Apply Within

Bob Davis: If we go verse by verse, if we just go through it, you're going to say, "Wow, I'm learning." You know what it is? God's just showing you precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. He grows us up till pretty soon, we can start eating meat. We don't need milk anymore. We can get into the stuff you really can chew on and learn and grow. That's what we want. That's what I want for you. That's what God wants for you and for me. That's what we want.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, apply His Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Our study of Genesis continues in chapter one, verse two, as we learn about Earth's creation from nothing. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: The last time that we got together, we started the book of Genesis. I promised you that we would get through verse one and then we'll zoom through the rest of the chapter. But because of all the questions about verse two, we're only going to do verse two. And I'm hoping that we can go ahead the next time we get together and get through quite a bit. But it is very important and I understand your questions.

So we got through verse one and it said this, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Now we'll go all the way to verse two. "And the earth was without form and void," literally empty, uninhabited, nothing. "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 earth is without form and void. So what you've got here is just the universe hanging out, nothing moving. It's without form and it's uninhabited, it's empty, completely empty. Notice something that will go through the chapter. You will see it, but let me point it out because it becomes a big thing. It really does. You may not think so, but the more you read your Bible, you start catching on to these little bitty silly things like this. And what I mean is this, it becomes very important.

Verse two begins with a conjunction, the word "and," which hooks verse one to verse two, or if you will, verse two to verse one. It means that we're being given the information chronologically. He's writing it down in order. That's important. Each action follows the action described in the verse before it. You're going to see "and God said" in verse three, "and God saw" in verse four, "and God called" in verse five, "and God said" in verse six, "and God made" in verse seven. Get it? Each one follows right after the other.

Then they're going to give us time periods, "and the evening and the morning be the first day." Get it? That's important to get, especially here in verse two. Each action follows the action described in the verse before it. God spoke and there it was. And here, we're given the condition of it. God created it and there it was. And what was it like? The earth was without form and void, uninhabited, empty completely. Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Do you have a problem with it so far? The earth was without form and empty. Emptiness, completely uninhabited, empty. Darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Between verse one and two, and this is the questions I got through the week so that I would have to stop and just answer your questions, and it's good to do. It's good for me because I have to understand it too.

Many, and I mean very, very many, teach it's surprising how many do, teach and believe that there is a huge gap of time between verses one and two. They don't know how much time, but a huge gap between verses one and two. And that gap, they say, was not just a few days. They used to say millions, but now since evolutionists say no, it's billions, now so-called Christians who are not evolutionists say, well, that gap can be as big as we want it to be. So it's billions of years. If you want, it can be trillions. Nobody cares. Get it?

I'm telling you that according to what we're reading and according to God's Word the rest of the way through, there is no gap there. And so why would somebody want a gap there? A couple of the commentators came out with it, just came out with the fact we choose to put a gap there because it doesn't make Christianity look so dumb. I mean, what a dumb reason to do that. Because see, if evolution says it's billions of years and you say it was six days, they're going to think something is mentally wrong with you.

But if you have a gap between one and two, you're free to roam the cabin now. You can say it was billions of years, trillions. I don't care how many it was. It was light years, right? But it's not there. I believe it's not there. But you don't believe me. You're going to have to do your own homework. I'll show you why I believe it. I'll show you what it says and where it comes from in the original language. But then the rest is up to you because if you don't believe verse one, then you're not going to believe verse two anyway.

And the earth was without form. The Hebrew word there is "hayetha," and it's translated "was." It's used in verse two and some say it should not be translated "was," but it should be translated "became." Now you see why they would translate it that way. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth became without form and void. That's not what the Bible says, but some translate it that way. That gives them a gap, an age-gap theory, they call it.

They're free to put any number in there. So, in other words, if evolution comes along and says, "Well, we've determined now it's probably trillions of years," then the Bible scholars can say, "Not a problem. It doesn't do any harm to the Bible." I think they're doing harm to the Bible to tell you the truth. You see, this gives them a gap of billions of years between verses one and two. The Hebrew scholars, now we go to the Hebrew scholars. It's a Hebrew word. So we go to the Hebrew scholars and they state that hayetha can be used to introduce a state of change if the very context forces it to. Something in the context has to make you want to say that, or it deserves it.

But here the Hebrew scholars don't, they translate it also "was." They say this: "was" is the correct word in the language. Ninety-eight percent of the time it's used in the Scriptures, it's used as "was." So you might like your version. I don't know what you're reading, but most standard versions, some of the newer ones get a little weird, but most standard versions all say "was" instead of "became." And there's a reason for that.

