2. THE CHAOTIC EARTH
The creation of the "Original Earth" was in the dateless past. It was doubtless a most beautiful earth, covered with vegetation and inhabited with fish and fowl and animal life, and probably with human life. How long it continued in this condition we are not told, but an awful catastrophe befell it-it became"FORMLESS AND VOID, and submerged in water and darkness. Gen. 1:2. That it was not originally so we know from Isa. 45:18 (R.V.). "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; he is God; that formed the earth and made it; He established it, He created it NOT A WASTE, he formed it to be inhabited."
What caused the earth to become a "Waste" after its original creation is not clearly revealed. It is clear from the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve that sin existed before man was created.
Generation
The Six Days Of Re-Creation
In that remarkable passage in Ez. 28:12-14 there is revealed to us under the title of
"The King of Tyrus, "
a being of surpassing beauty and wisdom, who had been in "Eden, " the "Garden of God." Not the Eden of Adam's day, but possibly the Eden of the Earth as it was first created. This being is spoken of as the "Anointed Cherub that Covereth, " who "walked upon the 'Holy Mountain of God', " and was "perfect in all his ways from the day that he was created until iniquity was found in him"
As no King of Tyrus answering this description has, as yet, existed, this passage is taken to be a prophetic portrait of the "Antichrist, " and as Antichrist is to be an incarnation of Satan, it probably is a description of Satan before his fall. The intimation in this scripture then is, that Satan, with a host of angelic beings, was placed in charge of the original or primeval earth, and that he through pride (1Tim. 3:6; Isa. 14:12-14) sought to be equal with God, and that to punish him the earth was thrown into a chaotic state, and Satan and his angels, amounting to a third of the angelic hosts (Rev. 12:4) were excluded from Heaven, and took up their abode in the heavenlies, the Second Heaven, located between the atmosphere of our earth and the Heaven where God dwells, and thus became the "Principalities and Powers, " and "Rulers of the Darkness of this Age, " and the "Spiritual Wickedness" in "High Places" (the Second Heaven), of whom we are warned in Eph. 6:12. This seems very plausible, for Satan is said to be the "Prince of the Powers of the Air" (Eph. 2:2); and the "God of this World" (Age), and it looks as if his plan for the Fall of man was a scheme to regain control of this earth.
If there were human beings on the Original or Pre-Adamite Earth, they were doubtless involved in Satan's fall and destroyed. In fact, the "demons" are believed by many to be the disembodied spirits of the inhabitants of the Pre-Adamite Earth, and their efforts to reembody themselves in human beings, as in the days of Christ, is looked upon as evidence that they once possessed bodies similar to human bodies. Naturally the question arises, "if the inhabitants of the Pre-Adamite Earth were human beings like ourselves, and were destroyed when the Pre-Adamite Earth was thrown into a chaotic form, where are their fossil remains; why have we not discovered them in the soil or rocks of the earth? " The answer is, their "bodies" may have been consumed by fire, as will be the case with the rebellious hosts of Gog and Magog at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:7-9), and their escaping "spirits" became the demons referred to above. It is clear that the "demons" are not Satan's angels, for they are free, while the demons are confined in the Bottomless Pit and are only given liberty as it suits God's purpose. Rev. 9:1-3. Neither are they the "Fallen Angels" of 2Pet. 2:4, and Jude 6-7, for they are reserved in chains under darkness against the judgment of the Great Day. The "demons" then are in a class by themselves and for aught we know shall never be different. What we do know in reference to them is that the time is coming when they are to suffer "torment." Matt. 8:29.
If death reigned on the Pre-Adamite Earth, and the bodies of the Pre-Adamites were buried in the earth, they may still remain buried in that part of the earth which they occupied, which now may be the bed of the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. If this be so, it helps to explain the Scripture passage which reads-"And theSEA gave up the dead which were in it; and 'Death' and 'Hell' (Hades) delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works." Rev. 20:13. Here we have the"SEA" differentiates from "DEATH, " (the Grave), which swallows up the body, and "HELL' or"HADES, " the abode of the soul between death and the resurrection, and this seems to imply that the"DEAD OF THE SEA" are a different class from mankind and may refer to the dead of the Pre-Adamite World as now resting at the bottom of the sea. As God's creatures are to be judged each in his own order, it would seem no more than right that the dead of the Pre-Adamite World should be judged before the wicked dead of this present world.
