CREATION BY ETERNAL GOD IN THE BEGINNING
Part 7
July 28, 2014
Part 1 was put up on April 28, 2014 – Part 2 was put up on May 1, 2014, Part 2A – Part 2A was put on June 20, 2014 – Part 3 was put up on June 26, 2014 – Part 4 was was put up on June 29, 2014 – Part 5 was put on on July 12, 2014 – Part 6 was put up today July 27, 2014 – Part 7 is the final Blog in the Creation Series.
PARTS 6 AND 7 ARE A SUMMARY OF THE CREATION SERIES
When God Created the heavens and the earth he made them perfect and sinless.
When God made the Angels he made them perfect and sinless
When God made Adam &Eve he made them perfect and sinless
God placed Archangel Lucifer over God’s perfectly created Earth
And Lucifer led sinful angelic rebellion against God to become Satan
God’s first land mass judgment was a breakup of earth into a vast spreading tectonic plate system.
I contend there was only one continent when God created the earth in Genesis 1:1. Geologists call it Pangaea, which means “all lands.” When Lucifer and the angels that rebelled against God, this one landmass, Pangaea, began to break up and spread apart into a landmass that God made Tohu and Bohu because of the rebellion. It has been spreading apart ever since, and is still spreading apart in some areas, but undercutting and overriding itself in others. The spreading may have started billions of years ago, or as late as 150 million years in the past. I believe this breakup of this first land mass occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, and that the first part of 1:2 shows the results of that breakup.
Genesis 1:1,2 – In the beginning God created (bara’) the heaven and the earth. [2] And the earth was (became-hayethah) without form (tohu), and void (bohu); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (I covered this in Part 6)
For bara’, hayethah, tohu, and bohu, please see Parts 3,4, and 6.
Widespread tectonic plate motion proofs come from two different aspects of the earth’s magnetic field. These are the “paths of polar wandering” and patterns of magnetic reversals on the sea floor. We were able to see the plate movements over long periods of time because the long lines of magnetic force running between the north and south poles influence the properties of rock as it forms. Following World War II we developed the ability to map the entire sea floor of the world through many deep-sea explorations and satellite spectrographic photography in all the various colors of the spectrum. The heat seeking ability of detection by colors of the spectrum unveiled what had been hidden from man’s eye’s since his creation in the Garden of Eden, the great cracks in the crust of the ocean and sea floors that extended down to great underground lakes of molten magma. One of these great cracks is now identified as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and, along this crack, since the breakup of Pangaea, liquid lava has been flowing upward, hardening instantly when its hits the waters on the Ocean sea floor. This phenomenon has been spreading the European and African continents apart from the North and South American continents at a very, very, slow rate, averaging perhaps only a few inches per year. We know it has been a very slow process by the interaction between two things in God’s creation, the change of state occurrences in rocks when they change from liquid to solid, and the constant shifting of the earth’s magnetic field. Volcanic rocks cooling from the lava become magnetized in the direction of the earth’s magnetic field when they cool to a solid state. The lines of force in the magnetic field occur at different angles at earth’s different latitudes, being horizontal at the equator and vertical at the poles. By using a sensitive instrument called a magnetometer one can determine the direction of the magnetic poles and the magnetic latitude at the time the rock was formed into its solid state. Studies of magnetic properties in rocks show that the continents have changed their positions relative to the earth’s magnetic field during the geologic time since the fall of Satan and the associated breakup of Pangaea. The continents followed different paths relative to the magnetic poles, showing that they have moved relative to each other, which led to the proof that continental drift tectonic plate theory was correct, and that the earth has been slowly spreading apart for countless numbers of years.
Another proof of tectonic plate drift over eons of time were studies of the basalt rock magnetic properties across the surface of the entire earth, which proved that the earth’s magnetic field has reversed itself many times during the last 70 to 80 million years, There have been periods of 1 to 3 million years during which the magnetic poles have been close to their present locations, followed by similar periods during which the north and south poles have been reversed. At least nine reversals have occurred in the last 5 million years. The present period of “normal” polarity began about 700,000 years ago, and was preceded by a period of reverse polarity some 2 million years before it occurred, which contained two short periods of “normal” polarity.
