The Earth "was" - 'became' - Without Form and Void

Smashed and Trashed

We now need to understand a few truths from Genesis.

Genesis 1:1,2
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was 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.

The first word in the bible when it was originally written was the word God. God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form and void.

We are going to consider these words in verse 2, for there is much below the surface. When we perceive their depth, our perceptions of the world will never quite be the same again.

To begin, let us consider the words form and void which are tohu va bohu in the Hebrew. Tohu va bohu could literally be translated without form and void, but without understanding an important figure of speech at work we completely miss the whole point. The words tohu va bohu rhyme and this is intentional. It is the figure of speech paronomasia - rhyming words. To see the power in this figure of speech, consider the following:

He was extremely fit.

This is a literal sentence, which means exactly what it says - he was extremely fit. There is no figure of speech employed, and the sentence is a basic statement of rather bland fact. There is no real power to the words. However, if we were to say:

He was lean and mean.

All of a sudden, the sentence resonates with power. We have images of the extreme fitness of this guy, and even his mental attitude. We can feel his fitness. That is what a figure of speech does - it brings words to life, emphasising them in a very special way, giving them power and resonance.

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was without form and void.

This is a poor translation of tohu va bohu, despite it being technically accurate. This is because the translators did not employ the figure of speech, and what we have is a rather bland statement of fact. Worse, this particular translation is misleading. If we were to translate these words employing the figure of speech that was intended, the verse develops a power that is almost overwhelming. Here is an attempt to translate the verse, employing the figure of speech paronomasia.

And the earth was smashed and trashed.

My goodness, sit down and consider those words! The earth was smashed and trashed? You mean it was not created that way? What happened? God created the heavens and the earth, and then it was smashed and trashed? Yes, that is precisely what the word is saying here. Whatever happened in Genesis 1:2 was so cataclysmic, the earth was totally without form and void, it could not support any form of life whatsoever, it was utterly smashed and trashed.

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was 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.

To understand what happened to the earth back in Genesis 1:2, it is necessary to look at a few other scriptures to build some background.

The bible talks of three heavens and three earths, and it is important to note that there is no overlapping of time between them, nor are they spheres within spheres, or levels within levels, as is often taught by spiritualists and sorcerers. These are three distinctly different heavens and earths in three completely different periods of time.

2 Peter 3:5-7 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:

Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men.

Peter talks of the first heavens and earth, and the present heavens and earth. He also gives us information. Water destroyed the first heaven and earth, but this is not referring to the flood of Noah's day for that flood did not smash and trash the earth. When the earth was smashed and trashed in Genesis 1:2, there was no life for it could not support life. Peter also talks of a third heavens and earth coming in the future:

2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

God put the first heavens and earth together. That earth was smashed and trashed. God put it back together again, and this is the second heavens and earth in which we now live. However, Adam and Eve messed things up and sometime in the future there will be a new heavens and earth where everything will be put right again.

So how was the first earth smashed and trashed? We gain clues from around the word, some of which we've seen before.

Revelation 12:7-9 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

First of all, is this talking about a past event or a future event? The period of revelation, called the wrath in the bible, is still future, but there are references to past events throughout the book. For example, verses 1 and 2 inform us that both the sun and moon were visible in Virgo when Jesus Christ was born. This is clearly a reference to a past event. Some claim this war in heaven is still a future event and that the devil still resides in heaven, but consider these verses from Job and Peter which clearly teach that the devil is earthbound right now.

Job 1:7
And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

If the devil is earthbound, then clearly the prophecy in Revelation refers to a past event. No one can possibly deny that by the time Adam and Eve came along the devil had already rebelled. He was clearly already God's enemy before the foundations of this second heavens and earth. It was this spiritual war in the heavens that is the most likely cause of the smashed heavens and earth in Genesis. Isaiah substantiates this. Just look at the I Wills in the following verses.

Isaiah 14:12-15
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God [the star, God]: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the most High.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Lucifer, from Latin, means light bearer or brilliant one, illuminated one. Lucifer was second in command in heaven next to God. Each archangel had one third of the angels under their command. The angels, as we do, have freewill. Lucifer decided he wanted to be worshipped as God and committed treason by trying to usurp God and take his worship which started the war. Obviously God did not smash and trash his own earth, so we can safely conclude it was the devil who did it. Lucifer must be quite something if he felt he could take on God. Never underestimate him. We put our trust in God as our protection from him.

