Primordial Planet Puzzles (Part 5)

Day 6: Mammals, creeping things, man

 “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:24-25).

Interpretations of Day 6:

• Literal 24-hour Days:     the day man was created circa 6,000 years ago
• Thousand-Year Days:    circa 7,000-6,000 years ago
• Diminishing Day-Ages:  circa 468,750,000-13,306 years ago (Duration: approximately 468,735,694 years) 

Young Earth Creationists claim land animals and man first walked on earth some 6,000 years ago, or 7,000-6,000 years ago at the earliest.

In the Diminishing Day-Ages timeline, God created land animals and hominids during Day-Age 6, 468,750,000 to 13,306 years ago (kya).

A multi-segmented Day 6?

In the Diminishing Day-Ages timeline, the sixth segment should be Day-Age 6, ending about 234,375,000 years ago after the creation of land animals (amphibians, insects, reptiles, mammals). But it cannot be the Biblical Day 6, because it ended before man could be created.

However, if we continue with the exponentially regressing pattern, we see the coming of hominids in the succeeding segments until around 28,611 years ago. For still unclear reasons, it appears that the time segments after Day-Age 5 are not individual day-ages, but parts of a multi-segmented Day-Age 6! There is no apparent basis, but the time segments match the scientific estimates accurately.

There is a clue in the Bible, though. More time and words were used to relate the events of Day 6, because more things happened and more entities were created on that last creative “day.” Moreover, there is a textual parallel in the next chapter, where one “day” is used to mean several days: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens” (Gen 2:4). We know that the “the earth and the heavens” were not created in one single “day,’ but over several “days.”

Did God (Elohim) use more segments of time for Day-Age 6 to create animals of a higher order, as well as to perfect man -- the prime paradigm of His creative work? Let go through those time segments.

Day-Age 6-a

• Circa 468,750,000 to 234,375,000 years ago (Duration: approximately 234,375,000 years)  

First of worst extinctions. Paleontologists have identified at least 17 mass extinctions since life began on earth. Eight are major, all of which took place in the last 500 million years. However, five events are the most devastating: the first took place around 438 million years ago during Day-Age 6-a. Over 85% of species became extinct.⁵⁷

Amphibians created. God created land animals and “creeping things” on Day 6. Fossil remains show that amphibians, a kind of creeping creature, crawled onto dry land around 417 million years ago during Day-Age 6-a.

Second of worst extinctions. The second of the five worst mass extinction events also happened during Day-Age 6-a, approximately 367 million years ago. This time, 82% of all species were lost.⁵⁸

Insects created. God created insects approximately 350 million years ago during Day-Age 6-a. Scientists are puzzled why insects, comprising 80% of all living and extinct animal species, have no known evolutionary ancestors.

A U.S. government reference (Insects, 1952) states: “There is… no fossil evidence bearing on the question of insect origin; the oldest insects known show no transition to other arthropods.”⁵⁹

Reptiles created. God created more “creeping things” – reptiles. The record of the rocks reveals that cold-blooded saurians, the forerunners of modern lizards, arose on the face of the planet starting approximately 323 million years ago during Day-Age 6-a. 

Mammals created. God created warm-blooded mammals -- the “beasts of the earth” (wild animals) and “cattle” (domestic animals).

The fossil record shows that the mammals first walked upon the earth 248 million years ago during Day-Age 6-a.

Third of worst extinctions. The third and most devastating of the five worst mass extinctions also occurred during Day-Age 6-a, some 245 million years ago. As much as 96% of all species were wiped out.

The destruction was so great paleontologists use this event to mark the end of the ancient or Paleozoic Era and the beginning of the middle or Mesozoic Era, when many new groups of animals arose.⁶⁰

Day-Age 6-b

• Circa 234,375,000 to 117,187,500 years ago (Duration: approximately 117,187,500 years)  

Fourth of worst extinctions. The fourth of the five worst mass extinctions transpired some 208 million years ago, claiming about 76% of all species at the time, including many reptiles.⁶¹

Archaeopteryx appeared. A chimeric creature appeared 150 million years ago. Scientists say it was the first true bird – with feathers and wings, and a “wishbone” (the fused collarbones underpinning wing muscles). However, it also had jaws with teeth, claws on its wings, and a long tail like dinosaurs. It was half-bird, half-reptile – the archaeopteryx!

It seems to be alluded to in Scripture. Leviticus 11:18 (NKJV) lists birds: “the white owl, the jackdaw, and the carrion vulture.” The “while owl” is tanshemeth in the Hebrew original. Several verses later, 11:30 lists reptiles: “the gecko, the monitor lizard, the sand reptile, the sand lizard, and the chameleon.” Strangely, “chameleon” is also tanshemeth in the original. The word tanshemeth, applicable to both a bird and a reptile, perfectly describes the archaeopteryx! Was tanshemeth the Scriptural term for the archaeopteryx?

