[chette777]

Ge 1:1, 2¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Clearly the above two verses are speaking of a creation of what we call a planet named Earth. It is without form and void. This term is used only one other time in scripture. Jer. 4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. To let the Bible interpret itself this would indicate that God had beheld the earth in two places once in Genesis 1 and once in Jer 4. The context of Jeremiah 4 is the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now Jerusalem was not destroyed to the point of obliteration for if it was it would not exist today like Sodom. So the same can be said for the Earth. It could have been destroyed prior to Genesis1:2 without it being totally obliterated. Destroyed does not always mean to completely obliterate. It just means that the Earth was made formless and empty of some previous activity. and not that of a pre-adamic race of some sort either for I beleive there was none. I do beleive there was some previous activity but it has nothing to do with a race of beings no longer in existance.

Verse one is the Establishment of the Earth or the foundations of the Earth of which we today call a planet. The Hebrew word for foundation means establishment.

Now this Earth that is in Genesis 1:1 is not the same as the earth in 1:10. Let’s read the following verses.
Ge 1:9, 10 ¶ And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And in verse Ten the dry land is called earth. So this is the establishment of dry land called earth. The term foundations of the earth are used to mean both the Earth as a planet that God created, plus it means the dry land he later created. But they are not the same. For the planet was created before the dry land. Otherwise there would be no earth to find without form, void or in darkness if it didn’t exist until Genesis verses nine and ten.

Let’s look at the following verses
Job 38:4-7 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

These verses describe the establishment of what we call the planet Earth and at the time it was created the sons of God shouted for joy. For this was the place that God would place his Sons throne. What a happy day that must have been. this creation has no time or indication of when it was established because when we read about it in Genesis 1:1 it already exists.

Now Let’s look at these next verses
Proverbs 8:29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
Jeremiah 31:37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Now these verses clearly show that the foundations of the earth mean the dry land that was called earth. So it is safe to say that the term foundations of the earth has two meanings 1) the planet and 2) the dry land. this earth or dry land has a deffinate time from which it is formed on the third day.

Now having seen from the word that there are two meanings to the foundations of the earth. The first set being the establishment of what we call the Planet Earth found in Genesis verse one. And the second set being the establishment of dry ground.

Let us ponder this, did this formless, void and dark earth of which the Spirit of God moving on the waters of the deep find, have a cataclysmic event of some sort that had left it in this fashion? And then God begins to create anew, not in the sense of a new Planet but taking the old foundation and building afresh upon it. And doing so in six literal days.

From this 6 day creation comes the firmament a container that makes up two heavens, and it houses the Sun, Moon and Stars and the planet earth with it’s sea and dry grounds. The great beasts of the fields (dinosaurs, behemoth) and cattle of the earth, the fish and the great Leviathan, the whales and birds, and the first man and woman.

What took place before the 6 days of our current calculative time period of 24/7's? Who knows the Bible says very little but to be sure it had to do with this Earth that God moves upon from Genesis 1:2 unto the present. But this we know the first earth is still here and it will soon be replaced with a new Earth.