 
The Genesis Puzzle

How Genesis 1 and 2

Fit Together to Declare the End from the Beginning

By James Haines

Copyright 2019 James Haines

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.
This book details the reasoning behind the video, "The Genesis Puzzle", available online at:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OEz4ywa5ec>

If, after reading this book, you want more information on some of the subjects discussed, you might also want to try the eBook, "The Programming Model of Creation", available free online at Smashwords.COM and other leading online distributors.

Note also that unless otherwise specified, Scripture quotes are from the New International Version of the Bible.

Please note also: At the time of this writing, many of the concepts in this book are new. I submit them as food for thought and for testing against Scripture. If they can be shown to violate Scripture or the Gospel, they must fail. On the other hand, if they prove to match Scripture better than some of the traditional, Naturalistic views, then, by all means, let those fail. Our guidance comes from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22:

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil."

Thank you.
Table of Contents

Introduction

The Mysteries

The Supernatural Nature of Our Reality

How the Bible Describes Our Reality

Why Things Look and Feel Solid

The Nature of the Virtual Reality

Why it is Important to See Our Reality as Virtual

What is Formless and Void and Why is it Necessary?

The Entirety Already Written

What is Time?

Comments on Genesis 1:1 by a Messianic Rabbi

The Audit Trail

Out of Water and By Water

How the Days of Genesis Match the Order of our Senses

How this Understanding of God Applies to Genesis 1 and 2

What God Said to Look For in Genesis

The Most Important Conversation in History: John Chapter 3

The Structure of Genesis 1 and 2

Declaring the End from the Beginning

Rendering the Text for the Drama of Genesis 2 in "The Genesis Puzzle" Video

Conclusion
"It is only at the End, that we create things as at the Beginning, but without realizing it."

Introduction

Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 present God's record to us of how He created our Reality. He wrote it, specifically, to us. The record represents His decision of what He wanted to tell us and what He did not want to tell us. This is important, because the One Who chose the words knew everything from the beginning.

Most of us tend to bring to these chapters our own understanding of God. What can He do? What can't He do? What is He like? What is His reasoning? And so on.

There is no description here, in the superficial reading, of the Creator Himself, or of His purpose in Creating. Where our own books commonly have sections such as, "Introduction", "Prelude", and "About the Author", this one, by the Author of Authors, stands quiet. Adam and Eve would learn very quickly that the Author is Holy and that that concept is not to be taken lightly.

The whole record of the Creation of our entire Universe takes up barely more than one page. God doesn't waste words.

The Mysteries

The record jumps right into activity. Immediately, we are struck with questions.

"Why formless and void?"

"Why darkness and deep?"

"Why six normal days and then Sabbath keep?"

"Why two different tales? Why not just one?"

"Why lights in the sky, when it came on Day One?"

"Why fish and birds both? Why on the same day? What was His point? Something to say?"

"Why Adam from dust? Why Woman from Man? Why all of this fuss? Just what is His Plan?

The Supernatural Nature of Our Reality

It is not difficult to show that our Universe must have had a Supernatural origin. At look at just two of its features can make the case quite clearly. These two are not the only evidences that can be cited. Indeed, a great many more exist. But these two are fairly simple.

Here are the two features we will consider:

1. The Universe contains hot spots and cold spots.

2. Life is far more complex than what our Universe could produce.

The First Point: The Universe contains hot spots and cold spots.

This point appears obvious, but has profound implications.

Stars are hot. The space between them is cold. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is absolute in these matters. Just as a wound clock will unwind, so the heat of the stars will dissipate. The stars will no longer be hot, just as the clock will no longer be wound.

This is important because it proves that our Universe is not eternal. It must have had a beginning. If it had been here forever, space would be "lukewarm": at a uniform temperature. Because it isn't, something - or someone \- must have started it.

The Second Point: Life is far more complex than what our Universe could produce.

Here's how to prove it:

1. NASA has estimated that our observable Universe contains about 1080 atoms. What lies beyond this, God only knows. But this amount is staggering. It is beyond gigantic. It represents the totality of everything we can see, in the material world, of our Reality. It is not unreasonable to consider whether this enormous amount of matter and energy could possibly produce life by itself. In fact, this type of test represents the limit of what we can conclude about Evolution, without leaving the natural realm.

2. Evolutionists claim the age of our Universe to be about 15 billion years. I do not agree with such claims and document the underlying presumptions for them in the book, The Programming Model of Creation. However, for this next point, I will gladly grant them 15 billion years, as it helps their case not in the least.

3. The proteins of living cells exist as long chains of amino acids. By long, we mean many hundreds of amino acids. But amino acids occur in nature in two forms, which are mirror images of each other. One type may be called, "Left-Handed"; the other, "Right-Handed". We'll nickname these types as simply "L" and "R".

Nature doesn't care which type is used. This is the part that is "natural". But living cells do. This is where things get spooky "unnatural".

In nature, both L and R forms are found. Both forms intermingle freely. There is no reason except for chance that an "L" form will be chosen instead of an "R" form. But living cells require that their proteins be strictly "Left-Handed". So the very first cell, if it ever evolved, must have had its protein chains assemble all "Left-Handed" by random chance. This is as throwing down hundreds of coins and having them all land "Heads up". And this is precisely where mathematics can answer what our Universe could do.

Most proteins in living organisms consist of more than 400 amino acids. So we will calculate the probability of our Universe generating just one "400 length heads-up" protein by random chance. Remember that the very first cell would need many protein chains; not just one. The first cell would also need all of the accompanying systems that manage, build, and replicate all of these proteins and all of these accompanying systems. If the "400 length heads-up protein" represents the "needle in the haystack", remember that everything else in the haystack had to form simultaneously - by chance -as well.

So how do we begin to calculate the chance of just the first "heads up" protein? We don't know how many amino acids exist in the universe. But we do know a number greater than this, which is the estimate of the total number of atoms in the Universe. So if we use the total number of atoms as though it were the smaller number of amino acids, we can still run the calculation. Doing so will grant the Evolutionist a very great benefit of the doubt.

Let's take this reasoning a bit further. Let's say that every atom in our known Universe represents not just one amino acid, but rather a large pool of 800 amino acids, half "L" and half "R". So we're giving the Evolutionist more than 800 of our universes to work with, since we're saying that every atom of our Universe represents a group of 800 amino acids, each with its own mixing pool included.

Now, we also don't know how long it would take each one of these "mixing pools" to form one chain of 400 amino acids, or even if it would ever form any chain at all. But again, let's be generous and give the Evolutionist maximum advantage. Let's say that every pool of 800 amino acids in this test universe takes just one second to produce one chain of 400 amino acids. Let's go on to say that all of the 1080 mixing pools do this each and every second for the entire 15 billion years! Are we not being extremely generous in allowing this?

This would result in mind-boggling number of attempts! It represents far more attempts than could possibly have been made in our own Universe. But the math is easily capable of answering the question. The answer will tell us if it is credible to believe that our Universe, given 15 billion years, could possibly generate even just one "Heads up" protein chain: the very first protein required for a cell to live.

Here's the calculation:

15 billion years contains 1018 seconds.

So the total number of attempts made by this gigantic universe of mixing pools, all of which try once each second - every second - for 15 billion years would be:

1080 pools x 1018 seconds x 1 attempt/pool-second = 1098 total attempts

Is this enough attempts? Well, the probability of any one chain forming "all left-handed" is as flipping 400 coins and having them all land "Heads up". The chances of that are 1/2400, which converts to 1/10120.

So even though our "Test Universe", which was exaggerated for the extreme benefit of the Evolutionist, was able to generate 1098 attempts, the chance that such a universe could produce just one "heads-up" protein like this would be: 1098/10120 = 1/1022.

That represents one chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!!

Good luck with that!

The converse \- the chance that that the protein was not created by random accident is therefore 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 to 1!!

So which is more credible: That our universe generated the protein randomly, or that the protein was not generated randomly? The difference in probabilities is not even close! It's nowhere near something like "50/50". The chance that it developed randomly is one chance in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The chance that it was not developed randomly is 9,999,999,999,999,999,999,999 to 1! The math demonstrates that a natural origin is not credible. It also demonstrates that a deliberate creation is overwhelmingly likely.

Keep in mind, this test represents just the tip of the iceberg. It's much more than just "all heads up" that is needed. The bonding between each of these 400 amino acids must also -simultaneously - be "heads up". The bonding must be all peptides; no non-peptides. This bonding problem also generates a probability of nearly 1/10120. To get both conditions to occur simultaneously, the probabilities are multiplied, which produces: (1/10120)*( 1/10120)= 1/10240! Now the 1098 attempts look even more feeble, since simultaneous bonding requirement reduces the possibility to a much smaller value: 1098/10240 = 1/10142.

That represents one chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!!

Dare we mention that this is still just the tip of the iceberg? The sequencing is an even bigger problem. Just as words make sense only when their letters are arranged correctly, so the protein must have its amino acids \- its "letters" - arranged correctly. They must produce an ordered result that is meaningful. For example, you wouldn't understand the word, "meaningful" if its letters were shuffled, as in "ugnnlfiema"! The set of letters is the same, but it's not arranged correctly.

It's the same with the proteins. The amino acids must be arranged correctly, so that the protein can perform its required task. If the sequence not arranged correctly, the protein would not be usable, even if all of its links and bonds were "heads up".

To make matters worse, even if the first protein were arranged correctly, it would still be of no use if there were not many such proteins all in place at the same time. Beyond this, all of the support systems would need to be in place as well. These include systems that would test the correctness of proteins, transport and deliver each to its needed location, build copies as needed and sort, manage, and reconstruct everything from basic raw materials.

Sir Fred Hoyle, PhD, astronomy, and Chandra Wickramasinghe, professor of applied math and astronomy, calculated that the probability of getting a cell by naturalistic processes is:

1/1040,000

"No matter how large the environment one considers, life cannot have had a random beginning. There are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in (1020)2000 = 1040,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup." (See F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), p. 176.)

Our Universe does indeed shout, "CREATED"! The current, popular notion that, "If we find water on another planet, then that may be a sign of life!", is sheer nonsense. All life forms we encounter have a complexity of finely tuned systems, including data recording, copying, and transmission systems that far exceed anything else we have ever found in the Universe. These cell systems surpass by far anything we ourselves have ever created by our very best efforts. The cell systems are intelligent: they pass information back and forth and route energy and products that they themselves manufacture to wherever they are needed, using transport methods and facilities that they themselves manufacture, assemble, and disassemble! It is ridiculous to argue that simply finding water serves as proof of such complex things!

