back to indexWednesday Bible Study: Foundations of Redemptive History (Session 2)
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We're going to go ahead and get started in a minute or two. 00:05:32.180 |
So if we could just take a moment to just pray and to just prepare our hearts before we go into a time of worship. 00:06:07.640 |
Thank you, Lord God, we just, Lord God, we just, Lord God, we just thank you for this gift of salvation, to have just this gift of salvation, to have just a relationship with you. 00:06:34.560 |
we thank you for who you are and we just always want to have hearts of worship and response to 00:06:42.480 |
all that you are and all that you've done for us God and so I pray Lord that as we come tonight 00:06:47.140 |
help us to just have worshipful hearts to have hearts that just truly desire to praise you and 00:06:53.740 |
so as we just go into a time of singing these songs let these lyrics be just an act of worship 00:06:58.620 |
to you and would you be pleased Lord so we thank you in your name we pray amen 00:07:01.740 |
God the uncreated one the author of salvation 00:07:27.400 |
God the laws of space and time and fashion worlds to his desire 00:07:39.920 |
the one whom angels holds revered hung the stars like chandeliers numbered every grain of sand 00:07:52.400 |
knows the heart of every man he is king forever he is king forever he is king forever 00:08:30.120 |
reachless in his majesty his power and authority unshaken by the schemes of man never changing great I am 00:08:50.620 |
kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall he is faithful through it all 00:08:57.520 |
crown him king forever crown him king forever crown him king forever crown him king forever more 00:09:18.860 |
mighty God in mortal flesh forsaken by a traitor's kiss 00:09:32.280 |
the curse of sin and centuries did pierce the lowly prince of peace 00:09:44.480 |
he lifted high the sinless man crucified the spotless lamb buried by the sons of men he was rescued by the father's hand to reign as king forever 00:09:59.140 |
reign as king forever reign as king forever reign as king forever reign as king forever reign as king forever 00:10:11.140 |
king eternal God of grace we crown you with the highest praise 00:10:20.140 |
your holy holy holy holy holy lord what joy what joy in everlasting life all his love and faith this side justice rolls and praises rise at the name of jesus 00:10:42.140 |
king of jesus christ king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever more king of kings 00:11:03.300 |
king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever king of kings forever more 00:11:46.300 |
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hands hath made. 00:12:06.880 |
O Lord my God, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, the power throughout the universe displayed. 00:13:14.320 |
That God his Son not sparing, sent him to die. 00:16:28.620 |
How great Thou art, how great Thou art, how great Thou art, how great Thou art. 00:16:48.580 |
All right, before I get you guys started, we have a couple announcements. 00:17:17.360 |
And then, all right, well, let everybody come in. 00:17:23.580 |
Okay, there's three announcements I've got to give before we get started. 00:17:38.760 |
So they still need sign-ups for the babysitting. 00:17:41.980 |
You have to be safety trained as a member for at least one year, but they are looking for more babysitting. 00:17:52.660 |
We need additional volunteers for parking, shuttle, facility prep, and facility cleanup afterwards. 00:17:59.560 |
So if you're able to do that, please sign up. 00:18:01.720 |
Is that something they need to do as a group? 00:18:05.540 |
Do they have to sign up as a group or individuals? 00:18:12.620 |
Okay, you can sign up with your group or you can sign up independently. 00:18:17.120 |
And then, just as a last note, southbound 55 MacArthur exit closure. 00:18:23.600 |
Starting from Tuesday, that MacArthur, if you're coming from 5 Freeway over here, the exit from MacArthur is closed. 00:18:30.300 |
I wanted to give a prayer request before we get started and ask you guys to take some time to pray before. 00:18:35.500 |
Our sister, Sujita, I'm just going to read her email to you. 00:18:41.440 |
She is a, she's going to be inducted, I think, as a new member, right? 00:18:46.660 |
I sat with her and I heard her testimony, really encouraging testimony. 00:18:50.820 |
She's a lady who grew up in India for 17 years, came to the United States. 00:18:55.440 |
Somebody shared the gospel with her and came to Christ. 00:18:58.340 |
And then, recently, her mother passed away suddenly because of, I forgot what the disease was, but do you remember? 00:19:09.180 |
But I'm just going to read her prayer request because she's out in India right now. 00:19:14.140 |
And she's about to give a eulogy for her mother in front of a bunch of her village people who are Hindus. 00:19:27.320 |
She's going to be giving her testimony pretty quickly. 00:19:30.240 |
So, I ask permission if I can share it here so you guys can take some time to pray. 00:19:36.420 |
Tomorrow is my mom's memorial service and there will be about 200 to 300 Jainists. 00:19:42.320 |
That's the goddess that they worship or her family and other religious people. 00:19:48.780 |
