More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Genesis 1: There was Evening and there was Morning..One Day.
Uncover the secrets hidden within the opening verses of Genesis as we reflect on the profound moment when God commanded light into being, even before creating the sun. Through the insightful perspectives of Ken Ham's New Answers Book series and Henry Morris's The Genesis Record, we unravel how these early verses illuminate God's unrivaled sovereignty and His role as the ultimate source of light. By exploring the Hebrew word "yom," often translated as "day," we consider the implications of a normal solar day cycle established right from the beginning and how this reinforces our understanding of God's creative power over evolutionary theories that focus solely on natural phenomena.
Join us for an enlightening conversation about interpreting the Genesis days as literal 24-hour periods. We discuss how the rhythmic use of "evening and morning" provides clear boundaries and reflects God's precision and wisdom, affirming our faith in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ. We encourage you to engage with the material, bring your insights into discussions with others, and explore more resources through the Jackson Family Ministry's platforms. Let this episode strengthen your understanding of the reliability of God's Word and His eternal nature, reinforcing the importance of worshipping the Creator above all.
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Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let us look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word which is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:We're continuing in our study in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, and today we're still in verses 3 through 5. Let me read those verses to you and then we'll talk about it a little bit. Then God said Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning one day.
Speaker 2:Now, before I go any further, I want you to understand that I'm using two resources that I think you will find very, very interesting. The first one is the New Answers book. In fact, there are four books in the series and each book answers about 25 questions on creation, evolution and the Bible, and it's edited by Ken Ham. He's the general editor and he uses multiple different authors in the chapters that are in the book and I would recommend that book to you highly Well, all four of the books actually. And then there's another book, the Genesis Record, which is authored by Henry Morris, and he goes through each verse in the book of Genesis. It's actually a Bible study and it's a verse-by-verse exposition on the book of Genesis and it's a very enlightening study of the book of Genesis. So I'm drawing heavily from those two resources, and I say that just because I don't want you to think I'm so smart as these Bible studies make me out to be.
Speaker 2:So let's start with verse 3. And God said let there be light. And there was light, as we saw in last week's lesson. This is the first record of God speaking in the Bible. The Word of God brings light. The Father is the source of all things, as we discovered in verse 1, in Genesis, chapter 1. The Spirit is the energizer of all things, which we discovered in verse 2. Energizer of all things, which we discovered in verse 2, the Word, who is Jesus Christ, is the illuminator, the revealer of all things, which we see here in verse 3. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4,. The Bible tells us in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, and verse 6, For God who said Light shall shine out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. In the face of who? In the face of Jesus Christ? Who In the face of Jesus Christ? So you see, jesus Christ is the illuminator, the revealer of all things. Jesus Christ, the living Word of God, is the light of the world, and in Him is no darkness at all, as John tells us in 1 John, chapter 1 and verse 5.
Speaker 2:Now pay attention to that phrase. God separated the light from the darkness. Darkness was not removed completely, but only separated from the light. Then God named the light day. The Hebrew word for day is yom, y-o-m. That's important. We're going to come back to that in a moment. And then the darkness he called night. Having separated the light and the day, god completed his first day's work. And then there's this phrase the evening and the morning were the first day.
Speaker 2:This same formula is used at the conclusion of each of the six days, indicating the duration of each is identical. And there was a cyclical succession, a cyclical pattern of day and night. Thereafter, the clear implication is that the earth was now rotating on its axis and there was a source of light on one side of the earth corresponding to the sun. Even though the sun was not yet made until day four, it is clear that the length of the days could only have been that of a normal solar day. So this begs the question what was the source of the light? Well, let's answer that question. It's a very good question. Where did the light come from? Well, we're not actually told, but Genesis, chapter 1 and verse 3, certainly indicates it was a created light to provide day and night, until God made the sun on day four to rule the day. If we fast forward to the very end of the Bible, to Revelation, chapter 21 and verse 23, it tells us that one day the sun will not be needed because the glory of God will light the heavenly city, because the glory of God will life the heavenly city. Perhaps and we're just speculating here one reason God did it this way was to illustrate that the sun did not have the priority in the creation that people have tended to afford to it. People have tended to afford to it. The sun did not give birth to the earth, as evolutionary theories postulate. The sun was God's created tool to rule the day that God had made.
