The Age of the Earth Lesson 1

It is not the teacher’s intention to cause any controversy or contention in this study. But there are questions that are raised at times that deserve intelligent, spiritual answers from the Word of God. It has been the opinion of many that we should consider the truth of the evidence of nature and the evidence of the Word of God as being separate and perhaps even opposite truths. This by definition is impossible. Truth is truth. The problem has been that some of our interpretations of what scriptures seem to be saying has not correlated with the evidence of nature... nor with other scriptures which become convenient to ignore in order to further help our positions.

We should not try to build scriptures around our theories and ideas, but rather build our ideas around what the entire Word of God says rightly divided. We have this scripture, 2 Peter 1:20 “ Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. “, and this scripture 2 Timothy 2:15 “ Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. “. The doctrine that comes closest to including everything that all that the scriptures have to say about a subject is the closest to truth. Jesus said that we would know the truth, and the truth would set us free. And here we come... we need to study and see what the Word of God has to say on a subject to find truth.

It is not my intention to try to prove the Word of God. The Bible does that all by itself with no help from me. There are men who prepare apologetics who are more eloquent than I am, and I will leave that to them. But we are to always be ready to defend the truth of the Word of God. And it is my intention to take this issue, which many who have been schooled in our currently very worldly minded humanistic school systems to disbelieve. And before you turn off your mind to this, please remember that I am taking this out of the Word of God. Let’s look at it.

HOW OLD IS THE EARTH,
AND WHERE DID DINOSAURS COME FROM?

We have been told by most conservative (and by the way, I’m about as conservative as they come if conservative means I believe that the Bible is the literal Word of God) students of the Bible that the Earth is almost 6000 years old. And there are certain organizations whose only existence is to try and prove this point. Some of the things they come out with are interesting for they like to attack evolutionists. And I will go on record here as saying that it takes much more blind faith to believe in evolution and some sort of mindless big bang of intergalactic stuff (which they still can’t explain where the stuff came from) than to believe that this wonderful, perfectly balanced universe that so beautifully supports our life is the result of a creator who planned and carried out the act of special creation. The evidence of nature itself cries out of God, the creator. The universe is no accident.

A few points to ponder... first, the age of the earth was calculated by the genealogies of early church leaders such as Clement, and Eusebius and a few popes such as Gregory XIII in 1580 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000 years. They try to use the genealogies found in the Bible to determine the Earth’s actual age and makes some assumptions that about the bible that it does not really declare. But you can’t do that. There is a scriptural problem.

The genealogies of Genesis 11 and the one of Luke 3 do not completely match. Luke adds a name that is omitted in Genesis. Does this mean that there’s an error in the Bible. Not at all. The historians of the Bible didn’t try to gather a comprehensive, unabridged genealogy. But instead hit the highlights up until the ones that they wanted to center in on appeared.

Please compare Genesis 11:10-14 with Luke 3:35-36. You will find that the name Cainan should come between Arphaxad and Eber according to the Luke genealogy.

Genesis 11:10-14 “ 10 These [are] the generations of Shem: Shem [was] an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood: 11 And Shem lived after he begat Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 12 And Arphaxad lived five and thirty years, and begat Salah:
13 And Arphaxad lived after he begat Salah four hundred and three years, and begat sons and daughters. 14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Eber: “

Luke 3:35-36 “ 35 Which was [the son] of Saruch, which was [the son] of Ragau, which was [the son] of Phalec, which was [the son] of Heber, which was [the son] of Sala, 36 Which was [the son] of Cainan, which was [the son] of Arphaxad, which was [the son] of Sem, which was [the son] of Noe, which was [the son] of Lamech, “

So, right off we don’t know if man has been here 6000 or 7000 or 10,000 years as many think from archeological evidence. However the carbon and potassium methods that they use to date are too prone to mistakes by a number of different factors.