In the early sixties Fred Vine and D.H. Matthews postulated that since the earth’s magnetic field had been reversed intermittently, then new basalt forming at the crest of the Mid-Atlantic ridge during geologic time would have experienced a process of being magnetized, and that it would have to be according to the earth’s polarity at that time. As spreading of the ocean floor progressed, a series of normal and reversed magnetic strips should have been produced symmetrically from the center of the ridge. Each band of new rock moving on the ocean floor to the east on one side of the crack, and to the west on the other side, should have kept the original magnetic declination it received at the time of its formation from liquid to solid, and each section on either side of the crack should have a matching section equal distant on the other side of the crack. So, if their postulation was correct, the result should have been a matching set of parallel bands of normal and reversed magnetized rocks on either side of the ridge. The use of magnetometers across the Atlantic Ocean floor proved their theory to be a fact.
Dr. L.D. Foreman, whom I loved dearly, and who was a kind friend to me in my early years as a believer, believed the earth did spread apart, and was a proponent of the Gap Theory, but he believed the continents began to spread apart in the days of Peleg. The only time we ever fully discussed “when” I believed they first begin to spread apart was in the break room of the ABA Texarkana book store shortly before he went to the Solomon Islands, where he died of a heart attack while baptizing a new convert. I really don’t know if I would ever have been able to bring him to believe what I concluded about the land spreading in the days of Peleg, because I never had the opportunity after our Texarkana meeting, but I intended to try. There were some geological, geographic, and archeological discoveries in Iraq that did not really come to light until the fifties, and they tend to indicate a different interpretation of Scripture dealing with the days of Peleg. They involve the discovery of a canal, or as the ancients of that day called it, “a rill”, or a watercourse, for travel and irrigation of the land.
According to Strong’s Dictionary of Old Testament Words, the Hebrew word PELEG means: “A rill (i.e., a small channel of water, as is used in irrigation).” The Indian custom of naming their children after historical events that occurred near or at their birth, which is still done at times in our present day culture, was quite common among the ancients, and I am persuaded that Peleg was named for a historic event among the ancients of his day. Peleg was born some 100 years after the flood, at which time civilization was limited largely to the fertile valleys that lay between the Tigris and Euphrates River, which both emptied into the Persian Gulf. So the event was a major one for the known world of that day. In the following Scripture the word translated “earth” is the Hebrew word “erets,” and in the context of this verse it means only the land surface that made up the known world at Peleg’s birth. Young’s Analytical Concordance lists the numbers of ways it is translated in the KJV.
Country – 140 times
Earth – Frequently
Field – 1
Ground – 96
Land – Frequently
Nation – 1
Way – 3
World – 4
So, as you can see from the table, earth or land is the usual meaning of it. We often refer to fertile soil as the good land of the earth.
Genesis 10:25 – And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth (erets) divided (palag); and his brother’s name was Joktan.
We now know that the earliest civilization, which lived in the wide fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, built what they would have called a rill or watercourse, but which we would call a canal. It was used for irrigation between the two rivers, and to transport trade goods from one river population to the other by small boats, rather than having to cross either river.
PALAG, translated as “divided,” is rarely used in the Old Testament, and only four occurrences are listed in Young’s Analytical Concordance. It’s a primary root and according to Strong’s Dictionary, it simply means: “to split.”
So, putting this all together, I do not believe this is when the continents, as we know them today, began to move apart at the speed of ocean liners. I believe the one continent that God created in Genesis, which geologists have named Pangaea, began to break apart very slowly when Lucifer rebelled against God between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, and they have been very slowly drifting apart for countless numbers of years.
I believe that Peleg was named for the peleg (rill or canal of water) that was made when the erets (land) was palag (split), and which did indeed separate the known world of civilization into two sections, a northern half of the Tigris-Euphrates River valley, and a southern half ending at the Persian Gulf. I believe it likely that the rill had just been completed when Peleg was born, and his name was used as a historical marker of the event.
