God's Work with Planet Earth

There are a lot of ideas we hear about how the world we live in came to be. Big bangs, evolution over millions of years, colonized by an ancient, advanced alien race… But I believe this version from scripture came from the God Who actually created the world.

Stage 1

At the beginning of each stage of God’s work with Planet Earth, He does something really big that changes everything from then on. According to Genesis, the omnipotent God spoke, and His words were so powerful that things as massive as this planet appeared out of nothing. Where do I get that I idea?

“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3

Our human minds cannot comprehend that all the beauty, incredible complexity, interactive ecosystems, and amazing variety could have been created in six day/night cycles. But if God truly is all powerful and infinite as He claims, then this is definitely within the realm of possibility. It would be arrogant for me to think that just because I don’t see or understand something, it cannot be true or it must not exist.

The other side of that coin is that God gave humans brains, and we’re supposed to use our brains (an incredible design by themselves) to evaluate the evidence and make choices. So faith is not blind belief, it is supported by evidence provided by a very real God. If we had 100% proof, we wouldn’t need faith, and faith is a central theme throughout the Bible.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-3

When God started to create, it seems like He was dealing with a water sphere in complete darkness. On the first day He just made light, but not the sun and moon, because He didn’t create those until the fourth day. This reminds me of an artist or engineer getting set up to work and positioning lights on his subject. But what God did on the second day really interests me, because it explains some things that do or do not exist today.

Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven.” Genesis 1:6-8

Side note: In scripture there are three heavens: 1.) the atmosphere/sky, 2.) space, 3.) God’s home. This heaven is the atmosphere around the planet. So at this point God still had a water-only planet, with light shining on it. But He caused a layer of water to rise above the atmosphere. So now He had a water planet with a protective layer of water around its atmosphere.

Well today that water layer is not in our atmosphere, is it? We have satellites orbiting the earth and we’ve sent astronauts out of our atmosphere. It’s not there, so what happened to it? Answering that question is technically jumping ahead, but it’s important to understand.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis 7:11-12

That vapor barrier or layer of water which God separated from the water of the earth itself (on the second day of Creation) fell from the sky as torrential rain over a period of forty days. But that wasn’t all.

On the third day of Creation, God caused the land to form over the water. There were “seas”. Now some may disagree with me on interpretation, but I believe that there were some drastic differences in the nature of Earth before and after this global Flood. Right now, water covers 71% of the planet’s surface. That’s nearly three quarters of our world that you can’t do anything with, except float boats. I believe when God created the world, most of it was inhabitable, with some “seas”, as the Bible says.

Where did all the water go after the flood? Originally, that water used to form the “fountains of the great deep” around the molten core of the Earth. This water inside the Earth, heated by magma and lava, kept the planet warm and watered its surface through springs (Genesis 2:6, Revelation 14:7). The vapor barrier in the atmosphere (created on the 2nd day) acted like a giant greenhouse to regulate a pleasant climate for the entire world. No polar ice caps, no harsh environments like barren deserts and deathly cold arctic tundra, no hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, no extreme seasons. No places hostile to human life.

If God created these harsh conditions when creating the world, then this would be false:

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

So as a result of the Flood, the water that was inside the Earth is now on the outside. It is now our oceans. The land used to cover the entire world, but the tectonic plates buckled into deep valleys and high mountain ranges as the Earth literally blew water up from its insides. The planet after the Flood is literally like a partially deflated volleyball.

Why am I spending time connecting Creation to the Flood? Because God did not create a world like the one we now live in. This was not His original design or plan. Did you know the Hebrew word “eden” means delight or pleasure? It is not a sin to experience pleasure and this was God’s intention for humans.

Did we take Him by surprise in sinning? No, God lives outside of time and knows the end from the beginning.

“Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done…” Isaiah 46:9-10

So, God with His foreknowledge had a choice to make. He could simply not create a world when He knew the inhabitants would rebel. Then you and I would never have existed. Or He could go ahead and create the world, and patiently guide and teach the people in it the path to life and freedom (at least to those who would listen).

He chose the second option, because He knew me and He knew you, before we ever existed. (Ephesians 1:4-5) He loves us as individuals and wanted to give us the chance to spend eternity with Him. That’s why He went through with everything that has happened since Creation. (Hebrews 12:2) And that’s why I’m writing this blog about a God who stands in stark contrast to the pagan and Greek gods. I will go into detail about how and why in later posts.

The point today is that God created a paradise planet with perfect living conditions and environment. His desire for humans was only “good”. (Genesis 2:17, Jeremiah 29:11) So why did He turn the world inside out to cause the Flood, nearly destroying it? That is also the subject of an upcoming post.

God as a reason for everything He does, whether we see or understand this or not. I don’t know why He did some things, but other things I can see at least part of the reason. And usually when my spiritual eyes are opened and I understand, it blows my mind!