Genesis 1: Where Shall We Begin?

The title of today's sermon is Genesis 1, Where Shall We Begin? Genesis 1, Where Shall We Begin?

Of course, we know the beginning of the Bible, the first verse, first chapter, first verse, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. It's well known in summary account of how God created the universe, all things heaven, skies and stars, and the earth. And let's just go ahead and read that real quick. It's going to become very much a focus of my message today. Genesis 1, 1 through 2, and then we're going to follow through with a little bit more of that first chapter as we begin. Genesis 1, 1 through 2, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And then what follows the remainder of chapter 1, verses 3 through 31, and then on into chapter 2, verse 1 through 2, is the description of the seven-day creation week of literally seven 24-hour days wherein God created a world suitable for humanity. And of course, the seventh day is part of that creation, and every Sabbath we gather together according to God's commandments, and that's part of what we should be thinking about each Sabbath, as God is our Creator, and He rested on that day, and so do we.

But let's go back to the six days of Genesis 1. Now each of these six 24-hour days in verses 3 through 31 are framed by two phrases. We call it a frame, but the frame is made of words. And so these words that frame it are, then God said, and in the back frame is so the evening and the morning of whatever day it might be. Now we could see these frames in verses 3 through 5, for example.

It begins first. It says, then God said, that's the first frame, then God said there will be light, and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness, He called night. So the evening and the morning were the first day. Evening morning is that back frame. Same thing happens, verses 6 through 8. Then God said, let there be firmament in the midst of the waters. Let it divide the waters from the waters, and this God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.

And so it was. And God called the firmament heaven. So the evening in the morning were the second day. And so on through each of these days we see word frames that help to identify all six days of creation, including the sixth day where we read in verse 26 that God created man, said about to make man, in his own image. Well, now Genesis 1 is very foundational to our understanding about God and also about the universe and all things in it.

And yes, that includes humanity. But for centuries there's been disagreement about how Genesis 1 should be understood. John Lennox is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University and a Christian apologist. Apologist means he defends the faith. He explains why we believe what we believe. He wrote a little book called Seven Days That Divide the World, the Beginning According to Genesis and Science. And it's an interesting book. And according to Lennox, he describes two opposing views that Christians have had for centuries.

We may think it's just something more recent in the last few decades, but it's really been around for centuries. He uses a definition to make these groups very broad, but the two groups fall in these two broad categories according to Lennox. He says, Christians have fallen to two groups, the first being those who believe the universe is young, that the universe is young, created about 6,000 years ago. And the second group are those who believe the universe is ancient.

Sometimes these broad opposing views are labeled young earthers versus old earthers, or maybe ancient earthers. I don't know if you've heard of that phrase. It's been buzzing around in recent years. So which one of these two views should we or anyone believe? Well, I should hasten to add, we should believe what Scripture says. We should pay attention to what Scripture says, do what God tells us to do, believe what Scripture reveals to us because God's Word is truth, and only God's Word provides us the path to salvation and true life.

The United Church of God teaches that the universe is ancient. It's ancient.

Why do we say that? That's the subject of today's message. Why do we believe from Scripture that the universe is ancient? We need to know and understand why, that is, even as Scripture reveals, not only for our own understanding, but so that we too can defend what we believe, that we too can explain to others why we believe what we believe. And so the title of this message, again, is Genesis 1, Where Shall We Begin? Well, we're going to begin the message now more directly. Let's talk about the two views. The first view is called the Young Earth Creationist View, the Young Earth Creationist View. Now, according to the Young Earth Creationist View of Genesis 1, the universe and the earth are young. They were both created 6,000 years ago. I know some of us are old and that doesn't seem so long ago now, but that's the Young Earth View. The universe and the earth were created about 6,000 years ago. Now, where does the number 6,000 come from? The number 6,000 comes from a calculation of the genealogies we find in Genesis and also the dates and years of kings and rulers from different parts of the Bible. When we put that together, and some of us may have done that early on as God was calling us and we were wanting to know more, we may have done something similar. You can do the tallying, do the math, and you can come up with a similar number. Archbishop James Usher used the Bible to come up with the date. Usher lived from 1581 to 1656. He's very much a man of Christian faith and a scientist in his own way at that time. He calculated that the earth was created in 4004 BC and a very good reasoning he even came up with. It was on October 3rd in the evening, is what he decided. And you can read some books about it. It's very interesting, and of course this man was being very sincere in his calculations. Now, he wasn't the first one to come up with the date of 4004. Others have done this in his time as well. Sir Isaac Newton, you may have heard of him, he's a gentleman that sat under the tree and an apple hit his head, is a story. And he said, oh, this is proof of gravity. He came up with a number of 4,000 BC. But it's Usher's that has become the popular date, primarily because it was published in a number of editions of the King James Bible back in the early, back in the 17th century, the 1600s. And so his date is stuck around.

