And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
The Father and the Son together spoke the firmament into being in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. It was the work of a literal day, the second day of a first week of seven literal days only about six thousand years ago, which set the pattern for every week since. The six days spent forming heaven and earth and sea give man six days for labor, and the seventh day of rest gives the Sabbath as a holy sign in memory of the Creator's rest. To stretch those days into long ages to allow for evolution from chaos destroys the force of the fourth commandment and strikes at the foundation of the Sabbath. The same creative energy remains in the spoken Word, so that every command received into the soul brings the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates it in the image of God.
Firmament Dividing the Waters
The Father and the Son worked together in the mighty work they had contemplated, and by the spoken command called the firmament into being in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. The dividing of the waters means the waters were regularly dispersed among diversified land, not one extensive plain but broken by hills, mountains and plains with rivers and other bodies of water interspersed among them. As thus formed the earth came forth exceedingly beautiful, orderly and varied like a noble palace, with pure and healthful air at which angels beheld and rejoiced. Its hills, mountains and plains were regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare high rocks hidden beneath the surface as bones to the earth. Its surface was adorned with plants and flowers and tall majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than now.
The firmament was one daily production in which each day of the first week generated some new portion of the work. God deliberately chose to work through six days though He had power to speak the whole world into existence in one day. Just how He accomplished the dividing of the waters He has never revealed to mortals, and His creative work is as incomprehensible as His existence and cannot be searched out by human science. What is revealed belongs to men and gives sufficient evidence upon which to base faith, while faith should not rest on mere suppositions about what God has not revealed.
What God spoke into existence remains as a reservoir of means ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure. Nothing He made is useless, for tares come from the enemy's sowing under the curse. The creative energy of that spoken command remains in the Word, which imparts power and begets life so that every command accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life thus imparted is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Literal Week and Sabbath
Genesis 1:6 belongs to the literal, plain Mosaic record of a first week of only seven literal days just like every other week, with the world now only about six thousand years old. The day of this dividing work was a literal day, not a vast, indefinite period covering thousands or even millions of years. Each day God generated or produced some new portion of His work, and the firmament is one of those daily productions. God made that first week very plain.
That first week originated the week and was measured off by God as the sample and first cycle for all successive weeks to the close of time. The six days, including the dividing of the waters, were six literal days employed in making heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and they give man his six days for labor. The seventh day that followed, on which God ended His work, rested from all His work which He created and made, and was refreshed, and which He blessed and sanctified and set apart as a day of rest for man, gives man his Sabbath rest in commemoration of the Creator's rest. That finished work with everything else He had made was very good by the sixth day, and the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day thereby proclaimed to all the earth that the Sabbath is holy, a sign and perpetual covenant, because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Only as literal days do they give the beautiful and forcible reason for keeping the weekly Sabbath.
Treating the days as long periods to accommodate the claim that millions of years were required for the earth to evolve from chaos rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature and undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. To make the days indefinite destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, because men are commanded to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of that week. Making this literal day a vast, indefinite period obscures plain truth and strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. To make the commemoration refer to seven indefinite periods is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. Holding the indefinite-period view while professing to believe the record of creation is infidelity in disguise and the worst kind of infidelity.
Claims that the world is very much older, tens of thousands of years old, from evidences in the earth itself, do not change the record. The time of the earth's existence and the meaning of relics found in mountains and valleys showing larger men and beasts, petrified wood, instruments of warfare, and a state of things differing in many respects from the present can be learned only from the inspired record, for without Bible history geology can prove nothing. Difficulties over wonderful things found in the earth come from limited ideas of the size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and of the great changes which then took place in the earth. Men, animals and trees before the flood were much larger than those now living, and great changes took place in the earth at the flood.
Trusting and Living the Word
Genesis 1:6 belongs to the most comprehensive and instructive history possessed by men, the great facts of creation that stand as pillars of the Christian faith, found alone as the authentic account of how the world was made. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth and has been preserved in its purity through the ages by the divine Mind and Hand. In it is beheld the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, giving the history of the race unsullied by human prejudice or pride, and thereby defining God as the living God who made heaven and earth. Its light shines into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate.
