6. The Pre-Adamic World Series

IN GOD'S IMAGE 6 - THE PRE ADAMIC WORLD

This message is part of a series of 90 sermons based on the title, “In God’s Image – God’s Purpose for humanity.” This series of free sermons or the equivalent free book format is designed to take the reader through an amazing process beginning with God in prehistory and finishing with humanity joining God in eternity as His loving sons and daughters. It is at times, a painful yet fascinating story, not only for humanity, but also for God. As the sermons follow a chronological view of the story of salvation, it is highly recommend they be presented in numerical order rather than jumping to the more “interesting” or “controversial” subjects as the material builds on what is presented earlier. We also recommend reading the introduction prior to using the material. The free book version along with any graphics or figures mentioned in this series can be downloaded at www.ingodsimage.site - Gary Regazzoli

Although the focus of this series of sermons is on creating beings in God’s image, so far we have not really said much about the humans singled out for God’s special project.

• We’ve talked about the two different dimensions of time, one where God dwells and one in which humans are to dwell.

• We’ve talked about how the Trinity is a community of beings within the Godhead grounded in love and relationship.

• It is God’s dream to share this unique relationship of love with His created beings, summed up in the statement, “Let us make man in our image”.

• We’ve talked about the rebellious angels who exercised their freewill, left their first estate and were banished to this earth.

• And last time we talked about the creation event where God created order out of the chaotic wasteland that existed on the face of the planet making it habitable for the various life forms with which He populated the earth.

• We looked at this process through a functional lens rather than a materialistic one.

• The emphasis was on the functions God puts in place for the inhabitants of the planet rather than a scientific explanation of how He brought them into existence.

We now return to the creation account.

• As we read in Genesis 1:2, the account of what God did begins in verse two where we find a description of the pre-creation condition of the earth.

• Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

• What we find, and this is significant, material is already present; we have an existing planet covered in water and obscured in darkness.

• The words “Tohu” and “Bohu” are used to describe the planet as a wilderness or wasteland that is uninhabitable and in a present state of chaos that lacks function or order.

• This creation account given to the Israelites does not give any indication of how the planet or the cosmos came into existence.

• We know God brought the cosmos into existence, but again the bible is silent on the process He used or what transpired prior to the Genesis creation account.

• However, after the care and precision taken by God in positioning the earth in the habitable Goldilocks zone we talked about earlier, this verse’s description of the chaotic state of the earth doesn’t seem to resonate very well with what we discussed.

• How do we reconcile this chaotic state of affairs with the belief that the Creator God has the ability to call the universe into existence just by His word, yet now we find the earth which was “formed to be inhabited” in this chaotic condition? (Isaiah 45:18)

We need to look at this question in more detail as it may shed more light on the question as to the source of evil in our present world.

• And it is now to that question that we return to the confusing scene of Genesis 1:2, and ask the question, “How did the earth come to be in such a state of chaos and disorder?”

• Of course this is one of those areas where we need to tread carefully as we can’t read too much into this ancient and obscure past. We simply don’t know.

• However the pre-creation condition of the earth has given rise to a couple of theories which attempt to explain how God’s good creation ended up in the chaos of Genesis 1:2.

• Speculation centers on one of two events.

• The first theory why the earth is in this chaotic state is as the result of the devastating impact the spiritual war between God and the rebellious angels had on planet earth when Satan was cast down to earth from heaven (Revelation 12:7-9).