(Ver 1.1)  This is now Part 4 of a series of advanced Bible study lessons about the creation timeline using God’s perspectives.  If you have not been reading this series from the beginning I would recommend that you go and start with “Part 1“.  In my last blog I introduced you to the “World that Was”.  There are numerous Bible verses when viewed correctly, that reveal to us a civilization on our planet that was completely destroyed by God.  This previous world system helps to explain the age of the universe, dinosaurs, and other factors that science conflict with what some Christians seem to teach about creation.  You cannot look at a star in the night sky and say that it is only 6000 years old.  It took significantly longer than that for the light from that star to reach where we are so that we can see it.  Astronomers and scientist using radio telescopes, the Hubble telescope and other methods can look out into space and can view things that occurred millions, even billions of years ago.  I have heard some Bible teachers claim that God only created things with the appearance of age.  In other words they were saying God was a deceiver of mankind.  Create a world that looks really old but call it new.  Is this what your God would do?  Does this fit the character of God’s integrity?  I do not think so!  So we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly to see what God reveals to us about creation in the Bible and that is what I have been trying to do.  I am attempting to put the puzzle pieces given to us in the Bible to discover the truth of creation.

There are many Bible verses that we need to see that speak to us and give us clues about creation and Genesis.  Let’s look at some additional verses found in the Bible that at least imply other worlds existed other than our present world.  Here is a verse that has clear implications written within it:

Gal 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Do you understand that you do not need to qualify the noun “world” with the adjective qualifier “present evil” if this is the only world that ever existed or ever will exist?  What we see is an implied reference to both a world that was before our current world and a world that will be after our present evil world.  You have to be smart enough to see what the Bible says.  Think about this, if there are only two world systems, the evil world and the good world to come, you do not need to add the word “present”.  You only need to add the word “present” world if there existed a “past” world.  Otherwise, you could differentiate our world from the good one to come by the one adjective “evil”.  Do you understand this logic?  The Bible is very tricky that way.  God is so much smarter than us and He knows exactly how to say something so that you can gain a tremendous amount of information from just a few words, while making it difficult for you to see at the same time.  If you can see all of this it will help you to understand other Bible verses.  Here is another Bible verse that is more direct about the world that is to come:

Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

You have to be blind not to see that God is telling us that we are living in a temporary world system right now that is not going to be the same world system in the future.  God will implement a change and recreate the world system.  God calls this a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation.  If there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a new world system that is to come, you have to admit that it is at least possible that there existed an older world prior to our current world also.

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Here is one more verse that speaks of a world to come.  This is the same Greek word translated in other places as “world”.   It speaks of a coming time where God will bless those who are in Christ Jesus.

Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

We have seen several verses now that imply there is or was more than one world created by the Words of God.  In this verse in Hebrews 1:2 we can again see a reference to us being in the last days of our current world.  We can also see that Jesus created this world.  But, since the word for “worlds” is plural in the KJV Bible as it should be, we can understand that not only is there another world that will come in the future by the Word of God, we also know that there was a previous world that was also created by the Word of God in the beginning.

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

I believe I gave this verse earlier, but I want to emphasize the plurality of the word “worlds” in this verse.  Some might try to say that this is only speaking of our solar system and the other solar systems in the universe and that is the plurality.  That is an interesting misinterpretation of this Greek word.  If you recall there are two words translated as “world” in the New Testament.   One meaning an “orderly arrangement” and the other meaning an “age”.  This word in Hebrew 11:3 means “ages”.  As in multiple slices of time.  We are living in a current world age, there is a coming world age and we have clearly seen that there was previous world age before Genesis 1:2.

So what happened to this world system that came before Genesis 1:2?  Who destroyed it and why?  We are not given a lot of clues in the Bible, but we are given some clues so let’s look at some of them:

Isa 14:16  They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

Isa 14:17  That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

These verses found in Isaiah are widely believed to be a description of Satan.  I firmly believe that is exactly who these verses are talking about.  But, then you also have to notice what they say about Satan.  They are not prophetic words of any coming events, but they are more like the words of a news report of a past historic event.  These verses speak of a catastrophic event that occurred within earth’s history.  It speaks of a complete and utter destruction of a world system.  A system with inhabitants, with organized cities, and all of the other qualities that we possess now.  A city implies roads, buildings, walls, safety and security.  It implies an organized government and the rule of kings with kingdoms.  All of these things were destroyed between the verses of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 because of Satan.  Let’s back up in the chapter and view the conformation to who this is speaking about and what God reveals to us in his description:

