Part 2...................

(Isaiah 14:12-14, Ezekiel 38:12-15). How could this have happened?

Let’s review. While Isaiah 14 uses the name Lucifer (“shining one”), Ezekiel 28’s prophecy about this “covering cherub” who was “in Eden” personifies Lucifer as a “king of Tyre.” Obviously, no king of Tyre was a covering cherub who walked in the Garden of Eden, so a very high spirit being is being personified in this account. Both accounts discuss a high spirit being who became corrupted, so we are discussing Lucifer in both accounts. Ezekiel 38 tells of Lucifer’s stellar origins. Verse 12 records of Lucifer: “You “seal up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” Verse 13 states he was in “Eden” and that he was adorned with precious jewels and gold and that he had “tabrets and pipes” (musical instruments) on the “day” on which he “was created.” God’s “Eden” was a gorgeous perfect place for all the angels to inhabit. Remember that the angels shouted for joy when they first saw the earth created by God at its “beginning” (Genesis 1:1, Job 38:7, Isaiah 45:18). Ezekiel 38:14 says Lucifer was an “anointed cherub that covers,” indicating he had wings like the cherubs who “covered” the seat of God on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:10-22). Ezekiel 38:15 states concerning Lucifer that he was: “perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” Lucifer was arguably the most perfect, gifted and powerful angel that God ever made.

After his fall, Lucifer was renamed “Satan” and scriptures describe him as reptilian, dragon-like or serpentine in appearance (Genesis 3:1-14, II Corinthians 11:3,Revelation 12:3-4, 7-9; 15, 17; 13:2-4, 11; 16:3, 20:2). The earth’s prehistoric period was dominated by serpents and reptilian creatures with the dinosaurs being the largest serpents or “dragons” of all time! At some point after the dinosaurs attained their largest sizes and most-dangerous anatomical weaponry, they were annihilated. Do we see a connection between the physical and spiritual realms here? I think we do.

Lucifer originally ruled in perfection over the earth’s creatures. They were small and rather non-threatening. Scientists tell us this period of time lasted for millions of years. Then dramatic changes occurred. Large serpentine dinosaurs came into being in the air, land and sea. Here is what I think happened (but keep in mind I propose this as a postulate based on biblical accounts and scientific evidence). After millions of years (as measured in physical “time”), Lucifer may have approached God and asked if there could be more variety in the life forms on earth. Did Lucifer eventually ask for the right to make his own designs of physical life forms on earth? Did he ask once or repeatedly over a long period of time? We do not know. However, at some point, I believe God delegated to Lucifer some creative power to design new physical creatures to live on the earth ruled by Lucifer. This would have been unprecedented! God’s delegation of creative powers to Lucifer would have been seen by the other angels as a stunning and unique honor, which it was. I believe Lucifer received this incredible gift and began to make new life forms on earth which were mostly in the general image of Lucifer himself: serpentine and reptilian in form. Lucifer made many new reptilian designs for physical creatures and he made them larger and more powerful as the eons passed by. As the eons passed by, it may have been that Lucifer was the only being “creating” life forms (i.e. exercising “God” powers) as the Most High God in heaven simply watched things unfold.

I think God had a deep purpose he did not share with Lucifer. In giving Lucifer creative powers to exercise on earth, God was testing Lucifer. God was doing a “lab test” to see if the most perfect angelic being ever made could successfully handle a dispensation of Divine powers. Hebrews 1:5-6 records that God never regarded any angel (including Lucifer) as his “son” who was “begotten” of God Himself. Angels are spirit beings, but they are not composed of the Divine Holy Spirit. If God delegated some creative powers to Lucifer on earth, it did not make Lucifer a “son” or a member of the “Elohim.” However, as Lucifer exercised creative powers over a succession of epochs on earth, Lucifer came to see himself as a God. The angels that served underneath his authority came to see him as one too.

Above we noted that the Bible shows God creates perfect, peaceful things which do not hurt or destroy each other. The massive predatory dinosaurs had teeth for ripping massive chunks out of other dinosaurs’ bodies, while their massive prey could fight back with armor-plating, spear-like projections from their heads, defensive plates and armor, clubs or spikes on their tails or have such massive size (like the brachiosaurus) that a mere swing of their tails could kill a predator. Do we see a taste for blood sport being developed among Lucifer and his angels on earth in the dinosaurian period? Did Lucifer sit like a Roman Caesar entertaining his subordinate angels with ever-greater dinosaurian “combat” games with the entire earth as the “arena?” As spirit beings, they were not threatened by the combat as the dinosaurs fought, competed and died as the angels watched. The fleshly beasts became just expendable objects for the amusement of Lucifer and his angels. Over time, beings developing a taste for blood sport would logically reach a point where they wanted to participate in the combat themselves. As the dinosaur age reached its apogee of large-scale combat and death, Lucifer’s mind conceived the unthinkable. After all, he thought, he was “a God” just like the Most High God. Why shouldn’t he lead his loyal legions of angels into a contest with the Almighty and become the “Top God” himself? Isaiah 14:12-15 says this is exactly what occurred.

Isaiah 13-15 states of Lucifer at the point he decided to rebel against God:

“For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.”

Lucifer led his angels in a “pearl harbor” type of surprise attack against the very throne of God and there was “war in heaven” when God’s angels fought Lucifer’s angels. The archangel, Michael, was apparently the leader of the angels who stayed loyal to the Most High God (Revelation 12:7). How immortal angels fight each other is beyond human knowledge to describe. How long this war lasted we do not know. We do know that the home base of Lucifer’s invasion was the planet earth. It was the earth that was the fallen angel’s “first estate” (Jude 6), and they ascended with Lucifer “above the clouds” as they rose in rebellion against their Maker. Our entire solar system bears the marks of a cosmic “war in heaven.” The planets and moons are pock-marked with wounds made by heavenly objects hurled into this solar system like cosmic shrapnel. The asteroid belt is apparently the result of a planet which “blew apart” due to unimaginable stresses placed on it. During this war, I think God allowed it to progress to the point where every angel’s loyalty had been tested and determined. Each angel made a choice in this war. They could not “stay neutral.”

When the Elohim (the “God” of the Bible) finally intervened directly in the war among the angels, Lucifer and his angels were quickly hurled “like lightning” back to the earth (Luke 10:18). Huge cosmic objects bombarded Lucifer’s home base as well (the Chixelub crater on/near Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula being one such example). Their collective impacts destroyed all the life forms that Lucifer had made, and the dinosaurs went extinct. Jude 6 says the rebellious angels were kept “under darkness” and were likened to “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness…” This post-destruction condition on earth sounds familiar.

Genesis 1:2 states that before Creation Week occurred, the earth had become “tohu.” It was destroyed. That same verse relates the earth had “darkness” upon the “face of the deep” or “the face of the waters.” The earth, created to be “inhabited” and so beautiful that the angels shouted for joy, was not originally a lifeless, darkened, flooded orb. However, genesis 1:2 says it became one. How long the fallen angels roamed around like “raging waves” on the darkened, flooded earth is unknown. It could have been eons, but a piece of scientific evidence implies that time may have been relatively short.

