Why is Bible research important?

Practical application is the endgame of any Biblical endeavor; believing God’s promises. This brings deliverance to you and those to whom you minister.NJB Hebrews 11:6 Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he

exists and rewards those who seek him.Healthy Doctrine is the key for “what to believe” Over the years the twisting of Scriptures has made it ever harder and harder for people to know the…

WHAT DO I BELIEVE?These sessions are going to allow you to have the

connection between you and God (via the written Word) strong and trustworthy. We try to stay less “weasly” and

more honest with the text.

You are an onion-peeler…

NOT

A

“YEC” and “OEC” versus ANEC

This would be “Young Earth Creationism and “Old Earth Creationism”

Versus what I’m teaching you…

Ancient Near East Creationism

Young Earth Creationist’s Flood-all theology

We are trying to “turn the Titanic” as regards what most evangelical Christians’ mindset is about Creation.

• Mostly everything centers around the flooding of the earth during Noah’s time (some 1850 years AFTER Adam was created, BTW)

• Leviathan and Behemoth (in Job) are considered earthly creatures who walked around down here (dinosaurs or dragons…even hippopotamus and crocodile (that was what they taught me in Bible College)

• No animal death before the “fall” of Adam (wrong dividing of Romans 5:12)

• God took six days to create all we see (Appealing to Exodus 20: 11; OMG!).

• Appeal to pseudo-science (much worse than during Copernicus’ time)

• Little discussion of the water in Genesis 1:2 (or elsewhere in the Bible)

Old Earth Creationism focuses on verse 2

of Genesis and glorifies that.

• Tohu va bohu; A wrecked earth

• God repaired the earth over six days

• Three heavens and earth chronologically

• Other prophets (specifically Jeremiah and Isaiah) recognized the mess in the beginning

• Little or No discussion of the water in Genesis 1:2 (or it’s all earthly water…with maybe some“outside the Universe”)

Ancient Near East Creationism

• What does the text actually say to the audience “to whom it was addressed”?

• Conceptually the “heavens, earth and the sea” (Exodus 20: 11) were what the Hebrews thought regarding creation, not just “the heavens and the earth”.

• All Scripture related to the subject (all creation texts must fit):

• Hand in a glove time…not like a “foot in the mouth”; that’s for…

Babes in the Word …Mature believers need to grow up

The inspiration of Scripture

• I do not ascribe to the “dictation” method; 2 Peter 1: 21 does not say God did this:

NIV 2 Peter 1:21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as

they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

We’ll have a whole session (or two) “inspiration” of Scripture in a future WebEx; I promise.

The Celestial SeaIn the March 2013 WebEx I showed that the Second verse of the Bible was more important than the First.

Much of these sessions relate the reader to the prophet and his God; the one who “carries (him) along the road of writing the Scriptures.

Now some deeper background on the Celestial Sea that is there; and why it is so important in the scheme of Biblical studies.

I am ready to present a Seminar by this very name…No More Sea. All you need to do is get me to your locale.

Why this Title?

KJV Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no

more sea.

_______________

We will be discussing the Creation and the Re-Creation of the Universe; the “powers” of heaven and the God of gods who controls them. Oh, yea, Jesus is in here too!

Where the Sea starts…

The reason Genesis 1:2 is so important (to me at least) is that it sets forth the beginning of creation and allows the reader (or researcher for that matter) to “follow the bread crumbs” of the water that you find there.

The Bible Record and timing is key!

Why have I pounded away at all this “fallen angel” stuff; because God’s other “sons” are extremely important in the Cosmic Battle that will end in “no more sea”.

• Sons of God (Job 38 and elsewhere)

• Dragon (next WebEx – “Enter/ Exit the Dragon”)

• Nachash (he came to the Garden alone)

• The Satan (morphed into the dude we meet in the Gospels…they are free will beings, BTW)

• Prince of the kingdom of Persia and Prince of Greece

WHY A SEA?All Ancient Near Eastern cultures (and even some others) have the “story” of a battle in a celestial sea. Scholars have called it a “mythical” reenactment of the harvest and seasons. Mostly this is because of their bias and un-spirituality.

