Doctrines and Practices of the Church
Part 8

Creation

The Church View:
      God the Father, one god, one entity, created the world, alone, in a time period lasting exactly six, twenty-four hour days. The world we know and the biosphere now existing.

The Bible View:
      Yhovah, the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, who became Jesus the Christ, created the world in six, twenty-four hour Earth days, which equates to an unspecified amount of godly time, with the help of an unknown number of other entities. It was not the first, possibly not even the second, and not the last, but the current creation.

      The least known verse relative to the creation is this:
♦  Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
      The word host is taken from 'tsaba', which literally means an army. The word them was added.  This army is spoken of almost 300 times from the creation to Armageddon with Yhovah as its supreme commander. Although it does function as a fighting army, this verse shows that combat is only one of its functions. The inclusion of the army in the final verse of creation shows that they were involved in the creation.  There is no way to get a firm total on the number of entities in this army, but there are indications that definitely put the numbers in the millions.  The first verse shows that there is an actual fleet of vehicles:
♦  Psalms 68:17  The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. 
      The vehicles of Elohiym number a myriad of thousands. The Hebrew word translated into the word twenty means “myriad”.  This second verse shows that the number of entities, by implication, is from millions to infinite:
♦  Revelation 5:11  And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
      Ten thousand = myriads.  Thousands = one thousand.
      What is apparent is that there were thousands of vehicles and millions of beings present at the creation process.  Considering that Yhovah states this was all done in a short span of human time is more understandable with a high tech fleet present.  But, is the human time span truly relevant to the entities involved?  The following verses indicate that time may have no bearing on the creation process at all.

Time of the Gods
      This verse shows that time is different, if not altogether irrelevant, to the Elohiym:
♦  Psalms 90:4  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

      Again, time is shown to be of no effect to the nature of the Elohiym:
♦  2 Peter 3:8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
      Throughout the Bible there are instances of manipulation of natural forces, from simple alteration of plant life to halting the rotation of the planet.  

Evolution and Theistic Evolution
      Evolution is society’s alternative to the creation concept.  Though based on primitive knowledge of the planet and virtually no evidence, it is surprising that the supposedly “enlightened” academic and scientific community give it any credibility at all.  Theories about theories are given high priority in our educational and cultural conditioning.  No other scientific endeavor is founded on such shaky ground and the foundations of this theory are deteriorated on almost a daily basis.  No problem for evolutionists, they just adjust the theory.
      Design without a designer, order without planning, structure without engineering is unreal. To consider that a system of such magnitude and perfection is simply the result of mind-boggling series of chaotic chance mutations is without logic.  Looking for links to a mythical chain and creating theories to bolster theories is only confusing. Trying to explain something from nothing is intellectual obsession, not high scientific process. 
      The Bible and other ancient writings that touch upon the subject say it was planned, designed, and engineered. Every aspect of the natural world proves it.  To state otherwise is gross deception, not scientific pursuit.

More Than One Creation
      In Jeremiah we find clear evidence that this biosphere is not the first complete planetary terra-forming project done on this planet:
♦  Jeremiah 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. 24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. 25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger. 27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. 28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
      If this previous creation did not include the strange collection of fauna and flora, which included dinosaurs clearly evidenced in the geological record, our biosphere is at least the third creation. This would account for the existence of, and validate, the histories of many cultures going back many thousands of years before the accepted creation "timeline" and anomalous archeological finds known as "out of place artifacts".
♦  Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
      It is not clear whether this refers to the past or present creation, but does provide clarification in either case.

Not The Last Creation
♦  Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
      This prophecy occurs after the thousand-year period following the return of the Christ. Considering the current polluted and depleted condition of our biosphere and the clear indications that that thousand-year reign will occur on this planet, it is only logical that a certain level of biosphere modification must occur after the return of Christ. The devastating prophecies of the Revelation to John will worsen that condition even further to the point that the total annihilation of all life will be imminent.
♦  Matthew 24:32 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
      It does not fit into the loving nature of God or the benefit of mankind that the planet would not be quickly healed and brought back to a pristine state for this 1000 year period as rapidly as possible. This could mean a major re-creation of the planet will occur to achieve that end.

The Conclusion
      The biosphere we inhabit is at least the second creation, or terra-forming project, that occurred on this planet and possibly only the current one in an unknown number of many past creations. It will be partially re-terra-formed to accommodate the 1000 years period following the return of the Christ and completely re-created following that period. The time involved cannot be accurately determined due to the anomalous relationship of divine beings to time, but in the perspective humans have to time this has occurred in clearly defined human periods. There is also no evidence biblically that the Creator used the purely hypothetical "Theory of Evolution", a concept known as "Theistic Evolution" to accomplish these massive terra-forming projects.