As an aside, here is another morsel of truth that enhances and adds light to the truth of the smashed and trashed earth of Genesis 1:2. After the flood of Noah's day, when the ark grounded and Noah and his family stepped back onto dry ground, God spoke to them:

Genesis 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

God told them to be fruitful and multiply and REPLENISH the earth. What does the word replenish mean? Here is a dictionary definition:

replenish -verb (used with object) to make full or complete again, as by supplying what is lacking, used up, etc.: to replenish one's stock of food.

In the case of Noah, this makes perfect sense. They were to replenish the earth because they were the only ones left. The earth had been populated, everyone apart from Noah and his family had drowned, and they were to repopulate, replenish the earth. Now look back at Genesis 1 when God spoke to Adam and Eve.

Genesis 1:27,28a So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and REPLENISH the earth, and subdue it...

God told Adam and Eve to replenish the earth. Intriguing stuff. See, the earth had been populated before Adam and Eve, before it was smashed and trashed in Genesis 1:2. Further, we can assume that it was the devil who did the smashing and trashing.

So, we have a smashed and trashed earth. There is no life. All is darkness and cold. That makes sense, because darkness and cold implies an absence of light and heat. The devil's realm is not hot, as some mistakenly believe, it is extremely cold.

Genesis 1:3-5
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Darkness can only exist in the absence of light. Turn on the light and there is no darkness.

Genesis 1:6-8 And God said, Let there be a firmament [Hebrew - raqia] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament [raqia], and divided the waters which were under the firmament [raqia] from the waters which were above the firmament [raqia]: and it was so.

And God called the firmament [raqia] Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

What is the firmament? Verse 8 tells us the firmament is heaven, or the universe. The word translated firmament here is raqia in Hebrew, which is more accurately translated expansion, and it refers to the universe. The firmament is the universe so read these verses again employing universe instead of firmament.

Genesis 1:6-8 And God said, Let there be a universe in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the universe, and divided the waters which were under the universe from the waters which were above the universe: and it was so.

And God called the universe Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Heaven is the universe, which is anywhere above earth. Biblically, if you want to go to heaven, jump up and down. Every time your feet leave earth, you go to heaven. In Peter, we saw that the first earth was destroyed because it overflowed with water.

2 Peter 3:6
Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

This is fascinating. By putting the second heavens and earth back into order, God divided the waters into two distinct bodies. The waters under the universe, refer to the waters on the smashed and trashed earth. These waters were separated from the waters above the universe. What is this saying? When the first heavens and earth were smashed and trashed, the entire planet earth was covered in water. These waters were then divided, separated, so that there was a universe between the waters on the earth and the waters above it. In other words, the universe does not go on forever, it is totally encased in water. You can picture it like a bubble in a sea, albeit a rather large bubble.

Some basic physics would not go astray here. In verse 3, God introduced light. Without light and, therefore heat, in what state is water? It is frozen. Incidentally, so is oxygen, nitrogen, and all other normally gaseous material. The water that smashed and trashed the first heavens and earth was, therefore, frozen. The atmosphere would have liquefied and frozen. In this regards, isn't it amazing to note then that all scientists and geologists agree that the last Ice Age ended less than 10,000 years ago, the same time the bible says Adam and Eve were formed, made and created. Now consider this verse from Job:

Job 38:30
The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

The word hid is the word hardened. These waters referred to in Job are hard like stone. Why? Because they are frozen. Total darkness is the absence of light and heat. Any guesses where the frozen face of the deep is? Yes, the frozen face of the deep refers to the waters above the universe. These waters are called in the bible, the deep, and its face is frozen.

Genesis 1:2
And the earth was 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.

What about this first heaven and earth then? Well, we know it was around for a long time from the rocks and fossils we can study. T Rex? Stick him in the first heaven and earth, for that is when he lived and breathed. Stick all your dinosaurs in there. See how beautifully the rightly divided word fits with true science?

Scientists today search for a link between what they call prehistoric man and modern man - the missing link - but they cannot find it. The reason is simple - there isn't one. The world was smashed and trashed. The men that lived in the first heaven and earth did not survive or evolve into this second heaven and earth. The oldest bones of modern man date to less than 10,000 years ago, the same time the last ice age ended. There is no conflict with true science and the bible. True science can only corroborate and substantiate the truths recorded in the word. By the way, this truth negates the theory of evolution. Man and all the animals on earth today are less than 10,000 years old. All the older fossils belong to life in the first heaven and earth.

Any idea what keeps the frozen face of the deep from freezing the earth today? Ever wondered what the stars are up there for? Sure, for signs and seasons, and they look pretty, but they also have a job to do, they keep us protected from all that cold up there. On day one, God introduced light to the smashed and trashed heavens and earth. On day two, he separated the waters with the universe. Now we are into day three.

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.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

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.

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.

