QUESTION: Genesis 1-11 doesn't agree with science and science is objective and factual so how do I reconcile the two?

ANSWER:    To understand the agreement of science with Scripture, we must first understand that the Bible was not written with the intent to be a chronological, scientific account.  The Bible was given as instruction, inspiration, and revelation in the Truth - how to understand and live in the ways of God. The Bible is the revealed will of God - His plan for mankind.

The intent of Genesis 1-11 was not to give a detailed time-line of the Earth's history, or a scientific description of how God created the universe.  However, careful study of these chapters, along with other passages throughout the Scriptures, will reveal that science and the Bible do not oppose each other but actually agree.

Genesis 1.1 says - "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 

"Heavens" in Genesis 1.1 is the Hebrew word shamayim (pronounced:  shaw-mah'-yeem).  In this particular verse, shamayim (heavens) represents all expanse of space beyond the earth, the realm in which the sun, moon, stars, and planets are located, reaching to include the utmost (infinite) edge of the universe.

Genesis 1.2 says - "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."  The English Authorized Version of Genesis 1.2 does not accurately translate the original Hebrew text.  A truer translation of this verse is:  "the earth BECAME desolate, chaotic, empty..."  God did not create the earth without form and void.  The earth BECAME desolate and empty at a later time.

There is a time-gap between Genesis 1.1 and Genesis 1.2.  The length of that time-gap is not disclosed - but it is assumed to be billions of years.  It would have been during this vast time-gap that dinosaurs and various other primitive life-forms (including plant-life) would have existed on earth.

Science has confirmed that all dinosaurs, and most other life-forms of the dinosaur age, died in one brief catastrophic event that took place approximately 65 million years ago.  This catastrophic event is referenced in Jeremiah 4.23-26, in which the same Hebrew words describing the earth's condition in Genesis 1.2 are repeated.  In the Hebrew text, Genesis 1.2 says the earth became "tohuw va bohuw" (pronounced:  to'-hoo va bo'-hoo) - meaning desolate, chaotic, empty, waste.

Jeremiah 4.23 uses these same Hebrew words to describe the condition of the earth at the time after the catastrophic event - "I beheld the earth, and indeed it was tohuw va bohuw (desolate, chaotic, empty), and the heavens, they had no light.  I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled. And all the hills moved back and forth.  I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, by His fierce anger."

The earth was shaken and all life-forms on earth died when God withdrew His Light.  (This event was in response to Lucifer's (satan's) rebellion against God and his exile from heaven - Isaiah 14.12-15/ Ezekiel 28.12-19).

I John 1.5 says that "God is Light."  When God withdrew His Light from the earth - the earth was plunged into darkness.

Genesis 1.2 tells us that "darkness was upon the face of the deep..."  This is a reference to "all waters" covering the face of the entire earth.

According to science, after the dinosaur age the earth entered into a series of ice-ages.   This confirms Jeremiah 4.23-26.  When God withdrew His Light, earth was plunged into darkness and the fruitful land became a wilderness.  Without God's Light as a heat-source, earth would have become a frozen wasteland.

Science records that earth swung in and out of  several ice-ages until approximately 10 thousand years ago when the last glacier retreat occurred.  Sometime after the last glacier retreat, the creation of earth (as we have commonly known it) began to come into existence.

Genesis 1.2 - The Spirit of God was hovering, brooding over the face of the waters.

Genesis 1.3 - God called His Light back into the earth.  This is not a reference to the sun, but to God's presence (His Life-force) returning to the earth.  (The sun was brought forth on Day 4 of Creation).

Day 1 through 7 of Creation, as outlined in Genesis 1.5-2.3, have been greatly debated as to how long these "days' actually were.  The prevalent Hebrew word for "day" in the Scriptures is yowm (pronounced: yome).  Yowm has several meanings.  It can refer to day (as from sunrise to sunset or from one sunset to the next), representing the period of "daylight" as contrasted with night-time.  It can denote a period of 24 hours.  Yowm can also signify a period of time of unspecified duration.  It can refer to a year, or an age or era of time. 

Frequent explanations of the "days" of Creation are that these days could be -          

1. 24 hours long,  2. indefinite periods of time, or   3.  that these "days" depict theological categories rather than actual periods of time.

However, it is highly probable that these were literal 24 hour days, because God based the Sabbath Day's rest for man on His 7 day creation. God did not work "7 long periods of time" or command that man should work "6 long periods of time" and rest for "1 long period of time". 

In Exodus 20.9-11, God commanded that six days man should labour and do work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, in which man should not do any work.  "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it."

Certainly these verses hold illustrative significance for the overall scope of mankind's time on earth (six thousand years) and the coming "day of rest" (one thousand years) during the millennial reign of Christ.  Yet, the literal aspect of these "days" must also be taken into account. 

Could God really create the whole earth as we know it in just six days?  Surely all things are possible with God (Matthew 19.26/ Luke 1.37) and nothing is too hard for Him.  However, we must remember that substances the earth is made of were already here.  In the "six days" of Creation, God took the geological and biological matter that He had previously created a long time earlier and called it into order by His spoken Word.  He "re-made" desolate, lifeless Earth into a flourishing environment once again, pulsating with life.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that these verses were written to reveal the purpose for Creation and God's plan for mankind - not necessarily to provide a scientific explanation of such events.

Another area of scientific controversy is the Great Flood in Genesis 7-8.  Many have proposed that this Great Flood just could not have happened.  Yet, there are amazing proofs of this great Biblical event.

Once, a professor of evolution (natural selection) was challenged by one of his students (who believed in the Bible's account of the Great Flood) to conduct an experiment between the two opposing beliefs.  When the professor calculated the earth's total population from past to present in respect to his own theory, he discovered that the earth today could not contain the enormous sum of people his calculation proposed.  However, when he calculated the earth's population according to the student's theory - which included the Great Flood of Genesis, the reproduction of mankind starting over again with Noah and his wife, Noah's sons and their wives (8 souls) - the sum equalled the earth's total population at the present time that this calculation was being conducted.

The Bible is the infallible Truth of all time.  It was inspired by God, Who is the omniscient, all-knowing Creator of all things, and is the final authority on every subject - including scientific knowledge.  As we seek and pursue Almighty God, we will understand and know His ways.  According to Proverbs 28.5, "...those who seek the Lord understand all things." 

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