Did God create the Earth from nothing in Genesis, or was it renewed/ replenished?

Question

My father once mentioned a theory that the Earth was in fact "renewed" or "replenished" as it is told in Genesis 1:1, siting that the original Hebrew word that was translated "created" actually meant "renewed" in the original text. It also states that the spirit of God moved across the face of waters and the earth was without form and void. Was the earth a watery void before God renewed it in Genesis 1:1? That would seem to explain certain things, like why we can see starlight that has traveled more than 6000 lightyears. (If the universe is only about 6000 years old, then we shouldn't be able to see stars that are any further away than that.)

Answer 1

Yes, God did create the Earth from nothing in Genesis.

Answer 2

While God certainly created the earth and everything else from nothing, it's not at all certain that Genesis is speaking precisely of the earth's original creation.

An analysis of the original languages holds out the possibility that the earth was void and without form due to a prior event (possibly the fall of the angels and Satan's rebellion) which wrecked it, and made it uninhabitable.

If this is true, than in Genesis, God is speaking about the re-creation of the heavens and the earth .... a new beginning.

Answer 3

The Earth may have been undeveloped, in much the same way a piece of property is undeveloped, for an untold period of time before God decided to make it habitable for humans. The verse of the Earth being formless and covered in water is a good, simple explanation for a creation that would know no other Earth than the one we know now.

Answer 4

“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.” – GOD, Job 38:4.

This quote from God himself, talking to Job, reminds us that God (in his triune essence) was the only one who was prior to his creation. He has given us in the Word all we need to know concerning the masterpiece of his creation (Earth, Heaven, sun, moon, stars, “and all that in them is”. Since he was the only one “here”, he is the only one qualified to tell us how it was done. There is no room for man made theories that don’t fit the Biblical framework. The Bible (The Lord) must speak for itself. Unquestionably we have only been given a small part of the all that occurred in the first few chapters of Genesis. On some issues the Bible does not give us exact details and there is speculation required. A popular example is “where did Cain get his wife?” The least speculative answer would be he married a sister, or possibly a niece. This fits the Biblical framework with the least amount of issues that cause some to deviate from the inerrancy issue. As for the issue of alleged incest, we have to assume that at first it would be unavoidable. The law against it was not given until many centuries later when God gave Moses the law. Abraham for example, although he did not marry his sister, married a close relative (half-sister). The gene pool at first would have been pure and not yet prone to mutations that are the general result now a days of marrying to close a relative. Back to the issue of limited details; the first six chapters alone cover approximately 1656 years. Genesis in its entirety covers more time than all the rest of the Bible up through Revelation. The important and necessary details are there however. Furthermore, both the old and new testaments refer to Genesis on several occasions to verify its authenticity and fill in some additional details.

The entire universe and all that is in it (sun, moon, stars, planets, Earth, angels (Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them) - including Lucifer who later became Satan- the adversary or the “Devil”, animals- including what we now call dinosaurs, and Adam and Eve) were all created by the Word of God during the 6 days of creation mentioned in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Also see Exodus 20:11, and John 1:1-3. God did all of his creative work by the power of his Word. Job 37:5 God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend. The 6 “days” (Hebrew-yom) of creation mentioned in Genesis were literal solar days and not long periods of time (as some have suggested). Furthermore there was no “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 as some have suggested. This would put the date of creation at approx. 6000 years ago assuming no ‘gaps’ in the genealogies given in the Bible (which I believe there to be none). Even if we allow for ‘gaps’ the maximum possible time frame would be perhaps 10,000 years; far to little to support the millions and billions theorized by some. This is the clear straightforward reading of the Word. One does not get the idea of millions or billions of years from the Word. These ideas are extra-Biblical in origin. We MUST grant the Holy Spirit the honor of being more learned than we are (quote unknown) and take God at His Word when He told us how He made everything. Modern man, usually out of fear of non-conformity or academic peer pressure will invent all manors of alternative theories to discount a literal 6 day recent creation. Whether one suggest uniformitarianism (billions of years of gradual processes), punctuated equilibrium (billions of years of ‘leaps’), “day-age”, “gap”, progressive creationism, theistic evolution, or out and out atheistic evolutionary theories, they all ultimately exalt man’s wisdom, and downgrade the purity of God’s perfect Word. God’s world, as He created it originally was perfect; or to use God’s own words, it was “very good”. Death, struggle for life, i.e. animals and people preying upon one another is NOT the picture one gets reading the Biblical account of creation, and the Edenic pre-sin world. These aforementioned are all repercussions of Adam and Eve’s sin. More on this will be discussed later. The answer is quite simple. The fossil record indicates death, struggle, sickness, and catastrophe. That being the case, since the Word is clear in that no death took place before Adam sinned, and since Adam was the first man, the fossil record cannot be millions or billions of years old. To believe this one MUST say that the Bible is in error when it says that no death occurred before sin entered into the world through Adam. Romans 5:12 -- Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.

Answer 5

I don't know about the timing in the bible because they say one day in heaven is 1000 days on earth. You do the math. According to Christians the bible says 3=1 so it is beyond me!