In The Beginning (Part Four)

Beyond any reasonable doubt—this is the fourth and final feature in a series that proves beyond any reasonable doubt that God is, and that the creation account found in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Holy Bible, is supremely accurate. The book of Genesis is not a hand-me-down account passed down from generation to generation, as some would allege, but a firsthand account given by an eyewitness—even the very Creator Himself!

It must be noted that a plethora of hand-me-down accounts of creation do exist. All those with which I’m familiar resemble the Genesis account. For the first five days of creation, and part of the sixth day, the eyewitnesses we have are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, plus a heavenly host. During the latter part of the day six, two more earthly witnesses enter the picture: Adam and Eve. Did they pass down an accurate account of the creation history with which they were familiar?

Writing just after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the historian Josephus refers to one of the very first written records, attributed to the children of Seth, the third son of Adam. He writes:

Now this Seth, when he was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who imitated his virtues. All these proved to be of good dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam’s prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity of water, they made two pillars; the one of brick, the other of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind; and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day.  [End of quote]

Many accounts have been passed down in the oral tradition from generation to generation before being captured in written form, but the Word of God given to Moses is the world’s only accurate firsthand account.

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GOD SAID, Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

MAN SAID: We just popped out of nothing and here we are. Man also believes Buddha’s statement, “No origin can be perceived.”

Now THE RECORD. Was there a literal Tree of Life in the midst of Paradise? Ancient records that predate the Holy Bible (which was given by God unto Moses) speak of this very tree. In Halley’s Bible Handbook, under the heading, “Archaeological Notes: Babylonian Traditions of Fall of Man,” is recorded the following:

Early Babylonian inscriptions abound in references to a “tree of life,” from which man was driven, by the influence of an evil spirit personified in a serpent, and to which he was prevented from returning by guardian cherubs.

Among these tablets is a story of “Adapa”, so strikingly parallel to the Biblical story of Adam, that he is called the Babylonian Adam.—“Adapa, the seed of mankind,”—“the wise man of Eridu,”—“blameless,” —then he “offended the gods,”—“through knowledge,”—then he “became mortal,”—“food of life he ate not,”—“sickness he imposed on the people,”—the gods said, “he shall not rest,”—“they clothed him with a mourning garment.” [End of quote]

Genesis 3:22-24:

22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

The following passages come from the GodSaidManSaid feature article, “The Tree of Life:”

It’s interesting to note that God did not remove the Tree of Life from the earth after man had sinned, but instead set Cherubims to protect it from man. After Eve and Adam had cast off the word of God, and were cast out of Paradise, they, their offspring, and all the elements of the earth became subject to the law of sin and death, known in science as the second law of thermodynamics. This law means that all things go from order to disorder, from life to death. This curse affects everything.

Sixteen hundred-plus years later, a second disastrous happening took place that greatly accelerated the effects of the curse of sin and death. This second happening, which occurred during the flood of Noah, was the destruction of the water canopy that once encompassed the earth. It was suspended above the first heaven, which is the immediate atmosphere that surrounds the globe. According to the creation-science model, the water canopy would have acted as a filter, shielding Earth from the devastating killer rays from the sun, such as ultraviolet rays and more. These harmful rays are deadly to all life, including the trees, grass, air, water, animals, and humans. Prior to the global flood in the days of Noah when the water canopy was destroyed, man lived 13 times longer than he does today, reaching the average age of 911 years.

The massive changes caused by the curse of sin and death affected all of creation, and would also have affected the Tree of Life.

In this feature, we will not prove emphatically which tree was once the Tree of Life, but rather, we will provide the spiritual and physical rationale that strongly supports the idea of such a marvelous record in the Word of God—a record which has been ridiculed as a fairy tale by skeptics.

While searching for this miraculous tree, we find in Scriptures, in history and in science, one tree stands as a giant above all others, even while enduring the life-ending curse of sin. This proverbial tree is the olive tree.

