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Now there is some great pleasure that is derived from reading Scripture as it is written and how it comes to life. Some would argue that to believe Creationism, however, is contrary to science and to believe it means that one must set aside any logical thinking. This I disagree with in many ways, particularly when the "great" Evolutionary Science minds like Hawkins, Degrassi, Nye, and the like will criticize those who believe in God but then teach and talk about us coming from stardust or being seed planted by an advanced alien culture. The reality is that when it comes to origins, we can either believe in God and trust in the Bible or in the thinking of man. The Bible warns us of this often. In fact, this began in Genesis. We read in Genesis 4 with the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, then we hear about Cain's descendant Lamech (the first bigamist and the second murderer), and as we read in the 6th chapter that tells us how the thoughts of man were evil all the time. Evil is anything that is contrary to God. I know that that is hard for many of us to hear since even the best of us do things contrary to God's will. This was the reason that God entered Creation as the Son, Jesus Christ.
Now we can look at the way that Genesis 1 is written, and the majority of Hebraists will state that the word for day in Hebrew, yom, when written ordinentially, with a number, it is speaking of what we understand as a literal day which it also states, "evening and morning, the X day." It's true that light was created on day 1 and the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets in the Heavens were not created until day 4. Some struggle with this reality, but let's look at Genesis 1:14-15, "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so." God created lights in the heavens in preparation for us. Plants and animals don't keep track of time, we do. Personally, I found it to be a greater struggle to reconcile the old earth mindset, particularly the whole idea that we evolved from ape-like creatures. The question to ask for those of us who believe in God, is it out of possibility that God created light without a Sun? Being omnipotent, all-powerful, I believe that this is a simple act for God. Thinking of the preparation and order, in reading Genesis 1, I find that God had us in mind from Day 1 and all was done in preparation for His creation of us, the only beings created in His image.
Now the second issue that was raised in comments with friends on Facebook is one that I would like to spend a little more time on. That is the idea that there is a contradiction between Genesis 1 and 2, that they are two different Creation accounts. The problem that was brought up in the discussion was how in Genesis 1:27 it reads that man and woman were created at the same moment. Genesis 2, however, first creates man, and then creates woman. Oddly enough this is not the normal argument that is used for the contradiction argument. In a plain reading, this is easy to understand because Genesis 2 is a fuller explanation of Day 6, particularly on the creation of man. Now, more commonly this argument looks at the statements in verses 5-7 and the plants.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:5–7, ESV)
So, here is the supposed contradiction, but let's also look at the verses just preceding this.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:1–3, ESV)
Reading this as a historical narrative, a.k.a. plainly, meaning as it is written. We can look at Chapter 1 as the telling of how God created and then as we move into the close of this in Chapter 2 in which we see how God rested, not out of necessity, but example. The seventh day of rest was not for God's benefit, but to set aside a day in which we should rest, like God. In this, we also find how God created seven days, for our benefit. Then we move into the next verses, and a transition is clear within the narrative. However, there are those that will argue as we read about the plants in verses 5 it speaks of the "bushes of the field" (siah hassadeh) and "plants of the field" (eseb hessadeh). The key term is "of the field (hassadeh). These would be the plants that would be cultivated and harvested. The Hebrew was written in this way and in a plain reading this can be clear. If one desires to read this as myth for the purpose of justifying the millions of years, it will definitely be an area of justification. The garden is a specific place set apart by God for man and woman. It makes sense since we are God's special creation as we, as man and woman, are created in the image of God.
Personally, I love this part because we find how God had planned for us and the special gift of man and woman for one another. The original plan of marriage was laid out for us in this area also. A perfect partnership and God's use of the rib to create the woman out of the man shows the uniqueness of the complementary relationship between man and woman. Originally, it was meant as a partnership, but because of sin, it has been less then what God desired. There is so much more that I could speak to in this, but at this time I will leave some for another posting.