The first command in God's Word is Let there be light. After introducing God as Creator of heaven and earth, the Book begins by describing earth, that is, our world, and the Bible describes it as tohu and bohu, as we have said in the past, in the Hebrew. That it was formless and empty. It existed in a chaotic state. There was futility there, it was covered in darkness. It describes a place, a state without God.
The church has taught that the language that Moses uses here in verses 1 and 2, as describing what happened to the earth, what happened to the whole galaxy, if you will, the solar system at least after, Satan's rebellion. This is the way it was once rebellious angels tried to take over God's throne and were spat back to earth by His might. That is called the gap theory. That is what creationists call it. That there was a gap of some time between the first verse and the second.
And if we are correct in believing that, it is a description then of the result of sin and rebellion. And so the earth that was without form and void, and darkened, where there was no light, that is the way that is opposed to God, that is the result of sin.
But the end of verse 2 informs us that God was poised to act. He was not willing to leave His creation in such a displeasing ruined state. His Spirit, that is, the power by which He works, was hovering in the darkness over the waters. It is almost like it was a bird just kind of hovering in the breeze, kind of like you see the gulls do on the beach, where they just seem to stay hovering as the wind holds them up. And of course, many people have drawn a parallel to the Spirit coming like a dove upon Jesus at His baptism, as kind of a throwback to this. That the One who was going to cleanse the world was here.
But that Spirit, His Spirit, was above the waters. And the image of hovering, the idea of hovering, gives you the idea of kind of a tenseness that is there. Like there is a readiness to go. It is almost like when you are on the starting line in a race. Everybody is just waiting for the gunshot to go off or the whistle to blow or the flag to wave. The Spirit was waiting for a command. Then God said, Let there be light. That was the command - and there was light. It happened. Light bloomed around the earth. So God banished the darkness for a time so He could work.
Notice it tells us there that once He saw the light and said it was good, that He divided the light from the darkness, and there was a day portion and a night portion, a light portion and a dark portion. And they became part of our day. Have you ever tried, let us say it is pitch black outside, but you have to do something and you do not have any light source. And so you try to fumble around and try to figure out how to do this thing and you never do it quite right. Even if you can do what it is that you need to do, you do not feel real secure about it because it is dark. You cannot see what you have just done, but you assume maybe that you got it okay.
But if you need to be able to see and light is not available or your abilities are not there, then you are going to have trouble. It is a struggle. But as soon as the ability to see is there and as soon as light is there, it becomes almost easy. You do not have to put quite so much work into it. So it is almost impossible to do anything well in darkness.
Jesus Himself says in John 9:3, that the night is coming when no one can work. It is a generality, but it is a truism. Work is far more difficult in darkness. We work best in the daylight, in the daytime when we can see because there is plenty of light to illuminate what we are doing.
God, then, brought light into the world to do His work of creation. That was the first thing He called for. I need a lamp. I can't see what's in here in the engine. You ever worked on a car at night? How much light do you need to do some of that work? And of course, there are shadows everywhere and you have to get the light in … . . .
But we are going to start here in Genesis 1:26, on the sixth day of God's rebuilding of the earth and what had been terribly demolished by Satan.
As most of us know, as far as we understand these two verses, the Church of the Great God generally subscribes to what is called the Gap Theory, also more properly referred to as Restoration Creationism. Sometimes, it is called the re-creation theory.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and we know what God creates is very good. However, verse 2 gives us a completely different picture. Verse 2 shows us a creation that was without form and void,' as translated in the King James. Those two words in the original Hebrew are tohu and bohu, which mean confusion and ruin or chaos.
God does not create things in confusion and chaos, so the indication is that something drastic happened between verses 1 and 2 where we see God recreating order and productivity on the earth. Something must have happened between and which had turned the earth into a shapeless, chaotic mass, as The Living Bible puts it.
Putting scriptures together from other places in the Bible we can draw the conclusion that this gap in time and the confusion and chaos recorded in verse 2, was the result of the rebellious destruction of Satan and those demonic angels that followed him.
I would like to remind us here what we believe and teach regarding this, as stated on the Church of the Great God website under the title, How Does The Bible Explain Fossil Ages Over 6,000 Years (Genesis 1:2):
It seems interesting that God begins His thunderous account to Job of His sovereignty over every facet of His creation with the joyful songs of the angels when He created the earth. It is possible that this joy was expressed by the angels at the recreation of the earth and return to peace and order in anticipation of God's work to create additional members of the Family.
