A
Unified Theory of Creation
"This is what
the Lord
says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it
–
the Lord is his name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you
great
and un-searchable things you do not know." -- Jeremiah 33:2,3
Preface to Theory of Creation.
The following Theory,
sets out a possible framework in which the Creation Events immediately
below are logically expressed.
1.
It explains logically how six actual 24 hour days are involved.
2.
It shows where the ancient fossils come from.
3.
It explains the scientific reason how there was light, night and day,
before the sun was “created”.
4.
It proposes a sound reason for the appearance of the Rainbow after
Noah's flood..
5.
It suggests why human life-span dramatically shortened after the flood
of Noah.
Introduction
While the days spoken of in
Genesis 1 are clearly of 24 hours duration, (see repeated "evening and
morning), it is proposed that the
acts described in those 6 x 24 hour periods were in fact, 6 visions or
revelations
portraying events of differing lengths. Also that in execution, some or
all probably
overlapped and in part some ran concurrently. An examination of
the
food and environmental requirements of a number of the life forms would
appear to demand some sort of concurrent creation. We do not need to
make the actual acts of creation fit into six 24 hour days. That
"evening and morning" period was
the time in which this epoch of creation was revealed, the events
themselves could span aeons or have been created instantaneously.
Those
who insist on an actual 6 days of creation, try to explain the great
age we observe, by claiming that God created a young universe with “an
appearance of age”. This idea sails close to involving God in a
deception and questions Paul’s words in Romans 1:20 “For since the
creation of the world God's
invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature--have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made . . .” Six day creationists also need
to explain if the events revealed in each "day" took the whole 24 hours
or were some days just a part-day's work. Some will point out
that the record is "a poem" - I'm not sure how to define a poem
although I have written a number of what I thought were poems and fail
to see how that changes what we are proposing here. Are not Poems
just another literary means to tell a story?
The general theory I have adopted
is not new, P.J. Wiseman* proposed the opinion that God took six
literal days to reveal the steps of creation. Obviously there was
no human
eye-witness. According to this view, Genesis
1 is the record of the revelation of the work of creation. The
period between Genesis verse 1 and verse 3 is not a part of the "six
days" and is referred to as “the Gap”
and is an undefined period, between which the whole universe was
created and
planet earth was furnished. Verse 3
onwards is a detailed description only of this planet subsequent to a
global catastrophe for which we make the assumption was possibly caused
at the
fall and casting down of Satan. The 're-furnishing' is
portrayed in six daily revelations. * P.J.
Wiseman, Clues to Creation in Genesis, London:
Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1977.
Central to my
argument are the following propositions:
(a) The knowledge of the
stages or 'steps' of creation were revealed as a series of visions,
similar to a
video
“action playback” of a sporting event, and composed in a sequential
manner that could be logically inscribed in a written format.
Each “vision” is accounted for during a single 24 hour “day” – note the
words
“evening and morning” – It is also interesting to note here that
the idea of “evening and morning” has no subjective relevance for a
rotating globe, except when the events are viewed from a fixed
geographic location. Therefore, our 'visions' are from an
earthside perspective.
(b) The language and idiom
of the Genesis account is more pictorial than we Westerners generally
use. We have to adopt the ‘historical/grammatical’ principal of
interpretation and get to see the “picture” rather than argue over
semantics. The picture in (a) above, we believe, fits the
intention of the words. Reference was made above to the account
being said to be a 'poem' - I don't see what difference that makes to
our proposal.
(c) The Biblical record was
given to be understood by ordinary people, for it provides the
foundation to our knowledge of the nature of God and the plan of
redemption. It is fundamental to our faith. Therefore, the
plain text meaning of the record, cannot be intended to be a mystery or
the preserve of scholars and the obscure
subject of much learned debate or Jewish mysticism, poetic or
otherwaise.
Some years ago the writer
received a small revelation. On visiting the Louvre, in
one of the galleries there hung a very large painting covering almost
the entire wall. Instinctively, I stepped backwards until I could
see the whole work and only then was it possible to appreciate the
story the artist had depicted. Later, I felt prompted to apply
that same approach to my reading of the Bible and rather than indulge
in scholarly research or argument as to the meaning of individual
words, to “step back” and try to understand what the Artist had
intended by the larger ‘word pictures’ of Scripture.