How the Bible Describes Our Reality

The Bible is the only book of origins that claims that God created everything from nothing. We will discuss the evidence for this statement in more detail soon, because this will directly shape how we see God operating through history. The Bible is unique in stating that at the Beginning, only God Himself pre-existed; nothing else. The Gospel of John says, "By Him were all things created and without Him was nothing made, that has been made." There are three fundamental points which the Bible makes about our Reality that must be clearly understood.

Point 1: Matter didn't pre-exist. Energy didn't pre-exist. Space and time didn't pre-exist. The Laws of our Nature didn't pre-exist. So the things that surround us had no existence of their own, before God defined and instituted them. (John 1:3, 2 Peter 3:5, Col. 1:16-17, Heb. 11:3)

Point 2: All of these things cease to exist when God makes the New Heavens and the New Earth, as described in Revelation. The Universe as we know it now is then "rolled up like a scroll" and done away with. There is no great explosion. God doesn't wrestle to roll it up. He simply deletes it. (Mark 13:31, Is 34:4, Rev 21:1)

Point 3: All of these things do not currently stand on their own. They do not uphold themselves. They do not maintain their existence, moment by moment, on their own. Hebrews 1:3 declares, "... he upholds the universe by the word of his power...". (ESV)

So, according to the Bible, we inhabit a reality that:

  1. Did not naturally exist.

  2. Does not now exist except by God upholding it.

  3. Will not exist when God so commands.

Forgive me, but this is very much at odds with the commonly held view of our Reality. This set of definitions does not describe a Naturalistic Reality. The Reality doesn't self-exist. But it does describe a Virtual Reality. So we have to make a conscious decision here. Do we continue to follow this trail to which Scripture seems to point, or do we ignore these guideposts and presume the trail's a mistake?

Before we decide, let's understand just what the term "Virtual Reality" means. "Virtual", for computers, means "not physically existing, but made to appear by software". So, Ladies and Gentlemen, it sounds as though a software version could never be as "real" as the physical version, right?

But wait a minute.  The physical version is also "made to appear". It has almost no underlying substance! That's the dirty little secret of modern physics. Ernest Rutherford made that discovery about a hundred years ago. His find was so astounding that we honor him with the title, "The Father of Nuclear Physics". And yet, how many of you remember what he did?

What did he find? He found that our Reality is hollow! "How hollow?", you ask. Very hollow! Here's how he described it: "The fly in the Cathedral." The fly was the amount of matter actually inside an atom. The Cathedral was the amount we thought was in there. But in reality, it was almost entirely hollow!

Why Things Look and Feel Solid

So why do things look solid? Why do they feel solid? Those are very good questions. If we accept Scripture's claims, nothing, including "no rules" existed before God made them. So that would mean that these hollow things that look and feel solid do so, because  God made rules for how they look and how they feel.

There are indeed rules for how light works with atoms and how it then works with our eyes. The rules make our minds show solidity, where our machines see none. This is what Rutherford found. The machines said, "Nothing there.", while our eyes said, "It is.". So we are seeing images designed to show us a solid Reality, when it is really little more than a shadow.

The same is true for our sense of touch. Rules override what we would expect to feel. In our normal day-to-day experience, things that are "thin-skinned and hollow", like balloons, compress when we push. Admit it. You love to squash Bubble-Wrap!

Atoms are way more hollow than Bubble-Wrap. So why don't they squish? Rules. Forces defined for atoms. God has defined forces to allow atoms to guard an incredibly hollow structure with absolutely fantastic strength. But this would seem to fly in the very face of Nature, for these are two opposite extremes, kept for us in perfect balance. I don't know about you, but my mind can't help but think that the One behind all this is definitely a Master Craftsman.

So how does this understanding affect you in your daily life? Do you live your life any differently, even though Rutherford proved our Reality is hollow? I don't. It looks solid. It feels solid. So I live as if it's solid. But the Virtual's the same. It looks solid. It feels solid. So I live as if it's solid.

Should I live this way? Perhaps not, because it's not really solid and it's not really permanent. Does the fact that it is so very hollow mean that it hangs by a thread? No: it hangs by the Word of Almighty God.

So when I walk down the sidewalk, am I concerned with the question, "Will the concrete still be there with the next step?" Of course not. Would anyone think this way?

Well, actually, yes: God thinks this way. "The hairs on your head are numbered!" "He knows the Sparrow's fall!" It is His command that upholds my Reality, the concrete, and my sidewalk, while I stroll along. I think nothing about my hairs, or the sparrow, or the sidewalk. Do you?

Should we? Probably. Why? Because it's not "forever". He said so. The Day is coming. He is coming. He said, "Be Ready!". Two four-letter words haunt me: "Tick Tock".

But why can't He just leave us alone and leave things as is? Well, because He's not just Almighty, He's also All-Holy. Remember Adam and Eve. He can't hold this world up forever, because it isn't Holy. How Holy is it not? Very not. I think, if we saw things the way He sees them, it would be like seeing our Reality for how hollow it is. But instead of seeing hollowness, we would see darkness. What would it say about His character if He allowed that to continue endlessly?

The Nature of the Virtual Reality

So let's consider our Reality as though it were Virtual. Can we do so? Do we have anything to compare this concept to? Well, actually, "Yes!".

Never in our history did we have anything of this sort with which to work, but now we do. Now, we make lesser realities. We make them with software. We make them with computers. But these machines actually just model what a perfect mind could do.

We test these smaller realities. We model them. We make their laws simple or complex. We make worlds that are stable or not. We define objects: simple forms of matter. They don't have to have atoms to exist. They simply need edges. But if we went so far as to define even the atoms for them, wouldn't that be grand? How much detail would we need to define, to get you to admit, "This is just as our own world!"?

We define power, forces, energy, and resistances to these, in any way we wish. Matter and Energy aren't brought into our realities from the outside. We simply define them there. Matter and Energy do not self-exist within them. But they appear as though they do. The quantity and quality of each is entirely up to us. Since they are Definitions-Based ("the word upheld"), there are no shortages unless we decide so. If you could be born into one of our virtual realities and never saw it from the outside, you might easily presume that it was "natural"; that no one created it.

Our worlds:

1. Do not pre-exist.

2. Must be constantly upheld.

3. Cease to exist when we decide.

Do you not see the similarities to our own world?

We even define time for them. For most of our simulations, we mimic the pacing we see in our own world, so that people using them will feel "at home" in the lesser world. But our technology is quite capable of near-infinite speeds. However, consumers tend to prefer games that last longer than a nanosecond, else they would not seem quite the bargain.

Samples of these smaller realities exist all around you. You see them every day. You work with them, probably without even realizing it. Every time you turn on your cell phone and use it, you're interacting with one. When you watch a movie on Netflix or Amazon, you're looking at one. When you play a multi-player game on the internet, you're experiencing one.

Why it is Important to See Our Reality as Virtual

So why is it important to see our Reality as Virtual? Because Virtual is a better match to what the Bible describes. The Naturalistic View provides impediments to God's Will: Laws that self-exist and rules He must obey. That is a Lesser God. Virtual Realities, by their very nature, provide directly for:

1. Absolute power by their Creator.

2. No restrictions upon what the Creator can define.

3. No restrictions on how the Creator can do things.

4. No restrictions on why the Creator does things.

5. No restrictions on how fast or slow things happen.

6. No restrictions on methods used, choices made, difficulties defined.

7. Ability to monitor everything, everywhere, constantly, and simultaneously.

8. Infinite ability to erase, separate, limit, enhance, and sense.

This is how we will see God act in Genesis 1 and 2.

It happened exactly as He said.

He had reasons for what He did, why He did it, and the way He did it.

That is why we reject the Naturalistic Worldview. We choose, instead, "The Programming Model", as the better model for our own Reality, as it is word-based, upheld, and places no restrictions or limitations on the Creator. The Naturalistic View, if it allows God at all, places Him under Natural Laws: "He couldn't possibly do this, because...", "He couldn't possibly do that, or else..." The "Programming Model" testifies that God makes all Laws and all restrictions; that He knows all and is bound by nothing.

What is Formless and Void and Why is it Necessary?

Intriguingly, it is more than just the sights and sounds of our simulations \- our lesser realities - that mimic our own Reality. The sources that generate them mimic it as well. How? The sources of our virtual realities are Formless and Void.

How is this so?

Think about it. What happens beneath the surface when you watch a movie on Netflix, or you "Face Time" your friends. What's the source of the video you see? What's the source of the audio you hear? Ultimately, the source is information. It's the 1's and 0's, the bits and bytes, the data stream that you never quite see.

So what form does data take? What does it look like? What does it sound like? Does it look anything like the pictures you watch? Does it sound anything like the audio you hear?

Of course not! It has no form. It has no fill. Thus Formless. Thus Void. It looks nothing like the pictures you see. It sounds nothing like the audio you hear. More than that, it has no specific size! Is it coming from a DVD? Is it coming from a smaller flash drive? Is it coming from that invisible Wi-Fi signal?

And yet, your DVD contains a full two hours of audio and video. The even smaller flash drive could contain over ten times as much. Smaller means bigger? It can. There are some strange truths in the world of information.

The information on the DVD, though it is itself ordered, represents thoughts. Thoughts have no specific size, shape, weight, or color. Thoughts are, by nature, formless and void. Though they contain information for setting bounds, they themselves have none. Objects in this state are unbounded, or boundless, because they have not yet been cast with bounds revealed.

This is what "The Deep" means. The Greek Old Testament in the Apostolic Bible Polyglot defines it as: "Boundless, Bottomless". If God hadn't included mention of our Reality starting as "formless and void", we might never have seen this parallel. Look at your cell phone screen before you turn it on. Look at your flat-screen TV before you turn it on. When it's on, you see light and depth; objects with bounds defined. Before it's on, the "thoughts" aren't yet cast; so you see darkness on the surface of "the deep".

To these points, we add one more:

Thoughts do not require matter or energy to exist.

How do we know this?

Because God had thoughts before He created matter and energy.

If they preceded Creation, that means they also require no specific space or location, because neither space nor location pre-existed either. So thoughts are ultimately formless and void.

This seems so strange to us, who live in a material world. And yet, we find that the smallest of our own devices can contain incredibly vast amounts of information. So consider how much memory God has. He states, "Even the hairs on your head are numbered." That's quite a lot of memory, I'd say.

The DVD can contain two hours of video and sound. The flash drive, perhaps twenty hours or more. God's memory is infinite. It requires no size or energy. It is a characteristic of Spirit: His Spirit.

