Apostle Paul on Marriage

Our Lord Jesus Christ and the writers of the books in the Bible have spoken a lot about marriage and family. They used the analogy of marriage for human relationships with God. In the Old Testament, the prophets often spoke in metaphors of God as a husband and Israel as an unfaithful wife (Ezekiel 16). In the New Testament, the church is depicted as the Bride of Christ. Apostle Paul and John also used this metaphor and spoke of marriage as a spiritual mystery.

Ephesians 5:31, 32  

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

 

Revelation 19:7-8

Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” - for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

 

Since Paul used marriage as an analogy for a relationship with God, he considered it holy and honourable.

Passover rituals

 (All bible verses quoted are from New King James Version, if not otherwise mentioned)

The Passover (Chag HaMatzot, Pesach), the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) are three Jewish pilgrimage festivals (Shalosh R’galim). All Israelite males were required to travel to Jerusalem to attend the festivals. Usually, the whole family went together.

 

Deuteronomy 16:16 "Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot, Pesach), at the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot); and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.

 

Exodus 23:14-17

Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread …. and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.

God’s provision in creation story

 (All Bible verse quoted are from NKJV, if not otherwise mentioned).

 

Genesis 1 and 2

 

The creation story narrated in the book of Genesis is fundamental to Christian belief. It tells us that the whole universe was created by God. When God created the universe, no one witnessed it other than himself. So only God can describe how he created them. He created everything, as he has described in Genesis 1 and 2.

 

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 in the Bible are two narratives about the creation of the earth, the non-living things and living beings on it. The first narration continues to the first three verses of the second chapter. That means Genesis 1:1–2:3 is the first narration. The second narration starts only with Genesis 2:4. This is not an error by the original writer, but happened when the chapter division was done later by a redactor. Originally, no book in the Bible was written by any author with chapter or verse divisions. Chapter divisions were done in the 13th century, and verse divisions were done in the 16th century. These divisions are not fault-proof.

Christians and Sabbath

(All verses quoted in this study are taken from the New King James Version, if not otherwise mentioned.)

 

What is Sabbath

 

“Shabbat” is the original Hebrew word for the English word Sabbath. The root word is Shin-Beit-Tav which means “to cease, to end, to rest.” It is the seventh day after six days of work. Jews and some sects of Christians observe the Sabbath every week as a day of rest and worship.

 

Two themes govern the Jewish Sabbath: to remember and to observe. It is a commemoration of God’s six-day creation of the universe and their freedom from Egyptian slavery.

 

Exodus 20:8–11

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

 

Deuteronomy 5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

 

Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, on which the Israelites were to rest, in remembrance that God created the universe in six days and then “rested” on the seventh day. It is a remembrance of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Sabbath is a “sign” of the covenant between Israel and God (Exodus 31:13). There were special commands given to Israel regarding a “sacred assembly” held on the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:3). Sabbath observance was very important to the Israelites. According to the Mosaic law, anyone who dishonours the Sabbath would be put to death.

Creation and interpretive theories

 (All verses quoted are from NKJV if not otherwise mentioned)

 

There is more than one interpretive theory about the creation story narrated in the Book of Genesis. Many of them are trying to explain the creation process, accommodating it with geological and scientific discoveries. Science claims that the universe is millions or billions of years old, while the Bible claims a younger age for the earth. So different theories are developed to incorporate scientific theories. They have the support of some Bible scholars, study Bibles, and seminaries. However, conservative theologians dismiss all these theories for a literary seven-day creation story as described in Genesis 1 and 2.

 

In this study, we will discuss four main theories: the Gap Theory, or the Ruin and Reconstruction Theory; Progressive Creationism, or Day-Age Creationism; Theistic Evolution; and Young Earth Creationism.

Gap Theory

Ruin and reconstruction theory

 

One of the most popular theories for interpreting the creation story in Genesis is known as the Gap Theory or the Ruin and Reconstruction Theory. The theory reconciles the creation story in Genesis with the long geological ages.