Moses would have understood
the creation story as well as he understood the Torah. Paul said,
“For
since the creation of
the world God's
invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are
without excuse.” Romans 1:20. To be “without excuse”
before a just God requires first being able to understand that to which
we are being held accountable. If the Law were as obscure as some
make the creation account out to be, mankind would be without
guilt. However, neither the Law nor the Creation story are
obtuse, therefore I believe, what the Bible tells us of the beginnings,
will not be at odds with what we are able to observe by science and the
God given
talents “hard wired” into us, when we were created, “in His likeness”.
In the Beginning
There is an excellent small "extra" on a DVD
named “Dual Revelation”, produced by "Reasons to Believe" of PO Box
5978, Pasadena, CA 91117, U.S.A. and narrated by Hugh Ross, Ph.D;
David Rogstad, Ph.D; Jeff Zweerink, Ph.D; Erica Carlson, Ph.D and
Fazale Rana, Ph.D. This DVD is a graphic, scientific portrayal of
Creation events up to Day Four and closely aligns to the early
sequences described in the following theory.
Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning
God created the heavens
and the earth.” – No time scale is given but it is obviously an
event
of time in the context of a past eternity, for eternity itself can have
no beginning. Science pays homage to Stephen Hawking, who put forward
the idea of a “big bang”, postulating a beginning for the
Universe. Yet that idea has been suggested by the first words in
the Bible for about 5000 years. Genesis 1:1 is clearly an event for
which no 'process' is defined, prior
to the “six days of creation”, which are each described in greater
detail,
starting at verse 3. This event is not a part of nor restricted
by any time-frame that we may believe applies to the remainder of the
record. It is an happening concerned with an infinitely greater
part of all that is.
Genesis 1:2, Then zooms in
on planet earth and goes on to describe a situation existing just
before the local “six days of creation” begin. “Now the earth was
[ Or became ] formless
and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of
God was hovering over the waters.” Some have proposed that
this describes a scene of devastation – perhaps a total destruction
such as we know is possible today, even at our own hands, when
the very
sky is turned black with matter from massive nuclear explosions or
volcanic activity. By way of later confirmation of this line of
reason, other Scripture suggests that God did not originally create the
earth “without form and void”. I think the King James version is
more faithful to the original, in Isaiah 45:18 "For thus saith
the YHVH that created the
heavens; God himself that formed the earth, and made it; he hath
established it, he created it not in vain, – [Heb. tohu] he formed it
to be inhabited: "I am YHVH, and there is none else.""
The King James version
renders the Hebrew tohu (a ruin) “without form” and bohu (emptiness)
“and void”. Jeremiah may have glimpsed a similar event when he wrote,
in Jeremiah 4:23-25 “I looked at the
earth, and it was [ tohu ] formless (a ruin) and [ bohu ] 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.”
A pretty vivid description of the destruction of all humanoid life on
this planet and of course implies that life similar to the present time
existed prior to this great destruction. It also allows us to
undestand how ancient fossils can exist and how species suddenly
vanished from the fossil record. Admittedly, this is an era of
our planet’s history we are not told much about, however, we have here
in Jeremiah, possible Scriptural evidence suggesting the presence of a
form of
created life, including humanoid forms, on earth prior to Genesis 1:2*1
However, whether, these these
verses describe a past creation destroyed or just the preparation of a
planet for this present creation, what follows is the same.
Genesis 1:3 – Now as already
mentioned, the following events were obviously not witnessed by a human
so
the knowledge can only exist as a result of a Divine revelation, an
‘action play back’ of events and viewed from earth-side. I want
to confirm the proposition (a), that by a process, similar to the
manner
in which Ezekiel had a series of visions during specific periods of
time, Moses,
or whoever made the first records of the creation saga, received the
information
as a series of six visions. There are other examples, John on
Patmos certainly
witnessed
more than a 24 hour day’s worth of action, “on the Lord’s Day”.
Now
this is important! The
creative events revealed in each daily vision may have taken place
individually
over long or short periods of time and clearly some or most
would have run concurrently at some stage, [see
diagram], but for
the purpose of a simple narrative (or poem) the whole must be described
as a series of
consecutive word pictures. Obviously, a complex happening like
the Creation
can best be described as if it were a series of consecutive
events,
unless the narrative is to continually, and possibly confusingly,
backtrack
so that the reader can
build up a three dimensional mental picture. Obviously a
literary
technique too
complicated for such an event that was to be understood by ordinary
people.
