Genesis 1: 1-2:4, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 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. 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. 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. 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. And God said, Let the earth 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. 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. So God created man in his own 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. 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. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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. 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. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,”
There are various theories about Genesis from people saying that this is pure mythology to pure history. I subscribe to a theory described by a man called PJ Wiseman. This theory is based on examination of ancient documents from Mesopotamia written on clay tablets. We find that there is a colophon at the end of these documents, describing the author and his qualifications to write the document. In those days a person’s heritage was considered to be the most important qualification and at the end of documents we find the formula, “these are the generations of ...” This formula occurs in Gen 2: 4, 5: 1, 6: 9, 10: 1, 11: 10, 11: 27, 25: 12, 25: 19, 36: 1, 9, 37: 2. We can divide the book of Genesis into various ancient documents. The first of which, begins at 1: 1 and ends with 2: 4, by the colophon, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,”
The first chapter of Genesis was written by an eye witness. However, Adam appeared on the sixth day so he wasn’t in a position to give an eyewitness account. We also know that the Law was given by the Lord to Moses on the mountain and the Lord gave Moses the first tablets which he broke and Moses carved the second tablets but the Lord wrote on them as well (Exodus 24:12, 32, 19, 34: 1, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.”, “And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.” Exodus 34:1, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.”) We can assume from this that the first tablet was made and written by the Lord God, Himself and given to Adam as a record of the Lord’s actions.
This chapter begins by making a statement “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” and then it goes on in verse 2 to expound the statement. This is the best explanation and it also deals with the, so called, “Gap Theory”. Some people suggest that there is a Gap between verse 1 and 2 to allow for evolution, or whatever, to occur. On the other hand we know that death didn’t come into the world till Adam and Eve sinned and , at the end of the sixth day, the Lord God saw everything that He had made and it was very good. If everything was very good then there could not possibly be any sin or death in the Lord God’s perfect creation.
One of the basic facts that you learn about science is that energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed from one form to another. If we accept this then we can see that the Lord God produced all the matter and energy first and then He moulded everything, moving from chaos to perfect order in the process of six days.
The process that the Lord used was Diving command, “And God said...”, and, “it was so...”, or, “there was...”.
Many religions are based on the assumption that the Lord God put some of His Divine being into creation and so diminished Himself to the position where He was no longer absolute in every respect. This is not true and the words of the document do not allow this to be so, it is a satanic lie.
The Lord God created the heavens and the earth completely distinct from Himself, He used His own resources but He created with ease because He is all powerful. Created being can never aspire to being God or to being part of a diminished God. God is always God and He never changes (Mal 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” and Heb 13:8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”)
The Lord God was always in control of His creation and was working towards a specific plan with a perfect ending. He first created light for, without light, there is no chance of life (compare John 1:4, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”)
The days of creation start in the evening followed by the morning and time is measured by day and night. This is also an act of grace allowing God’s creatures, who came later, to rest either during the day or the night.
The Lord made the heavens, (see Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” this demonstrates that the heavens and the firmament are the same thing.”)
After that the Lord God made one large land mass surrounded by water and covered by clouds containing water. When the Lord had made the dry land, He planted every kind of plant on this earth. This demonstrates that there is a difference between plant life and animal life. When we eat a plant we don’t kill the plant and the process is good for the plant, for even today gardeners prune plants to make them prosper.
On the fourth day the Lord began to act more specifically to the earth. The first verse of the chapter shows us that God created the earth to be distinct from the rest of creation for He had a special purpose for the earth. On the fourth day the Lord began to focus on the earth in particular rather than on the heavens and the earth in general. At this stage the Lord made the sun and moon to rule over the day and the night so that there could be a division between the day and the night. This also demonstrates that the Lord created an ordered world with Himself in absolute control but other structures ruling the day and the night, on His behalf, under His authority.
Once everything was ready, the Lord made creatures to fly in the sky, and swim in the sea. We know, at that stage, that every creature was herbivorous because meat was not allowed to be eaten until after the Flood (Gen 9:3, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.”)
On the sixth day the Lord made living creatures for the Land. When all this was complete the Lord God made man in His own image, He made a man and a woman and told them, as He had told the other creatures, to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. The Lord put man in charge of every plant and living thing that He had made. At the end of the sixth day the Lord saw everything that He had made and knew He had achieved perfection.
On the seventh day there was nothing left to do so the Lord God rested from the work of creation. In His grace, the Lord God decreed that the seventh day was to be set apart as a day of rest to honour the fact that He had created perfection and rested on the seventh day.
The first chapter of Genesis is vital for any person who wants to deal with Almighty God for this is where Almighty God introduces Himself to the world. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”), encouraged Eve to believe that she could evolve into a higher form a being (“...ye shall be as gods...” Gen 3: 5) God was not diminished by the process of creation and creation does not contain particles of God so that we can aspire to evolve into a higher form of being, that is, become more God like. There is only one God and every living thing in creation is just his creature
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