In the Holy Word of God, there is no tree like the olive. After the great flood, Noah, knew that the waters were drying up from the earth when the dove he released returned to the ark with an olive leaf in its mouth. The olive branch today represents the symbol of hope. Ancient law forbids the destruction of any olive tree, even if it belongs to the enemy. The olive tree and its oil are written about hundreds of times in the Word of God. (Click on to “Olive Oil” on this website.) It was olive oil that fueled the holy flame that burned continually before the veil of God’s most holy place (Exodus 27:20). Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies, beyond the veil. The two doors at the entrance were made of the wood of the olive tree (I Kings 6:32). Above the Ark of the Covenant, which was the spiritual center of the tabernacle of God, were the wings of two Cherubims, also made of the olive tree (I Kings 6:23-28). Thus, the verse in Psalms 57:1, and many others:

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I take my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Hosea 14:6 reads:

His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

Zechariah 4:11-14 reads:

11 Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

12 And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

13 And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

14 Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

The sweet psalmist of Israel wrote in Psalms 52:8:

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

In James 5:14, the elders in the house of God are directed to anoint the sick with oil and pray the prayer of faith.

Salvation and entrance into the body of Christ are compared to the olive tree, in Romans 11:16-18:

16 For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.

There is no tree in the Scriptures like the glorious olive.

Medical science continues to uncover the tremendous marvels of this God-endorsed tree. The following excerpts are from an article published in Energy Times titled, “Olive Leaf Extract: Nature’s Antibiotic.”

The source of olive leaf’s strength is a phenolic compound called oleurepein, the active ingredient extracted from the leaves of olive trees. According to Dr. James R. Privitera in the article titled, “Olive Leaf Extract: A New/Old Healing Bonanza for Mankind (NutriScreen),” oleuropein works in a number of ways. Importantly, it interferes with the critical amino acid production that is essential for viruses and bacteria to thrive, and directly penetrates infected cells to stop viral replication.

Dr. Morton Walker notes in his book, Olive Leaf Extract (Kensington), that olive leaf can greatly help strengthen the immune system and fight all types of infections such as HIV, Epstein-Barr, herpes, the flu, sore throats and chronic sinusitis.

Again, the article reads:

Today, the Hungarian government has adopted olive leaf extract for its Medicare system as its official anti-infectious disease remedy. Walker reports in Olive Leaf Extract that Dr. Robert Lyons, OMD, MS, of the Robert Lyons Clinic in Budapest, has been critical in developing innovative treatments in Central Europe, including the use of olive leaf extract.

Lyons conducted an extensive clinical study on 500 patients with a variety of infections such as tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, herpes, and bacterial skin infections. After being treated with olive leaf extract, the rate of improvement and recovery was approximately 98 percent. All patients were found to have a strengthened immune system and no side effects were recorded.

Finally this news about HIV:

Olive leaf extract is a natural source of substances known as protease inhibitors which may help people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and AIDS. In the Spring 1996 issue of Positive Health News, Mark Konlee states that protease inhibitors are rapidly changing the lives of people with AIDS who experienced difficulty taking the drug called AZT. Olive leaf extract, combined with drugs called immune modulators, has produced positive effects for people with AIDS.

In one case study, Konlee reports that an AIDS sufferer reduced his viral load from 160,000 organisms per milliliter of blood down to 30,000 in two weeks. After 11 weeks, the patient’s viral load was reduced to 692. A viral load decrease this dramatic is rarely (if ever) attained through the use of AZT alone.

In another case, a person with HIV found his viral load dropped from 37,000 to 19,500 in three-and-a-half months while taking olive leaf, a significant development. (Of course, if you suffer from AIDS consult a health practitioner and do not stop taking your medication.) [End of quote]

This following excerpt is from the publication Better Nutrition:

Relatively new to the modern American botanical scene is Olea europaea, or olive leaf. For centuries, the olive tree has been revered as the “tree of life.” In this century, most of us know it as an international symbol of peace, and as the source of a healthful and delicious culinary oil. Additionally, it seems the leaf of the olive tree may well have significant value as an immune-enhancing herb.

One diet the world is familiar with is the famous Mediterranean diet. A large percentage of the dieter’s calories in this way of eating is from fats, and in the Mediterranean diet, the principle fat is olive oil. The general results are a healthy heart and trim body, plus so much more.

Stacks of scientific information continue to pour in touting the powers of the products of the olive tree. An excerpt from an article in People magazine follows:

In a recent study at the Athens School of Public Health, women who ate olive oil more than once a day had a 25 percent lower risk of breast cancer than women who had it only once. In Spain researchers at the Escuela Nacional de Sanidad found that women who consumed the most olive oil were 40 percent less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate the least.