I want to take this opportunity to present them with a message from the Bible. 00:19:53.740 |
I want to seek advice from the elders of the church on how this message may come across. 00:19:59.980 |
If possible, could please get back to me as the memorial service is tomorrow because I got this today. 00:20:07.160 |
I am praying about the ending, about the ending, the scripture from book of John because that will be very offensive and there might be persecution and shaming to me and my family. 00:20:17.620 |
But I remember Pastor Peter Kim preached that persecution would be inevitable because gospel is offending to people. 00:20:23.360 |
Could you please pray alongside with me for salvations of people who are spiritually lost in my town as I prepare to share this message with them. 00:20:32.160 |
As a safety precaution, I am keeping my belongings with me. 00:20:35.840 |
I am expecting that there will be a lot of sadness added to my family since my family warned me to keep my faith to myself. 00:20:45.280 |
And then she basically gave what the eulogy she's going to give. 00:20:49.980 |
And at the end of it, she basically reads John 11, 25 to 26. 00:20:55.760 |
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall I live. 00:20:58.840 |
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. 00:21:01.860 |
Each of us are responsible for the decision we make. 00:21:04.840 |
May the Lord guide us all to make the right decision as none of us have personally gone to the other side of life in return. 00:21:13.480 |
And then shares how she is a follower of Jesus Christ. 00:21:17.060 |
So she's doing this in front of two, three hundred people who may become very upset with her at the funeral. 00:21:22.700 |
But she has decided that she's going to share the gospel with that group and ask us to pray for her. 00:21:33.000 |
And then when you guys begin your group, if you can remember to pray for her and the situation. 00:21:43.840 |
Heavenly Father, we come before you asking for your protection, for your strength, and your Holy Spirit's power over Sujita. 00:21:55.580 |
We thank you for her sincerity and her desire, Lord God, to honor you and genuinely see her loved ones, Lord God, come to Christ. 00:22:04.080 |
We know, Father, what's happening in this country, so many people who are hostile towards you. 00:22:08.320 |
We pray, Father God, as this young lady stands up for the truth, for the gospel, in compassion, in full of the Spirit, 00:22:16.380 |
that you will give her the boldness that she needs to be able to share the truth, Lord God, her own testimony in front of all of them. 00:22:26.620 |
I pray that you would use her, Lord God, to plant seeds of your eternal life to them. 00:22:31.700 |
So we lift this up to you, Father, in Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:34.780 |
So if I can ask you to take maybe a minute or two before you start your meeting to pray for Sujita. 00:22:41.980 |
Maybe just assign maybe one person in your group and then to take some time to pray collectively before you get started. 01:00:43.340 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:00:46.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:00:53.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:00.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:07.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:14.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:22.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:29.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:33.440 |
The people in the rooms, if you can start to come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:37.440 |
All right, everybody in the rooms, please come back, we're going to get started. 01:01:57.440 |
The people in the rooms, please come back, we're going to get started. 01:02:09.440 |
The people in the rooms, please come back, we're going to get started. 01:02:14.440 |
The people in the rooms, please come back, we're going to get started. 01:02:20.440 |
The people in the rooms, please come back, we're going to get started. 01:02:54.440 |
All right, there's like a few more tables, table 19, where are you? 01:03:04.440 |
If you're still talking, stop talking, come out, please. 01:03:32.440 |
Okay. All right. As we go over chapter one, let's pray. 01:04:01.540 |
Gracious Father, we pray for wisdom. We pray that as we go over the material that we've 01:04:07.260 |
studied, that you give us clear understanding, Lord God, of your will and your purpose. And 01:04:13.480 |
so help us, Lord God, to glean and to be equipped, Lord God, for what you've called us for. In 01:04:19.520 |
Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So if you spent any time preparing for this Bible 01:04:26.300 |
study, you should have felt overwhelmed, right? There's so much in this. This is one of those 01:04:31.800 |
texts that you want to, you know, flip over every rock. You want to look at every single 01:04:36.140 |
word. You want to look at every phrase. Where is this repeated in the Bible? What is the significance 01:04:40.600 |
of this? Why does he write it this way? Why does he write it in this order? What does the 01:04:44.380 |
word day mean? What does the word light mean? And so to be able to do this in one week, it 01:04:49.080 |