The Hebrew scholars say that's exactly what is written. We're given nothing in that verse or anything around it to change it for some reason. But somebody did anyway. Every standard translation, and standard means I call them legitimate. There's all kinds of new translations coming out and some of them are semi-okay, some of them I don't have time to read them so I can't get to them, but the standard ones, the solid ones that we know, all of them say "was." And the earth was without form, not became without form. It was without form and void.

There is no gap there, I believe. Without form and void, the elements of the universe, to include the earth, were called into existence, but they were not yet formed. God created the universe and the earth and all the planets and stars, etcetera. But they're not formed. They're all the parts and pieces are there. You and I can't create, but if you give us parts and pieces, we can make something out of them. True? We have to have the parts and pieces.

God created the parts and pieces, particles and pieces, and then he began to form. But right here we learn the elements of the earth called into existence but not formed yet together. Does that sound like a destruction somewhere? I don't think so. I think you have to work to find a gap there. And now I know some of you believe in that and that's okay. I'm just saying what I'm doing with the language, what I'm seeing here, and depending upon the scholars who understand the language because it is what they were born and raised in and they're scholars in it.

I guess I could let me say it in simple language. Listen to this, see if it makes sense using what's here. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, space, matter, and time. And the matter created first was unformed and uninhabited. Do you see any kind of damage or destruction? That's what the language states, basic language. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. Another part of their argument: darkness.

Well, what do you mean? To promote a gap theory, they argue that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Well, that's true, isn't it? First John 1:5, "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." They say that proves that God created it, God destroyed it, laid wasted for millions upon millions, maybe billions of years, then God fixed it. But in the language the Bible uses here in verse two, no evil is suggested or implied. No destruction, no trouble, no danger, no nothing. We're just being told that it was not completed yet. True? And we know that by if we follow on to three, four, five, six, seven, God puts it together.

In fact, the Bible and teachers of the Bible point out a reference to these very verses. I think the verses one, two, and three, there's a reference in them and Wisdom is personified and Wisdom is the one speaking. Some would say it's the Lord Jesus Christ and it's in Proverbs 8. Wisdom itself is teaching you this, listen closely. Proverbs 8:22 through 26: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way." This is Wisdom speaking. We're told if you're going to get anything, get Wisdom.

Wisdom says, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." Listen closely. "I was set up from everlasting, from beginning, or ever the earth was. When there was no depths," that's the deep we're talking about in verse two. You know, what did we see? "Darkness was upon the face of the deep." Proverbs uses the same word, calls it "depths." He says, "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever," in other words, before the earth was. "When there were no depths, the deep, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water." Get it? "Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world."

It's all just parts and pieces ready to go. Wisdom was there before all that. Dr. Ken Ham says it this way: "We're being told in Genesis 1, verses one and two, the physical universe had come into existence but everything was still and dark, no form, no motion, no light." There it is. Well, wait a minute. If God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, could He have created that darkness? Yeah, why couldn't He?

The Spirit of God, the Bible says, "moved upon the face of the waters." The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The universe and all things were created. The word says here for the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God moved upon the face of water. You look that word up. He moved. It means to flutter. It means to vibrate. It means to quickly go back and forth and back and forth. Commentators use the term that God, the Spirit of God, hovered over or brooded over it like a mother hen, keep moving, checking on the kids, just a lot of movement.

The word itself, "moved," signifies rapid motion back and forth. The Holy Spirit over this creation right now, it is without form and uninhabited, empty. And the Spirit now begins to move. God the Father, God the Son, the Wisdom, God the Holy Spirit, right here moving upon the earth. I think it was Dr. Wolvoord, he wrote this: "The universe is created, but it needs to be energized and God the Holy Spirit is the energizer." That's what we're reading in verse two. "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

Dr. Morris points out that the transmission of energy, here's where we get to these science guys again, transmission of energy comes in the form of waves. And every bit we all know that. We just use it, we throw the terms around. In other words, light waves, heat waves, sound waves, and goes on and on and on, in waves. That's energy. Waves are usually rapid back and forth movements produced by vibration or vibrating motion. That's exactly what the Spirit of God is doing, moving rapidly over. There's energy, light waves, heat waves, sound waves. The Holy Spirit is producing the energy, the vibration.

So that's what I think. I think I believe exactly what it just told me. I can't find a gap in there though many, many people have a gap and they're going to keep their gap even after I tell them I don't have one. They're going to still continue to say it. But I do believe you need to take a sincere look at it because, having said all that to you, I'm not a scientist. I'm not much of anything to tell you the honest truth.

