I just returned home from the Baptist History Tour sponsored by Jeff Faggart. We had thirty men who went on the trip, most of whom were preachers and many of these were pastors. We were greatly blessed during the trip in many ways and I may be able to speak of some of these blessings later. However, the trip also seemed to be a lesson in the battles and even the failures experienced in the ministry. Many of these problems revealed themselves as current events and not history.
The gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 that is believed by myself and others for scriptural reasons is being erroneously labeled a grave heresy by some. One of the claims against such a belief is the purported foolishness of placing a gap of interminable length between two verses without any statement that there is this gap. I want to thank Walter Scott of Canada for providing several excellent examples of just this kind of gap in other scriptures. Here are some of his examples.
The phrase, "God said," occurs exactly ten (10) times in Genesis One. These ten sayings of God might be called the first Ten Commandments. They are the original declarations of God's word. The first Ten Commandments are creative. The second Ten Commandments are given to guide the highest creation on earth - man. Therefore, the second group of commandments continue where the first ten left off. The first set begins with the command of Genesis 1:3, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." The second group began with this command, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). The first set ends with the provision of food for man (Genesis 1:29). The second set ends with the command not to covet (Exodus 20:17).
Much of God's creation is marked by the number three. This makes sense since God Himself is a trinity. There are three kinds of vegetation: grass, herbs and trees (Genesis 1:11). There are three kinds of lights in the sky: the sun, the moon and the stars (Genesis 1:16). There are three kinds of animals: fish, fowl and land animals. There are three kinds of land animals: cattle, creeping things and beasts (Genesis 1:24). Man has three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1Thessalonians 5:23). There are three basic colors and three states of matter (solid, liquid and gas). If you think about it, you can find other examples.
Of the 17 times the word firmament is used in the Bible, over half (or 9) of the times are found in Genesis One. Firmament means an expanse or expansion of space and it refers to the expansion of space between the earth and God's heavenly abode. It is bound by the waters above and the waters below (Genesis 1:6-8). This explains why there are "waters that be above the heavens" (Psalm 148:4). Of the three heavens indicated in 2Corinthians 12:2, the firmament includes the first two heavens while the third heaven refers to God's dwelling place. The first heaven is the "open firmament of heaven" where the birds fly (Genesis 1:20). The second heaven is "firmament of the heaven" where the planets and stars reside (Genesis 1:14-15). As known to anyone who has considered the heavens as the work of God's finger (Psalm 8:3), the firmament exalts God. As the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork."
One of the results of modern godless philosophy is to see man as nothing more than an animal or a machine. This philosophy suggests another application of a scripture which describes the power of the human reasoning: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Proverbs 23:7). The more that modern man thinks of himself as nothing more than animal or machine, the more it will be literally true. Animal organs are being used in humans. Many humans have machine parts as well. The next step is to combine the brain with computer chips. According to a report just out: "For the first time, scientists at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich coupled living brain tissue to a chip equivalent to the chips that run computers." This was accomplished in a rat's brain, but human brains are sure to follow. The scientists see this as "a great step forward towards neurochip prosthetics and neurocomputation." Translated, that means computer chips to keep up with your memory, to do your calculations, and eventually to correct your faulty thinking. We may wonder whose faulty thinnking they will want to correct. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
