Calvary Bible Church Bible Study The Book of Genesis

Lesson 1: Genesis 1 Read Genesis 1 Genesis (Greek for Beginning), called Bereshth by the Jews (Hebrew for In the beginning), is well named. This exciting volume gives the only true account of creation by the only One who was therethe Creator! Through His servant Moses, the Holy Spirit traces the beginnings of man, woman, marriage, the home, sin, sacrifices, cities, trade, agriculture, music, worship, languages, and the races and nations of the world. All this in the first eleven chapters. Then, from chapters 1250 we see the beginnings of Israel, Gods test-tube nation, to be a spiritual microcosm of all the peoples of the world. The lives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and his twelve sons-especially the attractively devout Joseph, have inspired untold millions, from young children to advanced scholars. A solid grasp of Genesis is necessary for an understanding of the rest of the sixty-five books of the Bible. They all build on its beautifully proportioned literary base. Genesis is history. Like all history, it is interpretive. It is theological history, or facts narrated in a framework of the divine plan. It has been well said that history is His story. Though Genesis is the first book of the law there is very little legal material in it. It is Law (Torah, for instruction) in that it lays the foundation for Exodus through Deuteronomy and Gods giving of the Law through Moses. In fact, it lays the foundation of all Bible historyyes, of history itself. The twin themes of blessing and cursing are carefully woven throughout the fabric of Genesis, and indeed, the whole word of God. Obedience brings enrichment of blessing, and disobedience the opposite. The great curses are the penalties of the fall, the universal Flood, and the confusion of tongues at Babel. The great blessings are the promise of a Redeemer, the salvation of a remnant through the Flood, and the choice of a special nation to be a channel of Gods grace, Israel. In the beginning God ... . These first four words of the Bible form the foundation for faith. Believe these words, and you can believe all that follows in the Bible. Genesis provides the only authoritative account of creation, meaningful for people of all ages but exhaustible by no one. The divine record assumes the existence of God rather than seeking to prove it. The Bible has a special name for those who choose to deny the fact of God. That name is fool (Ps. 14:1 and 53:1). Just as the Bible begins with God, so He should be first in our lives. Lets examine the spiritual application of Genesis 1 first. The Work Of Creation In Salvation: 2nd Corinthians 5:17 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. The same Christ who was the agent of the Creation of the universe is the agent of re-creating us by salvation. Although our physical appearance may not change, our inward nature is made new in Jesus Christ. See the following: The Light : 2nd Corinthians 4:6 Order From Chaos : Romans 7:15 8:1 Life : John 10:10 Fruit Bearing : John 15:4-5 Humanity : Colossians 3:8-11 Made For Relationship : 2nd Corinthians 11:1-2 1

Now for the technical aspects, which are also critically important. Lets start at the Beginning, in Genesis 1:1, where one of the names of Christ is seen in the Hebrew Text, but is never seen in any of the English translations. Christ As Creator in Genesis 1:1 The ALEPH / TAV Genesis 1:1 (remember that Hebrew is read RIGHT to LEFT) .haarets wet hashamayim et Elohiym bara Breshiyt |7225| In the beginning |0776| the earth |1254| created |0430| God |0853| |8064| the heavens |0853| and

ALEPH/TAV

STRONG'S REFERENCE NUMBER: 853 apparent contracted from 226 in the demonstrative sense of entity; untranslated particle AV - not translated; 22 occurrences, primarily in Genesis 1 sign of the definite direct object, not translated in English but generally preceding and indicating the accusative Enhanced Strongs Lexicon, 1995. How does this apply to Jesus Christ? To find out, we must look into the New Testament. John Chapter 1:1-3, and 1:14-18 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. 15John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. 16And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Although we do understand that Jesus is the Living Word, meaning that He is the embodiment of ALL of Gods Word; the Greek Text for the phrase the Word is SINGULAR, indicating that John is referring to ONE SINGLE WORD. What one single word from the story of Creation meets the following requirements: one word, directly connected to God Himself, and was involved in every aspect of creation? The only answer that meets these requirements is the ALEPH/TAV. Revelation 1:8-11 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
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I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus 2

