The Creative Ages

Believe it or not, there is serious “debate” among Bible scholars as to how God created the material universe.  The two sides of the debate may be summarized like this:

(a)  Genesis 1:1 is a “preliminary statement.”  What follows is merely the orderly progression of God bringing what was originally a formless world (Genesis 1:2) into a beautiful cosmos.  This was accomplished in a total of six literal days.  So what we read in the opening chapters of Genesis is a record of the original days of creation.

(b)  Others believe that Genesis 1:1 refers to the original creation of the material universe some time in the dateless past.  All that can be seen was originally created absolutely perfect in every way; perfect and complete.  Verse 2 is a reference to some kind of cataclysmic calamity which caused the cosmos to become “formless” and “void.”  What follows is the detailed record of a period of six literal days of “re-creation” or “reconstruction” during which time the earth was restored to a state of order and harmony.

Both of these theories stress a literal creation or re-creation period of six days; that is, six 24 hour time periods.  Neither theory acknowledges any form of evolution or “theistic evolution.”  Both theories see God as the Sovereign Creator of all that is.   What follows is an outline of what we consider the correct view of creation, the latter view:

Original Creation, Genesis 1:1

This verse is a very brief statement of the creation of the material universe at some point in the dateless past.  Whether God did this by setting in motion forces that would gradually bring to consummation an orderly universe or whether He created the material universe with one spoken word is unknown.  How long the original creation took, therefore, is not known.

Chaos, Genesis 1:2

This single verse records the result of some kind cataclysmic event that caused our planet to become ruined.  The probable cause, the fall of Lucifer, is found elsewhere in the Bible:

Isaiah 14:12—14.  How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!    You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!  You said in your heart,  “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.”

See also Ezekiel 28:12—17 and 1 Timothy 3:6.  It is possible that Satan may have been the ruler of the original earth and God, in order to punish him, caused the earth to become uninhabitable.  This would explain his hatred of the human race, to whom was given dominion of the planet that was once his.

Chaotic Earth, Genesis 1:2

There are several passages in the Bible that teach clearly the earth was not created a waste, among them Isaiah 45:18—

For this is what the LORD says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

Indeed, created in perfection, the earth was thrown into darkness and chaos by being completely submerged in water.  In its present state, out planet is being preserved for a final renovation by fire, according to 2 Peter 3:5—7.   Scientists and archaeologists have found the remains of prehistoric animals from what is known as the “glacial period,” but no remains of human beings.   This evidence seems to suggest that man, as he we know him today, did not inhabit the original earth.

The heavens and earth which are now, 2 Peter 3:7

The records of Genesis 1:3—31 and 2:1—3 do not refer to the work of original creation, but to a period of re-creation or reconstruction, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, which was to bring the planet out of its chaotic state.

The Antediluvian Age

The Antediluvian Age refers to an age before the Flood.  So this age lasted from the time of Adam and Eve to Noah’s Flood.  This second Biblical age includes the first two dispensations:  The Dispensation of Innocence and The Dispensation of Conscience.

1.  The Dispensation of Innocence

How long this dispensation lasted is not known.  It takes in Genesis 2:7—3:24 and covers the life of Adam and Eve from their placement in the Garden of Eden to their eventual fall and expulsion from the Garden.

Nobody can imagine how perfect the Garden of Eden must have been; it must have contained everything man’s heart could desire.  In creating Eve, God gave to Adam what He himself desires:  fellowship, friendship, and communion with a being like Himself.   Matthew Henry has written the definitive statement on the creation of Eve:

Not out of his head to top him, nor out of his foot to be trampled by him; but out of his side to be equal with him; under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved.

Since man is a free moral agent with the power to choose, it was logical that God should give him a simple test of his obedience and loyalty.  This test was in the form of one single tree in the Garden from which Adam and Eve could not eat.  God warned them that there would be a dire consequence should they disobey.

We know that Adam and Eve failed miserably.  Satan entered into the Garden in the form of a serpent, motivated by his eternal hatred of God and jealousy of man.  Where man failed, Satan succeeded, and his success brought judgment upon all God created and changed the material universe, the spirit world, and man himself.

2.  The Dispensation of Conscience, Genesis 4:1—8:14

This second dispensation of the Antediluvian Age lasted approximately 1656 years from the Fall to the Flood.  By eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve learned four things:

• There is a real principle and power of evil in the universe that is opposed to God and His purposes;
• There are real and unpleasant consequences of disobedience and disbelief;
• There is an advantage to trusting God and having faith in Him and His wisdom;
• It is always better to choose the good and reject the evil.

In short, man’s conscience was awakened by the Fall.  Prior to the Fall, man had no conscience because conscience is a working knowledge of good and evil.  This knowledge was not native to Adam and Eve; they acquired it themselves by eating of the forbidden fruit.  During this Dispensation, man would be tested continually as to which he will choose, good or evil.

