Re-Creation And Eden

The second verse of the Bible gives us a picture of an earth that had been totally destroyed. It was a ball of mud and water out in space. All life on its surface had died, drowned in great flooding and tidal waves, and then buried in mud, silt, and debris. Water covered the earth (notice the words “deep” and “waters” in verse 2), water which was filled with sediment and debris. The atmosphere had been polluted also because darkness hung over the earth and no light could reach its surface.

What caused this pollution of air and water? The answer is tremendous volcanic activity. The earth erupted with vast outflows of superheated lava. Volcanic deposits on the continents and ocean bottoms provide the proof of this catastrophe that tore the earth.

This unbelievable volcanic action caused terrible thick gaseous clouds and ash to be thrown into the atmosphere. This is why thick darkness literally covered the entire surface of the earth. The vast subterranean outflows of hot lava raised the temperature of the oceans. Terrible poisonous gases circulated through the waters as the result of the horrible fumes pouring out from within the earth. Life in the sea was poisoned and boiled by this volcanic eruption.

Deep coring into the ocean bottoms have not produced a single deposit below the upper Cretaceous. The tremendously hot lava melted and fused everything along the ocean floor. What deposits existed at that time have been rendered unrecognizable.

Now the scientists say this could not have happened all at once. Otherwise all ocean life would have died and there could have been no evolution. With all marine life extinguished, the evolutionary process could not have continued. But this is exactly what happened. The destruction of Satan’s rebellion resulted in the sudden extinction of all life on earth. Again scientific findings prove evolution a dead theory and the Bible true in every particular.

Now notice the last part of the second verse: “and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” God was doing something to the waters. This was before God said, “let there be light.” Nowhere in this first chapter of the Bible do we read of God cleaning up the oceans to prepare them for sea life, so that is what must have been happening at this point. God, through the power of His Spirit, was purifying the muddy waters to prepare them to support life when the 5th day of creation week arrived. Now it is time for a summary of what God did to recreate the earth and prepare it for human habitation.

The First Day

It is well to bear in mind that the story of creation here is told from the point of view of a person down on the surface of the earth. Moses wrote from this perspective. Thus, when God said, “let there be light” he was saying “let the light shine through to the surface of the earth.” The sun had been there from the original creation (v. 1) but its light could not reach the earth because of the dense haze in the atmosphere. Now God purified the air so the darkness disappeared. Verse 4 and 5 tell us of the origins of day and night. God divided the light from the darkness by causing the earth to begin spinning on its axis.

The Second Day

On the second day God made the firmament (vs. 6-8), the expanse of space which separates the clouds in their upper regions from those below them. This word firmament is an unfortunate translation. These verses are actually speaking of the atmosphere, the deep blanket of air which covers the earth. Scientifically this is called troposphere, the portion of the atmosphere below stratosphere.

The very existence of our atmosphere is a miracle. If it did not have proper composition and density, no life could exist on our planet. Our atmosphere is made up largely of nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). It also contains essential amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, and water vapors, as well as traces of neon, helium, methane, krypton xenon, hydrogen, ozone, and other rare gases. The rare gases present in our atmosphere exist in much smaller amounts than anywhere else in the universe while the proportions of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor are much greater. If the ingredients of our atmosphere followed the proportions prevalent around other planets, life on earth would be impossible. An error such as having too much or too little of even one gas would make the earth uninhabitable.

Beyond its perfect chemical composition which makes human, animal and plant life possible, the atmosphere performs other vital functions. It shields us from the constant barrage of gamma rays and acts as insulation against both heat and cold. The atmosphere holds and distributes heat, maintaining temperatures at mild levels.

One major example: a thin layer of ozone 40 miles above the earth miraculously protects life on earth from eight killer rays. If this little belt of ozone were to suddenly drift into space, all life on earth would perish. Ozone itself is poisonous to human beings but, thousands of feet above us; it acts as a protective shield.

The point is clear. Such an atmosphere as ours, with its perfect balance of layers and gases, could not be the result of sheer chance. The existence of the atmosphere proves his existence as the Creator God. And because its composition and functions remain essentially unchanged, this is proof that he maintains and sustains it. With every breath of air we take, we prove God exists. Notice, then, that God created the atmosphere early in the orderly progression of creation week as a necessary prerequisite for the living things that were to be brought in to existence naturally.

