25-0209a Transcript

Preacher: Scott Reynolds

(1:00) We are continuing our study of the historical account of creation in Genesis chapter 1. (1:08) We’re going to be looking at the creation processes that occur on day 2 of the creation week. (1:16) And this lesson is titled, Creation Day 2, The Waters Above. Some of you have heard my ideas (1:24) on the waters above.

For others it will be new and I have added also some new information. (1:31) I hope I can convey my thoughts simply and understandably so we can all get a glimpse, (1:37) an inkling even, of God’s creative powers that he exerted in the beginning. (1:44) And in day 2, so much was done under the hood, if you will, and so little was expressly (1:57) stated in the text.

So remember, Genesis chapter 1 is an historical account, not a scientific (2:05) journal. I will use a little science to describe what I think might be going on here, and it may (2:12) be a little heady, but what’s important and what we’re trying to do is search out all the clues (2:20) we can of the history that occurred on day 2. I’m reminded of our scripture reading, which we just (2:28) saw, the first scripture reading. It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings (2:35) to search things out.

And that’s our job. God concealed things for us to search out. And the (2:44) account of the second day of creation is a passage that is worthy of our consideration and meditation.

(2:53) So last time we looked at day 1 of the Creation Week account, and here are some takeaways from (3:00) day 1. We noted that more than just light was created on day 1. Two out of the three heavens (3:10) were created. These are the heavens of the phrase, God created the heavens and the earth. (3:17) Specifically, the second and third heavens.

The second being outer space in this natural realm, (3:27) and the third being the heaven of heavens of the spiritual realm, (3:32) called the third heaven by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 2. And the spiritual heaven, (3:40) we learned from the last time, from the day 1 instruction that we had, (3:47) the spiritual heavens were created first. And the earth, too, was created on the first day. (3:55) And we should take note that the Hebrew word for earth is used on day 1, and God created the (4:04) heavens and the earth, that word earth, in verse 1, and on day 3 in verse 10 of Genesis 1. And in (4:15) 10, God calls the dry land earth.

So in all likelihood, land was created beneath the waters (4:26) on day 1 before they appeared, or before it appeared, on day 3. Also, we are told God (4:35) laid the foundation and cornerstone of the earth in Job 38, 4-7. It should be remembered that a (4:43) cornerstone is made of stone, which is kind of obvious. So this implies the presence of bedrock (4:52) on which the land would rest, supporting the waters above.

And when you build the structure, (4:59) the first thing you do is lay a foundation on which to build. So it makes sense that God laid (5:05) the foundation on day 1. And of course, water was created on day 1. We’re not told of its creation, (5:14) it’s just mentioned as existent. The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

And after all this, (5:24) God creates light so that the first day comprises an evening, starting out in darkness, and a morning (5:32) when light is created. We noted that identifying an evening and a morning, that is a period of (5:40) darkness followed by a period of light, as a day, indicated the earth was rotating on its axis. (5:49) That’s how we have a day today.

The earth rotates and we have a morning and an evening. (5:57) The earth is in motion from day 1. Likely then, each period would be half a day or 12 hours, (6:05) even on the first day. As we go into day 2, I’d like us to think about the state of the earth (6:14) at the end of day 1. In other words, what is the condition of the earth at the beginning of day 2? (6:23) Genesis 1-2 reads, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep (6:31) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

So in verse 2 of chapter 1 is the (6:39) first mention of water on the earth. Noticeably absent is any other element. Air is not mentioned, (6:48) nor land, only water.

The earth is totally covered with water. It’s a water planet. (6:57) And that doesn’t mean there’s not a core and mantle and land underneath, (7:01) but it is totally covered by water.

There’s no features above the water. (7:08) This verse also tells us, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. (7:13) And let me suggest that the darkness over the surface of the deep or the waters (7:17) is indicating that the water is in direct contact with outer space.

Since there is no atmosphere, (7:29) no air above the water, and that also means there is no insulation between the water (7:38) and the cold of space. Temperatures in space today where there is little light, (7:46) and that would be interstellar, the space between the stars, they tell us reaches, (7:53) the temperatures there reach minus 457 degrees Fahrenheit. And remember here at the beginning, (8:03) we’re talking absolutely no light.

It hasn’t been created yet. So (8:10) since it hadn’t been created, absolute zero Kelvin, which is the total absence of heat, (8:20) is minus 459 degrees Fahrenheit, the coldest temperature possible. (8:31) So for at least half of the day, the water covering the earth is directly (8:37) exposed to temperatures like minus 457 degrees Fahrenheit.

