Expert: Marilyn - 7/30/2007

Question
I don't doubt that the bible is God's word. What causes me to question is this. The break between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2 causes me to ask this question. God is perfect in everyway. Since He is perfect He can do nouthing wrong or make something imperfect. There must have been some sort of activity going on. It is written. But the earth was void and without form and darkness was upon the face of the deep. This to me is not a description of something that God made. This is why I believe that something took place between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2! He is risen! Ed Althouse!

Answer
A  P.S. appears below

Hello Ed;

You are precisely correct.  However, there is no "gap."

We are "Westerners," that is people whose civilization is based on the European/Roman/Greek model.  We tell stories in chronological order, in fact, we are so wedded to that model we can hardly understand a story that isn't in chronological order!  "Easterners," that is people whose civilization is based on ancient Middle Eastern culture or oriental culture, don't always tell stories on chronological order.  "Oriental storytelling" is arranged by degrees of importance or by different points of view.  In Oriental story telling, the storyteller may end up telling the story multiple times, each time from a different point of view or with a different focus.

In Genesis 1 & 2 we have a prime example of Oriental storytelling.  The biblical account of the creation story is the oldest story in the Bible, passed down verbally for centuries before Moses wrote it down.

Genesis 1:1 contains the most vital information of almost any verse in the Bible.  "In the beginning..." These three words threw out the Greek model of an eternal universe and the Steady State Theory of the universe, but "scientific" persons didn't believe it until two guys from Bell Labs discovered Lemaitre's predicted background radiation from the "big bang."  

Arno Penzias and Robert W. Wilson are the Bell Lab guys and George Henri Lemaitre is the Belgian priest who developed what he called the "hypothesis of the primeval atom."  Sir Fred Hoyle, an atheist, despised the theory because to his mind, if there was a beginning, then there was a God and he didn't want that!  So, he's the one who developed the "Steady State Theory," and dubbed Lemaitre's theory the "big bang theory" later claiming he didn't intend to mock Lemaitre, but the name has stuck.  

For awhile, the atheistic scientific community was in a quandary over the fact that the universe actually had a beginning, but they got over it.  Christians started screaming that there is no such thing as a "big bang" and that put atheistic scientists back on "solid ground" because if the Christians didn't like it then it must be ok.

"In the beginning God..."  The Name English translates as "God" is Elohim.  The Name Elohim contains a vast amount of information all on its own.  El = Strength + ohim, the plural form of Elah or Allah indicating a minimum of three in One, = Faithfulness, to Bind Oneself with an Oath.  Essentially, in these first four words God tells us, He is Three Persons in One, Strong and Faithful.  The entire universe bears witness to His Strength & Faithfulness!

"In the beginning God created..."  The Hebrew word English translates as "created," is "bara" meaning "created from nothing."  

"In the beginning God created the..."  I have been told by a Hebrew scholar that there is a word after "the" that is similar to the "Alpha and the Omega" phrase Jesus uses in Revelation.  It is the "aleph and the tav" which means "the all that there is."  So thus far the verse literally says,

"In the beginning Strength and Faithfulness made from nothing the everything that there is the Heavens and the earth."

Verse two contains information God wants us to know, but does not view as quite as important, so it comes second.  Then, God launches into His favorite story:  How He Created The-All-That-There-Is.

Genesis 1:3-5 covers "the first day" as indicated by verse five.  Another clue that Genesis 1:2 is not in chronological order.

Genesis 1:3, "And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light."  This sounds kind of lame in English, in Hebrew He says, "Light Be!"  And Boom, light was.  

Before the universe existed there was only God and in that place of only God, there was no matter and there was no time.  God separated from Himself a point, Lemaitre's "Cosmic Egg," and spoke into that point, "Light Be!"  When God said "Light Be!", He poured so much power into a single point that the concentration of energy forced Einstein's E=MC2 equation to produce matter as the only way that much energy could physically exist in that tiny space and as the energy blew out from that point all of the matter in the entire universe was created from light and time began.

BOOM!  The phrase "Light Be!" is simple enough for a child to comprehend, but contains enough information to keep a physicist busy his entire life!  Everything about what Sir Fred Hoyle dubbed "the big bang" was perfect.  

The energy of the “big bang” was so precise that if it had been off by one part in 10 to the 120th power (that’s one part in 10000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
0000000000000000000000000000) there would have been no life in the universe at all.

Martin Rees (incidentally also an atheist), Britain's Astronomer Royal, said, “The universe is unlikely, very unlikely, deeply, shockingly unlikely.  It’s quite fantastic.”  His book "Just Six Numbers" argues that six numbers underlie the fundamental physical properties of the universe and that each is the precise value needed
to permit life to flourish,” Discover magazine, November 2000 issue.

