Title: 13
Author: JBG
Last saved by: Matthew C. Lawson
Company: Auth CO

© 2001  Joe Griffin

01-02-18-B.JSH-443 /

The Inscrutable Question: Cataclysm of Gen 1:2; 2 Pet 3:3-7; Shekinah Glory in Gen 1:1, Rev 21:23-25, 22:3-5, Isa 60:19-20
	35.	These cataclysms are described in several passages:
1.	The event that began the cataclysms is the fall of Lucifer.  The resultant ramifications are mentioned in the same passage that document the fall:
Isaiah 14:16b -	“Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms,
v. 17a -	who made the world like a wilderness?”
2.	Peter rebuts the uniformitarians of his day with a synopsis of the events in Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 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 [ uniformitarians ] 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.
3.	The curse on the universe began with a cataclysm that resulted in global earthquakes and universal flooding caused by the expulsion of the oceans’ waters over all the landmasses of the world:

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?
4.	It has been speculated by a number of theologians that these colossal geological upheavals were initiated by a catastrophic encounter a rogue heavenly body, such as a comet or asteroid that either came extremely close to the earth or actually collided with it.  We noted earlier the writings of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse on this subject and his comments are worth repeating:
Barnhouse, Donald Grey.  The Invisible War.  (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1965), 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.
Dr. Barnhouse proffers the idea that this close encounter tilted the earth’s axis causing the oceans to become dislodged from their beds, unleashing enormous waves of water across the continents that plowed up strata along the way, stacking them up into disheveled mountain ranges.
Job’s answer to Bildad in Job 9 and David’s 104^th Psalm give support to Dr. Barnhouse’s idea:
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 [ dMU / ammud / ] tremble;
The word “pillars” is ammud and refers to support pillars for a building.  It speaks metaphorically of that which supports the earth in space or the “heavens.”  That this implies the earth’s axis is given credence by David in:
Psalm 104:5 - He established the earth upon its foundations so that it will not totter forever and ever.
Dr. Barnhouse gives us the idea that the axis of the earth was caused to alter its position upon impact or influence by a close encounter with a heavenly body so that its axis both shook and trembled but ultimately settled into its present position.
The assumption from this is that should the earth rotate on a true north-south axis its weather would be perfect.  However, indications are that under present circumstances this would not be necessarily so.  Under present circumstances radiation from the sun produces great contrasts from the equatorial regions to the polar regions.  If the earth had no tilt then the sun would remain directly over the equator year round.  In all probability this would cause uniformly colder polar regions and uniformly hotter equatorial regions where temperatures could average as much as 150°F.  Where these air masses met somewhere near the middle of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres the resultant weather would be far more violent than we know it today.  This is hardly “perfect weather” for habitation by life as we know it.
Although this assumption is quite likely true it is not applicable to Genesis 1:1.  In our study we have established that the universe at its creation was perfect.  The light that illuminated and heated the earth was not provided by the sun but rather by the Shekinah Glory.  We further noted that this light is all encompassing and thus resulted in no darkness.  Our documentation references passages on the new heavens and the new earth:
Revelation 21:23 - For the city [ New Jerusalem ] had no need for the sun or the moon to shine upon it, for the Shekinah Glory has illuminated it and the Lamb is its lamp.
v. 24 - The nations [ on the new earth ] will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it.
v. 25 - And by no means shall on any day the gates be shut, for there shall be no night there.
Revelation 22:3 - There shall no longer be any curse.  Furthermore, the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it [ New Jerusalem ] and His servants [ the elect, both angelic and human ] shall serve Him.
v. 4 - They shall both see His face and His royal title shall be on their foreheads.
v. 5 - There shall no longer be night.  Furthermore, they do not have need of the light of a lamp or the light of the sun because the Lord God [ Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory ] will give them light and they shall reign forever and ever.
