Read here why some have never understood what Genesis 1:1 really means!
SOME believe the Bible says the heavens and the earth were created only about 6000 years ago. Even many scientists assume this is what the Bible teaches. And they scoff.
But is this really what Genesis 1:1 teaches?
The truth is plain. Without realizing it, some have been believing a fable that sprang from the dark ages — when people knew little about the Bible except what was taught to them by churchmen, who themselves were ignorant of what the Bible really taught!
Will you notice what the Bible DOES say? You will be surprised.
What Genesis 1:1 Says
Genesis 1:1, in the King James translation, says: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
First, notice what it does NOT say. It does not say "About 6000 years ago . . ." — or "in 4004 B.C., God created the heaven and the earth." It says: "In the BEGINNING God created the heaven and the earth."
When was "the beginning"? Genesis 1:1 just doesn't tell us! And there is a reason.
What Genesis 1:1 does reveal is that the heaven and the earth had a beginning. This scripture makes it plain that the universe was created. Genesis 1:1 emphasizes WHO (in the beginning) created the heaven and the earth! It points us to GOD, as Creator of the universe.
Genesis 1:1 has been universally misinterpreted. Here is how it happened.
". . . Archbishop Ussher . . . in the years 1650 to 1654, published a chronology [supposedly] based upon the biblical record. His dates were accepted for nearly two centuries, though geologists reading the record of the rocks were early convinced that he had seriously erred when he stated that the earth had been created in the year 4004 B.C., on the 26th of October, at 9 o'clock in the morning!" (H.E. Vokes, "How Old is the Earth?" from The Illustrated Library of the Natural Sciences, Vol. II, p. 1155.)
Notice how Ussher tried to establish not only the date, but the time of day of creation — which he did NOT get from the Bible.
The same author further states: "The date 4004 B.C. was inserted in the margin of the reference editions of the King James version of the Bible by some unknown, and rapidly gained acceptance, particularly among those people who believed that every word in their Bible was the result of divine inspiration, no matter how that word came to be there" (Ibid.).
Notice! People read marginal references that first appeared in Bibles about 300 years ago, and henceforth assumed these man-made references were a part of inspired Scripture.
Genesis 1:1 just does not tell us the specific date of the earth's creation. Instead, this verse points us to God as being there "in the beginning" — even before the earth was (see John 17:24). That is the vital significance of Genesis 1:1.
Men have set an iron-clad date on Genesis 1:1 that God never intended. God nowhere tells us exactly when — at what time — He created the earth, or the heavens.
What Ussher Didn't See
Ussher, and many others, assumed that Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 are speaking of the same time. Ussher assumed that the world was created just before man was created. Ussher, like many others, thought God said: "In the beginning God created Adam." But this is not what the Bible says! Genesis 1:1 doesn't tell us how long God waited before He created Adam. Biblical chronology does, however, reveal there have been about 6000years since the creation of Adam. Not understanding this vital key, men have confused the creation date of Adam with the unknown time element of Genesis 1:1 and thought Genesis 1:1 was also speaking about the time shortly before Adam's creation.
But it is not!
The Bible clearly reveals a time lapse between the first two verses of Genesis. Genesis 1:1 could not possibly have occurred 6 days before the creation of man!
This fact is clearly shown when we compare Genesis 1:2 with Isaiah 45:18.
Genesis 1:2 tells us: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
Isaiah 45:18 records: "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else."
The shock comes when we study the Hebrew texts of the Bible which the King James translators were using as they translated these verses into the language of their day. The Hebrew texts reveal an amazing truth. The King James translators rendered the same Hebrew word tohu as "without form" in Genesis 1:2, yet in Isaiah 45:18 the same word was rendered as "in vain." Think what this means!
Isaiah 45:18 says God did NOT create the earth in tohu. Yet Genesis 1:2 clearly tells us the earth was in tohu. Is this a discrepancy?
Most assuredly not!
A great event occurred between the first and second verses of Genesis — which caused great destruction, or tohu, on the earth! Genesis 1:2 is not continuing the description of the act of creating the heaven and the earth. It is describing what the earth BECAME after a great battle for control of the universe.
To understand WHY the earth became tohu (chaotic and void), write for an eye-opening article entitled "Did God Create a Devil?" Thousands have read this article and have had their eyes opened to an astounding revelation from the pages of God's Word!
But why has this truth been so long hidden?
The Great Conspiracy
Let us draw back the curtain of time and understand the beginning of a dark-age superstition which is still haunting the present century! When we do, we will understand WHY so many have taken for granted a medieval superstition which the Bible does not teach at all. Notice what was happening in the world about 450 years ago.
The astronomer Copernicus had just advanced the astounding idea — with abundant proof — that the sun and other heavenly bodies do not revolve around the earth. This teaching was so opposite from the dogma of the Catholic Church which had a great influence on the world's scientific teachings at that time that Copernicus' theory was allowed to be taught only as a "mathematical guess." It would have been heresy to have taught it as fact! To do so would constitute sin, and such an act would bring the wrath of the church fathers.
So, as long as Copernicus did not press the issue, the church was contented. Galileo, as we shall see later, was not so fortunate in his dealings with the church.
The newly emerged Protestant movement was not silent about Copernicus' thesis. Martin Luther himself said: "This fool [Copernicus] wants to change the whole science of astronomy."
But Copernicus' gem of truth attracted now-famous followers who began to liberate the world from still more errors of the dark ages. Galileo was one of them.
True Science Not Wrong
Galileo made an amazing discovery about 75 years after Copernicus' famous announcement that the universe did not revolve around the earth. Turning his newly found discovery — the telescope — to the sky, he proved beyond a doubt that Copernicus was right. The church's teachings about astronomy were now proven absolutely wrong!
And no wonder. For the Bible doesn't say anywhere that the heavenly bodies revolve around the earth. God wanted man to use his mind and discover the mechanics of the universe.
God inspired wise King Solomon to write: "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the HONOR of kings is TO SEARCH OUT A MATTER. The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable" (Prov. 25:2-3).
Notice that God said He purposely conceals such matters so we will search them out! In the process, we will come to see the glory of God, if we believe that: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
But God has already told us we would be unable to completely search out what He has created. The astronomer has been unable to find the bounds of the universe. The geologist has been unable to explore first-hand the interior of the earth. The psychiatrist has been unable to understand how the human mind functions in all its many ways.
Scientific research bears out the fact that only the existence of an Almighty God could account for all the wonder, beauty and clockwork precision of the universe around us.
In having us search out His creation, God places a challenge before us and makes us use our minds. God's way is the way of thinking, planning, and building. It is constructive rather than destructive. Why do men seem so bent on using their minds to build devices which destroy? God's way would lead man to everything good for him, if he would only heed!
The Biblical teaching about the universe was suppressed and withheld from those men — such as Galileo. It was considered heresy to even consider that the universe did not revolve about the earth.
For this reason, Galileo's triumph with his telescope was soon to meet the challenge of the Catholic Church.