Genesis 1:2 – And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
In the discourse that follows I will attempt to correlate Genesis 1:1-3 with II Peter 3:3-8.
II Peter 3:3,4 – Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
This was the first single land mass continent that stood alone out of the seas and oceans of our planet. It was given the name Pangaea by Alfred Wegener in 1915 in his book, “The Origins of Continents and Oceans.” It correlates with II Peter 3:5.
II Peter 3:5 – For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
Genesis 1:2a – And the earth was (hayethah) without form (tohu), and void (bohu); and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
This is what the earth became when Satan rebelled against God. After Satan had tried for many years to create a living bios creature with a soul, he utterly fell on his face, and all of the created beings of God watched him fail. It was at the end of Satan’s failure that God flooded the earth, and the land dwelling creatures on the earth ended abruptly and suddenly. Thus the Genesis 1:2a correlates with II Peter 3:6.
II Peter 3:6 – Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
Genesis 1:2b – And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
This is when the Spirit of God fluttered over the surface of the flood that covered the earth, like a dove hovering over her eggs she previously laid to give them protection and warmth to come to life. This is when the waters began to recede off the earth, and it eventually became the divided earth much as we know it today. This verse correlates with II Peter 3:7.
II Peter 3:7 – But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Genesis 1:3 – And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
This verse marks the beginning of the penetration of light that had only been able to keep the earth in a state of scattered, diffused, refracted, and reflected light for a very long period of time, but now it begins to break through the great cloud shroud around the earth, and marks the start of God’s six days of re-creation of his original creation because of Satan’s rebellion.
During the re-creation God made most of what he made out of what was already here from his first creation. You will find the word ‘asah used in those cases. But he also initially created some things for the first time in the six-day re-creation. In those cases you will find the word bara’ was used.
I do not mean to be rude, or difficult to get along with, but because I got tired of having to try to tell people what I believed about creation in ten words or less, I did not address the subject in my 27 years of lectures in churches, seminaries, colleges, universities, and institutions of higher learning. I have seen as much controversy on this subject as I have on the rapture question. I am tired of controversy and flying dust among the brethren, and having to defend my positions in such a wide area of disagreement, so if you send me questions on these two subjects, you may not get an a reply. Let me put it simply: I believe that God created the heaven and earth, that he created Adam on the sixth day, that the days were 24 hours long, that Adam did not evolve through evolution, that Jesus was the second Adam who died for my sins and is my Savior, and that he is coming sometime soon for me. I really don’t have the time or inclination to get involved in something less important than what I have just stated.
Dr. L.D. Foreman was a close friend who encouraged me very early in my ministry to pursue the destruction of the earth by movement of the tectonic plates in the tribulation period. He asked me if he could include my material from Tectonic Chaos in the fiftieth, and last memorial, of his publication, and he included a lot of it in his anniversary publication. But there was one thing we differed on, and I discussed it with him at length in the cafeteria at the Texarkana Book Store shortly before his ill- fated trip to the Solomon Islands, where he suffered a fatal heart attack while baptizing one of the new converts. After Dr. Foreman published his book, “The Bible in Eight Ages,” certain topographical discoveries were made in Iraq, and I discussed it with him at length. Unfortunately we did not have an opportunity to continue the discussion after his trip to the Solomon Islands. I don’t know if I would have been able to get him to change his mind had he returned.
This is the end of The Gap Series. It runs from Part 1 through Part 7. I do not intend to say anything else about it. If anyone asks me what I believe about creation, what follows is what I proclaim. The first two Scriptures are what I know for sure about creation, and the last five are what I know for sure about the last Adam, Jesus. I preach the last five, and do believe they are more important than completely understanding the two in Genesis.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 2:7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
I Corinthians 15:45 – And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
John 6:62,63 – What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? [63] It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
John 5:40 – And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Romans 10:17 – So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Romans 10:13 – For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
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