“The nucleus of a helium atom weighs 99.3% as much as the two protons and the two neutrons that fuse to make it.  The remaining .7% is released mainly as heat.  So the fuel that powers the sun—-the hydrogen gas at its core—-converts .007 of its mass into energy when it fuses helium...if the
number were only a mite smaller—-.006 instead of .007-—a proton could not bond to a neutron, and the universe would consist only of hydrogen,” Discover, November 2000 issue, page 66.  “If it were slightly larger, just .008, fusion would be so ready and rapid that no hydrogen would have
survived the big bang.”

“The precision of the big bang,” said Michael Turner, astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and Fermilab, “is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bullseye one millimeter in diameter on the other
side.”  Astronomer Hugh Ross (a Christian) compares the creation of the universe by chance to “the possibility of a Boeing 747 aircraft being completely assembled as the result of a tornado striking a junkyard.”

The elegant phrase, “Light be,” are the making of carbon, the strength of the electromagnetic field, the strength of the strong nuclear force—if it were any stronger the diproton and not hydrogen would be the major component of the universe—so many forces, so many elements so precisely tuned, too many to be attributed to Chance.  The uncanny precision of the “big bang” has humbled some scientists and driven others into the arms of theologians!

But Rees proposes a way around this unbearable situation.  He believes our universe is a tiny, insignificant corner of a mega universe—a multi-universe.  Ours is only one of many universes the result of an infinite number of “big bangs” all producing an infinite array of universes of which ours just happens to be the one where we live.  The amazing fact that everything in our universe is tuned for life is no longer quite as amazing, it’s just a fact among facts.  There may be other universes also tuned to life—perhaps life based on something other than carbon.

This theory permits Chance, the new god of science, to remain god since if our universe is just one of a multitude, then it could conceivably have been created by chance.  Given we cannot see beyond the edge of our universe,
this theory cannot be proved and must be accepted by faith—-just as the belief in an Intelligent Designer must also, ultimately, be accepted by faith.  And that's just the way God likes it.

In Hebrew the words "erev and boker" were translated "evening and morning," but an equally valid translation is "disorder to order."  Also, the word translated "day" in Hebrew is pretty much the same as how we use "day" in English, it can mean a 24-hour period, the daylight hours or and era--that is a period of time in which certain specific things occur.  For instance, you might say to a kid, "Well, back in my day we..." you're referring to an era.  We might say, "In the Roman day..." referring to the time in which Rome existed.  But Rome existed many hundreds of years!  So this phrase here, "...evening and morning the first day," should more accurately be translated, "disorder to order, the first era!"

Readers seem to forget, the sun doesn't even shine in all its splendor until day four!  If there's no sun shining, how can a 24-hour day be measured?  And since Genesis 1 is told from God's point of view, isn't it a little conceited to think a "day" to His mind is a 24-hour day?  If time did not exist until God created it, how on earth can people believe He would measure it as we do?  For God there is only NOW.  He can see the entire fabric of time from the beginning to the end and shapes it as He sees fit.  It is NOW, as one can begin to comprehend when He speaks of centuries of time as if it is only a moment and the end as well as the beginning.

Instead, God is defining "day" by goals accomplished, objectives met, creation moved from one phase to the next, disorder to order.

Scientists puzzle why the universe, after its initial burst of LIGHT might be dark for so long, and I wonder what they'll discover to explain it, but the Bible has insisted on it forever.  Indeed, science has proven what the Bible has said all along, there was a period of time between the "big bang" and when the stars began to glow as told in Genesis 1:14-19.  

The next biggie for us is whatever happened to the dinosaurs anyway?  Dinosaurs are mentioned in Genesis 1.  My NIV says, "So God created the great creatures of the sea..."  Various translators have grappled with that phrase but, thankfully Gerald Schroeder in his book "The Science of God" explains the meaning of the words, "great creatures."

In Hebrew the words are "taninim gedolim,"  Gedolim is easy, it means "big" or "great," it was the "taninim" that threw everyone.  Translators took their cue from the fact that sea creatures are mentioned in this spot to translate this phrase "great creatures of the sea," but the words appear elsewhere and somehow they overlooked that.

"Taneen" is the singular form of "taninim."  In Exodus, God asks Moses to throw down his rod and the Bible says it became a snake.  The word for "snake" is "nahash."  This incident occurs three times, but the second time the word "taneen" is used.  Therefore, "taneen" must be a reptile, referring to the type of creature a snake is.  The Scripture references are:  Exodus 4:3; 7:10 (where the rod becomes a "taneen"; and Exodus 7:15.

Thus Genesis 1:21 actually says, "So God created the Great Reptiles..."  Here's where Genesis 1:2 comes in.

Scientists tell us that the dinosaurs were made extinct by a catastrophic meteor or comet strike.  The Bible actually describes exactly such an event in Isaiah 14:12-15 & Ezekiel 28:11-19.  

The angel, Lucifer, got full of himself and decided to take God's throne away from Him.  This may be because Lucifer was "anointed," Ezekiel 28:14, that is dipped in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit gives great power and apparently Lucifer thought it all came from him.  Scripture says Lucifer walked amongst the fiery stones, indicating he operated in the highest levels of angelic authority.  In Ezekiel 1 we can read a description of what cherubs look like. They're God's honor guards, the angels who're closest to Him at all times.

