Third Day of Remodeling; Ocean Is Formed;
14. Third Day of Remodeling; Ocean Is Formed;
Dry Land Appears; Botany Is Re-Born. Genesis 1:9-13.
"And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." (Genesis 1:9). "And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas: and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:10). "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth: and it was so." (Genesis 1:11). "And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind" and God saw that it was good." (Genesis 1:12). "And the evening and the morning were the third day." (Genesis 1:13).
Notice carefully that on the third day God did not use the Hebrew word "bara" translated "created" in our English. "Bara," as you recall means something that previously had not existed. In the third day of remodeling the earth, it had already been created in Genesis 1:1 and water had later covered it in judgment, as found in the Third Day. This is the condition that resulted from Satan's rebellion and God's judgment upon the Original Creation; thus, the earth "had become without form and void," as recorded in Genesis 1:2. Your young earth advocates, some of them writing as though they were Bible scholars, do not have any degrees in Biblical theology at all. Mr. Ken Ham, founder of "Answers in Genesis (AIG) denies the Original Creation occupied by Satan and the angels. He refuses to acknowledge the Hebrew Masoretic Text and what qualifies as a disjunction, instead of a conjunction, and the rules of Hebrew. For example, In Genesis 1:2, "And the earth was without form and void..." Here the Hebrew verb "Hayah" or "was" is in the original, as it is not italicized. "Was," is the Hebrew verb "hayah." When "hayah" is in the original text, and the normal word order of the sentence in the Hebrew is changed, with the subject going to the head of the sentence. Thus a disconnection, or change of thought, is emphasized. This is called a pluperfect tense of the verb. Therefore, the verb "hayah" translated "was" should have been translated "had been" or "had become" or "became" without form and void. Therefore the Hebrew requires a disjunctive, instead of a conjunctive, since the verb "hayah" is in the original text.
Mr. Ham either denies the word of God outright in the original text, or doesn't know enough about the Hebrew Text to know what it teaches. In trying to deceive people into believing his young earth philosophy, he states that, "God says that when he made the earth, it was first of all covered with water." The Bible says nothing about the earth being created completely covered with water. God says just the opposite, Mr. Ham, in Isaiah 45:18. Here is the word of God:
He (God) created it (earth) not in vain " (i.e., "a wilderness or ruined condition"), he formed it to be inhabited." This is how he created it, Mr. Ham, not completely covered with water. as you say; but, beautiful and fit for the habitation of God's anointed cherub and his angelic host. This is in perfect harmony with Genesis 1:2, which tells how the earth became after Satan's fall and God's judgment.
"And the earth became (Hebrew verb "hayah") 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."
I have a booklet entitled Dinosaurs and the Bible, by Ken Ham, B. App. Sc., Dip. Ed. I do not see any degrees concerning Biblical Theology. No Bachelor of Theology, no Master of Theology, nor a Doctorate of Theology. No biblical studies in Hebrew or Greek, yet Mr. Ham presents himself as a Biblical authority of the Scriptures. Unbelievable!