Or it may be possible that this predated Genesis 1:1 and the earth's original creation to be ultimately inhabited by those whom God intended to be in His Family. Perhaps this was at earth's pre-gap creation when the angels may have been given the task by God trusting them to finish the preparations for mankind.
Perhaps we may be able to piggyback on what Bill said a few weeks ago to see just how notoriously horrible in breaking the bond of trust with God is envy. I think we can make a biblically sound guess that it was envy over what did not rightly belong to him or any angels - being created in the image and likeness of God!
Brethren, as we saw Satan is the ruler of this world, with the authority and power that God had given to His created angels as ministering spirit being of great power. Is it possible that his original rulership was to complete the construction of earth as a suitable habitat for physical man who were going to be in God's Family, but his envy for what was never going to be his got in the way, and ate away at him?
Let us begin with some background to Satan's infamous reign of the earth. Long before Genesis 1:1 the earth was a perfect creation and it was populated by angels. There was a throne on which sat Helel, a super archangel, a cherub. He had been thoroughly experienced in the administration of the government of God, having had access to and been subject to the seat of God's throne in heaven. God had placed Helel on the throne on the earth to administer the government of God over earth's angels. And there was peace and happiness on the earth at that time.
God did not create a devil. He created a beautiful and perfect super-angel. God gave His angels free moral agency, minds free to think and reason and to make the right choices.
Please turn with me to Jude 6. Helel had allowed his beauty and perfection to fill him with pride, with self-glory, and self-desire. He became envious of God's power and resented authority over him. So he plotted with his angels and marshaled them into an invading army. He was intent on invading the heaven of God and unseating God off the throne of the universe and beyond. It is a quite a tall order to shoot for.
So the angels who did not stay within their own assigned position of authority, their set place on earth, rebelled against God's authority and sought to be equal to Him. They were defeated and cast down, probably with little effort by God since He is so much more powerful than Satan.
Now, God has kept these beings under His own strict control and the place that they were originally given, the territory of their dwelling place, has become a prison, a place of restraint for them. So, Helel was no longer a light bringer, but an adversary, an aggressor, a competitor, and an enemy. The name Satan means adversary. His angels became demons. A third of the angels united with Satan in the rebellion (as far as we can tell), which caused chaos on earth.
The sin of these angels reached into the heavens and brought destruction on earth. The wreckage of a titanic battle waged by the spirits can be observed throughout space. Look at the pockmarks of the moon and beyond, and all of the destruction that is seen. It is amazing that the creation of God, being so fantastic and great, could receive such physical damage in that type of a conflict.
The earth was created perfectly.
That was basically God's reaction after that battle and putting Satan imprisoned on the earth, so to speak.
As most of us know, as far as we understand these two verses, the Church of the Great God generally subscribes to what is called the Gap Theory, also more properly referred to as Restoration Creationism. Sometimes, it is called the re-creation theory.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and we know what God creates is very good. However, verse 2 gives us a completely different picture. Verse 2 shows us a creation that was without form and void,' as translated in the King James. Those two words in the original Hebrew are tohu and bohu, which mean confusion and ruin or chaos.
God does not create things in confusion and chaos, so the indication is that something drastic happened between verses 1 and 2 where we see God recreating order and productivity on the earth. Something must have happened between and which had turned the earth into a shapeless, chaotic mass, as The Living Bible puts it.
Putting scriptures together from other places in the Bible we can draw the conclusion that this gap in time and the confusion and chaos recorded in verse 2, was the result of the rebellious destruction of Satan and those demonic angels that followed him.
It seems interesting that God begins His thunderous account to Job of His sovereignty over every facet of His creation with the joyful songs of the angels when He created the earth. It is possible that this joy was expressed by the angels at the recreation of the earth and return to peace and order in anticipation of God's work to create additional members of the Family.
Or it may be possible that this predated Genesis 1:1 and the earth's original creation to be ultimately inhabited by those whom God intended to be in His Family. Perhaps this was at earth's pre-gap creation when the angels may have been given the task by God trusting them to finish the preparations for mankind.