You may have read about a “prehistoric fish” called the Coelacanth. Coelacanths were presumed to be an extinct prehistoric fish, and the Encyclopedia Americana relates that “25 genera of fossil coelacanths have been discovered.” In 1938 a fisherman caught a living coelacanth in his fishing net and a few others have been found since in the Indian Ocean. Do these modern specimens of “prehistoric” fish date to an origin in the Luciferian period or were they re-created during Genesis Week? Either explanation would suffice to explain their existence, but I’m inclined to opt for the former explanation. Coelacanths can live at great depths of the ocean so they thrive in an oxygen-poor environment. The catastrophes which obliterated all life on the earth’s surface when the dinosaurs were wiped out and the earth was flooded would not automatically guarantee that all deep aquatic life would be exterminated. The coelacanths found in the Indian Ocean are on the other side of the planet from where the Chicxulub crater was formed, so the destructive wave actions of that impact would have been less where the modern Coelacanths were found (literally, on the other side of the earth). Coelacanths surviving the Chicxulub impact would have plenty of organic detritus to scavenge for a long time, but the oceans would have become starved of oxygen in a predictable period of time since there were no plants on earth to sustain photosynthesis when the surface of the earth was darkened. The lack of oxygen would eventually have rendered even the Coelacanths extinct, unless the period of watery darkness was rather limited. Since God created the earth to be “inhabited,” its period of darkness and desolation would have run counter to his original will. This argues that God took creative action to bring forth life on the earth again before much “time” passed. The Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3 describes how God again turned the surface of the earth back into a verdant place teeming with life.

The coelacanths are a graphic, living example that there is no such thing as evolution. As the Americana observes, Coelacanths are “a life form that has been preserved almost unchanged for many millions of years.” [Emphasis added.] Coelacanths prove that life forms do not evolve into new and different life forms over time. Life forms either adapt within their environmental capacities or they die. They continue to (in the words of Genesis) “beget life after their own kind” or they go extinct. The coelacanths clearly did not “evolve” into anything else. Yet contrary to all self-evident logic, the Americana goes on to opine that prehistoric coelacanths experienced massive evolutionary changes, and they crawled out of the oceans and became the “ancestors of all land forms, including man himself.” It takes incredible chutzpah to assert such a wild fantasy in the very same article that notes objective, observable scientific evidence confirming that coelacanths have been “almost unchanged for millions of years.” Such are the radical intellectual inconsistencies of the evolutionists!

After Lucifer and his defeated angels were hurled back to earth, it was not just their physical realm which changed. Lucifer’s creative powers were withdrawn by God, and the rebellious angelic beings of light were all darkened as well. They lost much of their power and potency. Lucifer and his angels learned that “what God gives, God can take away.” Lucifer had exercised creative power for so many eons that he thought his delegated powers were permanently his to wield. He was wrong. His vanity had led Lucifer to make a terrible mistake. He had lost sight of the fact that he was merely a created being, and that his Creator would always be superior to any and all creatures made by that Creator. Isaiah 14:12 laments “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” Lucifer’s name was changed and he has become “Satan,” the Adversary of God, ever since.

At an unknown point in time after the destruction of Lucifer’s kingdom on earth, God again recreated life on the earth. However, serpent-like creatures in the image of Lucifer no longer dominated the new creation. Mammals and mankind, made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), were the dominant life forms, and they were created in an Eden where all life forms lived peacefully. Genesis 1:3-31 describes that re-creation of life on the earth as occurring in a period of six, 24-hour days, each composed of an evening and a morning. God created new continents of dry land to emerge from the oceans, and he made both flora and fauna during that initial week. This was necessary as oxygen-breathing fauna and oxygen-producing flora had to come into existence at the same time for either group to survive. It is folly to think that one group could come into existence without the other. The oxygen-carbon dioxide ratio would not permit any life to live unless the atmospheric gases were balanced by an equivalent number of flora and fauna coming into existence at the same time. God also created a massive “firmament” of water vapor above the earth’s atmosphere (Genesis 1:6-, accounting for the sudden absence of much of the earth’s water, allowing dry land to again “appear” above the oceans. God could also dig out huge depths to the ocean (i.e. like the Mariana’s trench) to accomplish the appearance of dry land.

Verses 14-19 describe the creation of two great “lights” to rule the day and night. Clearly, there had to be a sun in order to warm the earth and for photosynthesis to occur when God made the original flora and fauna on the earth. This begs a question: If God created the sun during Creation Week, what happened to the light-source from the prehistoric period? Obviously, for prehistoric flora and fauna to exist, there had to be a light-source to both provide heat and to sustain photosynthesis (science has proven there were prehistoric plants as well as animals). Since Genesis 1:2 records everything “went dark” on the earth after Lucifer’s war against God, it is apparent that the prehistoric sun somehow “went dark” during the heavenly war or due to God’s actions. Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24 and Luke 23:45 all prophesy the sun will again be “darkened” at the end of our current age, so a darkened sun after the war in heaven would not a “one time” event. God, the Creator of all the heavens and the earth, can turn our sun (a star) on and off like we can turn a light switch on and off. Mankind, deeply deceived by evolutionary fables, will be terrified in the latter days of our age when it witnesses the shocking physical effects of another “war in heaven” (Revelation 12:7-9) occurring in our solar system.

This future “war in heaven” will be the opposite scenario of the first “war in heaven.” In the previous heavenly war, Satan and his angels invaded God’s heavenly realm. In the future heavenly war, God’s forces will counterattack. Jesus Christ will lead an immense army of spirit beings in an invasion of Satan’s kingdom (the earth) to dethrone Satan and bind all his angels and put down all human rebellion on earth (Revelation 19:11-21). Michael is revealed to be God’s chief angel in charge of his angelic armies (Daniel 12:1, Revelation 12:7). Lucifer/Satan (and all his angels) will be defeated and imprisoned for 1000 earth years while Jesus Christ and his resurrected and redeemed saints govern the earth (Revelation 20:1-4) in a way which returns earth to its original “Eden”-like status. At some point during this war, mankind will be permitted to see the spirit beings involved in this warfare (Matthew 24:29-30).

Let us return to Creation Week, which began in Genesis 1:3.

After God made all the new kinds of species on the earth’s surface and in the skies as well as in the oceans, he made mankind on the sixth day. God (the Elohim) had learned that even the mightiest angel that could be made could not be trusted with Elohim-like, creative powers. Lord Acton’s observation that “power corrupts” and “absolute power corrupts absolutely” was apparently true long before Lord Acton ever lived. So God made a new type of creature. He made a man and a woman, but these were not animals. He made man and woman “in the image and likeness” of the Creator Elohim, but in a physical form (Genesis 1:26).

Mankind was made for companionship and fellowship with the Creator God. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God prior to their fall in Eden. Perhaps if Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have received creative power to see if they, with the help of the Holy Spirit of the Elohim in their minds, could handle creative power. However, they “fell” when they were tempted and “beguiled” by the “serpent” who was none other than Lucifer/Satan (Genesis 3, II Corinthians 11:3). Thankfully, mankind can be redeemed because a member of the Elohim “emptied himself” (Philippians 2:5-11) and became flesh (I John 4:2, John 1:1-14) in the person of Jesus Christ. He became our atoning sacrifice when he gave his life to ransom mankind. All who repent and come to the Elohim (God) through Jesus Christ experience the forgiveness of sins and, ultimately, will be transformed into spirit beings in the future when Christ returns (Matthew 24:29-31, I Corinthians 15:42-53).

