The Creation of the Material Universe

This morning my family and I finished the fourth to tenth sections in Lesson 5: The Original Creations of God of Finis Jennings Dake’s God’s Plan for Man (Lawrence, Georgia: Dake Publishing, 1949), which we’re studying in our after breakfast Bible reading time. The sections include an introductory one on words used in Genesis 1:1 and others telling how, when, and why God created and made the material universe. Here I’ll summarize what Dake says, supplemented in square brackets by comments from our discussion or by me personally. Biblical quotations are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.

IV. The Creation of the Material Universe (Gen. 1:1)
The word “beginning” refers to the dateless past before there was a material universe.
The word “created” is from the Hebrew word bara and means “brought into existence without the use of pre-existing material.” Bara is used only seven times in Genesis 1:1-2:4, the passage that records all the creative ages. In all other verses in the passage the Hebrew word asah, meaning “made out of already existing material,” is used. The heavens and the earth were brought into existence “in the beginning” and the living creatures were brought into existence on the fifth and sixth day of the restoration of the Earth to a habitable state. All other accomplishments in the sixth day were the making of things out of already existing material.
The Hebrew word for “Heaven” is shamayim, meaning “lofty,” “sky,” or “the highest ether where the celestial bodies revolve.” In most places it should have been translated “heavens.” God created the heavens, which includes the sun, moon, stars, and all the beings and things in it. Then He created the Earth and the beings and things in it. [Dake notes the discovery of planets millions of light years from Earth and of billions of stars and concludes that God has always been busy doing things.]
The Hebrew word for “earth” is erets, meaning “dry ground.” So we read in Genesis 1:1 that God created “dry land.” But in Genesis 1:2 the dry land is wet land, proving that it was flooded after its original creation. “Thus, the heavens and the Earth were completed and inhabited, and then the Earth was flooded as in Gen. 1:2 before the beginning of the six days of Gen. 1:3-2:25″ (Dake, page 80). [Strong’s concordance defines erets as “earth” or “land” (not as “dry ground”), invalidating Dake’s argument.]

V. The Creation of the Spirit World
Job 38:4-7 shows that the spirit world and the heavens were created before the Earth because it says that “the sons of God” and “the morning star” rejoiced when God laid the foundations of the Earth.
If we take God’s work in creating the Earth as a pattern for His work in the heavens, then the heavens were first created and then its inhabitants.

VI. How God Created and Made the Material Universe
As God spoke, materials came into existence; and as fast as they materialized, He used them to form all things with His hands. [Dake gives several Scriptures to support his claim, but none of them refers to His forming things with His hands.]

VIII. When God Created and Made the Material Universe
God re-created the heavens and the earth in six days about 6,000 years ago. However the Bible doesn’t tell us how long before that was “the beginning” in which He originally created the material universe. Thus we don’t know when He created it and it could have been six billion years as well as about 6,000 years.

VIII. How Long Was God Creating and Making the Material Universe?
If God took six days to restore one planet to a habitable state and form new inhabitants for it, He would naturally take much longer time to originally create and form the vast universe with all of its suns and planets along with their inhabitants. [We disagreed, believing that God has the ability to create or make things instantaneously.]

IX. Why God Created and Made the Material Universe
God created the material universe to be inhabited with free moral agents to whom He could reveal Himself and who could enjoy His goodness forever. He created all other things to sustain life in the universe. Revelation 4:11 says, “Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

X. Creation of the Original Social System
There had to be a social order on Earth in the original creation for Lucifer to have a kingdom here. Along with it were creatures which were destroyed in the flood of Genesis 1:2. It is to this original period that all the fossils and remains of animals and the geological formations of the Earth belong.

(This article was originally published on May 30, 2019.)

The Dispensational Plan of God

This morning my family and I finished the third section in Lesson 5: The Original Creations of God of Finis Jennings Dake’s God’s Plan for Man (Lawrence, Georgia: Dake Publishing, 1949), which we’re studying in our after breakfast Bible reading time. The section consists of thirty points summarizing the plan of God as revealed in the Bible from the eternal past to the eternal future, each supported by references to Bible passages. [I haven’t given the references; please ask if you want them for any of the points.] Here I’ll summarize what Dake says, supplemented in square brackets by comments from our discussion or by me personally.

