Genesis 1: No Need For Metaphor

1.3.1 Scripture

All scripture can be considered as literal truth except where metaphor is explicit (e.g. Jesus's parables).

It should not be considered literal word-for-word dictation from God. Rather, scripture comprises divinely inspired writings told from the point of view of their human authors.

The mechanisms involved could be voices or visions of other times and situations. The author has written a true representation of what he has been shown or told, but can describe things only in terms of his own experience (e.g. someone from two thousand years ago, shown military helicopters and not knowing what they are, might very well describe them as being like locusts with iron scales, and having wings that sound like many chariots and horses running into battle.)

The scriptures are of course subject to translation and transliteration errors, as well as occasional blatant insertions (e.g. 1John 5:7 KJV) or biased translations (e.g. Mark 7:19 RSV, or Acts 12:4 KJV), but they may be considered as fundamentally correct.

1.3.2 Interpretation

Individual pieces of scripture are often ambiguous or vague. Under the assumption that all scripture is true, we should never claim a specific meaning for a scripture without making sure that it harmonizes with all other scriptures. (1Thessalonians 5:21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.; Acts 17:11 These were more noble …, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.);

We may combine the knowledge given by several scriptures to determine the consistent truth that they contain. This is especially important when several authors describe the same events (e.g. the four gospels, or various visions of the end of the world). What each witness has seen or heard might be different from what the others have observed, but their descriptions are complementary, not contradictory.

1.3.3 Tradition

It is also important not to confuse scripture with beliefs learned from other sources. Traditional beliefs, such as the Easter and Christmas myths or tales of heaven and hell, can easily distort our understanding of scripture, so it is very important to be aware of the sources of our own beliefs.

In particular, it is these traditional interpretations that very often cause apparent contradictions or inconsistencies in scripture. The problems are not internal scriptural inconsistencies, but conflicts between the scriptural truth and the traditional interpretation.

For instance, the only proof Jesus offered that he was the Christ (Matthew 12:40) directly contradicts the Good-Friday / Easter-Sunday story. But that doesn't mean that the scripture is wrong, or that he failed to prove he was the messiah; it simply means that the traditional myth taught by most nominal Christian churches is wrong.

That might sound a strong claim, but in such verses as Matthew 7:14, Matthew 7:22 and Matthew 7:23 Jesus said that the true church would be small, with the majority of the world sincerely following a false gospel and worshiping him in vain:

Because narrow is the gate; and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!.

and in Matthew 7:15 and Matthew 24:4-5,11 he warned of a false gospel:

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravenous wolves.

[…] Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying [that] I am the Christ, and will deceive many. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Only a few decades later, the apostles could see their church corrupted by Greek philosophy and other pagan beliefs and practices, and were at a loss knowing what to do about it, as we can see in 2Peter 2:1:

[…] there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction.

Jude 3,4:

[…] contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness, and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 20:29-30:

For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.

and 2Corinthians 11:4:

For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted — you may well put up with it!

It is only once we are willing to unlearn the many falsehoods that usurp the name Christianity that we can begin to learn the truth.

In the beginning

While some scientific theories suggest that there was no beginning, that creation is a continuous process, the most commonly accepted view is that the universe began some ten to twenty billion years ago. What, if anything, existed before that beginning, or even if time itself existed is not known.

While the Bible does claim knowledge of what existed before the beginning, it makes no claims that would contradict the apparent age of the universe.

