ATP said:
The plain reading of Genesis 1 does not at all intimate a length of time between the first two verses. Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:2 informs us that, when He first created the earth, it was formless, empty, and dark; it was unfinished and uninhabited.
Actually it says it became void so something happened inbetween verse 1 and 2 that isn't given to us.
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
(((GAP OF UNKNOWN TIME LENGTH HERE)))
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Was the world simply created "without form" or did it "become" without form?
http://www.blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/strongs/1143160133-2504.html
The Hebrew word for "was" without form is HAYAH and the tense that the verb is QAL which specifically means TO BECOME. Therefore the verse actually says "And the earth BECAME without form, and void;" meaning that God originally created the earth complete and that at some point it BECAME void and without form. Some form of destruction took place which strengthens the "gap theory".
01961 hayah {haw-yaw}
a primitive root [compare 01933]; TWOT - 491; v
AV - was, come to pass, came, has been, were happened, become,
pertained, better for thee; 75
1) to be, become, come to pass, exist, happen, fall out
1a) (Qal)
1a1) -----
1a1a) to happen, fall out, occur, take place, come about,
come to pass
1a1b) to come about, come to pass
1a2) to come into being, become
1a2a) to arise, appear, come
1a2b) to become
1a2b1) to become
1a2b2) to become like
1a2b3) to be instituted, be established
1a3) to be
1a3a) to exist, be in existence
1a3b) to abide, remain, continue (with word of place or time)
1a3c) to stand, lie, be in, be at, be situated (with word
of locality)
1a3d) to accompany, be with 1b)
(Niphal)
1b1) to occur, come to pass, be done, be brought about
1b2) to be done, be finished, be gone
In addition, the "mood" of the verb is "perfect" and it affects the meaning in this way: "The Perfect expresses a completed action." This means that the earth was not created void but indeed BECAME void in an action that is completed by the second verse of Genesis.
So, according to the rules of Hebrew verb tenses, it is not "was void" as if it was made that way but it "became void" as the voidness "came into being".
Genesis 1:2 And the earth [BECAME] without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Scripture has a second witness of this truth:
Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
God did not create the earth void and without form as Genesis is thought to state. God destroyed the world and then recreated everything within it and that's what we read and see in the Genesis account. This is also why scientific evidence that God left behind affirms that the earth is much older than 6000-7000 years.
