Understanding the Book of Isaiah - Part 2 - Dual Prophecies

Another key to the Book of Isaiah is that Isaiah wrote many dual prophecies. This means that the prophecy referred to an event in Isaiah's time and to an event in the future. A classic example of this is in Isaiah 7:10-16.

KJV

NIV

10 ¶Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. 13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. 16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” 12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.

In this example, Isaiah wants to tell Ahaz, the King of Judah, that he has a sign. Isaiah says, "Ask me for a sign!". Ahaz says "Ain't no way I'm tempting the Lord and asking you for a sign! Didn't you read about Korihor in Alma 30 where he asked for a sign and was struck dumb?"

Isaiah then can't contain himself and gives him the sign anyways. The sign refers to a child born at that time (perhaps Isaiah's son mentioned in Isaiah 7:3) and to the Messiah. Mathew used this scripture as proof of Christ being the promised Messiah in Matt 1:22-23.

This technique is used numerous times throughout Isaiah. I believe his purpose is, as above, to testify of the coming Christ. He shows us an event in his time, that he prophesied of, to show us that surely the event in the future will indeed happen.

The Beginning

As I am pondering the creation of the world, I often suspect that there is much missing from
our current Old Testament that would help synchronize archaeology and the scriptures.

The "accepted" Biblical timeline for the creation of the world puts the "In the beginning" at about 4000 BC. The archaeology seems to age the earth as a whole lot older. What's the deal?

When it says in Gen. 1:1 "In the beginning", what exactly is it the beginning of? Most Christians believe that it is the beginning of life, the universe and everything. We as Mormons believe that the Bible pertains only to this Earth and thus, the "beginning" pertains only to the creation of this world.

Did the creation happen in only 7 days? I don't think we can take days literally, since at the beginning, time as we know it had not yet come into being. I look at it more as phases of a project. In the project of creating this world, phase one was the actual creation of the Sun, the Earth and the rest of the Solar System, set the planets in motion and their rotations and thus, set their days and their times. Once the earth was organized and set in motion so there was a day and night, phase 1 was done. Phase 2 brought forth waters and separated the water from the land, and so forth. How long each phase take? I don't believe that each phase took the same amount of "time".

What about when Adam and Eve were created? How long did they spend in the Garden of Eden? The Bible does not tell us this. We are told that Adam named all the plants and animals. How long did that take? How long did it take to create Eve?  How long was it before the serpent came and tempted Adam and Eve?

Let’s move on to the genealogies put forth in Genesis. The ages, births and deaths of many of the descendants of Adam and later Noah are used to come up with the Biblical timeline. When the Bible says that Joe was the son of Bob or that Bob “begat” Joe, we interpret that this means that Joe was Bob’s son. However, we find that it could have meant that Joe was Bob’s grandson, great grandson or was even further down the family tree. In fact, even if the Bible says that Bob was Joe’s father, he could have been his grandfather or great grandfather. An example of this is in Gen 28:13, where the Lord tells Jacob “I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father” even though Abraham was Jacob’s grandfather. This has to do with the meaning of the words “son” and “father” in Hebrew. Son and mean son, grandson, great-grandson and descendant. Father can mean father, grandfather, great-grandfather and ancestor. (See http://www.reasons.org/articles/the-genesis-genealogies by Dr. John Millam)

Throughout the Old Testament, many genealogies are telescoped. This means that a lot of the genealogies show the many names along the family tree but not all the names. Mainly, they hit just the high points for brevity’s sake. If you want more details, please go to the article at http://www.reasons.org/articles/the-genesis-genealogies by Dr. John Millam. Depending on the level of telescoping there is, this would put the approximate date of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden at about 10,000 to 30,000 years ago or perhaps even as early as 60,000 years ago.

My main point is that the Bible does not explicitly say that the creation happened at 4,000 B.C. or that the age of the earth is 6,000 years. Therefore we should keep an open mind about dating the creation and not pigeon-hole ourselves on a specific date.