The events postulated above are an expanded and detailed version of what some Christians call “the gap theory” (that there is a “gap” of time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2). However, since the fossil record and archeological findings are entirely consistent with and supportive of the “the gap theory,” I believe the “gap theory” is quite factual and provable in both the scriptures and via the physical evidence underneath our feet. Efforts to fit the entire age of the dinosaurs and the entire fossil record into the last 6,000 years simply don’t work. Given that God is a Creator Being of infinite “age,” there is no need to limit his entire creative efforts to merely the last 6,000 years. Also, since God made Lucifer “perfect” in his original angelic form, what God makes “perfect” will take a very, very long time to reach a point of terminal corruption.

There are two other pieces of biblical evidence that supports the concept that Genesis 1:1 mentions (barely) an initial creation of the earth and Genesis 1:3 begins a detailed account of a later re-creation of life on the earth’s surface after all previous life on earth had experienced a global extinction. When Noah and his family were later saved from another Divinely-caused, global Flood, they walked out of the Ark into a very different world than the one they had previously lived in. The atmospheric canopy was gone, the continents and topography of the earth were different, atmospheric pressure was less due to the elimination of the weight of the canopy, the soils had many of their nutrients scoured off and washed into the oceans, etc. God gave Noah and his family a heavenly sign never previously seen by mankind—a rainbow—as a token of his promise that He would never again destroy the earth by a Flood (Genesis 9:8-17). The massive pre-Flood canopy of water vapor had apparently prevented the refraction of light in the pre-Flood atmosphere so that a rainbow could previously never be seen. That God said he would no more use Floods to destroy all life on earth strongly infers that Floods had been God’s established method of destroying corrupted life on earth and that he had used that method before! Genesis 1:2 recorded that a global Flood had devastated the earth just prior to Creation Week’s account which began in Genesis 1:3. That God Himself indicated global Floods had been his usual method for destroying corrupted life and civilizations on earth, it strongly infers that the global Flood in Genesis 1:2 had also destroyed all physical life on earth (the dinosaurs and plants of the Luciferian world).

The second point is in Genesis 9:1. There is no question that the pre-Flood world was full of human beings, animals and life forms which were wiped out by the Flood that Noah’s family survived. Notice that God told Noah’s family: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” The word “replenish” clearly is used in this situation to affirm that God wanted to re-fill the earth with life forms after the previous ones were annihilated. Keep this in mind and read God’s instructions to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28, which was: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” God gave Adam and Eve the exact same instructions he gave to Noah’s family after a global catastrophe had wiped out all life on earth. God is very consistent and “does not change” (Malachi 3:6). The fact that God gave these instructions to Noah’s family after a planetary catastrophe wiped out a previously inhabited and developed earth indicates that God was telling Adam and Eve to refill the earth with life after a global catastrophe wiped out a previously-inhabited and developed earth. The difference, of course, is that no dinosaur life forms were preserved from the Genesis 1:2 global Flood so God started over with brand new types of life (mankind and mostly mammals) during the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. There is scientific evidence that mankind almost went extinct at some in the past. A cable-TV documentary called (it memory serves correctly) “Supervolcanoes” examined the remarkably homogeneous DNA among modern races and concluded that ancient mankind experienced a “bottleneck” in which perhaps only a few thousands members survived to replenish the human race on earth. The Bible reveals it was only eight people, with the biological diversity coming from the three wives of Shem, Ham and Japheth who were brothers with the same biological parents (Genesis 7:13).

Ezekiel 28:14 states that Lucifer (and, therefore, all the other angels as well) are themselves created beings. There is no mention of the angels being created at any time during the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. The reason is that the angels were created eons before mankind. Indeed, they were created in the heavenly realm at a point prior to the existence of our earth because Job 38:4-7 reveals the angels were in existence before our earth was first created because they sang and shouted for joy when they watched the earth come into existence. Genesis 3:1 reveals the “serpent” (Satan) was present in Eden, but as a fallen deceiver. Satan had been hurled back to the earth when his heavenly rebellion and war failed (Luke 10:18), and they had wandered the earth in its flooded, darkened state (Genesis 1:2 and Jude 13) until God recreated new life on earth during Creation Week. God allowed Satan to test Adam and Eve and both of them fell for Satan’s lies and mankind became “fallen” along with Lucifer/Satan himself.

The fossil record and the evident age of the universe (as manifested in the red-shift of light from far-distant stars) indicate it took eons for Lucifer to “go bad” and morph into the being we now know as Satan. The red-shift of light from distant stars is an especially persuasive piece of scientific evidence which supports a conclusion that the physical Universe could be billions of years old. Discover magazine’s August, 2007 issue describes the “red shift” as “the stretching of light that indicates how fast the stars are receding and therefore how old they are relative to the age of the universe,” and the article mentions one star’s red shift calculations result in an age of “13.2 billon years” for that particular star. If the mathematics of these calculations are correct (and I, as a layman, have no reason to doubt them but neither can I confirm them), it indicates that the most distant stars have been “receding” away from a point of origin for at least that length of time. This would mean the physical Universe is at least 13.2 billions years old. If the red-shift of the light from the furthest stars argues that the Universe is billions of years old, that age is entirely consistent with a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Will evolutionary scientists now accept the scriptures and the knowledge of God now that it can be seen that the Bible actually agrees with their very ancient view of the earth’s age? I doubt it. Romans 1:17-32 indicates that evolutionists invented their theory to hide their own sins and deceive themselves into thinking they will not be judged for those sins. Romans 1:28 states that those who do not wish to “retain God in their knowledge” are given over by God to a “reprobate mind.” So, a few more comments about evolution will be made before this report concludes.

At the beginning of this report, it was noted that scientists reject the Bible because they think it is unscientific and incompatible with the discoveries of science about the physical Universe and earth. This report makes it plain that there is no such conflict. This means that the creation of life, as taught in the Bible, is a very scientific explanation for the origin of all species. Indeed, it is the only explanation that is possible. Evolution is an utter, scientific impossibility. The coelacanths confirm that no evolution has occurred over a time of millions of years!

Above it was noted that the balance of atmospheric gases are kept in balance by equivalent numbers of flora and fauna exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide. Both flora and fauna had to come into existence at the same time for this balance in atmospheric gases to come into existence at all. Genesis Week creationism affirms and explains this fact. Evolution, which opines that all life forms developed randomly and at different times, does not.

Also, Genesis 1 relates that all types of modern species that came into existence in Genesis’ Creation Week are designed to perpetuate their species via procreation between males and females of each species. In order for any species to ever be able to reproduce itself, a mature male and a female of child-bearing age must come into existence not only at the same time but in the same place! Evolutionists don’t realize it, but the older the earth is, the more it stacks the odds impossibly against evolution. If the earth is billions of years old, it means that every species had to have a mature male and female come magically into existence at exactly the same time and in exactly the same place during the last few billions years! Not only must they come into existence at the same time vertically (in time) they must come into existence horizontally (in geography) during their overlapping short lifetimes. What if a fully-developed male evolved magically into existence in ancient North America but a fully-developed female (of the exact same species no less!) evolved into existence in ancient Australia? They would never meet, much less reproduce. This immense barrier is the same for every species on earth that reproduces via sexual reproduction! It is an entirely separate impossibility for reproducing male and females to come into existence at the same instant in time with sexual genitalia and reproductive systems fully functional and able to work together to produce life! Genesis Week creationism affirms and explains this reality. Evolution does not.