So now we get to some of the true Natural Laws:

  1. God exists.

  2. God requires no matter or energy.

  3. God requires no specific form, size, weight, or shape. Does He appear as a burning bush, a pillar of fire, a cloud, the thunderous voice on a mountaintop, or the still small voice that spoke with Elijah in the cave? Does He have "No form or comeliness, that we should desire Him", as Isaiah 53 notes?

  4. God has infinite memory.

  5. God can sense anything.

  6. God has always had infinite knowledge.

  7. God is holy.

  8. God loves you and thinks you're the most important person in the Universe! For this cause, He threw away His throne, His power, and His armies, and came down to where you live in the septic tank of sin. He put on the sackcloth and ashes of fallen humanity, just so He could qualify to die in your place, to pay His holy, just price for your redemption. Now He waits patiently for you to decide whether to accept His proposal. We all want to be loved. How could you possibly ever find a better offer than this?

The Entirety Already Written

"All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." (Psalm 139:16) If they were known here, at the beginning, for David, were they not truly known here for us all? God knew our choices before we made them. Peter's denials. The shouts of "Crucify!".

Peter had free will. But God saw how he would use it. It is true for us all. The whole of human history was always seen and sensed by God, in every detail, before the statement "Formless and Void" was revealed to us. This is far more than just a written record. It is the actual seeing and sensing of it all as strongly as we see and sense the present. The thoughts on the DVD carry much more than just words. They carry sensations for our eyes and our ears. Soon, they will carry sensations for our sense of touch. The question has already been asked, "How will we be able to tell this from our own Reality?"

That is why Revelation speaks of "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." and of "The Book of Life, written from the foundation of the world." (Rev 13:8) In this thought world with the full intensity of our Reality, the terms past, present, and future have no meaning. All is seen and sensed with equal clarity. The best way to describe One containing this Entirety is "I AM"!

What better way to describe the whole of human history already known, than "Formless and Void"? There is no way to describe it simply by making the earth directly. That would be as painting just one frame of a movie.

Think about this: For six thousand years, we mimicked Reality by painting pictures. Cave wall or canvas, it was one picture at a time. Our simulations of motion were made by sequencing many pictures. From the Kinetoscope to the movie reel, motion and simulation of Reality were made by displaying many distinct pictures in rapid succession.

But now we use a method which is altogether different. We store our entire movie, our simulation, or the entirety of our lesser reality yet to be revealed, as thoughts; not pictures. These are the "formless and void". These, we store in the model of a mind: the flash drive, the laptop, or the "Cloud". They store the entirety in a nutshell. Where pictures fired just one sense: our sense of vision, thoughts can fire all of our senses. We cast them to our senses at a frame rate our senses can handle. But the entirety is already complete, within the formless and void.

These are our "Books in which all the days are written". We know that they contain the whole. We know that the whole is then revealed at a slower pace. We can search anywhere within. We can fast-forward. We can rewind. We can jump straight to the End. Pictures required mass, energy, and time. Thoughts require none. Don't you think God knew we would reach this point and shot up this flare at the Beginning, to show us He'd already done the same?

He states directly that He knew it all from the beginning. He states directly that He knew us all from the beginning. So we find ourselves having to reconcile the fact that the Entirety was already completed, without having to wade through that bothersome bog we know as time. God stands, waving His arms, at the finish line, when we saw Him so long ago back where the race began! How did He beat us? Now we know the way He did it: by using the "Formless and Void". That is how we now store the entirety. Cannot He?

This is how He hears all at once, see's Sparrow's fall, knows who's on knees. This is how He numbers your hairs, hears your heart's prayers, sees what none sees. It is indeed true, God is Love!

Each individual picture on the DVD is as clear as every other. Every sound is as distinct as every other. The recordings are as close to perfection as can be. The whole two hours of history on the DVD is fully visible at once, to the mind that could process such vast amounts of information. Such a mind could see all pictures equally at once, as though arranged on a bulletin board.

We, on the other hand, must take in the pictures and sounds in sequence, at a rate of no more than twenty frames per second or so. We need more time to digest the information than does the perfect mind.

So the perfect mind can contain the whole, the Entirety of history, in the little Formless and Void nutshell. But the same must be cast for us as video and audio, so that our senses, our eyes and ears, can take in the information.

What is Time?

This is why God defined time. He does not need it Himself. He sees everything we have ever done and everything we will ever do as clearly as we see the present. The concept of frame rate does not apply to Him. He sees all things with equal clarity. He always has. This is why He can say, "I change not!" (Mal 3:6 KJV)

Take a  pretty, printed timeline. Lay it horizontally. Pick a point somewhere near the middle of the timeline. Use this point as "The Present". Any point will do. The "past" will then be to the left of this point; the "future", to the right. Lay wax paper over the "past". This part of the timeline, we then see dimly, as we see the past dimly in our memories. Lay a narrow strip of clear plastic, perhaps just an eighth of an inch wide, vertically, over the "present". This, and only this thin, brief moment, we see clearly. This thin, brief moment is also where we interact with the Reality. Lay black paper over the "future". This, we can neither see, nor interact with, unless God so allows.

Join the overlays with tape, so that they can slide over the timeline as one. Now slide them slowly right-ward, together. Watch the timeline through the sheets. The present frame, under the clear plastic, moves ever-rightward, as the future is revealed from under the black overlay. That which is clear and "present", then slides immediately under the wax paper, into the dimmer "past". This is our perspective of time.

Now lift off all of the sheets at once. See the timeline now clearly, from Beginning to End. This is God's perspective of time. All is equally clear. All that we see dimly as the past and blank as the future, He sees as clearly as the present. Time does not apply to Him. Time is the set of overlays He defines for us, which restrict only our view and our ability to act. But it remains entirely His Creation. He defined everything in it and nothing exists but what He has defined here. He is entirely free to act anywhere within it, in any way He wants.

Now, imagine slicing the overlay sheets horizontally, into thin strips. This way, they can move rightward at speeds independent of each other. This is Einsteinian time. This is Relative time. Assign speeds to individual strips according to any rules you like. This is how God applies rules for relative time to our Reality. Lift off all the strips again to see His view. All is clear. All is His. He can act anywhere within. There is no Reality beyond what He has made. It is from this broad view of the whole, "The Entirety Fully Known", that He chose what exact words to write for us as Genesis 1 and 2. It doesn't get more deliberate than this!

Time is His gift to us. He takes the source, the Formless and Void, the Timeline in its entirety, and casts it into forms and fills our senses can recognize. We do something remarkably similar, when we draw information from the DVD or flash drive and cast it to the flat screen TV and audio bar. We start with the formless and void. We draw out the information within. From that, we create a strictly sequenced order of pictures and sounds. Finally, we present these to our senses at a relatively slow frame rate. This is our imitation of Reality. It works fairly well.

However, when we watch a movie for the first time, we do not know what will happen next. Only the "present frame" is clear to us and that one keeps moving forward. The past is recallable by our minds, depending on our individual abilities. The past, to most of us, is recallable in a dimmer fashion than the present. The future is not seen by us at all, unless we skip ahead on the DVD. But we all know the DVD already contains it completely.

God knows all of our future responses and reactions. This is a direct consequence of His being infinite in knowledge from Everlasting. He sees and senses all of the past and all of the future, as clearly as we see and sense the present.

A Lab Experiment

(This example is something of a lab experiment. You can participate in a more compelling way, by going to a store that has a wall of HD TV's and standing right in front of one of their demo screens. Then consider these next comments as applied to what you see on that screen.).

We can also mimic God's ability to see past, present, and future, by watching a video. Here's an example. Imagine we pull up an Ultra-HD 3D video on a large screen TV. Let's say it shows the view from an apartment window in Paris. The video is clear enough that you might think you actually were in Paris, if you didn't know better.

But actually, you're watching the past and seeing it as clearly as the present. For the video is a recording of the past, made by recording machines that capture and hold the visual sensations as thoughts, as a perfect mind would. These are recalled, reinterpreted, and replayed to your visual sense. If you had perfect memory, you could do the same without machines.

So, when you plead your case to God, and remind Him of how Jesus died for you to pay the price for your redemption, how clearly do you see the images of Calvary? How clearly does God see them? Every sensation, of every second, is as clear to His mind as the present frame is to us. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Now imagine that you take the Ultra-HD recording and flip it over, so that the spectacular clarity you now see on the screen, from your "Paris apartment window" is the perfect mind seeing the future, rather than the past.

But where our own projections of future events would be estimates at best, this one is not. It is as clear and certain as the present. It is actually exactly the same as the present. The Virtual Reality fires all senses with equal strength.

The firing of the senses, which we mistakenly presume is our response to something self-existing and physical and solid, is not. The firing of our senses comes directly from God's commands - His rules - His Word - which is the physical and the absolute. This is what the statement, "He upholds the Universe by His powerful Word", actually means. Matter and Energy are God's Word. We state, "Matter can neither be created, nor destroyed.", when in truth it's, "God's Word is absolute.", because Matter and Energy are His Words.

Whether they be memories of the past, views of the present, or knowing of the future, all are seen with equal clarity, to all senses, by God. All possible futures are seen this clearly, because this is what infinite knowledge means. The path forward is known with complete certainty. It is sensed as fully and completely as we sense the present. It is certain, because the One who controls all things absolutely has decided so. He Himself does not sin. But He does allow us to, for a time. He didn't make Peter sin. But He allowed him to, for a time. This is true for us all.

Our parents ate from the tree. This is the result. We know Good. We know Evil. He is good. We are evil. We still try to hide from Him. We try to cover ourselves by our own works. He still seeks us out and calls to us, "Where are you?" "Come to me!"

Most never come. But those that do, "to as many as receive Him", He covers. He covers us with Himself, by the sacrifice of His own body, by the shedding of His own blood. The Man in the Garden, laid down for us. God will form us anew, make us right, and bring us as one, to Him.

The perfect mind, with infinite knowledge, sees and senses all possibilities and always has. So it is not "the future" to Him. Nothing is. The final determination of what bounds to set, what to tolerate, and what not to tolerate were known and understood by Him from Everlasting. The clarity of all things to us "future" is, to Him, equal to the clarity of the present and the past. So where, in any of this, is time anything more than a just a perspective, a limited view, that He has defined for us? He is free to write rules for time, and for Einsteinian Relative Time, in any way He wishes. There are no rules for these, except those He has chosen to write. Hook up relative time to relative speed? So be it. Hook it up to a simpler toggle switch? So be it. Anything we discover to be true about relative time is nothing more than discovering the rules He has written for it. To say the rules stand over Him as well is to place God under Natural Law all over again. Our God is greater than that.

