Bible Questions and Answers

Questions Answered

• Are there contradictions in the Bible?
• Where did the races come from?
• Is there any scientific explanation for the opening of the Red Sea and Moses leading the children of Israel across the bottom?
• Is God getting old?
• When were angels created?
• What is the unicorn mentioned in the Bible?
• When did Satan fall?

 

Q:    Are there contradictions in the Bible?

A:    When I was a new Christian, someone showed me the apparent contradictions between the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. According to Genesis 1, God made the trees on day three, the birds from water on day five, and the animals on day six, all before man. But Genesis 2 records the creation of trees, animals, and birds from dirt on day six, all after man. This apparent contradiction disappears when one reads in Genesis 2 that the events in that chapter describe the events regarding the creation of the items in the Garden of Eden only. God knew Satan could come and say he had created all things if Adam did not actually witness God’s creative power. God made Adam on the sixth day, put him in the garden, made some trees to grow before Adam, then made 1 more of each of the animals so that Adam could name them and select a wife. The rest of the world was already full of plants and animals from earlier in the week.

Another apparent contradiction appears in I Kings 7:23 and II Chronicles 4, the description of the large bowl called the brazen laver. According to both passages, the laver measures 10 cubits (elbow to fingertip, about 18 inches) across and 30 cubits around, a ratio that does not equal pi (3.14159…) and appears to be not mathematically valid. However, the 10 cubit measurement spans the inside of the bowl; the handbreadth thickness of the brass is included in the diameter which balances the ratio to equal pi very neatly. There are no contradictions in the Bible. This topic is covered in more detail with pictures and calculations in the seminar notebook. The Bible Baptist Bookstore in Pensacola, (850) 476-2945, has a great book (even though the author is a little sarcastic with his response to the scoffers questions) dealing with all of the other so-called contradictions or problem passages in the Bible. The book is called Problem Passages and costs about $10.

Q:    Where did the races come from?

A:   Actually, there is only one race; the human race. Obviously, several different colors of people exist on the earth that have distinctive characteristics, but they are the same race. Because Scripture does not state where these differences came from, I’m not going to be dogmatic but I will tell you about the various theories.

One theory says that Adam and Eve were medium-brown, possibly because they were made from the earth. That medium-brown couple produced all the varieties of colors; they might have had 100 children or more with all the colors represented in the first family.

Another theory says that the first division of colors came when God put a mark upon Cain (Genesis 4:15) after Cain killed Abel. Now the Bible doesn’t say what the mark is, but some have tried to say that Cain became the first black man. Of course, that theory only explains two colors and does not consider the flood bringing the human race back to one family.

A third theory says that Noah cursed Canaan after Noah got drunk (Genesis 9:25), and some people think Canaan became the first black man. I don’t believe this theory because I don’t think any color of people are cursed and it only explains two colors.

The fourth (and I think the best) theory says the races came from the Tower of Babel. Genesis 10:20 says, "These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, in their nations." Perhaps all families, countries, nations, and tongues were created or developed from this event. Maybe the colors were divinely created at that time, or maybe they are just a natural product of a small group of people speaking their own language and marrying back to their own parent stock. Racial traits become more pronounced in a small inbreeding group. The Bible isn’t clear on this subject. These four theories are the only ones that I know. I prefer the Tower of Babel explanation. I know the Bible does say in Acts 17 that all nations are of one blood so there is no reason for anyone to be a racist.

 

Q:    Is there any scientific explanation for the opening of the Red Sea and Moses leading the children of Israel across the bottom?

A:    I don’t know of any scientific explanation at all, I would say it had to be a miracle. There is, however, archaeological support for the Biblical account. Archaeologists have been looking in the wrong place for the last 3,000 years for the remains of Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea crossing. If you look at a map of the north end of the Red Sea you will see that it splits into two branches. The left branch is called the Gulf of Suez and the right branch is called the Gulf of Aqaba: The children of Israel did not cross at the Gulf of Suez. They traveled across the Sinai Peninsula and crossed over at the Gulf of Aqaba, which is also part of the Red Sea

Ron Wyatt, a friend of mine from Nashville, Tennessee (ph. (615) 331-6263), researched the crossing of the Red Sea: He found two stone pillars, one on either side of the Gulf of Aqaba, erected and inscribed by Solomon to commemorate the Red Sea crossing. Across the bottom of the gulf between the two pillars is a path littered with the remains of gold-plated wooden chariots and chariot wheels not attached. God performed a miracle at the Red Sea, and there is evidence of the miracle. Ron has a great video on this topic.

