Is the earth really approximately 6000 years old? Why do we believe in dinosaurs and pre-historic animals but they don’t come into the Biblical record? When did God create angels and when did Satan fall? If we believe that the whole earth really was created in Genesis 1 and 2 there are a lot of questions that need answering, but let us have a look at what God really taught us happened in Genesis 1.
I am going to use the King James Version of the Bible in this article because I know that some of my readers only believe in the King James Version and those who believe in other versions aren’t normally opposed to the King James Version:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth: and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
And the earth brought forth grass, and the herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning was the fourth day.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind; And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply,and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so. And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Now let us look at this in depth. We will notice that the boundaries of each day are ‘And God said’ to ‘And the evening the morning were the … day’. Within these boundaries it tells us what God did on those days.
On day one which extends from verse three to five God separated the light from the darkness
On day two which extends from verse six to eight, God separated the waters by placing the heavens in between. Note that the waters were not created here, the Spirit had already been hovering over the waters in verse 2, before day 1.
On day three, verses 9 to 13, God gathered the waters together so that dry land ‘appeared’, note that He did not create the dry land here, it simply appeared when He separated the waters. After this was done grass, herbs and fruit trees came forth.
On day four, verses 14 to 19, God placed lights in the firmament of the heaven to rule over the days and the nights, the seasons and the years.
On day five, verses 20 to 23, God created the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea.
On day six, verses 24 to 31, He created the land animals and man.
Note that nowhere does it say that God literally made the earth in any of these days. On day three land appeared when the waters were gathered.
Another important point to note is that in verse 28 God tells man to ‘replenish the earth’, how could man ‘replenish’ it if there had never been anything there before? since replenish means to ‘fill something up AGAIN’ or “Restore to a former level or condition’.
It is clear therefore that the eath must have existed before Genesis 1 and that Genesis 1 is telling of a new creation, though not of earth itself.
In our articles under the pro membership we will be looking at what the pre-Genesis world actually looked like by studying other chapters of the Bible. We hope this has given you some food for thought though and that you have enjoyed it.
