Question about Genesis chapter 1?

Question

Genesis 1:3-5 says "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night."

But then in verse 16 it says "God made two great light-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars."

The first day God made light, but on the fourth day God made the sun and the moon.
Well, what was the light on the first day?

Answer 1

He spoke light in to the darkness. When He created the sun and moon later, it was to be His tool for providing it for us. He is Light. He simply made a difference in light and day in the beginning to define a day (24 hour period) for man, and then left a temporary source.
To the person saying Genesis states He created man twice, you really need to re-read it. It doesn't say that at all except to those who merely glance for an inconsistency that is not there. Moses simply wrote about it again in a different context!

Answer 2

What you point out is how God could make a young universe look old. He put the light in it's place. Then He placed the stars behind the light.

Picture the stream of light from a star a million light years away. If He had made the star first, and allowed the star to produce the light, we on earth would not get to see the star until it had existed a million years. Instead, we can see a star, which is physically positioned a million light years away that was created less than ten thousand years ago! Pretty neat, huh?

Answer 3

Okay, taking this from an Old Earth creationist standpoint . . .

If you were an observer standing where the earth would someday be and watched the Big Bang unfold around you, then the Genesis 1 description is pretty much spot-on.

As the earth was formed there would have been a large cloud of dust in the atmosphere. Even though it would and did support life (plant life) the cloud was thick enough that you would not have been able to see the source of the light. It wouldn't be until after the dust settled that you could see the cosmic bodies.

(Also, light would have been the first thing to appear after the Big Bang - well, after time made it onto the scene.)

Hope this helps

Answer 4

3 lnes of thought:

1) there was so much volcanic steam and smoke, that to an observer on earth, no sun or moon was visible

2) The Earth's core is HOT and the glow may have come from the Earth more than be dependant on the Sun

3) Genesis is a collection of stories passed form father to son for generation before Moses finally wrote them down. Two stories may have been for creation Gen 1 and Gen 2-4. Some needed to be taken in the spirit of the word and not literally

which is right? ... toss a 3 sided coin

Answer 5

Your frame of reference is wrong. The writers of Genesis 1 were explaining how orderly the process of creation went: Light, Sky, Earth, then Sun, Birds, Animals. The Sun and Moon lived above the sky, but only in their proper places. You never see the Sun hanging around at night, do you? It knows better! (The Moon is not as well behaved, but God is probably working on that.)

It's simple if you have the right preconceptions.

Answer 6

well God created the Light but notice when that created the sun to govern the earth in the morning and the moon over the night!! but the light does not come from the sun and the moon only! the sky has different sources.

Answer 7

1:3-5 On the first day God commanded light to shine out of darkness and established the Day and Night cycle. This act is not to be confused with the establishment of the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day. In 2Co_4:6 the Apostle Paul draws a parallel between the original separation of light from darkness and the conversion of a sinner.

1:6-8 Prior to the second day, it seems that the earth was completely surrounded by a thick layer of water, perhaps in the form of a heavy vapor. On the second day God divided this layer, part covering the earth with water and part forming clouds, with the atmospheric layers (firmament or "dome") between. God called the firmament Heaven—that is, the expanse of space immediately above the earth (not the stellar heavens, nor the third heaven, where God dwells). Verse 20 makes it clear that the heaven here is the sphere where the birds fly.

1:9-13 Then God caused the dry land to appear out of the waters that covered the face of the planet. Thus were born the Earth and the Seas. Also on the third day He caused vegetation and trees of all kinds to spring up in the earth.

1:14-19 It was not until the fourth day that the Lord set the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens as lightbearers and as means for establishing a calendar.

1:20-23 The fifth day saw the waters stocked with fish and the earth stocked with bird-life and insects. The word translated birds means "flying ones" and includes bats and probably flying insects.

1:24, 25 On the sixth day God first created animals and reptiles. The law of reproduction is repeatedly given in the words according to its kind. There are significant variations within "kinds" of biological life, but there is no passing from one kind to another.

1:26-28 The crown of God's work was the creation of man in His image and according to His likeness. This means that man was placed on earth as God's representative, and that He resembles God in certain ways. Just as God is a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), so man is a tripartite being (spirit, soul, and body). Like God, man has intellect, a moral nature, the power to communicate with others, and an emotional nature that transcends instinct. There is no thought of physical likeness here. In contrast to animals, man is a worshiper, an articulate communicator, and a creator.
There is an allowance for or even an intimation of the Trinity in verse 26: Then God [Elohim, plural] said [singular verb in Hebrew], "Let Us [plural] make man in Our image . . . ."
The Bible describes the origin of the sexes as a creative act of God. Evolution has never been able to explain how the sexes began. Humanity was commanded to be fruitful and multiply.

God gave man a mandate to subdue creation and have dominion over it—to use it but not abuse it. The modern crises in the earth's environment are due to man's greed, selfishness, and carelessness.

1:29, 30 It is clear from these verses that animals were originally herbivorous and that man was vegetarian. This was changed after the Flood (see Gen_9:1-7).

Were the six days of creation literal 24-hour days, or were they geological ages? Or were they days of "dramatic vision" during which the creation account was revealed to Moses?

No scientific evidence has ever refuted the concept that they were literal solar days. The expression "the evening and the morning" points to 24-hour days. Everywhere else in the OT these words mean normal days. Adam lived through the seventh day and died in his 930th year, so the seventh day could not have been a geological age. Wherever the "day" is used with a number in the OT ("first day," etc.) it means a literal day. When God commanded Israel to rest on the Sabbath day, He based the command on the fact that He had rested on the seventh day, after six days of labor (Exo_20:8-11). Consistent interpretation here requires the same meaning of the word "day."

As far as the Bible is concerned, the creation of the heavens and the earth is undated. The creation of man is undated also. However, genealogies are given, and, even allowing for possible gaps in the genealogies, man could not have been on the earth for the millions of years demanded by evolutionists.

We learn from Joh_1:1, Joh_1:14, Col_1:16, and Heb_1:2 that the Christ was the active Agent in creation. For the inexhaustible wonders of His creation, He is worthy of endless worship.

1:31 At the end of the six days of creation God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

In Chapter 2 of Genesis

2:4-6 The name LORD God (Jehovah [Yahweh] Elohim) appears for the first time in verse 4, but only after the creation of man (Gen_1:27). As Elohim, God is the Creator. As Jehovah, He is in covenant relation with man. Failing to see this, some Bible critics have concluded that these different names for God can only be explained by a change in authorship.

This is the history (v. 4) refers to the beginnings described in chapter 1. Verse 5, which reads, "before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown," describes conditions on the earth in Gen_1:10, when the dry land appeared but before vegetation appeared. The earth was watered by a mist rather than by rain.

2:7 A fuller account of the creation of man is now given. God formed his body from the dust of the ground, but only the impartation of the breath of God made him a living being. Adam ("red" or "ground") was named after the red earth from which he was made.

Answer 8

Maybe light and dark were good and evil. He refers to day and night in those terms in another place in the Bible. He talks about how the night is where bad things happen. We all know that bad takes place day and night, so night could be a symbolic term for evil.

Answer 9

Light of Spirit (spiritual light), of which you and the rest of the Universe is made.
He then started differentiating it like white light through a spectrum into all the parts of the universe.

Answer 10

Getting my bible be right back...

He divided Day and Night on the Fourth Day...

That means that he made light on the first day, and made Night, but he divided the two on the fourth day