The biblical creation history is found in Genesis 1:1-31, Genesis 2:1-25, Exodus 20:11, Exodus 31:17, Job 38: 1-41, Job 39:1-30, Job 40:1-24, Job 41:1-34, and Psalm 104:1-35. The Holy Scriptures reveal that God created and later renovated the universe in six short 24-hour days with no time passing between each creation day. On day one, God created the entire universe. The words HEAVENS and EARTH are paleo-Hebrew expressions for universe. God created the universe in an unformed and unfilled condition before He reshaped the planet Earth into a gigantic spherical watery mass as described in Genesis 1:2 and then He divided the light from darkness in Genesis 1:3. On day two God separated the water from the air. On day three, God created the land and plants. On day four, God created the sun, moon, and stars. On day five, God created fish and birds. On day six, God created land animals and man. During this creation history, there was no death in the universe or on the planet Earth, and God proclaimed all His supernatural work as good. The six days of creation contradicts all evolutionary models, which claims death predates humankind. Although the Holy Scriptures reveal no specific date for the creation week, biblical analysis and real science supports a recent creation less than 10,000 BCE.
GOD’S CREATION METHOD
God creates by the power of His words. This means that God spoke the universe into existence from invisible energy, according to Psalm 33:9, Isaiah 45:11-12, John 1:1-5, and Hebrew 11:3. This explanation makes no sense until we study quantum physics and string theory where we learn the relationship between invisible energy and visible matter. All matter has atoms, which have protons, neutrons, and electrons. Within these subatomic particles are quarks. Beyond the quarks are smaller energy particles, which behave like vibrating strings, generating waves of energy. This means that the correct quantum vibration of energy can generate and shape matter. String theory demonstrates that quantum physics support the Genesis creation history. Today, the most self-consistent string theories propose 11 dimensions; four correspond to the three ordinary spatial dimensions and time, while the rest are believed to be curled up and not perceptible to humanity, according to some theoretical physicists.
God also creates through a process of first forming and later filling. The first three days describe God forming the universe while the last three days records God filling the universe, according to Dr. Weston Fields. In other words, God form the light on the First Day before filling the universe with stars, galaxies, planets, and moons on the Fourth Day. God formed the Earth’s atmosphere and ocean on the Second Day before filling the sky and sea with flying creatures and marine life forms on the Fifth Day. God formed a single landmass on the Third Day before filling the supercontinent with land animals and humankind on the Sixth Day (Genesis 1:1-31 NKJV). Thus, day four completes God’s work on day one, day five completes God’s work on day two, and day six completes God’s work on day three. From Genesis to Revelation, God is always forming and filling, making order out of chaos, light out of darkness, life out of death, and success out of failure. Today, God is continually forming and filling the lives of believers daily.
LENGTH OF THE CREATION DAYS
For many young Earth creationists, they can determine the exact time frame of the whole creation week because Genesis 1:1-31, Exodus 20:11, and Exodus 31:17 all say that God made the universe in six ordinary days before he stopped working on day seven. However, many critics of the young Earth creation model point out that the Hebrew word for “DAY” has variable meanings. In Genesis 1:5, the author uses the same word as a term for a period of light. In Genesis 1:8 and Genesis 1:13 it appears to mean a day of 24 hours. In Genesis 1:14 and Genesis 1:16 it appears to refer to a 12-hour day. In Genesis 2:4, it appears to cover the whole period of creation. In passages such as Joel 3:18, Acts 2:20, and John 16:23, “that day” appears to mean the whole Christian era. In passages such as 2 Timothy 1:12 the expression seems to refer to the era beyond the Lord’s Second Coming. In addition, in Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.” In Number 14:34, Ezekiel 4:6, and Daniel 9:1-12 a day refers to a year. However, young Earth creationists argue that many of these days are prophetic days related to biblical prophecy, but never the literal numerical days of Genesis history. The Hebrew words used for ‘day’ (YOM) and ‘days'(YAMIM) in Genesis Chapter One leave no room for long creation days. The author employs the words such as the first day, the second day in the Holy Scriptures to describe literal days. When it says one day, two days, six days and the like, it always means literal days. The use of the definite article ‘the’ in the designation of the days imply a literal 24-hour day. The specific mentioning of the day cycle, “it was EVENING and it was MORNING’” further supports a literal solar day in the rendering of the word day throughout Genesis chapter one. If these days represented long periods, no life would survive with long periods of light followed by long periods of darkness. Earth’s temperature would be unbearably too hot or too cold. Because all life is interdependent, living systems had to appear in a short time to stay alive for mutual survival. Adam was created on the sixth day, and he died 930 years later (Genesis 5:5), which does not allow any room for long evolutionary periods. Additionally, because the six days form three pairs (days 1 and 4; days 2 and 5; days 3 and 6), the timeframe of the creation week appears to have been short. In the first of each pair, God forms the realm into existence, which He later fills with the objects or beings, which He creates in the second pair. Therefore, God reveals the creation week to Moses through a process of first FORMING and later FILLING in six literal days.
