Chuck Larsen

After God creates time, or names day and night, he moves on to deal with space. When I say “space” I don’t mean outer space but just the existence of “room” like in “give me space.” Isn’t this what “separation” is really all about? Genesis 1:6 says, “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’” Most of you KJV (King James Version) readers are more familiar with the word “firmament.” But I have to agree with Haines. He says, “…firmament is a most unfortunate mistranslation. Firmament means ‘something firm’ and seems to imply a sky something like a solid vault in which the sun, moon, and stars are fixed like light bulbs. The error had its beginning in the translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek which was made in the third century B.C. and which we call the Septuagint. The ancient Greeks conceived of the sky as a solid crystalline sphere. It was their false science which determined the Greek word used in this verse. The error was copied by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate and in turn by the translators of the King James Version.”^[1]

When we look at how the word is used in other passages it seems that the idea is more of distance between things or “space” as I mentioned. Look at Isaiah 42:5 for one example. It says, “Thus says God, the Lord,  who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to.” But whether it is a solid substance of simply “space” whatever it was it held water.

Henry Morris had some pretty good ideas as to what this might mean to us. This “separation” of the waters above from the waters below might serve as a global greenhouse, maintaining an essentially uniformly pleasant temperature all over the world. There would be no danger of global warming because there would not be great temperature variations, there would be no significant winds, and the water-rain cycle could not form. There would be no rain as we know it today. This could produce lush, tropical-like vegetation, all over the world, fed not by rain, but by a rich evaporation and condensation cycle, resulting in heavy dew or ground-fog. The vapor blanket would filter out ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays, and other destructive energies bombarding the planet. These are known to be the cause of mutations, which decrease human longevity. Human and animal life spans would be much higher than they are today which was the case in Genesis. Now in the not so exciting side is that a vapor blanket would provide the necessary reservoir for a potential worldwide flood.^[2] Watch out!!

^[1] Lee Haines, “The Book of Genesis,” in Genesis-Deuteronomy, vol. 1:1, The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 26.

^[2] David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 1:6–8.

When we get to Genesis 1:5, God wraps up his creative fiats for the first day. The text says, “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” There are two things (at least!) to address in this verse. The first one is the fact that God named light and darkness. The second is the idea of “evening and morning” constituting a day.

God gave names to the light and to the dark. First there was darkness for it was “over the face of the deep” at the end of verse 2. God said “Let there be light” in verse 3. He said that the light was “good” in verse 4 and now he gives both of them, light and dark, the names of “day” and “night” respectively. Brayford makes an interesting observation when she writes, “Although light now exists as a counterpart to darkness and has been declared good, darkness is not eliminated. Instead, God separates the two opposite elements, thereby establishing the cycle of day (what God calls/names ‘light’) and night (what God calls/names ‘darkness’), and thus the passage of time.”^[1] Walton has a great discussion concerning this and agrees with Brayford. He says, “We conclude, then, that day one does not concern itself with the creation of the physicist’s light, that is, “light” as a physical entity with physical properties. Day one concerns something much more significant, something much more elemental to the functioning of the cosmos and to our experience of the cosmos. On day one, God created time. This is the first of the functions God will use to bring order to the chaos of the cosmos: the orderly and regular sequence of time.”^[2] (“Verrrryyyy Interesting,” as Arte Johnson would say on Laugh-in).

This was the climax of day one, but what does the writer mean by the word “day.” The handbook for translators says, “Some interpret day to refer to an indefinite period of time, but there is nothing in the context that requires the Hebrew term for day to be taken as other than an ordinary day. All the other days of creation are described by numbers that indicate their place in order or sequence: second, third, fourth, and so on.”^[3] Others will appeal to other verses that seem to use the word “day” to refer to longer periods of time. For example both the Old Testament in Psalm 90:4, we read, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” Peter might be referring to this verse and substantiating its truth in 2 Peter 3:8, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

^[1] Susan A. Brayford, Genesis: Commentary, ed. Stanley E. Porter, Richard S. Hess, and John Jarick, Septuagint Commentary Series (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 210.

^[2] John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 79.

^[3] William David Reyburn and Euan McG. Fry, A Handbook on Genesis, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998), 35–36.

God was talking to Job and asking him where he was when the events of the original creation took place. When God created the heavens and the earth the angels sang together what appears to be a joyous song. Job 38:7 says, “…when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” This is one of the verses that support the idea that Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” is followed by some tragic event that left the earth in the state that’s described in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was formless and void and darkness was over the face of the deep.” Pink describes this scene. He writes, “As we have already observed, the original condition of this primary creation was vastly different from the state in which we view it in the next verse. Coming fresh from the hands of their Creator, the heaven and the earth must have presented a scene of unequaled freshness and beauty. No groans of suffering were heard to mar the harmony of the song of “the morning stars” as they sang together (Job 38:7). No worm of corruption was there to defile the perfections of the Creator’s handiwork. No iniquitous rebel was there to challenge the supremacy of God. And no death shades were there to spread the spirit of gloom. God reigned supreme, without a rival, and everything was very good.”^[1] But then, something bad happened: Sin entered into the creation as Satan rebelled and took a third of the “sons of God” with him. This left the earth “without form and void” and darkness over the face of the deep.

