The
“age of the earth” is one of the world’s biggest questions concerning
the Word of God and sometimes can be their biggest hindrance in accepting it
as truth!
This article will reveal from the Bible
scriptures, with absolute certainty that there was a pre-Adamic
(before Adam) earth that was destroyed by judgment, and then re-created for
Adam.
The Bible
does not reveal in detail what was here before Adam but the pre-historic time
period, according to the Bible, did involve the revolt and fall of Lucifer who
became Satan and a judgment that came upon the earth because of his fall and
one third of the angels with him (Revelation 12:9 ). It also very likely
included the dinosaur age that was also brought to an abrupt end because of
God’s judgment upon the angels that sinned. The “ice
age” that scientists have always believed brought about the
pre-historic extinction, was actually a flood of judgment from God, similar to
the flood of Noah’s day, that may also have become an ice age, because God
did not allow the light to shine on the flood covered earth for a period of
time. God then re-created the earth, on which he placed man, made in his own
image and likeness (Genesis 1:26).
This teaching is sometimes called the “Genesis Gap” because it reveals
that something catastrophic happened on the earth, between the first two
verses of Genesis Chapter one, which means there was a space of time between
these two verses, possibly millions of years. However, this teaching also
agrees with the fact that God’s restoration of the earth for Adam, took
place in the literal six-day period as the Bible describes.
Some well meaning Christians, will discredit this teaching on the pre-Adamic
creation, also known as the “Genesis Gap”, claiming it is a compromise of
the scriptures however, if the Bible does not reveal a pre-Adamic time period
of stars, universe and earth being in existence before Adam, then how can the
points we will look at in the article, from God’s Word, be otherwise
explained? Please consider the points we will look at closely because if the
scriptures do not mean what they say, some would conclude that there are
contradictions in God’s Word. I believe the scriptures mean exactly what
they say and are not a matter of interpretation when it comes to these that
express very plain and very clear meanings.
Certainly Satan’s fall as an angel was before Adam because when he
approached Adam and Eve, he was already a fallen angel and had to use the body
of a snake to express himself to them, tempting them to disobey God. At one
time, the Bible says Satan had a magnificent angelic body, covered with
precious stones and with musical instruments also created into it (Ezekiel
28:13) but God stripped him of this and everything angelic, when he sinned as
an angel (Ezekiel 28:18). When he was still “Lucifer”, the “anointed
cherub”, he boasted that he would ascend his throne “above the
stars…clouds.” (Isaiah 14:13-14). How could he make this
statement, unless the “stars” were in existence before and at the time of
his fall (Genesis 1:16)?
Again, the only possible explanation is that his fall and one third of the
angels, was before the re-creation of the earth for Adam otherwise, it would
have been recorded as having happened during the time of Adam. As spiritually
tuned-in to God as Adam was before he also sinned, he would certainly have
been aware of such a huge event. There is no possibility that Adam would not
have noticed millions of angels falling to the earth, plus seeing such a fall
of Satan, would have made Adam unwilling to be deceived or even listen to
Satan’s words, in the Garden of Eden.
How do we know that Lucifer and
the other fallen angels were cast to the earth? First of all, if they
weren’t, why are they here now? Secondly, two scriptures specifically state
that Lucifer was “cast to the ground” from out of Heaven and “…to
hell…the pit…” which are both things found on and in the earth (Isaiah
14:15 & Ezekiel 28:17-18).
Jesus
himself said, “I beheld Satan as lightening fall from heaven”. We must
also remember that Jesus also made other statements about things he witnessed
during his pre-earth existence as part of the Godhead, before becoming a man
to die for our sins (John 1:10). One of these statements, is in John 8:58,
where he said; “…before Abraham was, I Am.” so the event Jesus
witnessed, was the original fall of Satan.
Thirdly, Jesus said in Matthew 25:41; that hell was created for “the devil
and his angels.” and yet hell is found in the belly/lower parts of the earth
(Ezekiel 31:16 plus many other scriptures). We do not find any mention of the
creation of hell in the book of Genesis because it was created at that pre-Adamic
time period, when Lucifer fell.
Lastly, the scriptures that refer to Lucifer’s fall, state that he “made
the world as a wilderness” (Isaiah 14:17, Jeremiah 4:23 and Genesis 1:2). We
also see a “without form and void” earth shown in Genesis 1:2 and is shown
after the statement in Genesis 1:1 that says he, God “…created (past
tense) the heaven and the earth.” It is also a fact that the world “was
without form and void.” in verse two, in the original Hebrew, is “hiyah“,
meaning “became or to become”, which when taken literally reads; “And
the earth became without form and void.” In Isaiah 45:18, it states that God
did not create the earth “in vain”, but to be inhabited and so the
originally created earth, was perfect, until corrupted and perverted by the
pre-Adamic sin of Lucifer. Adam was not the original sinner or else how could
one who was already fallen tempt him?
Genesis 1:2 refer twice, to a large body of water that covered the entire
earth. Water of this magnitude, would not logically seem to be for creative
purposes since this much water would not bind but wash things apart/way. This
flood of water, plus the presence of “darkness” (Genesis 1:2), would
indicate a judgment that fell upon the earth (1 John 1:5 “…God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all.”).
By
looking at all of these scriptures together (2 Timothy 2:15) it would be
impossible not to conclude that Lucifer had some type of “throne” (Isaiah
14:13) and a dominion of some kind, over angels, that was destroyed by a flood
of judgment at his rebellion. The absence of light on the earth (Genesis 1:2)
would also have potentially caused an ice age, causing the extinction of all
plant and animal life. The literal six days of re-creation following that
judgment, that plainly also states that God removed this body of water from
the “dry land” (Genesis 1:9), would have been the restoration or
re-creation of the earth, after this catastrophic flood.
When God placed Adam and Eve on the restored earth, he told them to ”be
fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28), meaning to
repopulate or refill. This is the very same word “replenish”, God told
Noah and his family, when they exited the Ark, after the second flood of
judgment, the first one being the one we have been looking at, found in 1:2,
caused by the fall of Lucifer, who sinned before Adam.
To believe that the judgment of those fallen angels, did not happen at a pre-Adamic
time, on this same earth, you would have to deny the existence of millions of
devils/demon sprits, that tempt the earth’s entire population of people,
every day on this planet.
Why is this teaching important? A major reason, is the fact that Satan is the
instigator of man’s fall and separation from God (spiritual death) as is
described in Jn 10:10 and most people have a desire to understand how this all
has taken place. Evil is in the world for a reason and people want to know
why!
God knew Satan’s plan to cause man’s fall, nothing slips past our
omniscient (all-knowing) God but it was God’s will for the test of evil to
take place (Deut 30:19), I Pet 1:6-7 and Rev 20: 7-10).
Without
this test, man did not have a free will to love and serve God and the Lord
desires this to be by choice and not forced. When Jesus arrived as the
“second Adam”, God also sent him into the wilderness, to be tempted of the
devil. Jesus chose to serve God and fulfill his will.
Satan
gained the dominion God gave Adam in the earth, by making him fall under him,
as a servant. Satan desired to steal a dominion back, similar to what he had,
before his own fall and he did successfully take man’s dominion and caused
his fall and spiritual separation from God (Luke 4:5-8, 2 Corinthians 4:4 and
Ephesians 2:2).
Jesus, the second Adam, our Lord and Savior, has redeemed mankind from this
sin-condition, for any who will accept and receive it (believe).