Genesis chapter one.

[MoreCoffee]

The Beginning

(John 1:1-5)



1In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. 2And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.


The First Day: Light

3And God said: Be light made. And light was made. 4And God saw the light that it was good; and he divided the light from the darkness. 5And he called the light Day, and the darkness Night; and there was evening and morning one day.


The Second Day: Firmament

6And God said: Let there be a firmament made amidst the waters: and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7And God made a firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament, from those that were above the firmament, and it was so. 8And God called the firmament, Heaven; and the evening and morning were the second day.


The Third Day: Dry Ground

9God also said: Let the waters that are under the heaven, be gathered together into one place: and let the dry land appear. And it was so done. 10And God called the dry land, Earth; and the gathering together of the waters, he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11And he said: Let the earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so done. 12And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13And the evening and the morning were the third day.


The Fourth Day: Sun, Moon, Stars

14And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: 15To shine in the firmament of heaven, and to give light upon the earth. And it was so done. 16And God made two great lights: a greater light to rule the day; and a lesser light to rule the night: and the stars. 17And he set them in the firmament of heaven to shine upon the earth. 18And to rule the day and the night, and to divide the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And the evening and morning were the fourth day.


The Fifth Day: Fish and Birds

20God also said: Let the waters bring forth the creeping creature having life, and the fowl that may fly over the earth under the firmament of heaven. 21And God created the great whales, and every living and moving creature, which the waters brought forth, according to their kinds, and every winged fowl according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22And he blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea: and let the birds be multiplied upon the earth. 23And the evening and morning were the fifth day.


The Sixth Day: Creatures on Land

24And God said: Let the earth bring forth the living creature in its kind, cattle and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so done. 25And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind. And God saw that it was good.


26And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. 27And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth. 29And God said: Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the earth, and all trees that have in themselves seed of their own kind, to be your meat: 30And to all the beasts of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to all that move upon the earth, and wherein there is life, that they may have to feed upon. And it was so done. 31And God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good. And the evening and morning were the sixth day.

I was giving this passage some thought a while ago. Considering what the ordering of the creation may imply for humanity's care over creation in this age, before the second advent of Christ the Lord. Is it implied in the passage, indirectly, of course, that Humanity's first concerns ought to be ordered something like this:

• Care one for another
• Care for mammals and other animals dwelling on land
• Care for small creatures that creep on the land
• Care for the creatures that fly in the air, birds and insect and all that is airborne
• Care for sea creatures that swim and those that occupy the bottom of the seas

And here we find the Sun and the Moon and the stars which are at this time in human history somewhat beyond our ability to hurt or to help
followed by

• care for plants of every kind, trees first grasses and others also
• care for the earth itself, its soils and waters both fresh and salt
• care for the firmament of heaven with its waters above and below which seems to be a reference to the airs that make the atmosphere and waters in the air and in the lakes and seas

and then these last two which also seem beyond our ability at this time in human history.
care for the light which God created second
care for the darkness which God created first

I had not given much thought to this before. To the creation of darkness first and chaotic earth. Followed by the creation of light.

The shaping of the earth and populating it with living things also have an interesting order.

Stewardship of the earth and current concerns over the environment may have an implied guide in the story of creation given in Genesis chapter one.

 

[Lees]

@MoreCoffee

I don't think darkness is a creation. It is just the absence of light.

Lees

 

[atpollard]

Stewardship of the earth and current concerns over the environment may have an implied guide in the story of creation given in Genesis chapter one.

I have a mentor that stresses the difficulty people have in staying in the middle of the road. At one extreme, we can neglect the environment that we have been given, and at the opposite extreme we have those that fail to heed the warning of Romans 1 and worship the creation rather than the Creator (the earth IS NOT our mother).

We are stewards of God’s creation and should be prepared to give an account for how we handled our stewardship … whether 1 coin or 10 coins.

 

[Lees]

@MoreCoffee

I don't think darkness is a creation. It is just the absence of light.