Pink and other proponents of the so called “gap” theory (one commentator calls it the “gap fact”), compare this situation with the situation that followed the recreation of the earth climaxing with the creation of Adam and Eve in the image of God. The description of the Garden of Eden and the wonders of God’s creation are reported as “good” with each day’s creation. Then with the creation of mankind it’s called “very” good. Every kind of fruit was available for man’s food. God fellowshipped intimately with man and would walk with them in the cool of the day. The weather was perfect! Life expectancy was eternal as far as you could tell. The tree of life was in the garden from which one would eat and live forever. Some will even argue that man had communion with the animals as well just like in some of the fairy tales of today. The point is that everything was perfect and then in Genesis 3, the leader of the fallen angels, enticed Adam and Eve and something bad happened. Sin came into the world again and the tree of life was kept from Adam and Eve because now everything would be difficult. Childbearing will be extremely difficult for the women and working the land would be nothing but “work, work, work!) and the results would not always be good. And of course, life expectancy began to decline for all living things.

But then in verse 3, the spirit of God moved over the face of the darkness and God said “let there be light.” I’ve been thinking about how the Old Testament is really about Jesus and the redemption of man from being “without form and void.” God called forth light out of the darkness to bring about order from the chaos and began the process of creating all “good” things. This is what Jesus does in the empty and chaotic lives of non-believers. Anyway, that’s the way it was for me! Jesus is indeed “the light of the world” that dispenses the darkness in our lives.

^[1] Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 14.

The first verse of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” has been the subject of more commentators than any other verse in the Bible. There are many different interpretations of This verse also. There are nearly as many interpretations as there are commentators! I want to scream, “More detail, God, would have been appreciated.” But no, that’s all we really get! Alright, then let’s use Kipling’s six brave men. He wrote in poetic form, “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” There is a lot more to that poem, but I’ll limit my research to these six honest serving men. Today, I’ll just look at the “Where.”

I expect that as the question of “when” refers to time, the question of “where refers to space.” Looking at the “when and where” of God’s creation we’re concerned with the idea of time and space. We see God in various places in the Bible. He’s in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. He was in the burning bush when he addressed Moses and he was on the mountain when he called the Israelites to him. Do we assume then that God moves around? I don’t think so. Norm Geisler explains, “An omnipresent Being does not have to move, since He is already there. God is not a spatial Being and does not move in time and space, but for the purpose of communication He uses expressions that are understandable to finite humans who do move in time and space. Such nonliteral descriptions of divine activity reveal personal interaction with humanity.”^[1]

Karl Barth said that God is “free, majestic and sovereign.” It is in a manner wholly determined by Himself. He is, therefore, One in such a way that He is omnipresent, constant in such a way that He is omnipotent, and eternal in such a way that He is glorious.”^[2] The Omnipresence of God is something we just can’t comprehend because we’re trapped (for the time being) in the time space continuum. Is something that we don’t understand unbelievable. Absolutely not! Hodge writes, “…consequently reason, rational demonstration, or philosophical proof is not the ground of faith. We may rationally believe what we cannot understand. We may be assured of truths which are encompassed with objections which we cannot satisfactorily answer.”^[3] Anselm is famous for saying this: “For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe-that unless I believe I shall not understand.”

^[1] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Two: God, Creation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2003), 195.

^[2] Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Thomas F. Torrance, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Part 1, vol. 2 (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 441.

^[3] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 42.

The first verse of the Bible “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” has been the subject of more commentators than any other verse in the Bible. There are many different interpretations of this verse also. There are nearly as many interpretations as there are commentators! I want to scream, “More detail, God, would have been appreciated.” But no, that’s all we really get! Alright, then let’s use Kipling’s six brave men. He wrote in poetic form, “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” There is a lot more to that poem, but I’ll limit my research to these six honest serving men. Today, I’ll just look at the “when.”

Let’s think about “when.” This question has been another one of those “hot topics” in the theological community. There are many different opinions on this. There are really only two options as I see it. It’s either a short period of time or a long period of time. Bishop Ussher, using the various clues in the Bible argues that God created the world around 4004 BC, just a little over 6 thousand years ago. He made this calculation based on the genealogies from the King James Bible. There are still many adherents to this view today. John Lightfoot agreed with James Ussher and together their view is called the “Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar.” But Lightfoot called for a slightly earlier date of 3928 BC.

There are other orthodox believers who would argue that it’s possible that the earth is old like modern geologists suggest. The Bible simply says that God did it, it makes no determination on when. One of my old professors puts it this way, “Other orthodox Christians defend their stance by accepting the possibility of an old universe of billions of years and pointing to the fact that the Bible nowhere commits them to a young universe. They usually point to several factors. First, Genesis 1:1 only says there was a “beginning” but not exactly when that was. Second, the “days” of Genesis may represent long periods of time. Third, there may be a time gap before the days of Genesis begin (as in some form of Gap Theory). Fourth, there are known gaps in the genealogical record (see Genealogies, Open).”^[1] In my opinion, both could be right. One thing is for sure. God created the earth to be inhabited by man. Then he created man. Let me end this article the way I did my last one on “why” God created. God created the world to demonstrate His love for us so that we would love him. 1 John also says that we can love God because He first loved us. But the fact of God’s loving creation did not convince anyone. So, as Romans 5:8 tells us, “God demonstrated His love for us in this, while we are yet sinners Christ died for us.”

^[1] Norman L. Geisler, “Scientific Dating,” Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 701.