Christ. 10I was in the Spirit on the Lords Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, and, What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. As we look at the Book of Revelation, we see Christ using the title Alpha and Omega. These are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, and they make sense as the first and last when you consider that the New Testament was written in Greek. However, John and Jesus (when He was in the flesh) were HEBREW. Doesnt it make sense that if two Hebrew men were speaking to each other, that they would use HEBREW? Also, since the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet are ALEPH and TAV, and since God directly placed these two letters in Genesis 1 REPEATEDLY, doesnt it seem that Christ is actually applying the Title of ALEPH/TAV to Himself in Revelation? Jesus is not only the First and Last in that He encompasses all of Gods fullness, but He is also seen directly as the aspect of the Trinity who did all of the creating in Genesis chapter 1. When we take Jesus use of this name in Revelation, combine it with Johns explanation regarding the Word in John 1, and combine that with the Hebrew Text in Genesis 1, we see that Jesus is truly God, Creator, and Savior. Also compare the signature of Christs work in Creation by examining the structure of LAMININ, and the structure of the X-galaxy

Now lets move on to the specifics of the Creation Story. And God SAID.. What is the significance of the fact that God did not build creation, but He spoke it? String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything (TOE), a manner of describing the known fundamental forces and matter in a mathematically complete system. String theory posits that the electrons and quarks within an atom are not 0-dimensional objects, but made up of 1-dimensional strings. These strings oscillate, giving the observed particles their flavor, charge, mass and spin. On distance scales larger than the string radius, each oscillation mode behaves as a different species of particle, with its mass, spin and charge determined by the string's dynamics. Splitting and recombination of strings correspond to particle emission and absorption, giving rise to the interactions between particles. 3

An analogy for strings' modes of vibration is a guitar string's production of multiple but distinct musical notes. In the analogy, different notes correspond to different particles. The only difference is the guitar is only 2-dimensional; you can strum it up, and down. In actuality the guitar strings would be every dimension, and the strings could vibrate in any direction, meaning that the particles could move through not only our dimension, but other dimensions as well. Many theoretical physicists (e.g. Hawking, Witten, Maldacena and Susskind) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. This is because string theory allows for the consistent combination of quantum field theory and general relativity, agrees with general insights in quantum gravity (such as the holographic principle and Black hole thermodynamics), and because it has passed many non-trivial checks of its internal consistency. According to Stephen Hawking in particular, "M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe." The word DAY Why is a literal 6 day creation, as reported in Genesis, important? Because the Testimony of Christ and the New Testament writers is that God DID create the earth, and mankind (in Adam and Eve) exactly as Genesis describes. See Luke 3:38, Romans 5:12-14, 1st Corinthians 15:21-22, 1st Corinthians 15:45, 1st Timothy 2:13-14, Jude 14, John 1:1-5. If the account found in Genesis is WRONG, in even the slightest detail, then the testimony of Christ and the New Testament writers must be thrown out. The account given in Genesis is very specific, and cannot be bent into a mere parable, symbolism, allegory, or interpretation in ignorance of modern science. It must stand or fall as the story of a real event. The Hebrew word Yom (day): Genesis 1:5 is its first occurrence in Scripture, and here it is specifically defined by God as the light in the cyclical succession of light and darkness which has, ever since, constituted a regular, solar day. This becomes especially clear when it is combined with an identifier (first day) or with definite bounds (evening and morning), neither of which (in the Old Testament) allow for non-literal meanings. It is occasionally, though rarely, used symbolically or in the sense of indefinite time (the day of the Lord, 1st Thessalonians 5:2), but such usage (as in English or other languages) is always evident from the context itself. Thus the so-called day-age theory, by which the days of creation are assumed to correspond to the ages of geology, is precluded by this definitive use of the word in its first occurrence. God Himself defined it. If we allow the definition of day to be millions of years, the entire story of sin and death is removed from Scripture. If animals, and especially human beings, DIED prior to Adam then it was not Adams sin that brought death to the world. If the first Adam did not bring death to the world, how could the second Adam (Christ) bring life to the world through his sacrifice? If we allow for macro (large scale, species-changing) evolution, then Gods declaration of Creation (on each step) as being good must be incorrect; since everything had to change from its original form into its present form. Thus, if the basic story of Creation is flawed, then everything in the Bible that is connected to it must be thrown out as flawed. Lets see what this does to the contents of our Bible. Lets take away all of the Books of the Bible that either directly state that the Creation story is true by the nature of their contents, or that were written by a mistaken author, and see what we have left of the Bible. The Old Testament: The New Testament: Scary, isnt it? 4 Ruth NOTHING! Esther