Angels don't have the option of changing their minds after they mess up and Lucifer messed up big-time.  Satan rebelled and started a war.  He lost and was cast down to the earth.  Jesus said, in Luke 10:18, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."

Satan was cast out of Heaven, the earth was rendered formless and empty and the age of mammals began.  You can see that if God included this little incident in the main story, it would have put too much focus on satan!  As far as God is concerned, satan is just an annoying blip not worth mentioning in a story where He achieves His greatest feats and ends with is crowning achievement, the creation of the god-class, in the Image of God Himself, beings.  God declared His creation "very good," and from His point of view, it was.

In the book of Romans Paul reminds us that God works everything for good and that was as true in the beginning of time as it is now.  Satan's fall was unfortunate, but he serves God anyway, even in his sinful state.  He gives humanity a choice--either choose God or choose satan--and human beings make this choice every day whether they realize it or not.  We have full opportunity to exercise our free will, we're not forced to love God, we have a choice.  By choosing God, we prove our love for Him and when we receive Jesus as Lord, we are restored to our original positions:  god-class beings with God as our Over-King, rulers of the material earth and universe.

Isaiah 45:18, "For this is what the LORD says--He Who created the Heavens, He is God; He who fashioned and made the earth, He founded it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited..."

So, you are correct, God did not create the universe to be formless and empty, something did happen.  Genesis 1:2 says, "Now, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

Scientists tell us that such a catastrophic meteor strike would create a huge cloud of debris that would block out the sun.  Sounds just like Genesis 1:2, doesn't it?  Essentially, according to scientists, save for a few mammals who are warm blooded, most everything on the earth died when that meteor hit.  The effects were far reaching, just as the verse describes.  But God took this seemingly awful event and made something greater and better.  

The Bible is literally true, the problem has been in how we've interpreted it.   

Sincerely,

Marilyn

P.S.

1.  God's Word is True and flawless.

2.  Genesis 1:1 tells the entire creation story in one, succinct verse, yet it is packed with information that is not directly included in the main creation story which begins with verse 3.

3.  Genesis 1:2 is a verse giving pertinent information that would distract if included in its chronological place in the creation story.

I once heard Benny Hinn saying that Genesis 1:1 & 1:2 were entire creation stories of a previous world which God destroyed and recreated beginning with verse 3.  I've found no other information in the Bible to back this view.

4.  God cannot lie.  Therefore, evidence of how He created the universe, the earth and living things is true.  

5.  God spoke, "Light be," and the material universe was created.  Therefore, I conclude, significant events that occur in the spirit realm have impact on the material universe.

6.  Speaking of Lucifer, Ezekiel 28:13 says, "You were in Eden, the garden of God."  Therefore, I conclude, the earth existed before Lucifer rebelled, otherwise Lucifer wouldn't be sent to oversee it, see verse 14.

7.  God is perfect, but not everything He creates remains perfect.  The cherub called, "morning star," or Lucifer, rebelled against God, drawing 1/3 of the angelic hosts to his side, Revelation 12:4.  He went to war to take God's throne away from Him and failed, see Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.  God cast the rebellious angels out of Heaven.

8.  Dinosaurs are mentioned in Genesis 1, see above.  The evidence of the earth says that dinosaurs and the large mammals did not exist together at the same time.  The evidence of the earth says that a huge meteor strike, the equivalent of millions of atomic bombs, caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and virtually all life on earth when it occurred.  

The huge meteor strike rendered the earth "formless and void."  Genesis 1:2 says that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, the Syriac version says, "The Spirit cherished the nature of the waters as one sees a bird cover eggs with her body and impart to them vital force from her own warmth."  After mention of the "taninim gedolim," "every moving thing with which the water teems" is mentioned.  

Conclusion:  Genesis 1:2 occurs in the middle of verse 21.  

Further thoughts:   

1.  More than any other book of the Bible, Genesis 1 is told from God's point of view.  There is no other witness.  

Time for God is NOW; from beginning to end, for Him there is only NOW.  In the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel where the prophets relate satan's history, his beginning and end are told in a few short verses as if it has all already happened, even though his end has not yet occurred.  

We cannot conceive time as God understands it.  He orders things as He sees fit and in the story of creation, He focuses on what He calls "very good," not permitting any distractions.  

All pertinent information is given, but not in chronological order.  For Him chronological order is not as important as the information and the focus given the information--try reading Revelation and you get a picture of how insignificant chronological order is to God.

2.  I stand by the answer I gave.  My answer fits together the evidence found in the Bible and the evidence of the earth and is the best answer I've ever discovered for your perplexing question.

3.  You don't like my answer.  Fine.  If and when you discover a better one, then please contact me and share what you've learned.  

Marilyn