Speaker 2:Down through the ages, people such as the Egyptians have worshipped the sun. God warned the Israelites in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, not to worship the sun as the pagan cultures around them did. They were commanded to worship the God who made the sun, not the sun that was made by God. Evolutionary theories, such as the Big Bang hypothesis, for instance, state that the sun came before the earth and that the sun's energy on the earth eventually gave rise to life. Just as in pagan beliefs, the sun is in a sense given credit for the wonder of creation. Given credit for the wonder of creation.
Speaker 2:It is interesting to contrast the speculation of modern cosmology with the writings of the early church fathers, for example Theophilus. Now, remember he was writing way back in the 200 to 300 AD. On the fourth day the luminaries came into existence. Now this is Theophilus speaking or writing, since God has foreknowledge. He understood the nonsense of the foolish philosophers who were going to say that the things produced on earth came from the stars and let me insert here that the sun is a star so that they might set God aside. In order, therefore, that the truth might be demonstrated, plants and seeds came into existence before stars, ie before the sun, for what comes into existence later cannot cause what is prior to it. Now, if you'll remember, god created vegetation and fruit-bearing trees on day three. It was only on day four that God created the sun, and Theophilus, way back in AD 200 or 300, I'm not sure when it was was already mocking the philosophers who tried to say that the earth was created from the stars or the sun. Well, that same kind of nonsense goes on today as well. The clear implication is that the earth was now rotating on its axis and there was a source of light on one side of the earth corresponding to the sun, on one side of the earth corresponding to the sun.
Speaker 2:In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word yom, y-o-m always means a 24-hour day or the daylight portion of a day. Whenever it is used with the formula evening and morning, it always means a literal day. Now let me ask you why is that important? It's important because many current day theologians try to accommodate Scripture to the geological ages by saying that each day in Genesis, chapter 1, actually represents millions of years or even geological ages, and they call it the day-age theory. As we discussed last week, any accommodation of Scripture to geology, archaeology or science leads to diluting Scripture, it leads to compromising Scripture and ultimately, it leads to doubting the integrity of God's Word. We fall into the same trap that Adam and Eve fell into when they listened to Satan when he said to them Surely God didn't say you would die, causing them to doubt God's Word and then ultimately to choose disobedience to God.
Speaker 2:It's interesting to note that the early church fathers had a problem with this passage, but their problem was the exact opposite of modern theologians. Their problem was they couldn't believe that it took God six days to create the heavens and the earth. They were convinced that God would have created everything instantaneously and it was preposterous to believe that he took six days. Why not six seconds or six minutes or six hours? In fact, they had a hard time believing that it would have taken him six seconds, six hours. They couldn't believe it. It took six days because with God all things are possible and the six days of creation was a hard thing for them to swallow.
Speaker 2:Well, martin Luther responded to the early church fathers with this quote. He said the days of creation were ordinary days in length. We must understand that these days were actual days contrary to the opinion of the Holy Fathers. Whenever we observe that the opinion of the Fathers disagree with Scripture, we reverently bear with them and acknowledge them to be our elders. Nevertheless, we do not depart from the authority of Scripture for their sake. However, today's church leaders often listen to outside influence, such as scientists and geologists, and end up compromising God's Word. This was true in the 1800s. Listen to Charles Haddon Spurgeon's opinion in 1877, when he was responding to compromisers, folks who would compromise God's Word in order to accommodate the geologist and the scientist. And this is what Spurgeon had to say.
Speaker 2:We are invited, brethren, most earnestly to go away from the old-fashioned belief of our forefathers because of the supposed discoveries of science. What exactly is science? It's the method by which man tries to conceal his ignorance. It should not be so, but so it is. You are not to be dogmatical. In theology, my brethren. It is wicked, but for scientific men it is the correct thing. You are never to assert anything very strongly, but scientists may boldly assert what they cannot prove and may demand a faith far more credulous than any we possess.
