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frizzybear
Aug 6, 2012, 04:37 PM
Yes or No

And if Heaven was created along with earth on the same days where did God go before all creation?

Because in the beginning Satan tempted Adam and Eve so I was thinking that Heaven was created before Earth because Heavens forever and Satan was one of Gods angels...
Also how did God get his name? Did he create the dinosaurs with humans? Were did he go before creation?

Wondergirl
Aug 6, 2012, 05:08 PM
Heaven was always there. Heaven is where God is.

if Heaven was created along with earth on the same days where did God go before all creation?
He was just there.

Also how did God get his name?
His name is I Am That I Am. He has no real name. He just is.

Did he create the dinosaurs with humans?
Before.

Where did he go before creation?
He was just there/nowhere/everywhere.

classyT
Aug 7, 2012, 08:29 PM
The bible says in the first verse... In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

I don't believe the heavens were always there. They were created. Satan also was created. EVERYthing other than God was created. According to the bible, God always was. I don't understand that anymore than anyone really understand it. I accept it by faith.

According to the Bible mankind is 6000 years old. I have often thought I would ask God what he was doing before creation. But I feel certain when I meet Him face to face... that won't be the first question or thought on my mind. Lol

Trying to figure out God and where He came from will either keep you up late at night... or put you sound asleep. Either way... the thought is AWESOME. We humans only know beginnings. We can't and don't understand a being that always was.

Wondergirl
Aug 7, 2012, 08:33 PM
The bible says in the first verse ....In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The heavens are not Heaven.

heavens = sky/constellations/galaxies/everything "out there" vs. solid ground, the planet Earth.

classyT
Aug 7, 2012, 08:53 PM
WG.

According to the bible the ONLY thing not created is God. That is it. And he even says that one day he will create a new heaven and a new earth. In order to create a new heaven and earth... he had to create an old heaven and earth. Heaven is a created place. And I disagree with your thoughts on heaven... there is the 1st heaven... the sky, the second heaven... the stars and planets and the third heaven... where God dwells now. That is my understanding of the heavens. But if you have verses to say otherwise.. I'm willing to take a look.

Wondergirl
Aug 7, 2012, 09:10 PM
Heaven is a euphemism, an idea, where God is. It isn't a literal place.

classyT
Aug 7, 2012, 09:29 PM
Heaven is a euphemism, an idea, where God is. It isn't a literal place.

Well, I disagree. I believe heaven is real. And if it isn't.. why make a new one? I believe my very own father is there right now. I believe the bible teaches being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The LORD being the best and most important thing in heaven... but there are too many scriptures that says otherwise. It is a real place, with real people and a throne room where Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father. Heaven is a real place... hell is a real place. Not according to me.. but according to the bible.

Wondergirl
Aug 7, 2012, 09:32 PM
Well, i disagree. I believe heaven is real. And if it isn't..why make a new one? I believe my very own father is there right now. I believe the bible teaches being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The LORD being the best and most important thing in heaven....but there are too many scriptures that says otherwise. it is a real place, with real people and a throne room where Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father. heaven is a real place....hell is a real place. not according to me..but according to the bible.
That was written so readers could more easily understand the concept, like "streets of gold" and "land of milk and honey."

classyT
Aug 8, 2012, 09:30 AM
That was written so readers could more easily understand the concept, like "streets of gold" and "land of milk and honey."

Completely disagree. Shocking I know. I will give you the reasons later. I'm so busy preparing for company and with a broken foot to boot. Ugh... but anyway. Would love to discuss this more. Just give me a chance. :)

Athos
Aug 11, 2012, 06:50 PM
[QUOTE=classyT;3227501]According to the Bible mankind is 6000 years old.[QUOTE]


Nowhere in the Bible does it say "mankind is 6000 years old". What did it say when it was written down? "Mankind is 4000 years old? 2,500?" Pick a number.

Fr_Chuck
Aug 11, 2012, 07:05 PM
450,321 how is that number?

But we are told in the Bible in the writings of Paul there are 3 heavens, the first is the atmosphere around the earth, The second is outter space, and the third is where God lives.

The heavens mentioned in Gen is the first and second heavens. Since Gen is the story of the creation of earth and mankind.

And of course we do not know if there were other heavens before these that God had.

dwashbur
Aug 11, 2012, 08:56 PM
450,321 how is that number?

But we are told in the Bible in the writings of Paul there are 3 heavens, the first is the atmosphere around the earth, The second is outter space, and the third is where God lives.

The heavens mentioned in Gen is the first and second heavens. Since Gen is the story of the creation of earth and mankind.

And of course we do not know if there were other heavens before these that God had.

Actually, Paul just said he was caught up to the third heaven. He never said what any of them were. So this is all speculation based on one obscure statement.

