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1In that day, Yahweh with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan, the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

2In that day, sing to her, “A pleasant vineyard! 3I, Yahweh, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day. 4Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together. 5Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me.”

6In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. 7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? 8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. 9Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. 10For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches. 11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

12It will happen in that day that Yahweh will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.

13It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Is the Creation Account in Genesis One an Historical Account or a Myth?

Is the Creation Account in Genesis One an Historical Account or a Myth?

Topical Study | Gen 1:1 | Hershel Wayne House

There is controversy today in the Christian community far more important than differences among believers in many decades regarding the nature of the Genesis account in Genesis 1, 2, & 3. Liberal scholars have generally believed the creation account was not truly representative of an actual event but embraced a Darwinist explanation of the creation of the world (what is often called macro-evolution), that contends that all of life on earth developed from very small forms of life that were created by an accident in the primordial fluids of ancient earth billions of years ago. Even so, the current debate extends much further than believing in long periods for the creation days and even accepting some form of evolution. The current debate is whether Adam and Eve and the events transpiring around them in the biblical account ever occurred and whether Genesis is only a myth rather than factual history.

Christians, through most of Christian history (and the Jewish people before Christianity), have embraced a literal and factual creation by God that is found in Genesis 1, as well as the more detailed creation of humans in Genesis 2. In current Christianity, several scholars, who are generally conservative in most areas of theology, are advocating that the Genesis One account is, in reality, a myth or fiction. Moreover, there is a rejection of an actual Adam and Eve, a temptation and fall, and many of the events in the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament. Allegedly, God only inspired a mythical account that provided a story in which He could teach an inerrant truth about Himself being the ultimate Creator of the universe.

However, there are several reasons to reject this manner of interpreting Genesis. First, this alternate view is contrary to the understanding of various persons in the Old Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and the church for most of its history. Second, though the factual account of creation and the fall arguably contains some poetic features, the essence is a true and historical account that is consistent with the mainstream scientific understanding of the chronology of the creative events. Additionally, the biblical account of creation is not in agreement with Ancient Near East creation stories, upon which many current scholars rely in rejecting the factual, historical account found in Scripture, as well as the uniqueness of the Genesis account of creation. As the literary scholar C. S. Lewis once stated, "Myth comes from history and not history from myth."

I would encourage you to view the free YouTube video, Is Genesis History? Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM82qxxskZE&feature=youtu.be in the browser of your phone, iPad, or Computer for this excellent discussion of the historicity of the book of Genesis.

The writers of the Bible believed in the historical doctrine of the creation of the world and the specific creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible contains about 300 verses on creation.

Gen 1:1-27; 2:1-23; 3:1, 19, 23; 5:1, 2; 6:6, 7; 7:4; 9:6

Exod 4:11, 32; 14:21; 20:11; 31:17

Deut 32:15

2 Kgs 19:15

1 Chr 1:1; 16:26

2 Chr 2:12

Neh 9:6

Job 4:7; 9:8, 9; 10:8; 26:7; 28:6; 31:15; 32:22; 33:4, 6, 7; 34:15; 38:4-6; 40:15

Ps 8:3-8; 19:1-4; 24:1; 33:6; 52:7; 86:9; 89:11, 12; 90:2, 3; 94:9; 95:5, 6; 96:5; 100:3; 102:25; 104:2-5, 19, 24, 25, 30; 115:8, 15; 119:73; 121:2; 125:3, 8; 135:7; 139:14, 15; 146:6; 148:1-5

Prov 8:23-29; 14:31; 16:4; 17:5; 20:1, 2, 12; 22:2; 26:10

Eccl 3:11; 7:14, 29; 11:5; 12:1, 7

Isa 17:7; 22:11; 27:11; 29:16; 37:16, 26; 40:21, 26, 28; 41:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 10, 17, 21; 44:2, 21, 24; 45:7, 8, 12, 18; 48:13; 49:5; 51:13, 16; 66:2, 22

Jer 1:5; 10:11-13, 16; 27:5; 29:9; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15, 16

Ezek 21:30; 28:13, 15

Hos 8:14

Amos 4:13; 5:8; 9:6

Jonah 1:9

Hab 1:14

Zech 12:1

Mal 2:10, 15

Matt 13:35; 19:4, 5, 6, 8; 24:21; 25:34

Mark 10:6; 13:19; 16:15

Luke 3:38; 11:50

John 1:3, 10; 8:44; 9:32; 17:24

Acts 7:50; 14:15; 17:24

Rom 1:19, 20; 5:12, 14-19; 8:19-23, 39; Rom 13:1, 4

1 Cor 11:3, 8, 9, 12; 15:22, 38, 45-47, 49

2 Cor 4:6

Eph 1:4, 39

Col 1:16, 17, 23; 3:10

1 Tim 2:13, 14; 4:3, 4

Heb 1:2, 3, 10, 14; 3:4; 4:3, 4, 10, 13; 9:11, 26; 12:27

Jas 3:9, 10

1 Pet 1:20; 4:19

2 Pet 3:3, 4-7, 13

Rev 3:14; 4:8-11; 10:6; 13:8; 14:7; 17:8; 21:1, 5; 22:13

Knowing the Truth about Creation, p. 150, from Norm Geisler, The Importance of Creation (PowerPoint Presentation)