Creation and the Fathers

[Jim_Baur]

Any help here?

Please, Please, and Please!!!

Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you!!!

How do they explain the tree of life? (The Word or Jesus?)

How do they explain the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

How do they explain the sword that guards the tree of life?

When God created the heavens, are these the angels?

In John’s Apocalypse, the Heavenly Jerusalem does not need a sun. Is this connected to the sun being created on the fourth day?

Any help? Please!!!

Any good websites?

 

[Liberian]

Jim Baur:

Any help here?

Please, Please, and Please!!!

Thank you, Thank you, and Thank you!!!

How do they explain the tree of life? (The Word or Jesus?)

How do they explain the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

How do they explain the sword that guards the tree of life?

When God created the heavens, are these the angels?

In John’s Apocalypse, the Heavenly Jerusalem does not need a sun. Is this connected to the sun being created on the fourth day?

Any help? Please!!!

Any good websites?

Jim,

I’m afraid I won’t be much help, but I don’t think there is a direct connection between the new Jerusalem not needing a sun and the sun being created on the fourth day in Genesis 1. As for the others, I don’t know who “they” are who are explaining the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge, or the sword guarding the entrance to Eden. If you are asking where these things are now, the answer is that nobody knows. There is an awful lot from several millenia ago that isn’t around any more. And this does not prove that they never existed; absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Also, the angels are different from the heavens. Creating the heavens and the earth means creating the universe and all that is in it; angels are supernatural beings whose home is outside the physical universe.

One thing that I can point out is that people who tried to disprove Christianity a century ago laughed at the Creation account, asking how there could be light without the sun and stars. Then the Big Bang theory came along and it is now accepted scientific convention that there was light a long time before any stars were created.

Is there anybody else out there who actually knows something about the subject? I certainly don’t, at least not with any authority.

• Liberian

 

[PhilVaz]

Before this thread disappears off the first page…

You’ll want to check Cardinal Ratzinger’s Commentary on Genesis. Looks like all his books are coming back in print, and this one is now available. I typed in 2 small sections from the book.

"In the Beginning…" Commentary on Genesis 1-3

He doesn’t go into a lot of detail on all the symbolism, but there are sections on the creation/evolution issue which I am very interested in.

Phil P