And it is, we, our literature typically says around 4,000 BC. It can, depending on how you read different Hebrew words, that's generally what the Bible does say. Now, a young earth view requires that the scientific evidence relating to the age of the planet Earth, this would be evidence such as a fossil record, the strata, geological strata of rock, even meteor craters, all of that would have had to have happened within a very narrow window of time. It would have had to have happened within the last 6,000 years. And of course, they mainly will make the point that it had to have happened between the time of Adam and more likely in the Flood, between the time of Adam and the Flood. Many events, much evidence they attribute to the time of the Flood. If they, we typically our calculations say the Flood happened 1,656 years after Adam created, let's see, let me read this. That typically means Adam and the Great Flood, which occurred about 16,000, 656 years after Adam was created, that would have been sometime around 2344 BC if we apply a creation year of 4,000. And so again, all observable and objective scientific evidence would need to fit between the time of Adam in the Garden of Eden and the time of Noah's Ark and the Flood. Well, how does that work? How do they explain it? Because before 6,000 years ago, nothing existed. Nothing existed. Let's consider the fossil record.

Scientists say that various insects, marine animals, birds, other creatures of the earth, including dinosaurs, are obviously manifested in the fossil record of the earth. Scientists claim these records, these fossils actually, may be up to many, many millions of years old. Well, those who hold to a young earth, you see the fossil record as proof that these creatures existed. They were created during the creation week alongside Adam and Eve and their descendants. They were there with them. And because they're in the fossil record, these creatures would have died during the Flood. Their remains, they explained, became fossilized in the sentiment of earth caused by the Flood. And so that may explain for us why some people sincerely believe, and they believe this most sincerely, that's why some believe that Noah also had dinosaurs on the ark, that they had to have been on the ark. He had two or several of various animals.

Now likewise, the geological strata or layers of rock, which you can see in mountain sides you've ever seen where the highway's been carved through the rock. If you've ever gone to the Grand Canyon, you'll see layer upon layer upon layer. The Grand Canyon is up to 6,000 feet deep, more than a mile deep. In some places you can see it all the way down, all that strata of rock. It is evident, scientists say, that the earth is billions of years old. But the young earth view requires that those layers formed during the Flood, that all that rock was laid down in sediment from the Flood. And the Flood lasted beginning to end around a year, maybe 371 days. So within 371 days, according to New Earth View, all that layer of rock had to be laid down, because it has to fit their timeline.

Now there's also evidence on earth of asteroid impact craters. These craters that have left cataclysmic destruction behind, according to the New Earth View, they would have had to have cursed since the time of Adam. Why? Because nothing existed before the time of Adam. It all had to happen within a short amount of time. In the article, Jake Parks writes an article for astronomy.com. He reports that researchers have finally made some solid conclusions about the Chicxulub crater. That's a crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, and it's right in half the crater is actually in the Gulf of Mexico. He writes about this crater. He describes it this way.

He says the Chicxulub crater is evidence that a city-sized asteroid, other sources said this asteroid must have been six to nine, maybe 10 miles in size. Six miles is the distance from, roughly the distance from my house to Big Sandy. Hawkins to Big Sandy. It's a pretty big rock. It's a city-sized asteroid, a city-sized asteroid, barreled through Earth's atmosphere and gouged a 125-mile-wide crater in the Earth's surface, lofting plumes of vaporized rock and debris into the air that globally blocked out views of the Sun for years or decades. This is what scientists have decided. After that initial blast, the reduced sunlight caused Earth's surface temperature to plummet by as much as 50 degrees Fahrenheit, aiding in a mass extinction that killed 75% of life on the Earth. Moreover, another study shows that fine particles kicked up from the impact may have blocked the Sun and prevented photosynthesis for up to two years.

Now, scientists believe that the Chicxulub impact occurred, and we can breathe safe, they believe it occurred 66 million years ago. This is the asteroid many scientists believe killed the dinosaurs that wiped out the dinosaurs. But a young Earth view would require what?

