Questions On The Bible Compared To Modern Ideas

Question 1. Are women to be the servants of man or were they created to be a partner to man, a help mate? Did Eve's sin of taking the apple make women lesser than man?

Answer As to the equality of men and women, both are equally created in the image of god and both are spiritually equal, as far as receiving the blessings of forgiveness of sins and hope of eternal life, if they respond to Jesus by obedient faith.

GEN 1:26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
GEN 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

GAL 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
GAL 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
GAL 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

However, just as there is a difference between the roles of the Father and Jesus, so there is between men and women. These differences in roles involve submission of one to the other and a dividing of responsibilities among the two.

Some passages which show this follow. The point simply is, God intended for men and women to have distinct and equally important roles in society. However, it would be to the man to take a leading role in providing for the family, protecting his wife and family and having the final and ultimate responsibility in the home.

On the other hand, it would be to the woman to provide loving nurturing toward children and loving service toward her husband, thus stabilizing the home and making it a pleasant environment for all.

All of these things depend on submission to God, rather than following one's own will. Also, as far as public teaching in the church, it would be men to act in that capacity rather than women? Why? Simply put, God chose that in His wisdom. It should not however warrant our concluding that women are in any way inferior to men.

Before noticing the following passages, we must recognize that men and women were created to complement or complete each other. Neither one is capable of reaching his or her great potential without the help of the other. In this way, we learn love, kindness, submission and many other needed lessons.

1CO 11:3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.

EPH 5:22 ¶ Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
EPH 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
EPH 5:24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
EPH 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her;
EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
EPH 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.

1CO 14:34 ¶ Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
1CO 14:35 And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.

Is a woman's submissive role a part of the punishment that God enacted against Eve after she ate of the forbidden fruit (not told what kind of fruit it was)?

To this question, we must emphatically answer, NO! From the beginning, God had always intended that men and women, although created equal in His image, would have different function in this life. For men, they would provide loving leadership and protection and for the woman, she would provide loving submission and the nurturing of children. In this way, both could accomplish the purpose God had for them from the beginning. Man, alone, could not accomplish this purpose, unless he had the woman as his suitable helper.

GEN 1:28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
GEN 1:29 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;
GEN 1:30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food ";and it was so.

GEN 2:18 ¶ Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
GEN 2:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.
GEN 2:20 And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
GEN 2:21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place.
GEN 2:22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
GEN 2:23 And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man."
GEN 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
GEN 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

Originally, man was created first and then the woman. Based on the order of creation, man would be in a position of leadership over the woman.

1TI 2:11 Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
1TI 2:12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.
1TI 2:13 For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.

Then, it was woman created from the man and for the man. This emphasizes man's need for a helper and the woman's ability to be that helper.

1CO 11:7 For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
1CO 11:8 For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man;
1CO 11:9 for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.
1CO 11:10 Therefore the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

Finally, when Eve ate of the fruit and gave to her husband to eat, she was guilty of taking a position of authority that God had not intended for her. Submission to man is not the result of sin, but it became a part of the very first sin.

1TI 2:14 And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.
1TI 2:15 But women shall be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint.

GEN 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
GEN 3:2 And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat;
GEN 3:3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said,' You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' "
GEN 3:4 And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die!
GEN 3:5 "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
GEN 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

GEN 3:13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
GEN 3:14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly shall you go, And dust shall you eat All the days of your life;
GEN 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. "
GEN 3:16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."

Many of our problems would disappear if we would all, both men and women, submit ourselves willingly to the Will of God. All of our problems, both men and women's, come from our desire to rebel against the will of God. Contact Gary

Question 2. If God created everything in 6 days and man was created on the 6th day, how can we explain how old the earth is? Scientists say the earth is millions of years old but from what I understand it cannot be that old. Can you explain?

Answer Nobody knows the age of the earth. When I took geology in college, we were taught that the earth was between 1-2 billion years old. Now they say that life began about 3-4 billion years ago (so the earth is 4-6 billion years old). The earth has aged billions of years over the last few decades! The point is, science is very inexact. Today’s "facts and truths" are tomorrow’s myths.

In an attempt to reconcile scientific theory with Genesis 1, there are several ideas circulating. Among these is the idea that there was a race of beings prior to Adam. This is supported by tradition and by the possibility that the verb used in the sentence "…and the earth was without form…" can be translated "…and the earth became without form…" meaning that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (with its life and inhabitants before Adam) then the earth, for whatever reason, became waste and void, then God said "let there be light" and started all over again. This idea permits greater flexibility in allowing more time in the overall age of the earth, while accepting the literal creation time-sequence beginning with the first day after the earth "became void" that is, from the day of the creation as we know it, so that life as we know it began about 6,000 years ago, but other life forms could have existed long before Adam. Such an idea is possible of course, but the problem with this theory is that it is largely speculative. The Scriptures give no real support for a pre-Adamic creation.

But regarding science and its theories, it should be clearly understood that the entire theory of evolution depends upon the accuracy of the dating system. The earth MUST be hundreds of millions of years old if the theory of evolution is to "have a chance." And in this matter, the dating system itself is subject to speculation. The process of dating assumes that the elements used in the dating have always decayed at the same rate as they can be observed today and that nothing has happened to interfere with that decay,such as a comet ripping open the atmosphere and exposing the earth to extensive radiation. Dating methods rely upon the current knowledge of the "half-lives" of elements. Let’s say for example, that we can determine that a certain radioactive isotope looses "half its strength" over a period of say, one million years. Now we find a rock out in the field and when we measure the presence of that isotope in a the rock we find that it measures 25%. Assuming the starting point of 100% and knowing that the element "breaks down" by one-half every million years or so, we conclude that our sample rock would be about 2 million years old (100% to 50%=one million years; 50% to 25%=1 million years). But how do we know the original starting point? It must be assumed based upon observations of the present.

There are many other inconsistencies and assumptions which plague current scientific theory. If these things are "fact" as we are often led to believe, then why are the "facts" continually changing? Do not be quick to accept what is based upon assumption. I believe the Genesis account because the Bible has ample evidence to prove its source of origin, and its accuracy in other things. The scope of that evidence and the weight of evidence against evolution is far beyond a question/answer page such as this, although in our articles things such as this are addressed from time to time. There are some links that you may wish to explore. The Creation Research Society can be found at: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/crs/crs-home.html Bob West has some good links also at: http://www.BiblePage.org/links.html In addition, keep checking back on Gary’s site also, as we may be offering bibliographies and other information from time to time regarding these things. Contact Doug