AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE 2

– Although Christians are very quick to proclaim our faith in Christ, especially when we have been in the faith for many years, but for some, deep down in their hearts, there are still some doubt about the existence of God and it shows when Christians live our daily routines among unbelievers.

– We can talk about faith very passionately when we are among our brothers and sisters in Christ and live out our faith boldly when we are in church. But when Christians go to work, to school or somewhere else in the society, some of us have been acting like we never know Christianity or the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

– One of the main reasons is Christians see the reality of life is so different with our faith’s view, especially when we compare what had been written in the Bible with the human history and science’s discoveries, for example, science has already verified that the Australian aborigines have had a history of 40,000 years or the Chinese’s is longer than that, at 60,000 years, while Adam’s age was just 930 years and it’s not enough 10,000 years between him and us right now, and he was the first human on Earth.

– That’s why many Christians have treated our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a religion like others in the world, which have taught only about philosophy, morality, virtues and even myths. But our faith is actually a reality and it’s true more than science and life itself, because our God is real and His existence has been proven in the Bible, in the universe and in human life as well.

– But the problem with Christians is we did not let the Bible explains itself for us. We more than often used our own thought, ideas, knowledge and even imagination to interpret the Bible, that’s why there are so many confusions and contradictions in the way Christians understand the Bible, and that’s why Christians have two different attitudes toward faith and science. But in reality, science is unconsciously proving that the Bible is the Truth, precise and accurate. I will prove this point at another time.

– As for many of us, when we believe that our God is real, how can we prove it to unbelievers and the science community? Some Christians pointed out that there have been many scientists who believed in God and we do not need to prove God’s existence to their community. But do we know that those scientists really believe in God or just believe in the better philosophy of the Bible’s teaching more than other religions’?

– Even so, if some scientists actually believed in God, so that’s means our faith is depended on their faith to interpret the Bible scientifically? Do we know how many scientists truly believe in the Bible nowadays? When we see the evolution that is taught at schools we can imagine how many scientists actually have faith in the Bible.

– The Bible’s definition of faith is we must be certain of what we believe, not put our faith on what others believe, as it was written in the letter to the Hebrews:

HEBREWS 11: 1 – Faith is being sure of what you hope for and being certain of what you do not see.

HÊ-BƠ-RƠ 11: 1 – Vả, đức tin là sự biết chắc vững vàng của những điều mình đang trông mong là bằng cớ của những điều mình chẳng xem thấy.

– This kind of faith is personal, that means each Christian must be certain of what he or she is believing although we do not see it yet, not on what our parents, grand parents, sisters, brothers, friends or whoever believes.

– Because of that, with God’s help, we will study the authority of the Bible on some subjects that are important to our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

– Today we will look at the first part of the age of Adam and let the Bible guides us by its own verses. Then at another time, we will learn some more when studying the life of Adam together. This subject will be hard for many Christians to understand it, but we should not neglect it or ignore it, and if we could achieve the understanding of it, everything else in the Bible would be easy to grasp, and to be clearer to us.

– According to the Bible, after committing sin by eating the forbidden fruit in Eden, Adam lived 930 years more and died. But, when it was recorded as such in the Bible, many Christians simply remember the number without trying to understand why it was so short if comparing to the human history, and even there were some people thought it was too long. The problem is many Christians believe Adam lived only 930 years, or in other words, they believe 930 years is the time when Adam was created to the day he died.

GENESIS 5: 5 – Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 5: 5 – Vậy, A-đam hưởng thọ được chín trăm ba mươi tuổi, rồi qua đời.

– But according to the Bible, Adam had lived longer than that, longer than what we could imagine. In the Bible there are some verses that prove this point.

– But firstly, to see why there are confusions and contradictions relating to Adam’s age, let consider the warning that God gave Adam concerning the eating of the forbidden fruit that was written in Genesis:

GENESIS 2: 16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man: “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die”.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 2: 16-17 – Rồi, Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời phán dạy rằng: Ngươi được tự do ăn hoa quả các thứ cây trong vườn; nhưng về cây biết điều thiện và điều ác, thì chớ hề ăn đến; vì một mai ngươi ăn, chắc sẽ chết.

– Some Christians scholars thought the death that was mentioned here was a spiritual death. They based their understanding on the death that Paul mentioned in his letter to the Romans:

ROMANS 7: 13 – Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

ROMANS 7: 13 – Vậy thì điều lành trở làm cớ cho tôi chết sao? Chẳng hề như vậy! Nhưng ấy là tội lỗi đã làm cho tôi chết, hầu khi nó nhân điều lành làm chết tôi, tự bày ra nó là tội lỗi; đến nỗi tội lỗi nhân điều răn trở nên cực ác.