Surface Granite Around the Earth On Day number three of creation, God said: ". . . let the dry land appear; and it was so." The dry land involved the entire infrastructure, and particularly the granite structure. According to the evolutionary model this granite, which is world wide and which averages eight to sixteen miles in thickness, took threehundred-million years to crystallize. But according to the Biblical record on day number three, God said let the dry land appear and it appeared instantly. What does the tangible, verifiable evidence of science show? Dr. Robert Gentry showed that there are circular rings of discoloration (called radio-halos) caused by radioactive energy in the granite left by polonium 218, 210 and 214. The half-life of polonium 210 is twenty-two days. After seven-half lives all of this particular radio active material is gone. If this were the case, the granite could not be more than five months in forming into a solid crystalline structure. Dr Gentry, however, also found halos of polonium 218. The half-life of polonium 218 is less than three minutes. All the polonium 218 in a body of polonium 218 would be gone in approximately twenty minutes. Therefore, in a manner of minutes that granite would have to be intact and completely formed. But it gets even better still. Dr. Gentry also found polonium 214 whose half-life is 0.000164 seconds, 16.4 microseconds. With in seven half-lives this would be gone. This total time number (in common terms) is just a little over one 1000th of a second. This means that faster than you could snap a finger, all the polonium 214 would be gone. This means that the crystallized structure of the rock would have to be solidified in a very brief period of time. Therefore Genesis account of God speaking the dry land into existence has to be literal. The FIRMAMENT The Firmament and the Pre-Flood Enviroment Genesis 1:6 tells us, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide between the waters and the waters." This firmament was a bubble of water above the surface and around the whole earth. The word for firmament in Hebrew is the word requiya which is a very special word. The word means to compress, pound together and spread out into thin metal sheets. Researcher Dan Cook discovered that a complete canopy around the earth has to be taken literally as a metal canopy otherwise it would not be able to be suspended above the earth. This is because it would have to be a conductive metal creating a repelling magnet effect against the magnetic field around the surface of the earth. This metal firmament around the earth would only need to be a few inches thick. This would be all that was necessary. It would also have to be pure clear metal. Metal in its pure state is transparent. Metal is ". . . any elementary substance as gold, silver, or copper, all of which are crystalline when solid and many of which are characterized by opacity, ductility, conductivity, and a peculiar luster when freshly fractured." Therefore, this canopy of metal would have to be of a crystalline structure and transparent. The visors of the astronauts on the moon had a thin layer of pure transparent gold (also see Revelation 21:18). What metal was the firmament composed of? At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory they did some experiments with water. They compressed the water. The oxygen and hydrogen atoms separated and the oxygen was distinguishable by its blue color. The effect, however, on the hydrogen atoms, when compressed under super cold conditions and with energy added, was that the atoms bonded into a metallic crystalline structure that was transparent with opaque veins of hydrogen throughout. Other laboratories followed up and confirmed this. They found that the transparent metal hydrogen was not conductive but that the opaque metal hydrogen was superconductive. Superconductivity is a very special phenomena. The firmament was transparent. The opaque hydrogen metal was only in thin veins throughout the firmament. The conductive hydrogen has a very special purpose in the firmament. Acting like a repelling magnet to the earth, these veins of opaque hydrogen held the firmament ten miles above the surface of the earth in suspension. 5