The points should be memorized by the Bible student so that he or she may always have in mind the general scope of God’s plan of the ages and dispensations. [Since about a third of the plan concerns Dake’s questionable belief in a creation before the one described in Genesis 1, my family and I aren’t going to try to memorize it.] The plan should be studied along with the author’s “The Plan of the Ages” Bible chart. [See https://www.dakebible.com/dake-chart-big.htm.%5D

1. God in the eternal past.
2. The drafting of God’s plan.
3. Creation of the heavens.
4. Creation of the spirit world.
5. Creation of the Earth.
6. Creation of “the world (kosmos, ‘social order’) that then was.” [The quotation is from 2 Peter 3:6, but neither it or the other passages referred to add anything to point 5.]
7. Lucifer’s reign over “the world that then was.”
8. Other thrones, dominions, principalities over other parts of the universe.
9. The kingdom of God universal; God the Supreme Moral Governor of the universe, and all in harmony with Him.
10. Lucifer conceives the idea of dethroning God and becoming the exalted supreme ruler of the universe.
11. Lucifer carries out his plan of inciting rebellion against God. The Earth enters its first sinful career.
12. Satan leads his rebels into Heaven to dethrone God, but he is met by Michael and the faithful angels and is defeated and cast back to Earth.
13. God destroys Lucifer’s kingdom on Earth, curses the Earth by destroying all life on it, and covers the Earth with a great flood.
    14, The Spirit of God restores the Earth to a habitable state and re-creates life with Adam as its new ruler.
14. All things in the universe are again in harmony with God except that Lucifer and his spirit-rebels are at large in the heavenlies.
15. The Dispensation of Innocence, from the creation of man to his fall and expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
16. Lucifer (now Satan) tempts man and causes him to fall, thus regaining dominion over the Earth and the things in it.
17. Man is judged, the Earth is again cursed, and all creatures are brought under the bondage of sin and corruption.
18. “The heavens and the earth which are now” await the time of the second renovation called the New Heavens and the New Earth. [The quotation is from 2 Peter 3:7.]
19. The Dispensation of Conscience, from man’s fall and expulsion from the Garden of Eden to the flood of Noah.
20. The Dispensation of Human Government, from the flood of Noah to the call of Abraham.
21. The Dispensation of Promise, from the call of Abraham to the exodus of Israel from Egypt under Moses..
22. The Dispensation of Law, from the exodus of Israel from Egypt under Moses to the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven by John the Baptist (or to the first coming of Jesus Christ).
23. The Dispensation of Grace, from the first coming of Christ to his second coming.
24. The Dispensation of Divine Government or the Millennium.
25. Satan will be loosed from the Abyss where he will be put at the end of this age. Then will come the last rebellion on the Earth and the destruction of all human rebels.
26. The second resurrection and final judgment at the end of the Millennium.
27. The renovation of the immediate heavens and the Earth and the removal of the curse.
28. The confinement of all spirit and human rebels of all ages in the Lake of Fire forever.
29. The New Heavens and the New Earth.

(This article was originally posted on May 28, 2019.)

God in the Eternal Past

This morning my family and I did the first two sections in Lesson 5: The Original Creations of God of Finis Jennings Dake’s God’s Plan for Man (Lawrence, Georgia: Dake Publishing, 1949), which we’re studying in our after breakfast Bible reading time. Here I’ll summarize what Dake says, supplemented in square brackets by comments from our discussion or by me personally. Biblical quotations are from the KJV unless otherwise noted.

The Earth Made Perfect the First Time

God’s original creations are summed up in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” and cover the period until the chaotic time of Genesis 1:2 when the Earth and its first inhabitants were destroyed by the first flood. [Dake gives references for many other passages which he says refer to this period.]

I. God in the Eternal Past

No one knows what God did in the dateless eternal past except that He created the heavens and the Earth and all the creations in them sometime in it. [By this Dake is referring to the creation referred to above rather than to the creation described in the rest of Genesis 1.] One certain thing is that the Earth is more than 6000 years old. Another certain thing is that God made His plan for the heavens and the Earth and everything in them before He began to bring them into existence.

II. The Drafting of God’s Plan

God’s plan was made for and is being worked out by three separate and distinct persons. In Genesis 1:1 and 2700 other places in the Hebrew Bible the word for “God” is Elohim, which means “Gods.” Sometimes it is used with plural pronouns, such as in Genesis 1:26, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”; Genesis 3:22, “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us”; and Genesis 11:6-7, “And the LORD said…let us go down, and there confound their language.”
That the plan was made and known by God from the very beginning is proved by Isaiah 46:10, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.” [Dake quotes or refers to other passages as well.]

(This article was originally posted on May 26, 2019.)