That recorded in the Biblical record is…well…true!

God is not disingenuous(He doesn’t try to trick us…)

In trying to understand the ANE Cosmology the reader of Scripture must first understand “to whom” it is written.

That “whom” is a scientifically naïve culture and this naivety lasted until the scientific discoveries of the middle ages.

Biblically, the earth was flat and that notion continued with Columbus and his ilk until Ferdinand Megellan circumnavigated the globe.

God is not disingenuous(Again…He doesn’t try to trick us…)

Please be patient with me on this "ancient cosmology" thing. It's a different way of looking at what it clearly IN the Scriptures (but not just figures of speech in my opinion). Hell, as I said the other day, we still today think that "heaven" is "up" and "hell" is "down"; and that's all from the Bible. Is it true? Hell may not literally be "below the earth", but that doesn't make it not true. There is a hell and there is a heaven and the frame of reference wherewith God spoke with the prophets about it was merely what was available at the time. Maybe if we needed prophets writing about it today we could use the term "dimensional space-time" or the "fifth dimension" or "parallel universes", but it wasn't in their collective "vocabulary" and apparently God dealt with that the best He could. Again, He didn't shove their hands across the pages.

Job 2:10 – did not sin with his lips

The Beginning…Genesis 1:1-2 KJV 1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The Earth becomes the Epicenter of God’s Heart, but where did all this water come from?

ANE Cosmic GeographyThe Big Picture

Tartaros

Sheol/ Hades

HeavenGenesis 1:8

ThirdHeaven

2 Cor 12:2

Heaven2 Sam 21:10;

Revelation 19:17

The Highest

in Denis Lamoureux’sEvolutionary Creation:

Psalm 148:4

Genesis 1: 7-9 Exodus

20: 4

Psalm 104:3 - “Who layeth the beams of his

chambers in the waters: who maketh

the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the

wings of the wind:

Bob’s Notes

The Throne of God

The Circuit (circle) of Heaven

Let’s unpack this verse…The Earth is there; we don’t have to “create it in six

days”, but…

1. It was “without form and void” (aka – “a wreck”)

2. That there was “darkness was upon the face of the deep” 3. And finally that “the spirit of God moved upon [hovered over]

the face of the waters”

The good student of Scripture needs to ask a few questions here:

1. What does it mean to have the earth without form and void? 2. Why is there darkness on the surface of the deep?3. What is the deep for that matter?4. Where did all that water come from?(and…trumpets

please…Psalm 148: 4-7)5. Why is God’s spirit (or breath?) moving on the water’s surface?

Who else knew about this water?(Alternatively: Why don’t we know about this water?)

Peter describes it…and its not Noah’s Flood…(that’s 2 Peter 2: 5)

2 Peter 3:1-6 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: 2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: 3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of (NJB – “They deliberately ignore”), that by the word of

God (sound like Genesis 1:3?) the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby (by this water…) the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (NASB/ NIV - “was destroyed”):

THIS NOT NOAH’S FLOOD!!Genesis 7:20 “the mountains were covered”

World “destroyed” by water?Is there any corroborating evidence? In the oldest book in the Bible…Yes!

Job 38:1-11 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 4

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. 5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7

When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it (the sea) brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? 9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof (for it), and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it (the sea), 10

And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, 11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

Hebrew poetry here.

Did you think the Ancient prophets thought like this???

And God said, “Let there be light…”

If the earth exists in Genesis 1:2; don’t the heavens exist in 1:1? Where does the light come from? – Job 26:13 tells us; it isn’t some contrived “light that was not the sun, because the sun isn’t created until verse 14”…that’s crazy

Looking down on the earth and the “sea”:

very close to the Biblical model: Water, water everywhere…

The oldest known world map, 6thC BCE, Babylonian clay tablet. Courtesy of the British Museum, London.

