Following are some ‘What ifs…’ about water I have long pondered. (See: The Womb of Water (Series)) Since none of us witnessed any creation events, we can only imagine and speculate about details not revealed in The Bible, the only credible record available to us. No need to get out of sorts if my imaginations and speculations may differ from yours. Mine are not intended to challenge The Biblical account of creation. Rather, they intend to examine some strategic issues that underpin our commonly held perspectives on that account. Consider how often in history commonly held perspectives were challenged, initially rejected, and much later …significantly changed.
Fasten your seat belts! ;o)
1. What if… we have been interpreting The Bible’s creation story incorrectly, from an upside-down, Earth-bound perspective? Let’s take some time and try to re-imagine it from The Lord’s possible angle. Apostle Paul once asked, ‘Who has known The Mind of The Lord…?’ And he answered, ‘But we (bona fide born-again Christians) HAVE [been gifted] The Mind of Christ.’ (1 Corinthians 2:16) The Lord’s challenge to us is to develop and practice applying this incredible gift, to perceive things ‘through the eyes of His heart’.
‘In the beginning, God (Who has no beginning nor end)
created the heavens and the Earth.’
(Genesis 1:1)
The Bible affirms Father God did this through, by and for Jesus, The Lord God. (Ephesians 3:9, Hebrews 1:10) It also reveals there are three heavens’ from its (not our) perspective:
A. The first heaven is His Heaven, the place of His Throne Room, as John described in The Book of Revelation. John’s vision starts with a tight focus on Jesus, The Lord God, then broadens out to the Throne Room. It concludes with a vision of Heaven on the promised new, eternal Earth. The Bible gives no clues about the creation of this Heaven. (Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah 66:22, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21:1).1
B. The second heaven is the void of deep, celestial space.
C. The third heaven is the atmosphere around the Earth. Since there is an atmosphere surrounding each celestial body, there are countless third heavens! Ever thought of that? Since The Bible is ‘Earth-centric’, it focuses on our planet’s heaven (i.e., atmosphere) wherein Apostle Paul confirms a significant contingent of satan’s earthly kingdom of demons and devils dwell, at least for now! 2
From our Earth-bound perspective, we flip this order, and regard Earth’s atmosphere as our first heaven, deep space as the second heaven, and The Lord’s abode as the third Heaven. Since The Bible principally has an Earth-centric focus, it gives us only a few clues about the creation of the second heaven – deep, celestial space.
2. What if… just as man was created on the last (6th) day of creation, Earth, which would become the place of man’s abode, might have possibly been the last celestial body on which The Lord focused His creational attention and energy?
The Earth was without form, and void;
and darkness was on the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
(Genesis 1:2)
3. What if… ‘the face of the deep’ refers to the entirety of deep, celestial space? Conventional understanding has long been that ‘the deep’ in this verse refers to only the water in which the primordial substance of what would become Earth, was bathed. This presumption is likely because so many other Biblical references to that phrase are to deep waters of Earth. And with no reference in Genesis to other celestial bodies, we generally assume the water only covered Earth’s primordial substance, and likely no other celestial body. Science has discovered how water acts in space. So the notion of water covering just one not-yet-formed celestial body, and not floating or evaporating away, is indeed odd. Agree? So…
4. What if… Genesis 1:2 refers to two different ‘deeps’: the darkness on the face of deep, celestial space, and Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters, seeing them from His perspective in the first Heaven, above the void of deep space? But what waters?? Since the answer is not revealed, we are left to speculate based on what mankind has learned. Since The Bible is predominantly Earth-centric, we are automatically inclined to focus on her waters. But…
5. What if… the formless Earth was embryonic in nature, and the primordial (unformed) matter, not only of Earth, but every would-be celestial body, was covered in creational waters, akin to the amniotic fluid in which all mammals develop in the ‘zygote>>embryo>>fetus>>baby’ sequence?? If so, the most relevant question would be what could have possibly been the source of the deep, creational waters over which ‘The Spirit of God hovered’? Since The Bible gives us no direct answers, imagine this…
6. What if… the so-called Big Bang was an explosion across the massive void of deep space, triggered by The Lord’s command for hydrogen and oxygen to 'MERGE!' in the proper proportion …to create water? Scientists have proven the awesome challenges they face in trying to merge these elements to create water. In small lab experiments, every effort triggers a small explosion. Remember the incredibly HUGE explosion that occurred when a spark of static electricity ignited the Hindenberg blimp which was filled with hydrogen?? The result was a large amount of water!
Only The Spirit of God, acting through Jesus Christ, The Lord God and Creator, could effectuate such a command, creating a massive amount of water across the void of deep space. If so, it should be no surprise that astrophysicists have reportedly discovered evidence of past or possible current water in a variety of celestial bodies!
If/IF ‘the deep’ in Genesis 1:2 might possibly refer to two different things, then…
7. What if… the two references to ‘face’ in Genesis 1:2 signal to us that, from Heaven’s perspective, there is a surface of space, and there was a surface of the waters of creation, as seen from Heaven? On the first point, from our perspective on Earth, we perceive space as infinite, yet Genesis 1:2 might be signaling it has a ‘face’, and therefore, is not infinite! Moreover, the very notion of space, situated between The Lord’s first Heaven, and the upper atmospheres of all/any celestial body, strategically seems to signal the second heaven (space) is not infinite! Our notion that Heaven is non-physical might lead us to conclude space is infinite. But The Bible includes several clues that Heaven is not some ethereal, non-physical place, but is a real, physical place, ABOVE the second heaven.
If/IF there was a ‘surface’ to the amniotic-like waters around Earth and other celestial bodies (before the suns were lit later per Genesis 1:14-19!), what might that strategically signal about gravity, and a basin (a bottom) for… all that water?? The Lord must have a clear, strategic reason for not revealing to us the source of the waters mentioned in Genesis 1. Perhaps it might ‘blow our minds’, just as my seven What ifs… might be doing to your mind right about now! ;o) 3
Bottom line: A watery BIG BANG is clearly not supported by the scientific speculation of a very HOT, DRY, BIG BANG, that supposedly created spinning flaming stars and debris that cooled to become various celestial bodies (planets, moons, asteroids, meteors, and left-over space debris). Science speculates…
a ‘creation and resulting design’
that had ‘neither a creator, nor a designer’!
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1 I intuit the new, eternal Earth may already exist, and may have been the physical place to which the resurrected saints from the first and second ages of history were raptured when Jesus ‘led captivity captive’, as predicted in Psalm 68:18, and historically confirmed in Matthew 27:51-53 and Ephesians 4:8. For more, see: Your Heaven IQ (Series) and Earth’s Next Versions (Series).
2 See: Ephesians 6:12. During The Millennial Reign age, the 5th in history, every aspect of satan’s earthly kingdom will be locked away in a bottomless pit, per Revelation 20: 1-3. I intuit The Lord's angels (still invisible?) may replace satan's assigned demons over territories. See: Matthew 25:31.
3 See: What Shape is the Universe?
