Tuesday: Genesis Versus Paganism
Far from being dependent upon ancient pagan creation myths, Genesis seems to have been written in a way that refutes those myths and distances God as Creator from them.
Read Genesis 1:14-19. How are the entities that appear on the fourth day described, and what are their functions?
Image © Standard Publishing from GoodSalt.com
The terms “sun” and “moon” were surely avoided because their names in Hebrew were the names of (or closely related to the names) the sun and moon gods of the ancient Near East and Egypt. The use of the terms “greater light” and “lesser light” showed that they were created for specific functions, “for signs and seasons, and for days and years” and to “give light on the earth” (Gen. 1:14-15, NKJV). That is, the text shows very clearly that the sun and moon were not gods but created objects with specific natural functions, much as we understand them today.
Read Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:18-24. How is God intimately involved in the creation of Adam and Eve?
The ancient Near Eastern myths unanimously depict man’s creation as an afterthought, resulting from an attempt to relieve the gods of hard labor. This mythical notion is contradicted by the biblical idea that man is to rule the world as God’s vice regent. Nothing in the creation of humans was an afterthought. If anything, the text points to them as the climax of the creation account, showing even more starkly how different the pagan and biblical accounts really are.
Genesis, thus, presents a corrective against the myths of the ancient world. Moses used certain terms and ideas incompatible with pagan concepts. And he did this by simply expressing the biblical understanding of reality, and of God’s role and purpose in Creation.
| Thousands of years ago, the biblical creation story was at odds with the prevailing culture. Today, the biblical creation story is at odds with the prevailing culture. Why shouldn’t we be surprised? |
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I question myself - is my belief and trust in the LORD and His Word strong enough to not be shaken by hearing these opinions that try to show the Bible is not trust worthy, just another cultural myth?
Praise the LORD He is like no other, His Word is a sure anchor in a storm tossed sea. As we examine these topics together we find that the Bible stands up against these arguments, it is our shield to protect us from the fiery darts of the devil!
Pagans worship the Sun and the Moon but the Word of the LORD reveals the truth that He is almighty and powerful.
For the first ,3 days His presence was light and life, then He took a little of His power and life giving light and created the sun with just enough energy to sustain life on this earth, He created the moon so that even in the dark we are reminded that the sun will return but allows us to rest.
We should not worship the sun and moon but the One who created them!
I'm so glad you posted these things. Praise God. I love reading history through the Bible. There is so much confusion in the world today. We must continue to worship God by studying the Word to explain the truth to the unbelievers.
It seems that most people are accustomed to believe in things that others say, rather than go and search for themselves. Do we think about why the Evolution Theory is a theory and never became a Law? Because none could ever prove it! It is as simple as that. Again, if we really study the scientific methodologies used to construct the whole rationalism about life's origin in this planet we will see how fragile, and perhaps quite naive, these ideas are. Either way there is a lot of faith to be exercised! God's creation cannot be explained by our finite minds. We surely have infinitely more things that we can't explain about the Universe than what we already have. And that's a FACT.
The bible is so far superior in its depiction of creation than the other myths that you get the sense it comes from a higher source than man himself. The other myths have the character of viewpoints no higher than humans themselves.
Kevin, agreed. It comes down to order. The Biblical creation story takes an orderly form that is required to sustain life. None of the other ancient myths even make this attempt. It is quite remarkable that Moses, a man of antiquity, either had intimate scientific knowledge or he wrote it down as the story was relayed to him as it happened in an orderly way that would sustain life.
As I read the texts for today about the creation of the 4th day, I realized that just this day alone will refute any belief in a flat earth. (I know that’s a different day’s study) If you just consider that when the sun goes down in the west, it is coming up in somebody’s East. When we watch “the ball drop” in another part of the world, it’s New Years Eve morning here, and it’s midnight there, and as the sun travels AROUND the world, you can follow the different New Years Eve celebrations. So the creation of the Sun, moon and stars is a permanent way to see the sphere of our world. There are many other examples involving their movements and positions that refute a false belief in a flat world.
My other thought was that I am not sure why we are spending a week, looking at the lies that Satan has spread, instead of focusing on the truth that scripture brings. When a bank trains people to identify counterfeit money, they only handle the real thing, so much, that after a time, they know the real thing so well, that they instantly detect the counterfeit. Shouldn’t we do the same? I’m not trying to be critical, but I don’t quite understand the purpose of our focus this week.
The sun and moon don't really move, it's the earth that spins on its axis.