The young Earth view would require this impact to have occurred within this very narrow window from Adam to Noah, Noah to the time of Christ, something like that. And there's no record of that in human history. That would have been known. Others say this asteroid strike would be compared to what we now talk about a nuclear winter. It would have killed all life on the planet.

Now, some may wonder by now, as I was when I was doing my research, some may wonder how anyone with a young Earth perspective could reject such convincing evidence that the Earth is much older than 6,000 years. And if you want more evidence, you can go online, you can read the new Earth view, you can read the old Earth view, there are many books about it, and it's a very interesting topic you might want to delve into it someday. But how could people believe that the Earth, how could they not believe that the Earth is older than 6,000 years? Well, the fact is, people are people. Many people simply believe what they think Genesis 1 says. It's what they've always been told. It's about the creation. There's only one creation, and it all happened 6,000 years. And human beings are prone not to look behind why things are the way they are. And I think we can understand that. If we did not grow up in the church, we may, until God started calling us, we never questioned why we keep Christmas, or why we do what we do. It's just what you do. It's just what we believe. And so, I guess I should say at this point, my sermon is not to ridicule or make fun of those with the new Earth view. It's simply to try and understand where they're coming from and to share with you the old Earth view and why it is we believe what we do. Others, so some just think what Genesis says is true, and that's what they believe. Again, others never really questioned what they've been taught or told. They just accepted as truth, and they accepted it. They can trust it. But then in my research, I learned that there's still others that hold to a young Earth creationist view. Some who hold to it believe that God created the universe with the appearance of being ancient. And so others will say, yeah, I see the Creator, I see the fossils, but that's just a masquerade God has performed because the Earth still is only really 6,000 years old. This idea is called the omphilis hypothesis. Omphilis is spelled O-M-P-H-A-L-O-S. It's an old word for belly button.

It's an old word for belly button. It goes back to this concept of beginnings, contemplating our beginning. How do we know what the beginning was? Because none of us were there at the beginning, and it's kind of a mix of philosophy, science, and faith. According philosophyterms.com, the omphilis hypothesis is, quote, an idea which says the universe might look really old with lots of history, like trees with growth rings or rocks layered over millions of years, but it was actually created like that from the start, with signs of age already in place. And it continues, even if all scientific signs point to an old Earth, this view says we might be mistaken because the world was created with those signs already in place.

And so it's really kind of amazing, and before we say what a crazy hypothesis, when I thought about it, I realized, what isn't that the way human beings are? They believe something so firmly they're going to hold on to that idea sometimes, even though the evidence starts pointing the other direction. And so we'll come up with other reasonings so that we can hold on to that belief. And so this omphilis hypothesis, it's really kind of hard to say. Omphilis hypothesis, it is a human way of reasoning around things that we want to believe or around things we don't want to believe. It's something we probably all need to be aware of and be careful of in our own minds. But the problem with this hypothesis is it does not correlate at all with what Scripture tells us about God and his character and how he is. To believe that God would somehow manipulate the evidence of his creation in order to hide the appearance of physical reality by intentionally making a young universe and earth appear old, that does not correlate with what Scripture tells us about God. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 14.33. Because we look at the evidence, we need to know, is it really real? And of course, you know, there are scientists, there are people out there that'll take the truth and twist it, but that's where we have to look carefully at the evidence. But as we're going to see here in a little bit, God has made sure that there is evidence out there in his creation that really anybody can look at and come to a right conclusion about God if they really would like to. 1 Corinthians 14.33, I believe we all know this one, for God is not the author of confusion. There, we know this. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. So Paul is talking about not having disorder in the congregations, but it's also a broader principle. The word for confusion can also be translated as instability, disorder, commotion, or tumult. God is not going to do things. It's going to hide the truth just to cause trouble for people. And that takes us to Titus 1, verse 2. Titus 1, verse 2 gives us another point about God, principle about God we can trust in. God does not lie. I'm breaking into the thought here. Paul writes, Titus 1, 2, he says, speaking in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, referring to the plan of salvation that's been around since before the creation.

