Some of the questions answered on this site:

Is the earth
- according to the Bible -
a disc, heaven a metal firmament?
Did God create the world in seven days?
Were Adam and Eve the first human beeings?
Was Noah's flood a local or a worldwide catastrophe?
What did really happen when the 'Tower of Babel' was built?
Are Creation and Evolution incompatible contradictions?
Where do sufferings and death come from?
... and many other subjects.

Read Online         pdf-file            Word.doc

Summary
The first chapter of the Bible is a family tree, describing the evolution of life on earth. The sub-title of the creation report summarizes the whole process with the following words:

The noun toledot used here is an Old Testament technical term for lines of descent and genealogical trees. Only in Genesis 2:4 it is translated wrongly in many Bibles, because ancient translators did not even think about the possibility that humans could descend from land animals. Modern translators copied this traditional mistake. But in fact and quite obviously the first book of the Bible contains a family tree which starts with the Spirit of God 'breeding' over the waters of the early earth. Then it describes the development of life on earth in ascending order: plants, water animals, land animals, which unequivocaly stemmed from water animals, and at last mankind.

According to the Bible creation and evolution
are not incompatible or contradictory,
but two aspects of God's ways to act!

Usually, the second chapter of the Bible is interpreted as a 'second creation report'. But Genesis 2 is not at all a repetition but simply the logical continuation of Genesis 1. It describes what happened thereafter: Adam descended from the humans of the sixth 'day' and lived during the seventh 'day' in a precisely described landscape in the Near East about 5000 years before Christ. He was the first human being with whom God entered into a personal covenant, he was the first elect. His mandate was to establish God's dominion over the earth, which was fallen from the time of the 'tohuwabohu' (Genesis 1:2) on. The Garden of Eden was a 'protected area' which Adam explicitly had to 'guard'.

The whole Bible describes not only the 'genealogies of heaven and earth', but also a spiritual fight, which is raging from the second verse of the Genesis and is going on until today:

• The 'Genesis Flood' was a local catastrophe in the Middle East which belongs into this context.
• And the report of the 'tower of Babel' (Genesis 11) does not deal with the origin of the world's languages, since the chapter before describes explicitly how the languages of the Middle East developped as a 'family tree' (toledot of the sons of Noah, Genesis 10). No, Babylon was the first 'mega city' of the world and stands as a symbol for a religious 'one world movement' with a dictated ideology.

The book of Genesis is the entrance and the foundation of the Bible. This is the reason why it is so important for us to really understand the 'Book of the Beginnings', because otherwise we are building our faith upon inclined ground and might in the end 'tip over'. We try to show how an adequate interpretation of the original text can look like:

• First the meaning of crucial Hebrew words is explored by considering their origin (ethymology)
• and by looking at all passages where they appear in the Bible (concordance).
• Then they are interpreted according to the context in which they are situated.

Christian books and links
about
faith and science / creation and evolution

The American Scientific Affiliation (ASA) has a very informative website 
at www.asa3.org (can be searched for topics). The ASA can also be 
reached by e-mail at [email protected].

The International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), with 
membership movements in 150 countries, can be reached at 
[email protected]. In various countries (e.g. USA), IFES also works 
with graduates and faculty. The Mexican and Central American branch of 
IFES has a website at www.cieeal.org (presumably in Spanish).

A few relevant books:

Dick Fischer, "The Origins Solution" (1996; ISBN 1-55673-188-4)

M.A.Jeeves & R.J.Berry, "Science, Life & Christian Belief"
(1998, ISBN 0-85111-459-8)

Roger Forster & Paul Marston, "Reason, Science & Faith" 
(1999, ISBN 1-85424-441-8)

Denis Alexander, "Rebuilding the Matrix" (2001, ISBN 0-7459-5116-3)

Keith Miller (ed.), "Perspectives on an Evolving Creation" 
(2003, ISBN 0-8028-0512-4)

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