In all likelihood, (8:43) we’re talking about minus 459 degrees, absolute zero, no heat whatsoever at the beginning (8:53) of day one. So what’s going to happen to the water surface exposed to this much cold? (9:01) Well, I would suggest that the earth then is an ice planet at the end of day one. (9:13) Perhaps that’s why the Holy Spirit is hovering over the surface of the water, (9:17) or is that frozen water? Maybe.

But the water exposed to this extreme cold for only about (9:26) 12 to 24 hours, the backside, when light first shows up, is going to be lit. But the earth is (9:33) rotating, so that backside right here is going to take another 12 hours before it actually hits (9:39) the light. So it’s 12 to 24 hours.

And I’m not suggesting that all the water is frozen, (9:47) but a good top layer might be, so that the earth is a frozen planet. (9:55) This is speculation, I admit, but it is based directly on the text and the implications of what (10:02) the text is telling us. And the idea here is to imagine what is involved, and think about this, (10:09) what is involved in building an atmosphere for a planet.

That’s a huge undertaking. (10:17) Building a planet is a huge undertaking, but so is building the atmosphere. Think of us going out (10:24) into space, into a place, and try to build an atmosphere to make it inhabitable wherever we go.

(10:31) That’s quite an undertaking. So, okay, with this in mind, let’s take a look at day two, (10:39) picking up with Genesis chapter one, verses six through eight. Then God said, (10:47) let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.

(10:55) God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters (11:02) which were above the expanse, and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening, (11:12) and there was morning, a second day.

So on the second day, only one thing is created. (11:22) This is the day where there really is only one thing created. Unlike day one, where we looked (11:29) at and it was more than just light, there was a lot of other stuff that was implied in what’s (11:34) being said there.

But on the second day, there really is only one thing being made, and that’s (11:40) the expanse. An expanse is, according to the dictionary, an area of something presenting a (11:48) wide continuous surface, an area that can expand or be expanded. And according to Strong’s Bible (11:55) dictionary, an expanse is the firmament, that is, the vault or arch of heaven or the sky.

(12:04) The Hebrew, Strong says, considered it solid, supporting the waters above. (12:13) No creationist can exactly say what this is or exactly what is happening here, but most believe, (12:20) as I do, that this is talking about the first heaven, the atmosphere being created. Some think (12:28) that this is the second heaven or outer space, because God calls the expanse here heaven, and in (12:35) day four, God places the sun, moon, and stars in the expanse.

It should be remembered, though, (12:44) that each of the three heavens is also an expanse. (12:54) Which heaven or expanse is under consideration must be determined by the context of the passage. (13:04) But that the second day expanse here is outer space does not make sense to me.

(13:11) We already mentioned that verse 1 of Genesis 1 uses the plural heavens, and when it talks about (13:18) God creating the heavens and the earth. And we found scripture that told us that God created (13:24) the spiritual heaven, the heaven of heavens, Nehemiah 9, 6, which was also read for us. Thank (13:30) you, John.

And Job 38, 4-7 implies that the spiritual heaven was created first since the (13:38) inhabitants of the heaven of heavens, the angels, that were created along with it, (13:45) God created the heaven of heavens and its host, the angels, sang and shouted for joy when God (13:52) created the earth. So they are present and observing the rest of the first day when God (13:59) created the earth. The other heaven created on the first day, it makes sense to me, would be the (14:05) second heaven, or outer space, to place the earth in the darkness of space when it also was (14:12) created on the first day in darkness.

Therefore, we already have the second and third heavens (14:20) existent before the first heaven is created on day two. So let’s start by looking at the facts (14:30) given from our text about the expanse. Number one, let there be an expanse in the midst of the (14:37) waters.

So the expanse is in the midst or the middle of the waters. And the only waters expressed (14:45) so far are the waters that cover the earth. So the expanse will be created in the middle of the (14:54) covering waters.

Number two, let it separate the waters from the waters. Our first impression (15:02) might be that land is being implied here since land separates the waters, the ocean and the seas (15:09) today. But land doesn’t appear until the third day.

The expanse is not land. The purpose of the (15:19) expanse is to separate the waters from the waters. But it’s not until God makes it that we are told (15:27) how the expanse separates the waters.

Point number three, verse seven says, God made the expanse and (15:38) separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse. (15:46) So when God makes the expanse, He creates it to separate the waters vertically, not horizontally. (16:02) So the expanse is made in the middle of the water.

