Search Eternally Blessed Archive

Search by passage (e.g., John 3:16), keyword (e.g., Jesus, prophet, etc.) or topic (e.g., salvation)

In the Beginning

In The Beginning

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.”

Genesis 1:1 properly reads, “God created the heavens
and the earth in the beginning.” Placing “God” first in
the verse and in the Word of God puts Him in His proper
position.

The words “in the beginning,” breashith in Hebrew,
mean “origin” or genēsis in Greek. The word “God,”
Elohim, is plural to emphasize God’s creative greatness.
“Heaven,” shamayim, also is in the plural form to point
out the vastness of this expanse. The heavens are so extensive
that even though man has reached the moon, he
has not begun to explore the heavens which God created
in the beginning.

Verse 1 sets like a diamond. If I had divided the Bible
into chapters, I would have made this one verse a chapter
in itself and started chapter 2 with what now is verse
2 of chapter 1. The reason for my dividing the first part
of Genesis into chapters in this way is that trillions of
years may have elapsed between verse 1 and verse 2.
No one knows the length of time between the events
recorded in verses 1 and 2; but it is known that when
the account given by verse 2 begins, something catastrophic
had happened in the heavens and on the earth.
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the
earth, all the creation was in perfect condition. But an
astounding change occurred by the time of the record of
Genesis 1:2. About this cataclysmic occurrence, II Peter 3
gives more information.

II Peter 3:5-7:
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the
word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth
standing out of the water and in the water:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed
with water, perished:
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by
the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly
men.

II Peter states that there were the original heavens and
earth of Genesis 1:1, and then came the heavens and earth
which are now. This present heavens and earth are the
ones which will last until the judgment. But, after the
judgment, II Peter records that there will be the third
heaven and earth.

II Peter 3:13:
. . .look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein
dwelleth righteousness.

A further corroboration of II Peter 3:13 is given in
Revelation.

Revelation 21:1:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first
[former] heaven and the first [former] earth were
passed away; and there was no more sea.*

Thus the Bible designates three periods of time in
referring to heaven and earth. The first one is Genesis
1:1, the second one follows Genesis 1:2 until the time
of the “last judgment,” which occasion ushers in the third
heaven and earth. The heavens and earth which are now,
the second heavens and earth, begin with Genesis 1:3, and
their formation is completed when Genesis 2:1 says,
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished. . . .”

The last three words of Genesis 1:1 are “and the earth.”
Immediately following, verse 2 begins with the same
phrase, “And the earth. . . .” This is a figure of speech
called anadiplosis, meaning that the next thought begins
with the same words ending the previous thought, a repetition.
Within this figure of speech is another figure: the
repeated usage of the word “and.” In the “original” text,
the first word in the Bible would be “God.” But the rest
of the verses in chapter 1 begin with the word “and.”
This figure of speech is called polysyndeton. There are
102 separate acts of God listed in the 34 verses following
Genesis 1:1, and all the acts begin with “and.” The
purpose of this figure of speech is to emphasize God
throughout: “God created, and God. . . , and God. . . ,
and God. . . .” God was always the prime mover. These
“ands” are used with divine design, not haphazardly.

When God created the heavens and the earth in the
beginning, He did not create them in the chaos found in
verse 2.

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.

First of all, in examining verse 2 a student of The Word
must be aware that in the original Estrangelo Aramaic
and Hebrew there was no verb “to be,” although there
was the verb “to become.” This is the reason the first
“was” in verse 2 is in regular print while the second
“was” is italicized. It points out that there was no Hebrew
word in the second usage; there was no word at
that place at all, but there was a word for the first usage.
The first word “was” should have been translated “became.”
“And the earth became without form and void. . . .”
The earth was not created in Genesis 1:1 formless and
void, but it became that way.

The words “form, and void” are a figure of speech,
paronomasia, meaning “similar in sound but not in sense
or meaning.” One does not understand this by reading
the English words “form, and void,” for they do not have
similar sounds. But the Hebrew words, tohu va bohu,
are similar in sound but not in meaning.

Isaiah 45 and Jeremiah 4 point out that the heavens
and earth were not created tohu va bohu.

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 [tohu]. . . .

Jeremiah 4:23:
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and
void [tohu va bohu]. . . .

