Treasures New and Old

Genesis: The First and Second Day of Creation

This month we will continue to unwrap all the highlights that we find in the first chapter of Genesis (beginnings) and see many elusions to scientific facts as we do.

Genesis 1:3-5: “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.”

Some Key Definitions of the Hebrew Words

Let there be: Strong’s H1961: “hayah: haw-yaw’: A primitive root . . . to exist, that is, be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary) . . . altogether, be . . .”

Said: Strong’s H559: “‘amar: aw-mar’: A primitive root; to say (used with great latitude):- answer, appoint, avouch, bid, boast self, call, certify, challenge, charge, + (at the, give) command (ment), commune, consider, declare, demand, X desire, determine, X expressly, X indeed, X intend, name, X plainly, promise, publish, report, require, say, speak (against, of) X still, X suppose, talk, tell, them, X that is, X think, use [speech], utter, X verily, X yet.”

Light: Strong’s H216: “‘or: Ore: From H215; illumination or (concretely) luminary (in every sense, including lightning, happiness, etc.):- bright, clear, + day, light (-ing), morning, sun.”

Day: Strong’s H3117: “yom: yome: From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term) . . .”

Darkness: Strong’s H2822: “choskek: kho-shek’: From H2821; the dark; hence (literally) darkness; figuratively misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness: – dark (-ness), night, obscurity.”

Night: Strong’s H3915: “layil leyl layelah: From the same as H3883; properly a twist (away of the light), that is, night; figuratively adversity: – ([mid-]) night (season).”

Evening: Strong’s H6153: “‘ereb: eh’-reb: From H6150; [H6150: through the idea of covering with a texture); to grow dusky at sundown: – be darkened, (toward) evening,] dusk: – + day, even (-ing, tide), night.”

Morning: Strong’s H1242: “boger: bo’-ker: From H1239; properly dawn (as the break of day); break forth, that is, (figuratively) to inspect, admire, care for, consider: – (make) inquire (-ry), (make) search, seek out, generally morning: – (+) day, early, morning, morrow.”

First: Strong’s H259: “‘echad: ekh-awd’: A numeral from H258; properly united, that is, one; or (as an ordinal) first: – a alike, alone, altogether, and any (-thing), apiece, a certain [dai-] ly, each (one), + eleven, every, few, first, + highway, a man, once, one, only, other, some, together.”

Some Interesting Facts:

• This is the first mention of God saying (speaking) something into being (created). Since no new reference to form or make is used, I assume that it was a creative bara act.
  

• Many believe that He also spoke all the material into existence as part of verses 1 and 2. Since we know Christ was intimately involved, and He is “The Word”, I tend to agree; although we have no direct collaboration from Scripture on exactly how He did it.

• Divided can both mean separated or make a distinction between things. Here, I think both were part of His intent.

• I believe there is an importance to the fact that the first utterance by God was the commanding forth of light – because God is light! Light exposes those evils done in darkness.
  

• When a society no longer hides its evils in darkness, it is in serious trouble, and the salt and light of this world has become ineffective and weak.
  

• Psalm 18:28: “For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.”
  

• Isaiah 9:2: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”
  

• Isaiah 50:10: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.”

• Isaiah 60:19: “The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.”

• John 3:21: “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.“

• Acts 26:18: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”

• 1 Corinthians 4:5: “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”
  

• 2 Corinthians 4:4: “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
  

• 2 Corinthians 4:6: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
  

• 1 John 1:5: “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.”
  

• Revelation 21:11: “Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;”
  

• Revelation 21:23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”
  

• Revelation 22:5: “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.”
  

• Note in verse 4 the phrase, “[a]nd God saw the light, that it was good;” He didn’t declare the darkness good, only the light. It is clear to me that God intends us to be creatures of the light, not of the darkness.

What do we have so far?

• God bara the vast material that would be all of the heavens and the earth
  

• The material was without any distinct definable elements as yet. It was simply called the deep, and the center called the earth.