is impossible, right? So there is no way we're going to comprehensively cover the material. What 01:04:55.080 |
I'm going to be doing is an overview, and I'm going to touch upon certain things that I think 01:04:58.900 |
are important, but I may not get to everything that you might want. So you may have certain 01:05:04.820 |
things that you want to get scratched, but we're not going to be able to scratch it. I'm 01:05:08.700 |
going to say just enough so you don't go off tangent, meaning like having discussions and 01:05:13.040 |
all of a sudden, you know, you're talking about aliens or, you know what I mean? So I'm 01:05:17.320 |
going to say just enough so we can keep you within bounds, and then so your conversation 01:05:21.580 |
just doesn't go off tangent. If you have other questions besides that, and you feel like you're 01:05:27.700 |
a small group, you weren't able to cover it, you're more than welcome to email me, come 01:05:32.440 |
talk to me, or come talk to one of the pastors. We'll try to answer that because it is that 01:05:37.360 |
important, okay? If you get this wrong, it will have an effect on the rest of Scripture, 01:05:44.000 |
okay? And so again, for the sake of time, we're just going to try to get into it as much as 01:05:51.140 |
we can. So I want to start out by talking about like what are the repeated words, okay? So I want 01:05:56.980 |
you to yell out, and just tell me how many times is that word used, and don't, you know, the words 01:06:04.220 |
that are important, not a, the. What are words that are repeated in here? And if you have the actual 01:06:12.040 |
number, let me know. I'm going to write it down as I go. Okay, just yell it out. I can't, sorry. 01:06:29.760 |
Kind. Okay, kind. How many times is that you? You know? I think I know. According to their kind, 01:06:48.560 |
God said, nine times. Can you hear me? I heard you, but not clearly. Say it again. 01:07:07.400 |
I'm just going to say, it was good. How many times has that come out? 01:07:24.880 |
Yeah, that's what I thought I had. Okay. I was questioning myself. Okay. Close enough. Okay. 01:07:31.560 |
Okay, what else? It was so, six times. It was so. Six times. 01:07:45.940 |
Evening and morning. Do you know how many times? 01:07:54.200 |
Six times. Okay. I'm just going to trust you. 01:08:04.960 |
I'm just going to say, created. Okay. How many times? 01:08:33.000 |
There's one word that is used more than any other word except the word God. 01:09:47.140 |
The reason why I wanted to do this exercise so that you can have an idea when you put, especially 01:09:52.140 |
when this, when it's so dense, when you put it all together, it kind of helps us to understand 01:09:58.520 |
the thought flow and a summary of the chapter. 01:10:04.200 |
So, of course, I'm missing some, but if you put it all together, God created day by day, according 01:10:11.660 |
to their kind, to be fruitful and multiply, which we didn't mention, blessed it, and then 01:10:18.680 |
Now, that doesn't cover every single thing, but if you were to memorize this, right, this 01:10:30.360 |
But what's specific about creation does it mention? 01:10:41.860 |
It was very, it was created very orderly, right? 01:10:47.540 |
He said day one, day two, day three, day four, day five. 01:10:50.300 |
And then each day had very purposeful, right? 01:10:55.420 |
And then in the creation, he created, even within the creation, according to their kind. 01:11:03.760 |
And then he created them so that they would, they wouldn't be stagnant, to be fruitful and 01:11:11.780 |
And then he looked at that, and then he blessed it. 01:11:14.600 |
He gave his blessing upon it, and then he said it was good. 01:11:24.920 |
There are certain words that are really important in the text. 01:11:30.700 |
The word for create, or created, the Hebrew word barah, is used five separate times up 01:11:38.880 |
But that word is very unique to, in the Hebrew, it is only used for God and no other. 01:11:45.900 |
So, in no other context where it's man created or someone else created, it is only used when 01:11:51.940 |
God is the agent, and that word literally means to create something out of nothing, right? 01:12:02.060 |
You know, the conflict between evolution and Christianity is, evolution says, some power 01:12:10.560 |
They don't, they don't know where it came from. 01:12:12.260 |
They refuse to call it God, but they believe it's powerful. 01:12:25.220 |
And so that word created, when the Bible says, in the beginning God created barah, is only 01:12:31.080 |
It's used five separate times just in the section that we're looking at. 01:12:33.860 |
The other words for create or to make, asah, make is to make something from something, okay? 01:12:41.400 |
And that's used, I think, I forgot how many times, about eight or nine times. 01:12:44.500 |
And then yatsar, to form, there's already something there, but then put it in order, okay? 01:12:52.300 |
Now, the reason why I put this there is, as you're studying, especially the next session, 01:12:58.000 |
one of the questions that I have relates to these words, okay? 01:13:03.600 |
But again, that word for create from something out of nothing is the theme of chapter one, 01:13:11.160 |
where God is the Asian, only God does this, okay? 01:13:19.760 |
Those two words, formless and void, formless and empty, depending on what translation you have, 01:13:26.960 |
