Confirmation of the Composite Theory of Creation on the Moral Plane
For almost two thousand years, with the knowledge of the Scriptures and of science ebbing and flowing in many lands and generations, Christians have debated the interpretation of Gen. 1. Why this should be is explained in Prov. 25:2 "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing but the honor of kings is to search out a matter." Like the universe itself the object of endless probing by science Gen. 1 is one of those passages of Scripture which can be classified as "the deep things of God.”
With so many theories current on the interpretation of Gen. 1, how can we be certain that the one advanced in this book is not just another one, but the correct interpretation? The answer lies in 1 Cor. 15:46 "that was not first which is spiritual." So God gave us the story of the natural creation first in Gen. 1 Then much later the underlying spiritual meaning of it in the New Testament. Because these are congruous, the best proof of the Composite Theory of Creation is its link to the New Testament writers, who were distanced from Moses by some 1500 years. They link together the three domains over which God rules. In Gen. 1 we see God as the ruler of the physical universe He created and the life in it. Then when we come to the New Testament we see that Same God giving us a mirror image of that creation in the moral sphere. Man is introduced to God's moral universe by the new birth. Because of man's lost condition he needs a new creation. In 2 Cor. 5:7 we find it "if any one is in Christ there is a new creation the old things have passed away behold all things have become new." We know that Christ is the Head of this new creation from Rev. 3:14 "these things says the Amen....the beginning of the creation of God" i.e. the new creation, in the language of Scripture.
To summarize the new creation, while separate and distinct from the old creation, is its mirror image in the New Testament. That is because Christ is the Head of both creations, so a unity shines through. The physical creation of Gen. 1 is explained in spiritual terms in the New Testament.
The Range of God's Works Is the Key to the Understanding of the Whole
God began His creation with the heavens and the earth displaying His wisdom and His power. He ended His creation with a woman revealing His heart. The key to understanding everything between i.e. the story of the creation interpreted from a spiritual viewpoint is to begin with the origin of the woman, and trace things backward to the ultimate origin of man.
In the first book of the Bible nothing is said about the organization of marine, bird, and land life into males and females. This is only said of man. It is not until the flood is approaching in Gen. 6:19 that this is noted and then only in passing. The omission is deliberate. It is to alert us to the unique nature of man's being, as we read in Gen. 1:27 "so God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him male and female created He them." The creation of the female implied the coming in of death, for the biological function of any class of female is to perpetuate life subject to death. Death did not enter the world because of the lower creation rather it was "as by one man came death." Scripture presents this in reverse order in Eve. In the second instance she brought death into the world by listening to the serpent. In the first instance at her creation she brought death on the man, typically of course, that he might have her. So we read in Gen. 2:21, 22 "and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to overcome Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead. And the Lord God built the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man." But where did this man come from to whom the woman was brought? Gen. 2:7 tells us that "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." When man fell God said to him "in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." To return to dust is to return to the amorphous state of things before God formed man's body mere dust scattered like powder before a breeze. The dust came from the ground and it is to the ground man's body returns. So the first man Adam and his descendants are of the earth earthy. But we must go back further than the ground to determine man's origin. The ground was the dry land which came out of the seas on the third day. The earth is also the reservoir of the deep, on the face of which is darkness.
We can now summarize the origin of man and woman. The woman came out of the man. The man came out of the dust, which came out of the ground, which came out of the deep and the darkness. The deep speaks of the human heart in its natural state filled with darkness and alienated from God by the fall, as Paul tells us. That is the origin of the first man Adam, the man of dust. Man's sin seemed to have defeated God's purpose in creating him. Man's prospects seemed hopeless.
What is hidden in the creation story however, is that God had a new Man in mind to replace the man of dust. (1) That is why the underlying spiritual teaching of Gen. 1 is the typical history of another Man, the Lord Jesus Christ the Last Adam, the Man of glory. Also included is the story of the believer's transfer from the headship of Adam the man of dust to the headship of Christ the Man of glory.
The Last and Glorious Man—the Story of How the First Three Days of Gen. 1 Reveal the Birth, Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ
The first three days of Gen. 1 Correspond morally to three New Testament truths first the birth of the Son of the Highest into this world secondly the division of the people among whom He moved because of His life and teachings and thirdly His death and resurrection. These three truths, in the order listed, correspond to a matching day of the first three days in Gen. 1. Both these truths and the days in Gen. 1 are tied together by the divine light of Christ as Creator and Redeemer. The key of knowledge is understanding that the divine light of days one, two, and three of the Genesis record, and not the sun, was the light of the world, just as Christ was the Light of the world when He was personally present in it.
a. Two views of the first day: In a spiritual sense the first day may be looked at in two ways. Its primary meaning is the entrance of Christ into a world of darkness in other words His birth and early life up to the point His public ministry began. But there is a derivative sense to the first day, for it may also be looked at as a picture of a believer turning from darkness to light at his conversion.
