Expert: Thurman C. Petty, Jr. - 8/18/2009

Question
My friend and I meet on Mondays for BIBLE study and we both have a Dakes Annotated BIBLE and I was surprised to see a lot of his notes on Genesis talk about a pre Adamic race and he even has notes about "Lucifer's flood" and Noah's flood. I see the scriptures he has chosen to back this theory, but I have never, ever heard about this before. Can you clarify? is this true based on the HOLY BIBLE...did a race of some sort inhabit the earth before Adam? Was there a flood that killed everything and then the Triune God re created every thing in 6 days and that time He created man in His Image? Or is this heresy?  Did Lucifer/Saatan falll before man was created? Thanks . carmen

Answer
Dear Carmen,

Thank you for your question regarding a pre-Adamic race, etc.

According to Isa. 14:12-14, and Ezekiel 28:11-18, Lucifer fell from Heaven, but the Scriptures do not reveal the time. However, in Genesis 3, shortly after the Creation (again we are not told the timing) he appears in the garden masking himself as a serpent. So it would seem that his fall must have happened before creation.

Until recently I had never heard of the Dake Bible. A friend asked me to keep a few things for him, among which was one of these. I hadn’t looked at it very closely until your question came to me.

Let me quote from the “Bible” portion for Genesis 1. I will only go down through verse 3:

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(Begin italics)THE CREATIVE AGES (Gen. 1:1-2:25
I. Original creation made perfect and inhabited (Isa. 45:18) “The world that then was” (2 )Pet. 3:5-7)(end italics)

1. In the beginning God Created the heaven and the earth.

(Begin ital.)II. Earth made chaos: end of earth’s first perfect state and first sinful career because of Lucifer’s rebellion Overthrow of “the world that then was” (2 Pet. 3:5-7; Jer. 4:23-26) (end ital.

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.

(Begin ital.)III. Recreation: earth’s second perfect state and second habitation The seven days
  1. Day and night restored.(end ital.)

3. ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
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Mr. Dake mentions Jer. 4:23-26, but verse 27 makes it plain that this is yet future.

Carmen, I feel very wary of this because: If you had never read the Bible before, and someone were to give this to you, what would you consider Bible and what would you . . . actually you’d think all of it were Bible. It’s obvious that the notes on the sides are notes because they are lettered. But who’s to say whether they were written by a man or part of the revelation give to Moses by God? And in the Bible section, which is the Bible and which is notes?

Do you see my point? In actual fact Mr. Dake has set this up in a confusing way. I don’t think (I’m not judging him because I don’t know his motives) that he intended for the reader to take his notes as Bible. But that’s the way it comes across.

How does Mr. Dake know that Genesis 1:1, 2 are referring to a pre-creation time? He doesn’t. This is a theory for which he things he’s found Biblical basis, and he presents it here as though that’s what the Bible teaches. Let me quote the texts to which he refers. For the “creative ages” he quotes 2 Peter. 3:5-7, and uses the phrase “The world that then was.” Let’s see what 2 Peter 3:5-7 actually says:

2 Pet 3:5  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:
2 Pet 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2 Pet 3:7  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.

It looks like Peter is referring to the Creation of the world. Look at what Genesis says:

Gen 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.

Then in verses 3-5 God created light so everything will be visible—so that the angels can see what He’s doing. That was the first day. Let’s pick it up on the second and third day:

Gen 1:6  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:7  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.
Gen 1:8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Gen 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.
Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11  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.
Gen 1:12  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.
Gen 1:13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Now Peter, in describing this, said: Verse 5, “. . . the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:” That seems to me to be a fair description of the events on the first and second day. So when Peter says, verse 6, “the world that then was,” He’s referring to the world that was created, as described for day 2, and 3.

Nothing here that cannot be understood from Genesis. And nothing here that speaks of a world that existed prior to Genesis 1. That idea was made up—at least included from some other source and accepted—by Mr. Dake. And when Peter said: 2 Pet 3:6  “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” it’s easy to see that he’s talking about the flood that took place some 1600 years after the Creation. (Count up the numbers of years in the lives of the men at the time of the birth of their first son, in chapter 5.) Then Peter points out that the world that exists now—the world that is inhabited by the descendants of Noah—which includes you and me, is reserved for fire. This would refer to the last day of judgment (Rev. 20:7-15—look it up so that you can see that that’s what it says. Don’t take my word for it!), and which Peter describes in verses 10-13.

Here we see the wisdom of John’s last warning:

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Carmen, I cannot recommend the Dake Bible to you or to anybody else. This is the work of a man, and is not the work of God.

Thurman C. Petty, Jr.
PettyPress@gmail.com

Check out my web site, www.PettyPress.com, where I’ve posted 18 of my books, 42 Bible Study Guides, and much more.