Now let us begin in the Bible, in Genesis 1:1. We are going to begin at the beginning and, from the Scriptures we are going to see principles. We are going to see examples. We are going to see patterns develop from the great governing Force, or Being, or Personality who rules this great creation. He gives us plenty of information by which we understand what ought to be the function of government and what ought to be our proper attitudes toward it. There is much instruction in regard to this subject.
And then, of course, the account continues with creation of various things taking place all the way through the first week of the creation. But I want you to see the position in which the very opening of God's Word places God. God is immediately introduced in His Book as governing His creation. He is seen as exercising authority and power to bring order out of chaos. That is what government does! It either brings order out of chaos, or it imposes order - in order that there be no chaos.
There you have it, right at the very beginning - God exercising authority. And, in this case, He does it in order to bring order out of chaos. He is once again setting the creation He governs heading toward the goal He is accomplishing.
Everything that He creates (I am drawing this from, let us say, an overview of Genesis the first chapter) - whether it is a being (as with angels, or men), whether it is a creature (as with animals), whether it is an institution (as with marriage), or whether it is a thing (vegetation, or insects) - is seen as an integral part of His governance toward the accomplishing of His goals. So what was He doing in Genesis 1? He was creating an environment to bring about the conclusion of His purpose.
John tells us Satan was a murderer from the beginning. My question is: from what beginning? From the time he was created? I do not think so. I contend that the beginning John is referring to is the same beginning that we read about in Genesis 1:1, In the beginning [when] God created the heavens and the earth. The beginning referenced here I believe is when God announced and set into motion His plan to create humans on earth and give them the opportunity to become God beings. Satan hated being second to anyone. He hated that more than anything.
But, as we read in Hebrews 1, Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father and is so much better than the angels. Let all the angels of God worship Him, we read. And when we combine this to Romans 8:17, what do we get? We are the children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with [Jesus] Christ. Think about that.
Satan is the creator of envy. First, he became discontent with his position. Then he started coveting that which he did not have: the honor, the glory, the exaltation of the Great God Himself. That led to an envy, an envy of God's exultation and supreme status and that envy, maybe, was kept inside for a little while, but it eventually duped him into actually thinking he could replace God, which we know did not go well at all. The envy was released in an outrage of sin, rebellion, and defeat. And he is absolutely outraged, brethren, over the prospect of billionsmore getting added to be co-heirs with Christ.
God does this very thing in His Word. You do not have to turn there because we all know it by heart, Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I have come to really admire and appreciate these ten words, this first sentence that God inspired Moses to pen. Now, several creationists point out that in this sentence the reader is made aware of time: In the beginning. We are introduced to the power to the One who created or we could say creates - and that is God. We are then provided a summary-level description of what God did and these are things that we can see. God created the heavens. In terms of our visible universe, we are introduced to space. And finally, we are told that He also created the earth which is made up of matter.
For those who have ever questioned, Is there a God? Why am I here? What is life about? What is the purpose of all of this? this first statement by God should answer a lot by way of showing there is a Creator and He created everything. Now, this statement also leaves the reader wanting to know more. What is this God doing? Where does He live? Why did He create me? And if I can put it succinctly, I believe that this first sentence implores the reader to seek God to figure out who God really is.
Now brethren, God did not just create and walk away with everything operating according to impersonal law, as I will continue showing.
This sets the pattern for the revelation of His governance. Now here we begin to see His sovereignty over the inanimate aspects of the creation. He speaks, and light appears.
He speaks. He governs the movement of water, and says, Water, I want you to go here, and land, I want you to rise up here. That is what a governor does. He manages what He made. Water seeks its own level, which then means that God designed that the water go into certain places. So we see God, right from the beginning, managing what He is creating. Here we come to the Flood:
Let us go to Genesis, the first chapter, the first verse. Believe it or not, God starts out His Word with a merism. The first one in the Bible, obviously.
Those are the two extremes - heaven, earth - and a merism says those represent everything in between. So the first verse of the Bible says that God created everything. There was nothing created that He did not create. There is no thing, no material thing or spiritual thing in all the universe that He is not the source of. So I think that is very understandable.
God's Holy Spirit can be described simply as the mind and creative power of the Almighty God. Now note here in these scriptures, it was not God Himself that was hovering over the face of the waters. No. It tells us God created everything through His powerful Spirit. It was through the thought processes that emerged from God's mind that He thought and His Spirit made it.