Comments on Genesis 1:1 by a Messianic Rabbi

Before we start the next part, you need to read a backgrounder. Credit to Dr. Sarah Salviander and her blog for this gem. I will rejoin you on the other side of this article.

 https://sixdayscience.com/2016/07/07/genesis-is-unique-not-borrowed-mythology/

Credit to Dr. Sarah Salviander. sarahsalviander.com

(From Sarah Salviander's blog post) At this point, I want to offer you the perspective of a friend of mine, who is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and also a believer in Jesus as the Messiah. I asked him to comment on this article, originally intending to work his perspective into the main flow of what I'd written, but I think it's best to let his words stand on their own:

His comments:

The idea that the Genesis account is unique is critical and there is also something very fundamental and important to highlight as well, something which I think exposes a fundamental flaw in all of the other so called "accounts" of creation.

Creation ex nihilo is critical. Creation through G-d's Word is critical. The Hebrew word b'reishit, translated 'in the beginning', proclaims that nothing existed prior to G-d's act of creation. The heavens and the earth were created only through G-d's WORD ... no other worldview, none, ever makes that claim. Only through the Word of G-d. This is mind blowing. The Scripture teaches that the world came into existence from nonexistence. Again, no other world view has taught or teaches this. If the claim is original and unique it wasn't plagiarized. The Biblical claim is astoundingly so. It is far more likely, that these Babylonian and other myths borrowed from the Torah's account, not the other way around.

The cornerstone of all pagan belief up until this very day is the belief in the eternity of the physical world which we inhabit. This Babylonian myth is clearly no exception and posits such a belief, which is false. This belief is a metaphysical falsehood. It is a gross misrepresentation of the origin of the universe, and worse yet this belief undermines and denies all morality. This belief, the cornerstone of paganism, also negates freedom in both G-d and man.

The false belief is based upon the assumption that matter antedated creation. If that were true, then the Creator of the universe would have only been able to fashion from the material already available and given to Him, and not a world that was absolutely good, as the Genesis account testifies and the other so-called myths do not; He would only have been able to fashion the best possible world within the limitations of the material provided Him. Again, the Biblical account is unique and original in this regard and paganism's account is never based on these claims, no matter which myth is cited.

Again, if the pagan world view were true, then G-d would not be the master over the material of the world, and man would not be master over his own body. Freedom would disappear and the entire world, including its G-d and the men who live in it would be animated, constrained, and propelled by a blind, immutable fate. This pagan conception as evidenced in the Babylonian myth and others like it, is dispelled by the Torah with its very first words: b'reishit barah Elohim! In the beginning G-d created ....! Absolutely everything that follows hinges on these words. Everything – the matter and form of all that exists – was created by the free Almighty Creator. And He still rules freely over all matter. Paganism never made such a claim nor could they even have invented such a claim. Such a claim is understood from the revelation given to us by G-d, Who of course is the Creator and originator of the claim. He rules over every existing thing, over the laws by which those forces operate, as well as the resulting forms. And men hate being ruled, so they developed their own myths and pagan beliefs to circumvent these uncomfortable truths (cf. Romans 1). His will set the laws by which forms are fashioned.

Therefore, the world that was created is not the best possible one that can be fashioned with the given material – but according to a careful and thoughtful reading of the Genesis account, is the only good world. Paganism makes no such claim. Not even close. So, it follows that this world corresponds with the wise plan of the Creator and He most certainly could have created a different world, has such a world corresponded with His will. Remember, everything was created according to His Word ... G-d spoke, G-d said, Let there be .. and there was.

The world was created wholly by G-d's Word, and this cannot be emphasized enough. Our sages relate that b'reishit is the very foundation of our awareness of G-d, world, and man. When man forfeited this awareness, it had to be reestablished. According to our sages, this was the purpose of the revealed miracles: to demonstrate G-d's free and unbounded mastery over the world with all its elements, forces and laws.

Barah, created. This Hebrew word denotes aspiration to emerge, emergence from potentiality into actuality, or release from bondage. Barah also denotes bringing to light, actualizing and bringing something out into external reality. Even in Aramaic (the language of Babylon) it means "outside", "that which is outside". Barah then means to carry out and actualize thought, which is hidden in the inner recesses of the mind. Barah denotes creation, preceded only by thought and will, which clearly couldn't be further from a pagan conception of things as evidenced in the so-called myths. This is precisely the concept of creation. Accordingly, beresheit, in the beginning, is applied only to G-d's creation. In other words, before the world existed, this world had existed only as a thought in the mind of the Creator. It is the act of creation, therefore, that actualized this thought and brought it out into reality, thereby giving it an external, concrete existence. The entire world, as a whole and in all of its parts, therefore, is nothing more than the materialized thought of G-d. Again, this conception is unique to Biblical account recorded in Genesis. The pagan accounts brook no such conception. Not even close. Imitation indeed. They look like blind handicapped children crawling around in the nursery by comparison. This same idea that we have just elaborated in relation to barah is also presented in the root hayah, the Jewish term for being (cf. verse 2).

(Interestingly, this meaning of barah, to become external, concrete, tangible – is related to another meaning of barah: being healthy and stout. And from this meaning is derived the term for the first meal of the day in the morning after a fast. It is the meal which refreshes the person physically and makes him feel strong again.)

Let's briefly consider paganism, of which the Babylonian and other myths represent. Paganism fragments the whole world into many groups and spheres. At the head of each sphere stands a ruler who has concentrated into his respected hands special powers. This pagan conception, this pagan idea, this pagan notion is a direct consequence of the basic error we have been alluding to. If matter had existed before creation, then the god who shaped this matter was bound and limited to it. Consequently, the concept of god is lowered, and god is transformed into a natural power who is unfree in the act of creating. Such a god is unable to create true contrasts and fundamentally different phenomena; accordingly it must have been established by many gods (as the creations myths of the Babylonians and others often posit) – as many gods as there are groups of opposing phenomena.

Not so the Biblical account. The Bible, in point of fact, denies the existence of these numerous gods, and ascribes the power that is attributed to them to the one and only G-d. He alone is called Elohim. The Bible then unites all the attributes of power that were separated by paganism. The unification of these attributes in the one G-d raises the one G-d of Israel above any notion and limitations of a mere natural power. For, our sages are clear, only the free and omnipotent will of a single being can create a world of contrasts; and only He can unite these contrasts into one great purpose. Elohim refers to a single individual Who unites in Himself all the power and authority that give one control over a person or object. Consequently, the person or object is under the exclusive authority of this individual in every respect. Which helps explain why men are so keen to deny this authority and the Biblical account of creation.

Welcome back! Good read, wasn't it?

The Audit Trail (Genesis 1:1-13)

"Audit trails", or "logs", commonly refer to financial records. But they are also used for information systems. They document, chronologically, changes made to the system. This allows others to reconstruct, examine, and consider the sequence of events and changes made. Genesis 1 includes the very first Audit Trail. Like our own audit records, it includes a description of each change made, Who made it, and a timestamp (Day1, Day 2, Day 3).

But there's a lot more information that lies within this audit trail than you might imagine. And the reason the trail exists at all is to help show you where you came from and how you got here. We will be witnessing a move from one perspective of our Reality to another. It is the same Reality: the one God has chosen for us. But we will be moving, through these changes, from His perspective to ours: from seeing "All-at-once" to seeing "Just in the moment".

It is actually helpful to picture the moves in your mind as though you were physically walking from one to the next. That presentation allows us to look at each change by itself and consider how that change differs from the one before. So we're going to present this section as though we're "hiking a trail through the changes", so that the observations we make are as though looking back and forth between them.

So let's take a hike! We're going to hike "The Audit Trail". It's an easy journey, but it does require three days. Where does it start from? Where does it lead to? That should be obvious! It starts way up at Potter's View and then descends gradually to Pot's View. Potter's View is always overcast. It's always in one big cloud. You could think of it as "The Cloud", because it contains as much information as exists. It contains The Entirety: All of our Reality and its history past, present, and future, chosen specifically by our Maker. Nothing at all exists beyond this, nor could it ever. Everything we've ever sensed and will ever sense, by all our senses, emotions, feelings, and failings, is already clear there. Here lies the book King David spoke of: "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Potter's View is also nicknamed, "Predestined".

Pot's View is everything you see around you now. You can feel it, see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and touch it. But you only get to do so "in the moment": The thin little "Present Frame". Feel free to pick up and carry along any souvenirs you like while we hike. You can stick them in your backpack, which we'll call "Your Memory". You can pull them out and reconsider them as you wish. But be careful what you do and what you carry. Remember Marley! Pot's View is also nicknamed, "Free Will".

So let's begin. We start the Audit Trail from Potter's View. As we prepare to head out, we turn and take one last look at Potter's View itself. Now it has no form. Now it has no fill. From our perspective, it looks "Formless and Void". It is important to document this here, because this is the first recording of how the Entirety as Thoughts appears from the perspective of Man. This is the first view of "Potter's View" by the "Pot". To Him, it contains all that we will ever feel and ever experience of Reality. To us, it makes as much sense now as does staring at the DVD itself to see if we can see the movie.

We are reduced to just the "Present Frame"; "The Moment", and from this point on, we will only be able to perceive through our senses. Potter's View is like the DVD. The Potter can see it all: the Beginning, the End, and everything in between all at once. We won't be able to digest the DVD contents directly as He can. From now on, we'll need the DVD contents fed to our senses at a slower, sequenced frame rate, as though fed through a TV and audio bar. But nothing has happened yet for us to sense, so we'll move on.

We turn back to the trail and take just one small step. But like Neil Armstrong said, "This is one small step for a man, but one giant leap for mankind!" We took one step away from "formless" toward "form". So we're going to have cast to our senses, for the very first time, something of God's Entirety in the Formless and Void. But since this is the first step, it is also the most important. It must cast as barely as possible to the physical, that which is most like formless. It should be cast to just one sense. It should employ just one thing physical. The one-thing physical must now fire our one new sense. This will document that we are actually able to sense one thing in the "Present Frame", which represents our new, lesser Reality. This will represent the first change. So this will be the first notation made in the Audit Record.

So what do we sense? Water! Water's physical. Water's formless. You can feel it, even in the dark! It has no particular shape. It has no particular bounds. It has no edges. It makes just about the best possible example in the physical realm that conveys a description of the formless. The Rest Area here has an Overlook with two names: "Darkness on the Face of the Deep", and "The Spirit of God hovering over the waters".

