What Did God Actually Say?

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [Genesis 1.1]

I am excited to begin another year reading through the One Year Chronological Bible (OYCB).

As I read the Creation account today, I had a moment considering just how long creation actually took... How long, really, was a "day"? In other words, I was trying to mix evolutionary thought with what the Bible says in order to arrive at a 'marriage' of the two to satisfy my human reasoning.

Then, as I was reading, it occurred to me that plants need the sun to survive. The sun was not created until the day after plants. So, if a "day" was some incredibly long period of time (as evolutionists would suggest), plants would never have survived! I concluded then that, as time goes, a "day" when God created the earth, was pretty much a "day" as we understand it today.

It also occurred to me that, in human reasoning, you can't have light without the sun. And yet, the sun was not created until three full days after light was created! Here's a thought... The Bible says God is light (1 John 1.5), so did God create Himself? What a can of worms that question opens! The Bible also says God is "I AM," Who was, and is, and is to come, indicating eternal existence. But! Was that eternal existence "light"? It would seem perhaps not since God created light on the first day. John 1 gives a discussion about God's eternal nature and light - and is certainly a worthy read!

With what has been said to this point, we need to really focus on what the Bible (God) actually says! Case in point:

But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” [Genesis 2.16-17]

The passage above is what God said to Adam. But compare it to how Satan presented it here to Eve:

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” [Genesis 3.1]

Satan not only questioned God, but twisted what God actually said in so doing! And, here is the beginning of where mankind failed: Eve presumed to argue with Satan. Yes, Eve argued what God had actually said, even quoting the scripture to Satan, but Satan's deceptive snare had already been set - Eve engaged the devil, human reasoning kicked in, and sin found its attachment to man.

Since we also have a New Testament account of Jesus being tempted by Satan and responding with "it is written..." we need to understand the difference between Eve and Jesus. Here is a thought... Jesus knew God's Word and was fully convinced of it. Eve knew God's Word but was evidently not fully convinced of it. The only difference between Jesus and Eve was that Jesus was operating off direct Word from God and Eve was (perhaps) only operating off what Adam told her God said. Bottom line: every single human being needs to get the Word from God - it is not good enough to say, "brother so and so said God said..."

Now, that's a good start for 2024 (or any year for that matter)!

Father, help me to be much more literal in my obedience to You and Your Word. Forgive me for trying to reason with ungodly views when I am operating only off second-hand information from You. May I say, "it is written" because I have read and experienced it directly! So be it!