The Third Day

When the 3rd day of creation week arrived, the earth still lay prostrate under a covering of water. But now God began reshaping the surface of the home of man. He caused the dry land to appear by raising the continents from their covering of water (vs. 9-10). Follow this great demonstration of God’s power. He brought into existence the fruits, vegetables, grasses, and grain’s necessary to sustain human and animal life. These types of vegetation were not in existence in Lucifer’s world because that world was not designed to support human life.

In this connection, it is significant to note that evolution is never discussed in terms of plant fossils. The remains of vegetation in the strata of the earth. Grains, grasses, fruit-bearing trees, are never found before the Cenozoic era, the time when man came to inhabit the earth. Grass, for example, was made for mammals and mammals were made for men. But giant tropical trees, as geologic evidence shows, did exist before grass. However, no evolutionist would admit trees evolving into grass. That would be evolution in reverse. Thus the remains of plants from past ages prove the Bible to be true and evolution a disproven theory.

The Fourth Day

This is the day that God, in a figurative sense, created His calendar, a calendar that man can never change because it is based on the solar system and the entire universe. In the words of verse 14, God set the astral bodies “for signs and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Gen. 1:14). The sacred calendar, which God commissioned the Jewish people to preserve along with the Old Covenant, is simply a record of paper of what goes on in God’s calendar stretching over the vastness of space. On this 4th day, then, God positioned the sun, moon and stars in correct and harmonious relationship. He made the sun and moon to visibly govern day, night, months and years. He also assigned the solar system its precise orbital patterns.

At this point, we should compare verse 3 with verses 14 and 16, the description of days one and six of creation week. Confusion often arises over the translation of the verbs in these verses. In verse 3 when God said, “let there be light” the word “LET” from Hebrew doesn’t mean to create or make; it means to manifest what was previously in existence, God was simply saying, “let the light shine through to the surface of the earth.”

Now look at verse 14. Here the Hebrew word for “LET” is an entirely different word from that used inverse 3. By this time the atmosphere had been completely purified and the heavenly bodies were now unveiled in all their glory whereas only light had been manifested before, now the sun, moon, and stars became visible for the first time as they were placed in correct relative position to the earth.

Verse 16 makes this even more precise. Here we read, “And God made two great lights.” Once again a clearer translation of the verb makes this plain. The verb “made” is the Hebrew “Asah.” The meaning of this Hebrew word is: constituted, appointed, or ordained. God appointed the sun and moon to rule the day and the night.

By way of review, notice how God’s re-creation progressed: on the first day, from an already existing heaven (sun, moon and stars) and earth God manifested light through the darkness of the clouded atmosphere. The atmosphere was prepared on the second day. Dry land and vegetation appeared on the third day. Then, on the 4th day, the sun, moon, and stars became clearly visible for the first time. This is when they were appointed or ordained for special purposes: “for signs, seasons, days, years, and to give light upon the earth.” Notice how orderly and logically God’s work was carried out.

The Fifth Day

In the next 24-hour period God brought into existence all the types of sea life and feathered fowl (v. 20). All these creatures reproduced after their own kind. Evolution teaches that all living things came from an original living cell and then developed, over eons of time, into all the living things we see today.

For example, reptiles are supposed to have evolved into birds. But, if this were the case, how could such slow development take place with no creatures being found which were half-way in between, or a reptile with a few feathers on it. The evolutionists say we don’t see this today because evolution is not happening now. We neither have any fossil remains of such creatures ever being found. Logically, there should be lots of remains of reptiles that tried to fly and failed in the attempt.

Dogs supposedly evolved into horses, but no half-dogs or half-horses (or any other percentages of the two in combination) have ever been discovered. As we read of the creation of the animals on day six of creation week (vs. 24-25), all these reproduce after their own kind. Dogs, no matter how many varieties (from dachshund to collie to St. Bernard) they develop into, are still always dogs. They have never evolved into any other kind of creature. God created each kind of animal, and the gaps between those kinds can never be bridged.

The Sixth Day

In the Bible, six is the number of man. And it was on the sixth day that man, as well as all other land creatures, was formed, shaped and brought into existence by God. Notice that a more detailed description of the creation of the first man and woman is given in Genesis 2. This second chapter of the Bible, from verse 4 on give, in general, a flash back to the sixth day of creation. More will be said about Genesis 2 shortly.

Now something very important should be emphasized: the ultimate purpose of God, to reproduce Himself in human beings is already revealed in the very first chapter of the Bible. Notice in verses 24-25 how God’s laws operate: each creature he designed and brought into existence reproduces after its kind. Then, in verse 26, God says, “let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion.” The God Family reproduces after its kind also!