Wondergirl
Aug 11, 2012, 10:03 PM
And of course we do not know if there were other heavens before these that God had.
Being here is like being in Seventh Heaven.

classyT
Aug 13, 2012, 07:46 AM
According to the Bible mankind is 6000 years old.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say "mankind is 6000 years old". What did it say when it was written down? "Mankind is 4000 years old? 2,500?" Pick a number.
It is approximately 6000 years old. According to Bible scholars--by estimating the generations given, the time would be about 4000 years for the Old Testament and about 2000 years for the New Testament--approximately 6000 years.

dwashbur
Aug 13, 2012, 03:04 PM
It is approximately 6000 years old. According to Bible scholars--by estimating the generations given, the time would be about 4000 years for the Old Testament and about 2000 years for the New Testament--approximately 6000 years.

I don't know which "Bible scholars" you're talking about, but practically no reputable scholar buys this nonsense any more. The genealogy method lost favor over 100 years ago. Time to update your library.

classyT
Aug 16, 2012, 08:13 PM
I don't know which "Bible scholars" you're talking about, but practically no reputable scholar buys this nonsense any more. The genealogy method lost favor over 100 years ago. Time to update your library.

Lost favor with whom? (don't know if I should have said, "whom" but it sounded good, huh?)

Define reputable?

I don't know a teacher, preacher, pastor or anyone that I have sat under that didn't teach this. I live in Ohio. Ever heard of Ken Ham? He has a creation museum. It is REAL popular for a method that has lost favor 100 years ago. Golly gee wiz... He believes it. John Hagee, Les Fel, Joseph Prince, Charles Stanley, John Darby Jack VanEmp.. Perry Stone.just about any good teachers of the bible teach it. I can't think of anyone mainstream christianity that doesn't believe it.

But you know what? That doesn't really matter. The Bible is the final authority.

dwashbur
Aug 16, 2012, 09:08 PM
Lost favor with whom? (don't know if I should have said, "whom" but it sounded good, huh?)

Define reputable?

I don't know a teacher, preacher, pastor or anyone that I have sat under that didn't teach this. I live in Ohio. Ever heard of Ken Ham? He has a creation museum. It is REAL popular for a method that has lost favor 100 years ago. Golly gee wiz... He believes it. John Hagee, Les Fel, Joseph Prince, Charles Stanley, John Darby Jack VanEmp..Perry Stone.just about any good teachers of the bible teach it. I can't think of anyone mainstream christianity that doesn't believe it.

But you know what? That doesn't really matter. The Bible is the final authority.

Not one of those is an actual biblical scholar. A preacher is not a scholar. Yes, I've heard of Ken Ham and his museum. Within actual scholarly circles, he's an embarrassment.

But you're right, the Bible is the final authority. And it never says anything about how old the universe is or how old humanity is. The genealogy thing, originated by Ussher several centuries ago, is a joke. The "days" of Genesis 1 can't be 24 hour solar days because the sun wasn't even created until the fourth, so there was no possible way to have a literal "evening and morning." Those preachers you try to claim are scholars will try to tell you that when the word "day" is used with a series of numbers like it is in Genesis 1, it always refers to literal days. But that's bunk, because Genesis 1 is the only place where such a sequence occurs so we have no idea what kind of "day" it might refer to. More circular reasoning of the type that you seem to really like. But you liking it doesn't make it true. The fact is, those guys you revere are nothing but an endocentric little circle-jerk that is ignored by actual scholars because they have nothing intelligent to say.

Athos
Aug 17, 2012, 08:32 AM
More circular reasoning of the type that you seem to really like. But you liking it doesn't make it true. The fact is, those guys you revere are nothing but an endocentric little circle-jerk that is ignored by actual scholars because they have nothing intelligent to say.

Well, I guess that's that. "Endocentric little circle jerks". Indeed !

Fr_Chuck
Aug 17, 2012, 08:42 AM
I don't know which "Bible scholars" you're talking about, but practically no reputable scholar buys this nonsense any more. The genealogy method lost favor over 100 years ago. Time to update your library.

All that I know is, ask most professors at Liberty University if they don't believe every world of the bible to be true.

Fr_Chuck
Aug 17, 2012, 08:46 AM
No speculation at all, there are dozens of verses in the bible, we could go on to Rev also.

I don't have my text book, actually just studied the three heavens in a college class this summer but I packed the book away, it is for from obscure and it is a fairly well set doctrine about the use of the word heaven throughout the bible.

The firmament, Earths Atmosphere -which is the immediate sky, where the “fowls of the heaven” (Genesis 2:19; 7:3,23; Psalms 8:8, etc.), “the eagles of heaven” (Lamentations 4:19), it is our atmosphere that surrounds the earth.

