Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
— Romans 1:22-25 —
For thousands of years people have pondered the truth of Genesis 1.
I don't presume to understand it all, so I don't presume anyone else does either.
But the information is all there, as concise as it is. I have read many theories on it. This is mine.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God <'elohiym> created the heaven <shamayim> and the earth <'erets>.
This creation had a beginning. It didn't always exist. This isn't saying that it was done at this point.
It is simply stating the fact that God/Elohim did it.
Elohim is plural. God isn't just one being. God is a team.
The team is one God. Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." God said they created the shamayim and the erets.
You can see the word "mayim" in "shamayim." Shama meaning high or deep, relative to your perspective.
Mayim generally means "waters," but in this context it could refer to whatever fills the void of the space: something pre-matter, something spiritual.
Genesis 1:2 And the earth <'erets> was without form, and void;
and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit <ruwach> of God <'elohiym> moved upon the face of the waters <mayim>.
The earth was unformed. It hadn't been formed yet. It was void. It didn't exist yet,
but all of the ingredients to make it were there in the mayim of the shamayim, suspended in the matrix of the deep space.
When we think of the word earth, we automatically think of the planet. But earth also means dirt and dirt is matter.
I think this first mention of earth is referring to matter.
In the beginning God created the space and the matter.
Darkness permeated the entire deep space of the shamayim.
The Holy Spirit of God/Elohim acted upon the waters/mayim. Jesus compared the Spirit to water in John 4:14 and John 7:38-39.
I think the original water/mayim of creation was something spiritual. This physical creation didn't come from nothing.
The natural didn't come from nature itself. It came from the spiritual. Matter is supernatural.
Genesis 1:3 And God <'elohiym> said, Let there be <hayah> light: and there was light.
God/Elohim turned on the lights. This wasn't only the visible light that allows us to see ourselves and everything around us,
but all of the energy that powers the universe/shamayim/heavens, from visible light to every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum,
including gravity, magnetism, electricity, and radio waves. This is when the atoms turned on and formed the molecular elements.
This is when the earth was formed, no longer void.
Genesis 1:4 And God <'elohiym> saw the light,
that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Again, this isn't the light of the Sun. The Sun wasn't lit until the fourth day of creation (Genesis 1:14-18).
This light is the energy that powers the universe. God flipped the light switch, turned on matter, and it was good.
The shamayim went from deep darkness to light or energized. Light and matter came to be in the same instant because they are inseparable.
Light is supernatural.
Genesis 1:5 And God <'elohiym> called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
God/Elohim energized the darkness and called it the first day. With one command of "let there be," energy and matter came into being.
Atoms are energy. Matter is made of atoms. Matter is energy, E=mc2. Mass equals energy.
All objects having mass have a corresponding intrinsic energy. Light and matter came to be at the same time.
The earth could only be made when matter came to be. When matter came to be, the Earth was formed - no longer void.
In the first day, God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:6 And God <'elohiym> said,
Let there be a firmament <raqiya'> in the midst of the waters <mayim>,
and let it divide the waters <mayim> from the waters <mayim>.
Firmament <raqiya'> is an expanse, such as the sky, what we call the atmosphere today. It has nothing to do with the word firm.
The original "mayim" of creation wouldn't be H2O because matter didn't exist before light.
The mayim of the shamayim was whatever God filled the space with. The Spirit of God moved upon the mayim and charged it with light;
the mayim became all of the matter of the universe, including hydrogen and oxygen.
God said, "let there be a firmament," or atmosphere between the mayim of the earth and the mayim of the space.
The mayim of the atmosphere we call air, but it is a mixture of gasses, including H2O.
The mayim of the shamayim is the mixture of everything that is out there filling the space.
Genesis 1:7-8 And God <'elohiym> made the firmament <raqiya'>,
and divided the waters <mayim> which were under the firmament <raqiya'> from the waters <mayim>
which were above the firmament <raqiya'>: and it was so.
And God called the firmament <raqiya'> Heaven <shamayim>. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
God/Elohim made the atmosphere around the earth and created a habitat for life. God called the firmament Heaven.
God called the atmosphere Heaven. But we find in II Corinthians 12:2 that there are three heavens.