CREATION DAY ONE (GENESIS 1:1-5)
On the first day, God forms the entire universe with the creation of time, space, and matter. The Holy Scriptures begins with the universe’s creation when Moses wrote the words “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth” (Genesis 1:1 NKJV). The word for beginning sketches the creation of time. The word for heaven describes the creation of space. In addition, the word for Earth describes the creation of matter. In other words, this first verse describes formation of the space-time dimension along with invisible energy transformation into all matter, which is explained in Albert Einstein’s famous E=MC2 equation. This equation sketches the energy conversion into matter. The second verse describes the Earth after its original formation and after the universe’s creation: “Now the Earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the Earth’s watery surface and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2 NKJV).
The original universe was unformed and unfilled because it had no galaxies, no stars, no planets (except for Earth), and no moons. The darkness of outer space decorated the cosmos and only the planet Earth existed. The original planet Earth was unformed and unfilled because it existed as a gigantic mass of empty water (Genesis 1:2 NKJV). God’s Spirit moved on the watery mass and generated a spherical shape. All life on Earth depends on water to survive and function properly. Water allows plants to perform photosynthesis. Humans and animals need water to stay hydrated and for cellular respiration to work. Water contains the integration of hydrogen and oxygen (H2O). The Earth’s surface is the perspective of the entire creation history. This means that after Genesis 1:1, the author describes the whole creation account from the perspective of a geocentric orientation or from the view of the planet Earth’s surface.
God illuminates the first day when He said, “let there be light” (Genesis 1:3-5 NKJV). For some creation scientists, this form of light was electric plasma light originating from plasma matter somewhere in outer space. Plasma is the fourth state or phase of matter (Setterfield 2007). However, for other creation scientists, the light that reached the Earth was not natural sunlight. When God said, “let there be light” in Genesis 1:3, this form of light was supernatural light originating from the Creator Himself because God did not create the galaxies, stars, planets, and moons until creation day four (Baugh 2000). God’s light is much brighter than the noonday sun because Paul said Messiah Yeshua appeared to him as light brighter than the noonday sun (Acts 9:15 NKJV). The primeval environment surrounded the young Earth’s original atmosphere with thick darkness that only God’s light could remove the darkness. We read elsewhere in Scripture that God is light (1 John 1:5 NKJV). Messiah Yeshua said, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12 NKJV). We read in Revelation 21:22-24 that the Earth’s inhabitants have no need of the sun because God’s light illuminates the Earth’s atmosphere. God’s light flooded the universe and it generated additional matter and energy required for the formation of galaxies, stars, planets, and moons on the fourth creation day (Genesis 1:14-19 NKJV).
CREATION DAY TWO (GENESIS 1:6-8)
On the second day, God formed the Earth’s atmosphere and the firmament when He divided the waters. The pre-flood atmosphere was superior to the post flood atmosphere. This primeval atmosphere facilitated optimum genetic expression in all living systems, which contributed to the worldwide gigantism and longevity in all pre-flood life forms discovered in the fossil record. The Holy Scriptures describes this atmosphere as the firmament. The “waters above the firmament” describe the watery clouds surrounding the pre-flood Earth and the water in outer space. In other words, the firmament included the first heaven where the clouds move and the birds fly (Genesis 1:20), and it included the second heaven where the Sun, Moon, and stars are located (Genesis 1:14). However, the firmament did not include the third heaven where God and the angels reside (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
The Earth’s pre-flood atmosphere contributed to the primeval longevity and gigantism observed in all living system found throughout the fossil record. This probably accounts for the much longer life spans of the patriarchs recorded in the Bible where they lived to be over 900 years. The formation of Earth’s atmosphere formed a barrier between waters above and the waters below. The atmosphere is the Gaseous envelope that surrounds the planet Earth. Near the surface, it has a well-defined chemical composition. In addition to gases, the atmosphere contains solid and liquid particles in suspension. Today the scientific community has divided the atmosphere into five main layers: in ascending order, the troposphere (surface 10–13 kilometers); the stratosphere (50 kilometers); the mesosphere (50 to 80 kilometers); the thermosphere (80 to 480 kilometers); and the exosphere (from 480 kilometers). Most of the atmosphere consists of neutral atoms and molecules, but in the ionosphere, a significant fraction is electrically charged. The ionosphere begins near the top of the stratosphere but is most distinct in the thermosphere.