Day-Age 6-c

• Circa 117,187,500 to 58,593,750 years ago (Duration: approximately 58,593,750 years)  

Fifth of worst extinctions. The fifth and most recent of the five worst mass extinctions occurred more or less 65 million years ago, with the death of 76% of all species, most notably the dinosaurs.⁶²

Primates created. Around the time that “terrible lizards” (dinosaurs) became extinct, primates – animals that resemble modern lemurs, monkeys, and apes – came onto the scene some 65,000,000 years ago during Day-Age 6-c.

Day-Age 6-d

• Circa 58,593,750 to 29,296,875 years ago (Duration: approximately 29,296,875 years)  

Rise of mammals. As the level of atmospheric oxygen continued to rise from 10% to 17% about 50 million years ago, then 23% some 40 million years ago, mammals dominated the planet.

Paul Falkowski, a marine science professor, explains: "In the fossil record, we see that this rise in oxygen content corresponds exactly to a really rapid rise of large, placental mammals… The more oxygen, the bigger the mammals… the rise in oxygen content allowed mammals to become very, very large – mammals like 12-foot-tall sloths and huge saber-toothed cats.”⁶³ Some hornless rhinoceroses measured about 30 feet long and stood 18 feet high at the shoulder.

Day-Age 6-e

• Circa 29,296,875 to 14,648,437 years ago (Duration: approximately 14,648,437 years. From here on, fractions are added to succeeding numbers to keep figures rounded.)  

Day-Age 6-f

• Circa 14,648,437 to 7,324,218 years ago (Duration: approximately 7,324,218 years)  

Manlike creatures.

The Jewish philosopher Maimonides said in his exegesis of Genesis that there were manlike creatures before Adam.⁶⁴ Similarly, the Talmud and other ancient Jewish commentaries mention pre-Adamic animals with human forms but without the neshamah or God-given spirit.⁶⁵ How did they know that before fossils were discovered?

Anthropologists call manlike creatures thought to be ancestors of man “hominids.” They call living apes “hominoids,” because they are only similar to humans, but not man’s supposed ancestors.

Ramapithecus, 14-8 mya. Found in 1932 in northern India (now part of Pakistan), parts of a fossilized jaw and some teeth, dated about 14-8 million years old, were named Ramapithecus -- “Rama's ape,” after Rama, a mythical prince of India, combined with pithekos, Greek for “ape.” In 1976, a complete jaw was discovered. With a distinctly simian V shape, it differs markedly from the parabolic shape of hominid jaws.⁶⁶ More complete fossils have been found in China and Pakistan, confirming that Ramapithecus was not a hominid, but a true ape.⁶⁷

Day-Age 6-g

• Circa 7,324,218 to 3,662,109 years ago (Duration: approximately 3,662,109 years)  

Sahelanthropus tchadensis, 7-6 mya.  In 2001 the fossils of the supposedly oldest hominid species, estimated at 7-6 million years old,  were found in the north central African nation of Chad.⁶⁸ Dubbed Sahelanthropus (“Sahel man,” after the semi-arid region and the Greek word anthropos, meaning “human”), it has an apelike skull. The fossil pieces are so few, it is uncertain if Sahelanthropus walked bipedally.⁶⁹ 

Orrorin tugenensis, 6 mya. Found in the Tugen Hills of central Kenya in 2000, the fossils received the name Orrorin tugenensis, which means “original man in the Tugen region.” Thought to be 6 million years old,⁷⁰ the fossilized skeleton has simian features, including long, curved finger bones for grasping and movement in trees, and apelike canine and premolar teeth.⁷¹

Ardipithecus, 4.4 mya. Unearthed in Ethiopia in 1994, this fossil find dated to be 4.4-million years old has been named Ardipithecus, from words in the Afar and Greek languages meaning “ground ape.”⁷² “Ardi,” however, has apelike teeth and skeleton, suggesting its ability to walk upright might not have been well developed.⁷³

Australopithecus, 4-1 mya. In 1924, a fossilized skull was dug up in Taung, South Africa. It was named Australopithecus, which means “southern ape.” Thought to be man’s ancestor, six species have since been identified. An almost complete 3,200,000-year-old skeleton of a female unearthed in 1974 by Donald Johanson at Hadar, Ethiopia, was nicknamed “Lucy,” after the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which played on the night of the find.⁷⁴

Australopithecines, some 3½ to 5 feet tall, had a brain (390-550 cu cm) about one-third of that of a modern human; a low cranium behind a projecting face; small canine teeth like those of humans, but large cheek teeth (molars) like apes. Although Lucy had arms proportionally longer than those of modern people, she is said to have walked upright,⁷⁵ based on a knee joint. (Johanson later said the knee fragment was discovered a mile and a half away in a rock layer 200 feet deeper, but was included due to “anatomical similarity.”)⁷⁶

