This short article has been updated because an error was found. This mistake was corrected in the subsequent “1066 The consistency in the Bible, God is still working, and the four-dimensional space.” The relevant parts will be copied and incorporated into the corrected short article. Our basic principle is to correct errors without changing the original text as much as possible.
Let’s first look at what the Bible says that God rested all His work of creation on the seventh day, first expressing this with Figure 1, and then discuss why it is said that Adam and Eve sinned on the sixth day, and see the consistency in Bible again. It is also seen from the scriptures that human beings have originally the image of God but are now contaminated by sin. We then shared the beginning, continuation, and end of the plan of salvation. God loves us. In order to fulfill His righteousness and save us, He made Jesus incarnate and offered a propitiation sacrifice to substitute for us, so that everyone has a chance. At the end of the salvation plan described in the Book of Revelation, God finally enters into His rest. Previously, that the plan of salvation is expressed with a circle at Figure 2 is wrong, and we also pointed out why it was wrong. Finally, we briefly talked about the part of the scriptures that stated the origin of the creation of heaven and earth, and saw the differences between the creation of animals and plants. Apparently, there were chickens before eggs according to the Bible. We also see the creation of man is rather different. There was the breath of life into his nostrils, and he became a living soul. We discuss what consists of the breath of life. We at last mentioned briefly about the physical location of the garden of Eden.
1. What the Bible says God rested from all His creation on the seventh day
What happened in the seventh day is said in Genesis 2:1-3: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” But in John 5:17, it says, “But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”” God is still working, thus He obviously is without rest, and it seems that He has not entered the seventh day of rest. It looks like to be contradictory, what does it mean? Indeed, all the “creation work” was completed on the seventh day, not only was it clearly stated in the verses, but we saw, “Then the Lord God took the man (Adam) and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”(Genesis 2:15) God has given Adam a mission and handed over all the completed work to Adam! It’s just that Adam didn’t keep a good watch, let Eve be successfully tempted by the snake, and as a result he didn’t obey God either. He was kicked out of the Garden of Eden that day and had no chance to cultivate it!
What God is still working now is the salvation plan prophesied in Genesis that there will be the salvation plan as the verses says, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”(Genesis 3:15) The seed of the woman refers to Jesus Christ, because the scriptures say, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.”(Galatians 3:16) We have seen the scriptures say, “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus Christ) who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”(Hebrews 4:15) So the snake (Satan) can only hurt his heel to tempt him. Whereas a head wound is fatal, the plan of salvation that Jesus accomplished was the fatal blow to the serpent. The Bible does not say when the plan of salvation began, but we know that “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways.”(Hebrews 1:1) And the earliest prophet is Enoch, because the scriptures make it clear, “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones.””(Jude 1:14)
The situation before the creation of the world can be known from this scripture, “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’””(Exodus 3:14) God existed before the creation of time, and we do not know how long. Now the Trinity God is still working because of salvation, so it will not be until the end of Revelation that God really stops all His work. The Bible does not say how long it was from the creation of time to the creation of our present world, only that before the creation of the present world, “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”(Genesis 1:2) So we can use Figure 1 to show what happens in sequence.
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of what happened from the beginning to the end
As we mentioned before, in the first six days (H3117), it was said that there was evening and there was morning, so each day (H3117) is the current day. In “1066 The consistency in the Bible, God is still working, and the four-dimensional space,” we see from the consistency in the Bible that explains why the word is said to be the same day. Therefore, the Bible clearly states that Adam and Eve sinned on the sixth day. In fact, we can also see this from Satan’s way of doing things as well: “So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”(Job 2:6-7) As long as the Lord nods, Satan will immediately do the greatest harm whenever possible. Of course, this includes that it may wait for the best time, but obviously this is the best time, because Eve has just been created, and the result we see is “…she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”(Genesis 3:6) We know that Satan will not wait, so the sin of the patriarchs in the third chapter of Genesis happened on the sixth day. As a result, at the end of the third chapter, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden by God and lost his fellowship with God. Once again, we see the consistency in the Bible. Of course, we have also seen from the first chapter of the Book of Job that what Satan does cannot go beyond the boundaries set by God.
Adam and Eve sinned on the sixth day. They did not call on the name of Jehovah for at least 235 years. This can be seen from the following scriptures, and because 130+105=235. “When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth …Seth lived one hundred and five years, and became the father of Enosh.”(Genesis 5:3-6) “To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then men began to call upon the name of the Lord.”(Genesis 4:26) Here we also see that man no longer has the image of God. Seth’s image is similar to that of Adam, and is the image after the image of God being polluted by sin. As long as a man is conformed to the image of Jesus, which includes removing sin, restoring the image of God at the original creation, and is even more perfect since he already chose the fruit of the tree of life.
