(1:1-2:3) "In the beginning"
The first of two contradictory creation accounts. Compare
with Genesis 2:4-25 in which the order of events is entirely different.
The two creations
When was the universe created?
The Gap Theory
(1:1-2:3)
The Genesis 1 account conflicts with the order of
events that are known to science.
In Genesis 1:1, the earth and "heaven" are created together "in the beginning," whereas according to
current estimates, the earth and universe are about 4.6 and 13.7 billion years old, respectively.
In Genesis, the earth is created (1:1) before light (1:3), sun and stars (1:16); birds and whales (1:21) before reptiles and
insects (1:24); and flowering plants (1:11) before any animals (1:20). The order of events known from science is in each case just the opposite.
(1:3-5, 14-19) "Let there be light"
God creates light and separates light from darkness, and day from
night, on the first day. Yet he didn't make the light producing objects (the sun and the stars) until the fourth
day (1:14-19). And how could there be "the evening and the morning" on the first
day if there was no sun to mark them?
(1:6-8) The Firmament (Heaven)
God spends one-sixth of his entire creative
effort (the second day) working on a solid firmament. This strange structure,
which God calls heaven, is intended to separate the higher waters from the lower
waters.
(1:11-13)
"Let the earth bring forth grass"
Plants are made on the third day before there was a sun
to drive their photosynthetic processes (1:14-19).
Notice, though, that God lets "the earth bring forth" the plants, rather than
creating them directly. Maybe Genesis is not so anti-evolution after all.
Were plants created before or after humans?
Does the Bible teach evolution?
(1:14) "Let them be for signs"
God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament so that they can be used "for signs". This, of course, is exactly what astrologers do: read "the signs" in the
Zodiac to predict what will happen on Earth.
Does the bible condemn astrology?
What the Bible says about astrology
(1:16) "God made the two great lights."
"The greater light [the sun] to rule the day, and the lesser light [the moon] to rule the night." But the moon is not a light; it only reflects
light from the sun. And why, if God made the moon to "rule the night", does it spend half of its time moving through the daytime sky?
(1:16) "He made the stars also."
God spends a day making light (before making the sun and stars) and separating light from darkness; then, at the end of a hard day's work,
and almost as an afterthought, he makes the trillions of stars.
When were the stars made?
(1:17)
"And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth."
Then why is only a tiny fraction of stars visible from earth? Under the
best conditions, no more than a few thousand stars are visible with the unaided eye, yet there
are hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy and a hundred billion or so galaxies. Were they
all created "to give light upon the earth"?
(1:20-21) "Let the waters bring forth ... fowl."
From what were the fowls created?
(1:24)
"Let the earth bring forth the living creature"
Does the Bible teach evolution?
(1:25) "And God made the beast of the earth"
Were humans created before the other animals?
"The beast of the earth"
(1:26) "Let us make man in our own image"
How many gods are there?
"Let them have dominion ... over all the earth"
(1:27)
"Male and female created he them"
When was Adam created?
When was Eve created?
Is God both male and female?
The Pre-Adamites
(1:28)
"Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have
dominion over ... every living thing that moveth upon the earth." [more]
What the Bible says about birth control
Is childbearing sinful?
(1:29)
"I have given you every herb ... and every tree ... for meat."
May Adam eat from any tree?
What should we eat?
Is it okay to smoke marijuana?
(1:30)
"To every beast ... I have given every green herb for meat"
(1:31)
"God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."
In Genesis 1 the entire creation takes 6 days, but the universe is
about 13.7 billion years old, with new stars constantly being formed.
| 1:3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
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| 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
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| 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening
and the morning were the first day.
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| 1:6
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters.
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| 1:7
And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the
waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
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| 1:8
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were
the second day.
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| 1:9
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.
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| 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the
waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
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| 1:11
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.
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| 1:12
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.
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| 1:13
And the evening and the morning were the third day.
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| 1:14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide
the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days, and years:
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| 1:15
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth: and it was so.
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| 1:16
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.
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| 1:17
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the
earth,
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| 1:18
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.
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| 1:19
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
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| 1:20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature
that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven.
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| 1:21
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.
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| 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the
waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
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| 1:23
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
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| 1:24
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
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| 1:25
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.
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| 1:26
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.
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| 1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.
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| 1:28
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.
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| 1:29
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.
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| 1:30
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.
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| 1:31
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.
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