So we feel the waters, but do not see them. You can't really touch them, because there's nothing solid to touch in them. But still you can feel all the fluid around you. You feel it using your body's largest sensory organ: the skin. And since your skin covers even the top most part of your body, the head, this formless sensation of "The Waters" triggers a response from the sense organ mounted highest on your body. In fact, it triggers the response all over your body as well, so it provides a very good strategy for letting you feel that you have a body. It triggers the sense of "Body Awareness". Kind of like the womb, isn't it? "Somewhat overwhelming", one might pun. Let's move on and see what's next. (Another pun!)

We come to the next trail stop sometime during the First Day. This stop is called "Light". Now we can see. God saw. Light will fire our sense of vision. It's a "one for one" deal: one material entity to fire one sense. The eyes sit pretty much at their own level on the body and sit just slightly lower than the highest sense organ, which was the skin on the top of our head.

So now, with these two senses triggered, we can feel and see the formless water. We've moved one sense/one step closer to Pot's View and one step further away from Potter's View. We write this on the Audit Record to note that this one change, Light, fires one more sense: vision. We are given the rest of the day to relax and enjoy our two new sense triggers: water and light.

The next day, Day 2, we proceed a little further. We come to "Sky". But this material is decidedly different that the previous ones. Each of the previous ones triggered just one sense. They were "one for one" deals. This one new material, however, feeds two more senses. Air will carry sounds to our ears and scents to our noses.

Well, that's all the more interesting, because these two senses sit at pretty much the same level on our body. It's as though the Creator was clever enough to anticipate this and design a material - air - that could trigger "two for the price of one". So far, there seems to be a plan. The materials are firing senses in the exact order that they appear on the body, from highest to lowest. They also trigger the exact number of senses at each vertical position on the body.

Air is formless, too. So now we have four senses that can be fired and we still haven't even left the formless, because water, light, and air are, compared to such things as rocks and trees, essentially formless. Not that they don't have their own intricate, internal structure, but simply that they don't resist when you push them (hurricanes excepted!). In ordinary circumstances, they can even pass through each other. Water vapor rises through the air to form clouds, wind passes through the vapor, and light passes through them both. Somewhat later, these three will even play together as musicians would, to give us the symphony we call a rainbow!

So far, we're doing exceedingly well at baby-stepping from the Old Reality to the New. This is important, because the more deliberate, designed steps that we have to take between the two realities, the more obvious it should be that this is indeed a set of deliberately planned changes and not just something by whim or accident. The rest of Day 2 is free time, for us to relax and consider all that's been happening.

On Day 3, the final day of this particular hike, we come to "Land and Plants". Now we have boundaries. Now we have rigidity. We can stand on land. We can touch dirt and rocks. We can touch and taste plants. At long last, we see things that clearly maintain a specific form. We make the notation, "Touch and Taste now triggered by Land and Plants".

Once again, the changes trigger sense organs at the same level of the body, because the hands, which can move to the same level as the mouth, will actually spend much of their time doing so as we stuff ourselves during all future meals. Of course, our hands can move to all levels of our body as well, as scientifically proven by the song, "Head and shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes". Since this is the last day of sensory preparation for the new Reality, it seems only fitting that the lowest and final sense should be able to help celebrate the totality of all new senses by being able to reach out and touch all of the others.

So now we've come to the end of the trail. Let's pause here. Let's think about what we've witnessed. Let's pull out souvenirs from our backpack "Memory" and review them.

All of the changes were to the environment of our new Reality. Each of the changes prepared to trigger one sense or group of senses, located at the same vertical point on our bodies. The changes proceeded, in the exact sequence of our senses, from top to bottom. Simultaneously, they matched the exact number of senses at each vertical position.

But there's even more! The changes to the environment, which would trigger our senses, would at the same time provide the sustenance that our bodies would need to live. Water, we would need to drink. Light, we would need to grow plants. Air, we would need to breathe. Plants, we would need to eat. All of our needs, sensory and physical, were anticipated in advance. The environment was carefully prepared for us, even before we arrived.

What a spectacular transformation! We've proceeded from thoughts, to something physical and formless we could feel (The Waters), to something physical and formless we could see (The Light), to something physical and formless we could hear and smell (The Air), to things formed we could touch and taste (Land and Plants). This Audit Record documents these deliberate, ordered and carefully designed changes. It will endure as testimony that ours is not the Ultimate Reality, but a lesser one driven by a Greater One.

If we hadn't taken this trail, but had instead fired all of the senses at once, people might think (as many tend to do) that Pot's View is the only Reality and that their senses are simply responding to what self-exists. But if we have The Audit Trail, we have a record that testifies that many, tiny changes were deliberately and specifically made, that a Greater Reality had already existed, and that a new, Lesser Reality was being cast.

So while you enjoy residing in "Pot's View", never forget: "Pot's View" is just the shadow. "Potter's View" is the Real, just as a TV is not the source, but rather the DVD. The source of everything we have is always God's Word; His Thoughts. Our senses are, ultimately, reacting and responding to God's Commands; "the Universe upheld by His powerful Word".

Note: For all that we've seen so far, just hiking the Audit Trail, this is just the Beginning. There is another Message laid within these first verses, which will be revealed later, in the final video. An orchestra blends many sounds together to create a symphony. The Greatest Composer has done the same here. Don't miss it!

Out of Water and By Water

2 Peter 3:5 "But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water."

Water won't hold you up if you walk on it, unless you're Jesus. And that's the point. By walking on water, He not only proved He was God (Job 9:8), but He also proved He could take that which was formless and give it form: in this case, the rigidity of a sidewalk, without the appearance of a sidewalk.

He could also do the complements of this. He could make water fire all of our other senses differently, except touch. He did this by turning water into wine (John 2). And it was delicious! It fired all of the senses of vision, taste, smell, and, possibly hearing, if it effervesced. But for the sense of touch, it probably felt pretty much the same as water. (Note also that Jesus had them fill six stone jars at the Wedding in Cana and, interestingly, the Wedding by God was performed on Day 6 of Genesis 1.)

So God demonstrates, using the example of formless water, that He can form that which is formless. He can make it fire one or all of our senses in any way he wants. The examples of walking on water and turning water into wine demonstrate this exactly. This is not meant to imply that He fooled us, by making us think it was wine, when it wasn't. The water was wine. Rather, we fool ourselves, by thinking that objects exist on their own, when in truth they do not: they are made of the Word of God and they are upheld by the Word of God.

In none of our Naturalistic education, were we taught that the earth was made from water. And when we read the statement in the Bible, do any of you cringe? It sounds so "unscientific"!

But our Reality comes from God; not Nature. And He chose to make the earth from Water, which He did, to show us the example. He took the formless, the Water, and made it the formed, the Land. He then made plants from the Land and our bodies from dust. Jesus later proved this in front of us, by spitting into the dust and squishing it into mud and then shaping it into eye parts with His bare hands, for the man who needed eye parts (John 9:6). He Who made eye parts from mud, also made Adam from mud.

How the Days of Genesis Match the Order of Our Senses

There is something peculiar that happens immediately before the command, "Let there be Light", which is generally taken to describe the first _activity_ of the Days of Creation. But _before_ this comes the description, "darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

If we take the "formless and void" as the "Heavens and Earth" complete, as thoughts fully sensed by God, but not yet cast to _our_ senses, then "the waters" actually represent the _first_ thing physical; the first thing _cast_. We noted it so in the "Audit Trail". But what is strange about it is that there is no "Day" yet mentioned, nor any "Let it be".

We _know_ that God made it. No one else was there to do so. But He did not _state_ it. At least He did not state it _actively_. The alternative is that He did so _passively_. But why? Why do so? Why not just say, "And the Lord said, 'Let there be waters'."

If you think about it, His model is consistent: it is consistent with His plan. What do we do when we are first redeemed? What happened to the believers on Pentecost when _they responded_ to Peter's call?

Acts 2:38-39, Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call."

They were _baptized!_ They were _immersed._ _They chose to be immersed in water._ This was an action _they chose_ , to obey God. God's Spirit was waiting above those waters, as He was waiting over the waters in Genesis, to begin the activity of God's redemption after _they_ took the first step as a response to His call.

But wait! _Who_ actually _did_ this? Was it _them,_ or was it _God moving in them?_ To _them,_ it appeared that _they_ were making the first move. But we read the answer in Ephesians 2:8-10, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

So God moves us. He acts passively. He acts inwardly. He acts quietly. We respond. We immerse ourselves, and others immerse us, fully and completely, in waters. This is the first sense of new life. We encountered this on the Audit Trail. It was our first sense: The sense of feeling; the sense of "Body Awareness"! We are new! We are alive! As the baby in the womb, we are born, but for us a second time.

It is after that, that we see in our lives, God acting, God active, God saying, "Let there be light!", in a way that we can now hear and sense. But later we find _He already did so,_ _passively_ _, quietly, with us unaware._ The waters were prepared. They were "just there" waiting for us. We thought that _we_ made the move to immerse, but really it was God _in_ us.

So it is here in Genesis. The waters are "just there"; just waiting. In the Audit Trail, we decided to respond. So we felt the waters. And this was the first sense of new life; the top-most sense; the overall "Body Sense". That came first. Then we could see.

So it makes sense that here, in Genesis, the move is made _quietly; subtly._ The waters are prepared: the first thing physical. But no announcement precedes it. God does it. But He does so passively; quietly. This is how Jesus describes it in John Chapter 3 to Nicodemus.

John 3:5-8: Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. _You hear its sound, but_ _you cannot tell where it comes from_ _or where it is going._ So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

We can see, therefore, sense in the order of His Creation. We could not tell where the waters came from, but we knew that if they had come to us, that it had to be from God.

Then, playing on the concepts of Formless and Void, we see immediately that Days 1-3 perform the forms and Days 4-6 perform the fills.

Beginning... "All the days ordained for us" within the formless and void, then:

Day 1, Light.

Day 2, Air.

Day 3, Land and plants.

This progression matches the order of our senses from head to toe.

Day 1, Light: for our sense of vision, for our eyes, mounted highest on our bodies.

Day 2, Air: for our senses of hearing and smell, for the ears and nose, located just below our eyes.

Day 3, Land and plants: for our senses of touch and taste, for our fingers and tongues, the senses which sit still lower on our bodies.

The progression also identifies the members of the Trinity:

Day 1, Light: God, "...the Father of lights,..." James 1:17 (ESV)

Day 2: Air: Spirit, "The wind blows where it wishes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8

Day 3: Land Son, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

The progression repeats, with the fills performed in Days 4 through 6. The progression both matches the order of our senses and converges on our position, zooming in for "the Close-up":

Day 4: The sun, moon, and stars, which fill the highest and the lowest around us. They also, like Day 1, provide something mostly just for the sense of vision. We can see them, but neither hear, nor touch them, at least not without the aid of NASA.