Bruce Bower, in the Science News of 2 June 2001, reported that, in one study, Australopithecine inner ear bones used to maintain balance were found to be greatly similar to those of chimpanzees and gorillas, but markedly different from those of humans.⁷⁷ Mark Cartmill et al. wrote in the July-August 1986 issue of American Scientist: “At present we have no grounds for thinking that there was anything distinctively human about australopithecine ecology and behavior... they were surprisingly apelike in skull form, premolar dentition, limb proportions, and morphology of some joint surfaces, and they may still have been spending a significant amount of time in the trees.”⁷⁸ 

Anatomist Sir Solly Zuckerman and Dr. Charles Oxnard, in contrast  to anthropologists using subjective and less analytical visual techniques, developed a multivariate analysis technique with computers performing millions of analyses on homologous Australopithecine, simian, and human bones. Their finding: Australopithecus is not a missing link between ape and man.⁷⁹ Sir Solly observed: “When compared with human and simian skulls, the Australopithecine skull is in appearance overwhelmingly simian – not human… Our findings leave little doubt that… Australopithecus resembles not Homo sapiens but the living monkeys and apes.”⁸⁰

Paleontologist Richard Leakey said in his book Origins (1977) that it is “unlikely that our direct ancestors are evolutionary descendants of the australopithecines.”⁸¹ James Shreeve remarked in the Science magazine issue of May 3, 1996: “The proportions calculated for (Australopithecus) africanus turned out to be amazingly close to those of a chimpanzee, with big arms and small legs... One might say we are kicking Lucy out of the family tree…”⁸² As their family name pithecus (“ape”) denotes, these prehistoric pithecoid creatures were just apes.

Day-Age 6-h

• Circa 3,662,109 to 1,831,054 years ago (Duration: approximately 1,831,054 years.)  

Kenyanthropus platyops, 3.5 mya. A fossilized cranium and other bones, estimated to be 3.5 million years old, were found in 1999 in northern Kenya. The creature had a mixture of features not seen in earlier hominid fossils: a much flatter face and smaller molars; the cheekbone joined the rest of the face in a forward position; and the region beneath the nose opening was flat. Researchers placed it under a new genus and species: Kenyanthropus platyops. In Greek anthropos means “humen being,” while platyops means “flat” – combined to mean “flat-faced human from Kenya.”⁸³

Homo habilis, 2.8-1.5 mya. So named for the primitive stone tools found with its fossilized skull in 1960, Homo habilis means “handy man” -- from Latin words meaning “human” (homo) and “able or skillful” (habilis). The first to be classified under the genus Homo, the species had a bigger braincase of about 600 cu cm.⁸⁴ It was also taller.

The fossil had been found beneath volcanic ash dated at about 2.6 million years, pushing back the presumed origin of man by millions of years. Its discoverer, Richard Leakey, says: “Either we toss out this skull or we toss out our theories of early man.” He adds that “it leaves in ruins the modern notion that all early fossils can be arranged in an orderly sequence of evolutionary change.”⁸⁵

The first confirmed limb bones of Homo habilis were discovered in 1986. They showed the creature clearly had apelike proportions and should never have been classified as human. Hugh Ross comments on the web: “Starting about 2-4 million years ago, God began creating man-like mammals or ‘hominids.’ These creatures stood on two feet, had large brains, and used tools. Some even buried their dead and painted on cave walls… God replaced them with Adam and Eve.”⁸⁶

Homo rudolfensis, 1.9 mya. In 1972, more than 150 fragments of bone fossils were discovered in eastern Kenya. As the size of the skull and several anatomical features differed from those of earlier finds, scientists classified it under a new species named Homo rudolfensis, after Lake Rudolf (now Lake Turkana). Its best-known fossils from the lake area date from about 1.9 million years ago.⁸⁷

Richard Leakey notes: “This Australopithecine material suggests a form of locomotion that was not entirely upright nor bipedal. The Rudolf Australopithecines, in fact, may have been close to the ‘knuckle-walker’ condition, not unlike the extant African apes.”⁸⁸

Day-Age 6-i

• Circa 1,831,054 to 915,527 years ago (Duration: approximately 915,527 years)  

Homo erectus, 1.5 mya. A skullcap and tooth found in 1891 by Eugene Dubois in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) was first named Pithecanthropus erectus (“erect ape-man”). Popularly known as “Java man,” it is dated about 1,500,000 years old. It had a larger brain (about 850 cc) and a rounder cranium than earlier species.⁸⁹

In China, at a site known as Chou K’ou Tien (Dragon-Bone Hill), 25 miles from Peking, from 1921 to 1934 a total of 14 skull fragments, 11 jawbones, 7 thigh pieces, 2 arm bones, a wrist bone, and 147 teeth similar to Java Man were found. Called Sinanthropus pekinensis – “Peking Man” – its composite skull was named “Nellie.”⁹⁰

Forty years after finding “Java man,” Dubois conceded it was a big ape. “Pithecanthropus was not a man, but a gigantic genus allied to the Gibbons, superior to its near relatives on account of its exceedingly large brain volume, and distinguished at the same time by its erect attitude.”⁹¹ He admitted withholding parts of four simian thigh bones found in the same area.

