 Okay, recording is started. Welcome back to the second lecture and BC212 Christian apologetics. So we've started talking about Genesis chapter one. Let me just pick up some of the questions that have come in the chat. Elisha's question, is it by word of knowledge that Moses wrote to the account of creation? It was given by revelation to Moses. Now Moses was in a very special position in the sense that Numbers chapter 12 verse 3 says that God spoke to Moses face to face. You know, so he says to the other prophets, he spoke in visions, he spoke in dreams, and he spoke in riddles. But to Moses, he spoke face to face. So that's Moses was in a very unique position. As we would see in his life, there were at least two occasions, maybe three, when he was in the presence of God for 40 days continuously. You know, and that's amazing. He was caught up in that glory cloud. For today's God and supernatally sustained Moses. And so those would have been the times when God spoke to face to face and revealed things to him. So that's how we, that's probably the way of communication between God and Moses. Now for us in the New Testament, you know, for us, we receive words of knowledge, we receive visions or dreams and those kinds of things. But the encounter between God and Moses was different face to face. Now, for us, the beautiful thing is it may not be as dramatic, but it's still real because the spirit of God, there's witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So the Holy Spirit is speaking to us, to every believer in our spirit. He's indwells us. So it may not be as dramatic as getting caught up in a physical mountain with the glory cloud, but yet it is still God speaking. And that's why it's very real. Okay. A few words there. Lash, I hope I answered your question. No. Yes. You did. You did. You put much clarity. Thank you very much. Thank you. So Zalatollah's question is according to the Bible, the earth is around 6000 years to correct. And according to science, it is about 4.5 billion. Why there is so much difference. So Zalatollah, we have to keep in mind a few things. One is man. I mean, scientists are making measurement based on certain criteria. So if you look at, and it is, it is something that can change, you know, for if you actually, if you look, look at the history now of science, there was a time when science thought, okay, even 1000, 5000 years old, then they changed it. Okay, no, a few million years old, then they changed it over a few billion years old. So science keeps changing based on the mode of which they determine the age of something. I'm not saying it is always wrong, but I'm just saying there is a way of calculation which could change. Right. So in fact, I was just yesterday or the day before I was reading, and our most recent article that came out of MIT, where they were a graduate student actually, and of course a team of researchers, but looking at certain pieces of rock that they collected from a certain part of the world, originated, but those were thought to be, you know, like 4 billion years old. But now the students have done some more analysis and no, it cannot, it's actually not that old, and it cannot be, you know, that many, that, you know, three, three and a half billion years old or whatever. So, you know, there's always this research happening and questions coming up. So I'm not saying science is wrong. I'm just saying that the mode of calculation, determination of age could change and there are variations to it. So having said that, for us, for us creationists, that is people believe in God creating the world, there are some things to keep in mind, that is when God creates something, he creates it in an advanced stage so that time is actually compressed. So what may have, you know, taken years, whether it's in millions or billions or whatever time period, it's all compressed in a moment when God in the creative act of God, because God is the source of power. He's the source of the design and all he does is he speaks a word and when God speaks the word, his power and his design come together and create and brings into existence. And at that moment of creation, time, energy, matter are all brought together. So, you know, you can look at it and I just keep simple examples. So God formed man out of the dust of the earth and he breathed into him. Man became a living being. So imagine that moment we look at Adam. Adam was not created like a little baby. He was created as a full, mature, grown man. So that moment when Adam became a living being, if we stood before Adam and God said, you know, how old is he? I don't know, maybe we'd say 30 or 40 or whatever we might say. You know, he looks like a mature man, he's grown by. But God says, look, he's only one second old, but God created him in an advanced stage. So that's one thing we can say about God's creation. He created everything in an advanced stage. It means what may have, you know, in our minds taken 30 years for Adam to develop. It was one second for God or I would say even less than a second. He just breathed and he became a living being, but he came as an adult, came as a man. So if you think of, and again, here's another example that I just like to make mention of when Jesus turned water to wine. He just said, fill the water pots with water, serve. So in an instant, water became wine. So if you look at the chemistry, water is H2O, wine is a complex mix of, you know, of a certain measure of alcohol and sugar and other compounds are there. So it's all there and it became so the very