Scripture: Genesis 1 Topics: Angels Good and Bad, Bible Questions with Mike, The Gospel to Addicts and Skeptics
Here we are back in the office to deal with an issue that was raised from what I had to say last time [about the age of the Earth]. So we're going to answer it very clearly today. Six days or 6 billion years ...
Well, there's two different views. There's the traditional Bible believers' view. And I say traditional because it's what Bible believers have believed for a very long time. And then there's that 60 year old view of the Scientist for Special Creation or the Young Earth Theorist. It's something invented in modern times to try to use science to justify what they find in Scripture. There's nothing wrong with that, except that they just departed from the Bible in their young earth theories, and we're going to show you that very well.
Now, no matter what position we take as Bible believers about creation, we all agree on one thing — out of nothing came something. That is, God is the Creator of all that is. Nothing exists without him, and it happened at a moment's time. I'm discounting the theistic evolutionist. That's out in left field.
And we also agree that by the Word of God alone, everything came into existence. And then whatever was created, it had the appearance of age. In other words, no one can rationally believe that creation was not done without the appearance of age. If you create a single cell, that cell expresses the middle of a lifecycle where it has been regenerated, it's in the process the cell of healing itself, even as it's created, it's in the process of modifying, sustaining. It's like a city that's active and buzzing — a single cell. So you can't create a grain of sand, or rock, tree, or leaf, or flower, or a human, or universe, without it having the appearance of age. No matter if it was created 6000 years ago, or 6 billion years ago, we all agree on that.
So in the beginning, was nothing. We all agree with that. Nothing. Not even a nothing, not even a place to put something. No time, no space, no dimension. Just nothing but God. God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit dwelling together in perfect unity and fellowship together. And all of us agree with that.
Now, the young Earth Theorist says that 6000 years ago, in six 24 hour days, God created everything. I mean, everything. That's the sun, the moon, the stars, the planet, the universe, that stuff that looks like it's 6 billion light years away. That's planets traveling away from us faster than the speed of light, actually, from our position.
They believe that all of that was created in the aged process, in the motion process where it is, 6000 years ago. That's their position.
The traditional Bible believers view is somewhat different. We believe in the beginning, God created the heavens. That out of nothing came all of this. And yes, it was created with the appearance of age.
At what point, I have no idea. Whether it was 6000 years old, or 6 billion years old. I have no idea. It really doesn't make any difference. All I know is, that it appears to be billions of years old based on the motion of the stars and the planets moving away at the speed of light, how far away they are from us.
It's like looking at a racetrack all of a sudden, and there's cars running around it, and it's the 100 lap race. And it's lap 85. Some cars are ahead. Some are wrecked on the side. Some people been hauled off in the ambulance. Some are changing tires, right?
You know that you've come into the middle of something. So, the universe was created in the middle of a process at some point. We have no idea whether it was early or late. But I do not contend for a young earth because you're contradicting the Bible and contradicting all known science. If God made the earth with the appearance of age, why argue with it?
So first thing God created after he created the universe were the angels. And that that's an angel I've got right there (on the screen). It doesn't look like anything. But there's not a single picture of angels anywhere in all of the apps, all Google, everywhere that looks like an angel, not a single one. All a bunch of girls with short dresses, blond hair and little, tiny wings. So I used that [image] for an angel.
God created the angels. Created myriads of angels. Not only the angels. He created the Cherubim and Seraphim, other creatures, Heavenly Creatures, Extra Terrestrial personalities, living on a planet far, far away.
Now, after he created the angels, he created the earth. And the Bible tells us that the angels were present when the Earth was created. That's how we know the angel were created before the earth is because it tells us very clearly that they were present.
And over the earth was a character called Lucifer. He was the dominant personality. He was the head, the president, the prime minister of the Earth. He was a righteous cherub. He did not have a goat's face. He had an ox face. He did have two horns. He had four or six wings. And he had a man's body, a man's hands, and a man's legs and torso. But he had calves' feet. That's in Ezekiel chapter one through chapter 10. Revelation chapter five. You can read it all yourself.
So this Lucifer over the angels was a righteous angel, a beautiful angel, but he sinned. And when he did, he fell into darkness. Now here's the passage. He says, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4 and Job 38:7)
So God says to Job, "When I laid the foundations the earth, at that time, you don't know, you weren't there, but the sons of God were there. And they were shouting for joy. They were thrilled to see the creation of the earth." Why? Because it was going to be their home. And it did become the home of the angels. And then Lucifer led 1/3 of the angels to sin.
Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28. He ascended up on high to attack the throne of God, was cast down to the earth with the fallen angels, and the earth was cursed, and became dark - without form and void.
And it lay like that for a period of time. How long we don't know. It could have been five years. It could have been 5000. It could have been 5 million. It could have been 5 billion. I have no idea. It really doesn't matter. But God cursed the earth. And that's where the book of Genesis begins.
Here's the rest of that passage in Job. He said, (this is the part we just read) "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it." (Job 38:8-9) So He asked Job, "Where were you when the Earth was created?" Which He said, "I made a cloud, the garment thereof and thick darkness as swaddling band."
So where in the Bible do we read about the earth being without form and void? Genesis 1:1-2. And then he talks about the water being contained as it was in Genesis. "And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?" (Job 38:10-11)
So the earth was covered with water, without form and void. God spoke to Job about that occasion.