The World Book states: “Modern humans could not have evolved from these late populations of H. erectus, a much more primitive type of human.”⁹²

Day-Age 6-j:

• Circa 915,527 to 457,763 years ago (Duration: approximately 457,763 years)  

Homo heidelbergensis, 600-300 kya. In 1907 a fossilized manlike jaw was discovered 16 kilometers southeast of Heidelberg, Germany. It had no chin, but was unusually thick and broad, as well as long, suggesting the individual had a projecting lower face. The teeth also were too small for the massive mandible.

Other specimens from Africa (Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania), Europe (Greece, France), and possibly Asia (China) have been dated at from approximately 600 to 300 thousand years ago (kya).⁹³ Their craniums have heavy brow ridges, long and low braincases, and thick vault bones like H. erectus, but larger.

____________________

⁵⁷Mass Extinctions, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁵⁸Ibid.

⁵⁹Frank M. Carpenter, “Fossil Insects,” Insects, 1952, p. 18.

⁶⁰Mass Extinctions, loc. cit.  

⁶¹Ibid.

⁶²Ibid.

⁶³Paul Falkowski, “Oxygen Increase Caused Mammals To Triumph, Science, Sept. 30, 2005, quoted by ScienceDaily, Oct. 3, 2005

⁶⁴Moses Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, 1:7; cited by Schroeder, op. cit., p. 123

⁶⁵Talmud Keliim 8:5; cited by Schroeder, loc. cit.

⁶⁶Ramapithecus, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition

⁶⁷Ramapithecus, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

⁶⁸Australopithecus, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition

⁶⁹Human Evolution, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁷⁰Australopithecus, loc. cit.

⁷¹Human Evolution, loc. cit.

⁷²From articles in Time, October 12, 2009, and The Week, October 16, 2009; cited in “Is ‘Ardi’ the Missing Link?”, Petah Tikvah, January-March 2010, p. 22

⁷³Australopithecines, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁷⁴Donald C. Johanson, “Finding Lucy and Other Fossil Treasures,” Australopithecines, loc. cit.

⁷⁵Australopithecus, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

⁷⁶Dennis Petersen, Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, 2002, p. 129

⁷⁷Bruce Bower, “Evolution’s Youth Movement,” Science News, 2 June 2001, p. 347

⁷⁸Matt Cartmill et al., “One Hundred Years of Paleoanthropology,” American Scientist, July–August 1986, p. 417.

⁷⁹Roger Lewin, Bones of Contention, pp. 164–165.

⁸⁰Solly Zuckerman, Beyond the Ivory Tower, 1970, p. 90

⁸¹Richard E. Leakey and Roger Lewin, Origins, 1977, p. 86

⁸²James Shreeve, “New Skeleton Gives Path from Trees to Ground an Odd Turn,” Science, 3 May 1996, p. 654.

⁸³Human Evolution, loc. cit.

⁸⁴Homo habilis, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁸⁵Richard Leakey, National Geographic, June 1973; quoted by Petersen, op. cit., p. 130

⁸⁶Hugh Ross, Reasons To Believe, July 8, 1997, Internet

⁸⁷Human Evolution, loc. cit.

⁸⁸Richard Leakey, “Further Evidence of Lower Pleistocene Hominids from East Rudolf, North Kenya,” Nature, Vol. 231, 28 May 1971, p. 245

⁸⁹Homo erectus, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁹⁰Petersen, op. cit., p. 133

⁹¹Eugene Dubois, “On the Fossil Human Skulls Recently Discovered in Java and Pithecanthropus Erectus,” Man, Vol. 37, January 1937, p. 4

⁹²Homo erectus, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

⁹³Homo heidelbegensis, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition

(Excerpted from Chapter 4, Primordial Planet Puzzles, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)

 

Primordial Planet Puzzles (Part 4)

Day 5: Water creatures, fowl

“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day” (Gen 1:20-23).

Interpretations of Day 5:

• Literal 24-Hour Days:    1 day before man was created circa 6,000 years ago
• Thousand-Year Days:    circa 8,000-7,000 years ago
• Diminishing Day-Ages:  circa 937,500,000-468,750,000 years ago (Duration: approximately 468,750,000 years)

According to Young Earth Creationists, aquatic creatures and birds first appeared no later than 6,000 years ago, but no earlier than 8,000-7,000 years ago, either.