A large share of the professedly Christian world practically rejects these facts, either wholly or in part. Thousands who pride themselves on wisdom and independence regard implicit confidence in the Bible as weakness, and regard caviling at the Scriptures and spiritualizing and explaining away their most important truths as proof of superior talent and learning. In the last days men endeavor to explain creation from natural causes, receive human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists in opposition to plain Scripture facts, dispute the Mosaic record upon the merest pretense, and consider God's word unreliable. Faith should rest on the sufficient evidence God has given and on what is revealed as belonging to men, rather than on suppositions about what He has not revealed concerning just how He wrought the dividing of the waters, which human science cannot search out. The making of the firmament to divide the waters from the waters is a plain revealed fact meaning the work was done by God and is not the result of natural causes. Refusing to study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure while eagerly receiving geological theories that contradict Moses exposes inconsistency, since what God has revealed must be accepted rather than set aside for speculations about what He has not revealed.
The world was called into existence by the spoken word, and the creative energy of that command remains in the Word. That Word imparts power and begets life, so that every command accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature, and recreates the soul in the image of God. The life thus imparted is in like manner sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This Word is to be the chief study in schools, carrying minds higher than now thought possible, training heart and mind to grasp the truths of divine revelation and eternal life and to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. It brings converse with patriarchs and prophets, and teaches what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life that a people might stand redeemed from every common earthly thing and renewed in the image of God.
The great work of creation that gives the reason for the Sabbath is to be described to children in the fields and groves on Sabbath afternoon. It shows the earth as it came from God's hand holy and beautiful, with every flower, shrub and tree answering its Creator's purpose, everything lovely filling the mind with thoughts of God's love, and every sound music in harmony with God's voice. It shows that sin marred that perfect work, so that thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are the result of disobedience. Though marred with the curse, the earth still reveals God's goodness and forbearance through green fields, lofty trees, glad sunshine, clouds, dew, the solemn stillness of night, the glory of the starry heavens, the moon in its beauty, rain and light, all bearing witness of the Creator and testifying to His love.
What was spoken into existence remains as a reservoir of means ready to be employed instantly to do His pleasure, and nothing made is useless, for tares come from the enemy's sowing under the curse. God made the world in six days when He could have spoken it into existence in one, and His taking six days sets the pattern for measured labor without rush and hurry. Regular hours are to be kept for work and sleep, stopping when strength requires rest, and preserving health and strength instead of working day and night until breakdown and helplessness. Rational beings should not cause confusion but should live to God and honor Him as all-wise and all-sufficient, for Christ came so that His perfection might be revealed in humanity.
The Father and the Son together spoke the firmament into being in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. It was the work of a literal day, the second day of a first week of seven literal days only about six thousand years ago, which set the pattern for every week since. The six days spent forming heaven and earth and sea give man six days for labor, and the seventh day of rest gives the Sabbath as a holy sign in memory of the Creator's rest. To stretch those days into long ages to allow for evolution from chaos destroys the force of the fourth commandment and strikes at the foundation of the Sabbath. The same creative energy remains in the spoken Word, so that every command received into the soul brings the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates it in the image of God.
Firmament Dividing the Waters
The Father and the Son worked together in the mighty work they had contemplated, and by the spoken command called the firmament into being in the midst of the waters to divide the waters from the waters. The dividing of the waters means the waters were regularly dispersed among diversified land, not one extensive plain but broken by hills, mountains and plains with rivers and other bodies of water interspersed among them. As thus formed the earth came forth exceedingly beautiful, orderly and varied like a noble palace, with pure and healthful air at which angels beheld and rejoiced. Its hills, mountains and plains were regular and beautiful in shape, not high and ragged as now, with bare high rocks hidden beneath the surface as bones to the earth. Its surface was adorned with plants and flowers and tall majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than now.
The firmament was one daily production in which each day of the first week generated some new portion of the work. God deliberately chose to work through six days though He had power to speak the whole world into existence in one day. Just how He accomplished the dividing of the waters He has never revealed to mortals, and His creative work is as incomprehensible as His existence and cannot be searched out by human science. What is revealed belongs to men and gives sufficient evidence upon which to base faith, while faith should not rest on mere suppositions about what God has not revealed.
What God spoke into existence remains as a reservoir of means ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure. Nothing He made is useless, for tares come from the enemy's sowing under the curse. The creative energy of that spoken command remains in the Word, which imparts power and begets life so that every command accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life thus imparted is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Literal Week and Sabbath
Genesis 1:6 belongs to the literal, plain Mosaic record of a first week of only seven literal days just like every other week, with the world now only about six thousand years old. The day of this dividing work was a literal day, not a vast, indefinite period covering thousands or even millions of years. Each day God generated or produced some new portion of His work, and the firmament is one of those daily productions. God made that first week very plain.
