Genesis 1:1-31
God Creates the Living Creatures
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 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." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Exodus 20:11
The LORD Created the Heavens and Earth in Six Days
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Isaiah 45:18
God Created Earth for Man
18 For this is what the LORD says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
“I am the LORD,
and there is no other.
God can create out of nothing...God is not in time...If God wants to, He can move in and out of time...He is eternal...The seven day creation as Moses writes in Genesis and Exodus, has many questions...Many questions are answered about creation in Genesis...But many more questions remain for man and the scientists who measure and calculate how old the universe and earth is...
The Hebrew word "yom" is used in different parts of Genesis and the Bible...Some words have different meanings or more than one meaning...The word yom for day as used in Genesis had more than one meaning...In Genesis, the Hebrew word yom or yowm does mean day...But it also can mean time or year...It can mean day (as opposed to night)...Yom can mean a day ( a 24 hour period)...It can mean as defined by evening and morning as in Genesis one...Yom was also used as a division of time...Yom can mean a working day, or a day's journey...Yom can also mean days, or lifetime (plural)...Yom can mean time or a period...Yom can mean a year, temporal references, today, yesterday, or tomorrow...So defining yom is an interesting one and we must read the word day in the context of how it is written in each story or section of the Bible...
Moses wrote Genesis and Exodus...In Exodus, Moses tells us the LORD created the heavens and earth in six days...He created the Sabbath on the seventh day and made it holy...But are these seven days, twenty four hour periods, or something else?...Could this time be God's Time -such as staying outside of time, or rotating inside and out our time periods and going inside our twenty four hour period, and going in our time frames and then going back into His "regular out of time period."?...Is this possible?...Could this still be the six days that Moses writes about in Exodus 20:11?...This is God, with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26)...Do the words created and made mean the exact same thing, or are they different in the original Hebrew manuscript?...
And why does this matter?...It seems it matters most to evolutionists and trying to define day, because those who believe in evolution see earth as old as eight to seventeen billion years old...As we read Genesis literally and believe yom is a twenty four hour period, we have an old earth and young earth debate come up...
Here in Genesis we learn so much about the creation of the earth, but there is much not explained and not understood (at least for this author)...In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...After He created the earth it remained formless and empty...It seems the atmosphere was created here, and created first...We are not sure how long the earth remains formless and empty, because we are not told...This is called the Gap Theory...There could be a gap in time for some who believe in this Gap Theory and the gap in time between verses one and two...If we read verse one as in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and stop right there, or pause -we can interpret the seven day creation, a little different...The Gap Theory gives wiggle room for scientists to believe a long time period (a gap) between these verses...God created the heavens and earth...Then there is this time period of some billion years...Then verse two starts the first day of God's earthly creation and everything on the earth...With this similar thought (on the Gap Theory), some believe that God did not create earthly time, the twenty four hour day, as we know it, until verse fourteen...If this is the case then the earth did not have time as we know it, until day four...So the earth could have remained outside of time formless and empty, for millions or billions of our years (however, we cannot measure "outside of time" so that would be only a guess)...So could the seven days be a combination of twenty four hour days, after verse fourteen and outside of time the first three days?...
We are told while the earth was formless and empty the Spirit of God hovered over the waters...It is possible this is the Holy Spirit, a participant with Jesus, involved somehow in the creation of the earth...We are told by St. John that Jesus was there in his gospel from the beginning...Jesus was with God in the beginning (John 1:2)...Jesus teaches us He was with God before the world began (John 17:5)...So God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus were there in the beginning as God created the heavens and universe...
In verse three God said "let there be light"...God separated the light from darkness...God called the light day, and the darkness night...And there was morning and there was evening -and this was the first day...On the fourth day God said let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the night and the day...Let this light and darkness serve to mark the seasons, the days, the months, and the years...So we do know that God created the sun and the moon and the stars... But was the sun created on the first day or the fourth day?...It appears that earthly time began on day four...If this is believed that time has been created by God on this day, day four -then maybe He is jumping from His Time to our know time...We are told this marks our days, our weeks, our months, our seasons, and our years...So is this (day four) the first twenty four hour period, and the first three days and created outside of time, and are they a period of fifteen billion years, or some other time period, or non-time period?...
God is perfect and rational...He understand all things...The universe was created by Perfect Intelligence, meaning, and purpose...God created the earth so that it is organized and self-sustaining...God created the earth for man...God gave the earth and the world these earthly laws commonly called the Laws of Nature...God allows these Laws of Nature to be how the earth and man survives and lives...Good things and troubles come out of the Laws of Nature...Families and fellowships come out of His creation...While He allows accidents, illness, genetic defects, hurricanes, raging storms, to also come out of the His creation and the Laws of Nature...So the way He created the earth, outside of Eden, has not only happiness, love and goodness, we also were give the problem of suffering and pain...God gives us free will to do the different things we do, and choose and decide how we live...The earth was not created to be empty...God created earth so man has everything we need to breath, survive, live, and as Isaiah writes to be inhabited...
God's Will does get done...God's Will always gets done...God's word is final...God does what He says...God is a patient and organized God...What really matters in all these discussions on six days and seven days, and creation is what does a day mean to God...