• God moved (vibrated) energy into the whole of His creation.
  

• God commanded the existence of light and made two distinctions: that light and darkness are very different and that light will be called day and darkness will be called night.
  

Day-Age Theory Problems

• Here is another “Christian” attempt to reconcile the Genesis six-day account with evolutionary theory and the now huge geological numbers of years scientists nowadays claim for the age of the earth.
  

• Built primarily off this one verse: 2 Peter 3:8: “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” They ignore the context: 2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The reference is about longsuffering not actual time dilation!

• Scientists are constantly revising the age of the earth so that if this verse did apply it ought to read: “one day is with the Lord as a 757 million years, and 757 million years as one day” (4.54/6 days of creative work).

• (“Scientists have calculated that the earth is 4.54 billion years old with with an error range of 50 million years” (Tillman, 2021).)

• Day-age does not account for differences in creation order.

• The words day and night are used nine times in such a manner that they can refer only to the light and dark periods of a normal twenty-four-hour day.

• “Symbiosis is a biological term describing a mutually beneficial relationship between two types of creatures. Of particular interest to us are the species of plants that cannot reproduce apart from the habits of certain insects of birds.” Genesis 1 records God creating plants the third day, birds on the fifth day, and insects on the sixth day. Trees, plants, flowers, etc. need birds and bugs to thrive and reproduce. In this progress of creation, plants could survive for a few days without their symbiotic partners, and insect-eating birds could as well. But not so if there were billions of year in between their evolution (Niessen, point 9).

There are many discrepancies between the first creation story (derived from the Bible) and evolutionary theory (derived from astronomical observations, the fossil records, radiometric dating of rocks, etc.):

• Exodus 20:8-11 reads as follows: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy works: But the seventh day is the sabbath [rest] of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day . . .”

• “According to theistic evolutionists, plant and animal life flourished and died at least 500 million years before man evolved. Their deaths have been recorded as the fossil remains embedded in the sedimentary rocks of the so-called geologic column” (Niessen, point 14).

• Romans 5:12, however, does not agree: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

• Has the same problem with ages of death prior to Adam’s appearance when the Bible states clearly that sin entered the world with Adam’s fall.

• All forms of progressive creation (day-age, gap, and various, others that are similar) all have failures in their attempt to match Scripture.

Genesis 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 the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.“

Firmament: Strong’s H7549: “raqiya’: raw-kee’-ah: From H7554; properly an expanse, that is, the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky: – firmament.”

Midst: Strong’s H8432: “tavek: taw’-vek: From an unused root meaning to sever; a bisection, that is, (by implication) the centre: – among (-st), X between, half, X (there-, where-) in (-to), middle, mid [-night], midst (among), X out (of), X through, X with (-in).”

Water: Strong’s H4325: “mayim: mah’-yim: Dual of a primitive noun (but used in a singular sense); water; figuratively juice; . . . water (-ing, [-course, -flood, -spring]).”

Divide: Strong’s H914: “badal: baw-dal’: A primitive root; to divide (in various senses literally or figuratively, separate, distinguish, differ, select, etc.): – (make, put) difference, divide (asunder), (make) separate (self, -ation), sever (out), X utterly.”

It was so: Strong’s H3651: ken: kane: From H3559; properly set upright; hence (figuratively as adjective) just; but usually (as adverb or conjugation) rightly or so (in various applications to manner, time and relation . . .”

Second: Strong’s H8145: sheniy: shay-nee’: From H8138; properly double, that is, second; also adverbially again: – again, either [of them], (an-) other, second (time).”

Firmament and heaven are tied together in this verse. There are three different heavens described: Atmospheric heaven: Jeremiah 4:25: “I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.” Sidereal heaven: Isaiah 13:10: “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” God’s throne room: Hebrews 9:24: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:” 2 Corinthians 12:2: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such as one caught up to the third heaven.”