The manner in which the Pre-Adamite Earth was made "formless -and void, " and this refers only to the exterior surface, the habitableness of the earth, is clearly revealed by Peter, where he says
"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, BEING OVERFLOWED WITH WATER, perished" I1Pet. 3:5-6
It is clear that Peter does not refer here to Noah's Flood, for the world of Noah's day did not perish, and Peter goes on to add that- "The heavens and the earth which are now (that is, have been in existence since the restoration of the earth of Gen. 1:3-5), by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fireagainst the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (Great White Throne judgment)." Rev. 20:11-13.
The manner then in which the Pre-Adamite Earth was made "formless and void" was by WATER. The water which lies upon the surface of the earth is about 1/4950 part of the earth's mass. If the land surface was even the water would cover it to the depth of 11 miles. Violent convulsions must have wrecked the Pre-Adamite Earth and covered its surface with the waters of its oceans. Not a living creature remained alive upon it, and its atmosphere of murky darkness hid the light of the sun, moon and stars. To all intents and purposes it was a dead planet, though the seeds of its vegetable life remained entombed in its bosom ready to spring into resurrection life on the "Third Day." The absence of the warm rays of the sun caused the earth to pass through the "Winter" of its life, and the submerging waters were congealed into ice that preserved in "COLD STORAGE" the remains of immense quadrupeds and win ed creatures, that we might know the kind of animal life that inhabited the Pre-Adamite Earth. This was probably the Glacial Period of Geologic times. The Prophet Jeremiah records a vision of the time.
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was WITHOUT FORM AND VOID; and the heavens, and they had NO LIGHT. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they TREMBLED, and all the hills MOVED LIGHTLY. I beheld, and, lo, there war, NO MAN, and all the BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS WERE FLED. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a WILDERNESS and all the CITIES thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer. 4:23-25.
If this was, as it appears, an account of the destruction of the Pre-Adamite Earth, then the Pre-Adamite Earth was inhabited, and its inhabitants dwelt in cities, and God's purpose in destroying the Pre-Adamite Earth was to efface all historic monuments and evidences of the sinfulness of its occupants.
How long a period elapsed between the creation of the earth and its becoming "formless and void" we do nor know; neither do we know how long it continued in that condition, but when the time came in the purpose of God to restore the earth to its habitable state, and make it fit for the abode of man, He did it in six periods of longer or shorter duration. The Hebrew word translated "day" may mean either a day of 24 hours or a longer period of time. The probability is that the time was short.
3. THE PRESENT EARTH
The six days' work as described in Gen. 1:3-5 is not a description of how God made the Original earth, but bow He restored It from its "formless and void" condition to its present state. if the Flood of Noah's day was only local and affected only that section of the world, then the geography of the restored earth was probably the same as that of the earth today.
THE SEVEN DAYS OF THE RESTORATION WORK
Era of Matter
1. WORK, COSMIC LIGHT
2. WORK, READJUSTMENT OF THE ATMOSPHERE
3. WORK, VEGETATION REAPPEAR
WORK, DRY LAND REAPPEARS
Era of Life
4. WORK, SOLAR LIGHT RESTORED
5. WORK, CREATION OF FISH AND FOWL
6. WORK, CREATION OF LAND ANIMAL
WORK, CREATION OF MAN
7. NO WORK, THE SABBATH
THE FIRST DAY
Gen. 1:2-4
"And the Spirit of God moved (brooded) 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'."
When the times came to restore the earth to a habitable condition, God began by reversing the process He took to make it uninhabitable. The Spirit of God "brooded" over the watery waste, and God said-
"LET THERE BE LIGHT."
God did not create the light, the word for create is not used. God simply said-"Let there be light, " just as one might say-"Turn on the light." This light was not sunlight, for the clouds did not break away and permit the Sun to shine on the earth. That did not happen until the "Fourth Day." The light was doubtless "Electric Light, " similar to the Aurora Borealis or North Lights, for we now know that Electricity is one of the primary forces and has always been in the atmosphere, although we have only in recent times learned how to harness it and compel it to light our cities. The incandescence of the atmosphere, and it doubtless was very strong and brilliant, generated a vast amount of heat that melted the icy covering of the earth and formed water, that, being evaporated, formed vaporous clouds that prepared the way for the work of the "Second Day." The change from "Darkness" to "Light" caused God to call the "Darkness"NIGHT and the "Light" DAY. Thus the earth passed out of the "Night" of its history into the brightness of its "Resurrection Day, " and as each day's work was an advance on the previous day's work, each day begins with an evening and ends with a morning.