chemical structure of what was in it changed. God changed it in an instant. And if you really think about it, okay, wine, the natural process may take a long time. So if you have to go blunt a vineyard and wait for the tree to grow and wait for the grapes to come and then crush the grapes and make the juice and put it in the tiara, all that will take, you know, a lot of amount of time. But in an instant, water became wine. So in our natural thinking, so it took so much time to make this wine. But for God, it just wasn't an instant. The point I'm saying is time was compressed. And so today, when, you know, when people measure the earth, or they look at the universe and say the universe is 14 billion years old, or they look at a fossil and they say this fossil was so many million years old. You just have to think back and say, you know, in the creation, God created everything at an advanced stage. So that time, I'll use this word, time was dislocated at the moment of creation, or time was displaced at the moment of creation. So literally time equal to zero. But in the creative act of God, time equals so many years was made in was brought together in that instant. So that's how I would explain that when scientists are calculating, you know, age of earth or age of the universe or age of a fossil or age of this and age of that, and say, okay, this is this has to be so many millions. Okay, you know, you're doing a calculation based on whatever measurements we have. But God created everything at one stage, 6000 years ago, almost about 6000 years ago, created at one stage. So whatever time God compressed, we are trying to read it now. And so we come up with, you know, so many millions of years, but God compressed it in that moment is how I would explain it. What do you think? So it's only is that makes you happy? Is it sufficient? Yes. Thank you, Foster. That was very clear. Thank you. All right. So let's go through Genesis chapter one. I'll just highlight a few things and answer some common questions that come up. So in Genesis chapter one, remember, verses one to five, Genesis chapter one is the first day. So on the first day, God creates the heavens, which is the vast expanse of this universe, like he created this empty space, which he was going to fill up with stars and other things. So he creates this heavens, and he creates earth, planet earth. Now, this created a very interesting way because it says, verse two says the earth was without form and empty. Now, in the notes that I've explained, you know, without form means like a desert land. It's waiting to be filled. It's waiting for something to happen without form. And void, void means empty. That's all it means. Now, some people have used verse two to say that because the word empty could mean ruins. Now, the literal meaning of the word empty is empty, but it also could mean ruins. So some people have taken that and then said, okay, the earth was in ruins. Therefore, there was an earth before and God destroyed it because and the earth was covered with water, so they forgot to start it by a flood. Now that is stretching the text and scripture a lot because something doesn't have to be in ruins in order to be empty. It says empty. So let's not read more into that scripture than what is intended. So that basically what it's saying is God created the vast expanse of this universe and the earth in a way that he was going to work on it, right? Not in the sense that he destroyed a previous earth in order to repopulate it. That's reading too much into verse two. So earth was without form. It was empty. And very interestingly, when God created the earth, verse two, he created it with water and there's no harm with that. And God said, when God created it, he decided to create earth, water around it. And he was going to populate all of these things as the rest of the days come about. He was going to populate the earth. He was going to populate the water. He was going to populate the filled the heavens. So basically he's created space. He's created matter that is earth and water and time starts. How does time start? God says, let there be light. Now there was no sun. So the people say, well, where did this light come from? Well, the answer is pretty simple. God himself forced the source of that light. Say, how can you prove it from the Bible? Well, we just have to go to Revelation chapter 21 and also chapter 22. In the new heavens, in the new earth, the Bible says, there won't be any sun, there won't be any moon. But God himself will be the light of the earth. So for eternity to come, starting Revelation chapter 21, for eternity to come, there will be no sun. When God himself will be the light of the earth. So it's very easy to therefore believe that the first three days, there was light without sun because in eternity to come, there will be light without sun. God is the source of that light. So people say, hey, how can you have light without a sun? Very simple. God is the source of the light and that's the way it's going to be in the new heavens and the new earth. So the light was emanating from God and then what God decided to do was he started rotating the earth. So the earth was rotating on its axis, which we know is still happening today. And the earth rotated on full circle, which would be a 24-hour period. And that's the time God said this is going to be day and night. This is going to be day and night. It's going to be one 25-hour period. This is verses four and five. So three things God did on day one. He created space, the