Lees

My mistake. (Is. 45:7) "I form the light,and create darkness: I make peace,and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."

But darkness is still the absence of light.

Lees

 

[Fritz Kobus]

My mistake. (Is. 45:7) "I form the light,and create darkness: I make peace,and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."

But darkness is still the absence of light.

Lees

At least in our experience it is so.

 

[Lees]

At least in our experience it is so.

Well, in God's experience also.

We are told, "God is light and in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)

We are told God is omnipresent. (Jer. 23:23-24) "Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the LORD."

So, wherever God is, because He is light, His light exists. No darkness. And, God's presence is everywhere. Meaning, His light is everywhere.

Meaning, by His decree, He must remove His light for darkness to occur. Thus, darkness is always the absence of light.

Lees

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Well, in God's experience also.

We are told, "God is light and in him is no darkness at all." (1 John 1:5)

We are told God is omnipresent. (Jer. 23:23-24) "Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth saith the LORD."

So, wherever God is, because He is light, His light exists. No darkness. And, God's presence is everywhere. Meaning, His light is everywhere.

Meaning, by His decree, He must remove His light for darkness to occur. Thus, darkness is always the absence of light.

Lees

Consider Psalm 18:11 "He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies."

 

[Lees]

Consider Psalm 18:11 "He made darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies."

Have you considered it? What do you believe it means in regards to what has been said?

God is light. Wherever He is, He is light. And He is everywhere. So for darkness to exist, it must be by His decree to remove His light.

Lees

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Isaiah 45:7 (NIV)

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the Lord, do all these things.

 

[Lees]

Isaiah 45:7 (NIV)

I form the light and create darkness,

I bring prosperity and create disaster;

I, the Lord, do all these things.

Ok.

I'm not sure of the point you're making. This verse was given already in post #(4), with a comment. What is your point?

The point of a forum is 'discussion'....correct?

I sense your afraid to make a comment till everyone else comments on the various verses, giving you an education on how to respond. In other words, all you are telling me at this point, is you don't know how to respond because you don't know the Scripture.

In other words, if you don't know the Scriptures, I would refrain from participating in theological debates.

But, by all means, prove me wrong.

Lees

 

[Fritz Kobus]

I just do not know what darkness really is. In our experience it is absence of light. But in the bigger picture of the cosmos, there are things we just don't know. God is light, but also God created all things, so it seems then that He created darkness, or at least created the conditions that resulted in darkness, if that is really different than directly creating it.

 

[Faith]

I just do not know what darkness really is. In our experience it is absence of light. But in the bigger picture of the cosmos, there are things we just don't know. God is light, but also God created all things, so it seems then that He created darkness, or at least created the conditions that resulted in darkness, if that is really different than directly creating it.

I don’t know. IMO, darkness has always been the absence of light. But then look at your iPad or computer and look at the black background, or a black crayon. God could’ve created darkness, too.

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
• Gen 1:1a . . In the beginning God

The first chapter of the first book of the Bible doesn't waste words with an
argument to convince skeptic minds that a supreme being exists; rather, it starts
off by candidly alleging that the existence of the cosmos is due to intelligent design.
I mean: if the complexity of the cosmos-- its extent, its objects, and all of its forms
of life, matter, and energy --isn't enough to convince the critics; then they're pretty
much beyond reach.

The creation story wasn't written for the academic community anyway, nor was it
written for people who indulge in debating and perpetual bull sessions that never
get to the bottom of anything, nor for people who regard this book as just another
chapter of "Pride And Prejudice" to dissect in a Jane Austen book club; rather, the
creation story was written for the religious community.

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that
what is seen was not made out of what was visible." (Heb 11:3)

There's quite a bit of disagreement related to origins; viz: the origin of species, the
origin of the universe, and the origin of life; but not much debate about the origin
of matter; defined by Webster's as 1) the substance of which a physical object is
composed and 2) material substance that occupies space, has mass, and is
composed predominantly of atoms consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons,
that constitutes the observable universe, and that is interconvertible with energy.