In the Diminishing Day-Ages timeline, God created the first marine animals during Day-Age 5, sometime between 937.5 million and 468.75 million years ago. This corresponds precisely to the oldest known animal fossils, about 700 million years old, that the Encyclopedia Britannica identifies as Ediacara fauna, small wormlike creatures with soft bodies.⁴⁵

Oxygen-breathing animals.

Until about 700 million years ago, there was a negligibly low amount of oxygen available. (The estimated threshold or minimum amount of oxygen needed for animal life to begin and multiply on earth is 1-10% of the present atmospheric level.)⁴⁶ Photosynthesizing bacteria then began oxygenating the oceans to produce the oxygen needed by new marine animals that derived energy through respiration.

Do you see the thoughtful planning involved? God created plants on Day 3 to produce oxygen. After an adequate supply had been assured, He proceeded to create oxygen-breathing animals on Day 5.

 

The Cambrian “explosion.”

Approximately 544 million years ago, new forms of life with various anatomical structures appeared in rapid succession.⁴⁷ Writer Leslie Orgel said in the New Scientist: “Beginning at the base of the Cambrian period and extending for about 10 million years, all the major groups of skeletonized invertebrates made their first appearance in the most spectacular rise in diversity ever recorded on our planet.”⁴⁸

All the basic shapes and features of multi-cellular organisms living today first appeared during that period: mouths, eyes, gills, intestines, shells, bones, spines, appendages, joints. The seas teemed with a great variety of invertebrates: sponges, worms, bryozoans (“moss animals”), hydrozoans (jellyfish), brachiopods (clams), mollusks (snails), arthropods (trilobites), echinoderms (starfish).⁴⁹

Sir Jonathan Sacks wonders, “Something’ happened to cause an ‘explosion’ of complex multi-cellular body forms. Scientists have long been puzzled about why this burst of diversity occurred… How did life evolve at such speed that even Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, was forced to suggest that it came from Mars?”⁵⁰

Gerald Schroeder suggests the increased supply of oxygen resulted in a tenfold improvement in the conversion of food to energy. With the new energy, organisms were able to develop more complex structures.⁵¹ These were the “abundant moving creatures in the waters” (Gen 1:20).

 

The first fish.

Fish appeared 490 million years ago. The presence of a backbone differentiates the fish, a vertebrate, from invertebrates. But where it came from remains a mystery.

Author Arthur Strahler wrote: “Origin of the vertebrates is obscure -- there is no fossil record preceding the occurrence of fishes in the late Ordovician time.”⁵² Writer Francis Downes Ommanney says, “How this earliest chordate stock evolved, what stages of development it went through to eventually give rise to truly fishlike creatures we do not know. Between the Cambrian when it probably originated, and the Ordovician when the first fossils of animals with really fishlike characteristics appeared, there is a gap of perhaps 100 million years which we will probably never be able to fill.”⁵³ The Readers Digest sums it up: “To our knowledge, no ‘link’ connected this new beast to any previous form of life. The fish just appeared.”⁵⁴ But, of course. God created the fish.

 

Dragonflies and dragons?

God also said: “Let the waters bring forth… fowl that may fly above the earth… And… great whales” (Gen 1:20-21). “Fowl” from the waters? Were these the first birds? Did they precede the land animals? Let us take a closer look.

“Fowl.” The word is translated from the Hebrew owph, meaning “to cover with wings or obscurity.” “Bird” is tsippor in Hebrew. In its commentary on Genesis 1:20, Barnes’ Notes explains: “[Bird of wing] Here the wing is made characteristic of the class, which extends beyond what we call birds.” The commentator points out that owph (“fowl”) means more than just “birds.”⁵⁵

The idea is demonstrated in Leviticus 11:13-20: “And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,  And the vulture, and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, And the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. All fowls that creep, going upon all four, shall be an abomination unto you.”

God enumerated birds under the word “fowls,” but also included a flying mammal – the bat! Let us grant that in that pre-scientific time the Israelites did not know the difference between a true bird and a bat. Yet, in the last line we read a stranger thing: “fowls that creep, going upon all four.” Four-footed fowl? No member of the avian family creeps, much less on all fours, because birds have only two legs. The NKJV renders the verse in a more contemporary language: “All flying insects that creep on all fours…” (Lev 11:20, NKJV; also NIV and NASU).

It becomes clear that the word “fowls” lumps together true birds, a flying mammal, and flying insects -- even if they are biologically unrelated. It shows that owph refers to any creature that flies! Science asserts: “There is no fossil evidence of primitive wings prior to the appearance of fully developed winged insects...”⁵⁶

Thus, the “fowl” from the waters in Genesis 1:20-22 may have actually been winged insects, prehistoric predecessors of modern dragonflies, mosquitoes, and similar insects which lay their eggs and spend the larval stages of their lives in the water! 

