The Second Day

^{Gen 1:6} And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

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.

⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

On this day, God made the firmament. This word is H7549 רקיע (râqîya‛ raw-kee'-ah. From H7554; properly an expanse, that is, the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky: - firmament.) according to Strong's Concordance.

Remember that the entire earth was covered with water at this point and God calls it the deep (v2). God here divided the waters in such a way that there is a firmament or an expanse of a sky in between the waters.

Some Christians believe that the waters above is really at the edge of the universe separating us from God's throne. They take the firmament of the heaven described in v14 to be the same firmament here.

The First Day

^{Gen 1:3} And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

⁴ And God saw the light, that it was good; 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.

Observe that the act of creation from here on until the creation of man is spoken by God. And God said...

God did not lift a finger to create the world. He spoke it into place. It was God said.

"that by the Word of God the heavens were of old" 2 Pet 3:5

"In the beginning was the Word...All things were made by Him" John 1:1-3

God created light and there was light. God says what He means and means what He says. And all He says comes to pass.

Strangely, why did God have to create light? In 1 John 1:5 tells us that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." So, what did God actually do here? It is most plausible that God made visible light that we can see. Up until now, we are told that "darkness was upon the face of the deep". We cannot see what is really happening except what God tells us that His Spirit "moved upon the face of the waters".

The Gap Theory is wrong

In the Christian attempt to harmonize the bible with so-called science of evolution (it is a theory), a gap theory was put in place to explain away the billions of years that evolution needed. The following is a summary of the justification which we believe is incorrect.

Three States of the Earth
The Gap Theory tells us that after God first made the original earth (Gen 1:1), something cataclysmic happened to cause the earth to be in a chaotic state (Gen 1:2). God then had to restore the earth (Gen 1:3-2:3).

In the beginning God

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God is very clear in telling us the following:
a) who caused the creation - God Himself
b) creation of time - beginning of creation (some believe that time always existed)
c) creation of space - heaven
d) creation of matter - earth

God refutes the big bang theory right from the very first verse of the bible. It is not some unknown ancient energy that caused the origin of the universe. It is God Himself who created everything from nothing.

The Big Bang Theory for the Origin of the Universe

Please bear in mind that this is a theory for the origin of the universe. It is popularized by atheists who believe in the theory of evolution. Although Darwin's theory was an attempt to explain the origin of species (which he failed to do so in his book), this theory has been extrapolated to explain the origins before animal life.

Now, evolutionists must explain the origins of everything and it is very difficult to be coherent about it. The difficulty lies in the postulating of different theories for different aspects of the universe and life itself.

So, let us begin first to understand the big bang theory so that we can compare with Genesis 1, God's account of the origin of the universe.

The Big Bang Theory

The article by The National Geographic is reproduced here and critiqued in red.

Early Civilization in Genesis 4

Man was not created stupid. Man was not created uncivilized. On the contrary, man was created very smart, intelligent and very civilized. When God created Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, Adam can speak, name the animals, get married all in a single day. He lived a very long life of 930 years with such a high IQ.

But sin spoiled all these beautiful works of God in man. Nevertheless, such IQ in man was passed down to the next generation and the next generation. They were still very smart. Given the discovery of their intelligence, many people just cannot accept this as it goes against the theory of evolution that man started as dumb and now is the smartest.

The bible is the only book that can tell us how early man was and where they came from and what they did. Many of the knowledge of man like engineering, domestication of animals, music, metallurgy, were not evolved or discovered by chance. Somehow they knew and this knowledge must have come from God, either directly or through Adam. Also notice that they all spoke the same language and it did not evolve from grunts and groans.

Faith Foundations in Genesis

As you open to your bibles to Genesis chapters 1 through 4, you should soon realize that many of our church doctrines find their basis right here. God tells us what happened at the beginning of creation and the history of mankind. Understanding this should make us want to study Genesis even more. This is a brief list of 43 items.