last expanse. He created matter, which is the earth and water. Energy came, it was God's own light and time came, which was the 24-hour period. That was day one. Then day two, this is Genesis chapter one verses six to eight. God created the atmospheric heaven. So he separated some of the water that's on the earth. He took some of the water into the heavens. So it doesn't tell us what it looked like, but it seemed like there was this atmosphere around the earth. So there was water around the earth, there was water above the earth. So the water above the earth, he called it as firmament or heavens, what we understand as the atmospheric heavens, in which all the clouds are there. So whether they looked like clouds or whether they looked like some water vapor around it, whatever, there was a layer of water above the earth. So why did God do it? Well, he was preparing things for the water cycle. It's today we know, we know that's how it all happens. Water evaporates, goes up into the atmospheric heaven, condenses become clouds, it comes back as rain. So God was setting things in place. That's day two. Day three. So the earth was fully covered with water and God said, separate the waters and the land. So land was separated, seas were separated. Now, does it mean it was separated half and half or how it was separated? I just think that God would have set up the continents of the land as he desired. So the Bible does tell us that God has set the boundaries of the nation. So obviously God would have had something in mind and there was a separation of water from the land. It doesn't necessarily have to be an exact round half of land and round half of water. It could have separated any way that God had in mind. But there was land, there was water on day three. And then God said, let the land bring forth vegetation. So from the ground, plant life emerged. But remember, in God's creative work, he just spoke the words, whenever he spoke the words, his power and his design caused something to happen. So when he said, you know, let the earth bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees, he already had the design in him. When he spoke his words, there was power, there was design that brought all this into existence. And so all of plant life was created in single day, day three, the earth brought forth. And it is at this time, we see God doing something very interesting. He sets a reproductive process in place. He says, let the trees bring forth fruit and let the fruit have seed in itself. Very interesting. So God already had in his mind that he was going to set, he was going to fill the earth, but he was going to put processes in the earth that are reproducible and just keep on happening. So it's not like every time God wanted some tree, he has said, let there be a tree. No, he spoke once. But in that design, he designed it to be reproductive. So that every tree will bear fruit. In the fruit, there will be seed, and the seed will bring forth after its own kind. So God set this in place, a process, a system in place just to keep on happening. And this is where we see the idea of the DNA, because everything will produce after its own kind. And that kind is maintained by the DNA, like we explained in the earlier class. So the DNA for every kind of plant had its own DNA in the cell. So it will only produce apple tree, produce only apple, orange, only orange, banana, only banana, after its own kind, keep producing. And then vegetation, this is day three, vegetation came, and then God created a garden called the Garden of Eden. He chose a place on the earth called the Garden of Eden. Chapter two describes this, and there were four rivers flowing there. He said, you know, when I make man and woman, I'm going to put them here in this garden. This is where they're going to start. So he got the garden ready. Then day four. It's very interesting. God, these first three days, there were no stars. The light was God himself. And his light was shining upon the earth. So vegetation came before sunlight came. And we know that today vegetation cannot exist without sunlight, most of vegetation, but at that time God's light was enough. That's how it's going to be in the new heavens and the new earth. Anyway, day four comes and now God creates the stars. What does he do? He said, let there be lights. So, because it doesn't mention anywhere else that God created the planets, we could go back to day one and say on day one when God said, in the beginning, God created the heavens. Most likely that vast expanse of space was filled with other planetary bodies. I'm saying most likely because it's not said in the text of the scripture. Just like earth, he may have created many other planetary bodies. On day four, he's filling these heavens with lights, lights we know as stars. So he's creating these stars and he's filling this universe with stars. Let there be lights. Now, what we know is there are literally millions, not even millions, but billions upon billions of stars. So scientists tell us 10 raised to the power of 24, septillion stars. That means it's just so numerous, small stars, big stars, all kinds, all sizes. They're all there. And then this whole universe, as we've studied it, it's made up of many galaxies. So there are about a trillion galaxies in a 10 raised to 12 galaxies or more, we don't know. And then each galaxy has millions of stars and different bodies in them. And so earth is part of a solar system, which is part of the Milky Way galaxy, which is only one of the many galaxies in this