– The death that Paul mentioned in his letter to the Romans was used as an example, as a shadow of thing to come, not an actual one because of the possibility of repentance and sinners could be forgiven, and because spiritual death cannot be certain until after the Judgment day. But in Genesis, the Bible uses the word of certain death (or certainly die).

– When some Christians scholars thought the death in God’s warning was a spiritual death, they also meant that Adam would not be in communicating with God anymore, or the spiritual fellowship between him and God was cut off because of his sin. But this kind of idea or interpretation have many contradictions with the Bible itself.

– I want to repeat one more time what I have said before that if anyone uses his/her own idea, knowledge or imagination trying to explain or interpret the Bible, there will certainly be many contradictions with other verses in the Bible.

– Therefore the most important rule that helps us Christians to know the truth in the Bible is it’s never contradicting to any verse that was recorded in the book. Never.

– The first contradiction with what people believed that death in God’s warning to Adam is the spiritual death is this passage:

GENESIS 3: 8-13 – Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man: “Where are you?” He answered: “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid”. And He said: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” The man said: “The woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it”. Then the Lord God said to the woman: “What is this you have done?” The woman said: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate”.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 3: 8-13 – Lối chiều, nghe tiếng Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời đi ngang qua vườn, A-đam và vợ ẩn mình giữa bụi cây, để tránh mặt Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời. Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời kêu A-đam mà phán hỏi rằng: Ngươi ở đâu? A-đam thưa rằng: Tôi có nghe tiếng Chúa trong vườn, bèn sợ, bởi vì tôi lỏa lồ, nên đi ẩn mình. Đức Chúa Trời phán hỏi: Ai đã chỉ cho ngươi biết rằng mình lỏa lồ? Ngươi có ăn trái cây ta đã dặn không nên ăn đó chăng? Thưa rằng: Người nữ mà Chúa đã để gần bên tôi cho tôi trái cây đó và tôi đã ăn rồi. Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời phán hỏi người nữ rằng: Người có làm điều chi vậy? Người nữ thưa rằng: Con rắn dỗ dành tôi và tôi đã ăn rồi.

– The Bible indicates that after Adam and Eva had sinned, God still talked to them directly. Their communication and fellowship were still the same like before. That means the death that God had warned them was not a spiritual one.

– Another evidence to prove that the warning death was not a spiritual death is this verse:

REVELATION 20: 14 – Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

KHẢI HUYỀN 20: 14 – Đoạn, Sự chết và Âm phủ bị quăng xuống hồ lửa. Hồ lửa là sự chết thứ hai.

– As some of us have already known, human beings all have two births and two deaths, physical and spiritual ones. Our first birth, the physical one, came from our biological parents. Our second birth, called the spiritual birth or born again, came from the Holy Spirit as it was written in the Gospel of John:

JOHN 3: 5 – Jesus answered: Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

GIĂNG 3: 5 – Đức Chúa Jêsus đáp rằng: Quả thật, quả thật, ta nói cùng ngươi, nếu một người chẳng nhờ nước và Thánh Linh mà sanh, thì không được vào nước Đức Chúa Trời.

– The Bible also tells us about the two deaths. The first death is physical when a person passed away from this world, and the second death, called the spiritual death, is the punishment in hell, as was quoted above.

– So if the death that God warned Adam about was a spiritual death, it would contradict those verses in the Bible, because it only happens after Judgment day, and no one knows for sure that Adam will be punished in hell for eternity or not. But it did not end there. The most contradiction that kind of thought had is this verse:

ROMANS 5: 12 – Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.

RÔ-MA 5: 12 – Cho nên, như bởi một người mà tội lỗi vào trong thế gian, lại bởi tội lỗi mà có sự chết, thì sự chết đã trải qua trên hết thảy mọi người như vậy, vì mọi người đều phạm tội.

– The death that is mentioned in this verse is the physical death, because the spiritual death only happens when one is punished in hell.

– So, according to this above verse, physical dead only comes when there is sin. That means when there is no sin, there is also no dead at the end.

– But when people believed that Adam had lived only 930 years, that means Adam must committed the sin (eating the forbidden fruit) on his first day after created by God in order to be fit in with Romans 5: 12. It also means he could not committed sin after living for some years from the time he was created, because if it was the case, the quoted verse above (Romans 5: 12) is wrong. That means death was already there at the end of 930 years of Adam’s age before any sin was committed. But God’s words cannot be wrong.