The first being the atmosphere/raqiya/firmament, the second being the greater universe/shamayim, and the third being the spiritual heaven,
what we usually mean when we say Heaven.
The atmosphere separates the mayim which is under the atmosphere from the mayim which is above the atmosphere. And God called it a day.
Genesis 1:9-10 And God <'elohiym> said,
Let the waters <mayim> under the heaven <shamayim> be gathered together unto one place,
and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God <'elohiym> called the dry land Earth;
and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
We are now talking about physical, liquid water, H2O.
The water/mayim under the sky, on the earth, collected in the lower elevations as the dry land rose to appear.
The greenhouse was built, it was time to plant the garden.
Genesis 1:11-13 And God <'elohiym> 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 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.
God/Elohim planted his garden with all things of the kinds he has in the third heaven. And God called it a day.
Genesis 1:14-19 And God <'elohiym> 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 were the fourth day.
God/Elohim lighted the garden. The protective space needed to be created first.
God created the visible light to power photosynthesis and to be a chronometer of time.
And God called it a day.
Now that the habitat was created and supplied with protection from the outer shamayim, air, water, a food source, and the Sun,
it was time to populate the earth.
This is where some might try to insert the idea of evolution. I won't do that because it never happened.
Genesis 1:20-23 And God <'elohiym> said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life,
and 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 fowl multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
God/Elohim filled the waters of the Earth with every kind of aquatic "moving creature that hath life".
He categorized them specifically as "moving", differentiating them from living things that don't move, such as plants.
It may seem like this is saying the "fowl" also came from the water,
but the fowl were created right where they live, "above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
The mayim of the oceans, rivers and lakes received the aquatic creatures. The mayim of the firmament received the fowl.
God programmed their instincts, and they proceeded to populate the waters and the skies. For everything to be created after a kind,
there had to already be a kind for them to be created after. Everything in this creation is of a kind that already exists in the third Heaven.
And God called it a day.
Genesis 1:24-25 And God <'elohiym> 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 <'elohiym> 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.
God/Elohim populated the earth with all of the land dwelling creatures after his kind: and it was good.
I suppose amphibious creatures would be a crossover. Maybe it depends on whether they spend most of their life in water or on land.
Every living thing was created after a kind that already exists in the third Heaven. We didn't evolve from one single cell.
If evolution were true, how did inanimate matter spontaneously organize into the first complex, living, functioning cell?
How did the first cell learn to replicate?
How did those first two unlikely cells learn to organize themselves into tissues, organs, a body, a brain, arms, legs, eyes, ears,
a mouth, a stomach, a heart, lungs, and all of the other functions of a living being?
The unlikelyness is so astronomical that it isn't only unlikely, it is impossible. First you have to get one living cell.
But even today, single cell organisms don't become multi-cell organisms.
There are single cell organisms and there are multi-cell organisms and nothing in between.
Where is the algae or fungus that is in the process of becoming a plant or insect or animal of some other kind?
Where is the inanimate matter that is in the process of combining into a complex, functioning, living cell?
Evolution is neither observable nor reproducible. Evolution isn't science.
All life on earth was created after a kind that already existed elsewhere, and life only replicates after it's own kind.
That is how we know what a kind is. Even small children can recognize different kinds. Matter, light and life are supernatural.
I Timothy 6:20-21 O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust,
avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:
Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.
And now we come to the reason why God created all of the above.
Genesis 1:26 And God <'elohiym> said, Let us make man <'adam> 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. 27 So God <'elohiym> created man <'adam> in his own image,
in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God/Elohim created man is his own image. Not that God resembles a man, but that man resembles God.
We are created after the God kind. To reiterate that Elohim is plural, God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:"
See: John 1:1-3, John 17:5, I Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:1-2, Hebrews 3:3-4
Genesis 1:28-31 And God <'elohiym> 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 <'elohiym> 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 <'elohiym> saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God/Elohim made mankind/human kind/adam in his own image; male and female. He programmed us with more than just instinct.
He gave us intellect and conscience, which he gave to no other creature. God made all of us preeminent, gods over the earth and everything in it.