Why? For one thing, olive oil is rich in a group of antioxidants called polyphenols, which seem to fend off heart disease and cancer. It also teems with substances called squalenes, which in animal studies have slowed the growth of colon, lung, and skin cancers, according to Chin Rao, a researcher at the American Health Foundation. Japanese physicians now use a purified form of squalenes to boost the tumor-killing ability of chemotherapy. “As far as food goes,” says Rao, “olive oil appears to be the only significant source.” [End of quote]

Oleuropein (ah-leh-YOUR-ah-peen), a compound found in the olive tree and isolated from its leaf, is credited with the phenomenal long life of the olive tree, which is said to be able to live for thousands of years. This bitter compound protects against nearly every insect and bacterial predator.

In the test tube, olive leaf extract has been found to be effective against nearly 90 viruses, retroviruses, bacterium, parasites, yeasts, protozoans, fungi, molds and other microbes and diseases. Just a few you may be familiar with are anthrax, botulism, chicken pox, chlamydia, ebola, Hepatitis A, B, and C, and more.

Based on patient and physician reports, olive leaf extract, which researchers claim is not a cure but an immune system booster, is reported effective in helping the body fight nearly 125 conditions including allergies, candida, cholera, HIV, Epstein-Barr, Lymphocytic Leukemia, shingles, yeast infections and more.

Could this olive tree, whose fame spans all of time, have been the original Tree of Life that sat in the middle of the garden of God? Could today’s olive tree be the remnant of the Tree of Life? We have cited many Biblical pointers, but cannot answer “yes” emphatically. But as to whether there was once such a Tree of Life in the Paradise of God, we can emphatically answer “yes,” because the Word of God declares it and those who are washed in the blood of Christ shall see this tree again. Jesus Christ declares in Revelation 2:7:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. [End of quotes]

Was there a serpent, as God’s record clearly states, that was once upright, that God cursed to crawl upon its belly? Was this serpent in the garden of Eden, and did Satan inhabit its form to beguile Eve? Does ancient history say “yes?” Does the science of paleontology say “yes?” The following excerpts are from the GodSaidManSaid feature, “Snakes Had Legs:”

In Genesis 3:1-6, Satan takes on the form of the serpent and convinces Eve that God is a liar. In an act of unbelief and disobedience, she eats the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She also gives it to her husband to eat. That very day they both died to the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, even though they lived on in the flesh for many years. That was the day the law of sin and death began to reign upon the earth—a concept known in science as the second law of thermodynamics. Because of the evil that transpired, God’s judgment fell on all of creation. Of the serpent specifically, God curses it and says that it shall crawl on its belly, eating dust all the days of its life. It shall bruise man’s heel, while man bruises its head. It fully appears that the snake, which is now a serpent that crawls on its belly, once had legs.

In Archaeology and Bible History, author J.P. Free writes concerning the “Temptation Seals” unearthed in the 1930s. The seal was discovered at a level antedating 3000 B.C., or approximately 1500 years before the first five books of the Bible were written. The seal depicts a tree with a man to the right. To the left of the tree is a woman plucking fruit, with a serpent behind her standing erect.

In the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh is directed to the “plant of life,” which can be found at the bottom of the sea. Gilgamesh finds it only to have it stolen by a serpent.

Famed historian Flavius Josephus, in the Antiquities of the Jews, reviews and reports on the ancient records of the Hebrew people and of historians considered ancient in his time. Josephus lived and wrote just after the time of Christ. Concerning the serpent in the Garden of Eden and God’s punishment of it, he wrote: “Besides this, he inserted poison under his tongue and made him an enemy to men; and suggested to them that they should direct their strokes against his head, that being the place wherein lay his mischievous designs towards men, and it being easiest to take vengeance on him that way; and when he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all along, and dragging himself upon the ground.” [End of quote]

Science and academia now support the idea of a snake with legs. Through biological examination, John Crompton, an evolutionist and snake authority, who authored the book Snake Lore, discovered that the snake that crawls upon its belly once had legs. As a matter of fact, at this present time, the snake has not completely gotten rid of its legs. Tiny vestigials remain of what were once legs, and are found in the bodies of many snakes.

Crompton’s record is supported by Klaus Griehl’s book titled Snakes. Griehl points out that “primitive snakes,” such as boas and pythons, still show vestigial pelvic bones and anal spurs that represent the remnants of hind legs.

From the October 11, 1997 edition of The International Jerusalem Post, is the following excerpt:

A midrash about Adam and Eve now has scientific support: Hebrew University researchers have found evidence that prehistoric snakes had tiny legs.

According to Jewish tradition, the snake who tempted Eve to disobey God was punished by being forced to crawl on its belly forever.

The researchers also concluded from a close re-examination of snake fossils that they originated in the sea, rather than underground.