When crystalline hydrogen is energized it gives off a gentle glow that is 6365 angstrom magenta (pink). This color can often be seen at sunrise and at sunset as a pink glow. This happens as a result of water molecules in the atmosphere becoming charged as a result of the lower level intense rays of the suns energy passing through them. As the suns rays pass through them you see blue sky because of the oxygen, but during sunrise and sunset, for a short period, because of these lower level intense rays of the sun, the energized hydrogen overpowers the oxygen and you see a pink glow in the horizon. What this suggests is that before the flood when the firmament was in place above the earth, you would see a pink sky instead of a blue one. Also on the dark side of the earth there would be a gentle pink glow at night. When this level of pink is applied to glasses and you receive light through them, the end result is that your brain produces neuralepanephrom which is a neural transmitter. Increasing the amount of this naturally produced neurotransmitter increases the capacity and efficiency of the nerves in the brain to work. The end result is that an individual looking through these glasses, especially with dyslexia problems, would find this problem corrected to some degree since dyslexia is a neural transmission problem. It has been found to also help people with Attention Deficit Syndrome problems to the point that they no longer needed to use their medication to help correct the problem. When one wears these glasses and looks at the world through them, blue lines strike in front of the retina and red lines strike directly on the retina and as a result colors are enhanced. The world is a more vivid, brighter place to live in. Through the pink glasses you get the full spectrum of colors, not just pink. This means that the sky before the flood with the hydrogen metal firmament was pink, but all around you were all the colors of whatever you were looking at, not everything dominated by pink. Another phenomena of the hydrogen transparent crystalline structure was that not only did it allow the full spectrum of light through, but it filtered out the short wave radiation and became fiber optic meaning that it transferred the energy of this light throughout the firmament. This means that when the sunny side received light from the sun that this light was transferred throughout the firmament, at a diminishing rate of course, to the other side so that there was a soft glow of pink on the dark side. This explains also the meaning of Genesis 1:16 which states, "And Elohim made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night." This would be a more correct interpretation of this passage since the moon is not always visible at night. The soft pinkish glow of the firmament at night meant that there was no midnight darkness as we now know it. This meant that the ambient glow carried through all night long. It also meant that the stars would be seen in more vivid detail because the shorter waves were filtered out and a photo multiplier of the full color spectrum of the stars could be seen. This solves other major problems because the firmament filtered out the destructive shorter wave length radiation. The basic ultraviolet radiation which comes in to us today is a problem for us. Cancer is formed on the surface of the skin by mutational damaging change. But it also does something else: we lost the firmament at the time of the flood, it collapsed and our means of re-energizing the EMF also collapsed. Subsequently over a period of centuries we lost the suspension of water molecules in the upper atmosphere to such a degree that ultraviolet radiation streams in at an alarming rate. This ultraviolet radiation harm living systems by generating cancer, and it also creates free radicals that we ingest that bond to the cellular structure, even to the DNA. Radicalized oxygen is a major problem that bonds to almost any chemical agent it comes in contact with. We ingest all this and are damaging ourselves to a major degree. We no longer have this firmament and are the worse off because of it. Dale Peterson , M.D., wrote a scholastic research paper called "Longevity and the Biblical Record." We have learned that as the ultraviolet radiation penetrates through the atmosphere down to the surface of the earth it excites the oxygen molecules, free radicalizes the oxygen molecules so that we ingest those so that we are being contaminated. Concerning this Dr. Peterson writes: 6