Also, for any organism to “live” at all, its internal organs must all come into fully functioning existence at the same time. The moment any living being or creature has an internal organ that fails, the entire creature or organism dies and all the other organs fail with it. There is no way that living organisms can “gradually” develop their circulatory, neurological, skeleton-muscular, digestive, respiratory, reproductive, sensory organs, etc. in a gradual fashion. They all must come into existence at a single moment in time or the organism dies. It’s been that way since the dawn of time. Some scientists have noticed this fact and called it “irreducible complexity.” When Darwin’s theory was proposed, scientists lack modern technologies revealing just how unimaginably complex life forms are at the cellular level. The idea that extraordinarily-designed and incredibly-engineered life forms could come into existence (in perfectly compatible male and female models!) by gradually developing their internal, interdependent organic systems over millions of years is sheer fantasy that no rational person should accept. Genesis Week Creationism affirms and explains the complexity of life forms. Evolution cannot explain it.

Also, scientific observation of the world confirms that there is an inexorable law that things decay from more complex forms into simpler ones over time. Some call this the law of entropy. Radioactive elements decay into simpler elements over time. A car or house left to itself will decay over time back into the earth from which its constituent elements came. A recent cable-TV documentary called “Life After Humans” affirmed and described this process very well. It asserted that within hundreds of years, even New York City would be reclaimed by the elements. Streets, buildings, metallic objects, etc. would all decay into simpler forms. In order for evolution to exist, there would have to be an immutable, observable law that simple things automatically and inexorably recombine themselves into ever-more complex forms. It is an observable, testable fact that such necessary evolutionary trends don’t exist. Creationist views affirm and explains this process (called entropy). Evolution does not.

Finally, anyone can see that in our physical Universe, orderliness automatically moves toward chaos and disorder without outside intelligence acting upon matter. Consider your garden, does it automatically reorder itself into ever-more organized rows and orderly patterns if left to itself or does it deteriorate quickly into a chaotic weed patch unless someone maintains the orderliness? Will a house inexorably transform itself into a stately mansion with ever-more complex systems and accessories over time if left to itself? Of course not! It will inexorably decay from complex, organized forms into simpler, disordered forms until there is no evidence that it ever existed. For evolution to be true there would have to be observable, inexorable laws that natural elements automatically rearrange themselves into ever more orderly and complex forms. The evidence confirms that there is no such evolutionary process.

Combining scientific evidence with a literal application of the Bible’s narratives confirms the creationist viewpoint and exposes evolution as a scientifically impossible and foolish theory. David was entirely right when he wrote in Psalm 14:1 that “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.”

Is an age for the Universe of over 13 billon years compatible with a literal reading of the Bible’s texts? Yes, it is. The Bible indicates that the earth and the rest of the physical Universe is indefinitely old, but far older than 6,000 years. A literal understanding of the Bible allows for the earth and the Universe to be as old as scientists currently assert. If scientists discern new evidence indicating the earth is either billions of years older or younger than current estimates, it will not affect the literality of the Bible at all.

God’s questions to Job in Job 38 illustrate the confirmable fact that all the order and wonder of the Universe, the earth, its climate and its animal life did not “just happen.” God’s discourse acknowledges that all these things had to be specifically designed and engineered into a self-sustaining existence. This denies the theory of evolution as a cosmological explanation for the Universe. The theory of evolution is a fairy tale which has been force-fed to modern mankind. Why do evolutionists fight so hard to keep creationist concepts out of the classrooms? They realize evolutionary theory could never survive the scrutiny that would result from its having its fantasies compared to creationist facts.

The scientific community asserts that the original physical creation of the universe began with a “Big Bang” in which an infinitely immense amount of matter was expelled out into the Universe from an infinitesimally small point of origin. They may be right or wrong, but the Bible’s narratives allow for that theory to be correct. God did not state how he made the Universe in the original creation of Genesis 1:1, nor did he state how long he took to make it. If the Universe is everywhere expanding outward (as scientists assert), then the evidence does argue that the Universe is expanding outward from a point of common origin. For our purposes, it is enough to realize that an initial “Big Bang” is compatible with the Bible’s accounts in terms of the scientifically-understood “age” of the Universe. The scientific community can debate within itself regarding the age of the Universe and the method of its origin. Once the religious community understands that the Bible does not put any limits on the age of the earth and physical Universe, the religious community can quit feeling threatened by the scientific debate about the origins and age of the physical Universe. The physical evidence so far amassed by the scientific community does not conflict with the Bible’s accounts of creation.

To answer the question in this report’s title, the earth is not 6,000 years old. The Bible clearly states in Genesis 1:2 that the earth and its oceans already existed in a darkened, flooded, destroyed state prior to the beginning of Creation Week in Genesis 1:3, so the earth’s original creation has to pre-date the Creation Week by an indefinite period of time. However, the Bible explicitly states that mankind and all life forms now on the surface of the earth came into existence in a Divine creation approximately 6,000 years ago during a literal 6-day week. Given the complex interdependence of life forms on earth, they had to come into existence together to survive in a planetary ecosystem at all. The Bible’s creation narratives are not discredited by scientific evidence. Indeed, the Bible’s accounts are affirmed by scientific findings and the geologic record.

When scientists assert that physical evidence indicates the Universe and earth are millions or billions of years old, that is entirely possible because they are discussing the original creation of the earth (the creation mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 1:1, Job 38:4-7, Isaiah 45:12, 18). Indeed, I think the biblical context of a Luciferian rule on the earth and the geologic/fossil record support such a conclusion. When Christian creationists assert that mankind and the current life forms were created in a six-day Creation Week approximately 6,000 years ago, they are correct because they are discussing the much more recent creation account which begins in Genesis 1:3. Scientists and Christian creationists have been talking past each other all along because they are discussing different creations of God on earth which are eons apart!

Genesis 1:1 is not describing the Creation Week account which begins in Genesis 1:3. Genesis 1:1 barely mentions that there was a primordial creation long prior to an extinction level event which caused the original inhabited and beautiful earth to become a lifeless, flooded, darkened orb in space in Genesis 1:2. Genesis 1:3 begins the account of how God re-created entirely new species during Creation Week’s “re-creation” of life on earth after the extinction level event described in Genesis 1:2. The original creation did not include mankind and it was a world dominated by reptilian, serpent-like creatures which went extinct in the extinction level event mentioned in Genesis 1:2. The second creation of life on earth featured mankind as the ruling species on earth and the animal world is now dominated by mammals, not reptiles. The extinction level event of Genesis 1:2 was the rebellion of Lucifer and the resultant war in the heavens (Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-17, Luke 10:18, and Jude 6 and 13).

The Bible and true science are in complete agreement. Christians and Creationists have nothing about which they need to “apologize!” It is the evolutionists who need to do the apologizing for duping mankind into believing such a grandiose fantasy. The evolutionists are running out of time. When Jesus Christ returns and establishes his millennial government on earth, all mankind will learn the truth about the origins of the earth and why mankind was created. It will be a time of global peace, prosperity and truth.



Will that time come soon?

For more on this topic....see.... IS THE EARTH ONLY 6000 YEARS OLD? NO IT IS NOT!...@.... https://easttnforum.forumotion.com/t938-is-the-earth-only-6000-years-old-no-it-is-not

Note: This post will be in two parts due to length!

Part 1.........

As I see it, the Bible contains chronological information and genealogy and this information's only real value is theologically not historically.

Chronology is certainly an interesting and challenging study. However, people can be easily misled by chronological theories and ideas of men.