And so God cannot lie. God is not the author of confusion. And let's now turn to Romans chapter 1 through 21. Romans 1, 20 and 21. God cannot lie. God is not the author of confusion. And here in Romans 1, Paul explains that God created the universe so that his attributes as our God and our Creator would be evident to those who would choose to seek him and believe that he exist. Romans 1, 20. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, they meaning those who want to pretend God is not their Creator. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile, and their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. So part of what we can take from this verse is that God has made his presence, his creation, the evidence of his creative power obvious to those that are willing to look for it and see it. To believe that God our Creator then would try to hide the age of the universe behind false appearances, it really maligns who and what God is, and it twists what Scripture is telling us about God. The heavens and the earth give ample evidence of God and his righteousness if one chooses to accept the truth, and true scientific evidence will reveal God's handiwork as the Creator. We do not need to fear science. We do not need to twist it to make it fit our personal beliefs, nor do we need to hide from it, ignore it, when the scientific evidence is objective, it's real, and especially when it clearly points as to God our Creator and to an ancient universe. We should not deny it. We should not deny that evidence.

So not understanding God's Scripture and denying the clear evidence of his creation will lead us to wrong conclusions about God and the age of the earth. We could even come to believe falsehoods and fantasy, frankly. But now I want to take us to the opposing view, the opposing broad view. We've seen what the new young earth tend to believe, a lot of their conclusions, how they deal with the evidence. Now let's talk about the ancient earth or old earth creationist view.

According to the old earth creationist view of Genesis 1, the age of the universe and the earth is much more than 6,000 years, but actually possibly millions or billions of years old. Genesis 1, as we've already read, declares that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And then Scripture provides other evidence from Scripture, other elaboration, explanation, to give more understanding to that Genesis 1-1 statement. For example, John 1, verse 1. Let's turn to John 1, verse 1. We learn a little bit more about the Creator, the creators, we could even say about the universe. In John 1, verse 1 through 3, we read, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things that were made through Him, all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Then Colossians 1, 1516. Colossians 1, 1516. We have a little more information added. Here God inspired Paul to declare that it was Jesus Christ who created all things according to the loving will and authority of God the Father, Jesus Christ was the Word. Colossians 1, verse 15. We read, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Then if we turn to Hebrews 11, verse 3.

Hebrews 11, verse 3 gives more interesting information about the creation.

In fact, it specifically tells us that God created the universe, including the earth, from nothing.

I've taken a long time to get there. Here we go. 11.3. Here we read, by faith we understand that the worlds were framed, the worlds, the ages, the, as we'll see how it could mean. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

Now this verse should give us pause. God created the worlds from nothing.

And yet, in Genesis 1.2, we read earlier, Genesis 1.2, we are told about this, a formless earth that was there, that existed, before the first day of creation, which we read in Genesis 1, verse 3. The first day of creation was framed by then God said, and so were the morning and the evening. And so verse 1 and 2 get set outside of that first day of creation in verse 3. So how does Hebrew 11.3, does it somehow support a young earth creationist view? Well, it can't. Let's keep going, because now we're going to see that there becomes obvious through Scripture there is a gap in the timeline between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1. What would it have been like to have seen that creation, to have seen the beginning, in the beginning? Is there any record of what that was like? There is. God tells us what it was like. We find it in Job chapter 38. Let's look at Job 38. Job chapter 38, verse 4 through 7, this is a section of God's discourse to Job. Job had wanted to have a talk with God and God in his loving patience, as we heard about in today's sermon, God patiently talked with Job and tried to give Job perspective to help him become, to grow in God's righteous character. Here we read how God describes how the angels rejoiced when he created the earth. Job 38, verse 4, God asks, Job, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements, surely you know, or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fashioned, or who laid its cornerstone? All these images, these metaphors, the line and other terms, are the sort of tools and techniques builders would have used in ancient times. These become symbolic of God's planning, God's care, God's wisdom and skill in creating the universe, and specifically here, creating the earth. Where were you when who laid its cornerstone? Then, verse 7, who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And so the angels were there. The angels were there when God was creating the earth. The angels are spirit beings. They are called sons of God here because God created them. In that sense, they are His children, His sons. They all re-existed before God created the earth. And note, that God says all the angels, all of them, what does all mean? All of them. All of them rejoiced, no doubt, at the beauty, at the splendor, at the beautiful wisdom and skill made clear to their eyes by God's action there. And so we get the sense that the earth was created in such a way that it was beautiful that the angels were moved to rejoice and shout for joy. But something must have happened. Something must have happened to God's creation because, again, we go back again to Genesis 1 and verse 2. Something must have happened to the earth because what we read in Genesis 2 is not what... it does not seem to fit what's described in Job 38 verse 4 through 7. Here we're told, again, the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep.

