(Genesis 1:2) The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ

[robert derrick]

The heaven and the earth were created, and then it became without form and void. The origin of the universe beginning with a primordial sea, etc... is mythology of man.

1. Some read this as the result of the casting out of Satan, which the Lord Jesus saw. (Luke 10:18)

2. There is Scripture that speaks of that heaven and earth being inhabited by people:

I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. (Jeremiah 4)

The context shows first a departure of God's people into complete foolishness, which Romans 1 speaks of:

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

Next comes a complete desolation of fruitful places become wilderness and cities broken down, due to the Lord's fierce anger upon His people that have forsaken Him.

This is not the flood at the time of Noah. It therefore must be what is plainly stated: Gen 1:1 followed by Genesis 1:2.

Isaiah speaks of the same time and event:

Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof...The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. (Is 24:1.3)

And it more clearly speaks of Christ on earth, and His apostles following, who would turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6)

And yet, there is promise of God in the end to not make a full end of it all. The same promise of prophecy pertaining to the Lord not making a full end of His people: He would not end having a people unto Himself. (Jerem 5:18) (Ezek 11:13)

1. The Crucifixion:

The Lord came to the heaven and the earth made after a woman as a man in the flesh: in an earthen vessel, and was rejected by His own, and His own were all cast away, all of them being concluded in evil hearted unbelief. (Rom 11:32)(Heb 3:12)

The heaven and earth with the old seed of promise and people of the Lord were all done away with, because they had completely gone away from Him from the beginning of their fathers (Mal 3:7), and when they crucified His Son on the cross, they were made void on the earth:

And the earth was without form, and void.

No covenant of God nor people of God on earth: The earth is utterly emptied of any formed in God's image after the Spirit, as Isaac was so born by faith of Abraham in the promise of God. (Gal 4:29)

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. (Is 24:4-6)

2. Burial:

While the Lord's body was in the tomb, for three days, the Lord Himself descended to the heart of the earth by the Spirit to preach to them in prison (1 Peter 3:19), but on the earth was deep darkness:

and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

Satan had succeeded in emptying the earth of any promised seed made in the time of Adam, and given to Abraham personally, and covenanted with His seed of flesh by Moses: there was no man of Abraham and God on earth:

I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. (Jerem 4)

Even the chosen apostles had no more faith, and none believed His Word of His own resurrection, but went back to their old lives of fishin'.

None believed, none doeth good, no not one upon all the earth: the darkness upon the earth, which began for 6 hours while Jesus was upon the cross, became deep in the rule of Satan upon the earth.

For 3 days was the hour and power of darkness. (Luke 22:53)

It was due to the crucifixion of God's own Son, that darkness was total and complete, without the Light of Christ lighting the eyes of mankind. (John 1:9)

3. Resurrection:

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Jesus is resurrected, and the deep darkness and complete rule of Satan upon the earth is no more. The Spirit of God now moves upon the face of the waters of all the earth, bearing God's commandment to all people to repent and believe the Gospel of the cross (Acts 17):

Let there be Light.

And whensoever He sees that Light (John 1:8) by the faith of His Son in the hearts of men, He declares them to be good, and man is made no more in His own image in likeness of flesh, but also now to be conformed to the image of His dear Son by power of the Spirit.

A New Covenant and a new people born of His own seed, to replenish the earth with the faith of Jesus Christ:

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor 4)

 

[farouk]

@robert derrick I see you believe in what is known historically as the Gap Theory. I think Thomas Chalmers was someone who spearheaded this viewpoint; a Godly man in many ways.

 

[BibleStu]

The heaven and the earth were created, and then it became without form and void.

The Gap Theory depends on the notion that the relationship between the clause (1) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" and (2) "And the earth was without form, and void" was sequential, or temporal. First the creation; then (later on) the formless void. But that is not the only way to understand the relationship between these clauses. The ordinary reading, which has (2) as an elaboration of the conditions that existed immediately as (1) was completed. In other words, God created the universe; but at that time, upon its creation, it was formless and empty. It needed to be structured and filled. And indeed, as several commentaries point out, the first three days involve the structuring of the world, separating things (light from dark, firmament from waters, land from seas), while the second three days involve the filling of the same items in the same order (the sun, moon, and stars "fill" the light day and dark night; air and sea are filled with birds and fish; finally, land is filled with moving animals). By the way, the spirit of God moved over the "deep," which apparently is the best way Moses had to describe this formless void, and what might it be doing there? Getting ready to solve the problem of a formless void by executing the six days of creation.

Besides, if Satan's fall is represented in Gen 1-11, wouldn't it be better to suppose it was when he was doomed to creep about the earth on his belly?

 

[robert derrick]

@robert derrick I see you believe in what is known historically as the Gap Theory. I think Thomas Chalmers was someone who spearheaded this viewpoint; a Godly man in many ways.

I was taught the 'gap theory', where between vs 1 &2, Satan was cast down as lightening upon the earth, and all the universe was flooded with water. But I believe that is more of a stretch than this illustration of conversion from Old to New Covenant.

 

[robert derrick]

The Gap Theory depends on the notion that the relationship between the clause (1) "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" and (2) "And the earth was without form, and void" was sequential, or temporal. First the creation; then (later on) the formless void. But that is not the only way to understand the relationship between these clauses. The ordinary reading, which has (2) as an elaboration of the conditions that existed immediately as (1) was completed. In other words, God created the universe; but at that time, upon its creation, it was formless and empty. It needed to be structured and filled. And indeed, as several commentaries point out, the first three days involve the structuring of the world, separating things (light from dark, firmament from waters, land from seas), while the second three days involve the filling of the same items in the same order (the sun, moon, and stars "fill" the light day and dark night; air and sea are filled with birds and fish; finally, land is filled with moving animals). By the way, the spirit of God moved over the "deep," which apparently is the best way Moses had to describe this formless void, and what might it be doing there? Getting ready to solve the problem of a formless void by executing the six days of creation.

Besides, if Satan's fall is represented in Gen 1-11, wouldn't it be better to suppose it was when he was doomed to creep about the earth on his belly?

I believe the fact that God is not the author of confusion, and He doesn't create anything but good in the beginning, which can corrupt itself later, should be sufficient to reject a creation theory that is all mythologic.

The prophecies in Jeremiah 4 and Isaiah 24 clearly refer to the condition of the earth in Gen 1:2, and many have been speculated about the mention of mankind and cities and fruitful fields being there before the desolation of God's wrath.

It wasn't until I came to believe that all the old seed of promise in the Old Covenant was done away with the covenant itself, and was changed for the seed of promise in Christ, that I saw the possibility of vs 2 being representative in good detail of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

My conclusion being that vs 2 was not a result of Satan's casting into the earth, but rather of the Creator's death on the cross.

The Creator who created the heaven and the earth being killed on earth by His own creatures: I'd say that creation would pretty much be turned upside down and plunged into deep darkness.

"the spirit of God moved over the "deep," which apparently is the best way Moses had to describe this formless void, and what might it be doing there?"

That was one of the keuy understanding I saw: the Spirit of God did not move upon the deep, but rather upon the face of the waters. There was darkness upon the face of the deep.

And so, the heaven and the earth created, the Creator comes to earth and is killed, the earth becomes without form and void. Then the Son is buried in the tomb and gone to the heart of the earth, so that deep darkness of Satan reigned for several days, and then the resurrection of Christ and the Spirit of God moving upon all flesh: the face of the waters on earth, which have been called many peoples in Scripture, bearing the commandment of God to repent and believe His Son and let their be light shining out of the darkness of them that believe not on earth.

The serpent was cursed to crawl upon his belly until the end of Gen 3.