Anabaptist perspective of the Creation narrative?

[silentreader]

I guess I find the NET notes very helpful in understanding some of the supposed discrepancies in Genesis 1. The notes even for the first 10 verses are extremely lengthy, but worthwhile of consideration. Because of their length and because I am unsure of copyright restrictions I will supply the link only rather than the notes themselves.

http://netbible.org/bible/Genesis+1

[Neto]

I guess I find the NET notes very helpful in understanding some of the supposed discrepancies in Genesis 1. The notes even for the first 10 verses are extremely lengthy, but worthwhile of consideration. Because of their length and because I am unsure of copyright restrictions I will supply the link only rather than the notes themselves.

http://netbible.org/bible/Genesis+1

Considering that the NET (w/ notes) is available for free as a module in the free Bible program The Word, I would guess that you can quote freely. (They also offer a free module for the Pennsylvania German Bible, if there are speakers here who did not already know this.)

[Soloist]

I can't parse the entire Old Testament to generate a list. Sorry.

Side stepping the question, Just give two miracles you think happened.

What really happened when it appeared the sun went backwards? do you believe a miracle occurred? You seem quite fixated on the concept of God deceiving us, was this just a trick or did God affect the gravitational forces to change the relative position of a solar object? Do you believe it happened?
Did the day lengthen when Joshua asked for it as it was written?

Those two miracles could be answered without a "parsed" list

God can do whatever he chooses.... and apparently hid all traces of a global flood - I'm not satisfied with your answer to the question - why would God deceive humanity that way?

You seem insistent on anything differing from your world view to be deception. Can you see your own bias? I've seen evidence of a global flood, you've just rejected it as "unscientific"... Bias.

Those are questions you have to answer as they relate to theory that God created the universe 6000 or so years ago in 144 hours and made it to look billions of years old. I believe what has been observed in nature - that the universe was created by God several billions of years ago with the elements of the universe following the physical laws God created (which, as sophisticated as human civilization is, we still lack the intellectual tools to fully comprehend) to coalesce into stars, planets and other objects, one of which was the earth, situated in a unique environment in the universe where God could engineer life to develop over time according to his design.

Clearest statement yet. You believe in God guided evolution. Thank you.

You refused to answer any explanation of the creation of man and if Adam was the first man from whom all humanity descended.

There was certainly a "first man", from whom all humans descended, and the author of Genesis identifies him as Adam and describes how humanity fell into disobedience and alienation from God.

and God waiting billions of years to create man? or did God not create man and just started the big bang and everything naturally came to be with billions of years?

Marvelous isn't it - the scale of time-space is awesome, and to think God is greater than all of it.

You basically answered this with your previous answer.

The other part of that question is if you believe the genealogy is an close approximation when Adam came into existence or what you believe as to when Adam was created.

Which Genesis genealogy, the Masoretic, the Septuagint or the Samaritan Pentateuch? The genealogies of the books of the bible are not consistent, even Matthew and Luke differ in their Gospels. I don't think they are useful for establishing an age of the universe (or a precise date and time of creation, as Bishop Usher did) but that is not their purpose.

Close is relative I suppose. You already answered you believed God used evolution so you don't believe any of the genealogies to be accurate reflection of anything.

[Wayne in Maine]

I can't parse the entire Old Testament to generate a list. Sorry.

Side stepping the question, Just give two miracles you think happened.

God giving Manna from heaven (Exodus 16:14-35), The jar of meal and the jar of oil not running out (1 Kings 17:14-16).

[Soloist]

God giving Manna from heaven (Exodus 16:14-35), The jar of meal and the jar of oil not running out (1 Kings 17:14-16).

Thank you for answering the question.

[temporal1]

Wayne in Maine wrote: ↑Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:02 am
Marvelous isn't it - the scale of time-space is awesome, and to think God is greater than all of it.

yep.

[Bootstrap]

There's a cautionary tale here:

https://peacefulscience.org/why-i-went- ... evolution/

Our arguments about evolution usually do not call people to Jesus. Here's a story about someone who was on his way to Jesus, but lost his way amid these arguments.

On one hand, the campus minister reassured him that the gospel came first. He encouraged the student to focus on Jesus, and to trust Him. Evolution, as well as the age of the earth, was something Christians disagreed about and was not the foundation of our faith. Maybe this would make sense down the line, but it was a mystery now. Jesus was still worth his trust.

On the other hand, the Chinese church he was exploring with his wife argued that rejecting evolution was necessary to follow Jesus. They taught him that there was no reason to follow Jesus if he would not reject both evolution and affirm a young earth. If Genesis was not true, as this pastor interpreted it, then Jesus did not really die for his sins. He could only follow Jesus if he would also believe in six-day creation, less than ten thousand years ago.

The student went back and forth in confusion for over a year. He would talk to the campus minister, and be encouraged on his path to follow Jesus. Then he would talk to the church’s pastor, and here encounter insurmountable barriers to his belief. He tried to engage the church’s arguments and to take them seriously. These arguments, however, were not convincing. His heart could not believe what his mind rejected.

After a year of effort and confusion passed, the student just gave up, returned to his work, and stopped seeking Jesus. He was nearing the end of his PhD, and the workload was sharply increasing. He needed to focus his efforts there. Our argument about evolution did not make sense to him. He found Jesus compelling, but could not trust our argument.

The campus minister was heartbroken. He described it as “the most depressing thing” he had ever witnessed in ministry. I know that the church pastor was doing the best he could. I am sure he was disappointed, too. Still, I cannot help but think of Jesus’s words, “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” (Mk 9:42).

Our arguing does not encourage trust. Our anti-evolutionism is not kind. It is cruel to insist that seekers reject evolution before they know and trust Jesus. It is wrong to ask them to trust our arguments instead of trusting Jesus.

S. Joshua Swamidass, “Is Jesus Greater than Anti-Evolutionism?” Cultural Encounters, 2017.

[Bootstrap]

Thank you for your patronage.

No patronage intended. When I suggested you are making modern Western assumptions, I think that's what most of us do. We are, after all, modern Westerners. I don't think Genesis was written by us or to us. I do think it was written for us.

I was responding to the suggestion that the Genesis account represents an attempt by ignorant humans to create a story to explain something they didn't understand. Does your attempt to learn to "think like Genesis" see the Genesis account as inspired by God, or does it see Genesis as nothing more than a folk tale?

Yes, I fully embrace it as the Word of God.

But I don't think it does the same thing as a scientific explanation, nor is it intended to. The questions in my post were meant to point to that.

[MaxPC]

Marvelous isn't it - the scale of time-space is awesome, and to think God is greater than all of it.

Indeed and amen. At some point I daresay we will know the truth of how the Bible describes creation.
1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

I look forward to that day.

[Bootstrap]

I guess I find the NET notes very helpful in understanding some of the supposed discrepancies in Genesis 1. The notes even for the first 10 verses are extremely lengthy, but worthwhile of consideration. Because of their length and because I am unsure of copyright restrictions I will supply the link only rather than the notes themselves.

http://netbible.org/bible/Genesis+1

Those notes are good - this video is also pretty helpful. To me, it's really helpful to start with a good, close reading of Genesis 1. Like most Bible passages, we may be surprised when we read it closely.