UNDERSTANDING CREATION
(week 13/14)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Genesis 1:1-2 AMP: IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. [Heb. 11:3.] (2) The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.
Hebrews 11:3 AMP: By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.
Here the scripture reveals to us 3 eons of time BEFORE the renovation of the earth from its chaotic state of being without form and void and the subsequent creation of man.
These 3 Eons of time are:
1. The time it took God to make the original heavens and the earth.
2. The time it took for the earth to become without form and void: a period of devastation of the earth from its first perfect state to a state of being without form and void:
Isaiah 45:18 AMP: For thus says the Lord–Who created the heavens, God Himself, Who formed the earth and made it, Who established it and did not create it to be a worthless waste; He formed it to be inhabited–I am the Lord, and there is no one else.
3. The time the earth REMAINED in the ‘without form and void’ state.
No one knows how long each of these eons of time was, but it is clear that the explanation of the scientific evidence of evolution and the fact that the earth and the universe are billions of years old are found in these 3 eons of time.
EVOLUTION IS SIMPLY PROGRAMED DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE.
We see intelligent programmed change in nature: what is called ‘natural selection’. The word selection presupposes there is an intelligence that informs or gives the criteria on which the selection is based.
What is called nature is actually the invisible God, who is a Spirit, working behind the scenes in the physical world: He is the programmer that is directing the so-called natural selection.
Romans 1:20 AMP: For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], [Ps. 19: 1-4.]
Psalms 19:1 NIV: For the director of music. A psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Observe, we have defined evolution as programed developmental change and NOT EXPERIMENTAL change. GOD KNOWS THE END FROM THE BEGINNING AND SO DOES NOT EXPERIMENT. He simply developed modules He used over and over again with progressive as well as chosen variations to fit into a master plan and design that was in His mind BEFORE He created anything.
Acts 15:18 KJV: Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
So whatever aberrations or imperfections we see in nature are there, NOT BECAUSE GOD IS NOT PERFECT BUT BECAUSE SATAN HAS INTERFERED WITH NATURE CAUSING A DISTORTION OF GOD’S ORIGINAL PERFECT CREATION IN GEN. 1.1.
The 2 eons of time during which the earth BECAME without form and void and REMAINED without form and void are the times during which Satanic interference disrupted and distorted the physical creation, earth and universe.
God originally made Satan perfect and Lucifer was ruling over the earth in a perfect state as created in Gen1.1. When he rebelled against God, the divine wisdom and power that was sustaining the earth through Lucifer (the anointed cherub, who was covering the earth), was corrupted plunging the earth into a chaotic state and so it became ‘without form and void’ (Ezk. 28.12-19; Is. 14.12-17; 2 Pet. 3.5-6; Rev. 12. 3-4).
Romans 8:20 NIV: For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
Jeremiah 4:23-26 NIV: I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; and at the heavens, and their light was gone. (24) I looked at the mountains, and they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. (25) I looked, and there were no people; every bird in the sky had flown away. (26) I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert; all its towns lay in ruins before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
The pre-adamite races (now dis-embodied evil spirits (2 Pet.2.4; Gen. 6.2-4)) and creatures God had created and Satan was ruling over, had physical bodies that God had designed and created at different levels of development, died and their bodies are the ancient fossil bones still being uncovered today.
God, like an architect, had a master plan for man and the universe and developed the cells, living organisms, the stars and planets gradually over billions of years during these 3 eons of time before renovating the earth from the ‘without form and void’ state and making man about 6,000 years ago.
All the component parts He was going to use to renovate the earth and make Adam had been carefully programmed and developed during these 3 eons of time and so it was easy to make man’s physical body in all of its complexity (Ps. 139.14) in just 24 hours (Gen.2.7; 1.26-27) after renovating the earth in just 5 days (Gen. 1.3-31)!
In our article next week, we will see how understanding creation can and should lead us to seeking and coming to know God.