We haven't been the best stewards, but really that is the point. It is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God/Elohim called it a day.
Colossians 1:12-17 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power:
for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
This is where the translators chose to end Chapter 1, but really this chapter ends with the third verse of Chapter 2.
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
God/Elohim ceased creating on the sixth day, and set in motion the course of the next seven thousand years,
giving us the seven day week as a perpetual reminder that we have a limited time here in this physical existence.
Jesus, in parable, likened this creation to a farm, with us as the crop, in Matthew 13:24-30 and verses 36-43.
The existential meaning of this life is found in the parables. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. The ears to hear is the Holy Spirit.
Isaiah 46:9-13 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else;
I am God, and there is none like me,
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it,
I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:
I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me,
be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
Matthew 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
Matthew 25:33-34 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Revelation 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him,
whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;
and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Ephesians 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Hebrews 4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath,
if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
God of the Gaps. How would we know about these without science?
Why would we look into into things god does, if we can’t understand God’s ways?
God of the gaps? There are no gaps. The gaps were always filled. We have always known the truth of creation.
The nano-amount of "knowledge" we have discovered will never come close to explaining the origin of everything we know.
Even if we could know every detail about how God did it, we would still have to logically conclude that God did it.
Just the beginning of life demands an intelligent creator.
If I give you all of the matter of the universe without asking where it came from,
how do you get that random,
inanimate matter to find the right ingredients to form itself into the first cell with all of it's necessary parts, and then spark itself to life?
Is it going to find the carbohydrates to sustain itself long enough to replicate itself?
Carbohydrate is an organic compound. The cell has nothing to eat until cells exist.
Every living thing is symbiotically dependent on everything existing at the same time.
If you could even get that miraculous first cell to come into existence,
you would need that miracle to happen over and over billions of times.
Then you would need the miracle of those miraculous cells to figure out how to turn themselves into more complex plants and animals.
Then you would need the miracle of those plants and animals morphing into other plants and animals.
The story is so ridiculous, it amazes me that they ever got anyone to believe in it.
In The Beginning God Created...
What eye witness? There couldn't have been any eye witness.
Creation has never been observed and is not reproducible.
The One who actually created.
God observed it, and He will reproduce it.
But of course, the Creator can, the creature can't.
Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying,
shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Creation has never been observed and not reproducible.
What about the second creation described in Genesis 2?
Genesis 1 is the actual creation.
Genesis 2 is a specific place that God set apart on the earth that was already created in Genesis 1; Eden.
The adam of Genesis 2 is a specific man that God created to put in that specific place.
The adam of Genesis 1 were already out there in the wider world.
That is why Cain was fearful of the people in the land of wandering,
and why he was able to find a wife there,
and why he was able to build cities with them.
That's not what Genesis 2 tells. Genesis 2:5 And no plant of the field was yet in the earth,
and no herb of the field had yet sprung up;
for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth:
and there was not a man to till the ground;
Absolutely. You are correct.
But it doesn't say he had the man till the whole earth.
It says he put the man in a garden.
There are two different things happening in that scripture.
Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Anticipating your next question.
Genesis 2:18-20 And the LORD God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him an help meet for him.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field,
and every fowl of the air;
and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them:
and whatsoever Adam called every living creature,
that was the name thereof.
And Adam gave names to all cattle,
and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field;
but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.
According to Genesis 1, the animals were created first.
It seems like this is saying the opposite. But it isn't.
It doesn't actually say in this scripture when the beasts and the foul were created.
It is simply saying they were created for man.
And this particular man was in the garden alone,
so God brought the animals to him to see what he would call them.
When God said, "I will make him an help meet for him", did he not know that the animals wouldn't be suitable?
Certainly he did. When he said this, he was already referring to the woman.
So calculating back to Adam doesn't tell anything.
But Genesis 2 tells that there was no man.
There was no man to till the ground in the Garden of Eden.
The ground in the wider world doesn't need to be tilled for the plants to grow.
But in a "man" cured garden, you need a man.
Calculating back to Adam is valid,
because the other people didn't survive the flood.
Unless Noah's wife and or his son's wives were of the other people,
they all died in the flood.