Many Christians, thinking that the Bible teaches that the earth and all life on it can be no more than 6,000 years old. The scientific community, seeing physical evidence which indicates that the earth and physical Universe is much older than 6,000 years. Additionally, scientists hearing so many Christians assert that the Bible teaches the earth is only 6,000 years old that they reject the Bible as unscientific because of that Christian assertion. Who is right? The answer may surprise you. I believe that each side has a lot of truth on its side, but they have been in disagreement because of a misunderstanding about what the Bible actually says on this subject.

Rather than hold back my personal views on the subject until the end of this report, I will give you my conclusions at its beginning and then substantiate them with biblical and secular evidence. First I shall state categorically that I am a Christian and a biblical literalist who believes that a Creator Being authored the Bible and that it is infallible in its original, inspired texts but it may be fallible in the translation form the original language into English. I also believe that the book of Genesis teaches that mankind and the species now living on the surface of the earth cannot be older than approximately 6,000 years, and I also believe that God created mankind and all such current species in a literal six-day week of 24-hour days and that he “rested” on the seventh day. These statements should place me in the mainstream of those Christian denominations which affirm a literalist understanding of the Bible. Now I have a surprise affirmation for the scientific community.

To the scientific community I state that I agree with you that the physical evidence indicates that the Universe and the earth are far older than 6,000 years. However, I state to the scientific community that you have misjudged the Bible. You have rejected the Bible as “unscientific” because of an oft-stated Christian assertion that the Bible teaches that the earth itself is 6,000 years old. The Bible makes no such statement. When we combine all the biblical statements about creation and take them literally, the Bible actually agrees with scientists that the earth itself is far older than 6,000 years.

To my fellow Christians, I state that this research report will show that a literal application of the scriptures will show that while mankind and the species on earth are no more than 6,000 years old, the earth on which mankind and other modern species now live is far older than 6,000 years. This research report will reconcile the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the biblical assertions of a 7-day week of creation circa 6,000 years ago and the scientific assertions that the earth is millions or billions of years old. It will do so by showing that the Bible is in agreement with the scientific community about the ancient age of the earth and Universe, an age of dinosaurs long before mankind, etc. However, this research report will also give the “coup de grace” to the theory of evolution. I believe many scientists have rejected Creationism because they can see the earth has to be older than 6,000 years so they reject the Bible as unscientific because they think it asserts the earth is no more than 6,000 years old. They have embraced evolution as the only possible alternative. This report will show biblical creationism is actually the only scientific option. I invite all readers to consider the evidence in this research report and come to your own conclusion on the matter.

Let’s first consider the assertion that “the earth is no more than 6,000 years old.” Where does it come from? That statement is nowhere in the Bible—please check your concordances and confirm it for yourself. That assertion began as an assumed corollary to the research of Archbishop James Ussher, who lived during the 16th and 17th centuries AD and whose calculations and chronologies are sometimes cited as date-references for many chapters in the Bible. In a King James Version of the Bible in my library, Archbishop Ussher’s proposed dates first appear with the 12th chapter of Genesis where a date of 1921 BC is cited. I allow that other biblical translations may list other dates for chapters of the Bible. Archbishop Ussher faithfully tried to calculate the time of Creation Week by calculating the life spans of biblical characters and their lineages backward from known dates in ancient history. His research resulted in a date of 4004 BC for Creation Week. Indeed, the Encyclopedia Americana notes that this date was “…widely accepted until the impact of the scientific revolution in the 19th century.”

Note that the authority of the Bible was accepted in Western cultures until “the scientific revolution” occurred. That “scientific revolution” spawned the theory of evolution as an alternative explanation for life on earth when physical evidence began to indicate that the earth had to be older than 6,000 years. Archbishop Ussher’s chronology and respect for biblical accounts were discarded by the scientific community in the 20th century. However, a critical mistake was made by both churchmen and scientists. Ussher’s chronology specifically attempted to date when Adam and Eve, the first humans, were created during Creation Week. His chronology calculated human life spans to determine when the first humans were made. His chronology did not specifically date when the earth itself was created. Churchmen and scientists have both mistakenly assumed the two dating systems are congruous. They are not, as this report will demonstrate. In fact, I don’t think Archbishop Ussher was too far off in his dating of the events of Creation Week. There is evidence that he may be fairly accurate in his calculations, but this report is about the age of the earth, and to that subject we return.

The first chapter of Genesis contains the primary creation account in the Bible, but there are other scriptures which add important pieces of information about the original creation of the earth that are not in the Genesis account. We must combine and consider all the biblical accounts about the original creation in order to have the full picture. When we do this, the Bible and scientific facts come into complete agreement. Let’s start “at the beginning” in the first chapter of Genesis.

Please specifically notice that God’s very first creative words on the first “day” of the seven-day Creation Week do not begin until Genesis 1:3. God’s very first creative words on the first day of Creation Week were “Let there be light and there was light…God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” There is nothing in this verse about God creating the earth or the Universe on the first day. On the first day of Creation Week, God simply created the daylight and nighttime portions in a 24-hour day by “dividing” the light from the darkness. This cycle of days and nights replaced a pervasive darkness which Genesis 1:2 states had previously been extant upon the entire surface of the earth. Genesis 1:2 records the earth was already in existence prior to the beginning of the Creation Week account. Obviously, if the earth already existed prior to Creation Week, it was rotating on its axis around the sun just like it does today, but there were no daytime and nighttime portions to its daily rotational cycle. What happened which created the pervasive darkness on Genesis 1:2 all over the earth? We’ll fully answer that question later in this report. Notice more about what Genesis 1:2 records prior to anything being spoken or done by God on the first day of Creation Week.

Genesis 1:2 (describing conditions on earth prior to the Creation Week account which begins in verse 3) records that: “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 Hebrew word translated “the deep” is the same word which often refers to the earth’s oceans during the biblical periods after mankind’s creation. Also, the Hebrew word translated “earth” is the same word for “earth” in the biblical periods after the creation of mankind. Do you realize the significance of these statements in Genesis 1:2?

Genesis1:2 records that the earth and the oceans and a pervasive darkness were already present before Creation Week began! Therefore, ipso facto, the earth itself has to be indefinitely older than anything created during Creation Week. Genesis 1:2 depicts a darkened, lifeless, flooded earth which is already in existence before God does anything in Creation Week. For how long had the earth circled the sun in this darkened, lifeless state? The Bible does not say. The text allows for it to be a short time or a very long period of time. Other factors give us more information to better understand how long the earth was in a lifeless condition before Creation Week, and we’ll examine them later. Let’s now consider some little-noticed scriptures in the Bible about the creation of the earth..

In Job 38, God is speaking to an afflicted man named Job about many aspects of what God did when He first created the earth and the entire Universe. He says to Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?...Who laid the measures thereof?...Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” God speaks of making the clouds in verse 9, setting the boundaries of the oceans in verses 8-12, and there is a reference to polar icecaps in verses 29-30 where the “waters” of “the deep” are “frozen.” In verse 33, God asks Job if he knows about the “ordinances” (laws) of heaven? In other words, God asks Job if he knows about the laws of the Universe which govern its movements and its composition.

In Isaiah 45, God also makes references to the time when he first made the heavens and the earth. In verses 12 and 18, God states: “I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded…For thus says the LORD who created the heavens: God himself that formed the earth and made it…he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited; I am the LORD; and there is none else.” [Emphasis added.] Notice that while this verse asserts God made the heavens and the earth and created man upon that earth, God does not state that he “made mankind on the earth” as soon as the earth was created.