And since it separates the waters vertically, (16:11) the middle is in the depths of the water, not on the top. When He puts the atmosphere in, (16:24) He doesn’t lay it on top of the water surface that’s now frozen because it’s directly (16:29) in contact with space. He puts it in the midst of the waters at a depth.

(16:38) So let’s meditate and think about what this means. When we think of the atmosphere today, (16:46) separating the waters below from the waters above, we might think that the expanse sits on the surface (16:52) of the liquid water. And the waters above are the clouds, water vapor, in the sky like our atmosphere (17:00) does.

That’s what we see today. Our atmosphere is sitting on top of the water. (17:06) And the waters above, we see, are the clouds.

That idea does not fit here. (17:15) Since there was no atmosphere before the expanse, because the expanse is the atmosphere, (17:24) before the expanse is created, there would be no water vapor above the liquid surface. (17:32) If water vapor should rise from the liquid surface with no atmosphere, the vapor would (17:39) immediately be pulled into the vacuum of outer space since the waters are in direct contact (17:47) with outer space.

There would be no waters above to put the expanse in the midst of the waters. (17:55) So the waters above are not the clouds. There is a reason why God put the expanse into the (18:04) depths of the water, and perhaps that’s to prevent it from being pulled away into space.

(18:11) However, putting the expanse into the depths or the midst of the water has its own problems. (18:18) Can you think of any? One thing that comes to mind is air, the atmosphere, is lighter than (18:27) water. And when putting the atmosphere into the water, it would immediately begin to rise.

(18:34) Have you watched what happens in a fish tank when air is pumped into it to aerate it? (18:40) The fish have to breathe, too. You’ve probably seen the line of bubbles that start at the bottom (18:49) of the tank and rise to the surface. And some of the air gets captured by the water, and that’s (18:54) what the fish breathe.

But most of the air escapes to the surface. So how can God place the expanse (19:03) in the midst of the water without it escaping to the surface? (19:10) I believe we have the answer from our investigation that we just did of the (19:16) state of the earth at the end of the first day. We took note that the surface of the water, (19:21) since there was no atmosphere, was in direct contact with the cold of outer space, and that’s (19:27) probably absolute zero minus 457 degrees Fahrenheit.

So, from the water surface to some (19:37) depth would freeze. This would create a spherical shell across the whole surface of the earth. (19:48) An arch construction, which a sphere is, is an extremely strong and stable structure.

(19:58) The shell is the frozen surface of the waters covering the earth. It’s part of the water. (20:05) And the earth is rotating on its axis, so the waters were rotating with it.

(20:11) And as the water freezes, so does the ice. And it was rotating, we got from the evening and morning, (20:26) so we know of the rotation. So this shell is spinning at the same rate as the rest of the (20:34) earth.

It’s all in sync, in motion. Now, if air is injected into the depths of the waters, (20:43) the bubbles would rise until it hits the bottom of the ice shell. But it could not escape to the (20:50) surface and disappear into space because of the ice.

It is trapped under the ice shell and would (20:57) begin to expand under the ice, creating an expanse. I want to introduce another idea here (21:07) about injecting the atmosphere into the midst of the waters. Water has the capability of holding (21:17) I’m sorry, of holding diffused or dissolved gases.

In physics, diffuse means to become a (21:26) cause of fluid, gas, individual atom even, to become intermingled with a substance by movement. (21:35) Today, our oceans, I ask practice, this is how I know it. Today, our oceans contain all the gases (21:44) of our atmosphere, though not necessarily in the same amount.

So one way to inject the atmosphere (21:53) into the midst of the waters is to use the waters as a supply for the material to make the atmosphere. (22:03) In addition to the dissolved gases in the water, chemical and electrical processes, (22:09) like electrolysis, could be used to produce gases from substances within the water, like (22:15) water, H2O, to produce hydrogen and oxygen. But there’s other elements in the ocean.

(22:28) Grok XAI listed several processes that could be used to produce our atmosphere from the oceans. (22:35) Grok said it was possible to duplicate our atmosphere from ocean water, (22:44) though some of the methods are dangerous, and it recommended purchasing the gases and mixing them (22:50) to produce it in a lab or classroom. And I think Grok thought from my question that I was going (22:55) to do experiments for educational purposes.

Understanding that this is an intricate and even (23:04) dangerous process could also be why the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the deep (23:12) during creation. So producing the atmosphere from the oceans would provide space for the expanse. (23:22) In essence, you have a conversion process taking place where liquid is transformed into gases, (23:30) and thereby creating space for the gases.

