How old is the earth?

[EarlyActs]

Formless and void is God saying earth was not there. Only water was there.

It took God 2 days to create the earth on the 2nd day and the 3rd day and then the universe on day 4.

So you cannot have God resting on the 7th day from all His creation if you apply Genesis 1:1 has something that had already occurred and a passage of time had passed before day one for than day one is not really day one and neither can God say He rested on the 7th day from all His creation if it took longer than actually 6 days to create everything. Note the word "Thus" in Genesis 2:1 and thereby insinuating Genesis 1:1 is the topic and the following verses was about how God had actually done that in verse 1 which concluded in Genesis 2:3 below

Genesis 2:1Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2 And on 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.

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

re God's work on heavens and earth
remember if you don't get out the Hebrew vocab you are looking through a glass darkly. The 'shami' was made in 7 days; that's not the outer stars ('kavov'). So the text is correct, but you are mistaken to think it is about the whole universe. V8 says the 'shami' was the 'birqiya'--the firmament. This self-references what things are.

 

[CrowCross]

BUT

At various mountaintops all over the world, including Mount Everest, there are marine fossils. That false science explanation is that the tectonic plates caused the mountains to rise from the sea.

Also true...
Psalms 104 gives us some insight...
5He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.

 

[EarlyActs]

re God saying earth was not there
Get to know pre-existing conditions in Gen 1-39 narratives. On Rachel, there was a father, an uncle, and aunt, etc. Also Rachel was very beautiful. Then the new action starts.

Was Rachel just beautiful the day of the narrator's account about Jacob's visit? Did the relatives exist prior to the day of the story?

And as our neighbor says, what, exactly, was formless and void?

 

[Carbon]

Formless is like a slab of marble prior to the sculpture being made. Or, like a lump of clay prior to it being shaped into what the potter wants it to be. I don't think formless represents a 3D item.

Void....nothing living on it.

But what was formless and void with nothing living on it?

 

[CrowCross]

But what was formless and void with nothing living on it?

The bible says.... 2 The earth was without form and void.

 

[Carbon]

The bible says.... 2 The earth was without form and void.

Okay, so that was the earth.
Thank you

So the earth was there and God didn't say it wasn't.

 

[makesends]

re day 1 light
If you do that to light on Day 1 then the whole chapter is imaginative. The Hebrew 'lilah' is always ordinary illumination.

"God is light" is literal. If anything, it is our comprehension of what "light" is, that is imaginative. The Spiritual —that is, God's economy— is the real; this temporal we experience is a vapor by scripture's comparison. What we think is light is only a poor picture, a partial representation at best, of the Light that God is.

God is at least ordinary illumination. Where do you think the principles of physics come from, and on what do they depend? Do you think that what God created have being on their own, no longer needing God for their continued existence?

 

[EarlyActs]

"God is light" is literal. If anything, it is our comprehension of what "light" is, that is imaginative. The Spiritual —that is, God's economy— is the real; this temporal we experience is a vapor by scripture's comparison. What we think is light is only a poor picture, a partial representation at best, of the Light that God is.

God is at least ordinary illumination. Where do you think the principles of physics come from, and on what do they depend? Do you think that what God created have being on their own, no longer needing God for their continued existence?

We must use terms in their ordinary sense until shown otherwise. The passage already has one 'jump' to another layer--the Spirit hovering over the deep. Most people think of it as an indication that God was about to do something with the deep, which, by the way, was already there. It is the same term for a hen nesting, brooding over eggs. Let's not get carried away. 'Lilah' is never used beyond the ordinary.

There is no reason why God's light would night shine before Day 1 and then show on Day 1.

On Day 1, God spoke of light as something other than Himself, so there is no intrinsic connection. He is in approachable light, nor normal light.

 

[EarlyActs]

"God is light" is literal. If anything, it is our comprehension of what "light" is, that is imaginative. The Spiritual —that is, God's economy— is the real; this temporal we experience is a vapor by scripture's comparison. What we think is light is only a poor picture, a partial representation at best, of the Light that God is.

God is at least ordinary illumination. Where do you think the principles of physics come from, and on what do they depend? Do you think that what God created have being on their own, no longer needing God for their continued existence?

If you want to scientifically go back through Gen 1, try the journal. It has many surprising re-enforcements of the text that you probably never heard. Young, Local Creation-Week Journal at Amazon.

 

[CrowCross]

Okay, so that was the earth.
Thank you

So the earth was there and God didn't say it wasn't.

What are you defending?

 

[CrowCross]

On Day 1, God spoke of light as something other than Himself, so there is no intrinsic connection. He is in approachable light, nor normal light.

I have two leading possibilities...though there are more.

The Light was the shekina glory of God...something like we see in Rev 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Or the Light could have been the creation of Angels and their subsequent illumination on the earth. Acts 12:7 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him, and a light shone in the cell.

Later on day 4 the light was replaced by the sun.

 

[makesends]

We must use terms in their ordinary sense until shown otherwise. The passage already has one 'jump' to another layer--the Spirit hovering over the deep. Most people think of it as an indication that God was about to do something with the deep, which, by the way, was already there. It is the same term for a hen nesting, brooding over eggs. Let's not get carried away. 'Lilah' is never used beyond the ordinary.