Water above and below makes some interesting facts:

• A water vapor canopy would intercept and disperse radiation and sunlight and create a global greenhouse effect.

• The filtering of those harmful rays would greatly reduce the changes of individual and overall human cancers and mutations – thus encouraging longer life.

• Many assume the extra weight caused from this water canopy over the earth would act as a constant, uniform barometric pressure chamber that would force better usage of the higher oxygen content – also contributing to longer life and better health.

• With uniform temperatures everywhere, there would be no large windstorms or wind masses moving around the planet.

• Water vapor would be higher in the air than today, thus allowing dew to form almost everywhere in the cool of the morning.

• Morning dew everyday would be the best conditions for rain forest-like conditions without the rain.

• A global canopy with little or no large air mass movement (just light breezes as the earth moves from day to night and night to day) would not stir up a lot of dust, thus would not create the conditions needed for rain events.

• The cool of the morning and re-evaporation of the unused dew would tend to set up moderate living conditions – not desert hot or Siberia cold!

• It is likely that very few clouds existed (the formation of which requires both dust particles to form around a collection (condensation) of water into droplets). Therefore, man would easily be able to see through the water vapor canopy to see stars and other celestial objects – sun and moon.

• The average mass of the atmosphere today is about 5 quadrillion (5×10¹5) tons of which water vapor average is .005% or about 1×10¹² tons – and that is without a water canopy! Mix that with the hidden waters of the deep (underground) and you have enough water to cover the whole earth.

It would seem that modern science and God are in disagreement as to the order of creation, let alone the time it took for the creation to occur. Not only did God create all things in six days, but He created them fully formed, that is, mature trees and plants, grown animals, birds, fish, and other creatures. Modern science would have us believe that first there were various elements that somehow came together to form a simple protein, then it melted together with other proteins. Over large amounts of time (unknown how long) the proteins formed a single cell of life. This random process continued to evolve over millions (billions?) of years, each new mutation adding some new improvement and, eventually, complex life evolved.

All kinds of unanswered questions arise. Proteins don’t last very long, even simple ones. How did the right proteins find each other? How did they last long enough in a hostile premortal environment to meet other proteins and eventually form a single cell? I assume that single cell found food to eat. Where and what was that food so that it could survive? Eventually the cell divided, and it became two cells now completing for food. So, there are identical. Even if splits continue, they are all identical. How did they begin to differentiate and specialize so that they became complex life?

How did eyes evolve? So many parts, all will be failures unless all the parts are present together. Lose one and sight is impossible. The ear has several moving parts and all must be there in order to hear.

Blood coagulates using a twenty-seven-step process. One missing step and it never coagulates to form a scab over a wound. Take out another step and it clots immediately and kills the host.

There are billions of processes that are very complex within the human body alone, and then we have all the other life forms that have significant differences in cells and organs and processes. Yet the Creator used similar form and technique (design). Mammals, reptiles, even fish and birds all have similar bone structures that vary only in the way their species need them to vary.

Then there is the form of the earth and its location in the solar system called the Goldilocks zone. Too close to the sun and we die – too hot. Too far out, we die – too cold for life. The Van Allen Belt keeps the harmful radiation from the sun from killing us. The moon creates tides that literally wash the seas back and forth that keep them from becoming stagnate.

We will get into many of these differences and provide answers to why I believe that only an infinite, all powerful, and holy God could have brought all that we know of this universe into creation.

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

Niessen, Richard. “Theistic Evolution and the Day-Age Theory.” ICR Institute for Creation Research. (March 1, 1980). Retrieved March 18, 2025. Retrieved from https://www.icr.org/article/theistic-evolution-day-age-theory

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

Tillman, Nola Taylor. “How old is Earth?” Space.com. (August 20, 2021). Retrieved March 18, 2025. Retrieved from https://www.space.com/24854-how-old-is-earth.html

Privacy Policy