kinda funny depiction of Adam & Eve...
Hello World!!!
As I said in a previous post, my Bible study class is reading the book of Genesis and apparently, we will go through the entire Bible over the course of several months…
Since I grew up in church, I have read passages in probably most of the books of the Bible over the course of my lifetime, but I’ve never gone through the Bible from start to finish. I’m sure that I will learn volumes although my parents made sure that I had a solid Biblical education along with my academic education. But I must admit, there are some lingering questions that I’ve had over the years that never seemed to be answered to my satisfaction.
And now that my class is going through the entire Bible, I’m sure those questions will resurface. One of those questions resurfaced during a telephone conversation I had over the weekend. And I had to admit, I didn’t have the answer. It is clearly stated in Genesis that Adam and Eve were created by God. The couple had two sons, Cain and Abel. It is also mentioned that Cain had a wife….well, who created that wife if only Adam and Eve were created by God? Hmmm…something to think about, huh?
Also during the telephone conversation, I was asked why Jesus Christ was called Jesus Christ when the letter J was not existent at the time Jesus Christ lived on earth….I asked my Bible study leader the answer to that question last night, and he said, I think, that Jesus’ name was originally Yeshua and was translated to Jesus by the Greeks…I plan to ask him to explain that answer in more detail when I go to Bible Study tonight, God willing…
The ages of people in the Old Testament has also puzzled me. In Genesis 5, it is stated that Methuselah, a descendent of Adam, lived to be 969 years old. Shoot, Adam lived to be 930 years old. I didn’t attend Bible College so I pose this question to Bible scholars – Were years determined differently than they are today? If not, it is very hard to believe people lived for hundreds of years when in modern time, humans are blessed to live for even 80 years….
I’m sure more questions will be raised as I continue to study the text and discuss it with the people in my life. But the truth of the matter is that belief in the Bible itself, no matter what the passage, is an exercise in faith…I mean if some random man came up to me on the street today and said, he is the saviour of the world, I would gingerly back away from him and hope he did not chase me down the street. And if one of my girls told me she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit although she was a virgin, I would talk about her behind her back to my other girls. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen… I know what that sick boy’s father meant when he said to Jesus, “Lord I do believe. Help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) And Jesus healed his son right then. And this Bible verse below also applies to the situation.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6
Because God is God and we are finite creatures, I imagine there will be questions that will not be answered while we are here on Earth, but I do believe that God will answer those who earnestly seek answers. Aside from all of that, I believe in Jesus Christ, Yeshua, Jehovah, the Prince of Peace, the only Begotten Son, Messiah, the Great Shepherd, the Amen, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha and the Omega and on and on because I’m seen Him at work in my life and in the lives of those around me…
How can I explain the answers to countless prayers…I cannot except I have in faith in God…And how is it anyway that I can get down on my knees and say words out loud in the air or inside of my head and God hears and answers…And how is that sometimes as I sit in church I can feel this joy that wells up inside of me so much that it spills out of my eyes in the form of tears…I cannot except I have in faith in God…and how is it that I’ve known people healed of all sorts of addictions and disorders that threatened to kill them…I cannot except I have faith in God…
I cannot explain the Holy Wars or why people in the name of Jesus have managed to commit crimes against humanity. I cannot explain why some church folk are more judgmental and nasty than the average person walking down the street on any given day. I cannot explain why people have used the Bible to enslave others. I cannot explain why a pastor would flashy a phony badge intending to impersonate an officer when he was stopped for speeding. Ridiculous! Human beings are fallible , Jesus Christ isn’t…
Any thoughts?
You are going to make your bible study teacher lose countless hours of sleep trying to prepare for you. LOL!
Whatever he/she tells you remember to do as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11). Never take anything for face value. cbb
of course 🙂
Hey Jackie, please share the “answers” with us when they arrive! I agree some things will remain a mystery until we can ask God face-to-face in heaven. One theory I’ve heard about the long life spans is that back then, there weren’t yet the genetic impurities and earthly toxins that shorten lives today….and that God needed people around that long to keep growing the human race. Makes sense, but then who says it has to make sense to us, right?!
I’ve heard about the impurities and toxins theory as well…still hard to wrapy my brain around though…
Franic Schaeffer talks about this a good bit – the Bible is not meant to explain everything about everything – the Bible it meant to bring people into a saving relationship with Jesus – and it has just the right information to do that. Schaeffer compares it to a book ripped in two – the part of the “everything explanation” we have is true (the Bible half of all knowledge ever)- it is just not all the information of God’s creation – that it not the Bible’s purpose – to explain everything about everything – so even it the small part of the story we get is confusing – rest assured it is true – and that more info on it exists – in space time history – and in the Lord’s infinite knowledge – we just don’t have it – and must not need it to be saved :).
I can see your point…but I think there are many that keep Christianity at arm’s length because of these issues…but as I said, for those that need more precise answers, I believe that God, who wants all to be saved, will meet them where they are…and thanks for commenting Gwennie 🙂
Adam and Eve were perfect until they sinned. I would suspect that Cain and Abel married their sisters, as the genes received from their parents would not present the medical issues of today. What is incest today would have been neccessity to “be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth” as God asked His people to do in Genesis.