But having said every bit of that to help us understand just one verse, there is a much bigger argument for the so-called Gap Theory to deny it, and that argument is this: God's word denies it. To have a gap theory, and people, scientists tell you, to have a gap theory having all those millions of years, billions of years, animals, tiny little critters, amoeba, whatever life that God created, died. They died. There are dead animals, there are extinct critters, suffering, disease, violence, and death before man was created. That contradicts the word of God.

I think putting a gap there contradicts His word. But if that does not enough for you, it contradicts what God specifically says and tells us. So again, you're going to have to believe God's word and take it over all scientific theories, or no matter how brilliant they may be. They could be right, they could be wrong. I think God's word denies it. Because to have that gap theory, you've got millions of years. So you would find millions of little dead living organisms, right? They're out there. You don't have mankind yet, supposedly, but that's the case you still got death going on and extinct critters and animals and suffering while they're dying, and disease, violence, and all before mankind was created. It contradicts God's word.

Even though the science stuff is amazing to me and I read a lot of those books and they're over my head, but I sit with a dictionary with me. I had to look up "continuum." I thought I knew what it meant, but you have to look up that stuff too. It's okay if you don't. You're smart. But get this: Genesis 2, verses 15 through 17. After He created Adam, Genesis 2:15: "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," to take care of it, to be the gardener over the garden of God. Adam's in charge.

"And the Lord commanded the man saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.'" There's been no death, but that will bring on death. So Genesis 3, starting in 17, they sinned and they were hiding, and God said, "Where are you? What's going on here?" And God curses them. The curse now because of sin.

"And unto Adam," verse 17, Genesis 3, "unto Adam," God said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you saying, 'Thou shalt not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for your sake. In sorrow shall you eat it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. And in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and dust you shall return."

Death did not come into the world until sin. Sin brought death. If that's true and we believe that, and I do believe it, then there was no death before. None before Adam and Eve, none before anything. Little bugs didn't die. Birdies didn't die. I don't care whether you call them pterodactyl or seagulls. "My, my," seagulls. They didn't die. There was no death.

Romans 5:12: "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all men for all have sinned." When did death come into the world? When sin came into the world. As soon as they sinned, death entered into the world. No death before. I don't care how many billions of years you put or millions. Even two weeks doesn't work, everybody. It doesn't work. No death until sin.

Romans 6:23: "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The wages of sin is what? Death. Well, if there's no sin, there would have been no death. And there was no sin before Adam and Eve did it.

First Corinthians 15:21 and 22: "For since by man came death," how? It was by man. How? He sinned, remember? "Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Sin, you had to have sin to have death. There was no death before Adam and Eve sinned.

How long were they on the earth before they sinned? How long were they there? We're not told. So you can make that up if you want. But I don't believe it was millions of years or billions. I think it was a very short time. The devil was in a bad mood, remember? I'm not saying you can't have your gap theory. You can. I'm just saying God says you can't because God's word denies it. In fact, God's word destroys that gap theory if we just have to have it to make ourselves look not so silly in front of the non-believers. What good is that?

We need to be careful because the world is overseen. The kingdom of this world belongs to Satan and Jesus calls him the prince of this world, the god of this world, the ruler of this world until Jesus returns and takes that deed from the Father's hand and returns as the true King of Kings and the true ruler. Until then, you're going to have all these people who deny the Bible every step of the way and they sound smart. Some of the arguments are great. And so it makes you and me have to do what? Number one: know what we believe. We need to know what we believe and know where we found it and why we believe it.

God's not asking you to blindly take His word for everything. Study, learn, research, grow. I believe that here's what happened: God created the heaven and the earth and exactly that before the Spirit began to move over it. The earth was without form, and that's not just the earth by the way, that's also the entire universe. It was without form and empty, complete emptiness. No bugs, even the dust wasn't floating around. Nothing was even moving yet to include the waters.

And that's where hopefully the next time we get together, we can start up in verse three and go a little bit. I'm not asking you to take my word for it. I'm just asking you to study your Bible. Just go to your Bible. It does sometimes take a little bit of dictionary work, it does take a little bit of research, but that's okay. That's good. I take God at His word not because I'm brilliant and not because I don't know anything, but because what He says He means. And I said it to you last week, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Do you believe that? Now I'll ask you and hooked onto that, the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God brooded, vibrated, moving upon the face of the waters. Do you believe that?

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is the radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM.

You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies. If you would like a copy of today's message, write to us and ask for the message with today's date. The address is Apply Within, 2281 West Seltice, Post Falls, Idaho 83854 or call us at 1-800-572-8851. That number again: 1-800-572-8851.

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