universe. In other words, what God created was so big, so vast. And he said, let there be lights. All these stars came into place. Now, one of the reasons, this is Genesis chapter one, verses 14 to 19, is one of the reasons he put the stars was 14 says, they are for science, seasons, days and years. So that means it's like a clock system. So what we understand today, we understand those days. Moses didn't know, but today we understand. And as the earth rotates one son is axis, it's day and night. And the earth is also revolving around the sun. When it makes one full revolution around the sun, it's one calendar year. So we know. And every time it goes around the sun, the same seasons repeat in that 12 month period. Now, we have summer or winter, depending on which part of the world, the seasons are repeating Oh, it's winter time. Okay, we know, it's 12 months later. Again, it's winter time. Oh, you know, so God has put this clock system. One of the reasons why he created all the stars. He put everything in place is to be signs for science and seasons, days and years, like a like a clock clock system for planet earth. And by also looking at other stars, we can tell, you know, where we are around in our journey around the sun. So that's one reason he created those stars. And then the Bible talks about verse 16, he made two great lights. Now that word lights is just luminaries, meaning shining bodies. So some people get upset with that. Oh, how can the moon is not a sun? Yes, it's not a sun, but it's a shining body, because it reflects the light of the sun. And so there's nothing wrong. The word there lights simply means luminaries there in verse 16, something that is bright doesn't have to be emanating light of its own. It's just bright. So the sun has light of its own. The moon is reflecting the light. No problem. It's just bright. So it's a luminary. And, and we know that when we are facing the sun, we have light in the nighttime, we see the reflected light of the moon. That's, that's very simple. And verse 16. So that was day four. Day five, God creates on the sea creatures, things in the sea. He creates the words. Here again, very interesting. He says, everything will reproduce after its own kind. So he sets that same process of reproducing process in place in sea creatures, in birds. Then the last day, day six, day six morning, he creates land animals, creates them same thing they reproduce after their own kind. Then he forms man from the dust to the earth. And he breeds it. Man becomes a living being. And he brings man into the garden of Eden. So you've got to take care of this garden or cultivate it, take care of it. Okay. And then he lets man see all the animals and birds that he's created and lets man name them. Now, when we, when we read that we're thinking on Adam is going to see one lion, one bear, one elephant, one bear, one, they're all walking in front of Adam. We imagine that in our mind, but that would have taken a lot of time. Obviously, it didn't happen that way. How did it happen? Well, you can imagine this that in his mind's eye, he could see, he could envision, he could see all these creatures. God said, God said, Adam, it's your responsibility to name them whatever you want to name them. And Adam began to call these things by name. So his mind, it shows us the power of the brain that God had given Adam, the mind he had given Adam. Adam was able to recognize these different things and give them name. And he began that journey in the garden of Eden. But God also saw that just having all these creatures around was not satisfying Adam. And he had already designed, determined he was going to make them male and female. Genesis 1.26. So he puts Adam to sleep, takes out a rib, and out of that he forms the female, the woman. And then Adam sees Eve, the woman, and he says, you know, bone on my bone, flesh on my flesh. And then Genesis 1.27 and 28, God created the male and female, verse 28, God blessed them. So God on day six towards the end of day six, God blessed Adam and Eve and said, be fruitful, be multiply. But also he said, have dominion on the earth. Subdued, keep it under your control, take care of it. And he put them in the garden. So Genesis chapter one and two described for us day one and day two of creation. Beautiful picture. And then on day seven, God rested. So let's look at some common questions that come up from Genesis chapter one and two. So I will answer some of the questions that were put in the chat first, I mean, that were asked last week. And then I will take up other questions. So Isaac's question, Isaac 1D, his question was, why is man? Okay, let me share that in the chat. Isaac had put this. He had shared this in the class last week. So Isaac's question is, why is man was made and given so much authority to care and control the things in creation, made the image of God, causing so much atrocities in the world by fighting on another, killing one another by actual violence and wars. So as I go, obviously, the answer is pretty straightforward. Remember, in Genesis one and two, man was created in the image of God, was created perfect, he was created sinless. But then sin came into this world. Right? So because of disobedience, God told Adam, don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So disobedience and brought sin into this world. So we can talk about the fall of man. And from then on, sin has caused man to a lot of evil, which includes all these things of fighting and killing violence and wars. So the fall of man is that reason