Day 5: Fish and Birds, which fill the "above and below" that lie closer to us. Birds fly above us. Fish swim below us. We see them. We hear some. But, unless they are pets or captured, we don't usually touch them. This matches the senses activated by the creation of sky on Day 2.

Day 6: Land creatures, including man and woman. With all of the senses added by Day 3, we can use these to see, hear, smell, and touch those on our same level; neither above nor below us. So which of these three days, would you say by its position, do the others focus on?

And so the first three days of Creation prepare our Reality for the casting of things contained in the Formless and Void. We do the same for the formless and void contained on our DVD, or on our flash drive. The video and audio we cast from our formless and void data streams match the senses corresponding to Day 1 and Day 2, vision and hearing.

Our ability to generate something similar for the sense of touch, which would correspond to Day 3 is already in the early working stages. This area is known currently as "Haptics". Haptic Displays allow us to touch and move objects within our virtual worlds. Mechanisms to provide for the senses of smell and taste are also being tested.

So imagine yourself moving into a new home. Before you move in, the builder announces that Wi-Fi is ready. You understand that this means you will have full access to "The Cloud", which contains absolutely everything. But in "The Cloud", it is stored as information: that is, everything is in a version that is formless and void – this version means nothing to your senses. You will need to have this version converted to one to which your senses can react.

You look at the big, flat-screen 3D-TV mounted on the wall. The surface of it is now dark. It is flat. Yet you know that when it is turned on, you will see light. You will see unlimited depth: the vastness of space, the insides of atoms, and all the colors you can imagine. You nickname the TV, "The Deep", because it will show you as much depth as exists. You contrast that future with what you see now: "Darkness on the face of 'The Deep'".

So the builder modifies your new living quarters in the following ways:

Day 1: The video is turned on.

Day 2: The audio is turned on.

Day 3: The Haptic Display is turned on.

Now you can see, hear, and touch things that are broadcast from the source that is formless and void, "The Cloud". Congratulations! You've just experienced the same construction sequence for casting to your senses as was performed on Days 1-3 of Genesis 1.

The bottom line is that we now know how to create and store the whole history of a reality we can sense, in a version that is formless and void. Do you see the similarity between what we're doing and the description in Genesis? We are casting from a source that is formless and void to our senses. We draw it out at a rate slower than that of which it is capable. We draw out a bite-sized portion at a time, rather than the whole at once. But the whole is fully contained in our formless and void version. It is there complete in all detail. No time is required to review, understand, and sense it all, so long as the mind doing so is capable of such.

This is how God sees all of history at once. Rather than seeing just one picture at a time as we do, He sees all pictures at once, as we would if we mounted them all from a Rolodex onto a bulletin board. That's why when Peter asks Jesus about his own future, Jesus is able to tell him in detail. God sees Peter in the future exactly as He sees him in what Peter considers "the present". So which Peter is the "real" Peter? The younger one or the older one? To God, they are the same. They are both Peter, just at different points.

So which is true? Free will or predestination?

Both!

We do have free will, but God knows all along how we will use it.

"I will never deny you", stated Peter to Jesus.

"Yes you will... three times before the cock crows", replied Jesus.

It was true.

We tend to think that because we have a will of our own, that no one can know the future for certain.

That's wrong. God knows it intimately and yet, somehow, still loves us in spite of it.

That's how God was able to dictate the letter to Cyrus - by name! – one hundred years before Cyrus was born. The letter was presented to Cyrus and described, in detail, exactly how he would come to power. Cyrus took the letter from God seriously enough that he did what God asked him to do in the letter: to release the Jews from captivity.

It is interesting to note, for this section, another translation which seems to hint more in this direction of the "Formless and Void" describing the entirety in not-yet-cast information form. The Apostolic Bible Polyglot, available online and included in such sites as Biblos.COM, is a version that includes the Greek Interlinear Old Testament, based on the Septuagint. These Greek Scriptures were referenced at points by the New Testament writers and were in use during the time of Jesus. Sometimes the nuances of the Greek translation add more worth considering.

Their translation of Genesis 1:1-2, for example, is as follows:

"In the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth. But the earth was unseen and unready, and darkness was upon the abyss and spirit of God bore upon the water." They define the word "unseen" as "invisible" and the word "abyss" as "boundless, bottomless", i.e. "no boundaries defined".

"Boundless" or "without bounds" fits very well with the concept of "information not yet cast", because the casting involves presenting 3-D objects - with boundaries and edges visible. The information represents objects unseen, but the casting displays them. Your cell phone and HDTV do exactly this type of thing. VR (Virtual Reality) systems do the same in a much more immersive way. If you haven't yet tried the VR experience, you should. Even at this early stage, it is quite impressive.

How this Understanding of God Applies to Genesis 1 and 2

God, the Maker of all things, is not bound by Natural Law. He is the Author of Natural Law. Therefore, He could have created all things in any way desired. He could have made our bodies out of tin, rubber, or jelly. He made our bodies gloriously complex, but He didn't have to. Your body serves as your interface to this Reality. It is your spirit, your soul that drives your body. Adam's body just lay there until God attached spirit to it. Run one of our lesser realities, our simulations, and it's similar: your body in that reality lays there until you take the controls. So again, God could have created all things in any way desired.

This also goes for the time to create our Reality. He could have made it in an instant. He could have taken an hour or two. He could have taken millions of years, but He didn't. He chose, specifically, to do the work in exactly six days and then to rest the seventh.

This also goes for the order of our Creation. Why didn't He just make it all at once? Or, He could have made land first, then water, then sky, then light. Or, He could have made sky, then land, then water, and so on. He could have created man first, then animals, then plants. And then there's that strange question we asked before: Why did He choose to make fish and birds on exactly the same day? What was His point?

It was not by whim that He chose to create our Reality and ourselves as He did. He is always deliberate and purposeful. He is holy. He causes the proud to stumble. So we look at Genesis Chapters 1 and 2 as information conveyed to us directly by Him, to pass on to us something of tremendous value.

What God Said to Look For in Genesis

He did give us hints. He states in Is. 46:9-10, "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'"

Because this statement became part of Scripture, it is directed to all of us as well. This is one of the hints He gave us to look at the beginning, to see the end. We should heed His advice and:

  1. Remember the former things, those of long ago, the record of the beginning.

  2. Look there for "what is still to come".

  3. Look there for, "His purpose, that will stand." And for, "Those things that it pleases Him to do."

We stand near the end of time; near His return. Israel is back in the Land. "Many travel to and fro." Wherever else in history did we have "rush hour"? "Knowledge is vastly increased." Daniel 12:4 notes these as marks of the End Times, the times that mark His soon return.

The Most Important Conversation in History: John Chapter 3

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

1Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."

3Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. "

4"How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!"

5Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

9"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

10"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."

John 3:16 is probably the most famous and oft quoted verse in history. And in this discussion, Jesus asks with show of astonishment, "Are you Israel's teacher and you do not know these things?". He states further, "We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. And still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I speak to you of heavenly things?"

This conversation was recorded for us to read and witness, just as we would witness a scene in a drama. As when watching a drama, we put ourselves in the place of the character, to think through how we would feel and how we would respond to the challenge.

So we put ourselves in the place of Nicodemus. As Nicodemus, we might say to ourselves, "Jesus has described me as 'top of the top of teachers'. And yet He says I know not the most basic things - the earthly things. Maybe I had better and go back to the basics, to the beginning of God's Word, to the 'earthly things', to Genesis, to page 1, and reread it!"

Jesus spoke in the plural, "We". This is how He spoke in Genesis 1. The Hebrew word that is translated, "God", in Genesis 1 is "Elohim". It is actually plural: "Gods". We. But the verb accompanying it is singular. Multi-unity. Three in One. "We know and testify to what we have seen". Elohim knows. Elohim has seen. Elohim has testified. And the subject Jesus refers to must be about something we have not seen ourselves, because it is about things which depend on His testimony.

There is only one section which covers things God did before man was present to "see" as well: The Days of Genesis 1. God saw and testified to them. But we did not see them, at least, not until part way through Day 6. For the earlier Days of Genesis 1, the record shows:

"and God(s) (Elohim) SAW that it was good."

"and God(s) (Elohim) SAW that it was good."

"and God(s) (Elohim) SAW that it was good."

God did see. God did know. God did testify. Jesus rebukes people who "still do not believe Our testimony". Perhaps if we, as Nicodemus, went back to page 1, we might note that before the Days began, the record specifies that two things were present:

Gen 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

Things that were present just before Day 1:

1. God's Spirit

2. The waters.

It is also noted that the Spirit was above the waters. So when Jesus said, "Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit", He is stating the two things from which all else, except light, came. Light stood directly by the Word. Thus, it could model Him who was the Word. But the sky was made by drawing the water above from the water below. Land was made by gathering the water to one place. Plants were made from the land.

The sun, moon, and stars were made directly by the Word. Thus, they could signify those not born of the will of the flesh, but by the Will of God. God's first use of them would be so in Genesis 15: "So shall your offspring be." They would be tasked with the job of the former Light: To give light upon the earth, to separate Day from night and as the Psalmist declares, "To pour forth speech, to display knowledge, to make their message to go into all the earth." Jesus, as the Light of the World, so commanded in Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My Witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and to the ends of the earth." Their final destiny is proclaimed in Daniel 12:3, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."

Fish and all sea-dwelling creatures were "born of water", while birds and all that inhabit the sky were "born of the air", which can also translate to "born of spirit", since the word for spirit can mean spirit, breath, or wind. Land animals were "born of the land", or "born of dust". Man's body was made of the dust, but his life was given by the Spirit of God. The Woman was brought forth, forcibly, from the suffering of the body of the man. A foreshadowing?

So from these three ingredients, water and Spirit, and Word, everything else proceeded.

As Nicodemus, I'd think to myself, "So it is not unnatural that The Man who talks to me tonight (John 3) recites exactly and specifically the same things that were needed at the beginning: Water, Spirit, and His Word. None of the things made during the Genesis Days were made in the 'natural' way. None of them were 'birthed' naturally. Adam wasn't birthed. Eve wasn't birthed. They had no parents; at least not in the 'natural' way. And yet that wasn't a problem for them. So, I should probably drop my requirement that God can only 'birth again' in the natural way."