CREATION DAY THREE (GENESIS 1:9-13)
On the third day, God formed a gigantic landmass, a vast ocean, and plant life. The formation of the Earth’s super-continent included three main layers: the crust (on the outside), the mantle (underneath the crust), and the core (the Earth’s center). God made the core with an inner core and an outer core. Creation scientists sometime refer to the supercontinent that God made as Pangaea. Before the global flood, Pangaea covered about half the Earth and a world ocean called Panthalassa surrounded Pangaea. Early during the global flood, Pangaea began to break apart. Its segments, Laurasia (composed of all the present-day northern continents) and Gondwana (the present-day southern continents) gradually receded during the early post-flood days of Peleg (Genesis 10:25 NKJV), resulting in the formation of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. This means that 50 percent landmass and 50 percent water probably covered the pre-flood Earth’s surface, according to many creation science researchers. Most of the Earth’s water was located in deep chambers beneath the solid ground. This means that during the third creation day, the Earth changed from a watery sphere into a planet with an irregular surface with ocean basins and a single continental landmass covered with plant life. The plant life existed in the super-ocean and on the landmass in great diversity (Genesis 1:9-13 NKJV).
The super-ocean Panthalassa existed with the supercontinent Pangaea during the pre-flood generations. This ocean included the Pacific Ocean to the west and north and the Tethys Ocean to the southeast. This ocean became the Pacific Ocean, following the closing of the Tethys basin and the breakup of Pangaea, which created the Atlantic, Arctic, and Indian Ocean basins following the great flood. Scientists often call the Pan thalassic the Paleo-Pacific (“old Pacific”) because the Pacific Ocean developed from the great flood to the Present. Today the ocean covers nearly 75 percent of the Earth’s surface and major oceans and smaller seas divided the supercontinent. Land and submarine topographic boundaries surround the three principal oceans, the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian. Scientists call the region the Southern Ocean, the waters encircling Antarctica. Landmasses and island arcs partially enclose important marginal seas, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere… The largest are the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas, Caribbean and adjacent waters, Mediterranean, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Yellow and China Seas, and Sea of Japan.
The formation of plant life with self-sustaining reproductive capability was among the first life forms made on planet Earth. All living systems possess either DNA or RNA. DNA means deoxyribonucleic Acid. DNA is the chemical substance of genes. The DNA structure includes two strands wound around each other in a double helix to resemble a twisted ladder and Francis Crick and James D. Watson first described this structure. Each strand is a long chain of repeating nucleotides: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), and thymine (T). Likewise, RNA stands for ribonucleic acid and it consists of strands of repeating nucleotides joined in chainlike fashion, but the strands are single (except in certain viruses), and it has the nucleotide uracil (U) where DNA has thymine (T).
The DNA and RNA molecules actually carry the instructions for creating the biochemical information system we call life. DNA contains the actual blueprint for building life molecules, and RNA carries that information to other parts of the cell. We should think of DNA as being like a compact disk complete with complex information, and the RNA as the CD player. Without the RNA, the cells would have no way of understanding the information contained in the DNA, which is the information that will direct the protein molecules to form or repair living cells. The instructions for building RNA are contained in the DNA. This fact would be like having a CD that contained all of the instructions explaining how to build a CD player. However, if there were no CD player to play the information on, how could we ever get those instructions out? This means that DNA and RNA are chemically codependent because God created them into existence simultaneously, according to many creation science researchers.