.. Day one viewed as the birth and early life of Christ: The birth of Christ is inferred as Genesis opens when God said "let there be light and there was light." The counterpart of this is found in the scenes in the New Testament anticipating the Lord's birth or telling us about it.
In Luke 1:78, 79 Zacharias, the father of John, recognizes the coming of the Light into the world. His son John should be His prophet. He spoke of "the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." Then when Jesus' parents brought Him into the Temple, Simeon spoke of Him in Luke 2:32 as "a light to lighten the Gentiles." So the birth of Christ was the entrance of Light into the world of both Jews and Gentiles the true light, "which coming into the world lightens every man" where before all was darkness. God Himself who is light was present among men.
When John grew up He did indeed become the prophet of the Most High, for in John 1:4 9 we read "in Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. The true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man." But this raises the question why God should send a man to tell the people that the light is shining. Alas only God saw the light that it was good in Gen. 1, and in John 1. But God shares with us a few rare glimpses of the shining of the Light in the early life of Christ in the gospels.
When Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan, God's thoughts reverted to Gen. 1 John sees the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and abiding on Jesus. In Gen. 1 The Spirit did not land on the watery waste but here He alights on Jesus, to whom John bears witness that He is the Son of God. He is the Great Light of Gen. 1 Come down to the watery waste of this world, for as soon as the Spirit of God came down in Gen 1 God said "let there be light.”
.. Day one as a picture of the new birth of a believer: It takes light to expose what is hidden in the darkness. Who would know that the world of old had been ruined until God said "let there be light." Then it was evident. It is the same really with the human heart as Psa. 119:130 tells us "the entrance of Thy words gives light it gives understanding to the simple." Paul draws on this in 1 Cor. 4:5 when he tells us that the Lord is going to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts. Then he writes another letter to the Corinthians on this subject. In 2 Cor. 4:6 he says "because it is God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine, who has shone in our hearts, for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." How darkened the human heart is! Normally we expect darkness at the bottom of the deep, not at its face, or surface. That darkness was so great that God had to tell men that the light was shining. On the face of the deep there was darkness in the face of Jesus Christ there is light. That light is the knowledge of the glory of God. It was the will of God that He should find all His glory in a man, and that man the Man of His eternal counsels, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the "shining forth" meaning that God could not contain these thoughts He must share them with others. They must shine out, first on earth, then in heaven, until the entire universe is filled with the light of His glory.
The entrance of divine light into the heart marks a new beginning in man. Day one to the believer is when he accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. On day one he can thank the Father who, as Col. 1:12, 13 tells us, "has made us fit for sharing the portion of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the authority of darkness." This means that, just as in Gen. 1 There is both light and darkness light where Christ is accepted darkness where He is rejected. 1 John 2:8 tells us that "the darkness is passing and the true light already shines.”
b. The second day and the Second Man: In 1 Cor. 15:47 Paul contrasts two men the first man out of earth made of dust, meaning the man of Gen. 1:2 who is without form and void, and the Second Man, the Lord out of heaven, our subject here. This Second Man, this Man of the second day, is the Man of heavenly blue. Because of this His life and ministry on the earth is divisive and physical division is the great mark of the second day. The Person of Christ divided men when He was in the world, and still does.
.. Intimations in Gen. 1 of how the Man of the second day would divide men and confirmation of this in John's gospel: In the Genesis account of creation the divine light of day one still illuminates the watery world of day two. God did all His works from the waters in the first three days. The reason is the seas in Scripture depict man's fallen state in different ways the wicked, the nations, trouble, restlessness and so on. God attracts some of this water heavenward on day two, leaving the waters below in their state of ruin.
To apply this division of the waters on day two morally, consider John the Baptist's witness. Pharisee priests and Levites were sent from Jerusalem to question John. They hear his witness to Christ but return to Jerusalem unaffected by it. They are representative of the rejection of Christ's Person in the historical record of all the gospels as well as His teaching, His miracles in fact everything. They are the waters of Gen. 1 which remain where they are in a state of ruin. But God has spoken the waters must be divided. Two of John's disciples hear him say "behold the Lamb of God" and they follow Jesus. They are the waters removed from the waste below their natural lost ruined condition and attracted heavenward to follow the Heavenly Man.