And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Note that God does not create anything here. Nor did he create anything on day one or day two. The earth already existed, and because it already existed, God did not have to create it. To create, biblically, means to bring into existence something that does not exist. Hence, there is no creating going on here. The heavens and the earth existed, so God just had to put it back together again after it was smashed and trashed.

On day three, dry land appeared and the seas were gathered into one place, which is a reference to there being one large land mass surrounded by one ocean. At this stage of earth's development, there were no islands or continents. There is no problem getting science to fit any of this. Any child can look at a globe of the world and see how South America fits into Africa, and how all the continents could literally be pushed together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Scientists and geologists have named this supercontinent Pangaea. The world has this to say about Pangaea.

Pangaea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming approximately 300 million years ago. It began to break apart around 200 million years ago.

This is a monstrous lie. Pangaea broke up less than 10,000 years ago, and it happened suddenly, overnight, not over millions of years. The reason the world lies about when Pangaea broke apart is because they have no facts to back up their truths. It took a massive head on smash of continents to force the Himalayan Mountains into the sky. Perhaps honest scientists and geologists can put some stuff together now that makes sense.

Day three also sees plant life built back into the earth. The smashing and trashing of the first earth was so severe, no plant life of any kind survived, not even their seeds. The smashing and trashing was absolute, as emphasised by the figure of speech paronomasia. The earth was totally and utterly devoid of any form of life whatsoever, it was utterly smashed and trashed. Now day four.

Genesis 1:14-19
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven [the universe] to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

There are some amazing truths here. God made light on day one, didn't he? Sure he did.

Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Despite light being in existence since day one, the sun and the stars were not made until the fourth day. Light therefore does not originate from the sun or any of the stars. The sun and stars are merely transformers, power cells that convert light into useable energy that supports life on earth. The sun is not a source of light, because light existed before the sun was fired up. There is much below the surface here, but we cannot take the time in this work to delve into quantum physics. Suffice to mention that the same way you can use a microscope to look down into a completely new world at the cellular level, and then continue down into the atomic universe, you can zoom into God's word to find completely new dimensions of truth below the surface. There are vast astronomic and deep microscopic universes of perfection within God's word. Onto day five.

Genesis 1:20-23
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature [Hebrew: nephesh - soul] that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

And God created great whales, and every living creature [nephesh - soul] 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.

And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

In verse 20, the word creature is translated from a Hebrew word with which we will become familiar. It is the word nephesh, which means soul. Let the waters bring forth abundantly living souls. In verse 21, the word creature is again the word nephesh and it should have been translated soul.

Note also the correct usage of the word create. This is only the second time this word has been used so far in Genesis. Soul life did not exist at this point, which is why God had to create it. He brought into existence something that did not exist in any form anywhere. Soul life is breath life. If something breathes, it has soul. Whales, birds, fish, dogs and cats have souls. Anything that breathes has a soul. This is when soul life was created, and once something has been created, it does not require creating again because it already exists. Remember that when we come to man.

Genesis 1:24-26
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature [nephesh - soul] after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

The animal and plant kingdoms were in place before man was formed, made, and created. However, man had something very special which no animal, fish or bird had, and that was spirit.

Genesis 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

The image of God is spirit, so when he created man in his own image, it means he created spirit within man. It was this spirit that set man above everything else, that was what made him special, that was what set him above the animal kingdom.

Genesis 1:28-30
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Man had dominion over all of God's creation. He had dominion and authority over the earth and everything in it. Man had complete authority, rule, and dominion. Man was the earth's CEO if you like, he was the boss, the Lord of the earth, and it was God who gave him that job, that responsibility. To finish off chapter one, notice that God states six times that what he had done was good, and then crowns it with a seventh usage of very good.

Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

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.

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And God created 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.

And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

When God calls something good six times and then crowns it with a seventh usage of very good, be assured that the earth was in good shape. The balance of nature was perfect, the ocean environment was perfect, the plant kingdom was perfect, the animal kingdom was perfect, the climate was perfect, and our human bodies and souls were perfect. Everything was in perfect balance and perfect harmony.

Even today, God's perfection can still be seen everywhere. How many birds are there in the world? Yet they are all distinct, not just in colour and appearance, but in voice and behaviour. Look at the artistry in their plumage. Listen to their voices. Does God understand flight? Look how beautifully suited and adapted birds are to their environments. Not only can birds fly, some of them swim, and some of them dive under water. This was all by design, not chance. There is intelligence behind creation, not chaos. Every sunset and every sunrise is a witness to the love and heart that God has for us. He made all this for us. Look around you, look within you, feel the love he has for you.

Ah, but if God made such a beautiful world, then why is it all such a mess today? 

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