There were four main features of this time period:

(a)  Cain and Abel, 4:1—16

These two men are symbolic of two kinds of people in the world today.  Cain represents those who are willing to acknowledge the existence and the goodness of God yet refuse to acknowledge themselves as sinners and would seek to approach God on their own terms.  Abel represents those who are conscious of the holiness of God and of their own unworthiness and sinfulness.  These people come to God in faith in the worthiness of God’s sacrificial Lamb, Jesus Christ, and they are accepted for His sake.

God accepted Abel’s offering but not Cain’s.  Note verses 6 and 7—

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”

In other words, God was giving Cain a second chance; an opportunity to acknowledge his wrong, and to go out and get a sacrificial lamb for a sin-offering, available at his door.  Rotherham’s translation of these verses is helpful—

Wherefore hath it angered thee, and wherefore hath thy countenance fallen?  Shall it not, if thou do right, be lifted up?  But if thou do not right, at the entrance a sin-bearer is lying; unto thee, moreover, shall be his longing and thou shall rule over him.

Cain refused in his pride and simply murdered his brother and was punished.

(b)  The godless civilization of the Antediluvian Age, 4:17—24

Because the world is marred by sin and the human heart is full of wickedness, God’s original intention was for man to live in scattered communities, not in great metropolises.  Evil and wickedness spread more rapidly and with greater ease where large numbers of people live together in close proximity, just as one rotten apple can rot an entire barrel of apples.

Jabal, a son of Lamech, was a descendant of Cain and was the first man to accumulate a large herd of cattle.  He was a nomad who lived in tents and Bible scholars suggest that Jabal, in defiance of God’s command for man to work the ground, sought to avoid some of the consequences of the curse, by introducing animal flesh and milk as food.

Jubal, another son of Lamech, was the inventor of musical instruments.  While music is of the Lord, what we are reading about here is the  ungodly line of Cain; namely, Jabal, Jubal and Tubal-cain.  These men, because they were sinful, used good things in the wrong way.  Jubal was not intent on glorifying God with his music, but through Jubal’s musical talents, Satan sought to pervert music in order to dull man’s sensibilities toward God and to distract him from a pursuit of God.

Lamech was the world’s first polygamist.  Verses 23 and 24 represent a kind of poetry or song which may have been sung by the antediluvians.  The song is arrogant and boastful and blasphemous; a perversion of what Godly music was to be.  The meaning of the song is that God promised a sevenfold punishment upon any man who killed Cain, but if anybody should injure Lamech, seventy seven fold would be the vengeance He would bring upon him.  In other words, Lamech thought himself much greater than Cain and more important to God.

Tubal-cain was a metal worker.  Genesis 6:13 tells us that the earth was full of violence and much of that violence was a result of weapons forged by Tubal-cain.

(c)  The prominence of women in Cain’s line, 4:19, 22

The name  Adah means “ornament” or “beauty”, Zillah means “lovely shade” and Naamah means “lovely.”  These names were given in recognition of the physical beauty and charm of these women.  Interestingly, there is no mention of women in the godly line of Seth.

From Earth’s Earliest Ages, we read an enlightening two paragraphs:

The Cainites, with the restlessness of men alienated from God were ever striving to make the land of their exile a pleasant land; to reproduce Paradise artificially instead of longing for the real garden of delight, they were ceaselessly trying by every means to palliate the curse, instead of patiently following God’s directions for getting rid of it altogether.

Cain himself, who had been condemned to wander, was the first to build a city which he called Enoch after the name of his son, the first attempt to settle comfortably upon the earth.

(d)  The godly line of Seth, 4:25—5:32

Seth and his immediate descendants were godly people, according to verse 26—

Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.

Enosh, or Enoch, was a man of God, 5:22, and because of his great faithfulness, he was taken way by God from the ungodliness of the earth and before the Flood of Noah.

Seth’s posterity was completely different from that of Cain.  No more do we read of envying, strife or sin when we read about them.  We see a people who worked day after day to produce food from the soil according to God’s command.  They didn’t build great buildings or monuments to themselves, they are not seen inventing things, engaging in song and dance, they have no part in preserving their history because they are not a part of the earth’s history, they are strangers and pilgrims looking for a better country that is heavenly.

God expects His people to live lives separated from the evil of their world, 2 Corinthians 6:14—18—

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

“Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

“I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Sadly, we know from Biblical history the Sethites were eventually drawn away from their walk with God into a walk with evil, to be swept away in the Flood.  Only eight people were saved from the destruction of the earth.

The Dispensation of Conscience ended with God’s intervention in the form of a terrible judgment, the Flood, which lasted for one year and ten days (Genesis 6:3—8:14).  The end of that age and dispensation does not mean that man no longer has a conscience.  Noah and his family had seen both the good in their world and the evil and were therefore responsible to heed the voice of their consciences and choose the good.