Continuing and finishing the debate on "No RAIN before Noah's
life."
No rain teaching:
The great lights which Moses recorded must be different than the
sun and moon, for why would he not mention them in the book of
beginnings when he wrote of stars? He wanted to portray something
unique from his experience and ours. Using the generic term of
lights with one of greater intensity than the other, connotes the
impression of a general and vast region of the sky which as
illuminated without any distinct form as the circular sun and
moon afford in a clear sky. A canopy occluding or veiling the sky
account for the greater light on the sunward side, while casting
diffused light to the other side of earth for the lesser light.
Someone will bring up Psalm 136:7-9 to refute this
idea. However, the psalmist could merely be expressing what was
normal in his day, his view of what the great lights were. Not
realizing any change in the great lights since they were created.
My answer:
Putting scripture with scripture, letting one interpret the
other, it seems pretty plain to me, that the psalmist understood
Gen 1:14-19 as I when a child understood it.
No rain teaching:
While the sun could have been the greater light to rule the day
(it defining a day), the lesser light was to rule the night.
My answer:
I think a child would see it that way.
No rain teaching:
This would apply better to the canopy diffused back lighting than
the moon which only rules the night about half the time. The
other half is when it appears in daytime and is ruled over by the
sun. The lesser light with canopy would always be present over
half the earth.
My answer:
Sorry but no canopy idea came to my mind as a child reading those
verses. If you and people like Dillow had never preached the
idea, I sure would not get it from Genesis or any other book of
the Bible.
So in summing my position up to the idea that no rain came on
earth until the lifetime of Noah.
The earth in Genesis one was covered by water. There was a global
food on the earth, not at Noah's time, but here in the fist
verses of Genesis. We come on the scene when the earth was
entirely covered with water. God then sets about to create what
Genesis one is telling us about. The sea and land appear. There
is still great darkness around the earth. The sun and moon and
stars HAD BEEN created, they were already there, but their light
could not be seen from earth. God had to now move the waters
(thick mist like water darkness) above and below (that were all
around the earth) and create the heaven above our earth as we
basically know it today. Hence Genesis 1:14 has really nothing to
do with "festivals" but is correct to translate the Hebrew as the
scholars of the KJV Bible did. God was now forming all the
physical around planet earth, for the days, nights, and for the
yearly seasons. The sky and clouds as we know them today were
there being formed, the sun and moon and stars could now be seen
and give their respected light to the earth.
The plants and trees etc. were created full grown, especially in
the garden of Eden, and ONLY UNTIL man was created and instructed
in care-giving to the garden, and the clouds and all that is
needed to cycle around to bring rain, ONLY UNTIL that natural
cycle functioned in its full circle, did God water everything
with a mist or dew type of water.
After man was instructed in how to care for the garden he and his
wife were living in. After the evaporation of waters from the sea
of the world, and the forming of clouds and all that is needed to
bring rain on the earth, IT DID RAIN!
That is how I have understood Genesis 1 and 2 from a young child
reading those chapter. And with all the arguments by some to the
contrary, that is how I understand those Genesis chapters to this
day. There was no rain for only a relatively very short period.
When the cycle of earth and heaven moved in its cycle, then good
rain fell on the earth. AND THAT WAS WAY BEFORE NOAH LIVED!!
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