The Relevance of Genesis - Creation Moments

Author: Ian Taylor

1. The claim is often made that the Genesis account of creation lies in the realm of religion whereas the theory of evolution is a matter of science. It should be stressed that for any endeavor to be classified as “science” it must be observable, repeatable, refutable and, preferably by developed formula, capable of making a prediction. Both creation and evolution fail all criteria. For example, God makes the point in Job 38:4 that there was no human observer in the beginning thus both accounts are metaphysical constructs with the difference that evolution is based upon human reason whereas creation is based upon the written account of the One who was not only observer but Creator.

2. The Adamic covenant contained several positive mandates: To be fruitful, to multiply etc. (Genesis 1:28) and one negative mandate: not to seek the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17). To “be fruitful” is the first mandate, means to have children and has always been opposed by abortion but this has been supplemented by contraception and in this recent generation, the “pill”, vascetomy etc. Marriage without children by choice, even among Christians, is now popular. To “multiply” means to have three or more children since having two is only replacement. Historically, justification to limit the number of children began in 1798 with Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) in his Essay on the Principle of Population. He was concerned with the disparity between the geometrical rate at which populations increase and the arithmetic rate at which arable land can increase to support them. For example, populations increase: 2, 4, 8, 16 etc whereas arable land increases: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. On paper this looks like a good argument but in practice it does not work out this way. In the early 1900’s organized opposition to population growth began with Margaret Sanger (1879-1966), a feminist, promoter of the condom and of sexual license. Examples of destitute families with a dozen ill-fed children living in grinding poverty could always be found and held up as the result of irresponsible breeding. The Planned Parenthood Federation is the outcome of her work and is the broad umbrella-group, publically funded and embracing over 200 similar organizations promoting the idea that the world is over-populated. This myth has become the justification for murder by abortion and eventually for euthanasia. Bankrupt governments are only too willing to promote the myth. Two population distribution curves, one for Brazil (a Roman Catholic country) and the other for Canada show our shrinking tax base; it is the absence of aborted and never-conceived customers that is the ultimate reason for the shortage of jobs! We can expect a great surplus of homes as North American Baby-Boomers begin to retire and die.
3. Man has always been reluctant to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28) and historically it has been famine, plague and persecution that has driven God’s people out from the comfort of old Europe to the New World. “Subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28) really means to understand the way nature works and co-operate with it. Irresponsible greed by Man has consistently disturbed the ecological order. For example, crop rotation was commanded in Leviticus 25:1-7 but this is now rarely practiced and over-fertilization is the rule. Jeremiah 9:12-13 warns of the consequences while figures show that about 6 inches of top soil are now lost every 40 years. According to the Old Testament, the land was defiled by murder, blasphemy and adultery and when these practices reached a certain limit, the Lord brought about a famine. In the light of morality in North America today, it is not unreasonable to think that a famine is long overdue!

4. The one negative mandate, not to seek “the knowledge of good and evil,” (Genesis 2:17) was the area Satan used for the temptation. Note: it is not the knowledge of good and the knowledge of evil as we tend to read into it, but rather the good and the evil come as a package; the one follows the other. Each technological advance for the betterment of man has been quickly followed by a misuse of the same technology. For example, the printing presses for Bibles also produced pagan Greek works e.g. Plato and pornography. This is the reason historians are divided: some see mankind’s declining moral probity and argue for man’s regression from a state of innocence. Other’s, influenced by evolution, look at mankind’s technology and proclaim man’s progress in history. The occurrences of genius are a good example of man’s moral and intellectual decline. Usually recognized as the child prodigy names such as Ampere, Gauss, Chopin, Liszt, Mozart are well-known examples. Less well-known are the lightning calculators and those with phenomenally capacious and accurate memories. In 1960 George Koltanowski (1903-2000), Belgian-born chess master, played 56 chess opponents simultaneously, won 50 games and drew 6 taking 10 seconds per move and was blindfolded throughout the entire 9 hour match! This demonstrates the capacity of visual memory. Professor Alexander Aitken (1895-1967), head of the mathematics department, Edinburgh University, was a lightning calculator. He could calculate the squares of any four-digit number instantaneously and take their roots within a maximum time of 3 seconds. This is not evidence for evolution but retention of ancestral brain capability. The tree appears as a motiff throughout history. The French Revolution of 1789 was against God, and attempted to introduce Plato’s Republic while they used the “Liberty tree” to proclaim liberty from God’s rule. The churches were turned into pagan temples, the Bibles burned and the priests sent to the guillotine. The Liberty Tree became the celebrated May-pole and May 1st became Socialist victory Day.
5. Genesis 2:21-25 describes the supernatural creation of Eve from Adam and the commandment for man and wife to be “one flesh;” children are literally the one-flesh product of that union. Interestingly, there is the well documented Couvard syndrome that is thought to be the outworking of that “mystery” of the marriage covenant (Ephesians 5:31-32). The general understanding of the marriage covenant has been lost by the Church today and we now see not only a breakdown of marriage but even of families by the single-parent lifestyle. The modern trend began with a series of tracts published between 1640 to 1645 and titled The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce by John Milton (1608-1674). In these tracts he tried to justify from Scripture divorce with the option to remarry but the government of the day threw out every argument. Today, those same arguments are accepted by the Church. Even as late as 1936 when King Edward VIII married the American divorcée, Mrs Simpson, the Church of England was concerned that this would set a precedent with the attendant possibility of defiling the land by proliferation of adultery. Both ex-King Edward and his wife had to live out the remainder of their lives in exile. Today, it seems the rules may be changed for Prince Charles.

