can understand that there is only one Creator and all things are created, but Genesis does not say anything directly about the earth, the sky, the planets, the bugs, the cows NOT being god.

What Genesis 1 does speak about is beginnings. Genesis means beginning or origin. Genesis 1 is all about the beginning and the Beginner. It is not about a refutation of some man-made myths. If I am wrong, show me from the text where the words “NOT god” are in the text.

Genesis is a timeless work that was given to all of mankind to explain the origin of all people and all created matter. It was not given to one tribe alone to let them know how THEY alone were created. It is God-breathed. The theme of the Beginner and the beginning is picked up by John in John 1:1

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John was also not writing to refute myths. John was writing to tie the Creator of Genesis to the Word who became flesh. To see the inspired words of John as merely answering a pagan myth would water down the word of God. God doesn’t have to answer anyone. God is God. When God gives his revelation, He does as He pleases and reveals His own work. He is not required to answer man-made myths. In fact, the strength of God’s argument demolishes myths without even having to challenge them directly because the truth of God outshines the lie.

John also does not say that the birds are NOT god and the grass, bugs, sun and moon are NOT god. John merely declares the majesty of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Similarly, there are many things that can be seen as scientifically simplistic in Torah, but at the time Torah was written they were a step into the Kingdom put in language that the original readers would understand. Neither of these say the Torah is untrue, just that it was written in a specific culture and advanced that culture into the Kingdom as people read it, believed it, and followed it.

The word of God is both simplistic (so that even the simple minded can understand) and complex (things that we are now discovering were written ahead of time in the scriptures). God is able to make his word both understandable and filled with depth. The wonderful way that God did this makes the bible timeless. It also makes the concepts true in any generation. As far as your comment on the “immoral” bible, I am not going to comment here as it would take this post off of my intended topic.

I am fully amazed at God’s word. The more I study it, the more it becomes like an onion that can be peeled layer after layer. Each layer is more complex and it has amazing depth and yet it has the ability to be understood by the common simplistic man (or woman!) I am also amazed at how often I find a verse that I have read many times and when the verse leaps out at me I wonder how I could have missed such a treasure. I could never tire of such an amazing revelation of God.