Three brothers

Chapter 4 tells the tale of three brothers: Cain, Abel, and Seth.

They were the sons of Adam and Eve.

Cain was born first, followed by Abel.  Seth was born several years later, and bore a long line of descendants, which included the ark-builder Noah.

Cain was a farmer and Abel a shepherd.  When it came time to deliver offerings to the Lord, Cain picked "some" of his harvest.  Abel, on the other hand, chose the first born lamb, killed it, and offered the "best" pieces.  The Lord was pleased with Abel's offering.  He was not with Cain's.

God could tell Cain was upset with Him, but said that what he did was a sin--evil.  Chapter 4, verse 4, links to Hebrews 11:4, which explains why Abel's offering was better than Cain's.  Abel had faith in the Lord, which made Him approve of Abel's offering.

Cain then killed his brother out of jealousy, and when confronted by the Lord, Cain said he didn't know and asked why he was supposed to be his brother's keeper.  The Lord was upset by Abel's murder and punished Cain by making him an outcast.  Cain thought the punishment was too harsh and said that others would kill him.  God then said that if anyone killed Cain, God's punishment would be multiplied by seven.

What's interesting to note in this is the argument about the literalness of the Bible versus the stories as metaphors.  I'm not suggesting that Adam and Eve were the only two people on the entire Earth, who bore three sons . . . are you seeing the discrepancy?  How would Cain (and his unnamed wife) bare a son without other people in the world?

I believe the answer lies within the fact that there were other people in the world, but the story of God's people were lined up with Adam and Eve.  In Genesis 4:14, Cain tells the Lord that he could get killed.  By whom?  His parents?

Therefore, there must be other people in the world.  Other people who were not God-loving as the descendents of Adam and Eve.

What about Seth, the third brother?

He was born to basically replace Abel . . . and his descendents went on to build arks and countless other wonderful deeds.

Is there evidence of early man and the dinosaurs in the Bible?

The Bible has many versions, all stemming from the same ancient books yet translated into a variety of languages.

My Bible is the Good News Bible, Today's English Version, and an odd thing happened when I was reading chapters 1 and 2.

I found evidence of early man (and possibly the dinosaurs) in Genesis.

Or so I thought.

Read the Creation story slowly and closely.  The first chapter is the Creation itself.  Chapter 2 starts out with the seventh day--the holy day of rest.

The fifth day God created creatures that live in the sea and air.  The sixth day God created animals and man.

Then, after God's day of rest, we find the creation of Adam and Eve.

Wait a second.  If Adam and Eve were supposedly the first human beings God created, then why would He have created animals and man and then Adam and Eve?

If you read Chapter 2 carefully, the Bible backtracks a little and tells the story of Adam and Eve on what would be the sixth day.  I picked up a few different Bible versions and found the same evidence, but it was tricky at first.

Sorry, the Bible--so far, anyway--doesn't mention early man or the dinosaurs.  But we'll keep reading . . .

Adam and Eve had communication problems too

We all know the creation story of Adam and Eve.

God made Adam from the soil, breathing life into him.  Then, knowing Adam shouldn't be alone, He created Eve by taking out one of Adam's ribs while he was sleeping.

Prior to the creation of Eve, God told Adam to cultivate and guard the Garden of Eden.  He also said he could eat the fruit from any tree, excep the tree of knowledge.

In chapter 3, we met Satan--better known as the snake.  He doesn't go to Adam to tell him he should eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, he goes to Eve.  Why?  Didn't Adam tell Eve that she shouldn't do that?  The Bible doesn't say so, but let's assume he didn't--not sure if we have to assume much, since nothing is written that Adam told her.  Then, after eating the fruit, she tells Adam to eat it.

And he does.

Without question.

Nobody communicated.

The weird thing I noticed while reading chapters 2 and 3 is that God told Adam that if he ate from the tree of knowledge, he would die that same day.  After they did, they didn't die.  At least not in a physical sense, but their spirit was definitely harmed.

Genesis, the Big Bang Theory, and Dinosaurs, oh my

"In the beginning . . ."