The second heaven is the starry heavens, where our atmosphere ends. It is the heavens in which the sun, moon, and stars are fixed in orbit. The stars are seemingly endless and the distance between all of them is staggering no wonder the Bible states Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” In ancient times people were in awe of the starry expanse, today we know how immense this really is.

Third Heaven - This is where God and the holy angels (and creatures) and spirits of just men dwell. It is called “The heaven of heavens,” (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 115:16; 148:4). (1Kings 8:27) - “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.” (Psalm 2:4) The One enthroned in heaven laughs; The LORD scoffs at them.”

Wondergirl
Aug 17, 2012, 08:50 AM
John Hagee, Les Fel, Joseph Prince, Charles Stanley, John Darby Jack VanEmp..Perry Stone
I'm in mainstream Christianity and have heard only of Hagee from the news about his anti-gay beliefs and that Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment on New Orleans.

dwashbur
Aug 17, 2012, 09:18 AM
No speculation at all, there are dozens of verses in the bible, we could go on to Rev also.

I don't have my text book, actually just studied the three heavens in a college class this summer but I packed the book away, it is for from obscure and it is a fairly well set doctrine about the use of the word heaven throughout the bible.

The firmament, Earths Atmosphere -which is the immediate sky, where the “fowls of the heaven” (Genesis 2:19; 7:3,23; Psalms 8:8, etc.), “the eagles of heaven” (Lamentations 4:19), it is our atmosphere that surrounds the earth.

I don't see anything here that describes this as a "first" heaven. I don't see any numbers at all.


The second heaven is the starry heavens, where our atmosphere ends. It is the heavens in which the sun, moon, and stars are fixed in orbit. The stars are seemingly endless and the distance between all of them is staggering no wonder the Bible states Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” In ancient times people were in awe of the starry expanse, today we know how immense this really is.

You have a big problem here. You just called both your "first" and "second" heavens by the term "firmament," better translated as "expanse," and both use the Hebrew word RAQIA`. We know from other ancient sources that people of that time considered the sky to be basically a big bowl set over the earth, and the RAQIA` included both the dome with the stars and sun etc. embedded in it, and the space below it all the way down to the earth. There's also the matter of Hebrew poetry in Psalm 19:1. I'll try to explain this for those readers who aren't Hebrew geeks like me.

Hebrew poetry used parallelism, which is to say, you write a line, then the second line says something about it. The most common, and the one we have here, is a restatement: say the same thing as the first line, but in different words. So we have:

The heavens declare the glory of God
The expanse shows his handiwork.

Two sides of a coin, both saying the same thing. But just so there was no mistake, the writer used a device called chiasmus. In this, you say the first line normally, but you say the second line in reverse, making it clear that you are saying the same thing over again. In Hebrew it comes out

The heavens declare the glory of God
His handiwork shows the expanse

It really doesn't work in English because word order is a lot more important in English than it was in Hebrew. Better English to show how this works would be

His handiwork is shown by the expanse.

The important thing about this is, in this verse the "heavens" and the "firmament" are the same thing. There's no difference between this "heavens" and the one in Genesis 1 where the birds fly. So looking at the Hebrew of the verses you use, there's no way to get two different heavens out of this.

I might also point out that again, there's no number associated with any of these "heavens."


Third Heaven - This is where God and the holy angels (and creatures) and spirits of just men dwell. It is called “The heaven of heavens,” (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Psalms 115:16; 148:4). (1Kings 8:27) - “The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.” (Psalm 2:4) The One enthroned in heaven laughs; The LORD scoffs at them.”

Again there's no number. The truth is, we have no idea how many "heavens" there might be. Paul said the man he was talking about was caught up to the "third heaven." We still don't know what that means. For all we know there's 21,840 of them. The Bible does indeed call God's dwelling place "heaven" but that's as much as we know. That maybe Paul's "third heaven" or it may be scads of heavens beyond it. We just don't know. We do know, though, that the first and second ones that you mentioned above are the same thing, so there's no real way to get two numbered heavens out of those passages. Sorry.

Fr_Chuck
Aug 17, 2012, 09:21 AM
I don't see anything here that describes this as a "first" heaven. I don't see any numbers at all.



You have a big problem here. You just called both your "first" and "second" heavens by the term "firmament," better translated as "expanse," and both use the Hebrew word RAQIA`. We know from other ancient sources that people of that time considered the sky to be basically a big bowl set over the earth, and the RAQIA` included both the dome with the stars and sun etc. embedded in it, and the space below it all the way down to the earth. There's also the matter of Hebrew poetry in Psalm 19:1. I'll try to explain this for those readers who aren't Hebrew geeks like me.

Hebrew poetry used parallelism, which is to say, you write a line, then the second line says something about it. The most common, and the one we have here, is a restatement: say the same thing as the first line, but in different words. So we have:




The heavens declare the glory of God
The expanse shows his handiwork.

