Genesis: 7-9

Genesis 7-9

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. Follow me on this journey! Please, if you have questions of comments... let me know! 

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Ark replica.

Chapter 7: Noah is commanded by God to bring with him in the Ark seven of each clean animal, male and female and 2 of every other animal that is unclean; male and female. We can find a list of clean and unclean animals in Leviticus 11.

                God tells Noah that he will cause it to rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. Noah was 600 years old when the earth was flooded.

                With the Ark built, and the animals loaded... and 125 years of preparation...  they were ready for the floods to come from the "...fountains of the great deep..." and from the "...windows of heaven..." (Genesis 7:11)

                The waters covered the entire earth, even the highest mountains in the world were covered by at least 22.5 feet of water (or 15 cubits). It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, and the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days.

                One cool thing that you can find throughout the scriptures (Shakespear, Bible, Book of Mormon) is Chiasmus:

                "The figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism. Chiasmus was particularly popular both in Greek and in Latin literature, where it was used to articulate balance or order within a text. As a popular example, many long and complex chiasmi have been found in Shakespeare and the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible. It is also used various times in the Book of Mormon."

An example of this, can be found in Genesis 7:21-23

This is from my scriptures, notice that the words underlined in blue, red and green speak of the same thing.

Chapter 8: The waters from the great deep and the rain from the heavens completely stops and the water starts to "drain". The Ark is stopped by the top of the mountains of Ararat.

                Noah decides to send out a raven and a dove to check for dry ground. Noah and his family wait patiently in the Ark until the dove brings back an Olive Leaf, which lets him know that the waters were completely removed from the face of the earth and dry ground did exist.

                God commands Noah and his family to exit the Ark and multiply and replenish the earth. Noah, to offer thanks takes some of the clean animals (how many? we don't know) and makes sacrifices of them before the Lord. Remember how 7 of each clean animal was saved for the Ark? Now we know why.

                God responded to Noah's sacrifice by saying: "...I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; ... neither will I smite any more every thing living, as I have done" (Genesis 8:21)    

Chapter 9: God commands Noah and his children to be fruitful and multiply the earth. God tells them that they should not shed the blood of man.  God promises to never flood the earth again, this promise is given to us almost every time it rains... the RAINBOW. (Genesis 9:11-13)

                

Noah dies at the age of 450 years.

Genesis 4-6

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. Follow me on this journey! Please, if you have questions of comments... let me know!

Genesis 4-6

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 4: Cain and Abel

                Adam and Eve "knew each other", or in other words they were no longer innocent as children, and because of that... they were able to conceive a child, and they conceived Cain. They also had Abel who was Cain's brother.

                Cain gets upset with his brother Abel and kills him in the field. The Lord asks Cain where his brother is, and Cain essentially denies that he did anything.

                The Lord curses Cain and sets a mark upon him, so that people will know that it is him. Cain is banished to the land of Nod, which is east of Eden. There, Cain conceives many children with his wife. Their first child was Enoch and after him did they name the city they started in the land of Nod.

                Adam and Eve have another child named Seth to replace the loss of their son Abel. Seth has a son and calls his name Enos, and from that day forward men look unto God.

Chapter 5: The Generation of Adam

•          Adam lived until the ripe old age of 930, and then he died.
•          Seth was 105, when he conceived Enos.
•          Seth died at the age of 912.
•          Enos, conceived Cainan when he was 90.
•          Enos died at the age of 905.
•          Cainan conceived Mahalaleel when he was 70.
•          Cainan died at the age of 910.
•          Mahalaleel conceived Jared at 65.
•          Mahalaleel died at the age of 895.
•          Jared conceived Enoch at the age of 162.
•          Jared died at the age of 962.
•          Enoch conceived Methuselah at the age of 65.
•          Enoch walked with God for 300 years after Methuselah was Born. (Enoch was a righteous man).
•          Enoch died at the age of 365.
•          Methuselah conceived Lamech at the age of 887.
•          Methuselah died at the age of 969.
•          Lamech conceived Noah at the age of 182.
•          Lamech died at the age of 777.
•          Noah was 500 years old when he conceived his sons: Shem, Ham and Japeth.

Chapter 6: Noah and the Ark

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, the daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw that the daughters of men that they were fair..." 

(Genesis 5:1-2)

                I get out of this scripture that it is NATURAL for a MAN to like a WOMAN and VICE-VERSA. No where do I see that it says "the sons of God saw the sons of men that they were fair", God did not make men or women to be gay. That is not love, it is simply lust.