In the beginning God

The Hebrew word translated here as God is elohim, the im suffix indicating a plural word (as in cherubim). This plurality agrees with John 1:1-2:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

In the beginning God created

And it was this Word (or spokesman), Christ, that performed the actual creation, as we can see in John 1:3:

All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Colossians 1:16:

For by Him [Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth […].
All things were created through Him and for Him.

and Hebrews 1:2-3:

[God] has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power […]

and with Jesus's own claim, in John 8:57-58, that he himself was the JHVH of the Hebrew scriptures:

Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.

which was considered so blasphemous that those that heard attempted to kill him for uttering it, the reference being to his earlier declaration of this name in Exodus 3:14:

And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said This you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

It is important to keep in mind that the man who was Jesus in the Greek scriptures is also the god who was JHVH in the Hebrew scriptures, just as it is important to keep in mind that the gospel message that Jesus and the disciples taught was read from those same Hebrew scriptures, not the Greek, which were written decades later.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth

The word heavens is sometimes translated as the singular heaven, but the original Hebrew word is shamayim, and like elohim, it too is a plural word. Depending upon context, there are three meanings to this word. The first heaven is simply the earth's air, the second is space beyond the atmosphere, and the third is the location of God's throne (2Corinthians 12:2 up to the third heaven).

Before the physical creation, there were already created spirit beings known as Angels, and symbolically referred to as stars in Job 38:4,7 and elsewhere:

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? […]
When the morning stars [(Lucifer?'s) Angels] sang together
And all the sons of God [(the other) Angels] shouted for joy?

Note that sons of is not meant literally (as a reference to Christ would be) but a Hebrew idiom indicating those characterized by, as in sons of disobedience.

These angels were lead by three archangels, Gabriel, Lucifer, and Michael.

The earth was

Notice that even though the word was frequently appears in italics, to indicate that it was supplied by the translators, the first use in this verse isn't italicized since there is a Hebrew word from which it has been directly translated. In Hebrew, if a simple state of being is intended, the verb to be is omitted. But in this case, the word doesn't indicate a state of being, as it does in English, but also a change of state. The New International Version has a footnote indicating that it could have been translated as became, and the same Hebrew word is used in Genesis 19:26: […] became a pillar of salt.

The earth was without form, and void

Many translations use without form and void or other similar expressions, but the translators may have been influenced by the Greek belief that the universe originated from chaos. The same Hebrew word for void, bohu, is translated in Isaiah 34:11 as emptiness in reference to a land that has been destroyed, while the word for without form, tohu, is translated in other verses, such as Deuteronomy 32:10, Job 12:24, Psalms 107:40, and Isaiah 24:10, and 41:29 as ruin, waste, desert, empty place, confusion, and wilderness. The Contemporary English Version renders this verse as:

The earth was barren, with no form of life;

More significantly, Isaiah 45:18 uses the same word tohu:

For thus says the LORD,
Who created the heavens […],
Who formed the earth and made it […],
Who did not create it in vain [tohu] […]

providing further indication that this is not how God originally created the world, but how it later became. The RSV has did not create it a chaos, while the NASB has did not create it a waste place.

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.

Between verses 1 and 2 is a long period of time during which the earth must have teemed with life, as evidenced by the fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct creatures. But what was it that turned God's creation from perfection to darkness and desolation?

One thing God cannot create is character. Free will is something shared by both angels and man, who must freely choose to do God's will. Lucifer, and a third of the angels (Revelation 12:4), chose to rebel against God (Revelation 12:7-9):

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

It was the ensuing conflict and Lucifer's ejection from heaven that caused such massive damage to the earth.

Isaiah 14:12 refers to these events while comparing the king of Babylon to Lucifer:

How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:
I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.

and Ezekiel 28:12-15 compares (perhaps sorrowfully) the king of Tyre:

[…] You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God; […]
You were the anointed cherub who covers; […]
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.

Jesus referred to this in Luke 10:18:

I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven

Peter in 2Peter 2:4:

[…] God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to [Tartarus] and delivered them into chains of darkness […]

and Jude in Jude 6:

And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgement of the great day;

But even though rejected by God, Satan still remains in charge of the earth. John 12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11, 2Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2 refer to him as the ruler of this world, the god of this age, etc. And in Luke 4:5-6 Satan claimed to have authority over all nations:

Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, All this authority I will give to You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Jesus's non-denial of Satan's claim confirms that Satan does hold such power.