Tohu means emptiness and chaos, waste and confusion. 01:13:30.300 |
And then the other word, vohu, void or lack of inhabitants, unfulfilled space, okay? 01:13:38.220 |
Most of the times in Hebrew, these two words are used to connect it together. 01:13:46.160 |
So one has the word, the main root word is chaos or confusion. 01:13:52.060 |
The other word means void or unfilled space, okay? 01:14:00.880 |
That's, in a nutshell, that's what it means, okay? 01:14:04.480 |
So these two words put together means desolation and chaotic void, emptiness. 01:14:16.140 |
This sets us up for what God is planning to say in creation. 01:14:23.880 |
Remember one of the questions that I had was in the six days of creation to look at the first three days and the second three days? 01:14:33.860 |
Did anybody catch anything different or anything unique about what separates the first three days and the second three days? 01:15:01.280 |
So remember, he starts by saying it is chaotic and it is empty, right? 01:15:09.320 |
So if you look at the first three days and the second three days, the first three days, he forms, right? 01:15:15.400 |
And the second three days is after he creates, he fills. 01:15:20.940 |
So the first day, he creates light and darkness, right? 01:15:27.480 |
And the second day, he separates the waters and expands. 01:15:37.340 |
So basically, the groundwork for creation, creating everything else, is established. 01:15:43.600 |
So vegetation and all that is first established. 01:15:49.780 |
The third, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth day. 01:15:52.560 |
He fills the universe with the sun, moon, stars filled to govern the day and night. 01:15:58.140 |
And then he fills the sky and the water with birds and the fish, sky and the sea. 01:16:05.720 |
And then he fills the land with animals and then with mankind. 01:16:13.540 |
So everything necessary for life, specific human life, is created orderly. 01:16:23.140 |
So when he says the earth was formless and void, he's basically setting up for how God was going to fix that. 01:16:41.520 |
Well, basically, I'm telling you, this is what's here. 01:16:45.460 |
That's why these three days and first three days. 01:16:47.260 |
And all of it is to set up climactically, right? 01:16:50.960 |
If you're saying first, you went to first base, second base, third base, he's rounding third, he's rounding fourth. 01:16:55.960 |
No, no, he's rounding third and then go to fourth, right? 01:16:58.060 |
So when an announcer does that, he says he's getting, he's headed toward home base. 01:17:03.040 |
And that's why he says first, second, third, and then home base. 01:17:06.300 |
So in a sense, when you look at the creation order, God is basically one by one. 01:17:11.460 |
He's rounding, rounding, and then he gets to the sixth day and then he creates man. 01:17:15.740 |
And then when it is done, right, the game is over. 01:17:26.360 |
Now, again, like I said, I'm just going to go over like kind of an overview of this. 01:17:33.820 |
There's details of this, the language behind it that you can go and dissect and ask. 01:17:38.520 |
And maybe at some other time you can do that or you can ask personally if there's something like, 01:17:45.080 |
But I'm going to go because I want to spend some more time on the other parts. 01:17:49.880 |
One of the questions is, what is unique about the creation of humanity compared to the rest of creation? 01:17:55.640 |
Everything necessary for man's survival is created first in the first five days. 01:18:01.380 |
And then the sixth day, and it's done purposefully. 01:18:09.400 |
So that the animals know where they came from? 01:18:19.520 |
So when he writes it like this and a man reads this, what does he realize? 01:18:32.280 |
Fifth day, the fish and the bird are created and given mandate to be fruitful. 01:18:36.420 |
So the first time where creatures are created. 01:18:43.640 |
You have the fish, and then you have the birds of the air, and they are given, and they say 01:18:48.240 |
instead of creating all of them, he creates just like Adam and Eve, and he tells them to 01:18:56.180 |
Sixth day, the animals and man is created after all of it, and then man is created at the 01:19:07.680 |
And that's what separates us from all of the creation, where we are created in the image 01:19:13.600 |
They are to rule over all the other creatures. 01:19:17.580 |
And again, the creation order, the count, all of it was created for the man to be able to 01:19:31.000 |
There's a reason why he mentions male and female. 01:19:36.680 |
And so if you, again, I'm not going to go over this now, but God created that order 01:19:42.800 |
in that way, where man was created in the image of God, and then a woman was taken from 01:19:47.560 |
his side and created to be a suitable helper to the man. 01:19:51.220 |
And that's why when you go to the New Testament, the creation order is created in that way. 01:19:57.400 |
So when you have a society today who is questioning malehood and womanhood, it's not just that they 01:20:05.620 |
At the core of it, it's a rebellion against their creator. 01:20:12.920 |
And there's a reason why the Bible spells out it is male and female in that order that 01:20:18.740 |
Creation mandated to man is repeated twice, 26 and 28. 01:20:23.960 |