"Excess free radicals attach themselves to cell membranes, LDL cholesterol and even DNA. They penetrate right inside the cell membrane. Damage done to the human body is enormous. The list of conditions felt to be caused by or aggravated by free radicals includes: arteriosclerosis, Alzheimers, cancer, high blood pressure, schizophrenia, Parkinsons disease, down syndrome, strokes, cataracts, arthritis, emphysema, dandruff, wrinkles, memory loss, mental sluggishness. . ." Over sixty disease states are believed by a number of researchers to be caused by or aggravated by these free radicals. Prior to the flood, because of the firmament around the earth, these free radicals would not be generated because ultraviolet radiation would be trapped along with other short wave radiation in the firmament and thus energizing the geomagnetic field. Under these circumstances man would not receive any harmful radiation or free radicals to his detriment. Before the flood of Noahs day the firmamental canopy was in place from day two all the way to the first day of the flood. It filtered out short wave radiation. It filtered out some of the infrared radiation which means that we would only have a gentle temperature build up during the light of day, moderating temperatures (approximately 72-75 degrees year round) and preventing extreme weather. Plants, botanists tell us, do so much better if you generate pink light for them. This triggers the growth of reproductive cells in plants. In addition to this, plants do better if the roots are heated two to three degrees above the ambient temperature (temperature of the surrounding atmosphere). In Creation, everything was designed for the optimal genetic function of all living systems, the earth as well as the entire universe. How large did those plants get? Before the flood there was a firmament canopy around the earth. This canopy kept the atmosphere in place, and would compress the atmosphere to 28 pounds per square inch. Today it is 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level. Also geologists have found in the structure of the limestone a greater amount of CO2. Up to eight times our current amount. We currently have 0.026% CO2. Previous to the flood there was 0.25% CO2 in the atmosphere. Therefore, given the conditions of greater atmospheric pressure, filtering out of the ultraviolet radiation, generation of pink light and gentle heating of the plant life at its roots, what will these conditions produce? In the fossil record everything is big. The plants that were created on day three were created completely functional. The plants were created with immediate youth and functional maturity. This means they were created instantly as a plant with vines and fruit bearing seed ready to be harvested, devoured and reproduced. How large did these plants get? Today we have a plant called the Lycopsic Clubmoss. The tallest it can be grown is 16 to 18 inches. But in the fossil record that very same plant got up to 120 ft tall. The evolutionary model does not even attempt to explain it, but the creation model gives the only logical answer for it. In 1986, an outstanding scientist at Cao University, Tokyo, Japan, by the name of Dr. Kei Moree planted a single cherry tomato plant. He planted it in his basement. Normally the cherry tomato plant grows to bush height. The mature tomato is the size of a cherry. The cherry tomato plant was growing normally but it needed more light. He did not want to bring in more electricity so he had a brilliant idea. At the University he had some fiber optic cable. He brought it home and ran it from the roof of his house down through his attic to the basement and directed it toward his plant. What Dr. Moree forgot was that fiber optic cable filters out ultraviolet radiation like water does and like the firmament did before the flood. Therefore, the light he was getting on his tomato plant was essentially the same kind of light that plants were getting before the flood. What happened to the tomato plant under the fiber optic light? It started to grow extremely well. In fact, it grew so well that he had to take it out of his basement. He took it over to his lab, built a special platform for it with a canopy over it filtering out ultraviolet radiation. But he also knew that the plant wanted more CO2 and nutrients than it could get normally; so he designed a cylinder to encapsulate one of the stalks of 7