                But, just like in today's time we see wickedness... God was upset to the point where he said he wished he hadn't made man on the earth. God was saddened by the wickedness of men! Therefore he decided to destroy mankind and their wickedness by using the earth to flood the earth.

                "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with  violence through them, and, behold I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window thou shalt make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lover, second and third stories shalt thou make it." (Genesis 6:13-17)

The Ark:

Width: 50 Cubits= 22.5 M OR 73.8 Ft.

Height: 30 Cubits=13.5 M OR 44.2 Ft.

Length: 300 Cubits-135 M OR 442.9 Ft.

Three Floors: 4.5 M in each floor 14.7 FT (the floor to ceiling had almost 15 ft tall rooms)

The Ark had 1 Single Window.

*Drawings by Harold Santos of El Salvador.

                God tells Noah that he is going to flood the earth and that it will be his responsibility to save mankind and all life on earth through him building an ark, stocking it with animals and food and surviving through the flood.

                God commands Noah to have 2 of every sort "male and female", because without male and female there is NO LIFE. 

Genesis 1-3

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. Follow me on this journey! Please, if you have questions of comments... let me know!

Scripture Thought (What I Learned):

Chapter 1: God creates the earth and its heaven and all life on earth and heaven in six days.

             

   "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1)

Day 1: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:3) , God separated the light from darkness and "...called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night..." (Genesis 1:5)

Day 2: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters... And God called the firmament Heaven..." (Genesis 1:7-8)

Day 3: "...and let the dry land appear...And God called the dry land Earth..." (Genesis 1:9-10) "...Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit..." (Genesis 1:11-12)

Day 4: "...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 for years..." (Genesis 1:14) And God gave us two lights, one to rule over the day (the sun) and one to rule over the night (the stars/moon).

Day 5: "...Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth..." (Genesis 1:20) and God commanded that all life in the sea and above the earth in the heaven to multiply and replenish after its own kind.

Day 6: "...Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth..." (Genesis 1:24) God creates all life on the earth.

                "And God said, Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created them" (Genesis 1:26-27)

This part is very interesting to me, we all know that we were created in the image of God, right? Almost every single religion will attest that YES, we in fact were created in his image! So why does the world believe that God is a great "spirit"? Wouldn't God himself have a body of flesh and blood, like us? After all we are created in His image, right? Let's be clear, that I am not suggesting that God is on the same level with us, His children. He is our Heavenly Father and we must not seek to take his position or suggest that we are on the same level as Him. However, if we are created in his likeness, my guess would be that he looks like us, meaning he has a body, he has hands, feet,  eyes, a heart...etc. But His body is perfect, whereas His children are not perfect.

                We are his children and we should strive to be just like Him. One interesting part that gets me is where it says:  "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created them" - Does that mean that God, our Heavenly Father has a Wife? Our Heavenly Mother? It says, created "male and female" and just before that he says "Let US make man in our own image", was God talking to his Wife? Our Heavenly Mother? Now, this is not doctrine of the LDS church, per say. But it is my TRUE belief that this is SO. After all, it would make since that we had a Heavenly Father and Mother! Right?! I like to think so.

                God commanded "them" (most likely Adam and Eve)... "...Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28)

                This tells me a few things, We have control over the earth... we as humans ARE supposed to USE the earth, "subdue" it and have "dominion" or control over everything that natural has to offer. BUT we are supposed to respect the earth by "replenishing" it. Interesting, if tree hugging hippies were actually religious they would know to use this scripture on people that say they are "religious" that may not care about the environment. Not saying that I am a hippie, tree hugging environmentalist. But I do believe that we should respect what God has given us!

AND GOD SAW THAT EVERYTHING THAT HE MADE WAS "GOOD".

Chapter 2:

Day 7: "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day... And God blessed the seventh day, and he sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work..." (Genesis 2:2-3)

                God essentially created everything Monday-Saturday and then took one day from his labors to rest, Sunday. That is why we must also rest on Sunday's and not permit that others work. We should avoid having to go to the store, or a restaurant... so that everyone has one day of rest a week. He "sanctified" this day to be a day, we celebrate our Heavenly Father, and his Son, our Redeemer; Jesus Christ.

                God planted a garden "eastward" in Eden and there, He put the man that he had created from the "dust of the earth". God then brings Adam every beast of the field and of the earth in general and has Adam, "name" them.  Adam gives a name for all of the animals and life in the earth. God sees that it is not good for man to "be alone", so God causes a great sleep to fall over Adam, and he removes a rib from Adam to form a woman.  Woman, because she was taken out of man.

