just me wrote:TAO, then why did God kill a person for collecting firewood on the Sabbath? Is that not an important service?
I'm not familiar with this story... could you give me a reference.
If it's in the Old Testament, it probably has to do with the old law though.
And now God doesn't even care about the Sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday in the Old Testament/New Testament). Go figure.
Na, he cares, but service is one of the few things he accepts on Sunday. Jesus heals on Sunday, if I remember. It's a service, and you are doing it to honor him =).
Here is why God did not do any creating on the 7th day according to the text:
Now, that sure seems to be refering to a physical creation being completed.
I'm not sure if you could draw that conclusion though - technically the spiritual world is very similar to the physical world - so it could be talking about the spirit world in a way. The desk my computer is sitting on has spiritual substance in it - it doesn't have a spirit, but spiritual substance.
In chapter 1 God creates male and female at the same time on the 6th day (is that spiritual or physical?) then in chapter 2 they are seperate creations. Ch.2 Man is created right after the earth, but before any plants or animals. No days are designanted. I wonder what it was like to be on the earth when it had no plants...must have been difficult to breath.
Thus part of why I think the first creation was the spiritual creation; the planning. Actually... either the Book of Moses or the Book of Abraham actually calls it the planning of the Earth (I forget which one). Interestingly, this would mean that the days Adam were upon the Earth are not numbered (inside the garden, they are of the Lord's time, while outside they are of Earth time [Abraham 5:13]).
In Moses, Joseph Smith's version of Genesis, he inserts that the first account was speaking to a spiritual creation. In Abraham he uses the 6 days of creation and it very much seems that the text refers to a physical creation.
I think it's not as clear, but you can still tell it is a spiritual creation, because of Abraham 4:31. It reads:
And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and they numbered the sixth time.
Bolding by me.
Apparently, they hadn't done what they had said yet, and yet they also already organized man. I think this means two creations occurred.
Others have done far better treatments of this topic than I have. However, in revisiting the subject I discovered that the D&C does refer to God making man on the 7th day! LOL So, there you go. God made the world in 6 literal days and the earth has entered into the 7th seal, the 7th thousand year period of its temporal existance. Please ignore all data that suggests that humans have been around much longer than that.
I'm not sure it gives a specific time length for Adam being in the garden - his years don't start till after he gets out, I believe.
by the way, I am sorry you are so scared to go outside the KJV for study. I understand, though. I used to be scared, too. The church uses fear to control its members.
*Shrugs* I like the KJV the most anyways, and so I kinda doubt I'd be willing to go to other Bibles anyways. Also, it proves the most useful when using JST, so I also like it for that reason, JST is a very useful thing, that it is.
The KJV is actually not *the best* interpretation of the Bible. The newer versions are modern interpretations that try to be true to the original intent. King James had a bias (as all interpreters do). They were not perfect, they made mistakes. That is why the best versions seek out many interpreters of differing belief systems to come up with the best possible rendition of the text.
Yah, I know, but as said, I still like the KJV the best. And I think others eliminate possible meanings. The KJV probably also eliminated possible meanings itself, but as I also said, it is useful for other things.
Modern versions do not leave out possible interpretations any more than the KJV does. Who told you that? Mine often will have a footnote with an alternative word or the Hebrew down at the bottom. I do agree that with the KJV you can pretty much believe it says whatever you want it to say because it is so difficult for most people to understand.
Does your version leave a little note about a spiritual creation, followed by a physical one?
I'm pretty sure that's something that's a rather unique idea, and I don't think your version would have it. But if we used your version, the section of Genesis would have no references to a split spiritual/physical creation, would it? It kinda eliminates that possibility.
I believe there are two seperate creation accounts in Genesis because that is what the text suggests along with scholars smarter than I am. Even Joseph Smith seemed to sense it. As LDS we have many versions of creation. It is impossible to hold that they are all literal, historical factual accounts because they conflict with one another. Most LDS that I am aware of hold to the idea that the first account is the spiritual creation while the second is the physical, but that still doesn't solve all the problems. I've also seen the idea that they "build" on eachother, but the problem is that the Abraham text should be what is built off of not the Genesis text.
Which problems were you worried about?
Hope your studying is going well. =)
Best Wishes,
TAO