Bible Q&A Below you will find questions submitted by our congregation while reading through the Bible and the answers to those questions. Thu, 08 Dec 2016 18:38:25 GMT en-us Copyright 2016 Calvary Bible Fellowship Church Genesis 1:8 - The Expanse Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:29:05 GMT Question:  In Genesis 1:8 God calls the expanse that separated the waters that were above and the waters that were below heaven. What is the relation, if there is one, to the heaven that we now think of with streets of gold and angels praising God? Is this expanse the only thing that God reveals as heaven in the OT, and then he reveals a new heaven in the NT? Can we call the expanse heaven today? 

Answer: The word heaven/heavens is used to speak in some cases of our atmosphere as in Genesis 1:8. It is also used of the heavens which we would understand as outer space where the sun, moon, planets and stars are located. And it is used to speak of the abode of God. When reading a passage you need to ask which heaven is intended - the context will often be clear.

Adam & Eve Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:28:39 GMT Question: How many people did God create? Genesis 1:27says : " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created. V. 28 God blessed them and said to them..." The man should refer to Adam. But who were the male and female and where did they go after God created them?

Answer: God created Adam and Eve as the male and female. He didn't create anyone else just them. It can be a little confusing because Genesis 1:1-2:3 are an account of what happened on the 6 days of the creation week. On day six he created man (mankind) as male and female. Genesis 2:4-25 is a more detailed account of what happened on the sixth day of creation when God created the male, Adam, and the female, Eve.

Genesis 5 - Noah's Age Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:28:08 GMT Question: If Noah was 500 when he was told to build the ark and 600 when he & 3 sons and all the wives got on board with the animals, how many other children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren did he leave behind? I would imagine that he had many more than just 3 sons in 500 years, yes??

Answer: It is possible Noah had children prior to Shem, Ham and Japheth. If he did, those children must not have been walking with God. Genesis 5:32 seems to indicate that he had Shem, Ham and Japheth either as triplets when he was 500 or individually around Noah's 500th year. The flood occurred in Noah's 600th year (Gen. 7:6). Based on Genesis 11:10, Shem was 98 years old at the time of the flood. We only know what these verses tell us however.

Fish & the Flood Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:27:48 GMT Question: Not clear on why God decided to kill the birds of the air and the creeping things on the earth. What did they do that grieved God? Then OK, He did destroy them in the flood, but I'm guessing that the fish of the seas were spared? They weren't specifically mentioned. So was it that the fish of the seas where never really put under man's control so, that's why they were not destroyed?

Answer: God destroyed the whole earth and basically returned it to the state described in Genesis 1:2. It isn't exactly clear why He chose this method which included man and animals but one good explanation is that He did this to wipe out mankind but the animal world was included because God had place the animal world under man's authority/dominion. This includes the birds and the fish. Based on the fossil record lots of fish, perhaps most, died in the flood as well birds and land animals.


Question: If God destroyed the fishes in the water during the flood. Where did all the fish come from? Noah didn't put them on the ark did he?

Answer:  I believe you are correct that Noah didn't put fish on the ark. God didn't destroy all of them in the flood but many of them were destroyed and we know that because they ended up as fossils in rock layers on mountains. So, the fish we have today would have come from the fish that survived the flood.

Climate before the Flood Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:27:13 GMT

Question: Prior to the Flood, was the environment like that of a hyperbolic chamber which increased oxygen levels and created larger than usual plant and animal life? 

Answer: Genesis 1:6-9 says, "Then God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day..." 

It had been theorized from this that there was a layer of water some distance out from the earth that surrounded the earth. It is theorized that this canopy would create a greenhouse and/or hyperbaric chamber environment. If this was the case, it would be ideal for plant life and increase blood-oxygen levels in animals. The pressure would also help animals with very large lungs like T-Rex to breathe. Many Creationists today are questioning this theory.

See the following page at Answers In Genesis for articles on this subject:


Animals before the Flood Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:26:27 GMT Question: Pre flood: Gen 9:2 Was there a different relationship between the animal kingdom and man than there is today? (It seems odd that Eve would be sitting around in the garden and having a casual conversation with a serpent) 

Answer: Apparently there was a different relationship. Keep in mind that her thoughts about a snake/serpent would have been completely different as a newly created woman prior to the Fall than our viewpoint today. Similarly, if animals were like animals today and didn't speak she may not have understood or known that right away and wouldn't have been overly surprised and leery of a talking snake or perhaps prior to the fall they did speak - we really do not know.

