God the Creator

Genesis 1:1-5, 24-31; 2:1

GOLDEN TEXT: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”—Genesis 1:1

IN THE past, Bible students have not been sufficiently critical in studying God’s Word. Today’s lesson illustrates this. The Genesis account does not begin with the creation of the physical earth, as was once supposed. “The beginning,” refers merely to the work accomplished by divine power in bringing the waste and lifeless earth into condition for man’s use.

The earth was already in existence, and had been created by divine power before the time mentioned in the Genesis account. Higher Critics, in discussing various theories respecting how the earth was formed, attribute millions of years to that period. Bible students may well content themselves with the record that the earth already “was,” at the beginning of the Genesis account.

The Bible mentions days of various lengths; for instance, “the day of temptation in the wilderness”—40 years (Hebrews 3:8,9); “A day with the Lord is as a thousand years” (II Peter 3:8); “our Lord’s day,” (John 8:56), etc. While God could have accomplished the great work of ordering the earth in six twenty-four hour days, there is no reason to think that such short days are meant.

God arranged a great week of seven days for His great work of bringing man to perfection. Six of these days prepared our planet to receive Adam as its Lord and earthly King, an image of His Creator. The seventh day, which there began, is not yet complete—it lacks a thousand years of completion. During that period, the Bible tells us, the earth will be brought to a paradise condition and man will be restored by his Redeemer to God’s image.

Six great thousand-year periods or days have passed since Adam was created, according to Bible chronology. We are now in the dawning of the seventh day, or Sabbath day of human experience. God has promised that this seventh day of a thousand years will be very different from the preceding six days, in which mankind has experienced the reign of sin and death. The seventh day of a thousand years is Scripturally called “The Day of Christ” and by many it is styled the Millennium. In it Satan and sin are to be overthrown, righteousness is to be established, and mankind, purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, are all to have full opportunities for arising from present degradation to the re-attainment of the image and likeness of God, lost in Eden by Adam.

The seventh day of the creative week began with Adam’s creation, has already lasted six thousand years, and is to be completed with the thousand years of Christ’s reign. The seventh creative day will thus be seven thousand years long. Whoever sees this, can easily suppose that the six preceding days of the Genesis account were likewise seven thousand years each. Reckoned thus, the total period from the time that divine energy began to operate on the waste earth down to the time when the whole work of creation and restitution would be fully completed, would be seven times seven thousand years, or forty-nine thousand years.

The creation of land animals marked the sixth epoch day. Fish and fowl preceded them, as scientists agree. We read, “the earth brought forth,” but we also read that the Lord directed in the development of different kinds or varieties.

It was at the very end of the sixth day that God created man. The earth did not bring him forth, he was created in his Maker’s likeness, to be the king of earth, to have dominion over the creatures of the land, the air and the sea. We read that God finished His work on the seventh day and rested. He has rested or ceased from His creative work during this seventh day, leaving the finishing of this work to he accomplished by the Redeemer during His Messianic Kingdom, which will complete the seventh day—forty-nine thousand years from the time that God said, “Let there be light.”

According to the Apostle Paul’s statement in 1st Corinthians the 15th chapter, at the end of His thousand-year reign, when Christ shall have accomplished the work of restoring mankind to human perfection. He will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father. At that time the fiftieth thousand-year period will begin, with every creature in heaven and on earth ascribing praise to Him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb forever. How appropriate this will be, especially when we recall that in God’s arrangement fifty is the great climax of numbers. In Bible usage seven is symbolical of perfection, and seven times seven represents a completeness of perfection; and the fiftieth, or jubilee, following is the glorious climax of blessedness.

QUESTIONS:

What “beginning” is referred to in the Genesis account of creation?

Are the seven creative days of Genesis twenty-four hour days, or are they to be understood as periods of time?

How long is the seventh day of creation and what will be the condition of the earth and humanity when it is complete?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |