In the Beginning
Open your Bible to Genesis Chapter One.
Verse one: “In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The first things you need to notice are the first four
words: “In the beginning God.”
Isaiah 43 tells us “Before me there was no God.” (V. 10) So God existed before
anything else did. In verse 11 we see, “I,
even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no Saviour.” In V. 12 he tells
Israel, ”therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I AM GOD.” In V. 13, we see these words: “Before
the day was I am He.”
In the Gospel of John the very first words God instructed
John to pen are these: “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Therefore we conclude that God always WAS.
There was no person or no other gods before the true and living God.
The next words I want you to look at are: “created
the heaven and earth.” Some translations say heavens instead of heaven.
There are many heavens, but I believe God created “a” heaven and
“a” earth first, and then He created the other heavens later. Throughout the
course of study I will show you why I believe this is the truth.
But first I want to show you three passages of Scripture:
Ephesians 1: 4; 2 Peter 3: 13 and Revelation 21: 1.
Let us look at Revelation 21: 1 first: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”
If you look in the NKJV,
NIV, RSV, ASV, NASB and the HNV (these are all different translations of
the English Bible) Revelation 21: 1 reads the same as the KJV we quoted above.
But they all change Genesis 1: 1 to heavens (the “s” being added.)
If they all agreed that there is a New Heaven and A New Earth at the end
of the world, why can’t they see there was an old heaven and an old Earth at
the beginning of it?
Now let’s read 2 Peter 3: 13: “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” We concur with Peter’s assessment of “looking for”
additional heavens. For there is
evidence of at least three heavens mentioned in Scripture.
So it is apparent that after God created the Old Heaven and Old Earth, He
proceed to create others heavens, just as He began to create seas, trees, birds,
animals and fish.
If you have already read Ephesians 1: 4, you may question
why I want you to read it in conjunction with Revelation 21: 1 and 2 Peter 3:
13. Let’s look at it first: “According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
What I want you to grasp is the fact that:
·The
Church the Body of Christ was planned before God ever created anything.
·Before
the foundation of the world was created, God made provisions for a group of
people who would be known as The Church the Body of Christ.
·Long
before He called out Abram to establish the Jewish nation, He selected a group
of people who would share the Gospel of Christ with the world and would also
share glory with Him.
Now lets read Genesis 1: 2: “And the earth was without form and void: and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
There is a lot of information packed into this little verse.
The words form and void in the Hebrew are tohuw
va bohuw and are translated in English as: (tohuw)
to lie waste, in ruin, worthless, (bohuw)
empty and undistinguished thing.
The Gap Theory
The implication of verse two is that somehow and at
sometime after creation, someone lived in this perfectly created earth, ravaged
it and made it into something other than what it was. In theological terms this
is known as the GAP THEORY; which is further defined as there being a gap in the
number of years between verse one and verse two. The general consensus of
opinion among Gap believers is there were thousands of years that transpired
maybe hundreds of thousands of years during this period. You must understand
that all people in the theological realm do not subscribe to the Gap Theory. So
you will need to read what others have said and come to a decision for yourself.
However I will attempt to show you why I have reached my decision to
believe it is fact.
Let’s look at Isaiah 45: 18: “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that
formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain,
He formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.”
The underlined word “vain” is bohuw
in the Hebrew. So, if God did not create the earth as an empty and
undistinguished thing, and He didn’t according to the passage, who “messed
it up?” The answer is – Satan.
How did I reach this decision? Let me show you.
In Ezekiel 28 you will see the anti-Christ and Satan described as the
prince of Tyrus and the king of Tyrus. We
will focus our attention on Satan, the king of Tyrus for the moment, and you
will find it in Verses 12-19. We learn a great deal about Satan in this passage.
2.
In verse 12 he is described as being the smartest and most beautiful of
all the “sons of God.” (We’ll look at those words momentarily.)
3.
In verse 13 we find that at one time he was on earth in the Garden of
Eden. It is in this verse that his beauty is described by listing the most
beautiful jewels know to man.
4.
In verse 14 he is declared to be the “anointed cherub.”
Which means he was “number one”, and that was what God intended.
5.
In that same verse we are told he was on the holy mountain of God.
Proof of point number 1, He existed with God from the beginning, he
walked up and down the streets of fire, and in Verse 15 he was declared to be
created in perfection (he was perfect in every way)– until iniquity (sin) was
found in him. It is this verse that we have marked as the first
fall of Satan.
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