A question I was asked several years ago has become the inspiration for provingGodsWord.com. What about all the fantastic stories and contradictions? How can any intelligent and honest person take the Bible for literal truth?
Recently another skeptic asked me about the creation story, “You know, there are two accounts in Genesis, but with different timelines. Did the animals and plants come before or after man?” Although I supported the timeline of the first account while also saying that the second account is also true, I’m embarrassed to admit that I feel that I was unprepared to give an adequate answer. Hopefully I’ll have another chance and not get caught on that one again. But anyone who really wants to know answers to questions like this can simply search the web for “two creation stories” and they are quickly referred to many good answers to this question such as this one.
While It’s nice to be able to give a good answer to everyone’s questions, it won’t always turn out that way. It’s important to realize that God’s Word can be proven without answering every question. If my reader is demanding that every question be answered and every contradiction in their mind to be resolved before they believe, I’m surely going to be a disappointment. But anyone who is open and honestly seeking the truth, they will be rewarded as Jesus said,
9“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:9-10
As the materials available on this website are being developed, the answers are already out there and available. In that respect, I have little to add. What I do have to add is the voice of just one more scientist who hasn’t kissed the ring – that authoritative sect of scientists who dictate what the facts of secular science are. Darwinism has almost run its course. The more we learn, the more we’re able to refute the false claims they made in the beginning (most believers were never fooled). Now I reverse the question, “How can a Ph.D. honestly believe the Darwinian story is not a myth?” I beg you: leave the modern-day alchemy behind. Don’t be satisfied with not knowing (agnosticism), be open to the proof that’s been there all along:
20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Rom 1:20
And now, back to the creation story. To paraphrase the reference above, the first account is a left-brain account with a very clear sequence of events. The second account is a right-brain account with the main event front and center – God’s creation of man and His relationship with him. Realize that the creator of both sides of our brains also speaks to both. So, I offer a couple other angles:
- Applying a left-brain approach the second account, we see that although the scripture seems to indicate an order, it really doesn’t.
- There were no plants because there wasn’t rain, but there was a mist. Did the mist allow plants to grow? The implication is, yes. And that came before man.
- Man needed a helper, so God said he’d make a helper for him. First, he took animals that he had created to be his helper and brought them to him. That’s what it says, right? The second account doesn’t specifically say that he made the animals after man, but that he made them and brought them to the man to answer the rhetorical question, “Are any of these suitable?” God already knew the answer, then he made Eve.
Where’s the contradiction now?
- God made both sides of our brains and he’s not satisfied with half. There is enough proof for the left side, but we must come with the heart of the right. Without the heart, no proof will be enough…
25They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
26“ ‘Go to this people and say,
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”
27For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
28“Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” Acts 28:25-28
Without a seeking heart, our understanding will be dim. It’s time to go all-in with an open heart. Then God will bless our left brain too with His understanding.