Jesus also declared the verdict: "The Light has come into the world." (John 3:19)

If Nicodemus had been a faithful reader and believer of Genesis 1, he might have noticed:

The Light = Day 1

The World = Day 3

So could Day 2 = "Come into"?

So we consider this point, as Nicodemus could have, and realize that the "Sky" created on Day 2 changed how light interacted with the world. On Day 1, there was simply Light and Water, but no sky. So on Day 1, the Light came "onto" the water. But Day 2 changed things. Day 2 added sky above the water. Now light could enter the world, because "sky" was now part of the world. "Sky" created the need for the preposition "into", instead of "onto". The events of Day 2 therefore set up for the construction of the sentence "The Light comes into" to replace the former condition, "The Light comes onto".

So here Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus using the specific concepts of each of the first three Genesis Days, in their exact sequence.

Instead of hearing, "This is the verdict: The Light has come into the world,"

Nicodemus should have heard it as, "This is the verdict: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3".

This should have shaken him to the core. The One speaking to Nicodemus - and through this record to us all - spoke the language of the Creator. This is why the Creator created in six days. This is why the Creator painted six simple pictures. The Creator was painting His plan - His message to the world - in these six pictures. The link between the two would confirm them both. The Days of Genesis happened exactly as recorded and the Man who stood before Nicodemus was the One who did it. God had planned for this conversation, this night, since the beginning of the World. All the days ordained for Nicodemus and for us all were written before one of them came to be.

Jesus was also telling us, for the first time since Creation, why the Light of Day 1 was removed after Day 3: "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil." The world rejected Jesus; it rejected the Light. This, too, was painted into the Days of Creation. Days 4-6 painted God's solution. These would concern the heavenly things, as the first concerned the earthly things. It would be a battle between the "will of the flesh" and "the Will of God".

It should not surprise us that God chose to prepare for this specific conversation within the acts of Creation itself.. We know that the conversation with Nicodemus, which includes John 3:16, is the most important message of all Scripture.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Luther called this verse, "The Bible in miniature."

God condensed it to six days.

The Structure of Genesis 1 and 2

The format of Genesis 1 is a sequence of days; a timeline. This is probably best pictured as a horizontal line:

The work of God takes place over the first six days. The seventh day is noted as "completion" and assigned by God as Holy and "for rest". We will consider the "Work of God" to be the "Plan of God", which takes up six of the seven days.

So a drawing of the structure of Genesis 1 might look, most simply, like this:   , a horizontal line.

Genesis 2, in contrast, is not divided into separate days. It is a list. It notes conditions that are yet needed, the thing necessary to provide the solution (The Servant), and the steps taken to complete the task. Because there is no mention of multiple days, we will take the text verbatim: as just one day. Many events are noted within Genesis 2, so we would list them vertically, to show that they all lie within that one day. So a drawing of the structure of Genesis 2 might look, most simply, like this, a vertical line:

It is understood that Genesis 2 details the creation of Adam, which we know from Genesis 1 occurs on Day 6. So if we align the drawings that represent the structures of the two chapters, we would place them like this:

This arrangement correctly illustrates that on the sixth day of Creation, Adam was formed and that Genesis chapter 2 provides more detail to supplement the account of Genesis 1. As noted before, we are looking at the time span of the first six days as illustrating the "work" portion of God's Plan.

However, some Atheists like to read Genesis 2 all on its own. It is interesting that the text of Genesis 2 allows something strange to happen if you do this. The text includes the verb "formed", for example. But the tense isn't specified. It can be either, "formed", or "had formed". The original language allows either case. Meanwhile, the description of conditions just before the creation of "The Man" imply - if you read the text verbatim - that the earth, complete with water, sky, and land, existed, but that the events of Genesis 2 take place "before any plant or herb" was "in the ground".

So if we use the events of the days of Genesis 1 and work our way horizontally along the timeline of Genesis 1, we come to the middle of Day 3, where we have water, light, sky, and land, but no plants. Again, if we read the text verbatim, we find we could place "The Man" (as the atheists love to do) as rising up on Day 3.

So this would make our drawings of the lines representing Genesis 1 and 2 go something like this:

The Atheists' goal in this effort is to show that the events of Genesis 2 do not line up with the sixth day of Genesis 1. They thus try to show that the accounts of the two Genesis chapters are not in agreement, and that therefore neither is true.

The traditional Christian rebuttal is this:

1. That the sixth day alignment for Genesis 2 is maintained by the specific declaration of Genesis 1.

2. That the presentation of events in Genesis 2 is focused on important details of the creation of Man and Woman with surrounding events mentioned, but not in the strict sequential order of Genesis 1.

Both of these arguments are valid. The verb tense in Genesis 2 can be interpreted, for example, as "had formed", rather than "formed (next)". Either is permissible. The "had formed" version allows alignment of the Genesis 2 events with the sixth day of Genesis 1. The Atheists don't want to admit this, because their purpose is to prove the Scripture false rather than true.

But the text allows both possibilities. So there are two possible readings. And something amazing happens if you allow it to do so.

If we follow the alternate reading further, we find there are two declarations of "There He placed the man." in Genesis 2. If you look at the list of descriptions above the first such statement, you will see that it is smaller than the list of descriptions below the second such statement. Something of the proportion 1/3 for the above/below looks about right. If we adjust the vertical line representing Genesis 2 using the "He placed" statements as guides for the vertical adjustment of the line, we find the line representing the "to do list" of Genesis 2 moves downward to something like this:

Well, that's interesting, isn't it?!?

Now the atheists also like to add that the two chapters do not match, because Genesis 2 describes the man as "the Servant", while Genesis 1 describes him as "The King". "How can he be both?", they challenge. I'll leave it to Isaiah 53 and Revelation 19 to answer that question.

So you see, the text of Genesis 2 allows for two renderings: the man rising on the third day, and the man arriving on the sixth day. The text can be taken, verbatim, either way. As a programmer, I would consider the Author to allow the single text to be "multi-threaded". "Multi-threaded", is a programming term that means one text can be used for more than one "process". This leads to more than one "storyline". We do this in programming. Why wouldn't we consider that the Great Programmer might do such a thing to catch our attention in the Last Days? As a believer, I know that the text of Genesis 2 documents the creation of Adam on the sixth day. Adam sinned thereafter. We were all bound by his sin and thereafter compounded his with many more of our own. What a mess!

But as a programmer, I see also another thread. The text speaks of "The Man". If we take the chapter by itself, this man remains sinless throughout. I know of only one such man in history.

So we will "follow the Man" to see what else Genesis may be trying to show us. This "Man" of Genesis 2... What opportunities is He given? What does He do in response? How does He react? Follow the man. Follow the man. Follow the man.

In the alternate version of Genesis 2, the text describes the Man rising up on the third day. The text, understood verbatim, describes the man as sinless throughout the chapter. It describes Him being offered the opportunity to find fortune (just follow the river Pishon). He could also explore other lands by choosing any of the other three rivers. Think of yourself as entering the "Waterpark Eden". Wouldn't you be tempted?

But the Man would have to leave God's side to make any of those choices. This man sees the rivers, the opportunities, and chooses none of them. I know a similar man who was offered whole kingdoms, if He would just leave the errand assigned Him and, instead, "follow the river". But He chose none of them.

The Man of Genesis 2 was also offered trees of beauty and trees of delicious fruit. I think I'd be tempted to set up a hammock and munch on some mangoes. Or perhaps build a house for myself out of exotic wood. Many of us focus on that type of thing today.

But the Man of Genesis 2 chose none of those things.

He didn't travel.

He didn't seek fortune.

He didn't pursue pleasure.

Now in the storyline as it applies to Adam, we are probably correct in presuming that God is merely showing him around his new estate. Adam doesn't make choices yet, because there's more to see first. But the alternate reading shows "The Man" fixated on an assignment. To Him, these other choices are just a distraction; a temptation. He chooses none of them, but remains at God's side throughout.

I know a similar man who wouldn't even choose bread when He was starving after a forty day fast.

He never left the assignment.

He never left God's side.

We don't learn till late in Chapter 2 that the assignment included bringing forth the bride. Or was that really the plan all along? Somehow, the concept of "a crop", mentioned first in the chapter, is linked to this "bringing forth of the Bride". "Crop" implies many. "Bride" implies one. "May they be one as We are One".

The Servant allows for the Outpouring, which produces the Crop, which becomes the Bride.

The bride is the point; not the Creation.

He built the house,

For love of His spouse;

Not for the love of the house.

She thought it her life,

'Twas only her strife.

She needn't have

Struggled that way.

He called from afar,

"Come as you are!

Come, my bride, come away!"

Her redemption He'd paid,

When His life down He laid.

The house tossed He

Simply away.

James Evermore

The Bride was the point all along. You are indeed living in the greatest romance story ever written.

The Hebrew word translated "suitable" in the description "suitable helper" in Genesis 2, is rich with meaning. It means "one who can stand face to face with". Same height. Same size. If we stood behind one, we could not see the other because they were so much the same size.

Do you get it? God's been putting the example in front of us all along! The moon. The sun. The bride. The groom.

The moon has no light of its own. It has no life, no air, no glory of its own. Its scars are there for all to see. It is so puny compared to the sun.

But something amazing happens:

The moon reflects the light of the sun. It may reflect a little, some, or most, depending on the time within its cycle. And its cycle matches exactly that of a woman.

And then there are those rare times when people on Earth are drawn to watch the spectacle:

The moon aligns perfectly with the sun. It stands face to face with the sun. On Earth, because of its position away from both of them, they can see that the two are "suitable", as they match perfectly in size. Those on Earth no longer see the moon or the sun at all, but the sun sees the moon face to face. Those on Earth can see the sun's glory shining around the moon, as though embracing her, taking her to Himself. They see the glory, but nothing else. No Moon. No Sun. No light.

God is showing His plan in all this. The Day is coming when the bride will be taken. The parable of the virgins. Sometime. Maybe soon. There is yet time to make ready. Romans 10:8-13. "...all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

With Genesis 2 as it relates to Adam, we know that no bride previously existed. But we also know that the Bride of Christ is being made up entirely and only of pre-existing sinners, who needed to be redeemed and reborn. We know that there was no other way to accomplish the redemption than by Jesus laying Himself down for us. We know that, because we read the record that Jesus asked for "any other way, if it were possible", in the Garden of Gethsemane.

How awful was that Garden for Jesus, compared to the "Garden of Easy" for Adam.

If there were any other way, I am certain God would have granted Jesus' request. The fact that God didn't grant it proves that there was no other way.

That's why Genesis 2 is so interesting when it describes as "all animals" being brought by God to the Man, to see what He would name them.

