A New Earth
Posted: June 7th, 2009, 6:37 pm
The Bible ends with God creating a new earth to replace one which had been destroyed because of the sins of its inhabitants. A careful reading the the first chapter of Genesis shows that it begins in the same way.
The Bible begins with the statement that God created the heavens and the earth. But the next verse describes an earth which is imperfect and needs work done on it to make it suitable as a habitation for humans. There is no indicator of time in the second verse to show if this is still the time of the original creation or a description of conditions at a later time. If this is still the same time as verse one we would have to conclude that God created an imperfect world and then had to do some more work on it. It seems more likely to me that the world was created perfect but something happened to destroy this perfection. It seems probable that the condition of the world was one of the consequences of Satan's rebellion and the six days are not the original creation but the restoration of the world to its original state of perfection.
This view eliminates some of the alleged discrepancies between the Bible and the results of scientific research. Those who believe in a young earth say that all of the fossils of extinct animals are the result of the flood in Noah's time. The problem with this is that God told Noah to take two of every living animal onto the ark, and there are so many kinds of animal fossils that Noah could not possibly have had room for all of them. It seems more likely that most or all of these fossils were formed in God's original destruction of the earth. It is evident that when he restored the earth he didn't make as many kinds of animals as he did the first time.
The Bible begins with the statement that God created the heavens and the earth. But the next verse describes an earth which is imperfect and needs work done on it to make it suitable as a habitation for humans. There is no indicator of time in the second verse to show if this is still the time of the original creation or a description of conditions at a later time. If this is still the same time as verse one we would have to conclude that God created an imperfect world and then had to do some more work on it. It seems more likely to me that the world was created perfect but something happened to destroy this perfection. It seems probable that the condition of the world was one of the consequences of Satan's rebellion and the six days are not the original creation but the restoration of the world to its original state of perfection.
This view eliminates some of the alleged discrepancies between the Bible and the results of scientific research. Those who believe in a young earth say that all of the fossils of extinct animals are the result of the flood in Noah's time. The problem with this is that God told Noah to take two of every living animal onto the ark, and there are so many kinds of animal fossils that Noah could not possibly have had room for all of them. It seems more likely that most or all of these fossils were formed in God's original destruction of the earth. It is evident that when he restored the earth he didn't make as many kinds of animals as he did the first time.