My favorite story tells of a cat who had been buried ten years before that somehow seem to partially fossilize in a family’s back yard. The cat was dug up and as a joke sent to a neighboring University. The science lab reported back that they had found the remains of an extinct ancestor of the cat and was probably 40,000 years old. How did 10 years turn into 40,000 years? The processes are prone to errors. Natural forces can change the carbon dating results.

Personally I like the theory that uses the scripture a thousand years is like unto a day unto the Lord. And they take the first 6000 years of man, and say that the coming 1000 years of rest in the millennium is the seventh day of rest. Many Jewish scholars believe this. And although it sounds good, and I tend to believe it because it fits the kind of things that God has done in His Word... but it is actually still a theory. This is one that we will have to see about when we get to Heaven to be sure. Because although the age of mankind is probably about 6000 years, it is not really sure just how accurate that may be. There might be other omissions in the genealogies. I don’t know.

So, we can conclude in regard to the age of man that mankind (Adam) has lived at least 6000 years and possibly more. Probably at the most, around 10,000 years is possible. But the best figure according to scripture is somewhere around 6000 years.

The genealogies are complete back to Abraham. He was born in 2122 B.C. and we can go back at least that far accurately. However, after Abraham it is open to discussion for we cannot be sure that even the joint genealogies of the Old and New Testament would be complete... but even though they may not be comprehensive, they are accurate and give us a good indication.

SO, IF MANKIND (descended from Adam) IS 6,000 YEARS OLD, IS THE EARTH THAT AGE?

And here is where the controversy between what 21st century science teaches and what many conservative Bible students teach. And if you don’t have a good understanding of what the Bible fully teaches about it, you can literally turn people off who have been educated in science from the Gospel. And let me make my stand clear before we go on.

I am a fundamentalist. I believe that the original texts of the scriptures in their original languages written by the original men who the Holy Spirit inspired to write our Bible books were totally inspired by God. That is why men of totally different backgrounds, hundreds of years apart could write by inspiration books that not only don’t contradict one another, but literally match and give further understanding on the same truths. The reason is that the Holy Spirit is the true author of the Bible.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 “ 16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. “ {throughly...: or, perfected}

The word for inspiration here means “Spirit breathed”. The Holy Spirit literally breathed the word of God into human men and when they wrote under His inspiration they brought the perfect Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the actual author.

Ancient man, and even some of late believe it or not thought that the Earth was a square shaped flat surface. The world is flat they believed! But, of course it’s not flat. Science long ago established that the Earth is an oval shape... its round. But the argument came in medieval times from a scripture in the Bible that was misunderstood. Here it is:

Isaiah 11:12 (KJV) And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. “

Revelation 7:1 (KJV) And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. “

The King James Version ( and I will say that it is one of my favorites along with the NAS... but sometimes we need to dig a little ) translates the Hebrew words here corners. The word actually means “wings”. The four wings of the Earth. This signifies the as the crow flies all the directions of the earth and not an actual corner.

And the Revelation word translated corner literally means in the Greek “quarter”. Now if the Earth has four corners, then it is a block or a square. It’s like quartering an orange.

Here’s something interesting. If you understand what the Bible really said here, GOD’S WORD PREDICTED THAT THE EARTH WAS ACTUALLY ROUND AND COULD BE QUARTERED OVER A THOUSAND OF YEARS BEFORE SCIENCE GOT AROUND TO PROVING IT ! BUT A MISUNDERSTANDING OF GOD’S WORD CAUSED A PROBLEM.

HERE’S A TRUTH: GOD’S WORD IS TRUE... THEREFORE THE EVIDENCE OF NATURE WILL BACK UP THE WORD OF GOD BECAUSE THE WORD IS TRUE. DON’T BE AFRAID OF SCIENCE. DON’T BE AFRAID OF HONEST INVESTIGATION... FOR GOD’S WORD IS TRUE.

The problem we have had in the past is very little of modern day scientists give honest investigation. It’s like that they set out to destroy anything to do with our faith. What I like is that the more that they learn the more that they prove the Word of God.

Section A: So, enough of a background to our study, it is time to get into the meat of it.