It’s like what happens when you boil water. The level (23:37) of water lowers as the gaseous vapors materialize. The Apostle Peter mentioned something in a prophecy (23:47) about the last days that I hadn’t thought about in connection with the creating that takes place on (23:53) the second day until I was preparing for this lesson.

And Peter says in 2 Peter 3 5, (24:01) for when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens (24:08) existed long ago. You ready for this? This applies to what we’re talking about. And the earth was (24:16) formed out of water and by water.

Peter says that the earth was formed out of water when you make (24:26) something out of leather, say. You make leather gloves and you make it out of leather. So let (24:38) me suggest that we are being told that water was a major source material God used to make the earth.

(24:48) And as if almost to emphasize this, Peter added, and by water. He made it out of water and by water. (24:58) Another idea we should consider is as the atmosphere expands between the ice shell (25:07) and the liquid water below, and this was after all the point of making the expanse (25:15) in the midst of the water was to separate the waters below from the waters above.

That’s the (25:21) whole point. So my question is, what keeps the ice shell up and from crashing into the water surface (25:30) below by the pull of gravity? There’s two things I can think of. Number one, the newly formed (25:40) atmosphere.

While air is lighter than water, it does have weight and mass and we can measure it (25:48) as atmospheric pressure. So in effect, the atmospheric pressure could help support the (25:55) ice shell sphere. And number two, the shell is a complete sphere even at the poles.

Since the (26:10) whole of the water surface was exposed to outer space and then froze before the creation of the (26:17) atmosphere. So we have this ice structure encompassing the entire globe that can support (26:26) itself as a standalone structure. You’ve seen igloos made out of snow? That’s half a sphere.

(26:34) It’s a hemisphere. And gravity, centrifugal and gyroscopic forces would also keep the ice sphere (26:45) in place while momentum that was in motion as it was made. Now you have a gap.

It’s still going to (26:58) rotate like the earth because what keeps the earth spinning? It’s the momentum of the earth. (27:03) The ice also has momentum. It’s also spinning and that momentum will keep it spinning.

It’s still (27:10) in sync. And actually, it took a little while, but I thought of this one. Gravity alone would keep (27:20) the ice sphere suspended.

And this is where I would have liked the diagram for an example, (27:24) but I didn’t have time to do it. In actuality, gravity alone would keep the ice sphere suspended (27:34) above the earth because every point on a sphere has an exact opposite point on the opposite side (27:43) of the sphere. So a gravitational force at the center of the sphere (27:52) would pull equally on every point and its direct opposite, which would pull the sphere equally (28:01) around the gravitational center, effectively pulling the sphere into suspension around the center.

(28:14) The earth is the gravitational force at the center of the ice sphere. (28:21) So centrifugal and gyroscopic forces from the rotation of the earth would additionally stabilize (28:28) the ice sphere. So it wouldn’t, it couldn’t fall.

Gravity actually keeps it in place because as it (28:37) pulls from the north, there’s a south side of it. So it pulls on the south and the east and the west. (28:45) So gravity pulls on the opposites and it would keep it suspended around the center.

(28:55) All right. And finally, why don’t we see this structure today? Simply put, (29:03) it was destroyed when the flood occurred. We won’t address that here, but we will investigate it when (29:10) we get to the historical account of the flood later in our series.

So the entire second day (29:19) is dedicated to producing the world’s atmosphere. The expanse would rise and spread out under the (29:27) ice sphere and the water level under the expanse would lower as it’s used to produce the atmosphere. (29:36) The ice shell would continue to spin at the same rate as the rest of the earth due to momentum (29:41) and the air under the ice, as the air under the ice increases and separates the waters below (29:49) from the frozen waters above and the ice shell sphere would be held in place through (29:56) gravitational suspension.

So there you have my idea of what may have taken place on the second day. (30:05) And I only used the ideas that are directly related to the text, drawing conclusions in line (30:12) with what the text actually says. So while God may have done something completely different (30:19) from what I’ve suggested is entirely possible, after all, he’s the creator.

I hope, though, (30:28) if nothing else, this exercise has impressed us with the immensity, the complexity, (30:34) and the majesty of God’s creative power. The angels must have been awed. (30:43) No wonder they sang and shouted for joy witnessing God’s handiwork.

Our God is an awesome God. (30:54) And we’re extending now the invitation. So let’s stand and sing.