Comments on these two verses by Dr. Wilber M. Smith were very helpful to our conclusion:
Smith, Wilber M.  “Revelation.”  In The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, edited by Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison.  (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962, 1990), 1523:
Revelation 21:22-23.  John proceeds to tell us that the city has no temple within, and that it is so brilliantly illuminated by the glory of God [the Shekinah Glory of Jesus Christ] that it has no need of the light of the sun or moon, though they will still be shining.  Our text does not say that there will not be any sun or moon in eternity, but that we will not need the light of the sun and moon, for the very glory of God will illuminate the city.  … we do need the sun and moon in our present state of existence, but will need them no more when in the presence of God, who is light indeed.
Revelation 22:3-5.  (There is) no curse on man, nor on the earth where he lives, nor in the city of his habitation—Christ has removed the curse and all the consequences of it.  Here are two final eliminations of things that have troubled and burdened man: the removal of all curse, and the elimination of night forever.
By observing the circumstances found in the perfect environment of the eternal state we conclude that similar circumstances were present at the origin of the universe.  Darkness did not intrude into the earthly experience until the fall of Lucifer.
Further, we are able also to demonstrate from the rhythm of the universe that when perfection is created or restored, the Shekinah Glory is present as a source of light upon the earth.  The Second Advent is another example and Isaiah gives us the documentation in:
Isaiah 60:19 - “No longer will Jerusalem have the sun for light by day nor for brightness will the moon give you light; but you will have the Lord for an everlasting light and your God for your glory.
v. 20 - “Your sun will set no more, neither will your moon wane; for you have the Lord for an everlasting light and the days of your mourning will be finished.”
Since it cannot be verified absolutely from Scripture, I instead, based on these three passages, present the following supposition in answer to the question: “What was the light source that illuminated and heated the earth from the point of creation up to the point of Lucifer’s sin?”
Answer: Based on events that are documented in Genesis 1:3-13 with reference to the first three days of restoration, Isaiah 60:19-20 with reference to the Second Advent and millennial reign of Christ, and Revelation 21:23-25 and 22:3-5 that describe the new heavens and the new earth in the eternal state, I submit that the earth was illuminated and heated prior to the fall of Lucifer by the Shekinah Glory and the sun was not a factor.
The sun and stars as light-bearing bodies and the moon and planets a light-reflecting bodies were a part of original creation, but the light that emitted from each was overwhelmed by the brightness of the Shekinah Glory.
The light of the Shekinah Glory encapsulated the earth and provided perfect environment for the planet on which the angels were privileged to enjoy periods of rest and recreation.
Also present was lush vegetation and a population that consisted of prehistoric animals that included the giant reptiles Dinosauria, the terrible lizards.  These life forms were casualties in the colossal upheaval that was transpiring, a tumult that was brought to a sudden halt by the removal of all light from the universe.
The geologists have discovered in the geologic record where disappearance of the dinosaurs occurred, a subject discussed by the Encyclopaedia Britannica which provides some very interesting observations for our study:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15^th ed., s.v. “dinosaur”:
Dinosaur, a term popularly used for the members of a great series of reptiles that were the dominant land animals during most of the Mesozoic Era, the age of the reptiles, but became extinct at its close.
The term, derived from the Greek, meaning “terrible lizard,” refers to the gigantic proportions of these beasts, some of them the largest animals that ever walked the Earth.
Dinosaurs first appeared in the latter third of the latter Triassic [Period] (the first of three periods in the Mesozoic Era) and are common in red-rock deposits of that age in Europe, North America, western China, and South America.  For most of the following Jurassic Period the sediments are dominantly marine, the dinosaur remains are consequently rare.
Most types of dinosaurs continued to flourish until the very latest phases of the Cretaceous Period (the third and last period of the Mesozoic Era).  Then they disappear completely from the geologic record.  The Cenozoic Era, which appears to follow closely in time, show not the slightest trace of a dinosaur.  What caused this sudden extinction?  The answer is not at all clear.  There is no really satisfactory explanation for the sudden and complete extinction of the most spectacular animal fauna the Earth has ever known.