– So, let repeating it one more time, that, if Adam was created and destined to die 930 years later, regardless of committing the sin of eating that fruit or not, God’s warning and Romans 5: 12 are meaningless, even so wrong.

– I have heard some arguments that because God already knew Adam would certainly sin and must be dead at the 930th year of his life, so God planted the tree of knowledge of good and bad right there in the middle of Eden in order for Adam to eat it sometime after being created. But if that was the case, so the choice that God gave him about that tree was a fake one, because he had no choice at all and must eat the fruit to die right on time. With this kind of argument, some people made God’s words became a lie.

– But if Adam committed that sin on his first day after being created in order to make certain that Romans 5: 12 is correct, there are some more contradictions as well with other Bible verses.

– Supposed Adam sinned on his first day after being created by God, there must be some events happened in quick succession on that first day: God created Adam, then He created Eden to put Adam there, then planted the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and bad at the middle of the garden, then told Adam to work and take care of Eden, then He told Adam to name all the animals and birds that He had created, then He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep and from his crib He created Eva, then the serpent tempted her to eat the fruit and she gave it to Adam, and he sinned, then they hid themselves when God came into Eden in the late afternoon.

– And please do not thinks that one day of Adam’s life is 1000 years in God’s eyes, because if that was the case, the 930 years of Adam’s age would be equal to 339,450,000 years. But it would contradict to the time unit of other verses in the Bible as well and far before the creation of domestice animals.

– When some people thought that Adam only lived 930 years (with 7 days a week, 24 hours a day) on Earth and all the above events must happen on the first day after he was created in order to make certain Romans 5: 12 is right, there still some contradictions existed with this kind of thought.

– The Bible tells us that God brought animals and birds to Adam so that he could name them all. Supposed Adam had a super computer that worked with the speed of light and every animal and bird had a bar code on them with name for Adam to scan them quickly, he even could not do it in that short of time of a few hours of the day.

– Until now, with the advance of science after many centuries, scientist still cannot name all of the animals and birds that have been existing right now. How could Adam named them just in a few hours of the first day? There are millions of species of animals and birds on Earth and if Adam could not name them all, the Bible verses below would be wrong:

GENESIS 2: 19-20 – Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 2: 19-20 – Giê-hô-va Đức Chúa Trời lấy đất nắn nên các loài thú đồng, các loài chim trời, rồi dẫn đến trước mặt A-đam đặng thử xem người đặt tên chúng nó làm sao, hầu cho tên nào A-đam đặt cho mỗi vật sống, đều thành tên riêng cho nó. A-đam đặt tên các loài súc vật, các loài chim trời cùng các loài thú đồng; nhưng về phần A-đam, thì chẳng tìm được một ai giúp đỡ giống như mình hết.

– As you see, if Christians interpreted the Bible’s truths without letting the Word of God explain itself, there will certainly be many confusions and contradictions like those and because of that, unbelievers keep criticized the Bible as unworthy book. That’s why they rather learn about evolution than the story of the creation in the Bible.

– To give you a hint about Adam actual age, we must know that Adam was created not for death as the Bible indicates so and although his 930 years was counted on the day he ate that fruit, he was created long before that, after the domestic animals were created and science has verified with evidence that they came into existence about 225,000 years ago. This understanding has been supported by all Bible verses that I will show you at another time.

GENESIS 1: 25-26 – God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground”.

SÁNG THẾ KÝ 1: 25-26 – Đức Chúa Trời làm nên các loài thú rừng tùy theo loại, súc vật tùy theo loại, và các côn trùng trên đất tùy theo loại, Đức Chúa Trời thấy điều đó là tốt lành. Đức Chúa Trời phán rằng: Chúng ta hãy làm nên loài người như hình ta và theo tượng ta, đặng quản trị loài cá biển, loài chim trời, loài súc vật, loài côn trùng bò trên mặt đất, và khắp cả đất.

– Thus, the authority of the Bible can be summed up like this: If Christians tried to interpret the Bible with personal thought, ideas and human knowledge, there will certainly be many confusions and contradictions with other Bible verses as I have explained above. But when we let the Bible explains its truths by its own verses, we will have them in perfect order, harmoniously uniting one to another as God had intended for them to be, and the human history will be explained crystal clear for us to understand.

– May God remind us always to let the Holy Spirit to explain truths by His own verses in the Bible so that we can achieve biblical knowledge and satisfy God’s will for all mankind as was recorded in 1Timothy that:

1TIMOTHY 2: 4 – God wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

1TI-MÔ-THÊ 2: 4 – Ngài muốn cho mọi người được cứu rỗi và hiểu biết lẽ thật.

(will be continued)