the plant and increased the atmospheric pressure so the stalk could get more CO2 and nutrients. In doing so he was recreating the conditions that existed before the flood. What did the plant do? After two years the plant became a tree sixteen feet tall with 903 tomatoes the size of baseballs. Fifteen years later the plant was still being maintained with a height of 40 feet and had 15,000 baseball size cherry tomatoes on it. On day number six we have the creation of the dinosaurs, the land reptiles, mammals, the rest of the insects and finally man. How large were these mammals? Excavated in Amarillo, Texas was the fossil remains of a bison buffalo skull with its horns. This bison, whose counter-part today stands about five feet in stature (at the shoulders), stood ten feet at the shoulders. The horns spanned eight feet in length. What this indicates is that mammals were larger in the past. Camel remains have been found nineteen feet tall. Beaver remains have been found twelve feet tall. Dragon Flies, which today have about a four inch wing span, in the fossil record had a thirty to forty inch wing span. One was found in Italy with a sixty inch wing span. Evolutionist have a hard time explaining this if we are supposed to be getting better, more viable. How is it in the past things were larger than they are today? The creation model has no difficulty at all explaining this. We had twice the atmospheric pressure, no free radicals to damage DNA or cells, ten to fifteen percent more oxygen in the atmosphere, and no ultraviolet radiation coming through. It has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments that when mice were exposed to ultraviolet radiation that the embryos of the mice grew smaller. This indicates that ultraviolet light is damaging us in many areas. When the atmospheric pressure is added, twice what it is today, it solves several other problems. Dinosaurs have been used by evolutionist to illustrate brute distant evolving life forms. Paleontologists were very hesitant to admit that the dinosaurs they had excavated had very small rib cages indicating small lungs. How is it that a creature twenty feet tall and forty feet long, supposedly a carnivore, could get enough oxygen to breathe in our atmosphere today? The academic community of evolutionists finally said that they had solved the problem. They found air bubbles trapped in amber in the cretaceous layering. Evolutionists teach that the earth was only 60% of its present size and expanded to a hundred percent of its present size. They also teach that during the Jurassic, just before the Cretaceous period, that the earth was only 60% of its present diameter. However, what they have not calculated is that if you maintain the same mass and shrink the volume, you invoke the universal law of gravitation. This means that Sizemasoraus, a Jurassic dinosaur, who weighed almost 200,000 lbs, stood seventy feet tall with a 120 foot length from head to the end of his tail, if living on a 60% diameter earth would weigh over half a million pounds. That is absolutely scientifically impossible. How can these big dinosaurs with a bulk weight of 200,000 lbs get enough oxygen to feed the deep cell tissue of their bodies when their lungs are relatively small? In the creation model you have twice the atmospheric pressure, domination of magenta light, filtered out ultraviolet light, eight times the current CO2 rate bringing it from 0.026 to approximately 0.25% . It has been found that if you double the atmospheric pressure you are able to not only fully oxygenate the blood, but the plasma in the blood as well. Mans Mental And Physical Capacity In The Pre-Flood Environment See Genesis 4:16-22, and 5:1-32 Human beings living in the pre-flood environment had superior mental capacities, as demonstrated by the descendants of Adam creating entire sciences and arts in a single lifetime. Modern medical science has demonstrated that the human brain currently operates at an INEFFICIENT level due to a lack of oxygen. It has been estimated that all of the occasional mental skills that show up in the human race (lightning mathematical computation, photographic memory, instant musical recall, and so on) would probably operate ALL of the time, in ALL of us, if we lived in a pre-flood environment. Also, it has been demonstrated that our lung, heart, and muscle systems were designed to operate in the pre-flood environment. In this environment, as re-created in laboratories, wounds can heal overnight, and it has 8

been estimated that a man could run for 200 MILES before getting tired. In fact, hospitals now use chambers that partially re-create the pre-flood environment (called hyper-baric atmosphere chambers) to help extreme burn patients and other extreme wound cases (including Baby Jessica). Will Evolution work? What do the evolutionist teach? They teach that: 1. 3.5 billion years ago early bacteria evolved. 2. 550 million years ago Calamine Trilobites evolved. 3. 250 million years ago the plant Lapidadendrin evolved. This is a club moss which today reaches no more than 18 inches in stature. In the fossil record it reached 120 feet in stature. 4. 228 million years ago the dinosaurs arrived. 5. 100 million years ago the dinosaurs roamed. 6. 6 million years ago the great cats arrived.
7.