NIV reads formless and empty. The New English translation reads it as the earth was without shape and empty. Kind of sounds like a blob, not such a pretty thing, not quite as a joyful thing, perhaps. But again, that is not the way God created it. Isaiah 45 verse 18 gives us another picture, another idea of how God originally created it. He did not create it originally formless and empty. In Isaiah 45 verse 18, Isaiah, inspired of God, says, For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain. And that is the word tohu. Tohu, if you want to pronounce it that way, I've heard it pronounced different ways. He did not create it in vain, or tohu, who formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other. So again, we get the sense from Scripture that God did not create the earth. In this form we see it here in Genesis 1-2. He did not create it waste and empty. He created it to be inhabited. And so if we look a little more carefully back at Genesis 1-2, we'll see something else. And it goes back to the words that are chosen. The words that are translated from Hebrew into English. And editors and translators can manipulate these words if they are already working from a preconceived idea of what they sincerely thought was going on. And so in Genesis 1-2, the word translated in the English verb was gives us a hint. The word was is translated from the Hebrew word ha'ya, H-A-Y-A-H. The Hebrew word is H-A-Y-A-H, ha'ya. However, ha'ya can also be properly translated as became. It does mean was, past tense verb, but it can also be translated as became. How do we know? Look at Genesis 2-7. Genesis 2-7 gives us a real quick example. In Genesis 2-7, the same word is translated as became. Genesis 2-7 reads, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And man became, man ha'ya, a living being. He became a living being. And so, yes, you can translate that verb properly as became. And so the argument's been made by old earth creationists that that verb should be translated as the earth became without form and void. And that would explain the difference between what the angels rejoicing at and what Isaiah 45.18 tells us, and then what we actually read in Genesis 1.2. But the problem is Genesis doesn't explain what happened. Genesis does not explain what happened between verse 1 and 2. And again, there's a gap in the understanding. There's a gap in the timeline, we might say. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, verse 2 falls outside of the framing phrases of verse 3 in the first day. It becomes clear, and we look at the text, verses 1 and 2 are therefore separate, as it were, from the creation narration of verses 3 and 31. Verse 1 and 2, concerning something before, that creation sequence begins days 1 through 6 and verses 3 through 31. And so old creationists view content that the gap exists in the timeline. This gap could have been millions or billions of years long, such as what scientific evidence ascribes to the universe and the earth. Within that span of an ancient earth, the fossil record we talked about, all the geological strata we talked about, and even the Chicxulub crater impact of 66 million years ago would readily fit within that timeline. What we then find described in Genesis 1, 3 through 31, is how God reshaped, how God renewed, some call re- went through a re-creation, as it were, of the surface of the earth in order to make it a livable, habitable environment for humanity. God had to fix it up to make a proper home for humanity. But we want to know more, don't we, about that gap? Inquiring minds want to know. What happened to the original earth?

And this is something that the new earth view cannot explain because, in their view, nothing happened and nothing existed before 6,000 years ago. Let's look at an explanation, how the old earth view explains what happened during the gap. Let's begin in 2 Peter 2, verse 4 through 6. 2 Peter 2, verse 4 through 6. It's in this verse that Peter is talking about God's judgment and destruction upon humanity, such as Noah's time and the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he begins with something else. In 2 Peter 4, verse 6, Peter says, for if God did not spare the angels who sinned, angels sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world but save Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly. And so Paul is talking about how God's judgment and destruction is there. It's happened in ancient times. He's hinting at a time in the future. It will happen again. But he references, before he talks about the flood of Noah's day and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, he begins with this topic of angels who sinned. The implication and order of these ideas suggest that this angelic rebellion happened long before Noah's flood, long before then.

That's a clue. Let's look at Jude chapter 1 verse 6. Jude 1 verse 6, there's only one chapter. Jude 1 verse 6 offers another clue. Here we learn that sin these angels committed. We get more of a sense of what it was they did, for which God judged them and will further punish them. Verse 6 of Jude, "...and the angels who did not keep their proper, their own dominion, but left their own abode, he has reserved an everlasting change under darkness for the judgment of the great day." Now the word, the Greek word for domain is archae. It's arch with the e, a-r-c-h-e. It means first estate. It can mean principality. This gives us a sense of something they were to watch over, something they were to have authority over. And then the word for abode, word for abode is a longer Greek word, I don't know if I can pronounce, but it remains dwelling place. It means habitation. So the angels had that habitation. They had a place they were to be. So what we learn, what we're beginning to put together, is that anciently, sometime long before the flood, not all the angels had remained in harmony. Remember, at one time all of them were rejoicing at the creation at the beginning. But now we're reading about angels sinning. Something happened that they were no longer in harmony as they once had been. And they sinned by not remaining in their domain or place that God would have assigned to them. And apparently, where was that place? It must have been on earth. Let's look at Isaiah chapter 14. Isaiah 14, 12 through 14. This passage from Isaiah refers, concerns the fall of Lucifer, the fall of Lucifer. Lucifer, the scholars argue about what the name actually means.