6. Following the Fall of Man in the garden, the Adamic covenants were given in Genesis 3:15-21. Verse 15, known as the Protoevangelium, the first good news, the Lord speaks judgement on Satan as the serpent. The Latin version, translated from the Hebrew by Jerome in the 4th century, changed the gender, specifically from ipse to ipsa, (he to she) and made this verse read as if the woman was the Saviour. The worship of the goddess is found throughout history, her name changes from Astarte, to Cybele, to Diana, to Athene but she remains the perpetual virgin, having lovers and giving birth to a son etc. The gender change in Latin introduced this pagan practice into the Christian Church becoming what is called Mariolatry. Interestingly, in the first edition of the New Jerusalem Bible, there was a footnote (since removed) that explained that there had been a typographical error in the previous Catholic Bible (The Douay Rheimes) to indicate the femine gender to the Genesis 3:15 passage. Here the reader was asked to believe that a typo had existed for 1600 years! At the time of the Reformation Mariolatry was rejected from the Protestant Church but today attempts are being made to reintroduce it. For example, Susan Cady feminist pastor in the United Methodist Church is trying to replace the name Jesus by the name Sophia, meaning “wisdom” in Greek but a feminine word.

7. Male authority is being challenged today by the Feminist Movement. The word “desire” appears only twice, Genesis 3:16 and 4:7, and derives from the Hebrew teshuqah which some scholars believe means to usurp authority rather than “desire.” It is agreed by many that this much better fits the context. The feminists claim for their right as a matriarchy the evolutionary textbook explanation of the mothers-in-the-cave and cite the story of the Amazon warriors (a-mazon is Greek for “without breast”) told by the fifth century BC Greek historian, Herodotus. The famous picture of Queen Penthesileia exemplifies this ideal. It turns out that Herodotus was probably right about the tribe of female warriors because anthropologists made discoveries in 1998 to indicate that there were, in fact, female warriors where Herodotus had located them. However, there is no evidence to show that this was the normal practice for early mankind.

8. Cremation of the dead as a means of body disposal is in opposition to Genesis 3:19, that is, that we are to return to the dust of the ground. Adam was made from the dust of the ground not a pre-Adamic ash heap! “Ashes to ashes” was inserted into the Anglican burial prayer in 1549; it is not scriptural. Cremation, practiced by the Greeks and the Romans during their most decadent periods, was discontinued with the introduction of Christ-ianity. Nevertheless, throughout the Christian era mankind has seemingly made a consistent and determined effort to devise ways to prevent the body from returning to the dust of the ground. In 1874 the practice of cremation was reintroduced and has been promoted since by Masonic interests and unbelieving bishops of the Church of England.

9. When Adam and Eve fell, they felt ashamed of their nakedness and the Lord clothed them with lamb skins, Genesis 3:21. In the eighteenth century, Greek philosophy and art ideals were introduced to the Christian West and little by little it became acceptable to depict human nudity from the classical Greek period. as paintings and statues. This finally led to full-blown Nature worship during the French Revolution (1789) and the Nature Movement in Nazi Germany (1930-45). Nudist clubs and nude beaches are quite common today. Public nudity is really an outward expression of rebellion and makes the statement that the individual is not ashamed of their Fallen state. In the near future, we may well expect the Olympic Games held as the early Greeks held them .

10. 2 Timothy 4:2-4 appropriately summarizes the decline in social mores we see today following the Church’s acceptance of evolution and failure to preach the mandates given in those early chapters of Genesis.

Footnotes:
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