Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times - Conscious Evolution TV

74robin-bobin Rapture, Revelation, and the End Timesseven days of creation refer to twenty-four-hour days or tolonger periods of time, but the literal approach agrees thatindividual species were created, in the order described inGenesis, as intentional acts of God. There really was an Adamand an Eve, the literal first God-created human beings fromwhom all other humans descended. Those who read Genesis asa literal, scientific, historical account have become opponents ofDarwin and theories of evolution, seeing those scientific viewsas rivals to the literal reading of the biblical narrative. ManyChristians who take this position say that one has to accept allof the Bible as true; people are not justified in accepting parts ofthe Bible and rejecting other parts.Other Christians see the creation account in Genesis as somethinglike a parable, a story that communicates spiritual truth,not to be read as a literal, historical narrative. In this view, thefirst three chapters of Genesis provide a symbolic story thataffirms certain truths: However the world came to be, God wasbehind it; God had good intentions for human beings, buthumans have fallen short. This approach would argue that theGenesis creation story was never intended to be a scientific orhistorical account to be taken literally. In support, they claimthat the first three chapters contain more than one creation story,and the stories vary in their details. If we were intended to take itliterally, how do we explain what appear to be contradictorydetails?Many persons think that this is a modern argument, butsimilar disagreements existed even in the early church. Scholarsdescribe two “schools” of biblical interpretation associated withimportant Christian communities at Alexandria and Antioch, inthe eastern part of the Roman empire in the first few centuries ofChristian history. Representatives of the Alexandrian approachincluded Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and, later, Gregory ofNazianzus. Alexandrians advocated figurative interpretations ofscripture when the literal meanings seemed impossible. WouldGod really “walk” in a garden? What about discrepanciesbetween the gospels in describing Jesus’ life? These must not berobin-bobin