Peter gives us all 3 ages
II Peter 3:5 "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:"
Most Christians today, and all of the worldly people today are willingly placing their selves in ignorance on this matter of the creation. Old as it is spoken of here is very ancient, goes far back before the time of Noah and Adam, and even before the creation of the animal world and the earth age as we know it now. Peter is telling you that in the far past, there was a first earth age. Not a different world or planet, but the same planet [earth] existing in a time frame prior to as the earth exist today. The same world, but a different world age or time frame.
II Peter 3:6 "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:"
That world age or cosmos that existed in that ancient time of the past, and everything that was a part of it was destroyed completely. All life on it was completely done away with. God destroyed it completely and it happened at Satan's overthrow. Many people believe that this flood was the flood of Noah's day, however, the flood of Noah's day did not destroy this world age, life from before that flood carried right over into the dispensation that followed one year later, after the waters had subsided.
Even in the first two verses of Genesis, God declared that there was a first earth age. Lets go there and study what the Word actually says there.
Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
There are two bodies mentioned in this verse; the heaven and the earth. It simply states a fact, and left the time factor out. This verse not only did not say when, but left it totally to our imagination, as to the eternal span of time, and who the creation took place. In Proverbs 8:22 we read of wisdom speaking through Solomon. Wisdom is God, for all wisdom is of God. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before the works of old." What works of old could this be? It is the old earth age, spoken of in Revelation 12.
Proverbs 8:23 "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was."
This is stating that wisdom was with God, and He possessed me.
Proverbs 8:24 "When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water."
Before there was any need of an abyss, or pit, and the water to fill them, God's wisdom was there.
Proverbs 8:25 "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:"
Before the earth even took on its present form, with the high mountains and rolling hills, God's wisdom was there. God's wisdom played part in the creation of this earth, and all wisdom comes from God.
Proverbs 8:26 "While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the high part [beginning] of the dust of the world."
God was even there before that first Adam, or speck of dust of the earth was formed.
Proverbs 8:27 "When he prepared the heavens and set a compass (circle) upon the face of the depth:"
Proverbs 8:28 "And when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:"
Proverbs 8:29 "When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the fountains of the earth:"
In other words what this is saying is that there was land, and oceans, and fields and lakes, and God set His commandment that they should be separated through the "compass" which He set: and we call it "gravity" today. This is the force that separates all water from dry land. When the waves hit the rocks of the shoreline, they resend back into the sea.
God allowed Job to be tested by both Satan and his fellow man, in the book of Job. However, after 37 chapters of man's nonsense, ramblings, and bad advise by those around Job, God spoke to Job.
Job 38:1, 2: "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"
Job had been tested to the point of losing his entire family, all his property, and he had been inflicted by sores and sickness, yet he did not curse God. He was in a poor frame of mind when God again came to Job. Job had been listening to the trash of men's doctrines for the first thirty seven verses of the book of Job, and now Job was ready to put those ramblings aside of other men, and listen directly to God.
Job 38:3 "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou Me."
God told Job to straighten up and be a man, and listen to what He is about to tell Job. Then God spells out in detail how He laid out the foundations of the earth and the heaven, and all matters concerning them. Then in the rest of Job 38 and 39 God reveals the wisdom that we read about in Proverbs 8.
God told Job how He put the universe all together. Our God is infinite in wisdom and power, yet His love for His children is so great that He allowed Himself to be killed as a man, on the cross at Calvary hill. It was this act of love that made it possible for mankind to except Him as their Savior and approach Him as His child.
So there is a complete separation between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Genesis 1:1 is the first creation of heaven and earth, while Genesis 1:2 is the destruction of this earth after the fall or rebellion of Satan.
Genesis 1:2 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
Who is the Spirit of God? He is the Holy Spirit, and it is God's Spirit that moved upon the face of the waters. In the Hebrew text the translation of the word, "was" as used in this verse "...the earth was without form,..."; we see in the Massorah test it reads "(to become) without form...". The earth was not created a ruin but it became a ruin after the fall of Satan. It is the translators that changed the word from became, to was when they put it into English. This is the same thing that happened in Genesis 2:7 "...and man became a living soul."
The correct translation of the Hebrew from the Massoretic text for these words, "...without form..." is "tohu-va-bohu". So we see that the earth was not created "without form", but it became [tohu] without form and void". Lets go to Strong's Hebrew dictionary, reference number 1961 to verify the word "was", that we read in this verse. "Hayah, haw-yaw; a prime root, to exit; to become, or come to pass."
Now lets continue in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary to get the pure meaning for the word "void". # 2258, on page 36 tells us that we have to go to # 2254 for the prime root word for the meaning of the word "void". "Chabal, khaw-bal; to wind tightly as a rope, to bind, to pervert, destroy, to corrupt, spoil, travail." This corresponds with its other use in # 2255, which is "to ruin".
"Tohu" of the earth, then means that total destruction has come to pass upon the earth. The second "was" in the verse is in italics type because there is no verb "to be" in the Hebrew language. This is one of the problems in translating Hebrew into English, the verb "to be" is not distinguished from the verb, "to become".
At the end of the first earth age of Genesis 1:1 that age ceased to exist in its precious form. God created the earth to be inhabited, and then He destroyed it. There was an entire earth age that existed between the first two verses of Genesis. This first earth age is spoken of in Jeremiah, Proverbs, and Jude, as well as in II Peter. We will look into these Scriptures and try to understand the deeper meaning of our Father's Word.