Great whales. The “great whales” God created, rendered “great sea creatures” in NKJV and NIV, and “great sea monsters” in NASU and ASV, is hataninim hagadolim in the original Hebrew text.

In other Bible verses, the translation is “dragons”: “Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons (taninim)…” (Ps 148:7a); “Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon (tanin)…” (Ps 91:13; Ps 74:13, Deut 32:33, Jer 9:11). Elsewhere, the translation is “serpents”: “And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the LORD had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent (tanin)… For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents (taninim)…” (Ex 7:10,12a).

“Dragons” and “serpents” are both reptiles. Hence, the Hebrew taninim hagadolim (“great whales”) must have actually been huge sea reptiles -- marine dinosaurs – the sea serpents of ancient legends!

____________________

⁴⁵Evolution, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
⁴⁶“Reason For Almost Two Billion Year Delay In Animal Evolution On Earth Discovered,” ScienceDaily.com,, Mar. 27, 2008, Internet.
⁴⁷Earth, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
⁴⁸Leslie Orgel, “Darwinism at the Very Beginning of Life,” New Scientist, April 15, 1982, p. 151
⁴⁹Cambrian Period, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
⁵⁰Jonathan Sacks, “Genesis and the origin of the Origin of the species,” The Times (London), August 29, 2008
⁵¹Schroeder, The Science of God, p. 117
⁵²Arthur N. Strahler, Science and Earth History: The Evolution/Creation Controversy, 1987, p. 316.
⁵³Francis Downes Ommanney, The Fishes, 1963, p. 60.
⁵⁴Marvels & Mysteries of Our Animal World, The Readers Digest Association, 1964, p. 25.
⁵⁵Gen 1:20, Barnes' Notes, 1997
⁵⁶Schroeder, op. cit., p.

(Excerpted from Chapter 4, Primordial Planet Puzzles, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)

 

Primordial Planet Puzzles ( Part 3)

Day 3: Seas, dry land, vegetation

 “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 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 1:9-13).

Interpretations of Day 3:

• Literal 24-Hour Days:    3 days before man was created circa 6,000 years ago
• Thousand-Year Days:    circa 10,000-9,000 years ago
• Diminishing Day-Ages:  circa 3,750,000,000-1,875,000,000 years ago (Duration: approximately 1,875,000,000 years)

 

Young Earth Creationists say God separated the seas and the dry land either around 6,000 years ago or 10,000-9,000 years ago.

In the Diminishing Day-Ages chronology, God gathered the seas for the dry land to appear between 3.75 billion and 1.875 billion years ago. The scientific estimate for the appearance of the oceans falls exactly within this period. The Encyclopaedia Britannica says that “the oceans have been present for at least three billion years.”²⁹

 

One supercontinent.

As the waters came together, the exposed dry surface of the planet became one vast supercontinent surrounded by an immense ocean.

Scientists confirmed the Scriptures early in the 20^th century. German geophysicist Alfred Wegener, intrigued by the matching contours of the coastlines of eastern South America and western Africa, postulated in 1912 that all the continents were once part of just one land mass that slowly drifted apart over millions of years. This was called “continental drift,” which became part of the theory of plate tectonics in the 1960s.

Canadian geologist John Tuzo Wilson posits that the continents have been repeatedly breaking up and rejoining (“Wilson cycle”). As evinced by the rocks, about 800 million years ago all the continents were joined together in one supercontinent called Rodinia, with what is now North America in the middle. The movement of the Earth's mantle caused Rodinia to break up into North America, Europe, and Africa. Then, 250 million years ago, the continents reassembled to form another supercontinent – Pangaea, surrounded by a single, worldwide ocean, Panthalassa. About 200 million years ago, Pangaea broke apart into two large land masses: Gondwanaland and Laurasia. Gondwanaland then broke up to form Africa, Antarctica, Australia, South America, and India. Laurasia split apart into Eurasia and North America.³⁰

 

The plant kingdom

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day” (Gen 1:9-13).

         

God created the first living things on Earth – plants – on Day 3.  The World Book says the oldest fossils are those of bacteria that lived about 3.5 billion years ago.³¹ Paleobiologists say these organisms (microscopic plants) appeared as soon as there was water on Earth. The timing is again a perfect match, because Day 3 in the Diminishing Day-Ages was from 3.75 billion to 1.875 billion years ago.

 

Cells to grass to trees.

The bacteria were one-celled prokaryotes (no nuclei). Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) with chlorophyll were capable of photosynthesis. They were followed by unicellular organisms with nuclei (eukaryotes); then multi-celled vegetation like moss, grass, herbs, trees.