God did not create the heavens and the earth tohu va
bohu, the condition in which it was found in Genesis
1:2. The whole creation was originally perfect. Isaiah
tells more about how the earth became without form
and void. Isaiah records that in the beginning, sometime
before Genesis 1:2, God created angels, spirit beings.
When He created these angels, He put all the angels under
three heads: Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer. But celestial
strife ensued, with Lucifer and a third of the angels trying
to usurp the throne of God. Consequently these spirit
beings were dispelled from heaven and became known
as the fallen angels, the enemies of God.

Ezekiel 28 speaks of Lucifer who was at one time the
angel of light.

Ezekiel 28:15:
Thou [Lucifer] wast perfect in thy ways from the
day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found
in thee.

Whatever happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 was
of such a cataclysmic nature that a perfectly created earth
became tohu va bohu. When Lucifer rebelled in heaven,
the whole creation rocked and reeled. Romans 8 says that
even until today the “whole creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain. . .”

Genesis 1:2 begins the record of God’s putting His
creation in order after the first heaven and earth.

Genesis 1:2:
And the earth was [became] 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.

“And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters.” The word “moved” is also the word “brooded.”
The Spirit of God is pictured as a hen brooding, sitting
on eggs. This is a figure of speech, anthropopatheia or
condescensio, where God is given attributes of animal
life. What is God going to hatch? He is going to bring
into existence the earth as we know it today. Figuratively,
God was sitting on a situation which was ready
to crack out like the chick bursts out of the egg shell.
What does God bring about after His brooding? The
third verse begins giving the record.

Genesis 1:3:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Why did God not have to create light? Because whatever
light is composed of already existed. God had created
it in the beginning, and now it simply needed to be put
together. The next question people frequently have when
they read verse 3 is: “What specifically happened when
Genesis records ‘And God said’?” “And God said” is all
the Word of God tells us. A person cannot know more
than The Word tells. There undoubtedly are numerous
things we would like to know, but remember the knowledge
given to us in Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things
belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which
are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever,
that we may do all the words of this law.” Verse 5
of Genesis says, “And God called. . . .” Verse 6 records,
“And God said. . . .” Verse 9 reports, “And God
said. . . .” All we know is that when God spoke, what
He spoke came to pass.

Verse 3 of Genesis I and the rest of chapter 1 into
chapter 2 relate the events of God’s putting this earth back
in order so that it was habitable for one of the greatest
things God was going to do: the forming, the making
and the creating of man.

Verses 4 and 5 explain what happened after God spoke
light into existence.

Genesis 1:4, 5:
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.

The “evening and the morning” is a figure of speech
called synecdoche, meaning that the beginning and the
ending stand for the entire period. Evening and morning
are meant to represent the entire day, a period of
twenty-four hours.

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.

The word “firmament” throughout this passage is “expanse.”
“And God called the expanse heaven,” meaning
“lofty” or “high.” Biblically speaking, any place above
the earth is heaven. Whenever anything is not in contact
with the earth, it is in heaven.

Genesis 1:9, 10:
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land
appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering
together of the waters called he Seas: and God
saw that it was good.

In the first nine verses of Genesis 1, the word “earth”
refers to the planet; beginning with verse 9, “earth” refers
to dry land.

Genesis 1:11:
And God said, Let the earth [dry land] bring forth
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon
the earth: and it was so.

Verse 11 divulges many interesting truths. First, note
that it says all are to bring forth after their kind. “Kind”
is the word genos in the Septuagint, transliterated into
English as “genus.” This means that when a cow is bred
to a bull, a calf will be the result, not a lamb. A dog and
a cow cannot breed and get a cow-dog, nor will a cat
and a dog produce a catty-dog or a doggy-cat. Why?
Because everything comes after its kind, after its genus.
There can be evolution or change within a genus but not
between genera. Variety occurs within a genus. For example,
there are big cows and small cows, black, red and
white cows; there are Guernseys, Jerseys and Brown
Swiss. Much variety has occurred within the bovine
genus, but this genus has not crossed with another genus,
or Genesis 1:11 would not be true.

An example of not accurately following the teaching
of The Word regarding everything “after its kind” is
found in an interpretation of Genesis 6.**

Genesis 6:1-4:
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply
on the face of the earth, and daughters were born
unto them.
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that
they were fair; and they took them wives of all which
they chose.
And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive
with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall
be an hundred and twenty years.
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also
after that, when the sons of God came in unto the
daughters of men, and they bare children to them,
the same became mighty men which were of old,
men of renown.