Without matter there could be no universe and there could be no life; so the origin
of matter then is where we have to begin.

The Hebrew word translated "God" is 'elohiym (el-o-heem') which isn't the creator's
personal moniker, rather, a nondescript label that pertains to all sorts of deities;
both the true and the false and/or the real and the imagined; plus magistrates (Ps
82). The noun is grammatically plural but doesn't necessarily indicate more than
one. Sheep, fish, and deer are plural too but don't always indicate more than one of
each. There are other gods in the Bible, such as Baal and Dagon, to whom the word
'elohiym is applied and those gods aren't composite entities; e.g. 1Kgs 18:25-29
and Jgs 16:23.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
Continued from No.13


• Gen 1:1b . . created the heavens and earth--

The word for "heavens" is from the Hebrew word shamayim (shaw-mah'-yim)
which is somewhat ambiguous because it pertains to everything that can be seen
in the sky when we look up with either the naked eye or a telescope-- both in the
atmosphere and the celestial regions, i.e. clouds and stars --for example:

"He took him outside and said: Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed
you can count them." (Gen 15:5)

The Hebrew word for "earth" is 'erets (eh'-rets) which is yet another of the Bible's
many ambiguous words. It can indicate dry land, a country, and/or even the whole
planet.

• Gen 1:2a . . the earth being unformed and void

That statement reveals the earth's condition prior to the creation of an energy that
would make it possible for matter to coalesce into something coherent.

• Gen 1:2b . . and darkness was over the surface of the deep

This deep is a curiosity because 2Pet 3:5 says the earth was formed out of water
and by water. So I think it's safe to conclude that every atomic element that God
needed to construct the Earth was in suspension in this particular deep; viz: it was
more than just H2O; it was a colossal chemical soup, and apparently God created
enough of it to put together everything else in the cosmos too.
_

 

[Fritz Kobus]

This deep is a curiosity because 2Pet 3:5 says the earth was formed out of water
and by water. So I think it's safe to conclude that every atomic element that God
needed to construct the Earth was in suspension in this particular deep; viz: it was
more than just H2O; it was a colossal chemical soup, and apparently God created
enough of it to put together everything else in the cosmos too.

Seems to me that it could be just water. In theory (unless my knowlege of physics and chemistry is way off) the water molecule includes atoms made up of varying numbers of protons, neutrons, and electrons. So, God can take those apart and reassemble then into any element he wishes to. Of course since God made water out of nothing, he could also make other things out of nothing, but chose to make man from the soil.

 

[Lees]

I just do not know what darkness really is. In our experience it is absence of light. But in the bigger picture of the cosmos, there are things we just don't know. God is light, but also God created all things, so it seems then that He created darkness, or at least created the conditions that resulted in darkness, if that is really different than directly creating it.

Darkness is the absense of light. God is the Light. But Scripture is clear that God creates darkness.

How does He create darkness. He simply removes His light, by decree, from a certain area.

Are you familiar with the 'Gap Theory'? I personally hold to it, on the basis of Scripture only.

Have you considered the light being declared on the 1st day. But, the sun and moon and stars were not created till the 4th day. That light that God declared on the 1st day, was His light. It would later be replaced by the artificial light of the sun.

Thus you can see how one can be walking in miday with the sun shining overhead, yet can also be walking in darkness. Because he is not walking in the light of God.

The condition of the earth in (Gen. 1:2), formless and void, and darkness upon the face of the deep, was not part of original creation. (Gen. 1:1) It was the result of something happening that caused God to shut out the light.

Something to consider.

Lees

 

[Fritz Kobus]

Gap theory has been thoroughly discredited:

The gap theory-an idea with holes?