3.5 million years ago man arrived.

What has study of the fossil records revealed about this postulation of evolution? That every one of these supposed evolutions of living matter are found together in the same layers including more than 57 human footprints. How important is this? Evolutionary scholars Drs D.H. Milne and S. Schafersman admitted in the Journal of Geological Education, 1983, that if we could prove just that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time that it would completely destroy the entire concept of evolution. The phrase according to its kind. A part of the Creation Mandate is that everything is supposed to reproduce according to its kind. This is significant when we look at issues of genetic engineering, evolution, and so on. This creation mandate will become particularly important when we get to chapter 6 of Genesis. The Witness Of The Stars Genesis 1:14-15 tells us, 14 Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth; and it was so.
The word signs is (in the Strongs Dictionary): H226 oth: Probably from H225 (in the sense of appearing); a signal (literally or figuratively), as a flag, beacon, monument, omen, prodigy, evidence, etc.: - mark, miracle, (en-) sign, token.

Psalm 19:1-6 -- "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." Psalm 147:1-5 -- "Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely. The LORD doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." The Hebrew word for what we now call the Zodiac is Mazzeroth (meaning "12 signs). When we look to the pre-Babylonian definitions given to the "pictures" of the Mazzeroth, we see that God had indeed written His Gospel in the stars as a sign for mankind. It was only in the time of the Tower of Babel, and 9

of the following Babylonian, pagan-based and re-interpreted astronomy that the pictures were re-defined to have pagan meanings. The original meanings assigned to the 12 major signs (each with 3 minor signs accompanying them were as follows: VIRGO - The Virgin COMA - "The Desired" - a woman with child CENTAURUS - "The Pierced Victim" BOOTES - "He Comes" LIBRA - The deficient price weighed against the price that covers. CRUX - The Cross LUPUS - The Slain Victim CORONA - The Crown Bestowed SCORPIO - Seeking to wound, but crushed underfoot SERPENS - The serpent struggling with the man O-PHI-U-CHUS - The man grasping the serpent HERCULES - The mighty man vanquishing the serpent SAGITTARIUS - The 2 natured man going forth conquering and to conquer LYRA - Praise for the conqueror ARA - The altar of consuming fire DRACO - The Old Serpent coming down from heaven CAPRICORNUS - The goat of atonement slain for the redeemed SAGITTA - The arrow of God sent forth AQUILA - The smitten one falling DELPHINUS - The dead one rising again AQUARIUS - The living waters of blessing poured forth PISCIS AUSTRALIS - the blessings bestowed PEGASUS - The blessings quickly coming CYGNUS - The blesser surely returning PISCES - The redeemed blessed, though bound THE BAND - bound, but binding their enemy ANDROMEDA - The redeemed in bondage and affliction CEPHUS - The redeemer coming to rule ARIES - The lamb that was slain, prepared for victory CASSIOPEIA - The captive delivered, preparing for her husband, the redeemer CETUS - The great enemy bound PERSEUS - Delivering his redeemed 10

TAURUS - The messiah coming to rule ORION - Light coming in the Redeemer ERIDANUS - Wrath breaking forth on his enemies AURIGA - Safety for the redeemed in the day of wrath GEMINI - The two-fold nature of the king LEPUS - The enemy trodden underfoot CANIS MAJOR - The coming glorious Prince of Princes CANIS MINOR - The Exalted Redeemer CANCER - The possessions held fast URSA MINOR - The lesser sheepfold URSA MAJOR - The fold and the flock ARGO - The redeemed pilgrims safe at home LEO - The Lion of the tribe of Judah aroused for the rending of the enemy HYDRA - The old serpent destroyed CRATER - The cup of divine wrath poured out CORVUS - Birds of prey devouring the enemy

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