Seven C’s of History

Sadly, generations have been brought up to see the Bible as just a book of teachings that is not connected to physical reality, and by and large deals with only abstract, spiritual things.

This limited viewpoint helps explain why there are so many questions about how the Bible can explain dinosaurs, fossils, death and suffering and many other topics that relate to our real world.

This online “booklet” outlines the major events of the past (and even the future). Frankly, they are quite different from what is presented in most schools, TV programs and science museums. In fact, the 7 C’s presented here are the theme of the large Creation Museum near Cincinnati, Ohio.

Creation

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

The first “C” of our “walk through history” is the creation of all things. In the book of Genesis (which means “beginnings’), God tells us He created everything in six days.

Let’s take a quick look at what happened on each of those days.

Day 1—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was! He separated the light from the darkness and called the light “Day” and the darkness “Night.” This light came from a source other than the sun—the sun wasn’t created until Day 4.

Day 2—God made an expanse (something “stretched out,” like space) and separated the waters above the expanse from the waters below.

Day 3—God caused the waters under the expanse to come together, so that dry ground appeared. Then He told the land to bring forth plants and trees.

Day 4—God made the sun, the moon and the stars. These were to serve as signs to mark seasons, days and years. The sun and moon were to rule the day and night, which cycle began on Day 1.

Day 5—God created the animals that live in water and those that fly in the air.

Day 6—God created the land animals, including the dinosaurs, and—His most special creation—humanity. Adam and Eve were the first people—the great, great, great  . . . grandparents of us all! For food, God gave them—and the animals—plants to eat.

When God had completely finished creating, He labeled all He had done as “very good.” Imagine a place with no death, no violence, no disease, no sickness, no thorns, no fear!

Day 7—God “rested” from—or stopped—His work of creation. Now God keeps upholding His creation (Colossians 1:17).

God created all things in six days and rested on the seventh. This became the first “week.” Today, most people follow this example by working for six days and resting for one.

In the Creation Museum, we demonstrate that the science of radiometric dating—when properly interpreted—does not show that the earth is billions of years old. For example, rocks and other samples known to be very young, when sent to secular dating laboratories, routinely give “ages” of “millions of years.”

The museum also shows that, contrary to common belief, dinosaurs did not evolve into birds, and that the science of genetics overwhelmingly supports the biblical account of created kinds—not the supposed evolution of new kinds.

Corruption

“But you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

We’ve seen that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and everything was very good (Genesis 1–2). The next “C” in the Creation Museum is “Corruption,” and is found in Genesis 3.

From perfection  . . .

For a while, things were perfect in the Garden of Eden. As we show in a wonderfully designed area of the museum, Adam and Eve lived in a beautiful garden (planted especially for them by God). They could eat of any tree in Eden, except one. This first couple had a perfect relationship with their Creator, a perfect marriage and a perfect place to live. The animals, which Adam ruled over, got along perfectly. But something obviously corrupted this “very good” world, turning it into the world we see today, which is full of sickness and death.

To imperfection  . . .

Adam and Eve both knew they could eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden except the one known as the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” God had forbidden them to eat of it, telling them that if they ate of it, on that day, “dying, you shall die” (the literal Hebrew used).

The devil, a real being, had taken the form of a serpent. He knew what God had said, but he caused Eve to question God’s words by asking, “Did God say you weren’t to eat of any tree of the garden?” and then lying, “You won’t really die.” Eve believed the serpent, rather than God, and ate the forbidden fruit.

Then she gave some to Adam, who hadn’t been deceived by the serpent but ate it willingly (1 Timothy 2:14). This caused them both to immediately die spiritually (be separated from God) and to begin to die physically, on that very day.

Because of his disobedience (sin), all of his descendants (you and I) are born with sin in our nature. Because of Adam’s sin, our bodies will die. Because of Adam’s sin, God cursed His precious creation. The world we see today, while reflecting God’s original creation, has been corrupted by sin.

The one who was to come  . . .

The good news of this sad tale is that God did not abandon His creation after Adam’s sin! He promised that one day He would send a Savior, the “seed of a woman,” to “bruise” (crush, break) the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). This Savior, Jesus Christ, was indeed born of a woman without a human father, about 4,000 years later. Christ died on the Cross, and rose again to save His people from their sins, so indeed dealing a death-blow to (crushing the head of) the devil (serpent).

Catastrophe

“And every living thing which was on the face of the earth was destroyed, from man to cattle, and to the creeping things, and the fowls of the heavens. And they were destroyed from the earth, and only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark” (Genesis 7:23).

God created a perfect world in six normal-length days (Genesis 1–2), but Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit and brought corruption and death into the world (Romans 5:12). Adam’s sin passed to his children, his children’s children and so on. This brings us to the third “C” of history found in Genesis 6-9.

As time went by, people began to invent new machines, explore new places, try new ideas. Because their hearts were wicked, though, they did things that displeased their Creator. They didn’t listen to their ancestor Adam when he would have told them what had happened in the Garden of Eden, and how they needed to obey and worship only the Lord.