5.	Caught up in the vortex of the raging catastrophe, all fauna and flora were buried in the strata being swept along by the hydrodynamics of the global flood.  At the height of its engulfment of the earth, the light of the Shekinah Glory was suddenly removed and the light from the luminaries was turned off:
Genesis 1:2a -	But the earth became desolate [ destruction of the animal life ] and empty [ destruction of  plant life ] and darkness …
	Evj hoshek - “darkness; gloom; blackness”
Botterwick, G. Johannes and Helmer Ringgren.  Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament.  Trans. David E. Green, vol. 5 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986), 248:
Darkness and Creation.  Any theological discussion of the concept of darkness must begin with Genesis 1, where verse 2 presumes darkness to be one of the constitutive elements of chaos. Although … it is not a part of God’s creation, it is more than the absence of light.  It possesses a quality of its own that unmitigated makes it inimical to life.  Therefore something must be done with it before the earth can be habitable.
Jeremiah adds further details to the advent of darkness upon the universe: 
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.
Note that the word “heavens” is in the plural while the word “light” is in the singular.  Thus, all light, whether from the Shekinah Glory or the luminaries throughout the universe, has been removed.  Job adds to this when he comments in:
Job 9:7 - God commands the sun not to shine and sets a seal upon the stars.
Later on in the discourse, the Lord Himself addresses Job on the details of Genesis 1:2 and 1:2:
Job 38:4 - [ Review of original creation, Genesis 1:1 ] “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Tell Me, if you have understanding,
v. 5 - Who set its measurements since you know?  Or Who stretched the line on it?
v. 6 - “On what were its bases sunk?  Or Who laid its cornerstone,
v. 7 - when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
This is a nineteenth-century b.c. version of astronomy, cosmology, geology, and orbital mechanics.  This is also the verse that documents that the angels predated the universe as they are said to have all sung together and shouted for joy at its creation.
Job 38:8 - [ Review of judgment, Genesis 1:2 ] “Or Who enclosed the sea with doors, when, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
v. 9 - when I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band [ hLtj chathulah ]
v. 10 - and I placed boundaries on it and I set a bolt and doors,
v. 11 - and I said, ‘Thus far you shall come but no farther and here shall your proud waves stop’”?
Following the fall of Lucifer the curse the Lord placed on the universe included a total shut down of light and heat.  The result of the absence of light is described by:
Thieme, R. B., Jr.  Creation, Chaos, & Restoration.  3d ed.  (Houston: R. B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 1995), 11:
God’s judgment extinguished the lights in the universe, the arena of the angelic conflict.  An absence of light means an absence of heat.  Without heat the waters covering the earth were frozen.
“Darkness” and “deep” connote sinister events throughout Holy Writ.  Darkness [ Evj  hoshek ] is often a metaphor for evil and spiritual darkness.  The Hebrew word translated “deep” [ <ohT tehom ], was symbolic of chaos and death.  Together with tohu and bohu these words paint a scene of malevolent destruction.
Psalm 104:6 - You did cover the earth with the deep [ <ohT tehom ] as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains.
The word “deep” is tehom, and is best translated, “raging waters.”  Thus, when total darkness hit, these waters were frozen in place.
This is the biblical documentation of the Pleistocene Epoch’s “Ice Age,” which finds the dinosaurs and plant life buried underneath an ice pack thousands of feet thick with the planet wrapped in a swaddling band of darkness.
How long this situation lasted is unknown.  The length of the original trial of Lucifer and the fallen angels determined its duration.  Once the appeal trial was granted there arose a need for new witnesses.  God determined to create these witnesses but to make them inferior to the angels except for the issue of free will.
But first the planet had to be reformed to make it hospitable for this new species.  At the end of Genesis 1:2 we see the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit initiate the first act of restoration:
Genesis 1:2 - But the earth became desolate and empty with darkness on the face of the raging waters forming an ice pack.  But the Holy Spirit radiated inferred heat upon the waters.

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