The Lost World of Adam and Eve Read Online Free PDF

90:2; mountains are material, but birthing them is not a material description of their origins)
Planted the cedars of Lebanon (Ps 104:16; trees are material, but planting them is not a material description of their origins)
Created waters above the skies (Ps 148:4-5; terminology applied to that which we know does not exist)
Building the house with Wisdom (Prov 8:12, 22-29)
Forms human spirit (Zech 12:1)
    In conclusion, we cannot consider these verbs to intrinsically reflect material production, either because the direct objects are not material or because the verbs do not represent any sort of understanding that we adopt as scientifically viable.
    Furthermore, we find that the way God carries out these creation activities (created, made, caused) is at times by “separating” and “naming.” To distinguish something from other things is to create it; to name something is to create it. For example, naming a room and giving it a distinct function distinguishes (separates) it from other rooms and represents the “creation” of the room. In our house, a room had previously been used as a dining room by its former owners. We decided we didn’t want it to be a dining room so we called it a “den,” gave it a function as a den, put in it the furniture of a den and began to use it that way. By its name and function it was distinguished from other rooms in the house, and thus the den was created. And it was good (functioned as it was intended to function). This serves as a good illustration of the role that naming, separating and determining a function have in the creation of a room and its existence as that room. It is important to realize that separating and naming are also prime creation activities in the rest of the ancient Near East. Note, for example, the opening lines of the famous Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish , quoted earlier (p. 29).
    At this stage in the discussion, we should say a brief word about the concept of ex nihilo (from Latin meaning “out of nothing”). An interpretation of Genesis 1 that understands the text as concerned with bringing order and functionality instead of producing material objects would recognize that the activity in the seven days is not creation out of nothing. Ex nihilo is a material category, though that was not always its focus. 11 If Genesis 1 is not an account of material origins, then ex nihilo would not apply. Please note, however, that when God created the material cosmos (and he is the one who did), he did it ex nihilo. Ex nihilo doctrine comes from John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16, not Genesis 1. In both of these New Testament passages, the emphasis is on the authority and status of the Son of God and not on the objects created. In other words, ex nihilo creation is still theologically sound (indeed essential, since God is non-contingent), but literarily it is not under discussion in Genesis 1. The story of material origins is not the story the text is telling here. The authors, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have told the part of the story that is most significant to them (the origins of the ordered, functional cosmos) and, arguably, also most theologically significant. God did not just build the cosmos, he made it work in a certain way for a certain reason and sustains its order moment by moment.
    Ancient cosmologies had little interest in material origins, though they recognize that the material cosmos is that which is ordered so that the functions can be carried out. I have elsewhere discussed this at length, so I will not repeat the data here. 12 But, before we conclude, we should note the pervasive lack of material focus in the seven-day account in Genesis. This is the third area of evidence (we have already discussed the starting point and the verbs used for the transition from nonexistence to existence) and is the subject of the next chapter.
    In conclusion, the concept that Genesis 1 pertains to the establishment of order carries two corollary ideas that we