THE SECOND DAY
Gen. 1:6-8 "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 theFirmament from the waters which were above the Firmament: and it was so. And God called theFirmament HEAVEN. And the evening and the morning were the 'Second Day'."
The fact that the "Firmament" is called "Heaven, " and by the word Heaven we are to understand our Atmosphere, implies that the "Chaotic Earth" either had no atmosphere, or that it was not adapted to the formation of clouds, that in the form of vapor, would support water, and thus divide or separate the waters in the atmosphere from the waters on the earth. The Second Day's work then was the "Readjustment of the Atmosphere" to the needs of the present earth, and its evening and morning made up the "Second Day."
It is worthy of note that the words-"And God saw that it was GOOD, " are not spoken of this Day's work, as it is spoken of the other days' work. This may not be without significance, for we read in Eph. 2:2 of the "Powers of the AIR, " over whom Satan is the Prince, and it may have been that as soon as the atmosphere of the earth again became habitable that the "Powers of Evil, " (Eph. 6:12), with Satan as their leader, swarmed into it, with the intention of making it their habitation, and so God could not say of the Firmament or Atmosphere that it was "good."
THE THIRD DAY
The work of the "Third Day" was twofold, the emergence of the land from the sea, and the reappearance of vegetable life.
FIRST WORK
Gen. 1:9-10
"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."
This is simply a reversal of the cataclysmic convulsions that submerged the Pre-Adamite Earth, and by upheaval caused the earth to emerge from its "Watery Grave."
SECOND WORK
Gen. 1:11-13
"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 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 'ThirdDay." This was not a new creation but a RESURRECTION. The earth rises up out of the "Waters of Death, " and seeds, and the roots of plants and herbs and trees are called upon to germinate and sprout and grow as they did before the catastrophe that submerged the Pre-Adamite Earth. If that catastrophe was what we know as the "Glacial Period, " the resurrection of plant life no more required a "creative act" than vegetation does in the spring of the year after the winter is over. That this was the case seems clear from the expression, "Whose seed is in itself, UPON THE EARTH." That is, the seed was already in the earth, having been buried by the waters that swept over the Pre-Adamite Earth, and, being indestructible, it only needed the proper conditions to spring up and cover the earth with verdure. This reveals the fact that the Pre-Adamite Earth was clothed with verdure, and covered with plants and trees like those of our present earth.
THE FOURTH DAY
Gen. 1:14-16
"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 were the 'Fourth Day'."
The appearance of the sun and the moon on the Fourth day was not a new creation. They had existed in connection with the Pre-Adamite Earth and bad not been destroyed when it was made waste- The words translated "made" in the 16th verse is not the same word as is translated "created" in verse one, and does not imply a "creative" act. What is meant is that the clouds broke away and permitted the sun and moon to be seen, and that from that time they were appointed to measure the days, and years, and seasons as we have them today. In other words, on the Fourth day "Time" in contrast with "Eternity" began.
THE FIFTH DAY
Gen. 1:20-22
"And God 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 (Bara) great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, AFTER THEIR KIND, and every winged fowlAFTER HIS KIND; and God saw that it was good. 'And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the 'Fifth Day'."
The work of the "Fifth Day" was the CREATION of fish and fowl. Here is the first time we come across the word "CREATE" since we read of the original creation of the earth in verse one. This shows that allanimal life was destroyed in the catastrophe that overtook the Pre-Adamite Earth. The fish and fowl that were created on the "Fifth Day" were the same that we have today. The fossil remains of huge marine animals and gigantic birds belong to the PreAdamite Earth.
THE SIXTH DAY
The creative work of the "Sixth Day" was twofold, that of land animals and of man.
FIRST WORK
Gen. 1:24-25
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the LIVING CREATURE AFTER HIS KIND, cattle, andcreeping thing, and beast of the earth AFTER HIS KIND; and it was so. And God made (created) 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."
