HOLA mi amigo Cache Crazy (and everyone),
This post does stray off-topic but only to attempt to justify a theory, so I must beg your indulgence.
Cache Crazy wrote:
So why did he say that these things are hid from the wise?
The laws of nature are the laws of God, I agree. God created nature.
It's when man comes along and starts thinking he knows better than
what the Bible says, that we end up in a mess like we're in today.
Eat of this tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil...your eyes will be
opened, and you will be as gods. That's what Eve listened to, and that's
what we're listening to today. There was also the tree of life, which was
the opposite of the tree of knowledge. You can't know God by scientific
means. It's hid from the wise and REVEALED to babes.
I also agree with you on one day being a thousand years. Some things in
the Bible are given that way, but when he says someone lived a certain
amount of years, then I have to believe it means it just that way.
Well to your first question, I am not really qualified to answer that. However, remember what it says in Corinthians 13:11, also Matthew 7:7, Matthew 10:26, Luke 12:2, Exodus 28:3, 31:3, 31:6, and several more etc Ephesians 5:8, Isaiah 54:13, many references in the Bible extol the virtues of wisdom; just look at Solomon for one example, he asked God for wisdom and this pleased God greatly so he granted not only wisdom but immense wealth, honor, peace etc. We are not living in Eden today, having the luxury of choice of whether to remain as innocent as wild animals or to partake of wisdom – that choice was taken many thousands of years ago by Adam and Eve. We live in the “cursed Earth”, cursed by God for our ancestors’ transgressions. Wisdom is not evil, at least that is not the way the Bible seems to describe it.
I also must respectfully disagree that you cannot know God by scientific means. For instance, there is a wealth of archaeological evidence that confirms the Bible, from Pontius Pilate to Sodom and Gomorrah. Science has even shown that there is a “scientific” Adam and a “scientific” Eve, tracing our DNA back to a single male ancestor and a single female, which agrees with what Genesis tells us. Does it weaken anyone’s religious belief that we DO have scientific evidence that supports the Bible? Even Creation, which seems to stir up such heated arguments, well what else is the scientific “Big Bang” theory but the instant of the creation of the Universe? “"I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all came forth, and to me all attained.
Split a piece of wood; I am there.
Lift up the stone, and you will find me there." (G. Thomas, 77)
At least I don’t see any REAL conflict between science and the Bible. I will add a single word to your statement, which I can easily agree with,
You cannot know God by scientific means - ALONE.
As for the ages of the patriarchs,
there is a reason why they are listed first in Genesis 10 WITHOUT any mention of how many years they lived, then in Genesis 11 we are given the years they lived, and when children were born. Nowhere in the Bible does it literally say the number of years from the Flood to the birth of Christ – we have been calculating to arrive at a date, using those ages of the patriarchs and
assuming this MUST be the number of years to the flood. I can point to several examples of how the “current” understanding of the Bible was shown to be simply mistaken by science, for instance the church insisted for centuries that the Earth is flat, pointing to passages in scripture that mention the “four corners” of the world, etc (the great Saint Augustine became the authority on this view) yet after the world was proven to be a sphere and not flat, a careful review of scripture shows that the Bible does say that the world is round. (Flat Earth, Isaiah 11:12, Ezekiel 7:2 etc round Earth Isaiah 40:22 and an interesting supporting passage in Job 26:7, saying that Earth floats in space on nothing, a fact LONG disbelieved until proven by science) This is just one example, our understanding in both science and the Bible changes over time and (hopefully) improving as we go along.
To try to tie this back in to our subject matter, I do suspect that the great flood of Noah (Gilgamesh, Deukalion etc) is the same event described by Plato for Atlantis. The reference to great wealth and tendencies to violence in Plato describing the Atlantians or Titans does seem to parallel the description of humanity in Genesis leading up to the Flood.
My apologies for yet another long-winded post, and for venturing into scripture outside of the religion forum. Good luck and good hunting to you Cache Crazy and everyone, I hope you find the treasures that you seek.
your friend,
Oroblanco