The gap theory—an idea with holes?

creation.com

From the beginning of the creation

Are there long-age time gaps in Genesis?

creation.com

Missing gaps magic bullets

The 'soft gap' theory, like the classical gap theory, is not biblical, and there is no such thing as a 'knock down' argument against evolution.

creation.com

What does 'replenish the earth' mean?

Creation or evolution? It makes a big difference! Over 10,000 trustworthy articles. Evidence for biblical creation.

creation.com

Genesis 13 undermines gap theory

An instructive lesson from Genesis 13:1-3 helps clear away 'Gap Theory' ideas some people entertain about Genesis 1:1-3.

creation.com

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
Continued from No.14


• Gen 1:2c . . and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.

God's spirit is a bit of a mystery. Some say it's a supernatural force, e.g. Ezek
36:24-28 where His spirit is shown to be effective at moderating people's behavior.
Others insist it's an aspect of God's sentient existence, e.g. Gen 6:3 where His spirit
is shown capable of debate.

The Hebrew word here for "waters" is another plural noun like 'elohiym; which
means it can be translated either water or waters. Plural nouns are pretty much at
the discretion of translators whether to make them one or more than one in a
particular context.

The Hebrew word for "moving" is located in only three places in the entire Bible.
One is here, and the others are at Deut 32:11 and Jer 23:9. The meaning is
ambiguous. It can refer to brooding; i.e. a mother hen using her wings to keep her
chicks together, and it can refer to incubation and/or quaking, shaking, and
fluttering. Take your pick. I'd guess that the Spirit's movement was sort of like the
hen keeping the colossal chemical soup from running rampant and spreading itself
all over the place before God began putting it to use because up to this point,
gravity didn't exist yet.

• Gen 1:3 . . Then God said "Let there be light" and there was light.

The creation of light (by God's voice) was a very, very intricate process. First God
had to create particulate matter, and along with those particles their specific
properties, including mass; if any. Then He had to invent the laws of nature to
govern how matter behaves in combination with and/or in the presence of, other
kinds of matter in order to generate electromagnetic radiation.

Light's properties are curious. It propagates as waves in a variety of lengths and
frequencies, and also as quantum bits called photons. And though light has no
detectable mass; it's influenced by gravity. Light is also quite invisible to the naked
eye. For example: you can see the Sun when you look at it, and you can see the
Moon when sunlight reflects from its surface. But none of the Sun's light is visible to
you in the void between them and that's because light isn't matter; it's energy; and
there is really a lot of it.

Space was at one time thought to contain absolutely nothing until radio
astronomers discovered something called cosmic microwave background. In a
nutshell: CMB fills the universe with light that apparently radiates from no
detectable source. The popular notion is that CMB is energy left over from the Big
Bang.

The same laws that make it possible for matter to generate electromagnetic
radiation also make other conditions possible too; e.g. fire, wind, water, ice, soil,
rain, life, centrifugal force, thermodynamics, fusion, dark energy, gravity, atoms,
organic molecules, magnetism, inertia, momentum, color, radiation, refraction,
reflection, high energy X-rays and gamma rays, temperature, pressure, force,
sound, friction, and electricity; et al. So the creation of light was a pretty big deal;
yet Genesis scarcely gives it passing mention. That's no doubt because Genesis is
mostly about origins rather than mechanics.

2Cor 4:6 verifies that light wasn't introduced into the cosmos from outside in order
to dispel the darkness and brighten things up a bit; but rather, it radiated out of the
cosmos from inside-- from itself --indicating that the cosmos was created to be self
illuminating by means of the various interactions of the matter that God made for
it; including, but not limited to, the Higgs Boson.

• Gen 1:4a . . And God saw the light, that it was good

God didn't see the light until He said let there be light; meaning of course that
natural light didn't exist until God's voice made it.

God declared that light is good; but He didn't declare that darkness is good. In
point of fact, darkness typically represents bad things in the Bible; while light
typically represents good things. It's been a rule of thumb from the very beginning.

