Featured Genesis 1:16 and its added words.

Of course he did. Even the text you put forward in the opening post to try to prove your point says so:

You are right that your interpretation is not what God said. The text stands on its own two feet.

 

Yes, that is what I am saying. To clarify, I am NOT saying "not two lights," but am saying "not ONLY two lights" -- but two lights and the stars. Verse 16 comes in the context of Genesis 1:14-19, which is what God did on the fourth day, which reads this way in the Bible version you chose to reference:

New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

"Sun" and "moon" are not used in verse 16 of Genesis, but rather greater light and lesser light. If that is not understandable enough, we have it interpreted for us in Psalm 136:7-9:

New Revised Standard Version
7 who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
8 the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

Hope this helps.

 

The universe was created at the same time as the earth.

 

Not in the least; it literally accepts the two lights and literally accepts "and the stars" as well.

I will take the Psalmist's explanation, which includes the stars with the moon.

 

Genesis is not talking about the third heaven but about the earth, the earth's skies and the external universe and the beginning of man, which Jesus said that Adam was present because Jesus said that God made them male and female from the beginning.

 

No, you said that John says that there was God before there was a universe. Paul says that there are three heavens. So the Trinity were in the third heaven before earth and the other two heavens were created in the beginning. Do you disagree with that?

 

Thanks! 37818, I agree that the Holy Trinity are eternal and have always had the third Heaven. I am only a layman; nevertheless, I think that 1:1 is talking about the first two heavens, which are defined as earth's atmosphere and the external universe of outer space and the galaxies.

So what do you think?

 

Thanks!

2 Corinthians 12:2 (KJV) I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth such an one caught up to the third heaven.

The heavens created in 1:1 were the earth's atmosphere (Webster: a synonym for heaven is sky) and secondly the cosmos (Webster: orderly harmonious systematic universe)

The Third Heaven that Paul saw into is the Throne of God.

 

I apologize for the smiley face on my last post. I had a typo error and did not catch it. I would never intentionally insert anything in Scripture.