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WordExplain by James T. Bartsch |
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"In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth." Genesis 1:1
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 How Our World Began
Day One. Genesis 1:1-5
(1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
(2) And the earth was unorganized and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was vibrating upon the face of the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light!" And there was light. (4) And God saw that the light was good. And God caused a separation between the light and between the darkness. (5) And God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening and there was morning, Day One. Translation by JTB
Some observations are in order here. (1) The universe did not begin with "The Big Bang." The heavens and the earth began when God created them on Day One of the Creation Week. "In the beginning" marks God's creation of time as we know it here on earth. God created "the heavens" marks God's creation of space as we know it. God created "the earth" marks God's creation of matter as we know it. (2) The universe did not begin with a Gravitational Singularity – a theoretical "point in space-time where the laws of physics as we know them break down" – i.e., "a location where the quantities that are used to measure the gravitational field become infinite in a way that does not depend on the coordinate system. In other words, it is a point in which all physical laws are indistinguishable from one another, where space and time are no longer interrelated realities, but merge indistinguishably and cease to have any independent meaning." If the laws of physics break down and are indistinguishable from one another, how can they possibly function? That is a mathematical impossibility. It certainly is not science. Science consists of first-hand observation of that which is witnessed and also the ability to recreate a process through experiments. Neither of those have occurred with the "Big Bang," so the whole theory is sheer speculation by scientists who appear unwilling even to consider the possibility of a Cosmic Designer who Designed what we see today. Why are they unwilling to consider a Designer? Perhaps you had better ask them that question yourself. (See also Rom. 1:18-20.) (3) God did not use pre-existing matter when He created the Earth (erets, 776). There was, just after God's creation of the heavens, no matter anywhere. By the end of Day One, no matter existed anywhere in the universe other than the matter which resulted from God's creation of the Earth. He created the Earth out of nothing. We sometimes use the Latin phrase, "Ex Nihilo" – "out of nothing." (4) By definition, "the heavens" (shamayim, 8064) refers to the apparatus or structure God created out of nothing that would first house the earth, and, on the Fourth Day, also house the sun, the moon, and all the stars. Today, we might easily call it "Space." We do not know what the heavens were like at that point. If Deep Space today tells us anything, the initial heavens were at least dark and cold. (5) The first thing God placed within the heavens was the Earth (erets, 776). He created it out of nothing. We know it consisted of water (mayim, 4325) (Gen. 1:2). Presumably it also consisted of many elements and minerals. Gravity existed to hold it together. It is safe to say that the Earth is the center of the universe. God would later create everything else that exists both on the planet and out in space primarily for the benefit of the people He would create in His own likeness and image (Gen. 1:26-28; cf. Gen. 1:14-18). (6) The Earth that God created on Day One was unorganized (tohu, 8414) and empty (bohu, 922) (Gen. 1:2). There is no justification for the interpretation that the earth was in a state of chaos or disruption. God does not create chaos. Rather, God created the world that we now know in a series of steps, day by day. At this point, the Earth was uninhabitable and uninhabited – not because anything went wrong in God's creative process, but because that is exactly what God intended it to be at this point. (7) At this stage of God's creation of the Earth, it was dark (khoshek, 2822) (Gen. 1:2). There was no light whatsoever. Light on our world and in our night skies comes from our sun, from our moon and from distant stars. Since none of them existed, there was no light. Darkness was upon the face (we might say the surface) of the Deep (tehom, 8415). That refers to the fact that the surface of the Earth at that point was completely aqueous, a global ocean. Had you been there, however, you could not have seen it. There was no light. Nevertheless, water was everywhere. Even today, after a great deal of history, 70% of our earth's surface is water. (8) The Spirit of God was vibrating (Piel Participle of the verb rakhaf, 7363) upon the face of the waters. I believe He may have been imbuing the entire earth with energy. It may be that God's Spirit set the earth to rotating on its axis. (9) God spoke Light (or, 216) into existence. This light was not from the sun, nor from the moon, nor from distant stars. I believe this Light was a physical, visible l manifestation of the Glory of God. This light was bright enough to illuminate one hemisphere of the Earth at all times. The entire Earth would rotate in relation to the Light, and the hemisphere exposed would always have daylight. (10) God saw that the Light was good (Gen. 1:4)! It had extremely beneficial results. Now the animals and people He would soon create could actually see what God had made! God separated the Light portion of the Earth from the Dark portion of the Earth. This was true inasmuch as the Earth was turning on its axis. (11) God called the light "Day" (yom, 3117), and He called the darkness "Night" (layil, 3915) (Gen. 1:5). We see that God enjoys naming things. There was evening, and there was morning, Day One. So there was a markable passage of time already existing by the end of Day One of Creation. You could measure twelve hours of darkness and twelve hours of light, assuming you were stationed on the Equator. Of course no one was. But God the Creator was there, and He could pass on to Moses a reliable history of how the Earth began. (12) The Earth was created by an all-powerful, all-wise being called "God." He pre-existed and pre-ordained the Heavens and the Earth He created. He left nothing to chance. There was no Big Bang. The Earth did not coalesce from Stars, for there were none. The Earth and the Universe are filled with Purpose and Design. And Accountability. One day every one of us will be required to give an account of himself to the God of the Universe (Acts 17:30-31), to the God who created everything as a display of His glory (Psalm 8:1; 19:1; 57:5, 11; 108:5; Rom. 1:19-20). Posted July 16, 2022; Updated July 17, 2022
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