Page 33 - Advanced Genesis - Creationism - Student Textbook

Study Section 5: God begins to Create

5.1 Connect

When you start building a house, say you are laying the foundation, the house doesn’t look
like much to be proud of. You dig the ditches for the foundation and start pouring the
footings. At first, you really cannot tell what is going to be built on the land…it has no shape
or form. God started out the same way, creating a shapeless and formless universe on day
one. However, as we begin to study the entire process, and we journey through the week of creation,
you will see the entire picture come together in amazing beauty. Let’s begin the journey….

5.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to explain the connection between verse one and two of the
Genesis one account.

2. The student should be able to explain the condition of the creation at the end of day one.

3. The student should be able to describe the criticisms of the first day of creation from both liberal
scholars and the scientific community and better understand how to rebut these criticisms.

5.3 God Begins His Creation
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Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (ESV)

1. And the earth was … - Verse 2 begins with the conjunction “and.” This
clearly means that the statement is sequentially and chronologically
connected to the verses before and after it. There is no room in the
grammar for a gap. The gap theory proposes that the word for was should
actually be translated “became” suggesting a change of state from the original perfect
state to the chaotic condition inferred from verse 2. However, while the Hebrew verb
used here for being (hayetha) translated “was” is not the same word that denotes a
change of state (haphak). Even though hayetha can be used to introduce a change of state, it is simply
used to mean “was” in 98% of its occurrences. This is why the King James and all other standard
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translations always use “was” and never translate to “became”.

2. Without form, and void – The Hebrew phrase here is tohu wa-bohu or tohu va-vohu. The Gap theory
suggests this should be translated “ruined and desolate”. They justify this by claiming that God would
never create the universe in a chaotic state. They site Isaiah 45:18 specifically saying that God created
not the earth “in vain (tohu), He formed it to be inhabited”. The word tohu can carry various meanings
yet this translation is forced. It is used 20 different times in the Old Testament with no less than 10
different translations. They vary from nothing, to empty space, to confusion, to vanity. In the context of

15 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom#:~:text=This%20means%20words%20often%20have,Gen%204%3A3%2C%20I
s.
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