It can also be translated as Morning Star, and that is what the angels in Job 38, 4 through 7 are referred to. The Morning Star sang. Isaiah 14 verse 12, it reads, How you are fallen, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. See, he had a throne. He had some kind of position, authority. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the north, and I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high.

Well, if we give careful attention to these verses, these verses suggest that there is a time when Lucifer's rightful domain or abode was on the earth. If we notice that he wanted to ascend into heaven, he wanted to ascend above the clouds to be like the most high. From that perspective, he must have been on the earth to want to be above the heaven above the clouds.

Lucifer, of course, becomes known to most of us. We know him. He also is known as Satan, the adversary. What we're beginning to put together here is that sometime he had become discontented, apparently with his rule on earth, where God had placed him. Now let's turn to Ezekiel 28, because Ezekiel 28 tells us more about this sinning angel. Now this prophecy in Ezekiel 28 at first addresses the Prince of Tyre. It's addressing the language, it's specifying a human being, it's talking about a human being. But then it gradually shifts to address a being that is not human, and that sometimes happens in Scripture. So let's begin reading verses Isaiah 28 verses 12 through 15. Son of man, take up a lamentation with the king of Tyre and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you were in the garden of... excuse me, I got that wrong. Thus says the Lord of God, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Verse 13, you were in Eden, the garden of God. It's not a human being anymore. Every precious stone was your covering. The Sardis, Sardias, Topaz, Diamond, Beryl, Onyx, and Jasper, Sapphire, Turquoise, and Emerald with gold. It's all beautiful, that is, all the splendor and the glitter, we might say. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed carob who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. He was a created being. Till iniquity was found in you. Your heart, verse 17, then your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you.

And so what we see here, we find described an angel, a carob, who had once served at the very throne of God, but who had become, who had yielded, who had given into pride. And in giving into pride, he chose to rebel against God and against God's authority. And if we look also in Revelation 12, verse 3 through 4, we see what this rebellion, a piece of what it must have been like.

Revelation 12, verse 3. Revelation 12, verse 3 through 4. Revelation 12. Here we find a time when Satan's rebellion, and he drew away one-third of the angels with him in rebellion against God. Revelation 12, verse 3. And another sign appeared in heaven, Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the ground, to the earth.

And then verse 9 actually identifies for us. We don't have to guess who this is. Verse 9. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And then in Luke 10, verse 18, we have Jesus Christ's account. He recounted. He's referring to what he saw that time when Satan was cast out. Let's look there. Luke 10, verse 18. Luke 10, verse 18. Just a quick sentence. Jesus said, he said to the 70, they were rejoicing, or the fact that they were casting out demons, and the demons were subject to them in Christ's name.

In Luke 10, verse 18, Jesus said, he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Jesus saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

That's not a soft, gentle fall, is it? The fall like lightning? It's a fall with force. It's a fall with the power of being cast down from heaven. And so, it's our belief that Satan's rebellion apparently brought about the waste and emptiness upon the earth, as we find described in Genesis 1-2. Now, Satan's place to this day is on the earth. He has some limited authority over the earth. Ephesians 2-2, we can jot that down. It's a familiar scripture. I'm not going to turn there. Ephesians 2-2. Satan is the prince of the power of the air, prince. He is the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. And we can also jot down 1 John 5-19. There we're told that the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. But Satan does not have free reign on this earth. He has never had free reign, even when he thought he was by rebelling. We're still in Luke chapter 10. Let's look at verse 21. Luke 10-21. It's just again a phrase Jesus uses in speaking of the Father, but it verifies who the true authority over the heavens and the earth is. It's God the Father. Jesus said, Luke 10-21, in that hour Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. God the Father reigns supreme over the heavens and the earth. And so it is that God has allowed Satan and his demons to remain on earth according to his purpose. And apparently part of their purpose is to help us, under God's authority, under God's limitation on him, his purpose is to help us build righteous character. He serves a purpose for God in helping us in a strange way, it might see it first, but it's something similar to what we see happening in Job 1 and 2.