GENESIS 1:1-2 (KJV) “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 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. “

I am not going to tell you what to believe and what not to believe. But I will show you something that you might not know from Genesis 1.

IN THE BEGINNING... Hebrew raysheeth = the very beginning of all. The beginning of creation... before anything was... John 1:1 “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “ - that word is archay... the beginning of things.

There was a time when all that there was was God. He said to Moses tell them that I am has sent you. Yahweh ( yah-way ) or Jehovah in English means the I am... or the pre-existing one. Before there was anything God is... He is the I am that stands outside time and space.

Revelation 21:6 “ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. “

Ecclesiastes 3:11 “ He hath made every [thing] beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. “

Isaiah 41:4 “ Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I [am] he. “

Isaiah 43:10 “ Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. “ {no...: or, nothing formed of God}

In the beginning before anything was created, there was GOD. So, here in the beginning is before the earth and the universe was created.

God CREATED = baw-raw = this word means to create totally. It would be like me saying, I made this outline. It is done at this point. If I say I made this outline, then you would know that it was done... right? The word means to totally complete the work of creation.

And there is two kinds of creation. One kind is the kind when you take a material and form something out of it. That is what we do when we get creative. We take something and form it to make something else which follows the law of thermodynamics which states that no matter can be created or destroyed, only change form.

But the kind of creation you see here breaks that law of physics. Baw-raw means to create out of nothing. He made something out of nothing. He is God and He is the only one who can do that.

He created the HEAVEN = shaw-mah-’yim = the stars and galaxies. And the EARTH = eh-rets = our Earth. He created all of the hosts of Heaven and the Earth with it here in verse 1.

Verse 2 starts speaking of something else, but keep in mind that the Heaven and the Earth is created here in verse 1. The work of creation is completed. God did it. The word created (bah-raw) is combined with the Hebrew word Qal which means its past tense. He finished it in verse 1.

In order for the rest of Genesis 1 to be a part of the original creation of verse 1, that word Qal cannot be there... but it is. It means it is completed and done before you get to verse 2.

Section B: In Genesis 1:2, something has happened here... suddenly the Earth that God has just created is in CHAOS, and God starts to bring order and life into it.

Now if God created the Earth and that act is completed in verse 1, why would the Earth be flooded and in darkness in verse 2. Did God create it that way?

Or is it possible that there might be a time lapse between verses 1 and 2? Actually the Bible is full of such time lapses.

The 70 weeks of Daniel for example... the first 69 weeks were together, but the 70th week of years is the 7 year tribulation period that is still coming. Also, think about the prophecies about the coming Messiah... the first half would be of a suffering Messiah, which Jesus already fulfilled at the cross. And the very next verse would be of an overcoming Messiah putting the nations at His feet. This will happen at the end of the Tribulation. Already, almost 2,000 years have separated them although the verses are put together. The eastern writers tended to do this.

This is known in theological circles as the gap theory. There are four views to Genesis chapter one among those who believe that it really is God’s word and it really did happen. And truthfully, you must try to understand it fully because there are questions that arise if you don’t.

Questions like when did the dinosaurs live and when did they die? And if they lived for over a hundred million years and really died out 60 million years ago, then how can the earth only be 6000 year old with Adam being created with the beasts of the field on the same day? I believe the confusion arises from putting Genesis 1:1 and the rest of the chapter into the same time frame.

One view is that the earth is 6000 years old and dinosaurs were either a myth created by evolutionists or that they missed the boat at Noah’s flood. This is horsefeathers, and anyone who can think for themselves will know that this is hogwash... yet the Armstrong people and others have gone out of their way to try and prove this. If the age of the dinosaurs go back 60 million years and beyond or not, I don’t know. Their dating methods are too open to errors... and Noah’s flood might have caused some effects upon carbon dating to distort it. But they are older than man.

Genesis 7:14-15 “ 14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein [is] the breath of life. “ - EVERY BEAST... NO ONE MISSED THE BOAT!

