Thanks for sharing.
What do you mean by "perfect" and "imperfect"?
Turn to Romans 8:18-25...
Rom 8:18-25
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Apostle Paul in the above is comparing this present world, with the world to come.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
The Greek word for "creature" above is the same Greek word translated to "creation" in the later Romans 8:22 verse. So Paul is talking about God's creation.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope,
Paul reveals in the above verse that at some point, God made His creation subject to "vanity", and subjected His creation in hope. That idea of the word "vanity" is the equivalent idea of Hebrew
tohu va bohu ("without form, and void").
In Isaiah 45:18, God said He created the earth NOT in vain (Hebrew
tohu, which is translated to "without form" at Gen.1:2 and Jer.4:23). Thus said He did not create the earth without form. This requires that we stop and think for a moment.
If God did not create the earth
tohu ("without form") like He said Isaiah 45, then it means His original creation had to have been in a PERFECT state, and not like the earth's condition of today, of having been "made subject to vanity". It points to today's creation NOT being in a perfect state.
21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Just when... did God subject His present creation in that "bondage of corruption"? Some try to say He did when Adam fell, but no, the Jeremiah 4:23-28 Scripture is another view of the state of the earth at Genesis 1:2 after God ended the old world when Satan first rebelled.
Per the Ezekiel 28 parable, the king of Tyrus there given as a 'type' for Satan, it shows that God originally created Satan perfect in his ways, and then iniquity was later found in him. So Satan originally followed and worshiped God in that old world, is what that is pointing to. Satan coveted God's throne, wanting to be The GOD, and God ended Satan's rebellion of old along with that original 'perfect' creation. Then past Genesis 1:2 is God re-establishing today's 2nd earth world age creation, which He placed in "bondage of corruption" for today.
Apostle Paul obviously understood this, and Peter did remark about some things hard to understand in Paul's Epistles.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
God's creation of today groans and travails in pain until now?
I know we all have been taught that today's creation by God is so... beautiful, and even perfect, but it is not. Not by God's standard. This is why Paul here is showing the difference between today's creation that God placed in a state of corruption and bondage, to His glorious creation in the future world to come.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
What is it that groans "within ourselves", waiting for that future adoption, the redemption to our glorious body? It is our soul and spirit inside our flesh that awaits that change. The whole creation awaits that redemption too, according to Paul here. And that points directly to the fact that God's creation of today had before, at one time, been in a perfect condition.
24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
KJV
Even though God's creation for this present 2nd world earth age is still beautiful, it is not in the 'original perfect' state that He made it. The interpretation tradition of Genesis 1:2 forward being about the only creation that God did is designed by men to actually hide... what really happened in the old world, the 1st world earth age when Satan followed God. It actually is a promoting of man's secular science, because the "without form, and void" traditional translation is pushing man's theory that the earth existed in a state of 'nothingness' at Gen.1:2, which is not what that verse reveals at all, especially per the Hebrew
tohua va bohu phrase.
That traditional interpretation of Gen.1 also disregards the fossil evidence that God left us that shows the earth's history is much older than the traditional interpretation of Genesis 1. New Earth Creationists will even try and use the excuse that any belief in the fossil record means believing man's false theory of evolution. Yet God left us the fossil record as evidence of His destruction of His previous perfect creation, for example:
There is a major gap in the fossil record between ancient created animals that no longer exist (like the dinosaurs), and animals of this present world. That gap shows that animal and plant life just ended abruptly, and there is a time gap of nothing, and then later new animal and plant life emerge. Likewise at the earth's poles there are fossils of tropical plant and animal life showing those areas of the earth were at one time like a tropical paradise. Same for the putrefied forests of palm trees in the western U.S. deserts.
The woolly mammoth found frozen buried in the ice at the Arctic had undigested vegetation still in its mouth, and in its stomach, showing that it was caught grazing in a lush green field in the Arctic zone. That has scientists baffled, because it shows that mammoth was cover in water all of a sudden and then froze solid, even before the vegetation had time to decay. God's Word actually explains all that, but it requires Bible study.
Per Rev.1:1 in the future world to come, there will be 'no more sea' it says. That means no more oceans and seas, the waters covering about 70% of today's earth. Where is all that water going to go?
God explains this in the Jeremiah 4 Scripture:
Jer 4:26-28
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by His fierce anger.
That was God's destruction of the old world when Satan rebelled, ending that old world. Believe it or not, there were cities and nations upon the earth in that 1st world earth age, when Satan was originally exalted over them (see Ezekiel 31, which is a parable like Ezekiel 28). That was an 'angelic' type existence upon this earth, with God's River of the Waters of Life upon this earth, which we are shown still was here per Gen.2, but then removed by the end of Gen.3 when Adam and Eve fell.
27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.
That is after God had destroyed that old world when Satan rebelled. That "whole land shall be desolate" is a link to what Apostle Paul showed with God placing His original perfect creation at that time, in bondage to corruption.
28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
KJV
That idea of the earth being in mourning, and the heavens above being black, is another reference to God having placed His original perfect creation in bondage to corruption, which is the state of the earth at Gen.1:2 forward, and is still today's present earth.
The heavens above being black is a reference to today's cloud system around the earth for this 2nd world earth age. What do clouds full of rain water look like? They turn dark, black. That is what God is pointing to with that idea. And it is the sky holes in today's atmosphere around the earth that is responsible for today's violent weather systems. The sun beads down upon the earth, heating waters on the earth to make them rise to altitude, and at altitudes above the earth, the air is cold. Thus those warm and cold fronts mix, and create today's violent storms, including black storm clouds. Plug all those holes in today's sky atmosphere around the earth and you have what... kind of weather system? The one which God originally created the earth with, which caused even temperatures over the whole earth, making the whole earth like a literal Paradise.