Some teach that wicked angels cohabited with human
beings. These teachers propound that the offspring of
these angels and human beings were the giants,† nephilim,
which infiltrated mankind and which were responsible
for bringing about the destruction of all mankind with
the exception of Noah, his wife, three sons and their
wives. This teaching is not Biblically accurate. If angels,
who are spirit beings, can cohabit with a human, then
genera have interbred. Cohabitation of angels with man
cannot be possible, for the Bible says that each produces
after its kind. In context Genesis 6:4 refers to the faithful
of God as “the sons of God” and those unbelieving
persons as “daughters of men,” regardless of whether
male or female. When believers wandered from their
own and married unbelievers, trouble ensued. Of course,
the offspring of these marriages were products of parents
of the same genus. No problem exists in Genesis 6 if
readers don’t make one.

Everything must be after its kind “whose seed is in
itself.” Seed, the potential for offspring, is “in itself.”
All life is passed on through seed, whether the life be
plant or animal. In animal life seed comes from the male.
When the sperm of the male, which contains the seed
for the new life, impregnates the female egg, a new life
begins. In animals the soul-life is in the blood, as Leviticus
17:11 records, “The life of the flesh is in the blood.”

Since all men come from the same blood, the question
arises as to how the blood was carried along after the
first generation on earth—Adam and Eve’s children. In
other words, whom did the children of Adam and Eve
marry? The only persons available for the sons and daughters
of Adam and Eve were each other. Cain married his
sister, as did Abel, Seth and the other children. In our
day the bloodlines have become so contaminated that
intra-family marriage is forbidden by law as too many
undesirable characteristics come out with close in-breeding
of humans. But Adam’s children could only marry
each other.

The sons of Adam married their own sisters. If we had
pure bloodstreams, we could marry our sisters. The reason
we are not allowed now to marry sisters is that the impurities
in our blood would cause complications in the
following generations.

Because of purer blood, people lived longer as the
early Biblical records tell. Some people try to explain
early man’s longevity by saying that their years weren’t
as long as ours; but that simply isn’t true. Time then was
the same as now. The reason for such longevity was that
their blood had not become so contaminated, so impure.
Marriage and sin eventually began to produce weaker
people who, therefore, died at an earlier age.

The words “seed in itself ” are the figure of speech
polyptoton, meaning the same part of speech but with a
different inflection. To literalize verse 11, it would read
“. . .after its kind seeding seed upon the earth: and it was
so.”

Genesis 1:12-26:
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding
seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,
whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God
saw that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the third day.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and
let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,
and years:
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he
made the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth.
And to rule over the day and over the night, and to
divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that
it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth
day.
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may
fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
And God created great whales, and every living creature
that moveth, which the waters brought forth
abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl
after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl
multiply in the earth.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,
and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind,
and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth
upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that
it was good.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Several modern theologians have conjectured that the
words “Let us” in verse 26 prove that God is discussing
the situation with Jesus—that is why the text reads “us,”
instead of, “Let me make man. . . .” If God were talking
to Jesus, the problems of Biblical accuracy elsewhere are
going to become overwhelming. This usage of “us” in
verse 26 is similar to the English expression used by a
monarch when the monarch refers to himself as ruler and
source of authority. When speaking in her official capacity,
the Queen of England to this very day uses the
expression, “We, the Queen of England.” When God said,
“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” He
used “us” for He was speaking of Himself as supreme
ruler.

“Our image after our likeness” is the figure of speech
hendiadys, meaning “two for one”—two words used for
one thing meant. God was going to make man in His own
(1) image and (2) likeness. God’s image and likeness is
Spirit according to John 4:24.

Genesis 1:27, 28:
So God created man in his own [this word was added
in the translation and should be deleted] image, in
the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them.***
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that moveth upon the earth.