Creation Days Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:23:12 GMT Question: What does it mean when it says, then there was evening and then there was morning, why does it say this for each day?

Answer: We as Americans think of a day as being a morning and an evening, but the Jews think of a day as an evening and a morning. The significance in Genesis 1 is that it is defining each of the days of the Creation week as a 24 hour day. The Jews as a result to this day start their day at 6PM not 12AM like we do.

Israel? Jacob? Who is who? Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:22:02 GMT Question: In the story of Joseph, is there a significance to why in 37:1 it's Jacob but then later he referred to as Israel but then at the end of the story he is called Jacob again?

Answer: Israel was the name that God gave to Jacob back in Genesis 35:10 and in Genesis 35 both names are used interchangeably for Jacob just as you noticed in Genesis 37. I don't believe there is any significance. He was known and referred to by two names.

Pharaoh's heart was hardened Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:21:45 GMT Question: It states multiple times throughout the chapters discussing the plaques that the Lord hardened pharaoh's heart. I realize Pharaoh considered himself a god and was stubborn to begin with and also understanding that continued rebellion against God will cause the heart to be hardened, but how does the Lord continuing to harden his heart affect Pharaoh's free will?

Answer: We are delving into an area that we do not and cannot completely understand. The Scripture is very clear that God is sovereign and all powerful. It also indicates that man has some sort of freewill and responsibility. We as humans tend to think of God exercising His sovereignty as somehow being unjust in that it is violating man's freewill. Theologians come down on both sides with arguments either defending God's sovereignty or man's freewill. Paul deals with...



the issue in Romans 9:1-11:32 and particularly uses the hardening of Pharaoh's heart as an example in Romans 9:14-18.
"What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires."

The New American Commentary has a good analysis of this passage and what was going on with the hardening of Pharaoh's heart.

"The point is that God's favors are not determined by anyone or anything outside of himself. God's purpose in election rests not upon human will (thelo in v. 16 can express desire or purpose) or effort (a participle from trecho, "run") but upon divine mercy. Although God elects with sovereign freedom, it does not follow that Israel had nothing to do with their rejection. Later in the chapter we will learn that Israel failed to attain a right standing with God because they pursued it on the basis of works (vv. 30-32). The sovereignty of God does not set aside human responsibility.

Paul used the case of Pharaoh (an individual rather than a nation as in vv. 7-13) to demonstrate that God withholds mercy and hardens whomever he chooses (cf. Exodus 7:3; 14:17). Pharaoh, that implacable enemy of God's people, was raised to the position of king of Egypt so that God might display in him the evidence of his power (Exodus 9:16). Although Pharaoh's rise to a position of authority undoubtedly had a secular interpretation, God was at work in his career, bringing him to prominence. God did it in order to display his power by bringing Pharaoh to his knees and so that his character as the one who delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage might be known throughout the world. Verse 18 summarizes the argument. It provides the principle of divine action on which the preceding events were based. God shows mercy as he chooses, and he hardens people's hearts as he chooses. He is sovereign in all that he does. Although the text says repeatedly, however, that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, it also stresses that Pharaoh hardened himself (cf. Exodus 7:13-14, 22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7, 34-35). Morris notes that "neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself."[1]

So Pharaoh can be seen to be exercising his freewill in response to things God had sovereignly put before him, things God knew Pharaoh would respond to just as he did.

Egyptians "Overtook" Wed, 21 Sep 2016 13:21:27 GMT Question: In Genesis 14:9 it says, "The Egyptians-all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horseman and troops-pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped...". In the next paragraph it goes on to act like they saw them coming and got away. Why does it say that they "overtook" them in verse 9?

Answer: We naturally tend to take the word "overtook" to mean that they "caught" them. But remember that words find their specific meaning in context. In light of the context of the events as described following v.9, "overtook" should be understood, probably even interpreted, as "they caught up to them."