The Jewish sage Nachmanides said the creation of grasses, plants, and trees actually transpired over a protracted period.³² The Genesis writer simply had the tendency to summarize a string of events in one or two sentences, rather than make a long-winded, detailed narration. After all, even if he did lengthily describe a bacterium that could not be seen by the unaided eye, would he have been understood and, more importantly, believed by his fellow desert nomads 3,500 years ago?

 

Prefab components?

God said, “Let the earth bring forth…” The wording implies that the elements that would constitute the grass, herbs, and trees had been laid down in the earth earlier. The various “prefabricated” components were just waiting to combine into specific forms at God’s command.

Note that each type of plant life reproduced “after his kind,” showing that the Creator had set the fixed laws of genetics in operation.

 

Plants without a sun?

At this point, there was still no mention of the sun. How did the first plants manage to survive without sunlight for photosynthesis? We get the answer from prophecy. In Acts 3:21 (NIV) Paul speaks of “the time… for God to restore everything,” which infers that former conditions (in the beginning) will be reestablished in the future.

We are told that in the future Kingdom of God there will be “no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof (Rev 21:23,22:5; also Isa 60:19). If this is a glimpse of the restored conditions in the future, then in the beginning it was light from the glory of God and His Son that enabled the first plants on earth to survive and even thrive.

 

Day 4: Sun, moon, and stars

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day” (Gen 1:14-19).

Interpretations of Day 4:

• Literal 24-hour Days:     2 days before man was created 6,000 circa years ago
• Thousand-Year Days:    circa 9,000-8,000 years ago
• Diminishing Day-Ages:  circa 1,875,000,000-937,500,000 years ago (Duration: approximately 937,500,000 years)

 

Young Earth Creationists hold that the sun, moon, stars, and other heavenly bodies were created either just 6,000 years ago or 9,000-8,000 years ago at the most.

In the Diminishing Day-Ages, the celestial lights first shone on Earth sometime between 1.875 billion and 937.5 million years ago (mya).

“Made” or “had made”?

The Creator used the words “let there be” and “let them be,” which could mean that the heavenly bodies were already in existence before Day 4. In the phrase “And God made…” the word translated “made” is from the Hebrew asah, (“to do or make”), which can be translated into several words in English, but “to create” is not one of them.  

The verb form in English is in the simple past tense (“made”). However, the pluperfect or past perfect tense “had made,” indicating a prior act, could have also been used to translate asah (ex.: Gen 1:31, 2:2, 3:1, etc.). Hence, the verse could also be rendered as: “And God had made two great lights…” Gen 1:16a), implying God had earlier created the sun, moon, and stars before they became visible on earth.

 

Gas clouds thinned?

Possibly, after the Earth had formed, the lighter gases which did not become part of the solid sphere continued to surround the planet – the way some planets, like Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, are still shrouded with gas clouds today. Venus is covered by a gaseous canopy so thick that astronomers cannot see its surface. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is also veiled by a thick blur of gases.

The Earth’s cloudy atmosphere could have thinned and become clear sometime between 1,875,000,000 and 937,000,000 years ago. From a viewpoint on the surface of the planet, that would have been the first time the sun, moon, and stars shone from the sky.

Moreover, according to ScienceDaily, “The primitive sun did not use to shine as brightly as it does at present. Four billion years ago the solar output was only about 60% of what it is today.”³³ The weak rays of the young sun would not have been able to penetrate Earth’s dense gaseous atmosphere, which might have been merely translucent.

 

Signs in the stars.

The Bible says God arranged the celestial bodies in certain ways for particular reasons: “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs…” (Gen 1:14, cf. Dan 6:27).

The sun, moon, stars, and other celestial objects bear messages from God! “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world…” (Ps 19:1-4a). To communicate His messages, God uses a heavenly language that can be understood by all peoples.

The Mazzaroth. Men in Mesopotamia first visualized the shapes of the constellations, or clusters of stars, around 2700 B.C.³⁴ Collectively, they were called the Mazzaroth, which means “high ones”³⁵ or “scattered ones.”³⁶ “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?” (Job 38:31-32).

The constellations seem to have been named at the time of the Tower of Babel³⁷ circa 2000 B.C., and arranged in groups around 700 B.C.³⁸ The earliest known zodiac with all 12 signs dates from the 400s B.C.³⁹ At least one fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls, from the 200s B.C., lists the signs of the Zodiac.⁴⁰ Adopting the Babylonian symbols that mostly represent animals, the Greeks called them ta zōdia, “the little animals,” or zōdiakos kyklos (“circle of animals”).⁴¹ The Egyptians and the Chinese also used the 12 divisions, but gave other names and symbols to them.⁴²  

The Magi. Some Biblical personages appear to have been astrologers: “And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm” (Dan 1:19-20).