                God commands Adam and Eve to stay in the garden and "tend" to it, and that they can freely eat of all trees and plants, except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

                "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 4:24) - God marries Adam and Eve.

                But we learn that Adam and Eve, were both naked and were "not ashamed", therefore we learn that they were like little children, without knowledge of good and evil... they were innocent.

Chapter 3:

                God leaves and Adam and Eve alone in the garden to tend to it, when the serpent (the devil), tries to beguile Eve.

The Devil: "...Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Genesis 3:1)

Eve: "...We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die" (Genesis 3:2-3)

The Devil: "...Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:4-5)

Eve, saw that it was desirable, and she ate. She also did give the fruit to Adam and he did eat as well.

                After eating the fruit they gained knowledge of good and evil, and knew that they were naked. God was walking in the garden, and when Adam and Eve heard him coming they hid themselves. When God asks them why, they tell Him, that it was because they were ashamed they were naked.

                God finds out (even though he already knew), that Adam and Eve partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and because of this Satan (the devil/Lucifer/the serpent) is cursed above all living things of the earth.

                God multiplies the "sorrows" of child-birth. He commands that by the "...sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread..." (Genesis 3:19) - We are commanded to work, and for our sustenance we must work, no such thing as a "free lunch".

                Adam and Eve are banished from their paradise and forced to the world to work, suffer; pain and sorrow... experience joy and happiness. Evil, good... light and dark.

                God said: "...Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:" (Genesis 3:22) In the Book of Mormon, we learn more about what this particular scripture means: "For behold, if Adam had put forth his hand immediately, and partaken of the tree of life, he would have lived forever, according to the word of God having no space for repentance; yea, and also the word of God would have been void, and the great plan of salvation would have been frustrated" (Alma 42:5)

                So we learn something SUPER IMPORTANT, if God would have allowed Adam and Eve to live in the Garden of Eden, they would have NEVER experience JOY or HAPPINESS! Because how can you feel joy, without knowing what pain is? OR VICE-VERSA.

                God had this plan from the beginning to let US decide, to let Adam decide for his own. So that we could keep our agency, learn from our mistakes... experience JOY, experience PAIN and learn in this giant classroom I call "EARTH", so that we can learn to LOVE GOD, and his creations and learn from our MISTAKES that we can REPENT and RETURN to live with our Heavenly Father and Mother, once we have completed our missions here on earth!

                How great is the LOVE of God?

Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. That means that I need to read 1 to 3 chapters per day (depending on the length) for 365 days!

I have decided to start my readings off with a brief history of the Bible...

What is the Bible? Where did it come from? Have you ever asked yourself these questions?

                

Today there are dozens of "versions" or "translations" of the Bible in English alone! Not including a translation in at least some small form in every language spoken on earth!  I use the King James Version of the Bible which was translated in 1611 and is probably one of the most common and most quoted "translations" of the Bible in the world.

                

Lets step back in time for a moment and learn some of the history of the Bible, I personally am always blown away with the extensive history of the Bible! Someone could easily spend their entire life studying the Bible and still not know the entire history. Let's start by examining the word "Bible", what does that mean? Bible comes from the Latin word; Biblia, which means "books" or a collections of books. So the Bible literally means a collection of Books, or if we were to see "Holy Bible" we could translate that to the "Holy Books".

                

So we know that the Bible is a collection of Books, but where did these books come from? We know that the first five books of the Bible, known as the "Pentateuch" were authored by Moses of Israel, but he most likely took existing records, collected, edited, wove and abridged the books into a complete narrative. It is believed that some 700 years after Moses, Ezra, the scribe returned to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity to start the demanding task of collecting, sorting and editing existing records and biblical texts to form one collection. The Old Testament that we know today, probably reached its current form sometime around the late first century A.D.

                

The New Testament was formed in a similar manner, but often not how people have perceived. The books and the order they are placed in the Bible does not coincide with the date they were written. Before they were even written down, the stories and teachings of Jesus were first circulated as an oral history, with the earliest writings appearing sometime around 50 A.D. We know that the "Gospels" (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were actually written much later than other parts of the New Testament, even though they appear first in the New Testament. The earliest known circulation of the "Gospels" appeared in Egypt no later than 125 A.D.

               

 The earliest known collection, where the Old and New Testaments were together, is known as the "Codex Vaticanus" which is housed in the Vatican Library, and dates back to the 14th century.