Circle of the Earth

Water all around

1. Where the birds fly (Jeremiah 4:25); can be “black” (Jeremiah 4:28)

2. The Firmament (Genesis 1:6-8); can be “rolled up like a scroll”; has “windows”, is a “tent”, etc.

3. Where God (Elyon – the Most High) lives (the “heaven of heavens” or “highest heaven” or just “highest” (Psalm 68:33; Deuteronomy 33:26; Luke 2:14; 2 Corinthians 12:2 (Paul’s “third heaven”)

We no longer think of them chronologically.

Waters “above” the firmament?

Genesis 1:3-8 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Biosphere

This is a modern conceptualization of the Biblical model of their cosmos (from the outside); they only knew the inside.

Water out here

So, what else does the Bible call the “sea”?

• The “many (great) waters”

• The “deep”

• The Flood

Many Waters (Great Waters)

Num. 24:7; 2 Sam. 22:17; Ps. 18:16; 29:3; 93:4; Cant. 8:7; Isa. 17:13; Jer. 51:13; Ezek. 19:10; 43:2; Rev. 1:15; 14:2; 17:1; 19:6

Flood and Floods

Noah’s flood was not the only flood in the Hebrew conception; and further, we as Christians cannot be funneled into thinking the Noahic Flood (worldwide) is the only way to think about “floods”.

Think about how we conceive of them in our modern Western worldview and you’ll see how that concept was also in the Bible.

We all know this flood…

Most would consider this a flood

…and this…definitely a flood…

Many words for “flood” in the Bible

• Noah’s Flood (lWBm; - mabbuwl – “deluge”) Gen. 6:17; 7:6f, 10, 17; 9:11, 15,

28; 10:1, 32; 11:10; (kataklusmo,j - kataklusmos ) Matthew 24: 38, 39; Luke

17: 27

• “other side of the flood”; meaning the Red Sea (rh'n" – nahar – “torrent”) Jos.

24:2f, 14f Ps. 66:6

• The Celestial Sea - Psalm 74: 15 (nahar) and 29: 10 (mabbuwl)

• General - “inundation” (~r;z" - zaram) – Psalm 90: 5; Isa. 28:2; Isa. 59: 19; Jer.

47: 2 (nahar); Jer. 46: 7,8; Amos 8: 8; 9: 5 – “river” (rAay> - ye`or )

• “overflowing of waters”( (@j,v, - sheteph); Dan. 9: 26; 11: 22; Nahum 1: 8

• Luke 6: 48 (plh,mmura - plemmura ) “flood”

• Hmmmm…. what about 2 Peter 2:5 (kataklusmo,j); is it Noah’s??

• Revelation 12: 15, 16 (potamo,j - potamos) and (potamofo,rhtoj -

potamophoretos) “flood” and “overwhelmed by a…flood” or “carried away by

a flood).

The Flood(s) we know of…

Noah’s – “world”wide…memorableCrossing the Red Sea…immense…also impressiveHmmm…the Celestial sea… OMG!

Job 22:13-16 13 And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? 14 Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven. 15 Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? 16 Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood: {whose...: Heb. a flood was poured upon their foundation}

Job 22:14; 26:10; Prov. 8:27; Isa. 40:22 (compass, circle)

The Sand is the Limit

Proverbs 8: 29

Jeremiah 5: 22

Revelation 13: 1

Beast

Revelation 12:17 - 13:1 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood1 on the sand of the sea. ESV Revelation 13:1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

Texts that may now make sense

Revelation 12: 17- 13: 1

Exodus 20: 11

Job 9:8 and 26: 12

Psalm 74: 13 and 89: 9 (see 93: 4 too)

I need to catalogue more of this…as you read the Word please jot them down and write to me (robert_wassung@tltf.org).