There is also a very erroneous doctrine that uses this scripture, 2 Peter 3:8 “ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. “, and they say that God used evolution to create life and that each of those days were millions of years. This view takes God out of the role of being a personal creator and makes Him a guiding force in the natural evolutionary process. TALK ABOUT COMPROMISING THE WORD OF GOD! This is double hogwash.

Another theory that is quite a bit better than the above, but similar in concept is the thought that each of those days was a long period of time. And God after the chaos had come on the earth and the destruction of that darkness and flood brought over a long period of time life. And God did the actual creating, but the time period covered thousands ( not millions ) of years. This might actually be supported by historical evidence ( consider the wooly mammoth, and the saber-toothed tiger who existed long after the dinosaurs were extinct ). I can believe this, but I really don’t know... plus it would have to accept the fourth possibility as the truth.

The fourth possibility is backed up by other scriptures in both the Old and New Testament, and that is that there is a gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. And in this frame of time, life existed on the earth before Adam ( the dinosaurs for example ), and that Satan ruled on a throne here before he fell and became known as Satan. That in his rebellion against God, both he fell as lightning to the Earth, but his kingdom on the Earth was literally destroyed and flooded. THIS IS KNOWN AS THE GAP THEORY... IT IS A THEORY FOR IT IS NOT DIRECTLY STATED.

But this is what you have to remember. There is no private interpretation of scripture, and if we want to interpret it correctly, then we must take all that the Word says about a subject.

You can accept whichever of these views that you wish, but before you do... I want to give you some supporting scriptures for the Gap Theory:

The fourth possibility is backed up by other scriptures in both the Old and New Testament, and that is that there is a gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. And in this frame of time, life existed on the earth before Adam ( the dinosaurs for example ), and that Satan ruled on a throne here before he fell and became known as Satan. That in his rebellion against God, both he fell as lightning to the Earth, but his kingdom on the Earth was literally destroyed and flooded. THIS IS KNOWN AS THE GAP THEORY... IT IS A THEORY FOR IT IS NOT DIRECTLY STATED.

But this is what you have to remember. There is no private interpretation of scripture, and if we want to interpret it correctly, then we must take all that the Word says about a subject.

You can accept whichever of these views that you wish, but before you do... I want to give you some supporting scriptures for the Gap Theory:

THE DIFFERENCE IN CREATION OF GENESIS 1:1-1:2

Genesis 1:2 “ 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. “

Without form = Hebrew to’-hoo = to make to lay waste; a deserted wilderness, wasted

Void = Hebrew bo’hoo = empty, an undistinguishable ruin. So, what made the Earth wasted and ruined after the creation of Genesis 1:1?

Genesis 1:7 “ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so. “

The word in Hebrew for made here is aw-saw = to made, or to accomplish, to bestow or give or yield for use. God was allowing it to be used again, or was making it useful again. This is creation, but it is not the creation out of nothing that you see in Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:16 “ And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also. “

The sun and moon and stars were created in Genesis 1:1, but this is the same word which means in Hebrew to bestow or to make it useful. There had been a great darkness on the Earth... and God moved things around and maybe did something with the workings of the sun to make it useful to the planet again... so something had happened to make it not useful before.

This is a totally different meaning word from bah-raw which you see in verse 1 which means to make it right there and then out of nothing.

Genesis 1:28 “ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. “

Why did God use the word replenish... to refill the Earth. The Hebrew here means to consecrated to fill the earth or refill. To refill is to fill it up again, which means that someone other than Adam had once filled the earth, but now its Adam’s turn and He is to refill it.

Although there are a large number of people who teach forms of this, Dr. Dake is remembered here for his ideas on pre-adamites. You hear a lot from his students about pre-adamites. He uses Jeremiah 4 and tries to say that there was some sort of men before there was Adam. He can’t prove this. In fact, although there was life here... and probably from Jeremiah 4 it was intelligent life, but it was definitely not men. Remember who the dominate life form was then. The only mammals were rat-like little creatures. And they weren’t cave men either. The scandals and revelations that has surfaced in the last 15 years over what they thought were cave men has been suppressed by the scientific community. They weren’t cave men.