Q:    Is God getting old?

A:    This is an interesting question that reflects a common human tendency. People often try to put our human limitations on God. The God of the Bible does not have our limitations. It is difficult to comprehend God as not being affected by time space or matter like we are. There is a story that may help explain how God is beyond understanding. Suppose there were two flat people represented by two rectangular pieces of paper. These flat people lived on a tabletop. We will call them Mr. Flat and Mrs. Flat and the place they live in and understand is called Flatland. They are two-dimensional beings and live in a two dimensional world. They have no concept of the third dimension. They can see only one dimension (width) but they can perceive two, length and width; just as humans can see two dimensions, length and width and perceive a third, depth. (Hence the term, depth perception)

Now suppose that a three-dimensional being (a human) wished to meet and explain himself to Mr. and Mrs. Flat. If that person stuck a finger through the piece of paper called Flatland, Mr. and Mrs. Flat would see only a circle, (the cross section of the finger) with no perception of the rest of the person. Three dimensions are beyond their comprehension in the same way God is beyond our comprehension. Ephesians 3:18-19 says, "May be able to comprehend with all saints what is breadth, and length, and depth, and height; (four dimensions) And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." God may exist in more dimensions than we can fully comprehend now. When we ask a question like "is God getting old," we assume that God exists in time like we do. He does not. He exists beyond time; humans are the ones stuck in time. So God does not grow old. Time space and matter do not apply to him or affect Him in any way. He created them all in Genesis 1:1.

Q:    When were angels created?

A:    The Bible says in Exodus 20:11 that God made everything in those six days, heaven and earth and everything in them. The angles had to be made during the first six days, although the Bible doesn’t state when. Several references seem to say that the angels rejoiced when the earth’s foundations were laid, they must have been created early in the week. See Job 38:4-7. This passage may be referring to the angels watching the original creation or it may be they were watching the establishing of the earth’s new continental levels after the flood. I don’t know for sure.

 

Q:    What is the "unicorn" mentioned in the Bible?

A:    I’ve never found a good answer to that one. The Bible mentions this creature six times in Numbers 23:22, 24:8, Job 39:9-10, Psalms 29:6, 92:10. I suspect all the pictures of horses with horns have been so imbedded in our minds we cannot get them out. Scripture mentions the unicorn’s great strength, aversion to man, and untrainability. Horses are domestic animals that train well; reptiles are wild animals with small brains that don’t train well if at all. If we could start fresh and read what the Bible says about unicorns, I think we would find that a stocky strong reptile like the triceratops would fit the description much better. We have all seen so many pictures of a horse with a horn that I doubt we will be able to clear our minds and think about this subject without bias. We will have to wait and ask God that one.

Q:    When did Satan fall?

A:    I believe the Genesis account is to be taken literally just as it was written. It was six twenty-four hour days: there was no gap. There was no period of time before the original creation. There was actually no time. God made time as well as matter and space. I do not think that Satan fell from heaven until about one hundred years after the creation. He could not have fallen before the creation because he was spoken about in the book of Ezekiel as being good while in the garden. Look at Ezekiel 28:13-15, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." He was Lucifer, a good angel, or cherub, and he was in the Garden. The Garden of Eden wasn’t made until day six, so that shoots the Gap Theory full of holes right there. Not only that, but Jesus said in Matthew 19:4 that the creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning. Read what it says: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female." Romans 5:12 says that there was no death until Adam sinned, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Those who say that Satan fell from heaven and wiped out the preadamic civilization are placing death before sin. They have just eliminated the need for Christ to die on the cross. There was no death until sin came into the world. Exodus 20:11 states, "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth..." This is found in the middle of the Ten Commandments.

God made the whole thing in six, literal twenty-four hour days, including time, including the angels, and everything that is. What day He made the angels is not known, but Satan did not fall until after the creation, maybe even one hundred or so years later. All that we know is Adam was one hundred thirty when Seth was born. That is the first date given in Scripture. Before he had Seth, they had Cain and Abel, but their dates are not given. Before he had Cain and Abel, they were removed from the garden. Therefore, it would have been somewhere around a one-hundred year span where Satan may have become jealous of the fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God. Satan may have observed their relationship for one hundred years, and said, "Hey, I want them to worship me! I want to rule humanity. I want to walk with them in the garden. I will ascend unto the high heavens. I will take over the seat of the Most High. I will, I will, I will."

My theory is, and I cannot prove it, but I am pretty convinced that Satan did not fall until one hundred years after the creation. The fall could not have been in the original creation because he was still the light bearer in the Garden of Eden.