Speaker 2:Truthfully, you and I are to take our Bibles in shape and mold our belief according to the ever-shifting teachings of so-called scientific men. What folly is this? Why the march of science falsely so-called through the world may be traced by exploded fallacies and abandoned theories. Former explorers once adored are now ridiculed. The continual wreckings of false hypotheses is a matter of universal notoriety. You may tell where the learned have encamped by the debris left behind of suppositions and theories as plentiful as broken bottles. What was true in the 1870s is just as true today. In fact, I read about a book that was written in the early 1800s that was entitled A Hundred Scientific Facts that Disprove the Bible. Before a hundred years had gone by, all of those 100 scientific facts had been proven to be false and the Bible stood to be true.
Speaker 2:Don't put your faith in science or geology or archaeology. Put your faith in God's holy word. So let me ask you a question what's wrong with the day-age theory? Well, the same thing is wrong with the day-age theory as was wrong with the gap theory that we discussed last week. It relies on the fossil record and, if you will remember, fossils are the record of dead things. Fossils introduce disease, death and destruction, and it does so before the sin of Adam and Eve. The Bible makes it plain that death, disease, thorns and suffering are a consequence of sin, which occurred after day seven. God declares everything good up until Adam was alone, and only after sin, which occurred after day six. Only then, only after sin, was anything not good. Sin entered only after Adam chose to rebel against God, against God, and only then did death, disease, thorns and suffering enter onto the scene on planet earth. Now let me read an extended quote by Ken Ham in his Answers book. This is on page 99 in the Answers book and I think it's a quote worth listening to.
Speaker 2:After Adam disobeyed God, the Lord clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skins. To do this, he must have killed and shed the blood of at least one animal. The reason for this can be summed up by Hebrews, chapter 9 and verse 22. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. God requires the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. What happened in the garden was a picture of what was to come in Jesus Christ, who shed his blood on the cross as the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world Now. If the Garden of Eden was sitting on a fossil record of dead things millions of years old, then blood was shed before sin. This would destroy the foundation of the atonement. The Bible is clear the sin of Adam brought death and suffering into the world, as Romans 8, 19-22 tells us. Also, bear in mind that thorns came into existence after the curse, because there are thorns in the fossil record. It had to be formed after Adam and Eve sinned.
Speaker 2:The pronouncement of death penalty on Adam was both a curse and a blessing. A curse because death is horrible and continually reminds us of the ugliness. A blessing, a curse because death is horrible and continually reminds us of the ugliness of sin. A blessing because it meant the consequence of sin Separation from fellowship with God need not be eternal. Death stopped Adam and his descendants from living in a state of sin with all its consequences forever, and because death was the just penalty for sin. Jesus Christ suffered physical death, shedding his blood, to release Adam's descendants from the consequences of sin.
Speaker 2:The Apostle Paul discusses this in depth in Romans, chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. Revelations 21 to 22 makes it clear that there will be a new heaven and a new earth one day where there will be no more death and no more curse, just like it was before. Sin changed everything. If they are to be animals as part of the new earth, obviously they will not be dying or eating each other, nor eating the redeemed people. Thus adding the supposed millions of years to Scripture destroys the foundation of the message of the cross. So you understand that the day age theory turns upside down everything that you and I believe in as Christian folks, and, just like the gap theory, it simply cannot be true, either scientifically or theologically.
Speaker 2:The days in the book of Genesis are 24-hour days and they occur in quick succession, one 24-hour period right after the next. God put boundaries on that 24-hour period by saying morning, evening, and morning was the first day and the second day and the third day, as if he anticipated that there would be problems in the future, with folks trying to say that there were millions of years between these days. He was very precise, he was very wise. He is eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. He can be trusted and we can put our confidence and our trust in Him and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is our only Savior and the true King. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like it, I trust that you will follow, like and share and download each lesson, both for yourself and for some of your friends. We'll be back again next week and may the Lord bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
