The Creation of Man

QUESTIONS for consideration:

Is it impossible for a long-hidden interpretation of the Genesis I Creation to ever satisfy the fundamentalists, the Young-earth Creationists, the Old-earth Creationists, the scientific community, Bible skeptics, and even secular philosophers?

Could this long-hidden interpretation of the Creation serve as the missing true foundation of the entire Bible?

Could this long-hidden interpretation of the Creation reveal the purpose of God’s numbers with Bible mathematics?

Could this long-hidden interpretation end the Creation Controversy?

GENESIS I is the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. It is supposed to serve as a beginning foundation for all monotheistic religions including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Because Genesis I defines the creation of life by God, it is called the Creation. Each religion has many different interpretations of this beginning, as does the scientific community. Historically these interpretations can be classified into three major groups; Bible Skeptics, Young-earth Creationists, and Old-earth Creationists.

BIBLE SKEPTICS disregard the Creationist’s belief that God created the world and man in it. They reject the authority of the Bible concerning God and man. These Bible skeptics reason that if scientific absurdity is on the very first page of the Bible, then there is no reason to consider anything that follows. Therefore everything that follows is labeled a myth, so any argument from a creationist standpoint is vehemently rejected as propaganda.

YOUNG-EARTH CREATIONISTS commit to the belief that the earth was created in six solar days, and the earth is only about 6000 years old, regardless of scientific proof that the earth is ancient. They reason that science, with its fossils, dinosaur bones, and carbon dating, conflicts with their view of a 6000 year young earth, and therefore discredits their doctrine of Bible inerrancy, and with it their faith. For this reason Young-earth Creationists judge science as flawed, and develop various counter-arguments against science and reason.

Young-earth Creationists, most often referred to as fundamentalists, follow a literal interpretation of Bible text. However, they use the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and the New King James (NKJ). The New American Bible (NAB) is the Catholic version that follows this translation. Unfortunately these three Bible translations do not follow the literal word of the original language that the Creation was written in.

OLD-EARTH CREATIONISTS believe that God created earth, but take a more liberal view in that the earth is ancient. They discount time as an important factor in the creation, and accept scientific views of the creation of earth. However, allowing science in the door introduces a few problems.

Authority of science over the Bible could be the biggest fear of the creationists. There is a continued advancement in science, and the possibility of a scientific discovery that would contradict a scriptural fact is a deep-seated fear.

Bible inerrancy denial is another fear to be dealt with. There is the problem of Bible text compromise, where a day must be longer than a 24 hour day in order to consider an ancient earth. Most Old-earth Creationists strive for uncompromising consistency in interpretation of scripture.

Evolutionism, first promoted by Darwin, challenges the biblical Creation with the idea that humans evolved by natural selection over millions of years from some monkey-like animal, instead of being created by God.

FALLOUT from this Creation Controversy invades our churches, our schools, the government, and even our very homes. Without a solid foundation from the Creation, churches divide into various denominations, and Jews can’t find their Messiah. Some schools teach science over the creation story, so many secular skeptics become licensed to ridicule the Bible’s creation story. The government can not see logic in the Bible, and passes laws to separate Christianity from public affairs. How does one answer their child when he or she comes home from school and proclaims they no longer believe the Bible, because the Bible’s creation story is not supported by science?

Modern day, as well as ancient global strife, is driven by religious differences, even though Islam’s Qu’ran is based on the Torah with its creation story. So what is the reality of this Creation Controversy between pure science and creationism? Is there another view? What is the problem?

The problem with the scientific view of man’s origination by evolution is that it simply ignores man’s spiritual capacity. Regardless of where man is found around the world, he practices some kind of spiritual ritual-in the jungles of the Amazon, the far reaches of Africa, and even the remote sections of Indonesia.

With this spiritual capacity man was also endowed with a high capacity of reason. This is proven by the sudden development of civilization about 6000 years ago. Something is missing from this science-only picture.

The problem with the creationist view of Genesis I is that this six day, or six thousand year, or six million year interpretation, or six billion year, as a date-only duration for the creation of earth, does not lay down a foundation that connects with the rest of the Bible. There is no divine theme that opens the door for understanding. An exegesis is needed. One way to understand this divine theme is to see numbers in the Bible as God sees numbers, and if God’s numbers in the Creation were understood, a new door for understanding the Creation could be opened.

DIVINE EQUIVOCATION is a new method of viewing of the Creation that opens the door for understanding the Creation’s divine theme as a window into the rest of the Bible. This window reveals certain numbers from the Creation that carry significant meaning in scripture and science. Numerical equivalences are developed using this window of the Creation, so that the order and meaning of Bible stories, terms, events, dates, and their order become apparent. This method of analysis is called “divine equivocation”. A long-hidden interpretation by divine equivocation sees Genesis I as an ordered structure that harmonizes the New with the Old Testament. As a spiritual creation it does not conflict with science, but instead divine equivocation introduces divine numbers that connect with science. Unlike the date-only interpretation, or the science-only interpretation, something is right with this picture.

This new interpretation by divine equivocation overcomes problems of the previous three controversial interpretation groups. First it provides the creation with the spiritual image of man that both the Creationist and scientific view lack. Second it provides the needed ordered foundation into the Word and numbers of God, which is lacking in the creationist’s view that is so necessary for understanding the rest of the Bible. There is no danger of scientific authority, since this new interpretation sets up scientific numbers of life, and all the elements of the world. Bible inerrancy is not an issue, since only the literal word is used for interpretation. In this way the Bible interprets itself. Finally evolutionism is overcome by understanding how Genesis I actually uses the word, after their kind. (More)