A team from the Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, headed by Professor Eitan Tchernov, found that the fossils had two small but anatomically complete hind legs. Tchernov will present his findings this month at the international conference of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Chicago.

A wire service report printed in the Beaver County Times, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, March 17, 2000 reads:

A team of researchers has reached into a dusty drawer and pulled out a snake with legs.

The discovery could upset at least some theories about the evolution of snakes.

“The fossil had been sitting in the museum drawer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem since the death of researcher Georg Haas in the early 1980s,” said Oliver Rieppel of the Field Museum in Chicago. [End of quote]

Their assessment that the snake once had legs is correct, because God said so. Their assessment of millions of years and evolution is incorrect, because God said no. [End of quotes]

A sentence in Part Two of this series reads, “Unfortunately for those blind to the truth and deaf to proof, they mistake their condition of spiritual ignorance for intellectual superiority.” There is hardly a place where this is more obvious than the beginning of time.

The following is a quick review of “In The Beginning (Parts One, Two, and Three)”:

1. The Bible said there was light on Earth before the sun was created. Science now theorizes that that was exactly the case.

2. The Scripture’s genealogical and chronological records declare the earth to be just over 6,000 years old. Science built on fact and not uniformitarian assumptions says yes to a young Earth.

3. God’s Word shows record of a water canopy over the earth in the days before Noah, which produced dramatic benefits for all the earth, and evidence of it is abundant.

4. The Bible teaches in Genesis 1, that prior to sin and death, all the world’s creatures were vegetarian. The very ancient fossil of a vegetarian crocodile has raised a lot of eyebrows.

5. Man is simply recycled mud. God literally created us out of dirt and the record says yes. Plus, every child knows that when you die, you turn back to dust.

6. God said that He created one man named Adam, and one woman named Eve, who were the parents of all mankind. Scientists now point to one common mother and father as the original ancestors of all who live today.

7. God said that He created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh. All through the Scriptures, God emphasizes the pattern of seven in the earth beneath and the sky above. Academia claims that the seven pattern is a Biblical construct and has no foundation in truth. But now modern science has been forced to confirm that the seven-day (sevens) cycle is not a product of culture, but to the contrary, culture and life itself is a product of seven.

8. Was there a Garden of Eden where our great-grandmother and -grandfather once lived? Do ancient non-Biblical writings attest to it? Have scholars stepped forth to attest to its existence in the beginning? Have archaeology and geology discovered its testimony? The answers are yes, yes, and yes!

9. The Word of God speaks of the supernatural Tree of Life, and that if one ate of it, he or she would live forever. The record left by ancient pre-Bible civilizations says “Yes.” Archaeology and medical science point aggressively in the affirmative.

10. God said the serpent was more subtle than any creature He had made. The serpent played a central role in the fall of man. Consequently, God cursed this creature to crawl upon its belly. Ancient history, archaeology, and science say “Yes.”

Was there a Genesis beginning just over 6,000 years ago? Did holy men of God record His very Words in a book called the Holy Bible? Is this book true and righteous altogether in the entirety of its dictums? Of course the answer to all of these questions is an emphatic “Yes!”

GOD SAID, Genesis 1:1:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

MAN SAID: We just popped out of nothing and here we are. Man also believes Buddha’s statement, “No origin can be perceived.”

Now you have THE RECORD.




References:

Authorized King James Version

Beaver County Times, Beaver, Pennsylvania, wire service, March 17, 2000

Crompton, J., Snake Lore

Dailey, T.J., Mysteries of the Bible, Publications International, 2004, p15

Free, J.P., Archaeology and Bible History, Scripture Press Pub., 1969, p34

Griehl, K., Snakes, The International Jerusalem Post, Oct. 11, 1977

Halley’s Bible Handbook, pp26-30

Jaret, P., “New Reasons to Love Olive Oil,” (Reprint from Health magazine) People magazine, February 8, 1999

Jasko, R., “Olive Leaf Extract: Nature’s Antibiotic,” Energy Times, October 1999

Josephus, F., Josephus Complete Works, Kregel Publications, pp25-26

Nature, National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles & Amphibians, April 12, 1999

Report from the National Life Extension Research Institute, “Olive Leaf Extract,” 1998

Rubin, R., “Lorenzo’s Oil Brings Hope for the Afflicted,” USA Today, October 22, 2002

Starbuck, J., J.D., N.D., “Olive Leaf,” Better Nutrition, September 1999

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