A Daily Genesis
Genesis 1:11-14b
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, 08-22-2015 at 09:53 PM (1145 Views)
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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 1:11a . . And God said: Let the earth sprout vegetation[/B]
Before God could set out plantings; He first had to create soil for them to grow in; which is only barely alluded to in Genesis' reference to dry land making its appearance: and this is where young-earth theories run into trouble because it takes a long time for nature to manufacture soil-- upwards of three hundred years to a millennium to produce just one inch; which indicates that it took an enormous number of years after the formation of dry land for the earth's crust to weather and break down on its own to make soil enough for plantings; hence the aged-earth creation theories which essentially postulate that God got vegetation up and going with a starter kit of fertile dirt; which can't be argued with since there's really no telling exactly how God proceeded with the manufacture of soil.
But since the earth was designed with the capability to make soil on its own, I rather think it plausible that God was in no hurry and was pleased to let nature take its course; as He designed it to take.
The soil requirements of different species vary widely, and no generalizations can be made concerning an ideal soil for the growth of all plants; e.g. avocado trees; which thrive just fine in the relatively dry, sunny climate and alkaline soil of San Diego; do poorly in the acidic soil and much wetter, not-so-sunny climate of Oregon's Willamette valley. There are upwards of 30,000 different soils in the USA alone.
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 1:11b-12 . . seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it. And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that this was good.[/B]
All vegetation was created on the third day. Every plant since then, and all plants that will ever be, pre-existed in the cell structures, and in the DNA, of the original flora because God created nothing else after the sixth day. How do I know that? Because the seventh day wasn't bounded by an evening and a morning. In other words: God is still resting from His creation labors and won't fire them up again till the 21st chapter of Revelation. (cf. Isa 65:18, Isa 66:22)
[B][SIZE=1]NOTE[/SIZE]:[/B] According to Gen 2:4-5, the sprouting spoken of in Gen 11a was limited until such a time as the Earth's climatic conditions were up and running.
God is the origin of species, but from the third day on, the various species reproduced themselves with subsequent adaptations and mutations; which is okay except that the ability to adapt and mutate has made possible serious problems with organisms like Escherichia coli O157-H7.
That deadly little pathogen didn't exist in nature till the 20th century. It's the progeny of regular E-coli adapting itself to overcome the antibiotics used to control disease in large-scale, overcrowded, unsanitary feed lots where animals are rapidly fattened up on a brief diet of genetically modified grain prior to slaughtering them for food.
Although the creator made O157-H7 possible; I doubt if anybody would have any luck suing Him for product liability since it's humanity's own greed and stupidity that forced E-coli O157-H7 into the food distribution system. Its mommy was just trying to give her lethal little offspring the tools necessary to survive. It's like chaos theorist Dr[B].[/B] Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park; "Life finds a way"
"The prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Prv 1:32)
[B][SIZE=1]NOTE[/SIZE]:[/B] It's believed by science that there was an era in Earth's youth called the Carboniferous period when it was blanketed by dense jungles and forests. As those plants and trees died, and were buried beneath layers of sediment; their unique chemical structure caused them to be "cooked" into solid coal; and there is really a lot of it.
Why isn't the Earth currently blanketed by dense jungles and forests? Well, you can thank Adam for that. According to Gen 3:17 the Earth's soils aren't as productive as they were in the beginning.
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 1:13 . . And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
[COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 1:14a . . God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky[/B]
On the fourth day, God spent time up in celestial regions. It might seem odd that He began work on the surface of the Earth, and then before finishing, stopped short and moved off into space. Why not finish building down here on the planet first?
Because many types of plants and animals need sunlight if they're to be strong and healthy. At this point in the creation, planet Earth was very dark and freezing cold. The dark side of the Moon gets down to like 279º below zero; so it was time to turn the Earth into a greenhouse. And besides, temperature variations play a role in the process of erosion; which assists in soil formation. And climate is important too seeing as how most varieties of vegetation are geared to seasonal variations.
Oxygen is a must gas for sustaining life on earth and a very large percentage of it is produced by photosynthesis which is a chemical process that works best in sunlight. No doubt the original atmosphere contained oxygen enough, but would eventually be absorbed by oxidation and other kinds of chemical activity. Plant life plays a major role in both filtration and replenishment; hence the need to get a Sun shining as soon as possible.
The atmosphere contains about 19[B].[/B]5 to 23[B].[/B]5 percent oxygen at any given time and even with all the fossil fuel burned around the world, along with the destruction of savannas, prairies, woodlands, wetlands, and rain forests, coupled with volcanic activity, the percentage remain fairly stable.
The lights created in verse 14 are luminous objects; and one of them; the Moon, doesn't generate its own light. It reflects light from the Sun. But for practical purposes, both of them shed light upon the Earth just as God intended for them to do.
[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 1:14b . . to distinguish Day from Night;[/B]
On the first day; God defined Day as a condition of light; and defined Night as a condition of darkness. Here, it's further defined that Day, as pertains to life on Earth, is when the sun is up; and Night is when the sun is down. These definitions occur so early in the Bible that they easily escape the memories of Bible students as they slip into the reflexive habit of always thinking of Days as periods of one earth rotation of 24 hours. That's okay for calendars but can lead to gross misunderstandings when interpreting biblical schedules, predictions, and/or chronologies.
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