why we have all of these things. I'll also share the questions from John Paul. And we will look at these questions. So John posted these questions last week. Let's go through it. Number one, next question. Earth was without form and void. Earth was, in Hebrews says, higher meaning became. Does the meaning became, is it correct? So let me just take a moment here just to look up my concordants here, the strong concordants here, Hebrews. So let's go to Genesis chapter one. I'm just looking it up here. And we're still the earth was and the earth was higher. So let me just share with you what I'm seeing here. So this is our Esau and the earth was. So the word Hebrew word was is higher. And you see here, it means to exist. That is, be. Or it could also mean become. It means come to pass and so on. It could also mean to break cause and a lot of other things. So you see the word was means to exist. The earth existed and the earth was existed. The earth be or you can say it was there at that time. Or it also mean, it could also mean become or come to pass. So the word was, by looking at the strong meanings of those words, is clearly telling us that we don't have to take become. So we have to go by the context. So it means it could mean exist. That means the earth existed without form and void or the word be came into being without form and void. So we can't use that word for us to, you know, first of all, to take one part of the meaning, which is not in the context, you know. So and the earth came to be, basically the context is God created and therefore in the created heavens and the earth and the way he created was without form and void. But we can't take it to mean that it came to pass over time. But it came into existence, came to be because the creative act of God is defined for us in Genesis 1 verse 1. So that's how I would look at that word and understand, understand the first part. Second one, was the earth full of water when created? Yeah, that's correct. So what we see in Genesis 1 verse 2 was the earth itself was without form and void and it was covered with water. So then later on on day two, sorry on day three, God separates the land and the water. Now why did God create it with water around? I don't know, but it is very interesting because water is a miracle. Water is a miracle. You don't find water, at least till now, but never found it on any other planet. And without water, life cannot exist. Plants depend on it, animals depend on it, birds depend on it, humans depend on it. So this thing called water is such a very important resource. And so it's only very, very remarkable that in the very beginning, on day one, earth was created with an envelope of water and then day three he separated it. But water is such an important resource. Number three, yeah, could you explain a bit more on how was a day determined was a day determined before the sun here. So we kind of went through that explanation and based on Genesis chapter one verse four and five God himself was the source of that light and the earth obviously set in rotation on the axis, on its axis. So the completion of one, you know, when there was darkness on one side, that was night, the evening of the night. And when it was day, when it was light, he called it day. So God himself called the darkness as night. We call the light as day and the night and the day put together form one day. So that's explained for us in Genesis one four and five. Question number four, as we understand that God created everything in maturity. Does it mean earth was created even with the phosemes, you see? No, because phosemes came about later on, right? So when the earth was created, the earth itself was mature, but there were no animals there until day four, sorry, day five. Then God created secretures, then he created birds, and then in day six he created land animals. So they came on later. So obviously there were no phosemes all of that time. So what we know about the phosemes is that these animals obviously would have died, were time, man died, animals died, birds died. And so their bones of course were dedicated to the earth. We also know about Noah's flood in Genesis six, which therefore would have distributed sea creatures, land animals, maybe even the birds, across the globe. And that's what people are finding today, that you're finding fossils of animals and other creatures that they actually were moved around the world to distribute around the world because of the flood. So the answer to your question is it came, fossils came on later on, but the animals that were created, the birds that were created were created in an advanced stage with the capability of reproducing. All right, one more question here from Arti Kumar. Since the earth is about 6,000 years old, can we say the beginning of everything is also 6,000 years ago only, and not earlier than that? Answer, at least my position based on the chronology of scripture, the answer to that is yes. I would say yes. Now, I also want to acknowledge that there are a lot of people who have different opinions, right? But my position is, yeah, everything started in Genesis one, one, which was on day one, which was about 6,000 years ago. That's my position. So people would call this position as a young earth creationist or creationist, so on. But I also acknowledge that there are other people, theologians and others, who would say, well, they must have been millions of years before Genesis one, one or millions of years between Genesis one, one and Genesis one, two, or they may have