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Let’s analyze the first part of this verse.  It declares that God is speaking about a spiritual “fallen” being named Lucifer.  The Hebrew word for “fallen” means “to cast down”,  “to perish”, “to overthrow”, and “to die”.  We can clearly see that something happened to bring Lucifer down.  This Hebrew word for Lucifer is also a fascinating word with a specific and direct meaning.   It implies “brightness” like the sun.  It also has the literal meaning of “the morning star”.   The morning star is not Venus or some other bright star like object in the night sky.  The “morning star” is our sun that rises in the morning.  This is a very significant name and title.  This verse calls Satan the “son of the morning”.  I hope that you understand that the word “morning” means “early light”.  God is giving us a very significant clue to the identity of Satan.  God is calling him his son.  We know in the New Testament that it declares that God is Light!  So being called the son of the “early light” implies a son of God from a very long time ago.  This verse has direct implications of being a long time ago by the word “early”.  This implies “first light” or the time when light begins to form in the sky before the actual sun rises.  If you have ever witnessed the sun rise, you can learn a very important lesson to what God is telling us about Satan.  Satan was one of the first, if not the first creatures created by God.  He would have been the equivalent to Adam the first creature of our world.   Lucifer would have been a pattern or a model of Jesus that was to come.  If you search your Bible you will find that Jesus gives us the same information in the book of Revelation for the name of Lucifer.  Jesus informs us in Rev 22:16 that He is the true “Bright Morning Star” because He is the root and offspring of David.  What Lucifer use to be, is what I really am, says Jesus.

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

This verse in Hebrews is an interesting contradiction to what I just said or is it?   If you look closely at this verse God is speaking about angels.  We know that Lucifer was the chief angel.  So God is making and demonstrating a major difference between angels and His Son Jesus Christ.  God did not become a natural Father to any creature except to Jesus.  Because of the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus has become the only son of God born of a natural woman.  This makes Jesus radically different from Lucifer doesn’t it?  Lucifer was never born naturally, so while he was a spiritual son of God, he was never a natural son of God.  Jesus was both a spiritual and natural son of God and this makes Jesus the true “morning star”.

1Jn 3:8  He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

For this reason Jesus Christ came to the earth, to undo the works of the devil.  What works were these that caused God himself to come to earth to undo what had already been done?  That is an amazing question to ponder.  This verse in 1 John tells us that Satan had been sinning from the beginning.  Now that we have seen evidence for another world system that Satan caused to be destroyed, we can begin to understand why God created another new world system and came to earth personally to make sure it worked this time.  So we can assume that Satan was sinning from the beginning of time and not just from the foundation of the current world.  We must begin to understand that these two events are different times and different worlds.

Here are some more verses that are specifically related to the subject of the Bible account of creation.  These verses that I will show you will further confirm the existence of the previous world and what happened to it.  We will begin to read starting in chapter 4 of Jeremiah and verse 23:

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I hope that you can see the significant similarities of this verse with Genesis 1:2.  If you do, you will see they are directly parallel descriptions speaking of the exact same time period.  This verse is God’s commentary to Genesis 1:2 and gives us additional information that is related to what happened to cause this condition of destruction.  We can also see the declaration that the earth was covered with darkness.  It is assumed that there is something blocking the sunlight from penetrating to the surface, something like very thick clouds or very deep water or both.   We can clearly see that this verse is directly speaking of Genesis 1:2 and 1:3.  In Genesis 1:3 God says “let there be light”, this would be God’s answer to the problem of “no light”.  Let’s move to the next verse and see what else God is describing to us:

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

I am not really sure how to take this verse, it says there were mountains, but yet it declares they were moving lightly.  To me that would seem to indicate that the currents of the oceans caused them to move and shake.  But, here is the verse that I want you to start taking note of for what it says:

Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

Now we have a major clue that God is talking about Genesis 1:2.  God says in this verse that there was no man or no Adam.  The Hebrew word “man” is the same Hebrew word for “Adam”.  God is saying there is no Adam yet and all of the birds that were in the sky have vanished.   Why would God speak of birds vanishing before there was no man named Adam in the same sentence?  Adam was created on the last part of day 6 of the recreation account in Genesis 1.  The birds and other animals come on the 5th day of God’s recreation.  So we can clearly see that whatever time God is speaking of is before both of these have occurred.   Yes?  There must have been birds back in Genesis 1:1 that all disappeared with the rest of God’s creation.   There really is no other logical explanation for this verse.   Now it is really going to get good, let’s read verse 26:

Jer 4:26  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.

