In this article, we will talk about the Creation. Do you know that science believes this earth is up to 6.5 billion years old? Meanwhile, using the Bible historical outline, it’s just 6,000 years old. That’s what we want to clarify here.

Let’s start like this. Basically, it is believed that God appeared one day and created the heaven and the earth in just six days and rested on the seventh day. That is what you have always believed and known, right? If that’s all you believe, you have believed rightly and it’s enough. What we want to do tonight is simply bothering or stressing ourselves. You don’t have to bother your head because we are in the days of knowledge, but it’s good we do as well.

Before we go into the deep, either you choose to know or not, you may be questioned someday. I want to stress that the primary reason the Creation story was written was to give man an identity. It was Moses that wrote this book. God knew man would like to know: where did I come from? To help man out of that confusion, God told Moses the creation story.

The second primary reason for the creation story in the Bible was for the Israelites to know their root. You’ll realize that it was from Adam to Enoch, then to Noah, then to Abraham, then to Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes. They are fully blooded Egyptians if not that God has ensured that there was no mixture. So, God told this story to Moses. The Hebrews had lived in Egypt for a while—430 years. But to bring them out, they needed a history of themselves.

The Biblical Creation

Back to the Creation. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Many people would tell you that there was a beginning before the beginning. You may be like, that doesn’t concern me. Verse 2 says, “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.” Some will say there are billions of years between verse 1 and verse 2.

If you trace from the creation of Adam till date, you only have 6,000 years. Science used rocks and fossils and decay components to determine the age of the earth. Science used what is called the radiometric dating system to discover that this earth is not less than 6 billion years. When that is presented to you, how do you respond? You may not have the best answer, but you shouldn’t be hearing it for the first time at least.

We treated this in one of our KBI courses as well: Foundation of New Converts – FSC. Back to those that said there was a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This is called the Gap Theory. Their major argument was that in verse 1, the Bible says God created the heaven and the earth, and by verse 2, it was already without form and void. They said between verse 1 and verse 2 are billions of years. They say it was when Lucifer rebelled that threw the earth into commotion, that God flooded everything, which was why it was void and formless. Some believed that there used to be men, kingdoms, and nations on Earth.

Analyzing the Gap Theory

So, you may want to ask, Pastor Ife, what do you say? I have also heard a pastor who said the men on earth that time did not die. They became demons. Of all other things people say, this one is largely untrue. I believe there was a creation before the creation. At least, God made angels before He made the Earth. We also know Lucifer had sinned before that time. I agree with this. What I don’t agree with is that there’s a gap between Genesis 1:1 and verse 2.

Let’s check Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 again because that is where all those theories rest upon. It is a writing skill. Genesis 1:1 is just like a summary; then from verse 2, the writer began to state the details. The movie industry does it too. They show you the end before the beginning. Isn’t it?

If you see the Old Testament, the book of Kings and Chronicles especially, they will tell you “XXX reigned 17 years and did evil.” Then, they will begin to break it down.

1 Kings 14:21 says, “And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem.”

It was the same method that was adopted in Genesis 1:27 where the Bible says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Some have asked, did God make men twice? Then in Chapter 2:7, God began to tell us how man was formed. It’s not so. Some have said God made some people in Genesis 1:27 then made Adam in 2:7.

Have you watched a movie and you are asking what later happened to a particular actor? But because that’s not the main actor, they just forgot about him. What later happened to Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, we don’t know and the Bible doesn’t care so much except for a few other references, but we even know the name of the wife of Isaac and the names of his sons.

The history part of the Bible was meant to detail those concerned and just mention or summarize others. Moses was listing day 1 to day 6 in chapter one, but because the focus was man, he began to write about how man was made in Genesis 2:7. The heaven God was talking about here is not the third heaven where we have the throne of God. When the Bible says in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, God and His angels were already existing.Take note: the heaven here is the sky, the firmament, the stars, the planets in our solar system. That’s basic storytelling skill. Genesis 1:8 says, “And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” Then God went back to the firmament on the fourth day to put lights in their places and set up the solar system. The earth was made on the third day. The firmament was made on the second day.

Some have argued that when God said He made a thing in a day, it’s referring to millions of years. They said that to try and convince science. But we don’t have to convince science. Genesis 1:14-19:

“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.”

There may be an element of truth in what they claim as the age of the earth. And there could be something missing from their explanation. Whatever answer we try to give, it must not be that we are rewriting the Scriptures. Because if we just believe science, then we will believe evolution, that man was once an ape.

So, I have established that there was no gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. There was no omission. What did you notice? The third thing I should call your attention to is the word replenish. In archaic English, to replenish means to fill, while in modern English, it means to fill again.

Genesis 1:28 says, “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.” The argument is that for the Bible to say replenish, it means repair or so. Also, the word heaven and earth did not mean that heaven remained perfect after verse one but earth was a mess, and God recreated it.

I don’t want us to start on the fall of man today because we can’t cover it. But in all your thoughts, know that we learn these things so that we won’t be naive or easily swayed. The Old King James used the archaic word.

We should also not forget the purpose of the creation story: to give us an identity, to show Israel is different, and to showcase Jesus. We will realize that Adam chose to eat the forbidden fruit for the sake of his wife, just as Jesus became sin for us willingly. We will see that on Thursday.

I hope you are blessed tonight and it wasn’t a waste of time?

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