The Inscrutable Question: Biblical Documentation of Catastrophic Events in Genesis 1:2 — 2 Pet 3:3-7; Jere 4:23-24; Psm 114:4-5; Job 9:5-8
	30.	Well, all this is old hat.  These very same ideas were prevalent when the Apostle Peter wrote in:
2 Peter 3:3 -	Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,
v. 4 -	and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep [ the deaths of the Israelite patriarchs, i.e., Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses ], all continues just as it was from the beginning [ uniformitarianism ] of creation [ kt…sij ktisis: Greek for the Hebrew arB bara ].”
v. 5 -	For when they [ James Hutton, Charles Lyell, et el. ] maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the universe existed long ago [ Genesis 1:1 ] and the earth was formed so that it was out of water [ land masses ] and by water [ the oceans ],
v. 6 -	through which water the world at that time was destroyed [ Genesis 1:2 ], being flooded with water [ WhT tohu  wbhW wabohu: desolate and empty ].
v. 7 -		By this same Word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment [ end of time ] and destruction of ungodly men.
	31.	A couple of notes on this commentary.  First, the noun used to identify the creative act under discussion is found in verse 4: kt…sij ktisis, which is the Greek for the Hebrew arB bara, “to create all things from nothing.”
	32.	Secondly, the phrase at the end of verse 5 is very difficult to translate.  Here is how it appears in the major English translations:
	The NASV and NIV: 	“was formed out of water and by water.”
	The KJV:	 “standing out of the water and in the water.”
	33.	The verb “formed” or “standing” is the perfect active participle of:
sun…sthmi sunistemi -	“to bring together; unite; collect in its gathering places; bring out; exist”
	34.	This verse does not mean that when the original creation occurred that the Lord used water as a sculpting tool to fashion the surface of the earth.
	35.	Instead we have a description of the earth’s surface prior to the destruction that occurs in Genesis 1:2.  I have support in this conclusion:
Wuest, Kenneth S.  “In These Last Days.”  In  Wuest’s Word Studies, vol. 2.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1954), 67:
The Greek text back of the words, “the earth standing out of the water and in the water [KJV]” is most difficult.  The word “standing” is sunistemi, “to place with something else”, thus, “to set or place together, to stand with or near.”  It refers to the juxtaposition of the things, one next to the other.  Thus, the thought of Peter is that the land and water on the perfect earth of Genesis 1:1 were in juxtaposition.
After quoting 2 Peter 3:5-7, Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse draws a distinction between the earth mentioned in verse 6 and that mentioned in verse 7:
Barnhouse, The Invisible War, 53:
Note carefully the distinction between the two worlds: “the world at that time” in verse 6 and “the present heavens and earth [NASV]” in verse 7.  We put aside the superficial interpretation that the destruction mentioned in verse six refers to the time of the flood.  The world did not perish then, but it did in the cataclysm of the earlier judgment.
		And, finally, in a footnote regarding our passage in:
Friedrich, Gerhard,  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.  Trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, vol. 5.  (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1967), 514-15n:
2 Peter 3:5: The emphasis here is on … the creation of heaven and earth by the Word of the Creator in terms of Genesis 1.  There is no emphasis on water as the original cosmogonic material; the reference here is to the primal sea of Genesis 1:2.
36.	Now let’s go back over 2 Peter 3:4-7 and note the sequence of events that transpires:
1)	In verse 4 we see the false assumption of the uniformitarians who claim that the laws of nature are uniform and steady without interruption by catastrophic events since the day of the creation.
2)	The word for “creation” is kt…sij ktisis and refers to ex nihilo creation.
3)	In verse 5 there is the reaffirmation that original creation is in view with the statement that the universe was brought into existence by the word of God.
4)	Also in verse 5 we learn that the result was a perfect universe without the function of entropy and the earth’s topography was so structured that there were oceans and emerging out from them were landmasses.
5)	Then in verse 6 we discover that the waters of the oceans were used to destroy the earth, completely covering its surface.
37.	With this passage and its data in mind we can now return to passages that describe this global deluge and the havoc it wrought upon the face of the earth.
38.	First of all, remember how Jeremiah described the upheaval in:
Jeremiah 4:23 -	I looked on the earth and behold it was formless and void [ WhT tohu wbhW wabohu ], and I looked to the heavens and they had no light.
v. 24 -	I looked on the mountains and behold they were quaking and all the hills moved to and fro.
39.	The judgment upon the earth included an earthquake.  But this was no ordinary earthquake centered on a single fault line.  This was global.
40.	Apparently a sequence of events took place throughout the universe over a very short period of time.   And the first thing on the Lord’s agenda was the imposition of the second law of thermodynamics which brought immediate disorder into the universe.  One legitimate hypothesis of what triggered the shut down of Planet Earth is presented by:
Barnhouse, The Invisible War, 56:
[Edmond] Halley, the great astronomer, most popularly known today by the comet which bears his name, was much interested in the effect that such a celestial body might have upon this earth if it came very close to it.  One of his recorded observations is significant in this connection.  He noted that the North Pole is a few degrees away from true north, and that our earth does not move around the sun in an orbit where its mass is constant in the vertical plane of its axis.  Our change of seasons is based on this fact.  At the equinoxes [vernal: 9/22/00; autumnal: 3/20/01] the earth is in the vertical position, but as the months go on it tilts, now to the north, now to the south, in its regular motion.  Halley wondered if the earth had once been in the vertical position, and if a comet might have pulled it slightly from its original position.  He wondered, further, what the effect of such a tilting would have been.  So he set himself to calculate the volume, mass and weight of the oceans of the world, and drew the conclusion that such a change of balance in the spinning globe would have pulled the seas from their beds and sent them whirling round the earth, picking up the mountain ranges and tossing them onwards with the maximum in centrifugal force, until the equilibrium of the new polar axis had become established and the world settled down with the mountains lying broken in their new positions, and the seas set in their new boundaries.
41.	Halley’s hypothesis is scientifically plausible.  The Lord did not need to utilize a rogue comet to accomplish His judgment but He may well have.
42.	Whatever the Lord used to precipitate the cataclysm, the result was a torturous demolishment of the earth’s surface which resulted in what Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah refer to as [ WhT tohu wbhW wabohu ].
43.	Here are some additional passages that document these events:
Psalm 114:4 -	The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
v. 5 -	What ails you, O sea, that you flee?  O Jordan that you turn back?
Job 9:5 -	“It is God who removes the mountains, they know not how, when He overturns them with His anger;
v. 6 -		Who shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars [ poles? ] tremble;
v. 7 -		Who commands the sun not to shine and sets a seal upon the stars [ Genesis 1:2; Jeremiah 4:23; the withdrawal of electromagnetic radiation ];
v. 8 -		Who alone stretches out the heavens and tramples down the waves of the sea.”