Diagram 1

DIAGRAM ONE The previous diagram will be helpful to identify the progression from God's Original Creation of the earth, His judgment upon it, and His remodeling it for man's habitation.

Genesis One, "Created" and "Made."

These two words, translated from two different Hebrew words, are very important in understanding God's Original Creation and His Remodeling of the Earth after its judgment. Let's examine each word and its significance in respect to the earth.

"Created." The Hebrew word for "created" is ‘bara." This word first appears in Genesis, Chapter One. It always means the instant, miraculous creation of something which had no previous existence in any form whatsoever. The three places "bara" (created) appears in Genesis One are as follows:

(1). Genesis 1:1 - "In the beginning God CREATED (bara) the heaven and the earth." They have never existed before this.

(2). Genesis 1:21 - "And God CREATED (bara) great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good." (They never existed before this.)

(3). Genesis 1:27 - "And God CREATED (bara) man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them." (Man never existed before this.)

"Made." The Hebrew word for made is "asah." This word means "to release from restraint, to make, to allow, or to assemble. The late Dr. Harry Rimmer, D.D., SC.D., had this to say concerning the Hebrew for "made."

"This is the word that would be used to describe the production of a piece of furniture by a carpenter, or the assembling of a motor by a skilled mechanic. In the case of the carpenter it would not be proper to say he had "created" a table: he merely manufactured the article out of materials which were already in existence. It would be equally wrong to say that the mechanic had created a motor which he had (only) assembled."

Note: When we see in English the words "made" and "created," they have basically the same meaning to the average person, which has caused much confusion; but, not so in the Hebrew. In the Hebrew, they have distinctively different meanings, the knowledge of which is imperative to understanding Genesis, Chapter One. This, the young earth advocates refuse to accept!

Therefore, the first four days of Genesis are not an Original Creation, but a remodeling process of already existing materials that had been held in restraint or bondage. That is why the Holy Spirit used the precise Hebrew words brought into our English language as "made" and "let," i.e. or "allow."

God's Original Creation, (Genesis 1:1) was created beautiful and to be inhabited. Isaiah 45:18 makes this perfectly clear:

"For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens: God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created (Hebrew, "bara") it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else."

Now, let us compare Isaiah 45:18 with Genesis 1:1-2 which states:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (v.1) "And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep." (v.2)

Notice, in Isaiah, the word "vain." It is the Hebrew word "tohuw" and means "without form, wilderness, to lie waste, desolation and etc." Concerning this word in reference to the Original Creation, it is stated that "…he (God) created (Hebrew "bara") it (the earth) not in vain, (ie., a waste of desolation). It was formed and established perfect and beautiful to be inhabited. Isaiah continued by saying, "…he (God) formed it to be inhabited." This describes the condition of the earth in Genesis 1:1 as God originally created it and his purpose for creating it, "to be inhabited."

Notice in Genesis 1:2 where, at some later time, it was declared that "…the earth was (had become) without form and void." The word "void" in Genesis 1:2 is the same word as "vain" in Isaiah 45:18, ie., "a complete ruin, a desolation and uninhabitable."

Let us now find out who the Original Creation was created for, who inhabited it, and what brought about it's judgment. This leads us to the angels.