Understood, you describe a theme as what I deem possible that the satan or lucifer, rebelled in that stretch of time.
However long in time that may have taken.
Many look at it as heresy!
Yeah, many Christians in the past have been accused of heresy, take Martin Luther for one example. It's what God's Word says that's important, not what men's doctrines say.
Many believe that the heavens and the earth were created in just one day yet it describes the firmament/heavens are created on day two, so one would ask, what are the "heavens" with regards to being "in the beginning"?
Many look at Gen.1:1 as a paraphrase of what is about to take place and that is quite understandable.
There is more than one way to look at scripture and at times scripture will not refute certain ideas.
Knowing Hebrew and Greek is a huge advantage no doubt, I know neither and rely on Google.
For English speaking peoples that don't know Biblical Hebrew or Greek, there have been several scholars of the past who provided a foundation for going into the Biblical languages. The
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance by Dr. James Strong has been a mainstay in that, and is what I mostly use, because, I use the KJV and the
Strong's takes every word in the Bible manuscripts used for the KJV, assigns a number to it, and gives the language definition. There's many Bible study tools developed using Strong's numbers. I use BibleSoft OneTouch software, but not sure if one can still buy it.
Those on the NEC (New Earth Creation) boat believe it how you said, like Gen.1:1 is just a summary, and the details then follow. Thing is, there's other Bible Scripture relative to the Genesis 1:1- 1:2 events in other Bible Books most never consider. In Romans 8:18-25, Apostle Paul said the creation seeks release from the
"bondage of corruption" as God made the creation subject to vanity. That automatically suggests the creation was in a better state beforehand, and that something happened to cause God to place today's creation in bondage.
In the Jer.4:23-28 Scripture, Hebrew
tohu va bohu (
"without form, and void") appears again, the only other place it appears. Hebrew
tohu, if you'll look at all the verses of how it is used, is about something that was once in a good state that went bad or into corruption. God even hinted at today's cause of violent weather on the earth when He said for this reason (because of the ancient destruction He did upon the earth), the earth would mourn, and the heavens above would be black (Jer.4:27-28). I studied aviation, and had to take courses for a private pilot license which included a study of the earth's weather. The reason for the violent storms today is because of the holes in our cloud atmosphere heating the earth and evaporation, with hot air rising into the higher altitudes of cold air. And when the two fronts meet, violent storms are caused, and water moisture fills up the clouds and they turn dark (black). That suggests God's 'original' perfect creation was not in that state it is in today. It actually explains the Rev.21 mystery that in God's future Kingdom there will be no more sea. The waters on the earth are going to go back up into the cloud atmosphere and fill all those sky holes, which will create an even temperature tropical paradise over the whole earth.
I tend to lean towards the old world existence where there is a possibility that the earth existed, before the creation that exists afterwards, starting in the Gen.1:2.
Especially with all the science-based evidence towards an "old earth".
Well, there's true science, and then there's pseudo-science. Evolution of species theory is pseudo-science. Just like how at one time even the naturalist scientist status quo was that the earth was flat, scientists are just as capable today to make errors with their theories. The evidence I think is most important are things like the woolly mammoth found buried frozen in ice in the Arctic zone still with undigested vegetation in its stomach, and vegetation in its mouth where it had been suddenly frozen while grazing in a green field. God's Word does account for that event, most brethren simply don't go into that mind mode to think about it. Perfect human arch footprints found inside dinosaur footprints, both fossilized together from the same time, is another example. I consider those human footprints to be those of the angels that dwelt on earth back before Lucifer rebelled. No human skeletal remains have ever been found with those fossilized footprints.
If an asteroid were to hit earth to completely destroy all the host thereof, wouldn't it make the earth "without form ,null and void" as described in Genesis 1?
That still won't work, because the Hebrew phrase
tohu va bohu that is translated to
"without form, and void" is not what that Hebrew phrase actually means. The
"without form, and void" interpretation is actually tied to scientific speculation, because science believes stars, galaxies, etc. start like a gathering of ether gas out of nothing that slowly forms a material matter base. God's Word instead says God spoke and His creation came into existence.
Many have all sorts of theories about a previous world before Gen.1:2 as do I, however that is all they are, just theory.
There is no scriptural referance anywhere with regards to a previous creation so it is null and void to the fundamentals of scripture.
We can only interpret what we can read.
I disagree, strongly, that there is no Bible Scripture evidence pointing to a previous 1st world earth age prior to this one of today, the time when Lucifer was perfect in his ways following God. Apostle Peter in 2 Peter 3 is actually describing that 1st world earth age, the
"world that then was".
It appears you believe the rebellion of the satan occurred after Gen.1:2, or before?
I believe that the angelic rebellion happened before Gen.1:2 when the light separated from the darkness.
I use the devil's name Lucifer for before he rebelled. It means 'morning star'. His name Satan began to apply after... he had already rebelled and had fallen, as it points to his role as the Adversary. Thus his rebellion had to have happened prior... to Adam and Eve, for by the time of Adam and Eve he was already in God's Garden tempting Eve.
Can you descibe what you mean by the bold print in your post?
When I am quoting directly from the KJV, a word or phrase, I try to put that in bold-italics. So if someone uses a concordance, and are looking for where that KJV word or phrase appears, they can simply type it in and do a search.
I agree "eventually" sin death and hell will be destroyed after the 1000 year reign.
This would indicate that we will have to still be on our guard then the satan is released afterwards.
Christ's elect who reign with Him during His "thousand years" need not worry about Satan's final release and deception, for that event will be only upon the unsaved.
It's good to discuss these things yet it might be better to start a new thread in a more appropriate place on this forum to discuss further?