In the light of this, it is
difficult to understand how so much learned effort has been employed
trying to defend the idea that each “day” records a completely finished
single stage in a string of complete consecutive creative acts, whether
six actual 24 hour days or if an extended period is postulated.
As mentione earlier, strict 6 day creationists should consider whether
each day's 'acts' occupied the entire 24 hours or variable periods
during the 24 hours. Above all else, this writing is an attempt
to encourage sincere Bible
believers to, at least temporarily suspend pre-conceived ideas and
become a simple observer of the events recorded in early Genesis as
they relate to what we know from our scientific observation of Creation.
So now let us observe the
six
“pictures” of the furnishing or re-furnishing of our planet.
There are some surprisingly authenticating clues in
support of our proposition, as we proceed along the way and please
resist the
temptation to 'read into' the text some preconceived ideas.
Day One
Genesis 1:3 And God said, "Let there be light," and
there
was light. Remember this is an 'earthside' view of events and
this is the first act of reconstruction. Our
primeval world is wrapped in a dense water vapour cloud blanket and
clothed in
blackness caused by vast amounts of suspended solid matter of cosmic
origin or
from the previously proposed
devastation. [See the "Reason to Believe DVD mentioned
earlier.]. Just as
later, God caused the “waters above the earth” - the cloud blanket, to
condense and rain in Noah’s day, so, ages earlier, the heavier dust
cloud of darkening matter was eventually settled or was returned to the
earth and
“there was light”. Henry Morris developed
the idea that antediluvian Earth possessed a stable canopy of water
vapour in the upper atmosphere that was precipitated in the flood and
only then was the rainbow seen. 4 God saw
that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And
there was evening, and there was morning-- the first day.
God is a God of order and
what He reveals is described in language common to the person recording
and those being informed. – “and
God saw that the light was good”. Notice only the light
was “good”. Darkness exists even without God – only light is the
result of a creative act. What the viewer saw was night and day
occurring at alternate intervals as it does now and he recorded that
this was so, crediting God with the power to create light or the source
of that light. What in fact had happened was, that with the
removal of the atmospheric dust cloud, daylight (and warmth) again
reached the ground as the earth revolved. Remember, we are seeing
all this from an earth-side perspective.
Day Two
Genesis 1:6 And God said, "Let there be an
expanse between the
waters to separate water from water." It would appear that
although the dust cloud obscuring the light had settled, the water
vapour blanket was virtually of fog density, even at ground
level. (This condition appeared to exist as recorded in Genesis
2:6 but streams [ Or mist ] came up from the earth and watered the
whole surface of the ground) This condition would raise the
ambient temperature creating a “greenhouse effect”. A further
creative act was necessary to bring about a separation, an “expanse”, a
space in which to establish a water cycle of evaporation and rain
causing a
moderating climate and where carbon based life
forms might develop. 7 So God made the
expanse and separated
the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was
so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and
there was morning-- the second day.
There is still too much
water as the whole earth’s surface was a sea and the whole sky an
unbroken cloud mass. Notice the absence of any comment as to
whether God saw the work of Day Two as good or not. Perhaps this
indicates that this stage was incomplete. It bears out the
thought that the comments on days 1,3,4&5 are a literary assumption
or observation, a sort of Certificate of Completion and as day two is
not yet complete but is only a stage, with further “work” to be
revealed on day three.
Day Three
Genesis 1:9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky
be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was
so.
The existence of an original single vast continent has long been
proposed by geologists (Gondwanaland)
and is later confirmed in
Scripture*2 10 God called
the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas."
The
Hebrew word “yam” translated “seas” is actually singular, “sea” a case
of translators not just translating but interpreting according to their
own theology. And God saw that
it was good. Notice “it was good” – not all creation is
yet
declared “good” but rather specific acts of refurnishing this earth, as
suggested earlier, a Statement of Completion as
another stage of
creation became functional.
Now we have achieved an
environment where carbon based living matter can thrive, we have night
and day, an oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, a warm climate, nutrient
rich earth and sufficient fresh moisture at ground level to support a
vast “Garden” in which an intricate array of life forms could flourish
and support one another both in practical and aesthetic manner.