And every plant was given food for all the animals and mankind alike, verse 29, 30. 01:20:28.740 |
So somebody asked me earlier, was Adam and Eve a vegetarian? 01:20:32.260 |
According to Genesis 1, it doesn't say he was or wasn't, but according to Genesis 1, the food 01:20:40.700 |
that was given to him doesn't mention animals. 01:20:43.420 |
Do you know where the eating of animals first is mentioned? 01:21:17.800 |
That's the first place where eating of the meat is mentioned. 01:21:21.740 |
They have one theory that's saying because it doesn't say it doesn't mean that they were 01:21:24.700 |
vegetarian, but most likely that's, you know, most theologians believe that that is the 01:21:29.240 |
And it isn't until after the flood and because of the sin and animals begin to die where that 01:21:39.140 |
We don't want to milk more than we need to, but it's first mentioned in chapter 9 after the 01:21:44.440 |
The other thing that I want to look at is the seventh day, right? 01:21:54.280 |
God blessed the seventh day and then he sanctified it. 01:21:56.940 |
The word sanctified here in Hebrew is kal, which means to set apart a declared sacred, right? 01:22:03.240 |
So it's not just a day to take a break so they can start over. 01:22:06.860 |
So when we think of the Sabbath, usually we say, oh, it's the weekend, right? 01:22:12.220 |
We only work this many days and then we rest. 01:22:14.480 |
But the idea of rest isn't simply not doing work. 01:22:17.360 |
He said it is completed when all the work is done. 01:22:21.000 |
And was Sabbath, did he go into Sabbath and then day one again started over? 01:22:28.420 |
So that Sabbath was the state that he went in after he completed all the work. 01:22:34.660 |
Again, where else in the Bible do you hear the word complete or idea of completion? 01:22:48.320 |
My hearing is bad, so if you mumble, I don't hear anything. 01:22:53.640 |
On the cross, where Jesus says it is finished, right? 01:23:04.760 |
Sabbath is broken because mankind sins against God. 01:23:07.840 |
He hangs on the cross and then the work of what? 01:23:22.920 |
So in other words, to enter back into Sabbath. 01:23:28.220 |
And the scripture tells us that oftentimes the Bible describes Jesus himself as complete. 01:23:38.460 |
So you can see, like, I'm only highlighting, but if you dig through the book of Genesis, especially 01:23:45.640 |
chapter 1, 2, and 3, you're going to see so much of the language of heaven, about redemption, 01:23:51.560 |
about God's purpose, his order, his characters, all of it is in Genesis chapter 1, 2, and 3, okay? 01:23:58.580 |
That's why what we're doing here, we're just literally just kind of scratching the surface. 01:24:04.940 |
All right, now, I'm going to get into, get a little bit into what some of you guys may 01:24:17.940 |
I was debating whether I should get into this or not because we just don't have that kind 01:24:23.220 |
of time to get too deep into it, and so I apologize today, we're going to be a little 01:24:27.780 |
bit longer than normal because I do want to cover this, but I want to, first of all, 01:24:32.180 |
say the Bible does not tell us the age of the earth. 01:24:37.880 |
There are two theories, the young earth and the old earth, right? 01:24:43.460 |
Young earth divides into two categories, 6,000 years and 10,000 years, okay? 01:24:51.200 |
6,000 years, if you literally count all the genealogies exactly as it appears in the Bible 01:24:58.020 |
that we have without any kind of gap, then they say it's 6,000, so if you trace it all 01:25:05.140 |
Some will say 10,000 years, assuming that there are some gaps in these genealogies, right? 01:25:10.420 |
So meaning that when they say the son of, the son of, and oftentimes the son of is not referring 01:25:17.640 |
It could be four or five generations down, right? 01:25:21.300 |
So having calculated that, they say it could be anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 years, so 01:25:27.280 |
So if you're counting for some of that, they say 10,000, some say 6,000, right? 01:25:31.940 |
Obviously, in that you have the old earth, they say we don't know. 01:25:45.200 |
The Bible is not written to tell us how old the earth is. 01:25:50.280 |
Just like the Bible doesn't tell us how tall Jesus is, right? 01:25:56.160 |
How old, how tall is he when he stood by the tree? 01:25:58.300 |
How did, and we get, you know, so wrapped up into, into a question that the Bible really 01:26:06.880 |
But part of the reason why these speculations is because the supposed scientific world is 01:26:11.980 |
challenging the inerrancy of the Bible, okay? 01:26:14.960 |
Now, I'm going to set that as a base before we jump into what I'm going to say, okay? 01:26:19.720 |
I'm going to give you the arguments for the literal seven days, right, which is the foundation 01:26:27.260 |
for the young earth, whether it's 6,000 or 10,000, or maybe even a little bit more than 01:26:31.680 |
that, and then I'm going to give you the anti-argument, okay, for that, and then I'm going to summarize 01:26:37.500 |
So like I said, I'm going to take a little bit longer than normal, okay? 01:26:40.320 |
How many of you knew that this argument was even an argument? 01:26:44.760 |
How many of you, this is the first time hearing that there's a debate between the age of the 01:26:58.360 |