God could communicate with Adam and Eve, but not
with the animals. The usage of “them” in verse 27 is a
figure called prolepsis, meaning “to know before it happens
that it will happen and speaking of future things as
present realities.” God knew that Adam and Eve would
be fruitful and that they would multiply. He further added,
“. . .and replenish the earth.” The word “replenish” brings
out a very interesting point. How can one replenish the
earth if life had never been there before? That is why
God must have had something else going on in Genesis
1:1 besides, and in addition to, the angels which He
created. There must have been beings upon the earth before
the establishment of the earth as it is known today
which is recorded in verse 2, because God said to Adam
and Eve, “You replenish the earth.” If they were going
to replenish it, the earth must have been “plenished”
before. In that period of time was prehistoric man.

When scientists find bones of so-called animals, including
man, there is now no problem. In putting ancient
bones together and concluding it to be man or another
type of animal, scientists deduce that these findings
represent man as he was evolving into the present day
Homo sapiens. This deduction is Biblically inaccurate.
For although the anthropologists have bones to work
with, they have never seen the life that mobilized those
bones. Scientists assume that prehistoric life was the same
type of life known in man and animals today. But this is
the point at which the scientists reach the wrong conclusion.
The Word says so. Soul-life, as it is presently known,
was not created until Genesis 1:21 when God created it
in animals. Therefore, whatever the life of the prehistoric
beings was, it could not have been soul-life as known
today. If their life had been the type of life that is in
beings today, God would not have had to create it. Anthropologists’
findings could not be man as we know him
today, for what God called “man” was not formed, made
nor created until the second earth came into being after
Genesis 1:1.

Surely God was not limited. He could and did have
some type of life in the prehistoric animals to make them
mobile. Because the earth had been populated before,
God could rightly say to Adam and Eve, “Replenish the
earth and subdue it.”

“To subdue” means “to tame it and take it over,” for
there was no one above Adam and Eve except God.
Adam was God’s steward; he ran the whole show. In the
beginning God gave man rulership, dominion, authority
and power over all His creation. We know this power
was lost somehow because man certainly does not now
have dominion, authority, rulership nor power. Even the
smallest things which can barely be seen under a microscope
are killing people constantly. Originally man had
dominion and powers but man lost it—and not without
Biblical explanation.

Genesis 1:29—2:2:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of
the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the
earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green
herb for meat: and it was so.
And God saw every thing that he had made, and,
behold, it was very good [not just good, but very
good]. And the evening and the morning were the
sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all
the host of them [This is the second heavens and
earth as recorded in II Peter 3:7.].
And on [by****] the seventh day God ended his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day
from all his work which he had made.

God ended His work on the sixth day and He rested
on the seventh.

God didn’t rest because of fatigue; He
rested from His activity. It was finished. When the Bible
records that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sat
down, the same word, “rested,” is used. His job was
finished. Again on Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, the
spirit sat on each of the believers; the same word, “rested,”
is used. When Christ, by way of the holy spirit, came
into believers on and following the day of Pentecost, all
the power and authority was reestablished in believers.
What man had lost in power, authority, rulership and
dominion since Genesis 1:28, he regains when the holy
spirit comes within.

Genesis 2:3:
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
because that in it he had rested from all his work
which God created and made.

The next twenty-three verses, from Genesis 2:4 to 25,
simply give the details and amplifications of chapter 1.
Genesis 2:9-14 could chronologically be inserted between
verses 12 and 13 of chapter 1.

To understand how God organized this second heaven
and earth and the rules which were originally established,
we must have a minute and detailed knowledge of the
first few chapters of Genesis. We must understand the
origins of life and its laws if we are to perceive the greatness
of God’s Word and the justness of His laws. In
Genesis lies the foundation of the accuracy of His matchless
Word.

* See Chapter 6, “The Third Heaven and Earth.”
** “His” in “after his kind” is “its.” There is no neuter form in Estrangelo
Aramaic nor in Hebrew.
† They were giants or champions of wickedness. The root of the
Hebrew word nephilim means “to fall.” They were “fallen ones.” The
Estrangelo Aramaic gives this word as the intensive form of gbra,
meaning “very mighty men or champions.” The word “giants,”
gigantes, was used in the Septuagint, the Syriac Version and the
Vulgate.
*** God created both male and female, Adam and Eve, in His image,
spirit.
**** The word “on” in Estrangelo Aramaic is the prefix “b.” In both
the Estrangelo Aramaic and Hebrew this prefix may be translated
“on,” “by,” “at” or “near” among other things. In context it is very
clear that the translation should be “by.”