Of course, this doesn’t happen all at once. The physical creation took one literal week as described here in Genesis. But the spiritual creation, from human kind to God kind requires the millennial week of 1000 years (plus 100 years of the great white throne judgment) to reach completion (II Peter 3:8). Study Genesis 2:2 in this connection. As the sixth day’s sun set and the seventh day of the week arrived, “God ended his work which he had made.” God did not end creating. He ended only those physical things made by work. But the spiritual creation was only about to begin.

Notice also that man is to have dominion over the sea, the air, and all the earth (vs. 26, 28). In other words, man is to learn to rule over the physical earth. He is to “subdue” or conquer it (v. 28). Man’s destiny is to rule. God sets man over the physical things now and, as he builds character in them, he is to be given spiritual rule later (Matt. 25:21; Rev. 3:21).

The limit of man’s rule is the air above the earth, the atmosphere. Outer space is not man’s domain. Man is an earthbound creature, outer space belongs to God. Thus man, when he tries to go beyond his limitations as assigned by God, is headed for disaster. Man’s ultimate destiny is to rule outer space, the entire universe, but as God, not as man. Man’s mind can outreach his body as he tries to become God before his time. This is a lesson physical man must learn. He will not gain the power he wants until he comes into it God’s way.

Finally, realize that God gave man dominion over the animals and the rest of the physical earth, but God didn’t give him the prerogative to rule over other men. The only one who can rightly and correctly rule over man is God. Humans need the Government of God to be happy. In this world God has allowed men o exercise human government, but this is about to end in complete disaster. Man must learn by experience that his way is not right. Then he will yield to God’s government. God is giving man ample time, 6,000 years, to learn that his methods of government must be completely abandoned and replaced by God’s perfect rule.

The Seventh Day

After creating the earth and making it suitable for human habitation, God set apart the seventh day as a reminder to man of the creation and the Creator. He created the Sabbath by resting on that day, by placing His presence in it, thus setting it apart as holy time.

God made the Sabbath special, sacred, holy, and commanded man to keep it that way. God has never changed on this point. It is a part of His eternal, unchangeable law. The only change in the Sabbath has been man’s carnal attitude toward it. But is still is the commemoration of creation. It reminds us of the true God, and the people of God have always held it sacred and holy. So, one can see that God is the author of the seven-day-week, not the Babylonians as some have supposed. The Relationship of Genesis One and Two

An important final note: chapter one of Genesis should include the first three verses of chapter two so that all seven days of the creation week would be in one undivided unit. The account of the Sabbath should not be separated from the other six days. Men divided the Bible into chapters and verses, not God. These divisions are not an inspired part of the Scriptures. The main events that occurred on day six of creation week are presented in more detail in Genesis two beginning with verse 4. At this point notice carefully the order of events in verses 7-8: in verse 7, God creates the first man out of the dust of the ground, in the same form and shape as God, but not out of the same substance. God is spirit, but man is flesh.

Then, in verse 8, God plants a garden “eastward in Eden”. Why did God create the man before he planted the garden? Because in this way Adam saw God in the process of creating with his own eyes. God the Eternal wanted the first man to see and know that He was the Creator. Because Adam saw this, he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt who his maker was. The last 8 verses of this chapter tell of the creation of the first woman and the origin of marriage.

The Question of Origins

Here it should be observed how many firsts there are in the first two chapters of the Bible, two key chapters in revealing to man the origins of all that exists!

  1. The first revelation of God as Creator and originator of all things.
  2. The origin of life in all its forms.
  3. The origin of the 7-day week.
  4. The origin of marriage.

Man ignores the question of origins. Actually, in the final analysis, the carnal man does not want to know how and when he originated because he doesn’t want to admit that God is Originator and Creator. Man does not want to admit that God has revealed the origin of all things in simple terms in the Bible. Man wants to be free to speculate about his origin. This is illustrated by a typical high school level ancient history text. This book begins with the usual first section on “primitive” humans and refers to them, in a heading, as “people with names.” In other words, the concept is presented that no one knows who the first human beings were.

But the Bible makes plain who the first people were, Adam and Eve. We know what their names were, where they lived, what they looked like, and who their children were. God wants us to know these things; he does not want us in ignorance of this knowledge. But man rejects this truth. He calls God’s historical record a “MYTH.”

The Location of Eden

Now consider the remarkable geographic picture contained in Genesis two. Observe carefully that the garden where the first man and woman lived was actually just a small part of a larger area called Eden (v. 8). The land of Eden in the pre-flood world was probably what we now think of as the entire coastal region on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea, the general area of Palestine. It may also have included the region of the Red Sea in the South. Both, the Bible, in other passages, and Josephus’ account confirm this picture.