So day two ends in division some for Christ, those who have responded to the heavenly calling and some against Him those who chose to remain in the ruin of their fallen condition. At the same time the great light of day one is shining on day two. The world has no other light than The Dayspring on High who visited His people. God's dear children have been separated from the watery waste and attracted to the heavenly atmosphere of Christ. They are children of the day, having believed on the True Light which now shines.
.. How the Person of Christ, the Man of the second day, continues to divide men at the present time: God wants us to know that the rejection of Christ was not merely an historical thing i.e. restricted to the time He was on earth but an ongoing thing. He gives us an insight into how the Person of Christ divides men in the Lord's two questions to His disciples. His first question was "whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" They replied that men were not agreed but in general terms thought of Him as a prophet. That is how unbelievers think of Christ today. Many of these Christ rejecters are in pulpits, and make no distinction between the Lord and the ranking religious teachers of all ages. They are blind not seeing the sun. Then there are His outright enemies, who in their secret hearts hate Him because His teachings expose their evil deeds. Looking past this barricade of rejection the Lord asked His disciples a second question "but whom say ye that I am?" Peter was given a revelation from the Father and replied "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Matt. 16:16. When we accept Christ as Savior the new birth separates us from those who have not been born again. "Ye are either for Me or against Me" Jesus said. It was God who divided the waters on day two, and it is the voice of Jesus calling us which removes us from the desolate waste of our former ruined condition and draws us heavenward.
The revelation of the Second Man as the Son of the Living God prepares the way for the third day. In what way? Well the Man of the second day has replaced the man we began with the man of dust. His Person has been revealed as Son of God. Once the excellency of His Person has been established, the way is opened for His redemptive work. This work is intimated on the third day of Gen. 1. To have a people God's Son must die for their sins and be raised on the third day.
c. The third day the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and the blessing flowing out of it:
The third day conveys two thoughts to us first Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, with fruit bearing because of it, and secondly the blessing accruing to believers because of His finished work.
.. The cross and the resurrection: On day three God said "let the waters under the heaven be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear." The one place to which the waters were gathered together is the cross foreshadowed in these words. We find the same thought in Psa. 69:1, 2 "save Me, O God, for the waters have come in to My soul I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me." Like the land buried under the seas Christ died and was buried, but like the land He too rose on the third day. That is where the command "let the dry land appear" becomes significant, for Scripture never uses words carelessly. In the resurrection scenes of the Lord Jesus the word appeared is prominent. It links the resurrection of Christ on the third day with the appearing of the dry land on the third day c.f.— Mark 16:9, 12, 14 and Luke 24:34. God is not content with raising the earth it must be seen.
.. Memorials of what Christ was in the flowers and fruits of the third day: God saw His work of raising the land from the waters and pronounced it good. He then proceeded to crown His work on the land by clothing it with vegetation. Then He said once more that this too was good before closing off His work of the third day. Now what do we learn from this?
Because the flower of the field is the end of the third day's work, this subject is interwoven throughout Scripture. Touching on a few examples, as memory recalls them, we can think of the Rose of Sharon, which speaks of the beauty and fragrance of Christ, and the lily of the valley which is Christ as the lowly dependent Man. He grew up before the Father as Isa. 53:2 tells us "like a tender plant" the plant of the Father's planting "and as a root out of dry ground" the dry ground was Israel who saw no beauty in Jesus that they should desire Him. And it is the Lord Himself who retraces God's ways with seed c.f. Gen. 1:29 an oblique throwback to the third day. In John 12:24 He says "except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone but if it die it brings forth much fruit." Jesus was the True Corn of Wheat, the fruit of that heavenly land, and we are the Wheatfield. Even Israel, which presently rejects Him, will eventually be re-gathered. The Golden Lampstand in God's House is a figure of this, for it sheds its light on the twelve loaves on the Table of Showbread, representing an Israel which has forgotten the Lord, but which has not been forgotten by Him. That lampstand has captured in gold the death and resurrection of Christ in the budding, flowering and fruiting of the almond tree. When the Church period ends Israel will return to the Lord, and this witness will no longer be needed. But now let us leave God's House with its golden flowering almond tree, and walk out to the fields. There we find a different witness, for the Lord Himself reminds us, from the fields, of His coming splendor and worldly glory as the True Solomon, the King of Peace, who will reign over this world for 1000 years. His words in Matt. 6:28, 29 capture that coming glory "consider the lilies of the field how they grow they toil not neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all His glory was not arrayed like one of these." If these examples are examined carefully a common thought emerges they are all memorials of the beauty and fruitfulness of Christ in this world treasured up before God the Father. They are also reminders to us of the preciousness of Christ. Mary of Bethany entered into this in spirit when she anointed Jesus' feet with costly perfume of spikenard. It was her tribute to His perfect walk, about to end in death. The Lord took this to the grave with Him John 12:7. He approves her act in Mark 14:9 "verily I say to you wherever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she has done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.".. Redemption ground the standing of the believer. The end of the third day's work puts the believer firmly on redemption ground for the first time. We have seen that on day one we were convicted of sin by light from God shining into our darkened hearts. Then on day two we turned to God from idols, so to speak, attracted to the Heavenly Man, and fleeing from the man of dust. But it is not good enough to be attracted to Christ. We are sinners and cannot approach God. What then? Why Christ settles the question of our sins to God's satisfaction on day three. In 1 Cor. 15:2,3 Paul explains the meaning of the dry land buried under the waters and rising the third day when he says "for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." What Scriptures? Well the first Scripture pointing to the death and resurrection of Christ is the third day of Gen. 1.
