If God did create us at a specific moment in history, wouldn't that make salvation too easy?

Question

After all, if he created the world and man 5000 years ago for instance, the dating methods science uses would be able to pinpoint that no rock, no fossil, no tree, no cave, dates farther back than 5000 years. This would be too peculiar and would give away the answer of a God, and deprive us of any tests this life has for us.

Answer 1

There are other theories besides what you've heard...

Answer 2

Its all just a myth!

While we have none of the autographs of the Bible, the early manuscripts we do have have and that are known to be genuine, by the most conservative estimates, have 200,000 differences between the wording in them, and while many are not meaningful, some completely change the doctrine of the church. (Ehrman, Bart, Ph.D.; Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and Why; Harper Collins, 2006 -- p. 89). less conservative estimates range up to about 400,000 -- and there are programmers now endeavoring to write a program that will be able to count the exact number of variances.

And that's only the start of the difficulties for the Bible. If you only use the Textus Receptus (Received Text) as it is printed in modern Bibles then you are looking at enormous problems anyway -- in fact insurmountable ones. The World does not have corners (Isaiah 11:12), nor does it sit on pillars (I Samuel 2:8), nor water (Psalms 24:1-2). God did not establish a solid dome over the earth (that's what firmament literally means) and he does not have a palace on top of it from which angels can come and go up Jacob's ladder -- which might be reached by the tower of babel -- and where he keeps "treasuries" of hail and snow (Job 38: 22-23). For the sake of all that is decent, you can't even harmonize the 1st and 2nd chapters of Genesis with each other, say nothing of being able to defend the Biblical creation as scientifically factual. That's no surprise though, as the Bible tells us that beetles have four legs (Leviticus 11: 21-23) and that rabbits chew their cuds (Deuteronomy 14:7). It says that pi is 3, not 3.14 (I Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2) and that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world and grows into a tree [neither of which are true] (Matthew 13: 31-32). It is hardly a font of rational thought or scientific accuracy. Furthermore these errors only scratch the surface. Try harmonizing accounts in Joshua and the telling of the same tales in timeline in Judges sometime. If you can you are more proficient than any theologian I've ever met, and I've met a few.

Late bronze age men created the OT and early iron age ones the NT. It is not surprising therefore that God cannot lead Israel to defeat Iron chariots after promising he would (Judges 1:19), and it is not surprising that the flight of Israel from the god Chemosh, after the king of a city the Jews were beseiging and that God had promised them they would overthrow The King of the city offered his own son to Chemosh as a human sacrifice, resulting in Chemosh driving the Israelites away (2 Kings 3: 19-27) -- further it is not surprising that no punishment is mentioned -- the Israelites were still sacrificing their own children, as is evidenced in several places, but most graphically in Judges 11:30-39

The long and short of it is, the Bible is a mythic book, written by bronze and iron age men who were recording primarily oral legends in written form. In any realistic sense it is drivel. You can see, just in the passages I noted above from 2 Kings -- the last vestiges of polytheism fading away. Chemosh was supposed to get power from human sacrifice, just as Jehovah did -- and that power allowed him to turn the table against Israel, despite the fact that God was with Israel.

Read the verses, read the context -- to all the things I've suggested, calm your breathing and thinking and ask yourself if this is really the God of the Universe you are reading about -- or a tribal deity, which has now evolved into the one we worship. I think you will find biblegod sadly lacking -- something the liturgical churches have been saying for hundreds of years. If you find yourself unwilling to even look -- ask yourself why? Are you willing to sacrifice the truth, in order to maintain a comfortable myth for yourself?

And if you want a chuckle, read the second, and theoretically final version of the ten commandments. They are in Exodus 34: 10-26. That is the covenant Yahweh actually made with Israel. No seething here.

Seriously, you are feeling conflicted because you have been told things that are not true -- the biggest one being that the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible is a bronze age book written by bronze age men -- except for some parts of the NT that were written by early Iron age men. It is not divine, and what is says about human sexuality is greatly dependent on the sexual morales of a single culture in the 1st to 4th century CE -- 1st to 4th century I say because the root copies that we have are from the 1st to 4th centuries. Anything older may well have been -- as we can see from Dr. Ehrman's work -- changed.


Have a nice day.

Answer 3

You do have a point. Creation with the appearance of age (Adam's a prime example--never was a baby, after all) also a possibility, but inevitably, it comes down to this:

You cannot prove or disprove God.

You can make reasonable suggestions, but there is no airtight proof. The evidence leads in a certain direction, but there is no proof, never can nor will be. Mind, I believe the Bible to be a historically accurate document--meaning all it says as truth, whether literal or not-quite-literal (the meaning of 'day' as a 24-hour-day or not is one we won't know until we get there).

God bless.

Answer 4

One theory I've heard is that God may have created an "aged" world. For example, do you think he created the Garden of Eden with nothing but seedlings for the grass and trees? And with nothing but baby animals? Adam would've starved.

And since every layer of earth exists because of its age - rocks, mountains, river valleys, etc. - it's possible He did this.

Just a thought.

Answer 5

Just like the round earth theory, just like the theory that the Earth is not the center of the universe, just like evolutionary theory, the theory that there is such a thing as carbon dating is a myth. It isn't in the Bible, it doesn't exist.
BTW, God made iPods.

Answer 6

Oh sure bro, that's why we have scientists tell us stories about the Big Bang! They can't reconcile their theories with having a God around to mess them up!

Answer 7

history is just that, history. salvation comes at different times in ppls lives. look at the caves, rocks, . fossils and trees. your test has obviouisly not come yet.

Answer 8

0 Post'D

Answer 9

yea