Daniel was made the king’s top astrologer: “There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar your father -- your father the king, I say -- appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners” (Dan 5:11, NIV).

Daniel probably passed on his knowledge to his assistants, especially fellow-Jews in Babylon, which lay east of Judea. Some 600 years later “wise men from the east,” apparently astrologers who knew the star signs, came to Jerusalem looking for the newly born Messiah, “Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him” (Matt 2:1-2). Christ had been prophesied as the coming “King of the Jews.” The wise men must have been Jews; else, why would they worship the King of the Jews if they were not themselves Jewish?

 

Starry story.

First century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote of an ancient belief that Adam’s son Seth and great-great grandson Enoch saw a drama inscribed in the starlit night sky. The starry story is said to be the salvation of man by a coming Messiah. How do we read the story? Where does it start? The constellations in the celestial circle have no apparent beginning or end. Ancient astrologers started the year from Aries, where the sun was at the spring equinox. Should we do likewise?

Egyptologist Frances Rolleston found the key in the 4,000-year-old zodiac of Dendereh on the ceiling of the portico of the temple of Esneh in Egypt. She discovered a picture of the Sphinx just below and between the figures of Virgo and Leo.⁴³ In Greek, Sphinx means “to bind tight” (also the root-word of “sphincter,” a ring of muscle around a body opening). The Sphinx, with the head of a woman and the body of a lion, “tightly binds” the two together. Thus, Virgo is the “head,” or start of the story, and Leo, the rear, or “ending.”

Gospel in the stars. Interpretations of the 12 constellations slightly vary, but the overall picture they paint is the same: the Gospel is in the stars! Below is a synthesis of the basic meaning of each sign:

1.      Virgo, the Virgin: a sinless woman (the pure faith, church, or religion) carrying an infant and holding a branch (the Messiah);

2.      Libra, the Weighing Scales: purchase and judgment -- the son of the woman will pay the price (for sin) and act as the coming judge;

3.      Scorpio, the Scorpion (formerly the snake Serpens battling the eagle Aquila): Satan opposing the Messiah, the Redeemer of men;

4.      Sagittarius, the Archer or mighty hunter: the Antichrist defying God and attempting to kill His Only Son, the Savior of mankind;

5.      Capricorn, the Goat-Fish or wounded scapegoat: the sacrificial offering was pierced (His blood as atonement for the sins of the world);

6.      Aquarius, the Water-Bearer: God pouring His Holy Spirit (water) upon the earth, baptizing the body of believers during the Church Age;

7.      Pisces, the Fishes (a small one and a big one): the Judeo-Christian faith, made up of two groups of people who will be saved;

8.      Aries, the Ram: the sacrificed Lamb of God, the Messiah, who has  grown greater and more powerful through His death on the cross;

9.      Taurus, the Bull: the power and longsuffering of God, patiently waiting for men to repent of their sins before rendering judgment;

10.  Gemini, the Twins: two children of the same woman (faith), also symbolic of the Bridegroom (the Messiah) and His bride (the Church);

11.  Cancer, the Crab (formerly a sheepfold): the ingathering of the flock at the “Rapture” or first resurrection at Christ’s Second Coming;

12.  Leo, the Lion: the return of Christ as Lion of Judah, pouncing on the serpent Hydra (Satan) stretching over a third of the stars (angels).

Do you see the complete story?

 

Horoscopes? Horrors!

The Mazzaroth reveals God’s plan for His chosen people. But Gentile stargazers began making predictions for their countrymen – such as national prosperity or disaster. (“Dis-aster” comes from the Latin words dis [“reverse”) and aster [“star”], a reversal or disarrangement of the stars.) The Greeks and Romans started casting personal horoscopes sometime between 600 and 200 B.C.⁴⁴ Fortune-telling, however, including horoscopes, is detestable to God: “There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD” (Deut 18:10-12).

Jeremiah told the Jews: “Thus says the LORD: "Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile…” (Jer 10:2-3a, NKJV).

____________________

²⁹Atmosphere, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
³⁰Earth, World Book 2005
³¹Bacteria, op. cit.
³²Cited by Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God, 1997, p. 71
³³ScienceDaily, March 22, 2006, Internet
³⁴Astronomy, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia
³⁵Mazzaroth, New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary
³⁶Mazzaroth, Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary
³⁷Chuck Missler, Cosmic Codes, 1999, revised 2004, p. 200
³⁸Astronomy, op. cit.
³⁹Zodiac, World Book 2005
⁴⁰“Three Wise Men and a Star,” Strange Stories, Amazing Facts, 1975, p. 373
⁴¹Zodiac, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
⁴²Zodiac, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2004
⁴³F. Chris Patrick, The Zodiac Conspiracy, 1993, p. 13

 

(Excerpted from Chapter 4, Primordial Planet Puzzles, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)