The idea of some pre existing creation, I think is an idea to compromise with science...The way void and formless is interpreted by some does not allow for any Pre Adamic race.
If the earth
became void and formless then there is allowance for a Pre Adamic race before it
became void and formless. Even though I believe this race would not have been intelligent man, but primitive animal.
"It was not in the form it now is, otherwise it must have a form, as all matter has
It was formless and empty in that it was not in a condition suitable for life, which is why it was created in the first place (Isa 45:18). A planet like mercury would be considered formless and empty, biblically speaking. If it has no kind of life, or does not contribute to life in any way, then it is formless and empty.
This is probably why the other planets were not mentioned in the Genesis 1 account, but only the moon and stars, because those other planets were also formless and empty, and still appear to be.
You mean like some kind of cake soup...a box of cake mix with three quarter cups of warm water added, then all blended up together waiting to be baked?
That sounds like a reasonable hypothesis, but until a single hypothesis is verified to be true then your guess is as good as mine.
it was...a waste and desert, empty and destitute of both men and beasts...of fishes and fowls, and also of trees, herbs, and plants."
Yes...as well as of Dsungaripterus, Elasmosaurus, Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and the like
, because they had all become extinct by the time of the formless, empty ‘cake soup’.
"b. Some have sought to translate the idea in this verse as the earth became without form and void...through the destructive work of Satan. However, this is not the plain grammatical sense of the Hebrew."
The Hebrew was not concerned with the Pre Adamic age, but with the earth as is today.
However, that fact that a Pre Adamic earth that was formless, empty, dark, and buried in water existed, as in Genesis 1:2, in addition to the fossil records and other scientific evidence, we can reasonably conclude that the earth
became formless, empty, dark, and buried in water, perhaps because of some cataclysmic event that obliterated its biosphere.
We now live in a new biosphere that was created in six days specifically for man in God’s image. This is why God gave man dominion over this Adamic earth instead of giving it to the Pre Adamic dinosaurs.
Genesis - Chapter 1 - David Guzik's Commentaries on the Bible on StudyLight.org :
"Most "Gap Theory" adherents use the theory to explain the fossil record, assigning old and extinct fossils to this indefinite gap."
This is probably in part because it makes a lot more sense than to believe that Noah packed thousands of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous giant species, a male and his female, into his tiny little wooden boat for shipment.
"iii. Whatever merit the gap theory may have, it cannot explain the extinction and fossilization of ancient animals."
Maybe science has the answer since the bible is not concerned with the Pre Adamic earth. I believe true religion and good science are compatible.
Maybe it was a Pre Adamic flood since Genesis 1:2 speak of the earth as being buried in
deep water.
Or maybe it was a
cosmic lightning bolt that swept across the face of the earth.
"The Bible says plainly death came by Adam (Romans 5:12), and since fossils are the result of death, they could not have happened before Adam's time."
Death is a result of sin. Any form of conduct that is contrary to the will of God is sin. Death is the consequence of such conduct.
Death came into this present world through Adam, but this does not mean that death could not have occurred in the Pre Adamic world since Satan (the author of sin) existed long before Adam.
I tend to lean toward the idea that animals can sin since they do conduct themselves contrary to the will of God, especially when they decide to kidnap and eat little children. Such animals are deserving of the
death. Otherwise, why would animals die because of the sin of man unless the animals themselves sinned also?
c. When God created the earth, He quite likely built an "old" earth, creating things in the midst of a time sequence, with age "built in."
Or maybe it was just accelerated growth of the earth's biosphere. But this does not refute the fact that a formless empty earth existed, as in verse 2, before the six days of the creation of that biosphere began, as in verse 3.
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
“
Created” implies a creation completed.
2 And the earth was without form, and void;
The earth could have
become that way if the job of creation was already completed as could be implied in verse 1.
Even though I believe the Genesis account were literal physical events, often times God uses literal physical events as metaphors of spiritual reality. E.g. Israel’s literal physical journey from Egypt to Palestine is a metaphor of the church’s spiritual journey from sin to righteousness.
The Pre Adamic earth being
formless and
void I see as a metaphor of
death.
and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
Darkness I see as a metaphor of
sin.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
The
deep waters I see as a metaphor of
burial (water baptism).
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Light I see as a metaphor of
resurrection (the sun (or Son) rising to give light).
4 And God saw the light, that it was good
What I also find interesting is that this Genesis 1
'resurrection' light occurs in the
third verse, and the first forms of life on earth occurred on the
third day.
Maybe the gospel of Christ’
death,
burial, and
resurrection for the
sins of the
whole world was being metaphorically proclaimed through the literal physical creation events, after all Christ was “
the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world”
...Rev 13:8.
and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
There is no reason to pick anything out of here, that was not done on the first day. All things listed are summed up as being the first day.
Well, from what I gather, the
first day began when God created and separated the
light from the
darkness and called the darkness ‘
night’ (
evening) and the light He called ‘
day’ (
morning). And the
evening (
darkness) and the
morning (
light) were
the first day.
Whatever occurred before this ‘
morning light’ was created would not be considered as being a part of the
first day since the
first day is composed of this newly created '
morning light'.
