A Hypothesis
“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)
Long, long, long ago there was an energy, there was a force, there was a power, there was a Spirit. It existed, it was there, it did not start or come into being, because it was. It was, it is, and it will ever be. It throbbed, it pulsated in the vast void called space. It looked for a reason for being, yet then, long, long, long ago that Spirit did not find an outlet for its energy, for nothing yet existed, nothing yet was formed. Yet the power within the Spirit was looking for a release of the energy that was inside itself. It needed to bring forth, it needed to love, it needed to be loved, it needed to communicate, it needed to express itself, for within this Spirit was all wisdom, all truth, all compassion and all love. In due course from within the Spirit flowed a lesser Spirit, no less powerful than the first Spirit, but subservient to the greater Spirit. The lesser Spirit had one asset that the greater Spirit was not able to express, namely the lesser Spirit was a creative Spirit, (John 1:3).The lesser Spirit called the greater Spirit “Father” (John 5:20), and the greater Spirit called the lesser Spirit “Son” (Mark 1:11). And so the time had come that one Spirit could communicate with the other Spirit, and thus the creation process was begun. From the mouth of God issued forth flaming balls of fire; and with a mighty hand He flung them throughout the universe, thus placing the stars in their orbits, and naming them all, including the Earth. (Gen 1:2). At this time also were created the myriad of myriads of angelic spirits, and in the Fathers storehouse were placed all the souls of men, whom were yet to come at a later time. Thus was completed the Heavenly Host, and the abode of God was established.
“Now the earth was without form, and void.” (Gen. 1:2). The Earth also was first created as a flaming ball of fire, just like all the stars, but the cooling breath of God blew on the Earth star, causing it to spin like a top, and thus the cooling breath and the spinning motion caused the outer layer of the Earth to solidify and form into a thin shell, much like an egg. It was in these early days of the Earth’s infancy that the Earth convulsed in volcanic eruptions and earthquakes to form the mountains and the valleys and thus were formed the dry land and the seas, for God gathered the waters together in one place (Gen. 1:9) and God caused plant life to grow upon the now dry land, the grasses and herb yielding plants and fruit bearing trees. (Gen. 1:12). It is after this stage that God, who had created light and darkness as the first, caused the Sun and Moon to become visible by lifting the vapor and clouds from off the face of the Earth, and thus sunshine appeared, which was necessary to the growth of all plant life. In Gen. 2 verses 5 and 6 we read that it had not rained upon the Earth, but that a mist went up from the ground by which all plant life were watered. It could be argued that since the Earth was still young, that the heat of its inner core radiated outward through its still thin and fragile shell, thus warming the surface of the ground, which in turn caused condensation in the form of a mist or steam when coming in contact with the cooler outside air.
But let’s get back to the narrative of Gen. 1. It was at this time, called the fifth day, that God introduced upon the Earth the dinosaurs and flying reptiles. The Bible does not mention them in so many words, but their fossils have been found in many parts of the globe. The vegetation was still very young and probably not very abundant but they fed on the grasses in the swamps and morasses that were to be found in many of the plains and valleys. Time for man had not come yet. It truly was a land before time! And thus the Earth evolved, the grasses became great plains of green, the trees, first in the valleys and subsequently on the mountains became great forests, all in preparation for the introduction of more of the common animals known today and for mankind. The dinosaurs had their time, but they had to disappear before man could be introduced, for the two could not dwell on this earth together. The dinosaurs were created able to live in a convulsing world, whereas man would need a more stable environment. Our God had His plan and He followed it to the letter, and man would come in the last stage or last age of the creation process, when the earth was ready for man to take dominion.
And so the time had come for living creatures. (Gen 1:24) Were there human beings before Adam, some say yes. Nevertheless, in verse 26 God said, let us make man in our image, and He, God, wanted man to have dominion over all the other creatures. I suppose it is possible that living creatures of verse 24 are the same as man in verse 26; namely people who predated Adam. We shall just have to wait and see.
Nevertheless, the creation process was completed. It took the Lord six days, or six ages to complete, and the Lord rested the seventh day. The length of a day in this case isn’t mentioned in Scripture except to say that to the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years are like one day. (2Pet. 3:8).
Still, a further question remains. The Bible states that the Lord God rested on the seventh day. So, which God rested at that time? Was it the Supreme God of the Universe, God the Father, was it the God of creation, God the Son or was it both? It is my contention that it was only the God of creation, God the Son, the one who in the power of the Father did all work, so to speak.
As I wrote at the start, and Jesus confirmed (John 4:24), God is a Spirit. In Him and Him alone is contained all the laws of Physics, all the laws of Mathematics, all the laws of nature, etc. And as God the Father is Spirit, He has not physical nature, unlike the Son. Thus, if all things are tied up in His Spirit and flow forever from this Spirit, it stands to reason that that Spirit cannot and will not ever rest. If it did, all things in nature would stop and all the laws of the Universe would collapse and all would be chaos. All the stars would fall out of their orbits, the Sun would cease to shine; in other words, everything would fail. Therefore, the God in Heaven, God the Father never slumbers nor sleeps. It is the very law from His own Spirit that dictates that it goes on forever and ever, without ceasing. Therefore, it could only have been the Son that rested.
I titled this article “In The Beginning – A Hypothesis”. Now a hypothesis according to Webster is (1) groundwork, foundation, supposition or (2) an approved theory, tentatively accepted to explain certain facts or to provide a basis for further investigation. Whether what I wrote is true, I do not know. Is it possible? Yes! Am I limiting God? No! I wrote this so that you, our reader may look for yourselves and ponder. The Bible is true, the facts remain and speak for themselves. But the story of creation is vague, so unless we form some kind of understanding, we will never be able to understand the reasons of our God, as put forth in the rest of the Bible.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” (2Tim. 2:15)