1. God is our Creator - Gen 1:1, 26-27
2. God made us vegetarians - Gen 1:29-30
3. God made everything in 6 days - Gen 1:31, Ex 20:11
4. Everything God made then was VERY GOOD - Gen 1:31
5. God instituted the sabbath on the 7th day - Gen 2:3, Ex 20:8-11
6. God made man a living soul, different from animals, in His own image - Gen 2:7
7. God planted a garden and placed man there - Gen 2:8
8. There were 2 special trees in the garden to test man - Gen 2:9
9. God gave man clear instructions, man can understand what God said - gift of language - Gen 2:16-17

20 Logic Errors used by Evolutionists

This is based off a presentation by Mike Riddle, a Creation Science speaker and attached to Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis organization. You can download his presentation in MP3 format here.

These are 20 Logic errors used by evolutionists when discussing origins. See if you can detect them when you have a chance to speak with your friends, teachers and professors.

1. Fuzzy Words
Evolutionists seemingly always use such words like

• We believe, we think. 
• Given enough time, it will happen 
• Might work . 
• Must have formed “Those life forms must have evolved in the absence of oxygen,…” 
• Could possibly have been. 
• My guess is. 

Seems like the use of “fuzzy words” demonstrates that evolutionists do not have the evidence to support their claims.

The Captivity of Israel

While the children of Israel was enjoying the land, they eventually forgot the Mosaic Covenant for the usage of that very land. Then came the time when God had to take them out of the land in fulfilment of His promise. That period of time is known as The Captivity when they were to be ruled by other kings away from the Promised Land.

The Reason for the Captivity

Yahweh gave to Moses specific instructions on the usage of the land.

The Sabbath Year

Lev 25 And the Lord spoke unto Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

² “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.

³ Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof,

⁴ but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard.

This is with reference to a 7 year period where the 7th year shall be a sabbath of rest for the land.

The Jubilee Cycle and The Year of Jubilee

The 2 Covenants on the Promised Land

There are actually two covenant that God made regarding the Promised Land. If we can understand this, then we can see how God is working to bring the Jews back to the Land.

The first is commonly called the Abrahamic Covenant because it was made with Abraham to give him the land.

The second is commonly called the Mosaic Covenant because it was revealed by Moses before the Israelites entered Canaan to possess the land.

1.  Abrahamic Covenant

This is known as the Land Title Covenant and is in perpetuity. God made this covenant without any conditions. God blessed Abraham and his descendants unconditionally according the land to them. This was made around 2000 BC. Refer to Gen 15:18-21.

2.  Mosaic Covenant

This is known as the Land Use Covenant and is conditional. It has conditions attached to possessing and using the land and if broken, they can be dispossessed and cursed. Refer to Deut 28 to 30.

Some believe that once dispossessed that Israel will never regain the land. This is incorrect as the Land Title is in perpetuity. The Mosaic Covenant refers to the terms and conditions when they can enjoy the land.

Consider this example. A father is giving a car to his son.

The Promised Land

We must begin in the book of Genesis. After all, Genesis is the book of beginnings. We read in Chapter 12 of the calling of Abraham out of the land of Ur to Canaan, the land that God showed him.

12 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Abraham took a long and arduous journey from Ur in what is today's Iraq to the promised land which is in today's Israel. In this passage, we read of God not only taking him to a new land but promised to make of Abraham a great nation that through him, the world will be blessed by God.

Not only did God take Abraham to a new land, God made a covenant with Abraham to define the land that was given to him and his descendants.

1st Coming of Jesus Christ - Prophecies Fulfilled

We are all very familiar with the bible verses regarding the 1st coming of Jesus Christ. We are duly reminded in the Christmas and Easter messages how Jesus is the one who has fulfilled all the Scripture regarding himself as spoken in the Old Testament.

Some has counted up to 333 verses of the Old Testament that Jesus himself has fulfilled. This defies probability statistics. This fulfilment only points to God working in bringing His plan to our reality through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach.

Here is a partial list of fulfilled prophecies by Jesus.

What is Bible Prophecy?

It is very important to be very clear regarding bible prophecy. We are not talking about future predictions. Man can make predictions. God will give us prophecies.

Are we splitting hairs here? Prediction, although dictionaries include prophecy as part of its definition, carries the connotation of a forecasting, foretelling but with possibility of error and generally has the implication of guesswork. A fortune teller predicts. A weatherman predicts. An economist predicts. A prophet of God prophesies. God gives us prophecies.

In simple terms, prophecy is really history yet to happen. Which also tells us that history is prophecy fulfilled when it is already come to pass what was spoken by God.