[2/3] 9. 𝘚𝘰, 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦?⁣ ⁣ The question isn't whether Genesis is literal and figurative in any context; just whether it is figurative and it isn't. The word "day" is a homonym used in Genesis chapters 1 through 3, and this word may not always refer to a 24-hour day. The word "day" is used at Gen. 1:5, 2:4, 2:17 and 3:8, but none of them are used to refer to a 24-hour day.⁣ ⁣ Similar to "day" is the word "light": "The morning light" (noun); "he used a match to light a fire" (verb); "the room was light and airy" (adjective); "the suitcase wasn't heavy at all, it was light" (adjective); "the lotion glistened because of her light skin" (adjective).⁣ ⁣ Each of the “days” in Genesis are epochs as proven by the fact that the Andromeda Galaxy, for example, is 15 quintillion (15 trillion million) miles away, so on the first creative “day” when God said “let there be light,” light from the Andromeda Galaxy to which Gen. 1:3–5 refers would have taken 2.537 mly to reach the earth. The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth creative “days” were epochs, but not 24 hours in length.⁣ ⁣ Moses wrote the book of Genesis under the inspiration of God. What Moses wrote is based on fact and isn’t some guess based on Moses’ belief considering the fact that the odds of his being able to write down the correct order of events as he does in Genesis is 1 in 3,628 800!⁣ ⁣ Genesis lists the following major stages during the creation process and in this general order: (1) a beginning; (2) a primitive earth in darkness, enshrouded in heavy gases and water; (3) light; (4) an atmosphere; (5) large areas of dry land; (6) land plants; (7) sun, moon and stars discernible in the expanse, and the beginning of seasons; (8) sea monsters, flying creatures; (9) wild and tame beasts, mammals; and (10) man.⁣ ⁣ Science agrees with this general order, so the science of mathematical probability says for anyone to just pick the numbers 1 to 10 randomly from a box and draw them in consecutive order (1:3,628,800) means that Moses didn't just happen to guess the right order correctly; this would be an unrealistic conclusion. Logically, Moses would had needed help from someone that was there at the time to write what he did, and I believe that "someone" is God.⁣ ⁣ 10. 𝘐𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘰𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥?⁣ ⁣ God is eternal and uncreated. It is not special pleading to state a scriptural fact. (1 Tim. 1:17) You wrote that "people believed the universe was eternal … until the 20th century, when … evidence began piling up showing the universe had a beginning" and how by "the 1960s, when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the cosmic background radiation, the Big Bang theory had pretty much destroyed the idea of an eternal universe," but what does the Big Bang have to do with who created God? Only someone eternal could create the universe and the Bible indicates that God is uncreated. Clement of Alexandria, who died about 215 AD, referred to God as “the uncreated and imperishable and only true God.” (See Prov. 30:4.)⁣ ⁣ An infinitely small point called a "singularity" exploded into the present universe, which inflated or expanded at a rate faster than the speed of light. What is supposed to have caused the big bang itself? What came before? If space-time did not exist then, how could everything appear from nothing? No one associated with modern cosmology is able to explain this singularity, where and when it began.⁣ ⁣ [cont’d]

[7/8] This establishes God's superiority, and clearly someone higher than man must supply these needs. Why does there exist a vast variety of food in the world? Not just vegetation, but the animals and the fish we eat? Whose idea was it to make the plants, the fish and the other animals we eat?⁣ We can look at man's body. We can look at the marvelous systems. The doctors and scientists say, these systems are not unrelated. They say, each system in our bodies is related to the other systems: The circulatory system, the nervous system, the respiratory system, the cardiovascular system, the blood system, the digestive system. If one breaks down or falls down, the others will rally to its side to try to make that body work anyway. Who thought of that? Man? Not even his doctors understand this fully. Why does these systems in the human body so organized that they work this way? Whose idea was this? Who made man?⁣ ⁣ A prime example that proves God’s existence that comes to my mind is this: Water, which is our most essential fluid. Water has a remarkable property that shows the remarkable and the eternal power of God. Perhaps you’ve noticed this:⁣ ⁣ When water freezes, it expands, and gets lighter and floats. You know that because when you put an ice cube in your Pepsi, it doesn't sink to the bottom. It floats right there on the top. And you know, too, that it expands because when you fill your ice tray, you don't fill it up all the way to the top. You leave a little room, because you know that when you pull it out of the freezer, it's going to take up that extra space.⁣ ⁣ So because water, when frozen, expands, and gets lighter and floats, it keeps all of us from living, right here on this earth, in a refrigerator. Did you know that? How so? Well, now, consider this, for a moment there, how it is saving the whole world of mankind. Let's say just the opposite were true. Let's say water, when frozen, was like most other substances; they contract and get smaller. That's like that chicken in your freezer: When you pull it out, it has shriveled up a little. It has gotten smaller. See, that's how most things do when they freeze; not water. Well, that's saving us.