All right, let me give you the argument, and then I'm going to give you my point of view, 01:27:06.760 |
Each day is described with the repeated phrase, and there was evening, and there was morning 01:27:12.200 |
So that sure sounds like a 24-hour day when it says morning and evening, right? 01:27:16.760 |
The natural reading of evening and morning points to a regular human day, not symbolic eras. 01:27:23.960 |
If you were to read it without any other theological influence or any other influence, if you read 01:27:29.480 |
it, you would just plainly read it 24 hours, right? 01:27:32.200 |
The word yom, which is the word for day, 24-hour daylight, age period. 01:27:39.080 |
However, when yom is used, the word day obviously was the day of the Lord. 01:27:44.080 |
There's other parts when the day is clearly not in reference to 24 hours, but when the word 01:27:49.720 |
day, yom, is coupled with numeric value, first, second, third, fourth, paired with evening 01:27:57.820 |
and morning, it consistently refers elsewhere in Scripture to normal 24-hour days, okay? 01:28:03.160 |
So that's the main argument of the word 24 hours, okay? 01:28:07.240 |
So I'm going to give you the arguments for it first. 01:28:10.180 |
Exodus 20, 11, in the 10th commandment, the Sabbath commandment is modeled on God's creation 01:28:18.460 |
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, 01:28:23.840 |
So the Sabbath was assumed that there's six days. 01:28:30.700 |
The weekly pattern Israel was to follow makes sense only if the days of creation were ordinary 01:28:39.800 |
So I'm going to give you this, so you don't have to write it all down. 01:28:48.220 |
Early Jewish and Christian understanding, ancient Jewish interpreters, and most early church fathers 01:29:01.660 |
The non-literal interpretations, allegory of ages, arose mainly later, especially in response 01:29:11.720 |
In fact, if you, I'm going to mention this later, okay? 01:29:22.160 |
God's week establishes the human rhythm of six days of labor and one day of rest. 01:29:26.440 |
This pattern would lose much of its force if the days were symbolic or indetermined. 01:29:36.080 |
Now, this is all the argument against it, okay? 01:29:39.640 |
And it basically is a challenge against the 24-hour, the use of the word day, okay? 01:29:49.040 |
The earth, darkness, and water are all created before the first day. 01:29:58.240 |
It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 01:30:03.440 |
Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and Spirit of God was moving over the surface 01:30:10.580 |
And then the creation gets started on verse 3. 01:30:15.740 |
So people who reject the early earth says, it seems like something was there. 01:30:22.160 |
It was formless and void, but it seems like something was there. 01:30:25.260 |
Seventh day clearly is not a 24-hour day because Jesus or God doesn't enter into the seventh, 01:30:34.080 |
and then 24-hour passes, and then it becomes the eighth day, or we start over on the first 01:30:38.460 |
So the understanding of Shabbat is a permanent state that you enter. 01:30:46.120 |
So the word for yom here, even in chapter 1, isn't always 24 hours. 01:30:52.320 |
And the other place where it is, in Genesis chapter 1, 5, God called the light day, and the 01:31:00.400 |
So he separates within the day, the day, and the night. 01:31:06.000 |
So the way he uses the word for day here, right, is not a 24-hour day because he's talking about 01:31:14.180 |
If it's a 24-hour, he would only be using it to refer to the whole day. 01:31:21.600 |
So again, the argument breaks down when you say that the word yom is only used for 24-hour 01:31:26.720 |
Here, clearly, it's not used just for 24-hour days. 01:31:30.940 |
And then in Genesis 2, 4, this is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were 01:31:38.340 |
created in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. 01:31:41.440 |
So the day he's referring to here, right, clearly is not 24 hours because he's referring to this 01:31:49.900 |
So even in chapter 1, even in our first lesson, the word day is not only used for 24 hours. 01:31:56.160 |
It's for the Sabbath, right, half day, right, 12 hours, and then the day that he created, 01:32:14.300 |
If you were to read it plainly, which is what we should always do, right, if your plain 01:32:24.920 |
sense makes good sense, seek no other sense, right? 01:32:28.540 |
That's what my hermeneurist professor would always say. 01:32:34.560 |
If you begin to allegorize everything, then you're going to end up allegorizing anything 01:32:41.820 |
Now, having said that, right, are there enough things in this text for us to, within the body 01:32:50.780 |
of Christ, to say, if you don't believe in 6,000 or 10,000 years that you reject the Bible, 01:33:00.240 |
I believe that this is an in-house debate because there are exegetical things, not because of 01:33:06.940 |
Remember, I didn't mention a single word of science because science, in time, has disproved 01:33:12.160 |
everything that they threw at the Bible, right? 01:33:18.000 |
Even the scientists are beginning to question evolution. 01:33:20.600 |
When I was younger in high school, I mean, if you want to question evolution, I mean, they 01:33:25.700 |