Examples: the Neanderthal community they found with the huge foreheads were found in a cave, and upon digging deeper in the same cave found perfectly normal human remains. The deeper the older is the rule. There is a disease of the bones that cause the effects which scientists name Neanderthals. Yet the text books have not been updated. Dr. Leakey’s early 2 million year old woman was reconstructed by what was discovered to be the jawbone of a pig. Yet, its still in the text books. This isn’t science, its a conspiracy to discredit creationism.

I won’t go over everything, but... Luke 10:18 “ And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. “

Genesis 3:1 “ Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? “

Jesus as the Word of God saw Satan when he fell... and he fell to the Earth and the Earth was supposed to be like his prison. When did this happen? Well he fell before the man was in the garden for he is the one who ran into the woman and tempted her.

Some would argue that he had to fall in the first six days of creation then, for he is a created being. Well, he did fall before Adam, but I think he fell long before Adam. And in the beginning there was only God. We know that the angels ( and he was one of them ) was there when God created the foundations of the Earth. That the angels or the morning stars sang: Job 38:6 “ Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; 7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? “

So, he fell somewhere between there and the garden.

In Isaiah 14:12, we see the fall of Lucifer. Isaiah 14:12 “ How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! “

Jesus saw him fall, and he was fallen when Adam was in the garden... yet he is fallen from heaven who weakened the nations. Was there nations before Adam? I believe so, but not human ones. To be totally fair, you might stretch the context of scripture and say that that will be when he is kicked out of heaven for the last time in Revelation 12 and bound to the earth. That would give you human nations at least. But it takes the whole point away of all the rest of the passage. He fell from his position as an anointed cherub (Ezekiel 28) and was cast down to the Earth. Jesus said he already saw this happen, so it is not the same as Revelation 12.

This would suggest that not only was there life here under him, but they were intelligent enough to be called nations.

Isaiah 14:14 “ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. “

The heights of the clouds is a specific Hebrew reference to the clouds in the sky. Where was Satan when he decided to ascend into heaven? On Earth. When? Before Adam was created.

So, there were nations of some kind of race here before Adam, and they lived under the Devil before he was the Devil... this did not happen in six literal days of creation before Adam. By the way, I tend to believe that the six days were really six literal days. But that’s open to interpretation due to the scripture in 2 Peter 3:8.

One last point here, remember from our study that we learned that the Devil is a literal cherub who looks like a dragon ( a dragon is a winged serpent ). Doesn’t it make sense that if this angel ruled over the Earth, that the inhabitants of the Earth would be like him? Where did the dinosaurs go? There was a flood that came in judgment when Lucifer fell that destroyed the world that followed him... he weakened the nations.

The dinosaurs died off suddenly when their angelic leader fell and they followed him. This happened long before Genesis 1:2... let’s look at some more.

In the book of 2 Peter, there is a reference to that world that passed away and perished by water. Now many feel like that this is Noah’s flood... but there are some problems with that.

2 Peter 3:5-8 “ 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. “

The heavens that were of old: Greek ekpalai = the old times or a time that was of old. This is a previous age or eon. In that old time of a former time.

The world then... not today’s world. It is a recreated world that we live in now. But this speaks of the world then of the old times.

The word of God... Greek = Being held together by the word of God, the earth by water is or standing out of water, and then through the water, and by the water overflowing caused that world to perish.

Perish is the same as in John 10:10 when talking about souls perishing in Hell. It means to be completely lost and destroyed. But although God destroyed those living in the days of Noah, all was not destroyed. There was the ark, and the land and plants were still there when the waters went down... remember the olive branch that the dove brought back? Plus the fish and whales survived Noah’s flood. But this world perished... it died.