So what cities is God speaking of that was before Adam came along?  Again we have to be smart enough to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly, but this is a major clue to what happened in Genesis 1:2.  God declares that the world that was changed from a fruitful place to a wilderness.  God specifically says that in this world there existed inhabited cities.  The Hebrew word for “city” in this verse means a place that is guarded by a watch.  This implies a government, organization, leadership and a lot of inhabitants.  But, God also informs us that these were all broken down.  This Hebrew Word for “broken down”  has the following definition:

A primitive root; to tear down: – beat down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.

Isn’t that what God said to Lucifer?  How are thou “fallen”.  In this word it clearly means someone destroyed these cities intentionally.  They were leveled as if they had never existed.  God declares that He was extremely angry and this is why that world was destroyed.  Because of the sin and ungodliness that existed in that time God had to destroy it.

Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

In the next verse, God is still speaking of the time before Adam and says that world was completely destroyed and perished.  The Hebrew word for “full end” can mean “completeness”.    What God is saying is that just because that world perished, it was the not the end of all time.  There was more to come, a new world that Adam would be given.  All of these statements were given to us as clues to what happened in Genesis 1:2 before Adam was put on this planet.  God specifically speaks of a destruction that occurred that caused the world to be “void” and “without form”.   These are the descriptive terms given to us and they help us to see that these verses in Isaiah and Jeremiah are God’s commentary on the Bible creation account found in Genesis 1.

Because many people do not understand how God wrote the Bible, they do not know how to look for the hidden clues in the Bible.  The Bible is not in chronological order, nor does it have all information on any given subject in any one location or book.  God spread out clues in the Bible in widely dispersed random patterns, hiding them in and around verses that are not always related.   God can jump from one subject to another subject using a wide perspective of time periods, people, natural vs. spiritual things, places and many other ways that He has used to conceal information from his enemies.

So all that I have been trying to do is to read the clues found in the Bible and put them together logically to help us understand what God is really saying.  It involves work, research, study and a major effort to find all of these verses and then additional effort to understand them and put them together correctly.  I know it is not easy to see, I know it can be taken other ways, I know there are many other possible interpretations, I know you can believe what you want to despite what I said.  God will always allow people to be wrong.  So I have presented a new perspective and at least given to you some new things to think about and to consider.  I pray that you will study to show yourself approved unto God and not rely on me to do your Bible study for you.

There are still many questions that come to my mind about this world that God describes as being before our world.   Here are some of my questions, maybe you can come up with some others.

1. Why didn’t God come to the earth and offer salvation to that world?
2. Who were these multitudes of earth inhabitants that perished?   Angels?
3. Did they all go to heaven after God destroyed this world?
4. If the Bible says that death came by Adam, how could this world be destroyed and animals, birds and all the other creatures, plants and living organisms all have died?
5. Why couldn’t God just throw Satan into Hell with his followers before He created our world?

There are just so many very tough questions to answer still.  Obviously the Bible is a very complex book full of answers if we can figure them out or better yet when God shows us in the Word what it all means.   I’ll end this blog with this verse of Jesus speaking:

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning  and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Jesus Christ is speaking and calls himself the beginning and the ending of all things.  The Lord that is, that was and the Lord which is to come.  We can again clearly see the significance to three different and separate worlds mentioned in this verse.  It says within the realm of time, Jesus existed in the world that now is, the world that was and the world that will be coming in the future.  The Bible has many verses like this all over it, if you can find them and relate them to the subject.  I never try to provide every scripture reference to a subject that I teach, that would be a very difficult task for anyone to do.   So I try to provide at least two or three good references to help establish every word that I teach from the Bible.  By doing this we can be assured that it is correct and then can go and try to find other confirming verses.  If you know of other verses that I did not include I would be happy to hear about them.  God Bless.