"Not the way."

"Not the way."

"Not the way."

These would have been Jesus' answers to these that represented the consideration of each other way; of each animal presented.

Note also that only two times, in Scripture, did "all animals" come, led by God:

1. To this Man.

2. To the Ark.

Was this a hint?: Is this Man our Ark? Is He our Ark of salvation from God's coming judgment? Interesting.

Declaring the End from the Beginning

Let us return, now, to the structure of Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

The Plan of God, which is portrayed in the Creation by God, requires two parts: The horizontal and the vertical. The Horizontal is Genesis 1. It is presented as a simple timeline of six days. The portraits of the work performed on these six days, in this specific order – and this precise order only – match exactly what we have seen of God's entire plan as it unfolded through history. The Vertical is Genesis 2. It portrays the drama of the need for redemption, the insertion of God Himself into human history, the sacrifice that only He could make, and the bringing forth and building of the bride. It concludes with the Marriage Ceremony (representing the Marriage Supper of the Lamb) and presentation of the couple. The drama of Genesis 2, in this specific order - and this precise order only - matches exactly the message of the Gospel.

Genesis 1 covers the full sweep of history, up to the final Kingdom, but leaves as mysteries:

  1. The reason for the light of the first three days needing to be replaced by lesser lights.

  2. The details of the source and making of the Bride.

Genesis 2 reveals the need for and the coming of "The Man"; "The Servant". It also reveals the mystery of the source and making of the Bride.

In John 3, the Light Himself reveals why the Light had to be replaced by lesser lights.

So Genesis 1, by its content, portrays the Old Testament. The Old Testament describes the same plan as Genesis 1, but, similarly, leaves out

  1. The reason for the light of the first three days needing to be replaced by lesser lights.

  2. The details of the source and making of the Bride.

Genesis 2 portrays the New Testament. The New Testament starts with the need for and then the "Light coming into the World". It also reveals the mystery of why the Light was rejected by the World and replaced by the "little Christs" of Pentecost. John 3:19 specifically answers that question, which was always the puzzle of Genesis 1: "Why did there need to be stars, Moon, and Sun, if the Light of the First Day was already adequate?

John 3:19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

Genesis 2 also reveals the source and nature of the Bride: both the Crop of the farmer parables and the intimate Bride, described by Paul as, "We are One Body in Christ."

This answers, then, why there are Two Testaments: The Old Testament, then the New Testament. This is why there are two presentations in Genesis: Chapter 1, then Chapter 2. The Two Testaments match, exactly, the corresponding contents of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. God knew from the beginning that there would be Two Testaments. He proved it by laying it all out in advance, in the pictures, drama, and structure of the Creation. If He had presented Genesis 2 before Genesis 1, we would get the same information, but it wouldn't match the order of the Two Testaments. If He had rearranged the pictures of Genesis 1 (Land before Water, etc.) or if He had rearranged or altered the drama of Genesis 2 (God creating both Bride and Groom in the same way, at the same time, for example), the two Genesis chapters would not match the structure of the rest of the Bible as we now know it. In the order presented, with the pictures painted, and with the drama directed as it was, the two Genesis chapters lay out, in advance, all of the rest of the Bible. As Luther might have said, "The complete Bible, in miniature.".

Is. 46:9-10, "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'"

Rendering the text for the Drama of Genesis 2 in "The Genesis Puzzle" video

The text for the Drama of Genesis 2 is "as looking backward from fulfillment". How can we read the text of Genesis 2, verbatim, and recognize how it describes the Messiah? M.R. Dehaan did this, in remarkable ways, with such texts as Genesis 22. The events of Genesis 22, as the text records it, also allow this duality. It is the story of Abraham and Isaac. But the drama God has them live out also portrays the drama of another Father and another Son, to be played out in that same area many centuries later: Jesus on Calvary.

So we "follow the man" of Genesis 2 and watch how He responds. "Follow the man", "Follow the Man", and "Follow the man."

Scripture:

Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted;

for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth,

Rendered as:

Before there could be first fruits,

There had to be an outpouring,

**Comments:** The root words for words "shrub" and "herb" here imply cultivatable plants. Since none existed prior to these, they represent – by definition – the very First Fruits, for which Pentecost was defined by God. The fulfillment of Pentecost was in Acts 2, when God poured out the Holy Spirit and produced the First Fruits of His crop of the redeemed. He purposely delayed pouring out the Holy Spirit until Pentecost, to directly link the two. There could be no crop of the redeemed, until the outpouring occurred.

This section that begins Genesis 2 has a striking parallel later in Scripture. In Isaiah 45:8, God Himself declares,

"You heavens above, rain down my righteousness;

let the clouds shower it down.

Let the earth open wide,

let salvation spring up,

let righteousness flourish with it;

I, the LORD, have created it."

Note further, that the verses immediately preceding this, in Isaiah 45:6b-7a, include the statements:

"...I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I form the light and create darkness,"

So in verse 7, God references the creation of Light and Dark, which occur on Genesis 1/Day 1. In the very next verse, He issues the commands to "rain down and produce the crop", which meet the needs declared at the beginning of Genesis 2. Note that these two verses in Isaiah are joined in the exact same order as Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. They tie the first event of Genesis 1 to the first event – the declaration of need – of Genesis 2. This is not coincidence. It shows that the structure of the Creation passages into two separate pieces was deliberate.

But here in Isaiah, God further reveals that His purpose in the "crop" was not simply to produce fruit for the flesh, but to produce the Fruit of the Spirit . This provides the commentary on what the drama of Genesis 2 means, by the very same Author, Himself.

**Comments:** There had to be an outpouring from Heaven to produce the crop desired. In contrast, the mist, which did provide water all over the earth was insufficient. This is deliberately noted. It shows that what rises from Earth is not enough. What is needed must come from Heaven. So we can recognize by the contrast between the mist, which did physically provide water, and the rain, which was "sent by God from Heaven" as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and afterward.

Scripture:

and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

Rendered as:

Which required a servant.

**Comments:** "The Man" was needed to "work the earth". There was no true life before Jesus came and redeemed us. That's why John the Baptist described himself as just, "A voice in the wilderness.", because before Jesus came, we were truly all dead in our sins. That's why the Man Jesus, in a sense, was alone on Earth until He paid our price. So also is the Man alone with God in Genesis 2, until the work is done and the Bride brought forth. The description of the Jewish Leaders as "Whitewashed tombs...full of dead mens' bones.", was technically correct. Though we moved our dead and dying bodies, we didn't understand how truly lost and dead we were.

Scripture:

But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

Rendered as:

What came up from the earth was not enough.

Scripture:

Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

Rendered as:

So God formed a body from dust and poured Himself into it.

**Comments:** Note that the text doesn't specify how _much_ of God's Spirit is poured in. This allows for the two cases:

Case 1: The man, Adam. Limited.

Case 2: The Man, Jesus. Without Limit, as the Scripture says. (John 3:34)

God comments on this Servant who will do His work in Isaiah 42:

Is 42:"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out,

or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on Earth.

Scripture:

And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food.

And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it branched into four headwaters:

The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is pure, and bdellium and onyx are found there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it winds through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it runs along the east side of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Rendered as:

He didn't travel to find fortune.

Scripture:

Then the LORD God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.

And the LORD God commanded him, "You may eat freely from every tree of the garden,

Rendered as:

He didn't live to pursue happiness.

Scripture:

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."

Rendered as:

He came to pay a debt He didn't owe.

Scripture:

The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make for him a suitable helper."

Rendered as:

If He remained alone, we would never be redeemed. That was not good.

Scripture:

And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

Rendered as:

He considered all ways, but none other was right.

Scripture:

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the area with flesh.

Rendered as:

He never left God's side, but agreed to lay Himself down for our sake.

Comments:

Many passages describe this work as it came to be fulfilled. Here are a few:

Acts 4:12, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

Heb 10: 4-7, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.' Then I said, 'Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.' "

John 10: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

 "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

John 19:34 (Douay-Rheims Bible). "But one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water."

**1 John 3:** "By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."

Heb 10:19-23, "Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful."

Scripture:

And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him.

Rendered as:

God laid Him down and took from within Him Something that could never be replaced; only covered. He came to know separation, Who had only known Oneness, So that we might know Oneness, Who had only known separation. God left Him to form His bride, Who could stand with Him, Face to face. His bride saw Him not, Until God brought her, Finished, to Him.

Scripture:

And the man said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for out of man she was taken."

Rendered as:

"This is my body!", The Creator's spoken words. "She shall be called, 'Christian', For she was taken from Christ."

**Comments:** Note that these are the first recorded words of the man in Genesis 2. Although it is mentioned that he named the animals, his words for that part are not recorded. Now they are. So we add the phrase "The Creator's spoken words" here to emphasize that the One who spoke everything into existence through Genesis 1 now speaks again about our destiny. If He speaks it, it always happens!

Why didn't God simply pour His life into woman to make her as he did "the Man"? Because this way, the drama portrays how "our life is _in Him_ ". "Those who hath the Son hath life. Those who hath not the Son hath not life." We have no life except what comes from Him. We are totally dependent on Him. The truth is: we always have been.

Thus, God in Genesis 2 takes care to compose the drama, which conveys the deeper message. The proud, the unbelieving, will shrug it off as foolishness. The believers will recognize the details as laying out the truths of our own redemption in advance.

1 Cor. 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Scripture:

For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Rendered as:

Marriage would mark this covenant forever.

**Comments:** The Marriage Supper of the Lamb does indeed confirm this covenant of Marriage forever. The Institution of Marriage was declared here by God to point toward this future covenant. This is why the evil one so wants to destroy God's definition of marriage in the end times.

Added for emphasis:

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!".

**Comments:** The last page of the Bible parallels the first page of the Bible in its drama. The Spirit and bride are now active in calling everyone to come. There is still time to come. Everyone is invited. "All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Scripture:

And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

Rendered as:

They will be fully revealed and shame will be no more.
Conclusion

The final presentation of this book is The Genesis Puzzle, as a video. The background provided by this book is intended to support the presentation of the video. If you accept that God can create in any way desired and that He knew it all from the Beginning, then the message conveyed by the video follows somewhat seamlessly.

The format is somewhat like hiking The Audit Trail in reverse. The video proceeds through transitions as we would see them from our perspective of Reality, until we reach the point where we see it "All-at-Once", which is God's perspective on the same Reality.

I John 2:2-3, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."

May this book enrich your experience as you walk with Him.

Thank you.

The video may be reached here:

"The Genesis Puzzle", available online at:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OEz4ywa5ec>