CREATION DAY FOUR (GENESIS 1:14-19)
On the fourth day, God filled the universe with galaxies, stars, planets, and moons from the matter and energy created on the first day. These heavenly spheres were to function as markers for years, seasons, months, weeks, and days (Genesis 1:14-19 NKJV). The sun marked the day (sunset to sunset), the moon marked the month (new moon to new moon), and the stars marked the seasons (spring, summer, winter, and autumn). The pre-flood year was 360 days long, its month equaled 30 days, and its week equal seven days, according to some creation science researchers. Time as we know it began during this day; however, if we could measure the period of the first three days, each day would equal 24 hours in duration because Exodus 20:11 says God created all things in six days.
The light from the stars reach the Earth rapidly. The speed of light was faster during the creation week than it is today (300,000 km per second) because the speed of light has been slowing down since the creation week, according to astronomer Barry Setterfield. Animals and plants were able to survive faster light speed because the pre-flood atmosphere offered stronger protection from deadly outer-space radiation, according to Dr. Carl Baugh. The star light was also able to reach the planet Earth faster because of the gravitational space time dilation effect proliferating throughout the universe during the creation week, according to Dr. Russell Humphreys.
The creation of galaxies included billions of star systems and interstellar matter that make up the universe. The Galaxies vary considerably in size, composition, structure, and activity, but God arranges many of them in groups, or clusters, containing from a few galaxies to as many as 10,000. Each is composed of millions to trillions of stars. In many, as in the Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers can detect nebulae. Large fractions of the bright galaxies in the sky are spiral galaxies, with a main disk in which spiral arms wind out from the center. The Milky Way Galaxy is probably located near the center of the universe, according to Dr. Russell Humphreys. The stars in galaxies are massive celestial body of gas that shines by radiant energy generated inside it. The Milky Way Galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars and only small fractions are visible to the unaided eye. The Sun is a star around which the components of the solar system revolve. God made this star system less than 10,000 years ago. The sun is the dominant body in our solar system, with more than 99 percent of its mass.
The creation of planets included large natural bodies orbiting the Sun or another star system. The word planet comes from the Greek for “wanderer,” because the planets’ positions change relative to those of the stars. The eight recognized planets that orbit the Sun are, in order of increasing distance, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. God created the moon to be the sole natural satellite of Earth. The moon orbits from west to east at a mean distance of approximately 384,400 kilometers. It is less than one-third the size of Earth. Its surface gravity is about one-sixth that of Earth and its gravitational pull is largely responsible for Earth’s tides. The Moon shines by reflected sunlight. It rotates on its axis in about 29.5 days, in exactly the time it takes to orbit Earth, and it therefore always presents the same face to Earth. However, that Moon’s surface reflects the Sun’s brightness at different angles as the Moon revolves around Earth, causing it to display different phases over the month, from new to full.
CREATION DAY FIVE (GENESIS 1:20-23)
On the fifth day, God filled the sky with flying creatures and the ocean with marine life forms. These creatures included fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and insects. The fossil record show that these creatures were larger in size probably because they lived longer in an environment designed for maximum genetic expression. God created many other life forms during the Fifth Day, but the author of Genesis only mentions the fishes and birds. God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” (Genesis 1:20-23 NKJV). Furthermore, when God created all marine life forms and all flying creatures, this was probably the time when God made flying insects also. God made all of these creatures the ability to perpetuate their kind through biological reproduction. The creatures made on Day 5 are the first creatures blessed by God.
The creation of marine reptiles included the ancestors of the Leviathan. The Leviathan is the marine animal described by God in the book of Job (chapter 41) as a terrifying fire-breathing sea monster. The author describes the creature as a strong beast with a tough outer “armor”. Strongmen could not pull out the beasts with fishhooks and no warrior dares to fight the animal. This animal breathed fire and snorted out smoke. The Leviathan is a reference to an extinct animal that was alive and known to those that lived during the pre-flood and early post flood eras. This animal was probably a plesiosaur, such as the Kronosaurus, others have proposes it was the giant armored crocodile Sarcosuchus. The creation of flying reptiles included the Pterosaurs. God designed their wings with a membrane of skin, muscle, and other tissues stretching from the ankles to a dramatically lengthened fourth finger. God made some kinds with long, fully toothed jaws, and long tails, while other kinds had a highly reduced tail, and some lacked teeth. Many sported furry coats made up of hair-like filaments, which covered their bodies and parts of their wings.