wouldn't, you can't be in the academics, right? 01:33:28.520 |
But in about 30, 40 years, it's beginning to fall apart. 01:33:31.920 |
In the last 100 years, they said evolution was going to destroy Christianity. 01:33:38.620 |
So, this is, aside from science, if you question the Bible because of some science that you heard, 01:33:46.460 |
then your confidence is in science and not in the Bible, right? 01:33:50.080 |
Whatever conclusion that you come to, it has to be exegetical. 01:33:54.400 |
It has to be because of the authority of the Bible. 01:33:56.560 |
Now, is there enough to say, I lean toward this because this makes more sense to me? 01:34:04.120 |
I lean more toward literal 24 days because the evidence behind it, all the things that I've 01:34:11.460 |
mentioned before, makes more sense to me, right? 01:34:16.380 |
But are there enough exegetical, just from the scripture itself, to say, hey, maybe this 01:34:25.180 |
Now, having said that, let me give you some names of some of the people who debate this. 01:34:33.600 |
Debate not meaning, they hold the same position I do. 01:34:36.560 |
They lean toward the 24 literal young earth, but they believe that this is a debated issue 01:34:48.240 |
Packer, Francis Schaeffer, and I can go on and on. 01:34:51.260 |
So, these are all legitimate people that we study that are part of our camp who takes 01:34:58.300 |
And so, they lean toward the 24-hour day, the young earth. 01:35:03.360 |
But I know some people that as soon as you say, you know, I think this is in-house debate. 01:35:15.060 |
I don't have confidence in what they say, right? 01:35:19.100 |
Let me, I think the argument for the young earth is stronger than what is thrown out, okay? 01:35:31.660 |
Having said that, I mentioned this several times, and I'm going to keep mentioning it again, right? 01:35:37.060 |
The order of authority and importance has to be biblical, right? 01:35:41.600 |
You cannot start from, I heard this from some class, or I heard these things, or I watched some movie, or somebody told me this. 01:35:50.180 |
So, therefore, you go back to Scripture and say, I don't think this matches what I learned, so therefore, we reinterpret the Bible, right? 01:35:58.540 |
Then, your authority doesn't come from the Bible. 01:36:00.900 |
Your authority comes from whatever you're hearing outside, right? 01:36:04.000 |
You're trying to match the Bible to whatever other authority that you have at first. 01:36:08.520 |
The second of the ten covenant that we have is, one is, I confess Christ as my Lord and Savior. 01:36:15.740 |
Second, I believe in the inerrant Word of God as a final authority in my life, right? 01:36:19.560 |
And so, the order of authority is, first, biblical theology, which is exegesis, which is what we're doing, right? 01:36:27.880 |
Whether you agree or disagree, it has to be biblical. 01:36:30.320 |
As soon as you say, but I heard this in biology, I heard this and say, then we're not on the same page. 01:36:36.300 |
Because we're not coming to the authority the same way, okay? 01:36:41.380 |
Is there, if you're going to make an argument and say you're going to, you have a different opinion, don't say, this is what I think. 01:36:49.660 |
And so, that's why I could throw other stuff at it, but I don't want to because there's no authority behind what the textbooks say, 01:36:57.420 |
what you have, what they may have said 50 years ago, doesn't sound the same 30 years later, and it doesn't sound the same today. 01:37:03.160 |
Where only the Word of God lasts forever, right? 01:37:05.960 |
So, the authority first comes from, what does the Bible say? 01:37:09.020 |
And then systematic theology is, what does the Bible say collectively? 01:37:18.200 |
Historical theology is what was accepted, tested, proven, fought over, and tested. 01:37:27.360 |
But, there's a lot of historical theology that was wrong. 01:37:32.320 |
It's because we tested everything with biblical theology, and the indulgences were not biblical, right? 01:37:43.840 |
And so, historical theology helps us to compare with what our church fathers have said, but that's not the final authority. 01:37:50.660 |
And then, philosophical theology is how I understand this, right? 01:37:55.040 |
But, you can't go from, how do I understand this, does this make sense to me, and then work backwards to make the Bible say what fits your logic, right? 01:38:04.760 |
So, a common argument, let me give you a perfect example of this. 01:38:08.660 |
A common argument for women preachers are, why would God give gifts to women and then not use it? 01:38:16.660 |
So, therefore, God shouldn't have any problem. 01:38:29.100 |
That what makes sense to you, what seems right and wrong to you, and so you're basing your final authority on your perception of what is good and what is bad. 01:38:40.640 |
So, therefore, you begin to go and reorder the Bible according to what you think is right. 01:38:45.320 |
That's placing philosophical theology first, and then building the rest of it under. 01:38:53.160 |
Our authority does not come from my logic, my experience, my perception, my age. 01:39:00.200 |
So, it has to come from the, what does the Bible say? 01:39:02.880 |
What's the systematic, what does the collective Bible say throughout scripture? 01:39:07.820 |
