[_ Old Earth _] Christians, why not evolution?

[dad]

Re: timeline

...why did the serpent have it right in the garden caper and the assumptions that man would die when he ate from the tree was false

We did begin to die the moment we took the fruit and ate it. It took a while.

Ge 5:5 - And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

 

[Drew]

Re: timeline

Do you think that God's purpose for telling us how He created was to explain billions of years?

If I may stick my snout in here as one who basically agree with everything that ArtGuy has said in this thread.

No. God had a purpose other than teaching us about natural history. The intent of the creation account in Genesis is not to tell us about the timeline of events.
However that is what he did. From the first words in Genesis it starts out in "the beginning". If that is not a timeline I don't know what is. The whole of Genesis is nothing but a timeline of events.

Obviously even the construction of an allegory requires a timeline. It appears that you are demanding that this timeline be considered to be factual - that real historical events unfolded according to this timeline. The reader is under no such obligation - the Genesis creation account timeline is no more factual than the timeline in the tale of the boy who cried wolf. Both are allegories and a ficitonal timeline is created as a vehicle to deliver the moral of the story.

The intent is to communicate important truths to us about the nature of man, God and the relationship between the two.
Well if thats the case then why did the serpent have it right in the garden caper and the assumptions that man would die when he ate from the tree was false. The nature of man to God would be one of deception not honesty.The serpent was correct in what would happen not was promised from God.

This is not correct. God told man he would die if he ate from the tree. The serpent told man otherwise. Man ate the fruit anyway and lost his immortality. Are you assuming that the serpent meant that man would die immediately after eating the fruit? I see no problem here

 

[Heidi]

God had it right in the "garden caper" when he warned Adam & Eve not to eat of the tree of good and evil because they will die. But the serpent told them if they ate from the tree they "would not surely die", which of course, was a lie. ;-)

 

[reznwerks]

not really

God had it right in the "garden caper" when he warned Adam & Eve not to eat of the tree of good and evil because they will die. But the serpent told them if they ate from the tree they "would not surely die", which of course, was a lie. ;-)

Well not exactly. They in fact did not die "in that day". You can argue that they died a spiritual death but the reality is no one really knows on that one. Black and white they did not die and the serpent was correct. Why should we think the serpent was wrong on this point when he also told Adam and Eve the reason God did not want them to eat of the tree was that they would become like Gods , like them. Well what happened when they ate? Read the book. Man became like Gods and God was complaining. There is no reason to think that the warning of dying in that day was hollow.