Creation, Part 8

Creation, Part 8

The First Day (The Year of the World 46,128 B.C.)

The creative days of Genesis were actually epoch days consisting of geologic periods, most logically of equal lengths. It is unnecessary to insist that these days were only 24 hours since the same word for “day” (Hebrew “yom”) is elsewhere used to denote longer periods also termed a “day”: Note Psa 95:8, “the day of temptation in the wilderness” (40 years); Gen 2:4, “in the day that … God made the earth and the heavens” (covering all six epoch days, 42,000 years), Acts 17:31, “He has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness…”(the millennial day, 1000 years).

Having we hope proven from our study of The True Bible Chronology that the seventh day of creation is to last 7000 years until its completion, and knowing the Almighty to be a God of order and purpose it is but reasonable to assume that the previous six creative days were likewise of the same duration. Since we know that Adam was created at the very end of the sixth creative day in 4128 B.C. we simply add 42,000 years to this and we have the date of the first creative day 46,128 B.C.)

 Genesis Verse 3-5

And God said, let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided between the light and the darkness, and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the First Day.” (the end of the first 7000 year day, bringing us to the year 39,128 B.C.)

The nature and physical cause of light is as yet but imperfectly comprehended–no satisfactory solution of the query, what is light? Has yet appeared we do know, however, that it is a prime essential throughout nature; and we are not surprised to find it first in the divine order when the time came for divine energy to operate upon the waste and empty earth to prepare it for man.

The nature of the divine energy represented by “brooding” would seem to be vitalizing, (empowering) possibly electrical energies and lights such as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. Or, possibly, the energy brought down some of the heavy rings of aqueous and mineral matter, and thus the light and darkness, day and night, became distinguishable, though neither stars nor moon nor sun were in the slightest degree discernible through the heavy canopy (mist) and rings, which still enveloped the earth.

“God’s spirit “hovering” or “brooding” upon the face of the waters is a very intriguing description of his very first act in this epoch. This was Divine Energy radiating outward upon the primitive seas, producing what only Divine Power can accomplish — the appearance of the earliest forms of life. It is gratifying to note that science agrees with this sequence that earliest life stemmed from the oceans! However, these earliest marine creatures were not crude or partially developed, as some would portray them, but were complex wonders in their own right.”

Evening and morning–Day One” As with the Hebrew solar days, so also with these epoch-days, the evening came first, gradually accomplishing the divine purpose to its completion, when another 7,000-year day, apportioned to another work, would begin darkly, and progress to perfection. This period, or “day,” is scientifically described as the Azoic, or lifeless period, also dubbed the inorganic era.

Rotherham suggests the “light” of this day was diffused, in contrast to the more distinguishable light afforded on the Fourth Day. (Opaque Cloud Opacity: This describes thick clouds which do not allow light to pass directly, although light can diffuse through them. Such thick clouds often look gray. At such times it is almost impossible to tell where precisely the Sun is. The sun being concealed from view nevertheless illuminated the Canopy, which diffused its light to Earth’s surf. Although the picture above is most likely thick fog or midst it gives somewhat an idea as to what we are describing.) This is consistent with the * Vailian or Canopy theory, which visualizes the earth as a flaming mass shortly after creation, a glowing waste, which vaporized the waters and other minerals into bands or canopies that encircled the earth.

Likewise alluded to in Job 38:9 where the Lord in reference to the creation of the earth states, Where were you, “when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band “ As the various rings or bands cooled, they fell back to earth in layered deposits, allowing the atmosphere to gradually clear.

Note the following definitions as given by Strong’s

6051, “clouds” as covering the sky

3830, “garment” clothed with

6205, “thick darkness” from 6201 to droop; hence, to drip, drop down, gloom as of a lowering sky

2854, “swaddling band” a swathing cloth, figuratively swaddling band

Note the definition of “swaddle” as taken from the New Oxford American Dictionary, to wrap someone (or something) in garments or cloth. Now also the word “swaddling clothesnarrow bands of cloth formerly wrapped around a newborn.

The analogy given here in Job appears to confirm the Canopy Theory, that at one time the earth was covered in darkness by a thick layer of clouds consisting of waters and minerals, which had risen up as gases due to the extreme heat of the earth, and that these encompassed the earth in an impenetrable canopy extending for miles around the earth in every direction. Pictured above is Venus, the earth at one time may have resembled this, shrouded in a garment of clouds as it slowly cooled and its rings one by one fell to the earth.

Note: a distinction should be made between “rings and bands”, i.e. layers of clouds consisting of various gases, minerals and water forming the atmosphere, and “rings” as in those which are found circling several of the gas giants. These outer rings are made up of dust, rock (minerals) and ice. Although it is possible as alluded to in one of our earlier posts that the early earth may have had such rings especially in its infancy when forming its first primordial atmosphere, barring the fact that it was a much hotter world and spinning at a much faster rate days lasting a mere 2-5 hours, nevertheless we would assume that by day one of creation due to its much cooler temperature (still hot, but now able to form a much more solid surface), this and its much slower rotation speed due in part to the size and gravitational friction of its new moon, that if there were any rings circling the planet  they would have long since disappeared most likely having rejoined the clouds circling the earth.


NOTE: Here we would like to amend our previous statement that by the first creative day the earth had lost its rings, further investigation and study now leads us to believe the rings were still there. This will become more evident as we continue our study.


*The author of the Vailian Theory, Isaac Newton Vail, a Quaker, was born in Ohio in 1840, where he taught school, later becoming an oil and gas prospector. In 1874 he published a pamphlet called The Waters above the Firmament”, now although we believe the general premise of his theory appears to be sound and in harmony with the record of creation as it is depicted in the Bible, we nevertheless understand it to be only a “theory”, not all of which we are in agreement with nor agrees with known science. However it does seem rather coincidental that this particular view or “theory” should be published when it was (in A.D. 1874).

Likewise consider the fact that it is clearly stated that the sun and the moon did not appear until the fourth day (Gen 1:14-19), and since logically the sun and the moon had existed prior to this even from the beginning when God first created the heavens and the earth then obviously something obscured these “two great luminaries” from view. 

We shall examine the second “day” or epoch in our next post.

 

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