Two sides of a coin, both saying the same thing. But just so there was no mistake, the writer used a device called chiasmus. In this, you say the first line normally, but you say the second line in reverse, making it clear that you are saying the same thing over again. In Hebrew it comes out

The heavens declare the glory of God
his handiwork shows the expanse

It really doesn't work in English because word order is a lot more important in English than it was in Hebrew. Better English to show how this works would be

His handiwork is shown by the expanse.

The important thing about this is, in this verse the "heavens" and the "firmament" are the same thing. There's no difference between this "heavens" and the one in Genesis 1 where the birds fly. So looking at the Hebrew of the verses you use, there's no way to get two different heavens out of this.

I might also point out that again, there's no number associated with any of these "heavens."



Again there's no number. The truth is, we have no idea how many "heavens" there might be. Paul said the man he was talking about was caught up to the "third heaven." We still don't know what that means. For all we know there's 21,840 of them. The Bible does indeed call God's dwelling place "heaven" but that's as much as we know. That maybe Paul's "third heaven" or it may be scads of heavens beyond it. We just don't know. We do know, though, that the first and second ones that you mentioned above are the same thing, so there's no real way to get two numbered heavens out of those passages. Sorry.


Sorry, no, you are just not trying to see it, no surprise but it is a common teaching of every Christian faith I know of, there are dozens of verses, and use of various terms for heaven in the OT.



http://www.cupofwrath.com/risen-dust/03-heavens.php

http://www.kjvbible.org/firmament.html

http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-does-the-bible-say-heaven-is-like/

Athos
Aug 17, 2012, 09:47 AM
I don't see anything here that describes this as a "first" heaven. I don't see any numbers at all.. Sorry.

Always nice to have a genuine scholar here to wade through the uninformed, although always fervently believed, bad Biblical interpretation.

I know little about the technical aspects of the Psalms, but I do know about chanting them in a monastery in the dark of the night and being moved by this wonderful religious poetry.

dwashbur
Aug 17, 2012, 12:45 PM
Sorry, no, you are just not trying to see it, no surprise but it is a common teaching of every Christian faith I know of, there are dozens of verses, and use of various terms for heaven in the OT.

Trust me, I've seen them. And I've examined them minutely. And they don't say what you think they say.

The Three Heavens in the Bible (http://www.cupofwrath.com/risen-dust/03-heavens.php)

"So biblical heaven can refer to either the sky, outer-space, or Paradise depending on the context in which it is used."

Excuse me, but the ancient Hebrews had no concept of outer space. As far as they knew, the sun, the moon and the stars were affixed to the dome above the earth, probably no further away than the birds could fly. This page really doesn't prove anything; it just says something and cites a bunch of KJV verses that supposedly support it. But they don't; not one of them says anything akin to "this is first heaven, this is second heaven" etc. Most of them are poetic, and using hyperbolic language to express the inexpressible. And of course, somebody tries to interpret them literally even though literal interpretation of passages like these winds up just looking silly.


The Firmament, Third Heaven, and Structure of Things Biblical (http://www.kjvbible.org/firmament.html)

Seriously? You're going with this one? Ooooookay. Here we go.

'On the second day of the creation, the Lord God "divided" the waters (plural) of the great "deep" into two parts with a "firmament" in the midst. According to Genesis 1:10, both the waters that were upon the face of the Earth and the waters which He placed ABOVE the firmament He called "Seas":

"And God called the dry [land] Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that [it was] good."
(Gen 1:10 KJV)

This is important to understand. We know that the waters on the Earth are called "
(Gen 1:10 KJV)

This is important to understand. We know that the waters on the Earth are called " in the Bible, but there is also another "Sea" in the Bible, but there is also another "Sea" that is spoken of in the Scriptures, and that one is above the firmament. (Special note: Notice that the word "above the firmament" is capitalized at Genesis 1:10 in the KJV Bible). '

You do realize that this person thinks the waters "seas." are actually surrounding God's throne, and not clouds like any good interpreter would conclude? Talk about a cure for which there is no known disease; yes, it says "Cantonese" and that's about it. That's this guy's level of Hebrew knowledge. He can copy something out of Strong's and cite the King James. That gets him precisely nowhere, and makes the page a joke.

What Does the Bible say Heaven is Like? (http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/what-does-the-bible-say-heaven-is-like/)

This one doesn't even try to explain the first two, it just takes figurative language in the end of Revelation and tries to make it literal. No help there, either.

And you haven't answered my question about the " These people knew there was more than one sea on the earth! Duh. I'm sorry, Chuck. I have a lot of respect for you, but I can't take this page seriously. This guy knows as much about Hebrew as I know about Cantonese. Which is to say, nothing; I can spell " How do you justify giving it two different meanings in essentially the same sentence, when there are no linguistic indicators to suggest that it's so?