Re: The wrong horse in evolution education

In a message dated 4/17/2006 5:08:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
williamehamiltonjr@yahoo.com writes:
Phil wrote

>The momentousness of the occaision makes sense only if there was a long
period
of time had elapsed >when men **weren't** calling on the name of the Lord.
This means there must have been a very long >gap between Adam and Enosh,
perhaps between Adam and Seth.

Suppose by "men" the Scriptures mean pre-Adamites? IOW the covenant family's
mission finally begins to bear fruit.
Hi, Bill!

That's a very interesting idea, and I hadn't thought of it before.

Actually, as I think this through, I feel there is another reasonable
explanation for this verse, one which doesn't necessarily imply a gap (although I
still believe there was a gap). I think the statement is part of the stream
toward fulfillment of God's promises to Eve to bring the Seed of the woman, the
one who will crush the serpent's head. After A&E were kicked out of the garden,
at least Abel was calling on Yahweh's name. But when Eve sees that Abel is
dead and Cain has gone bad, then there seems to be no hope of fulfillment. But
then God opens her womb and brings another child, which represents renewed
hope that the promise will be fulfilled. So the birth of Seth and Enosh
represents the renewal of hope that a savior will come through Eve. Hence her
statement how God has replace Abel, and hence also the comment that then men began
[again] to call on the name of the Lord. This statement "men began to call on
the name of the Lord" would thus mean that there was a renewed path of
descendency toward the Messiah, not just the evil ways of the world represented by
the line of Cain.

By the way, it's an interesting study to write down the meanings of the names
in Seth's line and the parallel names in Cain's line, to see how the latter
are twisted versions of the former, giving them a sinister meaning. The
overall picture of the names in Seth's line is that they are waiting on God, hoping
in God, trusting and praising him. The overall picture of names in Cain's
line is that they are building cities, fighting among the cities, living under
judgement. This is brought to fulfillment in the parallel statements of Lamech
in each line, where Seth's Lamech talks of how Noah will bring the promised
rest, and Cain's Lamech talks how the effects of the curse have become worse and
worse, 70 times 7.

So after the Bible goes all through Cain's line with the increasing curse as
humans build cities and develop civilization, then it tells how Eve bore
another child and praised God that the hope has been restored. It could be that
there was no gap and it was just presented in this order to emphasize the point,
or it could be that there was really a gap and Seth came late after men had
developed all this civilization. The idea is that Adam came before all this
civilization development, though.

God bless!
Phil
Received on Mon Apr 17 20:32:50 2006