Now go back to the traditional Bible believers view. The cursed earth, then, lies like that until Genesis chapter one and two when God creates this present Earth that we have right now. Now, one Bible verse hangs the biblical argument for a young earth. This is it. "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:11)
This is the verse that several people sent me to say this contradicts what you said. Here it says clearly that in just six days the LORD made heaven and earth. I don't have time to go into detail but the word made is not the word create. The two words are not the same. They're not synonymous. We will show you in English, and in Hebrew, that they're not the same.
Now the word made, in Hebrew, is asah. If you speak Hebrew, forgive my pronunciation. It's found 628 times. The definition of it is: To manufacture, accomplish, perform, or to construct from that which previously existed. In other words, you take parts and put them together. This Leatherman was made out of parts. It was not created. God created the elements but man took those elements combined several levels, put them together, cast and ground them, bored holes in it, and man made this Leatherman tool right here.
So Genesis chapter six is an example of the word made. "Make the ark of gopher wood." Taking the word that previously existed, he was able to make it, not create it. "Rooms shalt thou make in the ark ... thou shall make of it ... make of the ark, make it."
And that's the word asah. And it's used throughout the Bible to speak of constructing something out of previously existing material. It's not an original creation word. Now, Genesis 1:6, "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind" That's the same word as make - after its kind. In other words, making fruit, yielding fruit. "And God saw every thing that he had made" And that's in his six days, six 24 hour days of creation. "And, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31)
So those six days were not acts of creation, with the exception of man and woman, some of the grass, some of the trees, and the whales were created out of nothing. That means they didn't previously exist in the former universe, former Earth, before it was cursed.
Now, I took from the many times the word made is used, and made is used as a seed makes a tree. I'm taking these directly from passages. The tree makes fruit. Make an ark of gopher wood. Make the tabernacle. Make vessels for the tabernacle. Make an altar of stone. Make a golden calf. Make a brazen serpent, and on and on, throughout the whole Bible. Make.
Now here's the word created. Create is the Hebrew word bara, found 28 times in the Old Testament, as created. The word create appears other times. To create something original out of nothing. Now in the Latin, they translate this word bara as ex nihilo, which means: out of nothing, comes something. That's the definition of this bara.
And here's an example of some of the things God created.
Most of your times creation appears it has to do with Adam and Eve or the original earth. Now here's an example of created further in Isaiah 45:18, "For thus saith the Lord that created (that's bara) God Himself that formed (a different word) the earth."
In other words, after it was created, it was formed. Genesis 1:3 and following is the forming of the earth, "and made it" he formed it and made it. He skipped from the word bara to the word asah made. "He has established it, he created (bara) it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD"
So he jumps back and forth between words that had to do with creation and words that have to do with forming or making that which he had created. You see that quite a bit. And we don't have time to go into all those illustrations. "In the beginning God created (bara) the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
Now here's Genesis 5:1-2 in the book of Genesis, "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created (bara) man, in the likeness of God made (asah) he him;" Looks like I left the word made out of there. Took it out when I put asah in. Made he him. So it uses the word asah (made) and the word bara. So he created man and he made him from the dust of the ground. "Male and female created (bara) he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created (bara)."
So here is created and made used and differentiated in the Scriptures.
Chapter Two of Genesis. "Thus the heavens" Tell you what, maybe next week I'll go into that. "The heavens (plural) and the earth were finished." In the beginning God created heaven (singular). Here, he's created a second heaven, which is around the earth, and it's called, it's the atmosphere of the Earth. The heavens and the earth (plural) were finished and the host of them. "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made." They switch from the word created to the word asah made.
"And he rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had made." The six days were mostly just making out of previously existing material. "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God ... Oh, this is beautiful ...created and made." You wouldn't use two words, created and made, if they were synonymous. Created and made are different. He created some things and he made some things.
"These are the generations (more than one) of the heavens." That means the Earth had a generation prior to this generation. It had a life history prior to its present one. "These are the generations (more than one) of the heavens (plural) and of the earth when they were created (bara), in the day that the LORD God made the earth." So there was a time when he created it, but the six days is when he's making it, reconstructing it out of the previously existing material, bringing forth out of the atoms and the chemicals and even the hormones, life forms. When he formed Adam from the dust of the ground, he took previously existing material and he made Adam but it was a new creation.
The Bible is very specific in the New Testament.
There's an argument Paul makes in Galatians. He said seeds. Seed as of one and not seeds as of many, making a point that the S on the end of the word was important and made the difference in the Bible doctrine. And maybe I'll deal with that next time too.
"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
The man on the earth, his body, was made and constructed of previously existing material. Don't you know the clay was previously existing material?
Nehemiah 9:6 "Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens" Do you know there's three heavens? Maybe I'll deal with that. I think I've already dealt with that somewhere. "the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas," and so forth.
So we're Psalm 68:33 "To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old" So there was a heaven of the heavens. When God created the heaven in Genesis 1:2 and following, when God created that heavens, that heavens was the atmosphere surrounding the earth. But there were heavens prior to that. Heaven of heavens.
Paul said, "I was caught up to the third heaven." And so the first heaven is our atmosphere around us here. Which were of old, and so forth. Now I'm gonna have to stop there. Times run out, but there's much more. And there's a lot more argument for this than what I've shown you here. A whole lot more. A lot more verses. There's a lot more layers to this.
But my concern is not how old you believe the universe is. I really care not at all. My concern is that you not disgrace the Word of God by claiming that science takes precedence over the Bible. And that your little bit of scientific knowledge confirms to you that the earth is young. You make yourself look like a fool in the intellectual world. If you want to reach people for Christ, you need to come at them with more openness, and not create narrow minded, bigoted points which prove nothing and get you nowhere at all.
All right, that's my concern. So I'll stop there. See you next time.
