The Solution

The solution to this dilemma is found in God’s Word. We need to come to the Word and allow it to provide the answers and not impose our preconceived ideas on it. This is particularly true when we look at the first two verses of Genesis.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
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. Genesis 1:2

The Word of God states that God created the heavens and the earth “in the beginning”. It doesn’t specify 4,000 years nor does it 40,000,000,000 years, it simply states in the beginning.

In verse two it says that the earth “was” without form and void. Two of our greatest biblical scholars E. W. Bullinger and F. J. Dake have, in their reference bibles shown that this word “was” in the text must be rendered “became”. Bullinger references numerous places when this word is similarly rendered: Gen 2:7; 4:3; 9:15; 9:26 and Exodus 32:1. God did not create the heavens and earth without form and void, it became this way. 2 Peter 3:5-6 says of this original heaven and earth”

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:
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 2 Peter 3:5-6

This world that was created in Genesis 1:1 perished. In the phrase “without form and void” the words without form could also be translated wilderness, wasteland, vanity and chaos. The American Standard Translation renders it as “was waste and void“. The reference notes from the Scofield Study Bible refer to a “catastrophe”. Also the Nelson’s NKJV Study Bible says the earth had been reduced to the state of chaos, in its notes on this verse. This “without form” is also translated “confusion” in three other places, yet “God is not the author of confusion” as I Corinthians 14:33 says. In James 3:16 it says “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Confusion, chaos, darkness and vanity are not attributes of God, but they were attributes of Lucifer after his fall (see Ezekiel 28:14-15 and Isaiah 14:12-15). In Isaiah 45:18 the Word says

For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18

The word “vain” here is the same word translated “without form” in Genesis 1:2. It is clear God did not create the world in chaos or empty, without form or void. So in the seven days described in Genesis 1:3 and following God put the heavens and earth back to a state where it could support life for mankind. Isaiah shows that it was inhabited at one time, but became uninhabitable. This process of making it habitable once again is what the rest of the first chapter of Genesis describes.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. Genesis 1:3-7

There are a number of interesting things in what are referred to as the first two “days of creation”. These days start with the same phrase that each of the days mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis do, with the words “and God said“, just as every day concludes with “and the evening and the morning were…“. It is of interest that verse 4 says “the evening and the morning were the first day“. Therefore the creation in verse 1 happened prior to the first day in verses 3 and 4. So, no matter which way you look at it, any claim to seven days of creation can not be Biblical since the first act of creation happened prior to the first day. In both day one and two it states that God “divided”; in day one, the light from darkness and in day two, the water from the dry land. The word is also translated separated elsewhere. God did not create things in vanity and disarray and then have to immediately separate them into an orderly fashion. When God creates He creates that which is “very good” not something that needs immediate repair. (For instance when He creates His spirit within the born again believer that spirit is perfect and complete in every way.) There was no dry ground after the calamity of verse 2 and so God divided the dry land out. This agrees perfectly with the fossil records observed by scientists. The word “made” in verse 7 means to fashion or to make, not to create. When the earth became without form and void God “divided” or separated and thereby put back in order His creation to “make” an environment that plants, animals and mankind could live in.

It must be stated that simply because the original creation precedes these seven days, this in no way implies that God used evolution to produce the heavens and earth. Evolution, as shown in another section, cannot be reconciled with scientific evidence or explain the origin of things nor does it have any place in a biblical understanding of God’s creation. There is enough evidence without postulating a “young earth” to discredit this hypothesis.

In each of the six days God worked, the phrase “God said” is used. In verse 3 “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” It does not say God created light here. The word create is only used biblically when God brings something into existence which never was before. Light already existed at this time.So God did not create light in verse three, He spoke it into being. In a practical sense the word “create” is only used three times, it is used in Genesis 1:1; 21 and 27 where it refers to the original creation, the creation of soul (breath) life in animals and the creation of spiritual life upon man. Every other act that is commonly referred to as creation, the Bible states that God “said”. When it comes to plant life God did not have to create it, the bible states:

And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Gen 1:11

The word “kind” is in the Septuagint the Greek word “genos” or genus. The phrase “after his (its) kind” is used in verses 11, 12, 21 ,24 and 25 as God establishes the genus of living things we enjoy on earth today. These genus are unique to themselves and their seed is in themselves. God did have to create when it came to animals, in whom in verse 21 were given soul life.

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:21

This soul life was created because it did not exist before. Therefore this soul life is different in essence to that which dinosaurs and other living things had prior to the earth becoming without form and void. This soul life was given to man as described in 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.    Genesis 2:7

In addition to this soul life man acquired, God also give him a form of life that is referred to in 1:27:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27

This is the third usage of create in Genesis, which is used for mankind. John 4:24 states that God is spirit. And this spiritual life man lost when he sinned (please refer to the page on faith to see how to rectify this situation in your life if you have not already.)

As scientists have demonstrated by way of carbon dating and other means, dinosaurs lived long before this time in Genesis 1:2 and following. This fits perfectly with scripture which clearly states that the old world perished. The life that these creatures had died with them and was not that which God created and gave to the genus of animals which now roam the earth. The Word states that the genus and species of animals which now inhabit the earth God created in the Genesis record. This is why the Word of God fits perfectly with the evidence of science. The Word however will never fit with the theory of evolution . The Word is truth and therefore gives knowledge about all things “that pertain unto life and godliness..” 2 Peter 1:3.