Atlantis
Atlanticus Awdawmonus
David Dansker
Published by TheNewsBeats.com
Copyright 2010, all rights reserved.
Restoration of Earth
Restoration of Earth
Instead of containing language describing the genesis of materials, the passage on the reorganization of the earth has the distinct tone of sorting out preexisting things. In the first day, God turns a light on (Gen 1:2). This is not the creation of the sun, or all the other stars, or even the creation of light itself. It is the illumination of a planet which was shrouded in darkness bought into a resurrection day, and God called the darkness night, and the light day.
On the second day, God divided the waters to create the atmosphere which contains water in it and sometimes forms into clouds. Notice, of all the works in the six days this is the only one for which its end does not include the words “and God saw that it was good.” This may be because the Prince of the power of the air and his subordinate principalities, and the demons immediately, and in some case gradually, made the atmosphere their home (Eph 2:2; 6:12).
On the third day, God gathered the waters on earth together in order for the dry land to appear, and not to be created. Then, God commands that the seeds which already were “upon the earth” germinate and produce (Gen 2:11-13).
On the fourth day, the clouds break and the sunlight and moonlight can reach the earth. When God says he “made” this happen, the word is not the same as the word “created” in verse one; it is an act of bringing something about, not creating things (cf baw-raw, H1254, to create; aw-saw, H6213, to do or make).
God does not begin creating anything new until the fifth day where fish and fowls are created. On the sixth day, God creates animals, and man. Notice that all living creatures procreated immediately “after their kind,” and this is made very clear by the term being repeated five times. There were no intermediate life forms.
This is only a brief description of the six days of restoration and creation, and it is from the perspective that earth was created earlier before this week of days. The days of this week are literal twenty-four hour days, clearly identified by their components of mornings and evenings.
Certainly, a reading of Genesis chapter one can easily produce the commonly held interpretation the earth was created in this week. If that were not the case, then so many learned and reputable men would not have held the view. Unfortunately, some of our learned men of today are unnecessarily beside themselves to devote study to what is germane to the subject.
Of the contemporary arguments for a young earth, many articulate a defense aimed more at refuting Darwinian evolution then examining the text for variant readings. Many are diverted to entering into another argument altogether over a popular theory in science which is by no means central to the examination, but the fear of it leads good men to see its efficacy looming so strong besides them that they are compelled to turn aside to address it.
Consequently, a straw man receives too much attention, and Christians are admonished, at length, to accept a young earth explanation because it would make our lives less complicated, and because to consider an older earth would be tantamount to conceding too much valuable ground to the evolutionists. From this concern, talks that are scheduled with provocative titles promising to explain why the earth looks so old spend little time on actually doing so, and degenerate into making contiguous all other Bible doctrines to a young earth, and urging the door be bared against an old earth least evolution get its it foot in too and all the dominos fall.
It is painful to witness some men of high stature so misapply their skills. Fortunately, the bankrupt and easily discredited theory of evolution was not always so frightful to other men.
In times past, other learned men in the faith did not see the earth’s creation in Genesis chapter one, verse two, nor feel threatened by scientists espousing naturalism. The view that the earth was created before Genesis verse two is by no means a new one. The interpretation is at least several hundred years old when dated by works from competent Bible expositors, and it appears to have been the view that was popular two centuries ago; in the first century church. Further, a world that existed before this one, and was destroyed, may even be a fact that was known thousands of years ago by men inspired by God.
Very interesting report! You didn’t mention that God commanded Adam & Eve to replenish the earth.
“Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 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.”
He told Noah the same thin in Gen 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”