               

 From here the Bible follows a remarkable story filled with drama, inspiration and intrigue. The man that is credited with the first complete Bible in English is John Wycliffe (1328-1384), who was a theology professor at Oxford. He pioneered church reform in both doctrine and practice, and because of that him and his followers were greatly persecuted by corrupt church officials. Wycliffe saw that the current church was corrupt and far removed from the pattern of order and structure described in the Bible. Wycliffe set out to make the Bible available to all for their own interpretation, in their own tongues, instead of listening to corrupt church officials.

                

A century passed after the death of John Wycliffe and the birth of the man, who the world would recognize as the "Father of the English Bible" was William Tyndale (1492-1536). By the time Tyndale had begun his translation of the Bible, Martin Luther had already made a new translation of the Bible into German and Johann Gutenberg had perfected the moveable-type printing press, resulting in the famous 42-line Vulgate Bible. This Bible was a two-volume masterpiece that was printed in 1455.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) is probably one of the most famous of the pioneers for the reformation of the Bible and the church, that at the time was corrupted. Luther insisted that the teachings of the church must be grounded in scripture. He produced his new translation, so that the common man could understand it's concepts and principles, and so misunderstandings could be avoided.

                

Shortly before William Tyndale was persecuted to the point of being burned at the stake, he said; "If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough to know more of the scriptures than thou doest". Tyndale's work was not in vain, his work would later influence versions of the Bible, like the Geneva Bible of 1560, which was used by Shakespeare and brought over to America by the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.

                

In 1607, King James I of England appointed nearly 50 scholars, divided into six groups to research, organize, translate and bring to light a new translation of the Bible. The King James Version, which was published in 1611. "For without translation into the common tongue the unlearned are but like children at Jacob's well... without a bucket or something to draw with". Modern scholars have come to the conclusion, that almost 84% of the King James Bible was retained in the original texts of Tyndale's work.

                

We must understand, that as the world moves forward new versions or translations of the Bible are appearing every day. Reasons include; keeping up to pace with changes in language, facilitate ease of understanding and to go along with general understandings of words and doctrines of the modern world. But it must be understand that a "translation" is automatically a "interpretation".

                

Because a translation is a "interpretation", we must treat it as such! This does not mean that the Bible is not credible, it is very credible! I believe that the Bible is the word of God, but only when it is translated or interpreted as such! Meaning that we must read the Bible and understand it's principles and doctrines with the spirit of God. We must read the scriptures with a prayer in our heart. We cannot simply read the Bible and take it for its literal "interpretation", especially the interpretation of another.

                

With that being said, I plan on studying the New Testament throughout the 2012 year. It means 2 to 3 chapters per day for 365 days!

The Old Testament is comprised of 39 books:

The Law: ·         Genesis ·         Exodus ·         Leviticus ·         Numbers ·         Deuteronomy	The Poetry:            Job           Psalms           Proverbs           Ecclesiastes         The Song of Solomon
The History: ·         Joshua ·         Judges ·         Ruth ·         1 Samuel ·         2 Samuel ·         1 Kings ·         2 Kings ·         1 Chronicles ·         2 Chronicles ·         Ezra ·         Nehemiah ·         Esther	The Prophets:         Isaiah         Jeremiah            Lamentations            Ezekiel            Daniel            Hosea            Joel            Amos            Obadiah            Jonah            Micah            Nahum            Habakkuk            Zephaniah            Haggai            Zechariah            Malachi

 I have included some videos, as a guide to those who wish to not read along!

The Difference Between the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible

This year, I plan on reading the Old Testament of the Bible within the 2012 calendar year. That means that I need to read 1 to 3 chapters per day (depending on the length) for 365 days!

               

  Many people may not know or may not understand "Mormons" and their belief in the Bible. It is sometimes confused that the Book of Mormon is the "Bible" of the Mormons (of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often abreviated "LDS"). I would like to declare to all my friends, family and the world that the Book of Mormon is NOT the "Bible" of the Mormons!

                

I can testify as the above video testifies, that God's revelation continues today!

For those of you, who do not know much about "Mormonism", as the world likes to call it, I would like to take a few moments to share our beliefs with you. The church has what we call the 13 Articles of Faith that easily summarize what we believe in 13 "beliefs" , of these 13 beliefs #8 and #9 say we believe that both the Bible and the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

13 Articles of Faith:

1.       We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.

2.       We believe that men will be punish ned for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.

3.       We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.

4.       We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.

5.       We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.

6.       We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

7.       We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.

8.       We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.

9.       We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.

10.   We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

11.   We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

12.   We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

13.   We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

The Book of Mormon was written at the same time as the Bible, but in the Ancient Americas.