The Book of Romans gives us the point of reference for the believer's standing at the end of the third day. He is justified as an individual through the death and resurrection of Christ. Collective things come later. But spreading the fruit of redemption ground is his happy privilege as Paul points out in Col. 1:5, 6 "the gospel, which has come to you as it is in all the world, and brings forth fruit.”
The Last Three Days— the Ascension of Christ Followed by the Testimony of Christianity
The subject of the first three days of Gen. 1 morally speaking is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We have seen how this is clearly mirrored in the gospels particularly John's gospel.
The subject of the last three days of Gen. 1 again speaking morally is the ascended Christ, His Church, those comprising it, and the conditions in the world during the Church period the purview of the New Testament epistles and the Acts of the Apostles. This explains a fact long known to students of Gen. 1 without a real understanding of why it should be that each of the first three days has a corresponding day in the last three days to which something is added. The explanation is that the subject of the first three days is the entire scope of Christ's life on earth, which calls for God's assessment of it, and reward. Consequently the subject of the last three days is Christ's ascension, the Church which is the reward of the cross, and the pathway of the Church through this world. What has God wrought then what has He added to Christ for His sufferings? That is the subject of the last three days, making it clear that the death and resurrection of Christ the culmination of the first three days is the solid bedrock on which God has added His own building the Church, whose Head is the ascended Christ.
a. The fourth day the solar system in moral format: The key to understanding Gen. 1 from the standpoint of both the creation record and its underlying moral teaching is what happened on the fourth day. In the Genesis record of creation the solar system is not pointed out to us in such a way that we can identify it until the fourth day. Why is that? A brief review of how God has enlightened His creation in the past will answer our question.
The opening statement of the Bible "in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" includes the creation of the solar system, since it is part of the universe the subject of the first verse. But when we come to the second verse the world is in darkness. This tells us that the solar system was malfunctioning without going into details and we have learned that this triggered the ice age. Because of this God substituted divine light for natural light with His fiat "let there be light." For three days the Great Light of day one shone, but on the fourth day it was replaced by the light of the sun and moon, as God restored the solar system to its former function. We will now consider the spiritual teaching underlying these events.
.. Christ as the sun the Great Light of the heavens:Since we know that all things were created to mirror the glory of the Great Light, the shining of the divine light which persisted for three Genesis days has its counterpart in Christ as the light which shone for the three moral days of His life on earth. Day one was His birth and early life day two His ministry as we read of it in Matt. 4:15, 16 "the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephthalim by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who sat in darkness saw great light and to those who sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." However the effect of this precious day two ministry was to divide man from man. Those who loved the Savior are symbolized by the waters above the expanse i.e. the clouds of heaven, always in Scripture speaking of the divine presence. They left behind the waters below and followed the Heavenly Man. But the waters below were not moved by Christ's ministry. They are symbolized by the restless seas under the influence of the power of darkness. These are His enemies, who succeed in putting out the light of the world. On day three then, as the Lord Himself said, the Great Light can shine no more in the world "as long as I am in the world I am the light of the world." But He is no longer in the world. He told us that the Great Light which came from God would return to God in John 16:28 "I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go unto the Father." So we find the Great Light in heaven on day four pictured as the sun supreme in the heavens separated from the world but its only true source of light. This is Christ in ascension glory, exalted by the right hand of God. Even the length of the solar year confirms the Lord's words in Rev. 3:21 That He occupies the throne of God.(2)
.. The moon the Church and the stars or planets picturing individual believers: In our studies about God which introduced this book we saw that He symbolizes Himself throughout Scripture as a circle. This is to convey two great thoughts that He must always be the center, but that He desires to be surrounded by myriads of blessed beings who know Him and love Him. This truth is central to the reconstituted solar system. Once the sun is established in its rightful place the inspired writer considers the heavenly bodies in their relationship to it.