We also have the sea in which myriads of specialised creatures may
exist and as a part of their later purpose, to supplement the dietary
needs of the higher land based beings. However, it is not yet
time for this “layer” of creation to be revealed. Perhaps the
various processes by which this environment was formed took place over
long periods of time.
Genesis 1:11 Then God said,
"Let the land produce
vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit
with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12
The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their
kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was
morning-- the third day.
The repeated statement
“according to their kinds” is a direct challenge to the idea of cross
species evolutionary
development. Each species, however or whenever it came into existence,
arrived as a distinct and complete creation. But, according to
traditional 24 hour Creationists, we have vegetation and fruit bearing
trees but yet no Sun. Of course, God could do it this way if He
so
chose - or would He? Would this not also involve tinkering with
the divine laws of nature and creation and cause confusion in the minds
of those this
revelation is supposed to be informing. If, however, we “see the
whole
picture”, we know that the Sun does already exist but is unseen to
human
eye due to the “waters above the earth”, the cloud blanket.
Tomorrow we shall know what the sun actually looks like.
Day Four
Genesis 1:14 And God said, "Let there be lights in
the
expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them
serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be
lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth."
And it
was so. Here, obviously, for the first time the heavenly bodies
can be seen, so from an earth-side view this visual revelation appears
to be from this side of the flood of Noah. This we deduce from
the recorded
conditions and events that: Up until Noah's flood, a dense cloud
blanket protected earth’s inhabitants from the cell damaging effects of
solar radiation, resulting in longevity of close to 1000 years. [ Note: this is a confirming
evidence not usually noticed. ]
After the greater part of the cloud blanket [the waters above the
earth] was condensed into rain at the time of Noah’s flood, life-span
shortened and a rainbow was seen for the first time. The presence
of a rainbow in the sky is a key clue to a major change in atmospheric
conditions. [ Note: This
is the second piece of confirming evidence usually ignored.
] 16
God made two
great lights-- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light
to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the
expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and
the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was
good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-- the fourth day.
There have been many efforts to
explain the presence of day and night
before the creation of the sun, however, if we can see the overview of
what is being revealed here we have no problem. From the viewer’s
standpoint, the sun's form only became visible on the fourth day – it
had in fact
been there all the time but from the narrative point of view, could not
be seen. [Of
course the sun was there, for we are told so in the very first verse,
or would our 6 day
creation
friends have us believe that the “heavens and the earth” were made
without our sun, (or other heavenly bodies) which was provided as a
sort of after-thought on day
four?] Here
we might again mention that the whole idea of night and
day or a separation of light from darkness is only experienced from
earth-side. There is no regular separation of light and darkness
in outer space unless the object we observe from rotates, as does the
earth. Some other near planets in our system do not rotate, so
have
continual night or day and extremes of temperature on opposite
sides. Rotation, "evening and morning" ensures even temperatures
essential for life and
an observable night and day.
It is also worth mention
that the words “separate light from darkness” in both verses 14 and 18
are a repeat of what had already been done on day one, [verse 4] so we
see that this is indeed a verbal description of a visual experience by
the writer, confirming what already existed and not a literal word by
word account of six sequential events. Otherwise, light and
darkness were separated several times. (?) In practice, that
“separation”
takes place at roughly 12 hourly intervals and has done so since our
earth first rotated and orbited our sun.
Evening and Morning
So, did God have another long
term plan
that
made this creation so important? See "The Ultimate
Intention".
This diagram is intended to
illustrate the idea of
concurrent creation.
The length of each
bar does not necessarily signify the beginning or
end
of that segment, although Day 1 and 4 have historic starting points.
This
chart illustrates how a
sudden change of
environment and diet took place after the Deluge, the same two
factors that rate high, even today, as affecting longevity.