This grieved God so much that He determined to destroy everything with the breath of life in it. Only one righteous man, Noah, found favor in His eyes. God told Noah that He would send a great flood to judge the entire globe by covering it with water.

Parrots and antelopes and  . . . dinosaurs?

God provided a way for Noah, his wife, his three sons, their wives, the land animals and birds (the fish and other sea creatures could survive in the water) to survive this catastrophe by building a huge Ark.

Noah and his family worked on the Ark for many years, probably warning those around them about God’s judgment that was coming. Nobody but his family believed. When they finished building, God brought two of every animal (including dinosaurs!) and seven of some, to the Ark.

The Creation Museum powerfully shows that there was plenty of room in this huge vessel for tens of thousands of animals  . . . even dinosaurs (the average dinosaur was only the size of a large sheep or bison, and Noah didn’t have to take fully grown adults of the large dinosaurs). A museum exhibit about the processes associated with “natural selection” and “speciation” throws much light on such questions. Noah actually only needed about 16,000 animals on the Ark to represent all the distinct kinds of land-dwelling animals.

After all were on board, the “fountains of the great deep” broke up and the “windows of heaven” opened. These provided the water that would cover every spot on the whole earth.

We’ve all seen the damage a local flood can do—ripping up trees, depositing layers of mud, destroying everything in its path. Now imagine the damage done by a flood covering the entire planet!

Nothing would be the same after the waters had left and the earth had begun to dry. Everything must have looked very strange to Noah and his family as they came off the Ark!

After leaving the Ark, Noah built an altar to the Lord, sacrificing one of each of the clean animals. God promised never to flood the entire earth again. The sign of this promise is the rainbow we see today.

The Creation Museum showcases evidence from such places as Mount St Helens in Washington State, showing how multiple layers of sedimentary rock (similar in a way to some of the layers at Grand Canyon) and canyons, too, can form quickly—not needing the supposed millions of years usually attributed to such features.

Confusion

“Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of all the earth. And they quit building the city” (Genesis 11:7–8).

The disobedient descendants of Noah decided to stay in one place, building a tall tower that they hoped would help keep them all together.

When the Lord saw their disobedience, He was displeased—as He is with all disobedience—and He confused the language of the people so they couldn’t understand each other (until this time, they all spoke one language). In this way, the Creator scattered them over all the earth.

The several different languages created suddenly at Babel (Genesis 10–11) could each subsequently give rise to many more. Language gradually changes, so when a group of people breaks into several groups that no longer interact, after a few centuries, they may each speak a different (but related) language. Today, we have thousands of languages but fewer than 20 language “families.”

Now, wait a minute  . . .

If Adam and Eve were the first humans  . . . and if all humans died except Noah, his wife and their three sons and daughters-in-law during the global Flood  . . . and if we’re all descended from the same two people; then why do we look so different from each other?

Actually, this “C” (Confusion) has a lot to do with answering this question, and the future Creation Museum provides a highly visual exhibit that illustrates this important point. It also answers basic questions such as where Cain’s wife came from (hint: originally, close relatives could marry, because the human gene pool became more corrupt over time due to mutations and copying mistakes—all a result of sin and the Curse).

God created Adam and Eve with the ability to produce children with a variety of different characteristics. This ability was passed on through Noah and his family.

As the people scattered, they took with them different amounts of genetic information for certain characteristics—e.g. height, the amount of pigment for hair and skin color (by the way, we all have the same pigment, just more or less of it), and so on. From this one event, the tribes and nations of the world have resulted. Because we all came from Noah’s family a few thousand years ago, we’re all related!

The Creation Museum shows how the recent Human Genome Project supports this biblical teaching that there is only one biological race of humans. The basic principles of genetics explain various shades of one skin color (not different colors) and how the distinct people groups (e.g. American Indians, Australian Aborigines, etc.) came about because of the event at the Tower of Babel. The creation and Flood legends of these peoples, from all around the world, also confirm the Bible’s anthropology to be true.

Christ

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel," which being interpreted is, God with us. ” (Matthew 1:21–23).

God did not, however, leave His precious—but corrupted—creation without hope.

God’s perfect creation was corrupted by Adam when he disobeyed God. This disobedience brought sin and death into the world. Because of Adam’s disobedience, and because we have all sinned personally anyway, we are all deserving of the death penalty and need a Savior (Romans 5:12).

God did not, however, leave His precious—but corrupted—creation without hope. He promised to send Someone one day who would take away the penalty for sin, which is death (Genesis 3:15; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23).

God slew an animal(s) in the Garden of Eden (a lamb/sheep?) because of the sin of Adam; subsequently, Adam’s descendants sacrificed animals. Such sacrifices could only cover sin—they looked forward to the time when the ultimate sacrifice would be made by the One whom God would send (Hebrews 9).

When God gave Moses the Law, people began to see that they could never measure up to God’s standard of perfection (Romans 3:20)—if they broke any part of the Law, the result was the same as breaking the whole lot (James 2:10)!