It is very important to note that God Himself said that when he first created the earth, he made it NOT “in vain,” and that he formed it to “be inhabited.” Job 38’s account indicates that when the earth was created, it was so beautiful the “morning stars” sang and the “sons of God” shouted for joy! Whoever the “morning stars” and “sons of God” were, would they have sung and shouted for joy if the earth was originally created as a dark, flooded, lifeless place as Genesis 1:2 states it was before Creation Week began? I think not. I believe they shouted for joy and sang because God made a beautiful, verdant earth which was originally created in a state which teemed with life. He says he made it “to be inhabited” at the time he first created the earth, not long afterwards. However, this scripture does not state God made mankind to initially “inhabit” the earth. Furthermore, this passage makes no allowance for any “evolutionary creationism” in which a long period of chaos and lifelessness existed from which evolution developed life forms over eons. The earth was made to be inhabited at its beginning. It was not initially created as a lifeless, darkened, flooded mess. What happened to the beautiful earth that inspired heavenly beings to sing and shout for joy and which was made ‘to be inhabited?”

How do we reconcile this seeming conflict? It is easy when we consider all the Bible’s creation accounts together. The original creation of the earth and Universe to which God refers in Job 38 and Isaiah 45 is not the Creation Week account beginning in Genesis 1:3. The creation accounts in Job 38 and Isaiah 45 refer to the original creation which is barely mentioned without any additional details in Genesis 1:1! Genesis 1:1 states: “In the beginning, God [Elohim] created the heaven and the earth.”[Emphasis added.] The Hebrew word translated “heaven” in Genesis 1:1 is the same word translated “heavens” in Isaiah 45:12 and 18. Genesis 1:1 is a reference to the time when God initially created the heavens and the earth, not to the later Creation Week account when he created mankind and the other current life forms now on the earth.

The initial creation of the earth and heavens is the subject of the creation accounts in Job 38 and Isaiah 45. The Genesis 1:1 account merely mentions that there was an original creation of the heaven and earth at an indefinite time prior to Creation Week, but the Job and Isaiah narratives add more information about that original creation. These accounts reveal that when God originally “formed the earth,” he made it to be “inhabited” (i.e. a place which supported life). Job 38:9 mentions the initial creation of the earth included “clouds.” This means the earth was initially created with an atmosphere and a water cycle. This means the earth’s atmosphere had breathable air and the water circulation cycle of evaporation, condensation into clouds and rainfall upon the earth was also present. The evaporation and condensation of water indicates that there were heating and cooling cycles upon the earth’s original surface. This argues for daylight and nighttime portions within a day as the earth rotated on its axis after its initial creation.

Job 38:8-12 adds this original creation not only had clouds and oceans, but it also had dry land. Verses 10-11 record that God set boundaries (“bars and doors”) on the ocean and decreed that its waves could go “no further.” Waves break upon beaches of dry land and go “no further” as the waters recede back to the ocean. There had to be dry land in the initial creation of the earth for waves to break upon a shore. Gravity and atmospheric pressure also keep water levels in their place, so both these forces also had to be present when God initially made the earth.

Job 38:9 refers to a “thick darkness,” but I believe this refers to the normal nighttime portion of the earth’s rotation on its axis. Genesis 1:2’s darkness was unending and that account mentions a flooded earth which no longer had dry land (a fact attested to by the account in Genesis 1:9 which states that God made dry land again appear during Creation Week). What the Bible is actually describing in Genesis 1:1, Job 38:4-12 and Isaiah 45:12 & 18 is the initial creation of the earth and Universe by God. The originally-created earth was a place of land, oceans and clouds and it was created to be inhabited. It was so beautiful and verdant the “morning stars” and “sons of God” sang and shouted for joy! Who were these “morning stars” and “sons of God” and why were they so excited? They were excited because God had made a stunningly-beautiful place for them to live.

One thing is certain. These “morning stars” and “sons of God” couldn’t have been Adam and Eve. Genesis 2:7 states that Adam was formed from the dust of the earth after the earth was created, and Eve was created soon after Adam. Genesis 1:26-28 add that Adam and Eve (the first humans) were not created until the sixth day of Creation Week. Therefore, Adam and Eve could not have sang and shouted for joy at the original creation of the earth because the Bible plainly states they were created out of the elements of the earth at an unspecified time after the earth was created. The “morning stars” and “sons of God” had to be angelic/spirit beings who lived prior to the creation of the physical Universe. The word “star” is used a number of times in the Bible to indicate angels. Examples of this imagery are found in Revelation 1:20 and also in Revelation 12:3-4 where the “dragon” (Lucifer/Satan) caused “the third part of the stars of heaven” (the angels) to fall. Isaiah 14:12-15 also refers to angels as “stars” in its account of Lucifer’s rebellion against God. Jude 13 refers to angels as “stars” after their fall. We do not know how many angels there are or how many eventually rebelled, but Revelation 5:11 gives a glimpse of a heavenly scene at God’s throne at which over 100,000,000 angelic beings are present. Since Lucifer led 1/3rd of the angels to rebel against their Creator, the number of rebellious angels had to run into many millions of angels.

Jude 1:6 also refers to the time of Lucifer’s rebellion against God. It states:

“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness…”

Notice that Lucifer and his rebellious angels left their proper place of “habitation” when they rebelled against God. Where was their proper place of habitation? Isaiah 14:12-15 gives us the answer. In this account of Lucifer’s angelic rebellion, verse 13 records that Lucifer thought he could dethrone his own Creator and exalt himself over the entire heavenly realm. Verse 14 states that Lucifer “ascend[ed] above the heights of the clouds” when he left his normal “habitation” and tried to exalt himself to be “like the Most High.” Putting Jude 1:6 and Isaiah 14:12-15 together, it is evident that Lucifer’s “first estate” or “place of habitation” was the earth itself because Lucifer’s original habitation had clouds over it. Clouds are indicative of a planetary atmosphere, and Job 38:9 recorded the earth had “clouds” when it was first created. Lucifer was given authority by God over the original earth, the angels upon it and whatever physical life forms lived upon the initial creation of the earth.

It is evident that at some point after the heavenly beings shouted for joy when God first made the earth “to be inhabited,” God delegated to Lucifer and his complement of angels the supervision of the physical earth. The earth was their place of “habitation.” When Lucifer later rebelled by leaving his place of habitation to ascend to heaven in a rebellion to dethrone God, Lucifer was defeated and hurled back down to their proper place of “habitation.” Jesus Christ stated in Luke 10:18 that he had seen Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Jesus had to be referring to his own pre-existent Divine state (John 1:1-3, 10-14, 17:5, Philippians 2:5-11) when he saw Satan hurled down to the earth. Since the pre-existent Jesus was the one who “made all things” in the first place (John 1:1-3), he very likely was the one who threw Lucifer (later called “Satan”) back to his original place of habitation.