V.K.Relf
Important Notes:
*1 Sin before the
Fall. Some claim counter to the above line of reasoning, that any
suggestion that any part of Creation was not perfect prior to Adam’s
sin, is incompatible to God’s repeated statements that “it was
good” - The inference is that perfection meant immortality which is an
error. They say that it is inconceivable that there was suffering
and death before the fall, but this is a supposition not based on
Scripture. The “It was good” comment is only a literary observation or
“Certificate of Completion” of the actual work revealed in that
immediate context. The Apostle John writes: “He
who does what is
sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the
beginning.” 1
John 3:8. Without going into detail, let us
suggest
that the rebellion of Satan, “in the
beginning”, with a third of the
angelic host being cast out of Heaven, must have caused some mayhem in
the eternal realms as well as here on earth and this was certainly
before the creation event we are studying. It has already been
suggested that the condition of the earth at this time was a scene of
total destruction, [tohu v bohu], which may have been a result of
such
a cosmic altercation. It seems clear that sin and destruction
were
present long before the fall of Adam (Satan’s lie to Eve was in
defiance of God and was rebellion and sin even before Eve fell) and if
we understand this it throws a new light on the purpose of this present
creation and God’s plan of redemption. Paul speaks of the realm of
reconciliation being in the heavens, on the earth and under the earth.
Colossians 1:19 For God was
pleased
to have all his fullness dwell in
him, [Jesus] 20 and through him [Jesus] to reconcile to himself
all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Philippians
2:9 Therefore
God exalted him
[Jesus] to the highest place and gave him the
name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. It would seem that the scope of
reconciliation needed to be far wider than just humanity. God’s words
of
satisfaction after various “acts of creation” clearly applied as
recorded, to the specific acts to which they are appended. They
are the expressions, as understood by the writer [Moses?], of a
satisfied workman having brought order out of chaos, a thing of beauty
- indeed “beauty from ashes”.
A Divine stamp of approval.
We shall find, that the present creation is intended to bring forth a
divine
'remedy' to an hostile situation and it is yet, under the hand of the Creator, in the process of doing so,
although the "work" or means was "finished" at Calvary.
*2 Noah and the
Rainbow. After the flood of Noah it is significant that it was
only then that a rainbow was possible and seen for the first time and
that average human life-span dramatically shortened from near 1000
years to 120 and soon 70 – 80. [See chart of
Ancient’s Ages, above]. This is a point missed by
conventional wisdom. Both
these facts are consistent with the sun being visible and the absence
of the once protective shield of water vapour. Today we are
having further loss of protection as our industrial pollutants break up
the Ozone Layer and we are suffering increasing prevalence of life
shortening skin cancers..
*3 Peleg lived about or
after the building of the Tower of Babel when God confused the tongues
of the people, who were at that time all of one nation and one
language, so that they split up and moved apart. Here is the
Biblical account: Genesis 11:1 Now
the whole world had one language and
a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [
Or from the east; or
in the
east ] they found a plain
in Shinar
[ That is, Babylonia ] and settled
there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake
them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower
that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves
and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." 5 But the LORD
came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6
The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have
begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for
them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will
not understand each other." 8 So the LORD scattered them from there
over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why
it was called Babel [ That is, Babylon; Babel sounds like the
Hebrew
for confused. ]-- because there the
LORD confused the language of the
whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the
whole earth. – “the whole earth” – a single land mass. It
seemed
also about this time that the single continent or “the land”
was
divided. This would account for different separated people
groups
who eventually moved into different climate zones where environment,
food and a restricted gene pool began to create and emphasise racial
differences. If the disturbance was violent, many of the groups
would be so geographically separated and divided by dangerous seas that
there could be no intermixing for a long time, ensuring the
establishment of distinctive racial characteristics.
Genesis 10:25 “Two
sons were
born to Eber: One was named Peleg, [Peleg means division.] because in
his time the earth was divided; . . .” Some have suggested
the
“division” referred to was the separating of the language groups but
the word in the original is stronger than that, implying a cleaving as
in cutting a
canal. It is elsewhere in the KJV translated “river” 9 times and
“stream” once. We hear much these days of continental drift and
although what we measure today is minute, there is nothing to say the
original single continent was so structured as to rapidly divide under
the right influence. A gravitational disturbance from a number of
possible temporal or celestial events could trigger a change of balance
in the earth’s crust. And, remember, there was a great deal more
water trying to find equilibrium beneath the earth’s surface than
before Noah’s flood. Parts of the land mass may well have been
afloat and rapidly moved away from their original geographical position.
For an interesting
illustration, go to:
VKR 2009
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