NOTE: It's curious to me that most Bible students have no trouble readily conceding
that everything else in the first chapter of Genesis is natural, e.g. the cosmos, the
earth, the atmosphere, water, dry land, the Sun, the Moon, the stars, aqua life,
winged life, terra life, flora life, and human life.

But when it comes to light they choke; finding it impossible within themselves to
believe that Genesis just might be consistent in its description of the creative
process. I mean, if all those other things are natural, why wouldn't the light in the
cosmos be natural too? In point of fact, without natural light, planet Earth would
become a cold dead world right quick.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
Continued from No.18


• Gen 1:4b-5a . . and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the
light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

Defining the properties of day and night may seem like a superfluous detail, but
comes in very handy for organizing the three days and nights related to Christ's
crucifixion and resurrection per Matt 12:40.

• Gen 1:5b . . And there was evening and there was morning, a first Day.

NOTE: There are two primary kinds of Days in the first chapter of Genesis. One is a
creation day and the other is a natural day. It's very important to keep those two
kinds of days distinct and separate in our thinking because they are as unalike as
stones and jelly beans.

Natural days last only until the Sun goes down and night begins; whereas creation
days lasted for as long as the creator needed. In other words: the evenings and
mornings related to creation days aren't solar events. The terms are merely index
flags indicating the end of an unspecified period time and the beginning of another.

Anyway; when you think about it; a strict chronology of evening and morning
doesn't define day, it defines overnight; viz: darkness. In order to obtain a full 24
hour day, you'd have to define creation's first Day as a day and a night rather than
an evening and a morning.

Well; thus far Genesis defines Day as a time of light rather than a 24-hour
amalgam of light and dark; plus there was no Sun to cause physical evenings and
mornings till creation's fourth Day so we have to come at this issue from another
angle apart from physical properties.

According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all terra critters on the sixth
Day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other Day did God create beasts
but the sixth.

However; the sciences of geology and paleontology, in combination with
radiometric dating, strongly suggest that dinosaurs preceded humans by several
million years. So then, in my estimation, the Days of creation should be taken to
represent eras rather than 24-hour events. That's not an unreasonable estimation;
for example:

"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven." (Gen 2:4)

The Hebrew word for "day" in that verse is yowm (yome) which is the very same
word for each of the six Days of God's creation labors. Since yowm in Gen 2:4
refers to a period of time obviously much longer than a 24-hour calendar day; it
justifies suggesting that each of the six Days of creation were longer than 24 hours
apiece too. In other words: yowm is ambiguous and not all that easy to interpret
sometimes.

Anyway; this "day" thing has been a stone in the shoe for just about everybody
who takes Genesis seriously. It's typically assumed that the Days of creation
consisted of twenty-four hours apiece; so Bible students end up stumped when
trying to figure out how to cope with the 4.5 billion-year age of the earth, and
factor in the various eras, e.g. Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Cretaceous,
etc, plus the ice ages and the mass extinction events.

BTW: The era theory is only a second opinion, so to speak. There are other theories
out there to choose from; people aren't stuck with this one as if it's the only
possible explanation.

NOTE: Galileo believed that science and religion are allies rather than enemies--
two different languages telling the same story. He believed that science and religion
complement each other-- science answers questions that religion doesn't bother to
answer, and religion answers questions that science cannot answer.

For example: theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking understood pretty well how the
cosmos works; but could never scientifically explain why it should exist at all. Well;
in my estimation, the only possible answer to the "why" is found in intelligent
design; which is a religious explanation rather than scientific. Religion's "why" is
satisfactory for most folks. No doubt most scientists would prefer something a bit
more empirical.
_

 

[Fritz Kobus]

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus20:11

How long were the days of Genesis 1

If God had intended us to understand long ages or theistic evolution in Genesis, there are several ways He could have said this, but He chose not to.

creation.com

Does yôm with a number always refer to 24-hour days?

Yom in 2 Chronicles 21:19 most likely refers to 24-days and not years.

creation.com