Where was Satan when God was talking to Satan? He was roaming to and fro on the earth. That's his place. And God used him in a limited way. I always think that God has Satan somewhat on a leash, and he has control over him, and he allows Satan a limited intervention, a limited impact in our lives to help us learn to trust God more, ultimately, I guess we could say. The good news, of course, is Jesus Christ has overcome Satan. John 12, verse 31, Jesus Christ overcame Satan's temptation when he, in that time of trial, he's also overcome the world. John 12, 31, Jesus makes clear that Satan is not having free reign in any means whatsoever. Jesus said, John 12, 31, now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Satan has some rulership, some authority over the earth. And we know when Christ returns to establish the kingdom of God on earth, Satan will be bound, he'll be cast out, and he'll be banished forever.

So what should we believe about Genesis 1?

What should we believe about Genesis 1?

We've seen the two broad opposing views, the creationist views.

The young earth and the old earth views are quite different.

One view does not accept the scientific evidence of an ancient earth. The other view does.

One view must contort scientific evidence or ignore it altogether. The other does not. However, it's with regard to the place of Satan that the young earth creationist view really becomes unbelievable and unsustainable. Why do I say that? It's because the young earth view really doesn't have time for Satan's rebellion to occur. There's really not time. It's hard to make it fit. Think of it. For the events of Satan's rebellion to occur according to a young earth time frame of creation, we know what Satan, who is still humble, it would seem, and in unity and harmony with God, we already know where he would have been in Job 38, 4-7 because of all the angels, if we understand it. For the events of Satan's rebellion to occur according to a young earth time frame, Satan would have been rejoicing with all the angels over the newly created earth.

And then, just hours, several literal days of that recreation, or creation as the new earth would have seen it, the only creation, then just hours, maybe days after rejoicing over this new earth, he's there in the garden doing what? Tempting Eve, trying to get them to rebel and follow a way of lawlessness to God. I find that very hard to believe. I do not find that believable.

Maybe you don't either. Based on what we've just reviewed from Scripture, such a view of Satan with everything he did within the new earth view, it's just not believable.

The young earth view to remain viable, then, must downplay Satan's presence, must downplay his origin, must downplay his rebellion. It requires in some ways that one practice some sort of anaphylos hypothesis and ignore the truth of what God's Word is talking about. And I don't know. Maybe that's why so many people don't really talk about Satan. They don't think about the devil as being a real thing. Maybe it's part of their viewpoint that Satan is just an old idea that's really not there. But the old earth view of creation or of a re-creation, if you want to say, is viable. It is believable, based on what we've read. And most importantly, it is scriptural. It is scriptural.

And so these are some of the reasons we believe that the earth, we believe in an old age ancient earth view of creation. And so Genesis 1 then describes an ancient earth view of God's initial creation of the heavens and the earth, millions, perhaps millions, billions years ago, in verse 1. Then we see the aftermath of the destruction of the original earth in verse 2. And then in six 24-hour days we see the reshaping, the renewing, or what some call a re-creating of the surface of the earth into a home for humanity, which would have occurred, according to the Bible, chronology, about 6,000 years ago. That's what's going on again, verse 3 to 31.

And so the Bible reveals that the earth, the universe, and the earth are ancient. But, don't be confused on this, but the history of humankind is approximately 6,000 years. Humanity has been around for about 6,000 years, according to what the scriptures tell us.

And so what we've learned today as well, and I hope this would be a comfort and encouragement to us, what we've also learned is that God has not and will not be kept from making humanity in his image. He created this earth with the intention of making human beings in his own image. He wants human beings to become his divine sons and daughters after his image, to be like him in that beautiful, wonderful, righteous character. And so God created heavens and earth so we can have a home to grow and to develop his character to become like him. And we also know, and we know from Revelation 21, verse 1 through 2, and I'll read this to you as I conclude, we also know that God tells us there is a time coming when there will also be another. There'll be a different, there'll be more reshaping, I guess we could call it. There's going to be a time of a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21, 1 through 2 tells us, John explaining the vision, he says, now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And in verse 5, and then he who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, write, for these things are true and faithful. And so, brethren, what a wonderful God we have, what a wonderful plan of salvation, and what a wonderful future lies before us.