The Bible gives further details. Notice that a river flowed out of Eden and divided into four streams (v. 10).This great river originated at a point west of the garden (the Mediterranean coast was further west at this time) flowed through it, and then divided into its four branches. From Josephus (Antiquities I, 3) we learn that the river Pison is equivalent to the general area of the Ganges, Gihon the area of the Nile, and Hiddekel the Tigris. Listed last is the Euphrates which still retains its original name (vs. 11-14).

The picture given in the Bible suggests that the earth at this early time was a low-lying tropical paradise with a mild climate, and that the rives were like wide, gentle-flowing streams or canals which rippled eastward toward the sea. However, geologic changes were subsequently to alter this drainage pattern to a great extent. As a consequence, these rivers now all have separate sources and flow in different direction.

The Bible also indicates that this beautiful garden was the highest point of land. Scriptures reveals that in the New World to come a great river will again emanate from Palestine and Jerusalem, the location of Christ’s throne. This location will once again be the highest area of land. Nations will go up to Zion in the millennium (Isa. 2:3, Micah 4:2). God will restore things as they were in the Adamic world. The picture the Bible paints for the future also reveals how conditions were in the past.

The Garden of Eden was in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Can one find in geological history, this geographical description of the river system of Palestine and the environs of Jerusalem? Jewish geologists, unaware of what they have discovered, have actually presented a simple sketch of the astounding evidence (on page 35 of E.A. Speiser’s “At the Dawn of Civilization”) in a geologic map of Palestine. Immediately to the east of Jerusalem in the strata labeled “upper Cretaceous” may be seen in outline the area through which the waters from the Garden of Eden flowed. Three of the four parts of the vast stream flowed toward the north and east, the other moved southward. The present Jordan Valley and Dead Sea were not then formed. (Compendium, vol. II, pp. 316-317).

There is more in the Bible on this topic. Later, when Adam was driven from the garden, he traveled east. Interestingly enough, when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan under Joshua into Palestine, it was near “the city of Adam.” (Joshua 3:16) it is very probable that this was the first habitation where the original humans lived after they left the Garden of Eden.

Satan’s Return

Immediately after Adam was created, God began to instruct him in the ways to live (Gen. 2:15-17).But the training did not last long because, when chapter 3 opens, Satan is on the scene and craftily at work misleading the first humans. He approached the most susceptible member of the family, Eve, and begins to cause her to doubt God’s teaching. Eve did not know that only humans and spirits have the power of speech. Satan told her she had an immortal soul already and that she was a God herself (vs. 4-5).

Satan was extremely subtle in his approach. He knew that it was the destiny of man to ultimately become God, to be composed of the eternal spirit of God which always existed. So, in a very crafty, soft, secretive manner, he said something like this to the woman, God did not tell you everything. He is keeping things from you, things that you are entitled to know. Immortality is already a part of your nature. It is in you now, Eve. Didn’t you know that? Didn’t God tell you that, did he? You listen to me.

That was his approach, and it worked. The woman was influenced, and Adam sinned along with her in partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life, the source of the Holy Spirit, was there too, but they had not gone near it. Satan knew human nature and used this knowledge wrongly in order to teach the first humans to sin.

God expelled the first human’s from their paradise because they had obeyed Satan instead of the Creator. They were cut off from the tree of life which was the symbol of the Holy Spirit (v. 22).The Holy Spirit was not again made available to mankind until Jesus Christ, the 2nd Adam, returned to heaven and sent it to his disciples on the day of Pentecost in 31 A.D.

But God did not leave the first humans without hope. He promised them a Savior. It is commonly recognized that Gen. 3:15 is the first prophecy in the Bible about Christ. The seed of the woman is singular (the ‘it’ in the KJV should be rendered ‘he’) and refers to Jesus Christ. Satan would ‘bruise’ Christ’s ‘heel’ in causing him to be put to death. But Christ would bruise Satan’s head by rising from the dead and triumphing over him. Thoroughly disqualifying and finally deposing him as ruler of the world. In short, Christ does much more harm to Satan than Satan ever does to Christ.( Rom. 16:20 and Heb. 2:14.)

God is still in the process of creating sons who will one day join Him and His son Jesus Christ in the God Family. Will you heed your Creator? Will you act upon the knowledge you are receiving? Enroll today in our Mini-Correspondence Course and our Traditional Christian Doctrine series. Learn the truth about creation.

 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864