What was taught historically, and then philosophically, how do I make sense of this, right? 01:39:13.920 |
But if you flip it, flip it, you become the final authority. 01:39:19.780 |
So, so many people get to Genesis, and they say, I believe this, or it's allegorical. 01:39:26.480 |
Because it's hard for me to understand, right? 01:39:34.480 |
And if you reject the Bible, you reject Christ. 01:39:37.940 |
Because the Christ that we know is from the Bible. 01:39:40.540 |
You cannot say you believe in the historical Jesus Christ and then reject the Bible, right? 01:39:53.560 |
So, as far as the subject is concerned, you know, lean toward the 24-hour, but it is within church debate, okay? 01:40:08.380 |
And then again, because I want to show you the connection between redemption and what's going on in Genesis. 01:40:13.200 |
For by him all things were created both in heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, 01:40:18.220 |
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him, right? 01:40:26.660 |
And we said man was created for the sixth day, right? 01:40:38.220 |
So, man is only to carry out what his intention is. 01:40:51.400 |
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 01:40:54.160 |
He is also the head of the body of the church, and he is the beginning, the firstborn of the dead, 01:40:58.080 |
so that he himself will come to have first place in everything, because that was lost because of man's rebellion. 01:41:03.760 |
For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, right? 01:41:09.680 |
Because man rebelled, Christ comes, stands between us and God, and then he reconciles everybody to himself for what purpose? 01:41:17.420 |
Having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 01:41:22.980 |
So, all creation is through him to be reconciled to God, to bring us where? 01:41:32.900 |
Genesis is written to teach us what he's redeeming us for. 01:41:48.440 |
For the anxious longing, the creation awaits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 01:41:53.080 |
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, 01:41:59.080 |
that the creation itself will be set free from the slavery to corruption and to freedom of the glory of the children of God. 01:42:05.040 |
For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth together until now, okay? 01:42:12.880 |
So, the whole purpose of Genesis is written so that we understand what Christ is reconciling us back to, right? 01:42:22.580 |
Because not only mankind, but creation itself has been subject to futility. 01:42:28.320 |
So, our redemption means the redemption of creation itself. 01:42:32.700 |
So, everything that he's written, the purpose of Genesis 1, 2, and 3, is directly related to the gospel, okay? 01:42:41.740 |
And we're going to study that, I think, next week or two weeks from now. 01:42:45.620 |
The language of the Garden of Eden, how that appears in Revelation, okay? 01:42:53.200 |
So, that these two bookends mentions the garden. 01:42:58.180 |
Because everything in between is to reconcile us, okay? 01:43:06.560 |
When he created, it is good, it is good, it is good. 01:43:09.100 |
And one of the questions I ask is, what does he mean it is good, right? 01:43:12.860 |
So, think about the readers who are reading this. 01:43:16.120 |
What's in their mind and thinking about why he writes this? 01:43:21.560 |
Because the people know that it is not good, right? 01:43:36.360 |
And he's going to take us back to what is good, right? 01:43:41.160 |
I mean, yeah, I don't want to go off tangent today. 01:43:51.000 |
Now, it really, I don't know about you, but it really made our society seem dark and evil, right? 01:43:58.400 |
That somebody would have that kind of a hatred, and then to rile people up. 01:44:02.600 |
And then I hear the news of people, what they're saying about it, and it's disgusting, right? 01:44:08.420 |
But the disgusting thing wasn't created today. 01:44:12.840 |
And I think when Genesis keeps saying, it is good, it is good, it is good, it is in contrast to what we see in the world. 01:44:23.480 |
And that's why he's telling us what happened, right? 01:44:39.400 |
And then sin comes in and breaks all of that. 01:44:41.140 |
And then the rest of history about how the sin is affecting every culture, every generation. 01:44:45.140 |
And then Christ comes, reconciles us to himself. 01:44:48.240 |
And then he's in the process of taking us back into what is good, right? 01:44:56.800 |
So as you study chapter 2, chapter 3, keep that in mind, right? 01:45:06.920 |
I'm not going to go over the study questions because we're going to give it to you. 01:45:16.680 |
So let me pray for us, and then I'll release you to your discussion time. 01:45:27.400 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness. 01:45:30.300 |
Lord, what is man that you are so mindful of him? 01:45:37.080 |
Help us, Lord God, to recognize that our life is in you and you alone. 01:45:47.140 |
Help us, Lord God, to know that our joy, our future, our hope can only be found, Lord God, when we are restored and reconciled to you. 01:45:57.420 |
So I pray that every part of our discussion, every study, everything that we do would help us to see your majesty and your glory. 01:46:06.920 |
And that our church, Lord God, would be a church that places you at the center of all things.