These land animals were doubtless the same kind as we have today. The fact that they were created,
"AFTER THEIR KIND, "
which is 5 times repeated, shows that they were not "evolved" from one common specie. That all the different species of animals were created "separately" is proven from the fact that when species are crossed their offspring are sterile. The crossing of the jackass and a mare is the mule, and a mule is a hybrid and is sterile. If the "Evolutionary Theory" of the development of animal and vegetable life was true, we should expect to find evidence to that effect in fossil remains of the intermediate links, and we should also see "evolutionary processes" at work now whereby higher orders of animal and plant life are coming into being. But we see nothing of the kind. Animal and plant life exists today in the same form that it had excited in the knowledge of man. The birds build their nests and raise their young as they always did. The beaver builds his dam, and the bee constructs his honeycomb as they have always done. Man alone, has the faculty of improving his mode of construction. This is seen in the development of farming instruments from the crude plow a winnowing fan to the complex plow and cultivator and the combined reaper, binder, and thresher. But here we can trace the steps by the obsolete specimens of farming implements. This is not true in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, for there we find no intermediary links. If the Evolutionary Theory is correct, it should apply, to man as well as animals, and we should see by the crossing of the best specimens of the human race the evolution of a SUPERMANbut the history of the race disproves this.
SECOND WORK
Gen. 1:26-28
"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 (Bara) man in His OWN IMAGE,in the IMAGE OF GOD CREATED (Bara) 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."
That man also was "CREATED" (Bara) shows that he has not descended from an ape. Man was made in the "IMAGE OF GOD not in the image of an "Ape, " and was not formed from a brute, . of the "Dust of the Earth." There is an "Impassable Gulf" between the lowest order of man and the highest type of beast that science has failed to bridge. The "Missing Link" has never been found. That the whole human race is of "One specie" and had a common origin (Acts 17:26) is clear from the fact that, when races of the earth's inhabitants marry, their offspring are not sterile but fertile. This nullifies the argument that the white races are of different origin, and that the white race alone is the Adamic race.
There is no contradiction between the first and second of Genesis as to the creation of man. The first chapter (Gen. 1:26-28) gives the FACT of his creation, the second, the MANNER OF IT. Gen. 2:7. One is supplementary to the other. In chapter one God is spoken of as "ELOHIM, " the Creator; in chapter two, He is called "JEHOVAH" (The Lord) because He there enters into covenant relations with man. At first the name "Jehovah" is joined with "Elohim" to remove all doubt as to the identity of the Being designated by the compound word. Now while either of these names would suit some passages, in others one would be more suitable than the other. This accounts for the discriminating use of these two names by the sacred writers, and is an answer to those critics who claim that the Scriptures are a clumsy compilation of incongruous and diverse documents which they call Elohistic and Jehovistic.
In Gen. 2:7 we are told that– "The LORD God formed (Yatsar, fashioned) man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the 'Breath of Life; ' and man became a living soul."
This may mean that the Lord God, fashioned man out of the "dust of the ground" as a sculptor fashions the statue out of clay, and then breathed into the earthy form the "Breath of Life." However it was done we know the work was threefold:
1. The formation of the "BODY"--"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground."
2. The gift of the "SPIRIT"-"And breathed into his nostrils the 'Breath of Life'." By
this is not meant the "Holy Spirit, " but the "Spirit" of the "natural man"-that part of man that must be indwelt by the Holy Spirit before he can. be born again. It is the "God Conscious" nature of man.
3. The SOULISH part of man-"And man became a 'Living Soul'." This is the seat of the "Self-Conscious" nature, of memory, the affections, etc.
The two principal parts of man are the BODY and the SPIRIT, but as the functions of these are separate, one being physical and the other spiritual, a third part had to be supplied called the SOUL, intermediate between them, and through which they may communicate. Thus man became a-"Threefold Being." 1Thes. 5:23. Heb. 4:12. See the Chapter on "The Spirit World." Section, "The Threefold Nature of Man."
In Adam, as originally created, the Soul was such a perfect medium of communication between the Body and the Spirit that there was no conflict between them. The three blended together in one harmonious whole. When man fell the soul became the "battlefield" of the Body and the Spirit, and the conflict began that Paul so graphically describes in Rom. 7:7-9.
Eve was not fashioned in the same way as Adam. She was made" sometime later. Adam had not found among all the creatures God had made