However, the beautiful earth that God originally made to be inhabited by Lucifer and many angels was destroyed in the course of this heavenly warfare. Jude 6 records that Satan and the angels who left their proper place of habitation were placed in “chains under darkness.” Jude 13 likens them to “wandering stars” amidst the “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame.” This post-rebellion state of the earth (with raging waves and darkness) sounds exactly like Genesis 1:2 which records the earth became “without form and void” (KJV) and that “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” How different the post-rebellion earth was from the earth that was originally created! The original earth was beautiful and inhabited with an atmosphere, clouds, dry land, etc. The post-rebellion earth was a darkened and flooded earth which had no sunshine or dry land. Given what Job 38 and Isaiah 45 tell us about the earth’s beautiful original creation, something catastrophic befell the earth between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Scientists now know that the earth has experienced several periods of mass extinction. The Bible agrees. Such an event happened between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

In Genesis 1:2, we are told that the earth was “without form and void” just prior to the beginning of Creation Week in Genesis 1:3. The Hebrew word translated “without form” is “tohu,” which also means “waste, wilderness, or empty place.” However, Isaiah 45:18 specifically records that when God first made the earth, he did not create it in a “tohu” state but rather formed it in a “habitable” state! Let’s insert this distinction into the Genesis account. God originally created an earth in Genesis 1:1, which, according to Isaiah 45:18, was not “tohu,” but in Genesis 1:2, the earth had become “tohu.” The explanation for this radical change in the earth is explained in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation 12:4 and the book of Jude. Lucifer and his angels who had “inhabited” the verdant earth left the earth’s atmosphere to rebel against God and dethrone their Creator! They lost this heavenly war and were hurled back to the earth by God.

We can only imagine how spirit beings fight each other in the heavenly dimension, but the Bible gives us indications that the physical consequences of such a war resulted in an “extinction level event” for the earth and all physical creatures on its surface. This “tohu” state of the originally-beautiful earth was a result of Lucifer’s rebellion and the subsequent war in heaven. When Lucifer and his rebellious angels were hurled back to earth (Luke 10:18), this heavenly war wiped out all physical life on the earth that Lucifer had governed. The earth was surely devastated during the heavenly war (after all, planet earth was the home base of the losing side). Do spirit beings hurl comets, meteors, etc. at each other or at each other’s domains during a heavenly war? This would account for the pock-marked appearance of planets and moons all over our solar system. It is obvious that many meteors or other objects (large and small) have impacted on the surfaces of the planets and moons in this solar system. Evolutionists think that these impacts happened over eons of time. That is possible, but it is more likely that many of our solar system’s impact craters were made during the heavenly war between Lucifer’s angels and God’s angels. It is sobering to think that our own solar system was the source of a heavenly rebellion in which millions of spirit beings rebelled against their Creator King. It is no wonder this solar system shows a lot of residual damage. Indeed, the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars may constitute the remnants of a planet which exploded during this heavenly war.

One even wonders if the “habitation” of Lucifer and his angels was only the earth or did it include our entire solar system? Science has found some evidence which argues that Mars once had an atmosphere and flowing water. Perhaps more than one planet in this solar system had a verdant surface prior to Lucifer’s rebellion, and only the earth itself had its surface and life restored by God after that rebellion. If scientists ever find evidence of anaerobic or fossilized life forms on Mars, it will not “prove evolution.” It will actually indicate that God’s initial creation of life in this solar system included more planets that just the earth. The Bible is silent on this possibility so whatever Science finds will not conflict with anything in the Bible.

It is likely that God hurled more than Lucifer and his angels back to the earth’s surface. There may have been a storm of physical objects hurled down upon the earth at the same time the rebellious angels were thrown to the earth’s surface. One very large impact, known as the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan region of Mexico was large enough all by itself that scientists have surmised that its damage could have rendered the world of the dinosaurs extinct. When the original earth was destroyed, its dry land (Job 38:8-11) was immersed in a global flood, and the earth’s surface was darkened. What the Bible may be describing in Genesis 1:2 was something akin to a “nuclear winter” which existed in the aftermath of the annihilation of the dinosaurs and all physical life on the earth’s surface.

How long did the earth stay in the darkened, flooded state described in Genesis 1:2? We do not know, but Jude 13 indicates the fallen angels roamed the landless, darkened oceans for an unspecified period of time. Was it a few weeks or millions of years? We simply cannot say. The Bible’s narratives allow for this period of time to be an indefinitely long one or a very short one. The concept of “time” for spirit beings is entirely different than it is for us humans. What we humans perceive as eons of time may be perceived as a short period of “time” by spirit beings. These ages of the angels living peacefully on earth in their original habitation, the time of Lucifer’s rebellion and the destruction of our earth as well as the subsequent period of flooded darkness all took place before Creation Week ever began.

How could Lucifer ever think that he could possibly overthrow the Creator who had brought him into existence? Such an action sounds like sheer madness. Some have opined that vanity and pride alone motivated his rebellion. Isaiah 14:12-15 records that Lucifer had an attitude of self-exaltation at the time of his rebellion, so that could be all the explanation that is needed. However, I think the answer goes much deeper than that. Before resuming the narrative of how old the earth may be, the following digression will outline my view of what motivated Lucifer’s rebellion. It is not necessary that the reader agree with my viewpoint, but I offer it for your consideration. To examine this subject in greater detail, we will consider another account of Lucifer’s creation and his downfall. That account is found in Ezekiel 28:12-17.

Ezekiel 28:12 begins as a “lamentation” for the “king of Tyre,” but the following verses make it clear that this is a typology for Lucifer himself. Verse 13 states that the subject of this lamentation was “in Eden, the garden of God.” No human king of Tyre was ever in Eden, but this is a lamentation about a “ruler” who began noble and right and “turned to the dark side.” Indeed, the ruler who is the subject of this lamentation invented the dark side when he sinned. Verse 12 adds tha tthis ruler “was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” Verse 13 adds that he had a bejeweled appearance and he must have been gifted in music as “tabrets and pipes” (musical instruments) are mentioned. Verse 13 adds that this ruler was a “created” being who was brought into existence by God. Verse 14 states he was “the anointed cherub that covereth” (KJV) that God set “on the holy mountain of God.” Verse 15 cites God as saying to this ruler “you were perfect in your ways till iniquity was found in you.” After he became iniquitous, God “cast” him as “profane…out of the mountain of God.” Verse 17 pronounces that God would “cast” this corrupted ruler “to the ground” because his “heart was lifted up” because of his beauty, wisdom and brightness.

This account can only refer to the creation, and subsequent corruption, of Lucifer. Biblical accounts indicate “cherubim” are mighty and high-ranking angels. Lucifer was called a “covering cherub” which may indicate that his wings at one time “covered” the throne of God (Exodus 25:10-22 shows the Ark of the Covenant was constructed to depict cherubs whose wings would “cover” the mercy seat of the ark). Remember that the angels shouted for joy when God first created the earth? Lucifer was apparently given the choice assignment of being the ruler of the beautiful, new earth, and he had a large number of angels assigned to him.

I think we too quickly overlook the fact that Ezekiel 28:15 records that Lucifer was “perfect in [his] ways from the day that [he] was created. He “sealed up the sum” (verse 12) of wisdom and perfect beauty. Lucifer may have been the mightiest and most gifted angel that God ever made. When God makes something or someone “perfect,” it is logical that it will not “go bad” for a very, very long time. Lucifer could have overseen and ruled the earth for eons in righteousness before he became lifted up in his heart and became corrupted. His period of righteousness as a governing angel could have lasted millions or billions of years (as we understand time). The Bible simply doesn’t say how long Lucifer was righteous before he “went bad.” Also, did he just snap and “go bad” in an instant or did the process of corruption develop slowly over a long time and come to an irrevocable transformation only when he rebelled openly against God and initiated a war in the heavens. I think the latter option is the correct one.