God promised Noah that never again would He destroy the earth by water... the next time it will be fire. But even in that promise you get the feeling that He might have used that method before. That’s suppositional I know... but it does sound like it. - Genesis 8:21,22 "21 And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. "

In the book of Jeremiah, God is talking about the evil of His own people. And He opens a vision up to the young prophet about something that once happened and the point is that I did this once, I could do it again, but I will not. I will make the whole land desolate, yet I won’t make it a full end as I did this once. Look at it, please.

Jeremiah 4:22-27 “ 22 For my people [is] foolish, they have not known me; they [are] sottish children, and they have none understanding: they [are] wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. 23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form, and void; and the heavens, and they [had] no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. 25 I beheld, and, lo, [there was] no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place [was] a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] by his fierce anger. 27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. “

Jeremiah sees the Earth in the same condition that it was in Genesis 1:2. In fact, that is the only time you see these certain events take place together.

It was without form and void. The same exact wording as in Genesis 1:2. He sees the Earth in this condition. This is the only time you see a total darkening of the sun in scripture. Even the darkenings of Revelation leave 1/3 of the light for 1/3 of the day. It isn’t a total darkening. In fact God has established that this will never happen. Yet it says here that there was no light.

Jeremiah 31:35-36 “ 35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts [is] his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, [then] the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. “

Psalm 72:5 “ They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. “

There was an earthquake, and there was no earthquake in Noah’s flood. No form for it was covered with water. This is the same condition that we find the Earth in Genesis 1. As a side note, remember that bit of information I gave you about Jewish scholars believing that Leviathan was the dragon that YHVH (Yahweh) subdued to bring the land out of the flood.

There was no man... no Adam. There were cities, but no Adam... no mankind. There were birds, but no man. On a side note: I don’t swallow Dake’s idea of a pre-adamite man. The Bible says that there was no man.

But whoever these beings were, they built cities and there was NO MAN.

The only time recorded in the Bible that all these conditions were present was at Genesis 1:2, and notice that there were cities. And the Earth completely perished.

Isaiah 24:1 “ Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. “ {turneth...: Heb. perverteth the face thereof}

This reference in Isaiah is another reference about emptying out the Earth. Now, this will never happen in the future. There will be mankind that will come into New Jerusalem who needs healing for the nations past the 1000 years of peace on into eternity. This didn't happen really at Noah's flood... the land and earth was still there when the waters went down and God preserved life.

But here He scattered the "inhabitants"... killed them... destroyed them and turned the world upside down and "emptied" the earth. He destroyed it completely and wasted it. The Earth was void and without form... a deserted wasteland. Genesis 1:2 is the only place that this happened. It was before Adam, and yet there were inhabitants.

The reason we only get bits and pieces is because it does not concern mankind. This happened in a previous generation or eon that we are not part of. It makes for an interesting study, but it won’t affect you getting to Heaven or how victorious you will be getting there.

But it might affect your witnessing. If you are confronted with the question, “how come you all say that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and dinosaurs lived millions of years ago? Then how can the Bible be right?” It’s right because it never taught that the Earth is 6,000 years old. Mankind is about that age, but we are not given the actual age of the Earth.

Because of errors is carbon dating, maybe dinosaurs aren’t 60 or more million years old. But they are a lot older than the current life forms of today. They are probably very old.

We have in a previous study looked in detail at the Fall of Satan and the Earth that was and its destruction. But, understand that Satan by the time of man was under man’s dominion. God gave dominion of all that was in or on the Earth to Adam. And sin gave the Devil authority to get the hold he has on the world system of today.

The reason I am teaching this at all except that it came up in another study, is so you can be armed with something for that someone who is truly looking for answers and looks at the Gospel and wonders about this question. We are to be ready to give an answer when it comes up.

PORTIONS © 1990 BY JAMES DALE COLDIRON
COPYRIGHT © 1997, 2004 BY REV. JAMES DALE COLDIRON
Taught at the Totz Church of God in January of 1997 and at the Monticello Church of God in 2002, and Warriors of God, October of 2004.