geocreationism.com

In the creation account of Genesis 1, God makes several creative pronouncements:

“Let there be light” - Day 1 - Genesis 1:3
“Let there be a firmament…” - Day 2 - Genesis 1:6a
“…let it divide the waters from the waters” - Day 2 - Genesis 1:6b
“Let the waters … be gathered … into one place” - Day 3 - Genesis 1:9a
“…let the dry land appear” - Day 3 - Genesis 1:9b
“Let the earth bring forth grass…” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:11
“Let there be lights in the firmament…” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:14
“…let them be … to give light on the earth” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:15
“Let the waters abound…” - Day 5 - Genesis 1:20a
“…let birds fly above the earth…” - Day 5 - Genesis 1:20b
“Let the earth bring forth…” - Day 6 - Genesis 1:24a
“Let Us make man in our image” - Day 6 - Genesis 1:26

The most common treatement of these verses is that God is speaking objects and events into existence.  However, if (for example) the sun and moon and stars already existed on earth before God’s pronouncement in Genesis 1:14, then it would seem God meant something else besides “I will now create…” If He meant something else there, then it seems reasonable to investigate if His other pronouncements might also justify revisiting.

Genesis 1:3 - “Let there be light”
As described at GotTheBible.com, “The word ‘be’ simply denotes the ‘existence’ of the light, by whatever means or from whatever quarter it comes into the given locality. It might have been by an absolute act of pure creation or making out of nothing. But it may equally well be effected by any supernatural operation which removes an otherwise insurmountable hinderance, and opens the way for the already existing light to penetrate into the hitherto darkened region.”

Question: Geologically speaking, was there a time in earth’s history when a condition prevented there from being light?  Not specifically.  Geologically speaking, there has always been light upon the earth.  However, if we go back to when the earth had little to no atmosphere, we would see that even in the light, the sky was dark.  As we’ll see below, it was also very cloudy and was probably raining.  In addition, the sun was pretty dim compared to now.  Taken together, to an observer looking at the oceans, one would in fact see “darkness on the face of the deep.”  This begs 2 questions: 1)Was there such an observer? 2)Was there ever a situation preventing the darkness over the deep from disappearing?

The rest of Genesis 1:2 will answer our first question: “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  Therefore, God Himself was there to see the state of things.  (Specifically, it was Jesus)

Geology answers the second question. Based on the discovery of 4.4 billion year old zircon crystals, we know there was an ocean as long ago as 4.4 billion years, yet the atmosphere and ocean appear to date back only to 3.9 billion years.  Well, it was 3.9 billion years ago when the last in a series of large meteors crashed into the earth.  The impact would blow away the atmosphere, raise the earth’s temparature, and vaporize the ocean.  The water vapor would settle back again via rain, but the upper atmosphere would have to reform from outgassing and smaller meteor strikes.  Had the larger meteors continued, the atmosphere would never taken hold for good.  God’s pronouncement, looking at the dark sky over the deep, was to “Let there be light” where He was seeing, at that moment, darkness.  And you know what?  The large meteors stopped.  A primitive atmosphere formed, and over time the sky became light and bright!

So, geologically, we know when Day 1 occurred.  However, we should note something.  God was telling Jesus to remove the hindrance to the light. From this, we know theologically that more meteor strikes were in store.  However, at God’s command, Jesus stopped them. This confirms the “sudden” nature of their ceasing.

Genesis 1:6 - “Let there be a firmament…let it divide the waters from the waters”
The process preventing a firmament was the torrential rain that started even before Day 1, resulting from the huge amount of water vapor that had gathered in the early (but relatively warm) atmosphere, above the ancient ocean.  It is unknown how much longer the rain would have gone on for, but at God’s command, Jesus had the rain let up.  When He did, the firmament appeared, dividing the ocean from the heavens.

Genesis 1:9 - “Let the waters … be gathered … into one place … let the dry land appear”
This started about 2.4 billion years ago, when the earth’s crust had finally hardened, and plate tectonics was getting its start.  Until now, the crust was pretty steady, but Jesus disrupted this state.  The initial upheavals force the first mountains above the water.  The waters retreated, and the mountains dried.

Genesis 1:11 - “Let the earth bring forth grass…”
The process God set loose was something akin to Natural Selection.  What prevented it from happening earlier was the lack of dry land.  There still was no grass at this point, but the conditions preventing it from developing were now removed, and the process that would lead to it was set loose… God was “letting” the earth bring forth grass.

Genesis 1:14,15 - “Let there be lights in the firmament… to give light on the earth”
The condition preventing one from seeing lights in the sky was a thick haze in the atmosphere, caused by greenhouse gases.  As new plantlife appearred and matured, the atmosphere was transformed, and the heavenly lights could now be seen through the firmament.

Genesis 1:20,22 - “Let the waters abound… let birds fly above the earth… let birds multiply on the earth.”
The condition preventing the waters from abounding was the KT impact 65 million years ago.  There actually had been sea life already, and birds, too.  However, once the KT impact occurred, there wasn’t much of either left.  The waters were no longer “abounding”, but in the aftermath of the KT impact, the waters would abound again.  As for the birds, the life that existed before the KT impact preyed on them pretty heavily, not allowing them to rule the skies to much of an exent.  However, with most land life now gone, there was nothing preventing the birds from multiplying and ruling the air.

Genesis 1:24 - “Let the earth bring forth…”
There was a point after the KT impact when land life just exploded.  It would seem that God was holding back evolution again.  But with this pronouncement, he let the earth loose to bring forth animals of every kind.

Genesis 1:26 - “Let Us make man in our image”
Until this time, nothing God had the earth produce was in God’s image.  This pronouncement changed that, and mankind appeared on the earth.

A note about overlapping
The beauty of it all is that the geological events corresponding to the Days of creation are logically sequenced to match the order of God’s pronouncements.  The key is that God did not actually create the final product of His pronouncement on a given day, but rather, His action removed any hindrance from preventing the object’s creation.  Therefore, even while an object’s arrival in the fossil records is occasionally out of sequence with the Days of creation, the removal-of-hinderance needed for that object’s development is geologically in sequence with the Days of creation.  Bottom Line: Geology records God “letting” in the same order Genesis 1 does.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 12:07 am and is filed under Word Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.