Where Did I Come From? Series

INTRODUCTION

Here are some opening lines to books or poems. See if you recognize them.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" -A Tale of Two Cities- Charles Dickens

"Call me Ishmael" -Moby Dick – Herman Melville

"Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy." - The Oddesy – Homer

"Two households, both alike in dignity" - Romeo & Juliet – Shakespeare

"I hope I will be able to confide everything in you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support." - The Diary of Ann Frank –

Journalists know the importance of opening lines

Hook the reader

First impressions

Once it is made, it can’t be undone

Opening line sets the tone for the whole book

God’s opening line was, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Knowing authors pack a lot into the opening statement, what does God pack into His?

Genesis answers 2 key questions that we humans strive to answer.

1. Where did I come from?

2. What is my Purpose.

This week, we will answer the first question.

Where Did I come from?

I. Our Search

A. Winter Games – Salt Lake City – Mormonism

1. Many Geneological Records

2. Mormons have misguided purposes

3. Baptism for the dead

4. Still many people use their services

5. Introduced to the Mormon Faith

B. Web Search - Google

1. Genealogy - 9.15 Million

2. Birth Mother – 892.000

3. Numerous Public Data search companies

II. Possible Answers

A. Spontaneous Combustion

1. Life appeared out of nothing

2. Abandoned in 1846

3. Louis Pasteur experiments

4. Tried to grow life inside of a Vacuum

5. Life doesn’t just appear

6. Many things must be right

7. Life on earth could not exist if

a) Earth’s rotation was slower, or faster

b) We were 2% closer or further from the sun.

c) Earth had a 1% change in sunlight.

d) Earth was smaller or larger

e) The moon was smaller or larger

f) We had more than one moon

g) Earth’s crust was thinner or thicker

h) Oxygen/Nitrogen ratio was greater or less

i) Ozone layer was greater or less

B. Mutation

1. Backbone of modern evolution

2. Life was mutated by some outside source to create permanent change.

3. Two types of Evolution: Micro-evolution, Macro-evolution

a) Micro-evolution

(1) Things change slowly, but do not change form

(2) God made things after their kind, but did not make all species within their kind.

(3) Spots on a butterfly’s wings might change, but it is still a butterfly

(4) Leopard might change its spots, but it is still a leopard.

b) Macro-evolution

(1) Not only did the leopard change its spots, but it began to walk upright as well.

(2) Amoebae became frog became bird became slug became politician.

(3) The evolved animal takes on traits that the original animal did not have, thus a new animal is formed.

4. Lack of evidence for Macro-evolution

a) There are no “Missing Links”

b) Earliest fossil record are in the Cambrian Strata (544 Million Years) part of the Paleozoic age

(1) Full Skeletons of invertebrates that we have today

(2) Previous Strata - Vendia Strata (Proterozoic) only bacteria or algae

c) Where are the missing links? Why such a change?

(1) Many feel that the beginning of the Paleozoic strata (where skeletons are found) is the record of the Great Flood

(2) Inside the Paleozoic strata is where we find fossils of most early animals

d) Evolution requires vast amounts of time

(1) Mt. St. Hellens

(a) May 18, 1980

(b) Exploded for 15 hours

(c) Force of 1 atomic bomb a second for 15 hours straight

(d) 3 days for ash to reach the east coast, had to be shoveled like snow

(2) Shatters Evolutionary Time Table

(a) At one point, in one sweep of Lava, multiple layers 25 feet thick were deposited in a matter of minutes

(b) Debunks scientists theory that each lava flow was a separate eruption

(c) 20,000 trees were deposited into nearby Spirit Lake along with mud and lava flow. All were buried instantly.

(d) Didn’t take a long period of time to bury them.

(3) Section of Yellowstone

(a) 27 layers of fossilized forest

(b) claimed to be deposited millions of years apart

(c) Signs have been taken down after Mt. St. Hellens

(4) God gave us proof that vast amounts of time are not needed to create things, evolution needs vast amounts of time

C. Creationistic Evolution

1. God created the world not in 6 days, but 6 time periods

2. 2 Pet 3:8 - with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.