CREATION DAY SIX (GENESIS 1:24-31)
On the sixth day, God filled the Earth’s landmass with animals, and humankind. This day’s work included the creation of land dwelling insects, reptiles, and mammals, flightless birds, along with sauropod and theropod dinosaurs. God created many other living systems during the Sixth Day, but Moses only mentions a few creatures and humankind. The global flood and post-flood climatic transformations caused massive extinctions that decimated many land animal kinds created on the sixth day. Paleontologists find the remains of many pre-flood animal kinds within the fossil record. God replenished the post-flood Earth with animals with superior capacity to adapt to changing environments. (Genesis 1:24-31 NKJV).
The behemoth is a large animal mentioned in Job 40:15–24 as God addresses Job. God’s description of this animal focuses on its great size and strength in comparison to Job’s smallness and human frailty. The biblical description uses the word behemoth to mean “anything of monstrous size or power.” Liberal skeptics identify the behemoth as a hippopotamus, a rhinoceros, or an elephant. However, the description of its cedar-like tail in Job 40:17 hardly fits the stubby or rope-like tails of those animals. Another theory is that Job 40 describes a dinosaur such as a diplodocus or an Apatosaurus. These sauropods were the largest of all land animals, they were marsh-loving plant-eaters with tails as long as trees, and they were all called “kings” of the beasts.
The author reveals that God created each living creature on the land “according to their kind.” This refutes the notion that all species of animals evolved from a single, common, primeval organism. It supports the scientific evidence that living creatures have adapted over time to their environment, while there is no convincing evidence that one species of animal has evolved into another. God created humankind in His own image. God saw everything that He had made, and it was “good” (1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). It is interesting to note that God declared all that he had made on the sixth day “very good” perhaps to stress the relative significance of this day in comparison to the prior days.
Before God creates humankind, the Creator takes counsel with Himself (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit), and “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26). These words are an early revelation of the Divine Trinity and they are part of the foundation for such, as God reveals a divine us within the Godhead. God makes humankind, and humankind is made in the image of God (men and women are made in God’s Triune image) and we are special above all other life forms. To emphasize this fact, God places humanity in authority over the Earth and over all the other life forms. God blesses humankind and commands them to reproduce, fill the Earth and subdue it. God announces that humankind and all other land animals are to eat plants alone. God’s creative work is complete by the conclusion of the Sixth Day. God formed the entire universe in all its beauty and perfection in six literal, consecutive, 24-hour days. At the completion of His creation, God announces that His creation was very good.
According to many creation science researchers, the first humans probably had medium-brown skin complexion before all the different ethnic populations came into existence during the early post-flood era. The Hebrew name Adam means red-man probably because God formed Adam out of the reddish-brown pre-flood Earth. Pre-flood humans was part of a single ethnic population with minor variations in physical appearance because the pre-flood super-continent contained similar weather and climatic conditions worldwide. Pre-flood humans lived longer than all post-flood human populations because the pre-flood climate was designed for maximum genetic expression. The human remains of Homo Erectus, Homo Neanderthals, and Homo Sapiens belong to human beings who were living during the early post-flood era, but many of the remains of pre-flood humanity are primarily lost to history. Today, only Homo Sapiens (modern thinking man) remain alive generations after the early post-flood period. God creates all the creatures that live on dry land. This includes every type of creature not included on previous days and man. God declares this work good.
CREATION DAY SEVEN (GENESIS 2:1-3)
On the Seventh Day, God concluded His work on creation; and He RESTED, not because God was tired, but because the seventh day of the creation week was a type of the Sabbath. This appears clear from Exodus 20:11 and Exodus 31:17 because Moses wrote that “For in six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the SEVENTH day; wherefore the Lord blessed the SABBATH day, and hallowed it.” In other words, this day reveals that God is establishing a pattern of one day in the seven-day week for humankind to rest, to reflect, to worship, and to enjoy life. The keeping of this day will eventually be a distinguishing trait of God’s chosen people (Exodus 20:8-11).
The seventh day also reveals the significance of the number seven. The first use of the number seven in the Bible relates to the creation week in Genesis chapters one and two. God spends six days creating the heavens and the earth, and then rests on the seventh day. This is our template for the seven-day week, observed around the world to this day. The seventh day was to be “set apart” for Israel and the Sabbath was a holy day of rest (Deuteronomy 5:12 NKJV). Thus, right at the start of the Bible, readers identify the number seven with something being “finished” or “complete.” From then on, that association continues because we find number seven in contexts involving completeness or divine perfection. Therefore, we see the command for a
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