Keep in mind that “time” (as we humans define, experience and understand it) only exists on earth and in the physical realm. This may sound surprising, but it is true. Consider that our human definitions of time are divided into days, months, weeks, years, etc. Have you ever considered that we define our continuum of existence as we do only because we live on the earth’s surface? One revolution of the earth on its axis is called a “day.” One lunar cycle is called a “month.” One orbit of the earth around the sun is called a “year.” All other units of time are either subsections or multiples of these units of time. If astronauts could travel throughout the solar system or beyond it, how meaningful would such terms as “days,” “hours” or “years” become if humans ceased to experience “time” in earthly terms?

If astronauts could travel at “warp speed” around the Universe, would our earthly units of time have any meaning? No. Einstein’s theory of relativity revealed that time is a variable aspect of the time-space continuum. Experiments have shown that as speed accelerates greatly, a person traveling at a very great speed would experience time at a different rate than someone who is not moving at a great rate of speed. If this is a known aspect of our physical dimension, how might “time” be different in the perspective of spirit beings who don’t have bodies which die and who may not be bound to the earth’s surface? James 4:14 states that our human life spans are like mere “vapors” or temporary “mists” which are over in a moment when viewed from the perspectives of spirit beings. II Peter 3:8 states “one day with the Lord” is like “a thousand years” for us, and Peter was likely citing a similar observation made by David in Psalm 90:4. If we apply these time comparisons literally, it would mean that mankind’s entire history of approximately 6000 years is so far no more than a “six-day” project for God.

Now let’s consider the “time” of Lucifer’s rule over the earth when he and his angels lived on this planet as their “first estate” and before they “ascended above the clouds” in a rebellion against their Maker which resulted in their being cast down back to earth after a “war in heaven.” How long did Lucifer reign over angels on earth in a “perfect” state before his rebellion? Isaiah 14:13 states that Lucifer did have a “throne” from which he launched his rebellion to overthrow God. I think Lucifer reigned a very long time on earth before he “went bad,” and I believe the scientific fossil record (which scientists believe records life forms over many millions of years) supports such a viewpoint. What was it that caused Lucifer to be lifted up in vanity to try and dethrone his own Creator? What could possibly give Lucifer the idea that he could win a war against the Creator God who had made Lucifer and his angels?

The Bible offers very little information, but I am going to offer you a hypothesis that could answer these questions. Please keep in mind that I am not “certain” of this and I’m not “making doctrine” in this proposal. I am simply offering you a hypothesis to consider, because we know that Lucifer did rebel against God and launch an invasion into the heavens from his “throne” on earth, after which he and his angels were hurled back to this planet in ignominious defeat. When Lucifer launched his invasion against God’s heavenly realm, I think he expected to win his war. If Lucifer possessed only angelic powers, it would be madness for him to think he could successfully rebel against his own Creator. While such madness is possible, it does not account for another very important aspect of his rebellion. Revelation 12:4 indicates that Lucifer (“the dragon”) incited one-third of all the angels to join his revolt against their Creator. Did they all suddenly “go mad” together? I think the answer to this mystery is far deeper, and more awesome, than Christians have even imagined. What follows is intellectual grist for mature Christians to consider. It is not for the faint of heart.

When Lucifer rebelled against the “Most High God,” he did so because something had happened which caused Lucifer to think that he was also a “God” who could fight his Creator on equal terms. Also, whatever that “something” was, it also convinced 1/3rd of the angels that Lucifer was, indeed, a rival God who could win a war against “the Most High God.” What follows is a hypothesis which explains what might have occurred. Surprisingly, this hypothesis is suggested and supported by the evidence under our feet in the scientifically-excavated fossil record.

Scientific analysis of the earth’s strata argues that the earliest life forms found in the oldest strata of the earth were relatively small and innocuous and not as large or impressive as in later periods. Scientists call this the Cambrian Period of the Paleozoic Era. Then life forms became more complex and larger as geologic time passed and the Paleozoic Period changed into the Mesozoic Era. The Mesozoic was the age dominated by reptiles. The Encyclopedia Americana states that the Triassic Period, the first phase of the Mesozoic Era “saw the appearance of flying pterosaurs…crocodiles, and marine reptiles… plesiosaurs [as well as] mammal-like reptiles” which included small predators and vegetarian species. The next Period of the Mesozoic Era was the Jurassic Period. This featured the bigger predatory and prey species of dinosaurs like those featured in the movie “Jurassic Park.” The Americana states of the Jurassic Period that “abrupt and substantial changes in animal life separate the Triassic and Jurassic Periods” [and that] the dinosaurs diversified greatly, producing many bipedal and quadrupedal carnivores and herbivores, including the largest land animal of all time (Brachiosaurus).” [Some emphasis added.]

The Cretaceous Period followed the Jurassic Period in the Mesozoic Era and it was also an age of large dinosaurs which were more heavily-armored and more deadly in their anatomic weaponry. The Americana states concerning the Cretaceous that “pterosaurs …grew to enormous size” and that other dinosaur types included the T-Rex, ankylosaurs and triceratops. Ankylosaurs and triceratops were armored and weaponized prey species, and all dinosaur fans know about T-Rex’s weaponry as a predator.

Did you notice an inexorable trend as the geologic eons passed? Life forms began as rather innocuous species. They grew larger and more serpent-like (reptilian) over time, and they also grew more armored and deadly. There was a time when there were “abrupt and substantial changes” in life forms on the earth and when dinosaurs “diversified greatly.” Scientists see rapid “evolutionary” changes in these instances. I see something very different. It is also noteworthy that the dominant life forms on earth (and the main combatant dinosaurs with more-specialized offensive and defensive anatomical weaponry) were all reptilian, serpentine or dragon-like in design.

Genesis 1 indicates that the original Creator (the “Elohim” in the Hebrew tongue) of the Genesis Week creation made a peaceful world in which all creatures lived in harmony without conflict. The animals did not rip apart and eat each other in Eden. I John 4:8 says categorically that “God is love,” and Acts 3:20-21 prophesies that there will eventually come a time when our fallen world will experience a “restitution of all things” when Jesus Christ returns. Isaiah 11:6-9 indicates that the natures of all predators and creatures will again be peaceful in the Messianic Age (the “millennium” in Christian parlance) and that “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.” This prophecy states that there will be no predatory nature in any animals after Jesus Christ returns. Malachi 3:6 declares that “God does not change, and Hebrews 13:8 declares the same thing about Jesus Christ (he is the same “yesterday, today and forever”). God is not the author of a world in which huge animal creatures prey upon and rip each other apart in contests between offensive and defensive anatomical weaponry. The dinosaurian world dug up in the fossil record is entirely alien to the kind of Creation which is made by the Creator God of the Bible (Yahweh Elohim).

It is clear that the dinosaurian age was climaxed by a time when physical, reptilian creatures battled with immense teeth, claws, armored plates, spikes and clubs built into their bodies. This leads to an obvious, but hitherto unspoken conclusion: it was not the peaceful Creator God of the Bible who made those armored, serpentine dinosaurs which could “wage war” upon each other. If the loving Most High God did not make that dinosaurian world, who did? This brings us back to Lucifer, who sat on the “throne” of earth’s prehistoric world, and who came to think of himself as a God who was the equal of the Most High. Millions of subordinate angels also must have considered Lucifer to be a “God” who could lead them to victory over the Most High God. When God creates things, they are perfect and peaceful. But sin can alter and mar what God makes. Lucifer was created “perfect,” but eventually “fell” from his exalted status and became sinful to the point he openly waged war against his Creator.