They needed Someone to take away their imperfection and present them faultless before God’s throne (Romans 5:9; 1 Peter 3:18).

God’s gift to us

Just as God has a purpose and plan for everything and everyone, so He sent His promised Savior at just the right time (Galatians 4:4). There was a problem, however. All humans are descended from Adam, and therefore all humans are born with sin. God’s chosen One had to be perfect, as well as infinite, to take away the infinite penalty for sin.

God solved this “problem” by sending His Son Jesus Christ—completely human and completely God. Think of it: the Creator of the universe (John 1:1-3, 14) became part of His creation so that He might save His people from their sins!

Jesus was born to a virgin over 2,000 years ago in a town near Jerusalem called Bethlehem, as the prophets Isaiah (7:14) and Micah (5:2) had foretold 700 years previously. His parents took Him to Egypt to escape the anger of King Herod, and the family later settled in Nazareth.

Jesus fulfilled more than fifty prophecies made about Him centuries before, showing He was the One promised over 4,000 years before by His Father (Genesis 3:15). While He spent over thirty years on earth, He never once sinned—He did nothing wrong. He healed many people, fed huge crowds and taught thousands of listeners about their Creator God and how to be reconciled to Him. He even used the book of Genesis to explain that marriage is between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:3-6, quoting Genesis 1:27 and 2:24).

Jesus Christ came to earth so that we might have eternal life with Him!

Cross

“Christ Jesus  . . . who, being in the form of God  . . . , was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5–8).

The first Adam

Our first “parent,” Adam, did not lead the perfect life he should have. He disobeyed his Creator’s command not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Because of God’s judgment on this one act of rebellion, the entire creation, which was originally perfect (Genesis 1:31), became subject to death and corruption. Because of Adam’s sin, and because we sin personally, we all die (Romans 5:12–19).

The Last Adam

Around 4,000 years after Adam disobeyed, God sent the perfect sacrifice, in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ, to take away the sin of the world, fulfilling the promise God made in Genesis 3:15. Jesus is called the “Last Adam” in 1 Corinthians 15:45, and He came to restore the fellowship with the Creator that was broken by Adam’s sin.

Adam disobeyed God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit; Jesus fulfilled the Creator’s purpose that He die for the sin of the world.

The first Adam brought death into the world through his disobedience; the Last Adam (Jesus Christ) brought eternal life with God through His obedience (1 Corinthians 15:21–22).

Because God is perfectly holy, He must punish sin—either the sinner himself, or a substitute to bear His wrath.

God Himself made the first sacrifice for sin by killing an animal (this was the first death in God’s creation) after Adam disobeyed (Genesis 3:21). But we don’t have to offer animal sacrifices for sin any more. This is because the Lamb of God (John 1:29; Revelation 5:12) was sacrificed once for all (Hebrews 7:27). Jesus bore God’s wrath on our sin by dying in our place (Isaiah 53:6). So all those who believe in Him will be saved from the ultimate penalty for sin (eternal separation from God), and will live with Him forever.

Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things (John 1:1–3; Colossians 1:15–16), was not defeated by death. He rose three days after He was crucified, showing that He has power over all things, including death, the “last enemy” (1 Corinthians 15:26)!

This is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?  . . . But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55, 57).

When we believe in Christ and understand what He has done for us, we are passed from death into life (John 5:24). The names of those who receive Him are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 13:8; 17:8)—when they die, they will go to be with Him forever (John 3:16)!

Consummation

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away” (Revelation 21:1).

In the beginning, God created a perfect world. It was a beautiful place—full of life, without death, disease, pain or suffering. Adam’s disobedience changed all that. When he ate the fruit God had told him not to eat, sin and death entered the world (Romans 5:12). This corruption changed the world so much that what we see today is only a reflection of the world that was. As we have stated, Adam’s sin led to the catastrophe of Noah’s day, the confusion at Babel and the death of Christ on the Cross.

Is there an end in sight?

Death has been around almost as long as humans have. Sometimes it might seem as if it’s always been a part of God’s creation. Romans 8 tells us that the whole of creation is suffering because of Adam’s sin. It might appear that there is no end to the suffering brought about by this act of disobedience. Of course, none of us can say that we have not also disobeyed God in our own lives (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:10), so all of us in a sense share in the blame for what we see around us.

God, however, in His great mercy, has promised not to leave His creation in its sinful state. He has promised to do away with the corruption Adam brought into the world. He offers us this salvation through His Son. Also, He has promised to remove, in the future, the Curse He placed on His creation (Revelation 22:3)!

He will make a new heaven and a new earth one day—one which we can’t even begin to imagine (2 Peter 3:13). In this new place there will be no death, no crying, no pain (Revelation 21:4). Nobody will be sad.

As those who have repented and believed in what Jesus did for us on the Cross, we can look forward to this new heaven and earth, knowing we will enjoy God forever in a wonderful place. The corruption that was introduced in the Garden of Eden will be taken away by God, giving us, once again, a perfect place to live!