each day actually represents ages, millions of years, or there are millions of years between every day. So there are a lot of other things other people explain. But for me, I just take Genesis one and two debates given. Therefore, it is 6,000 years old, according to calendar time, but I have no problems when God speaks that things come into existence, which are, which in our human terms would have taken millions of years or whatever time we call it, but it came into existence in a moment. So that's how I went. All right. Okay. So John Paul, another question. Is any book you can suggest to refer more on the origin of cosmos, especially for topics we learned this morning? Yeah. So there are. So there are, I guess, if you want to look at it purely from a scientific perspective, of course, there are these other general scientists who talk about the origins of the cosmos like Stephen Hawking and others. And then there are creationists of people who believe in God and creation, who believe in the origin of the cosmos in a different, from a creation perspective, but they also believe in millions of years and so on and so forth. So those would be like a simple example of a name, one of the well-known names, John Lenox is a mathematician and Christian mathematician believer, but he takes the position of millions of years between days so you could read some of his works. And many of these people have websites that you can go to and see where they've written their articles. There is Hugh Ross, that he is a scientist, but he again takes Christian scientist, but he again takes this whole evolutionary process of how the world came into existence. So they read millions of years into Genesis one and two ages and so on. So I find it's pretty unnecessary, but these are famous names or well-known names of people who do this. There's another scientist researcher who talks about this. So these are people who come from that perspective talking about millions and billions of years and how they try to fit it into Genesis and so on. Yeah, but I would, you know, don't confuse yourself with all these people because I think their attempt has been to try to make science and Bible agree, but in the process they have, at least in my opinion, compromised simple explanation of the scripture text. So that's my opinion. Now these are good people, they respect them, they are wonderful, they highly accomplished scientists and they are believers in Jesus and so we respect them, but I think in an effort to accommodate billions of years that they therefore have to, you know, introduce that time period in Genesis one and two and so they do these things. Yeah, so the book Can Science Explain Everything by John Lennox was a good book and he's written some more books on this whole cosmology and so on, so you'll find that useful. Yeah. Okay, so even pause here for today, I appreciate the questions. I hope I, wait a minute, there's some other questions in the notes I wanted to cover. Let's see. That's any more questions. Oh yeah, so there was one question, you know, this is the last one, we're close with this. There's one question was in Genesis chapter one, we have different words used about God's creative work. There is the word create, there is, it says, you know, there are times when it says God created, then there are times it says God made and then there is God formed. So God created, God made, God formed. What is the difference? Well, to create means to bring something out of nothing. So he created, brought into being. To make means to work with what is already there. So God is, you know, rearranging things or putting things where it's supposed to be and so on, so that's making. Now, even when it's making doesn't mean that God is not creating or he's not bringing in design, he's bringing in design, he's bringing in order, he's bringing that into place, but he's also, you know, rearranging things, organizing and forming is talking about God's personal touch, you know, God formed man from the dust of the earth. So God formed. Yeah, it's just something very personal about that work of God. But all in all God is creator, God is maker and God is the one who forms and fashions. So we don't want to get too, you know, caught up with the different verbs. It's all the same God who is bringing into existence the things he brought into existence. Okay. Alright, so we'll pause here for today. My thumbs up. Thank you for those good questions. I hope I was able to answer if we have any more questions and always talk about it again. Let's close in prayer so we can get ready for our next class. Anybody could please close in prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, one single Lord, we thank you so much for this beautiful day, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for helping us to know more about your words, Lord. But thank you for Pastor Lord, as Lord, he is helping all of us, Lord. So that Lord, this to come, Lord, we will answer other people, Lord, with love and so that Lord, they will also saved and they will also know that you are the creator of this whole universe. And you have created us with the purpose, Lord. Nothing has comes by accident, Lord, but Lord, you have created everything for a purpose, Lord. We thank you so much for helping us to understand you and your word. In Jesus name I pray, amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. God bless you. Have a good break and get ready for your next class. See you again. Bye now. God bless. Thank you, Pastor. God bless. Bless. Bye now.