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1Moreover Yahweh answered Job,

2“Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty?

He who argues with God, let him answer it.”

3Then Job answered Yahweh,

4“Behold, I am of small account. What will I answer you?

I lay my hand on my mouth.

5I have spoken once, and I will not answer;

Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”

6Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind:

7“Now brace yourself like a man.

I will question you, and you will answer me.

8Will you even annul my judgment?

Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

9Or do you have an arm like God?

Can you thunder with a voice like him?

10“Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity.

Array yourself with honor and majesty.

11Pour out the fury of your anger.

Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.

12Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him.

Crush the wicked in their place.

13Hide them in the dust together.

Bind their faces in the hidden place.

14Then I will also admit to you

that your own right hand can save you.

15“See now behemoth, which I made as well as you.

He eats grass as an ox.

16Look now, his strength is in his thighs.

His force is in the muscles of his belly.

17He moves his tail like a cedar.

The sinews of his thighs are knit together.

18His bones are like tubes of bronze.

His limbs are like bars of iron.

19He is the chief of the ways of God.

He who made him gives him his sword.

20Surely the mountains produce food for him,

where all the animals of the field play.

21He lies under the lotus trees,

in the covert of the reed, and the marsh.

22The lotuses cover him with their shade.

The willows of the brook surround him.

23Behold, if a river overflows, he doesn’t tremble.

He is confident, though the Jordan swells even to his mouth.

24Shall any take him when he is on the watch,

or pierce through his nose with a snare?

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)