There is no reason why God's light would night shine before Day 1 and then show on Day 1.

On Day 1, God spoke of light as something other than Himself, so there is no intrinsic connection. He is in approachable light, nor normal light.

I'm not saying it was not ordinary light (whatever that is). But what you assume to be ordinary may well be extraordinary, but to us, the usual. I think we tend to attribute more substance to human understanding than is warranted.

Does light have to proceed from a "natural" source, in order to be ordinary light? Why?

 

[ChristB4us]

What was formless and void?

The earth as we know it.... was formless and void and so therefore did not exist.

Those that contend that the earth was devastated and covered by water are misapplying His words as if meaning the same thing as Jermiah 4:23 when in context of both... His words are talking about something entirely different.

Jeremiah 4:20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.

In context, verse 23 testify to the land being there but emptied out of living things and has become a wilderness.

In the context of Genesis 1:1- 2:3 which is the first complete creation account, since scripture did not originally come with numbered chapters and numbered verses, Genesis 1:1 is the topic and the following verses was about how God did that in verse 1 in 6 days, finishing it by resting on the 7th day and so the meaning of genesis 1:2 is that earth was not there and neither was the heavens that first day when God used the 2nd and 3rd day to create the earth and then the universe the 4th day for the purpose of giving her lights on the earth for signs, seasons, times, and tears. Hence, the heavens and the earth was not there on day one.

 

[ChristB4us]

re things before Day 1

The pre-existing verse (as in all others in Gen 1-39) says that there was backstory.

As far as the earth goes, it allows for the materials to be there from a previous action that was somewhat random, but then defines 'creation' as how the surface, habitable zone was finished. This is what Peter meant in 2P3 about through water and by water, and distinct from the universe from old, and comparing it to the cataclysm. The cataclysm also only affected 0.001% of the crust; the lowest oil reserves are only 16,000 ft down.

The creation is nearly blurred with the cataclysm in Ps 104. This means that there were pre-existing thing. The mountains were raised above water, the water ran off.

There can be no backstory if there is a day one and for God to rest on the 7th day from ALL His creation.

If it took God longer than 6 days for Him to rest on the 7th day, then He could not say He rested on the 7th day from all His creation.

Psalm 104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

Think about that with the Lord's wisdom. He laid the foundation of the earth that third day. He dd not command the water to recede to have land appear as in the aftermath of the Biblical global flood. There was only a water planet ( one firmament ) and an upper atmosphere ( that other firmament ) created by that firmament called gravity that second day.

I know you have written a book and the devil may be tempting you out of pride or love of money or both to refuse that correction, but you can always ask Jesus for wisdom to see the truth and His help to accept the truth and write another book with His help to retract what you had written in that first book.

 

[Carbon]

The earth as we know it.... was formless and void and so therefore did not exist.

But you just said “the earth.” So if the earth did not exist, what are you calling the earth?

 

[ChristB4us]

And there is. Here's one of the best web sites I've seen on this topic. Genesis park. It presents "tons" of evidence man saw dinosaurs and walked the earth together.

Makes one wonder why there is no push from Christian educators to prove it is a false science in the school textbooks.

 

[ChristB4us]

But you just said “the earth.” So if the earth did not exist, what are you calling the earth?

Were you there or any human being there that first day? So the reference to the earth is for the readers looking at how we see the earth now thus knowing the earth did not exists then, on day one.

There is another example of that in how all the seas was in one place when the dry land appeared.

Genesis 1:9 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.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

I suspect the Pacific Basin was the original one place where all the waters of the seas we know today as existing at, back then on day 3, but even if it is not true per my suspicion, the word of God testified that all the water hence the seas as we know it today was all in one place.

And so the earth as we know it today was formless and void meaning it did not exists at all on day one.

You can't call something Seas when all the waters was in one place.

 

[Carbon]

Were you there or any human being there that first day? So the reference to the earth is for the readers looking at how we see the earth now thus knowing the earth did not exists then, on day one.

There is another example of that in how all the seas was in one place when the dry land appeared.

Genesis 1:9 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.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

I suspect the Pacific Basin was the original one place where all the waters of the seas we know today as existing at, back then on day 3, but even if it is not true per my suspicion, the word of God testified that all the water hence the seas as we know it today was all in one place.

And so the earth as we know it today was formless and void meaning it did not exists at all on day one.

If scripture reads, the earth was without form. Then there was an earth. It was the earth, without form

 

[CrowCross]

I'm not saying it was not ordinary light (whatever that is). But what you assume to be ordinary may well be extraordinary, but to us, the usual. I think we tend to attribute more substance to human understanding than is warranted.

Does light have to proceed from a "natural" source, in order to be ordinary light? Why?

I agree....se post 51

 

[CrowCross]

If scripture reads, the earth was without form. Then there was an earth. It was the earth, without form

Does it have to be a pre-Adamic earth...or could it be the first stage of creating earth?