My original thought for this blog was to pursue each book of the Bible in a month, but just with the opening chapter in Genesis, I could go on and on, eating up the entire month's worth.  So, I'm tossing my original thought out and pursuing each section as it comes up.

This will be a long journey, but it should be fun.

Genesis, chapter one, lists out God's six days of creation--day seven is at the beginning of chapter two.  What's interesting to note is that in verse 26, God gives us human beings the power over all of the animals.  Us.  Power over the creatures on the planet.  Pretty cool.

Backing up, in verse two it says that the universe was formless and desolate, engulfed in total darkness.  Then, in verse three, God commanded "Let there be light," and it appeared.  A few months back, I was listening to the radio, and I stumbled upon a religious program.  The two preachers were talking about their latest golf game and how beautiful it was on the course, and one commented: "Yeah, and to think this was all caused by an explosion!"  They got quite a chuckle out of it and its absurdity, but it caused me to pause and wonder why the Big Bang Theory is so dangerous to the other Creationists?  In the two verses I quoted above, it said the universe was formless and desolate and then God made light.  Sounds like the Big Bang to me.

Think on this for a minute.  Big Bang Theorists say that all matter was, at one time, squashed together into a mass the size of a grapefruit.  Then, an explosion caused all of the matter to expand outward.  What caused the grapefruit-sized mass to become in that spot?  Then, what caused the explosion afterwards?

The answer: God.

Genesis says so.

Back in college, I was part of a nondenominational religious group that met once a week for fellowship and singing--I'll forgo mentioning the name of this group, for reasons I don't care to bring up.  Anyway, aside from the weekly fellowship, I met in smaller group discussions regarding Bible teachings.  In one session, we discussed creationism in Genesis and one of the members said, "I think God put dinosaur fossils in the ground to test our faith, so therefore there have never been any dinosaurs.  Also, if there was life on other planets, the Bible would say so.  And since it doesn't, there isn't any life out in space.  It's just us people here on Earth."

Sorry, but we have a hard enough time loving our neighbors.  Why would we love someone several lightyears away from us?

I don't take a literal approach to the Bible.  Meaning, I don't believe God created the universe in six twenty-four hour days.  Think on this for a minute: in the beginning, for the shepherds and farmers in our early years, they wouldn't have the foggiest notion on molecular this and nuclear that and quantum physics this and . . . you get the picture.  But by framing the creation in six days, to coincide with our seven-day weeks, it's something for the layman to understand.

Think of Occam's Razor for a minute.  Typically, the simpliest explanations are better than complex ones.  Hence, the creation of the six-day creation.

And about God planting dinosaur fossils to test our faith?

Give me a break.

What you'll see from this blog

I am not a biblical scholar.

Let me repeat that: I am not a biblical scholar.  I went to Bemidji State University, with a major in Criminal Justice and Psychology, and a minor in Philosophy.

Then why am I writing a blog about The Holy Bible?

Because I believe The Bible was written for people like me.  Not just me.  It was written for everyone, but in simple language everyone is able to understand.  In this exploration, I will be using the Good News Bible (called today's English version).  I am well aware of the variety of Bibles out there, from contemporary to the King James version, but seen as though this is the only one I have, I'll be quoting the Good News Bible.

As you may notice in the "About Me" section, I am a writer of horror, fantasy, and thriller genre, but there is a part of me that wishes to explore more in detail the workings of The Bible.

At our local church, our Lutheran pastor gathered a list this month of people who wished to take this year and read The Bible.  I didn't sign up.  The main reason for this is because I'm a slow reader and I'm usually juggling (aside from my own writing) two to four novels (fiction and nonfiction), so I don't want to completely devote all my time to reading The Bible.  But I have committed myself to reading it and posting my thoughts on various aspects of it in this blog.

I will be posting once a week--Sundays seem like a better day than any, given that it's considered a holy day.  I have another blog, Views From The Outhouse where I post my views on the business of writing, and that blog I post every weekday.

Will there be a day when I post in this blog every weekday?

You never know . . .