{"id":137,"date":"2011-10-17T19:03:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-17T19:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2011-11-09T20:49:56","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T20:49:56","slug":"session-three-the-first-story-of-creation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=137","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">    var _gaq = _gaq || [];   _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']);   _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);    (function() {     var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true;     ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js';     var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s);   })();  <\/script>  <\/head> Session Three &#8211; The First Story of Creation &#8211;  Held on Sunday, Oct. 2, 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Opening Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As we began to pray I wanted to point out that something different happens inside of us when we pray. The Spirit of God can be present to us, inside of us, working with us and yet we don&#8217;t know it. Not knowing doesn&#8217;t mean that the Spirit is not there for discerning the Spirit is a delicate matter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background &#8211; Resources<\/strong><br \/>\nLast week I passed a handout, The History of Ancient Israel and its Book <a title=\"The History of Ancient israel and Its Book\" href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94\">http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=94<\/a>;\u00a0if you are interested in learning more, visit <a title=\"Bible's Buried Secret\" href=\"http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/ancient\/bibles-buried-secrets.html\">http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wgbh\/nova\/ancient\/bibles-buried-secrets.html<\/a>. This 2 year old Nova show presents an archeological detective story that traces the origins of the Hebrew Bible. Another resource is the book by Richard Friedman\u2019s Who Wrote the Bible, <a title=\"Who Wrote the Bible?\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/nhvr3F\">http:\/\/amzn.to\/nhvr3F<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For much of Western civilization, the Bible was, for all practical purposes, the one and only account of ancient times. All of that has changed over the past two hundred years or so. To state the obvious, the earlier we go back in to time the less evidence we have for the biblical account of things. Investigators have still not found extra biblical evidence for the Ancient Israelite\u2019s Slavery in Egypt, Moses and the Exodus, and Joshua\u2019s military campaigns to seize the Promised Land. It is also worth keeping in mind that the composition of the bible in its final form and the known historical events are separated by 300 to 500 hundred years; longer than the entire history of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Are the ideas expressed above new to you? Do you have any questions, comments, observations?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background \u2013 Contemporary Issues<\/strong><br \/>\nThe study group also identified some of the issues, questions, concerns that Genesis stories have given rise to in our times. The apparent conflicts they identified were<\/p>\n<p>1. Between the creation account of the beginning and the account of modern science.<br \/>\n2. Between the time frame of the Bible \u2013 Seven Days \u2013 and the billions of years of modern cosmology.<br \/>\n3. Between the theory of Evolution and Intelligent Design<br \/>\n4. The social \/ political \/ cultural \u201cwars\u201d that swirl around these topics.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have any other ideas to add to this list? We hope to discuss these and other questions in our study.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background \u2013 The Passage Itself<\/strong><br \/>\nLet\u2019s open the bible to Genesis 1:1. In bold print as a title are the words, <strong>First Story of Creation<\/strong>, and it begins with chapter 1 verse 1 but it continues into chapter 2 and stops at verse 4a. Then we note a second title again in bold print, <strong>Second Story of Creation<\/strong>. The two titles are obviously not part of the original composition, nor are the verse numbering. From the very beginning, therefore, we have evidence of editing of the text and that editing is based on modern textual research.<\/p>\n<p>As we begin to listen \/ read, here are a few questions that might guide us, prompt our thinking.<\/p>\n<p>1. See if you can identify certain phrases that are repeated throughout the telling of this the first story of creation.<br \/>\n2. Identify what happens on each day of creation [it might be helpful to actually write them down]; then we will know the order in which the author presents God&#8217;s creation of everything.<br \/>\n3. A final question, why are they telling this story of beginnings?<\/p>\n<p>If you have a bible available, please open it and with these questions in mind, read the passage for study.<\/p>\n<p>As you read this passage what was going through your mind? What were you feeling or thinking? What questions might have arisen? What comments might you want to make?<\/p>\n<p>By recording them in the comment section below, we can begin our study on line.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Study Group Responses<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jody: What jumped out at me \u2026 it\u2019s around verse 26. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.\u00a0Is this like Greek mythology, a bunch of gods up there? Its kind like there was more than one person doing all this.<\/p>\n<p>We actually spent nearly 20 minutes discussing Jody\u2019s question. Tim suggested that the \u201cus\u201d is like the use of the royal we. The idea that we were made in God\u2019s image though seems central to this verse. \u00a0In a latter gathering we will spend more time on what is the biblical message expressed in us being created in the image of God. What do you think that means? How are we an image of God?<\/p>\n<p>Rosemarie: What jumped out at me was the fourth day. I\u2019ll tell you way. I\u2019ve always been intrigued by the stars in the sky. That fascinates me since I was a little girl. \u2026 many times on a summer night I sat on the steps of my porch or on the porch and looked up and just looked at the stars. And each one of those stars &#8230; there\u2019s thousands of them. \u2026 it takes my breath away. \u2026 well personally I see God there. I do. I just think God &#8230; just made everything so wonderful. It\u2019s such a \u2026 \u00a0well he\u2019s divine to me.<\/p>\n<p>Ken told us of a video <em>Cosmic Voyage<\/em>, now on You Tube, there are three separate links to view the entire video:<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cMRoDyc8W2k&amp;feature=channel_video_title\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?<wbr>v=cMRoDyc8W2k&amp;feature=channel_<wbr>video_title<\/wbr><\/wbr><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: arial, sans-serif;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MCPBbjea1-g&amp;feature=relmfu\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?<wbr>v=MCPBbjea1-g&amp;feature=relmfu<\/wbr><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xkfyoF6Gbj0&amp;feature=relmfu\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?<wbr>v=xkfyoF6Gbj0&amp;feature=relmfu<\/wbr><\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Viewing this for Ken was a very moving experience and provided convincing evidence for the existence of God. \u00a0While for another viewer it was clear evidence that God did not exist. \u00a0These apparent conflicting points of view raised a question,\u00a0why do some people see God in the majesty and awesomeness of our ever expanding universe while for others the very same universe is evidence that there is no God. What would your comment on this fact be? It wouldn&#8217;t be until the following session that the group tackled this question.<\/p>\n<p>At this point I passed out the Biblical Cosmology handout <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=148\">http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=148<\/a>\u00a0. This picture depicts the image ancient people had of their world.<\/p>\n<p>Tina: I have a comment on this \u2026 model. I\u2019m flashing back to my philosophy class \u2026 the people want to understand \u2026 so they\u2019re not afraid as to what\u2019s out there<\/p>\n<p>Carol: So like two hundred years from now somebody in the solar system is going to be saying \u2026 I was out there searching the solar system and I found this digitally recorded \u2026 It could happen. And we\u2019re here discussing what happened so many thousands of years ago. Two hundred years from now, somebody is going to pop on the site that you are putting on the web and say look what I found while searching the solar system. And we\u2019re here discussing what happened and they will be discussing this.<\/p>\n<p>Tim: Going back, what did the scriptural authors want to convey? And what I\u2019m hearing around \u2026 from you guys \u2026 is the awesomeness of God. And that\u2019s what I\u2019m kind of feeling here is that the author was trying to convey the awesomeness of God to everybody who he was trying to reach.<\/p>\n<p>Your questions, comments, observations are welcomed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opening Prayer As we began to pray I wanted to point out that something different happens inside of us when we pray. The Spirit of God can be present to us, inside of us, working with us and yet we &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=137\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}