To what do earth’s fossils and fossil fuel attest?
(Genesis 5-11; Job 26:7-10; 1 Chron. 1-8) Blog 24-30 May, 2020
Prepared by Richard A. Marin: Present Truth PO Box 700, Fallbrook CA 92088-0700 USA
REVIEW: The Bible tells the story of the mighty acts of God in dealing with humanity. Its prophecies tell how God will act in the future and how we should prepare and respond. The Holy Spirit inspired holy men to portray God’s thoughts in human language. For us the Bible is necessary, has absolute authority, is entirely sufficient, and essentially clear, showing us how to live in this life and how to enter into the next. If we read the Bible in context, regarding its grammar, and comparing Scripture with Scripture, the Holy Spirit will teach us its meaning. It is God’s infallible Word to mankind. The first three chapters of Genesis established the length of a day and that in six 24-hour days God created everything in this earth, and they established that God is a plurality of three persons, and they established that mankind was the crowning act of creation and that sin and death came later making the theory of evolution impossible.
Genealogies (Genesis 5-11; Job 26:7-10; 1 Chron. 1-8; Matt. 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38)
1. How are the genealogies found in Genesis 5 and 11 unique? They not only list the names of fathers and firstborn sons but also give the age of the father when his firstborn son was born & the total age that each of these lived.
2. With the genealogical data given in Genesis 5 and 11 what is it possible to calculate? The number of years from the creation of Adam to the flood; from the flood to Abraham; & by continuing through the Old Testament, the number of years from creation to the birth of Jesus, & therefore the age of the earth since creation (which is now about 6,000 years old).
3. Which other Old Testament book confirms the genealogies given in Genesis? 1 Chronicles.
4. By comparing the Genesis genealogies with those of First Chronicles what becomes apparent? That there are no added nor missing generations.
5. Which two New Testament authors confirm the genealogies of the Old Testament? Matthew in chapter 1 & Luke in chapter 3.
The Flood (Genesis 6-9; Matt. 24:36-39; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 3:1-7; Jude 1:14-16)
6. What act on the part of God’s children eventually led to the need for a destructive flood? The taking of unbelieving wives by some of God’s children.
7. What did the offspring of the mixed marriages between the sons of God and the daughters of men become? They became men of renown who challenged the true God.
8. What does Peter say was the reason that God lost patience with the people of Noah’s day? Their disobedience.
9. Before bringing the flood what did God do? He warned earth’s inhabitants over a long period of time (120 years) & prepared a way of escape from coming judgment.
10. What details does Moses include in his telling the story of Noah? That few believed his message, that it rained for forty days coving all earth’s highest mountains by 15 cubits, that God preserved Noah & his family of eight together with clean (7 each) & unclean (2 each = 1 male + 1 female) animal life for 377 days in the ark, & that God made a covenant with a sign (rainbow) that he would not again destroy the earth by a flood.
11. If rightly understood to what do earth’s fossils and fossil fuel attest? To a worldwide, cataclysmic flood.
12. What kind of people does Peter say will arise on the earth in the last days? Scoffers who live according to their own lusts & challenge the idea of the second advent of Jesus on their supposed basis that all things continue uniformly on earth without cataclysmic change.
13. Besides pointing to creation, to what other event does Peter refer as proof that the scoffers are wrong and that God will act as promised and come to rescue his people from a corrupt earth? To the flood of Noah’s day.
14. Why did Jesus refer to Noah’s day? Because just as life was going on as normal for the wicked until the flood came so it will be in our day just before Jesus returns.
15. What overarching lesson should we learn from the story of the flood? That God will not always tolerate sinful disobedience on the part of humanity but is able & will act with cataclysmic force to end the reign of sin.
16. What do Job 26:7-10; and Isaiah 40:21, 22. teach us about the nature of this earth? That it is a sphere hung in space by God & that God is much greater than this earth.
A Divided World (Genesis 10:1-11:9; Micah 5:6; Rev. 14:8; 16:19;17:5; 18:2, 10, 21)
17. When Noah’s children and grandchildren re-inhabited the earth where did rebellion against God surface again and under whose leadership? On the Plain of Shinar under the leadership of Nimrod, the grandson of Ham.
18. Rather than scatter out over the whole earth as God had commanded, what did the people on the Plain of Shinar decide to do? To build a city with a tower out of baked brick that reached unto heaven (probably to avoid another flood because they didn’t believe God’s covenant promise).
19. What was God’s reaction to the plans of the people of Shinar? He decided to quell their rebellion by confounding their language (which up till then was only one) forcing them to scatter across the face of the earth as he had commanded.
20. What lessons should we take from the story of Babel? That in it we are given a clear picture of the origin of earth’s languages & people groups & that it was not God’s plan for human beings to dwell in cities.