2. The beginning, continuation, and end of the plan of salvation
“Then the Lord passed by in front of him (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”(Exodus 34:6) Yes, He is indeed a merciful and gracious God. As it is said in the verse, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.”(Psalm 89:14) God loves us. Since the sin of Adam and Eve, He started the plan of salvation in a prophetic way, as Genesis 3:15 said, “And I will put enmity Between you (serpent, Satan) and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”(Genesis 3:15)
Because God loves us, in order to conform to His righteousness, Jesus finally became flesh, “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”(Philippians 2:7-8) He followed the leading of the Holy Spirit all his life as the verse said, “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31) He knew in advance that he would be crucified, “…the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”(Luke 24:7) In the Garden of Gethsemane, He still prayed like this, “saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”(Luke 22:42) He is a perfect man. It is very difficult for a man to do so, thus “Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.”(Luke 22:43) “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.”(Luke 22:44) Although Jesus was in great pain, He did give us a chance as said in the verse, “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”(1 John 2:2) Therefore “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”(2 Corinthians 5:21) He substituted us to die for our sin and sins. The beginning of the substitution concept is in this verse, “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.”(Genesis 3:21) Animals substituted them to die for their sins. Abraham offered Isaac and ended in the same way: “Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.”(Genesis 22:13) The ram substituted Isaac to be a burnt offering. The Bible is consistent. At the end of Revelation, He finally rested from all His work and rested as the verse says, “The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”(Revelation 22:17)
I didn’t notice before that Genesis 2:3 refers to the completion of the creation of the world. I thought that Jesus said in John 5:17, “…My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”(John 5:17) means that the creation of the world is still being done, so I think that we are still on the sixth day. In this case, the plan of salvation can only be represented by a circle. The second figure indicates the error made before, where the size of the circle is unknown, because in the plan of salvation, it is not known when Jesus will return, and the size represents the length of the plan of salvation. .
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the error
Therefore, according to the Bible, Figure 1 is the correct schematic diagram, where there is no circle as shown in Figure 2. The plan of salvation in Figure 1 is represented by dotted lines because we do not know when Jesus will return.
3. Account of the heavens and the earth when they were created
This is clearly stated in Genesis 2:4-25. We now discuss only the beginning few verses, because Genesis 2:16-25 talks about the commands that God gave Adam and how Eve was made (H1129), which will be discussed next time.
In Genesis 2:4-6, it says, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.”
Apparently, plants and animals are different. When animals are mentioned, it is clearly said that they are created as stated in Genesis 1:21, “God created (H1254) the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; …” So, it is clear that chicken is first then egg second. In terms of plants, we have to use logic. Here, it is said, “no plant of the field had yet sprouted.” But in Genesis 1:11-12, it is said, “Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; …” Therefore, we can see that there were at that time already vegetations, just not sprouted yet. So, seeds second. In this issue, plants and animals are the same.
Then comes Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed (H3335) man of dust from the ground, and breathed (H5301) into his nostrils the breath (H5379) of life (H2416); and man (H120) became a living (H2416) being (soul, H5315).” Here, the word used is different from ‘created, H1254’, which creates something out of nothing. We also see that the creation of Adam is different from animals. There is the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living soul. The word ‘spirit, H7307’ is not used here, and we’ll know that man has spirit from other verses later. The words ‘the breath of life’ and not ‘spirit’ is used here. Because we talk about the living soul, it raises an argument. From Genesis 6:3, it says, “Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”” Therefore, we know that our spirit is inside the breath of life from God. The question is then if soul is included there? Remember that it is said in Genesis 2:1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.” If soul is not included in the breath, someone says that soul was created when spirit entered the dust (body). The Bible doesn’t say clearly which one is true. Just like what we discussed before, there is no reason to get into arguments, which cannot edify people. We want to be like what 1 Corinthians 14:26 says, “…Let all things be done for edification,” which is mentioned in many places.
Finally, in Genesis 2:8-15, the physical location of the garden of Eden is specified, “The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
Here, it has already the most detailed description about the physical location of the garden of Eden. If we looked at maps, we cannot find any location that fulfills the description completely. Someone says that the earth was changed because of the flood, which is definitely possible. Nowadays, the most consistent place is near rivers of Tigris and Euphrates. Even though someone could find its location, he cannot do anything about it since “…at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”(Genesis 3:24)
(Verses refer to those in NASB unless otherwise specified.)
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