⁣ ⁣ And I will add here that when we boil water; it becomes steam, but none of this was written to discuss the different properties of water, but to discuss the proof that God exists.⁣ ⁣ Let's say water did like most substances and when frozen became more dense, and instead of floating would sink. Well, during a cold winter, what would happen? All the water on top would freeze; lakes, rivers, ponds, all around the world, and since it wouldn't float, it would become more dense and would sink right to the bottom and there ice would be all winter.⁣ ⁣ Then when the summer came, the sun couldn't penetrate all the way through the water down to the bottom where the ice is and had not melted, so by the time winter came around again, you would still have much ice at the bottom of all the rivers and lakes and streams.⁣ But then with winter that on top would freeze again and would sink toward the bottom, piling up on top of that other unmelted ice at the bottom that had been there from the previous winter. Can you see what would happen now? After a few winters, there wouldn't be a drop of water on this earth, all of it would be frozen and we would be in a refrigerator, except we wouldn't be here because, without our most essential fluid that God provides, then we just could not exist as humans on this planet.⁣ ⁣ Well, now, who thought of that? Who thought of making water the exception to most substances? Not man, although we do appreciate it and its properties. We live as a result of it. But it establishes the eternal power of God, and therefore the evidence all around us, visible and invisible collectively, constitutes proof that God exists.⁣ ⁣ [cont’d]

[2/3] Gratefully God provided the legal basis whereby he could justify and give to mankind forgiveness of their sins, which would free us from the penalty of eternal death. This God did by sending Jesus from heaven to be born as a perfect human, so that he could give his life as a ransom for all of Adam’s children. Jesus’ resurrection is not any victory over death for us. By his resurrection, Jesus himself was restored to life again, but by his death we have the ransom that provides atonement for the sins of those that exercise faith in its value to them by obeying Jesus. How the ransom works can be likened to Adam’s having deprived all of his offspring of their rightful inheritance, their savings—which he did!—which resulted in his being sentenced to life imprisonment, leaving us, the innocent victims of his corruption, impoverished and destitute with no money and no way to get out of our circumstances, that is, until a kind benefactor stepped in and relieved us of our debt and restored to us our rightful inheritance. God has arranged for Jesus to redeem us and cancel the debt of sin that Adam owed to God by having Jesus provide the ransom that “takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) We have now been relieved of our debt, but we continue to be impoverished and destitute until the wrath of God comes, and our sins are purged and death is finally abolished. Unlike Adam, Jesus “committed no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22), so that because he died with the potential for fathering a perfect human race, he could adopt Adam’s sinful descendants as his children, and make it possible for those drawn into a relationship with God on the basis of (1) faith in the value of Jesus’ ransom sacrifice, (2) getting baptized in Jesus’ name and (3) obeying him could escape God’s wrath and receive eternal life. (John 3:36; Rom. 3:24) By our willingness to make changes in our life as we await the coming of God’s wrath, we strive to bring our lives into harmony with God’s will through ‘repentance and turning back’ from the pursuit of an ungodly course and we take appropriate action to do the things that are pleasing to God so that the sins we commit “may [finally] be blotted out.” (Acts 3:19) In the meantime, those who are baptized are freed from a guilty conscience and obtain “a good conscience” toward God. (1 Pet. 3:21) 𝘐’𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘐’𝘮 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘢 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤, 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴’ 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮? There’s nothing wrong with your questions, even if were your goal here to disprove the legitimacy of Christianity, but no one is expected to accept Christianity and pursue a godly course apart from a fair reading and study of the Bible. (Eph. 4:20-32) With so many things that could distract us in the world, pursuing godliness isn’t an easy thing to do. As the saying goes, you cannot know what you don’t know. But without God’s providence in sending his son Jesus to earth so that by his death and the sacrifice of his life “as a propitiation by [Jesus’] blood for our sake his righteousness could be impugned to those of us exercising faith in the ransom, God could not demonstrate his divine forbearance in passing over former sins, and we would not be justified and would continue to die for an affliction we inherited even though our sins are by no means “like the transgression of Adam.” (Rom. 3:24-26; 5:14) Consequently, faith in Jesus and his ransom is the only means by which we can be saved. [cont’d]