That first week originated the week and was measured off by God as the sample and first cycle for all successive weeks to the close of time. The six days, including the dividing of the waters, were six literal days employed in making heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and they give man his six days for labor. The seventh day that followed, on which God ended His work, rested from all His work which He created and made, and was refreshed, and which He blessed and sanctified and set apart as a day of rest for man, gives man his Sabbath rest in commemoration of the Creator's rest. That finished work with everything else He had made was very good by the sixth day, and the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day thereby proclaimed to all the earth that the Sabbath is holy, a sign and perpetual covenant, because in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Only as literal days do they give the beautiful and forcible reason for keeping the weekly Sabbath.
Treating the days as long periods to accommodate the claim that millions of years were required for the earth to evolve from chaos rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature and undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. To make the days indefinite destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, because men are commanded to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of that week. Making this literal day a vast, indefinite period obscures plain truth and strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. To make the commemoration refer to seven indefinite periods is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. Holding the indefinite-period view while professing to believe the record of creation is infidelity in disguise and the worst kind of infidelity.
Claims that the world is very much older, tens of thousands of years old, from evidences in the earth itself, do not change the record. The time of the earth's existence and the meaning of relics found in mountains and valleys showing larger men and beasts, petrified wood, instruments of warfare, and a state of things differing in many respects from the present can be learned only from the inspired record, for without Bible history geology can prove nothing. Difficulties over wonderful things found in the earth come from limited ideas of the size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and of the great changes which then took place in the earth. Men, animals and trees before the flood were much larger than those now living, and great changes took place in the earth at the flood.
Trusting and Living the Word
Genesis 1:6 belongs to the most comprehensive and instructive history possessed by men, the great facts of creation that stand as pillars of the Christian faith, found alone as the authentic account of how the world was made. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth and has been preserved in its purity through the ages by the divine Mind and Hand. In it is beheld the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, giving the history of the race unsullied by human prejudice or pride, and thereby defining God as the living God who made heaven and earth. Its light shines into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate.
A large share of the professedly Christian world practically rejects these facts, either wholly or in part. Thousands who pride themselves on wisdom and independence regard implicit confidence in the Bible as weakness, and regard caviling at the Scriptures and spiritualizing and explaining away their most important truths as proof of superior talent and learning. In the last days men endeavor to explain creation from natural causes, receive human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists in opposition to plain Scripture facts, dispute the Mosaic record upon the merest pretense, and consider God's word unreliable. Faith should rest on the sufficient evidence God has given and on what is revealed as belonging to men, rather than on suppositions about what He has not revealed concerning just how He wrought the dividing of the waters, which human science cannot search out. The making of the firmament to divide the waters from the waters is a plain revealed fact meaning the work was done by God and is not the result of natural causes. Refusing to study the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure while eagerly receiving geological theories that contradict Moses exposes inconsistency, since what God has revealed must be accepted rather than set aside for speculations about what He has not revealed.
The world was called into existence by the spoken word, and the creative energy of that command remains in the Word. That Word imparts power and begets life, so that every command accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature, and recreates the soul in the image of God. The life thus imparted is in like manner sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This Word is to be the chief study in schools, carrying minds higher than now thought possible, training heart and mind to grasp the truths of divine revelation and eternal life and to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. It brings converse with patriarchs and prophets, and teaches what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life that a people might stand redeemed from every common earthly thing and renewed in the image of God.
The great work of creation that gives the reason for the Sabbath is to be described to children in the fields and groves on Sabbath afternoon. It shows the earth as it came from God's hand holy and beautiful, with every flower, shrub and tree answering its Creator's purpose, everything lovely filling the mind with thoughts of God's love, and every sound music in harmony with God's voice. It shows that sin marred that perfect work, so that thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are the result of disobedience. Though marred with the curse, the earth still reveals God's goodness and forbearance through green fields, lofty trees, glad sunshine, clouds, dew, the solemn stillness of night, the glory of the starry heavens, the moon in its beauty, rain and light, all bearing witness of the Creator and testifying to His love.
What was spoken into existence remains as a reservoir of means ready to be employed instantly to do His pleasure, and nothing made is useless, for tares come from the enemy's sowing under the curse. God made the world in six days when He could have spoken it into existence in one, and His taking six days sets the pattern for measured labor without rush and hurry. Regular hours are to be kept for work and sleep, stopping when strength requires rest, and preserving health and strength instead of working day and night until breakdown and helplessness. Rational beings should not cause confusion but should live to God and honor Him as all-wise and all-sufficient, for Christ came so that His perfection might be revealed in humanity.