First there is the small light the moon. It does not generate light. Instead it reflects the light of the sun to a darkened earth. So it is an apt figure of the Church. As the pillar and ground of the truth the Church does not generate light. The Church maintains the truth Christ has given it, and like the moon reflects the light of the Word of God to a darkened world. The Church is not authorized to teach, as Rome maintains, for then it would not be the moon but the sun. Christ is the Head of the Church which is His body, and raises up evangelists in it to proclaim the glad tidings to the world which is probably the primary thought here.
The stars of the fourth day are not the stars of outer space but the planets of the solar system. We know this because the stars were created in the first verse of the Bible. Here a selected and very minor part of the starry universe is made not created implying a remedial work. Morally the planets speak of individual believers, for we are the children of light as Paul remarks in Phil. 2:15 "among whom ye shine as lights in the world." The planet then is the light of individual believers witnessing for Christ in the night of His departure from us. For this reason Jesus in lowly grace, to identify Himself with His people, and cheer them with the thought of the approaching morn, calls Himself the Morning Star in Rev. 22:16 "I Jesus have sent My angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
.. The fourth day as the gateway to the proclamation of the gospel and the 1000 year earthly kingdom: By now it should be clear why the fourth beginning "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God" corresponds to the fourth day of Gen. 1. The fourth day is God reversing man's judgment on His Son. Man put out the light of the world God exalts that Light in the heavens in the picture of the sun. He does more He issues a pardon to those who put out the light of the world. This is known as the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. It is a call to man on earth from the glory to the glory with a time limit known only to God. While the gospel is proclaimed man continues to reject Christ God to honor Him. When the gospel ends all men will be forced to honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Then will come that rule of the earth from the heavens predicted in Eph. 1:10,11 "to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth in Him, in whom we have also obtained an inheritance.”
The Conclusion of God's Work on Days Five and Six
The complementary nature of God's work now becomes evident. On the last three days He adds to His work on the first three days. On day one He said "let there be light" and divine light shone on earth on day four the sun shines on earth from the heavens. On day two He divided the waters into clouds above and seas below on the fifth day He filled the clouds with birds, the sea with fish. On day three He brought the land out of the waters and clothed it with verdure on day six He set animals and man on that dry land. So on the last three days He added to His work of the first three days after the sun was in its appointed place on the fourth day. Light and life go together, and so life is the theme of days five and six.
The underlying moral teaching makes it clear why God followed this pattern in creation. The sun is set in the heavens on the fourth day the moon, figure of the Church, reflects the glorious light of the gospel to a darkened world, and the planets speak of the witness of individual believers. This is the Church period from Pentecost to the rapture. It is characterized by the three classes of 1 Cor. 10:32 the Jews typified by the land animals the Gentiles typified by the fish of the sea and the Church of God typified by the birds which soar in the heavens.
Let us now summarize the moral teaching of God's creatorial works. This is found in the New Testament. From the observation that the work of the last three days represents something added to the work of the first three days, emerges the truth that the Church is added to Christ on His ascension to glory. So days one to three are clearly the gospels days four five and six the Acts of the Apostles and Paul's epistles. This is the same as saying that the first three days are about Christ the last three days about Christ and the Church.
The Ancient of Days Ceases His Work on the Seventh Day
Ex. 31:17 tells us that "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased, and was refreshed." How varied the days of Scripture are! In John 11:9, speaking of solar days, Jesus said "are there not twelve hours in the day?" But the days in Gen. 1 began before there was a sun to measure time. Not only that but Gen. 2:4 tells us that the whole six days of creation were one day "these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." Scripture also gives the meaning of a thousand years as one day, and does so in connection with the destruction of the present heavens and earth. In 2 Peter 3:8 we read one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Could it be that Peter is teaching us that just as God created the heavens and the earth and ceased from His work on the seventh day a period which cannot be measured so the earth is predestined to last seven days which can be measured, because they last one thousand years? It is an interesting conjecture and worth testing.
The first four days in Gen. 1 can be looked at as four thousand years. They would range from the fall of man to the ascension of Christ in glory the sun of the fourth day. In those four days Adam has been replaced by Christ, who has completed the work of redemption. This leaves three more days. Of these three days, days five and six account for the Church period of roughly two thousand years. Day seven accounts for the 1000 year reign of Christ in earthly splendor.
It need hardly be added that following the 1000 year kingdom and the winding up of all things, God ushers in new heavens and a new earth. What instruction there is for us in the elastic meaning of a day in Scripture in 2 Peter 3:12, 13 where we learn that the whole of the future eternity is considered a day, just like His works in a past eternity as we have pointed out. Peter writes "looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.”