text-book tells us, and being truly scientific, we too will use the term "earth" as the

text-book directs. We shall not read "appear" (Heb. raah "become visible") as though it

were bara, the Hebrew word "create". We should scrupulously keep to facts as stated.

This means of course that the opening verses of Genesis have been misread and so we

turn back to verse two to examine its testimony. The reader may have noticed, that the

A.V. printers have taken the trouble to use two sorts of type for printing the word "was"

in that verse.

As this series of articles is primarily for new readers, we purposely refrain from too

many grammatical notes, but we believe that all will be able to follow the explanation

here given. When the ordinary sense of the verb "to be" is intended (am, art, is, was,

&100:), no Hebrew word is employed, its presence is assumed, and so in English the word

"was" is printed was. When the sense is "become" rather than "be", the word "was" is

printed in ordinary type, signifying that the Hebrew verb is actually used. Now this verb

occurs in Gen. 2: 7 where man "became" a living soul, for he certainly was not "living"

until he breathed the breath of life. Again we read in Gen. 4: 2 that Abel "was" a

keeper of sheep, and that Cain "was" a tiller of the ground. But common sense tells us

that some years must have elapsed after their birth before this could have been possible,

and all is in harmony if we remember that the word here is "become".

In  Gen. 19: 26  the verb is translated correctly "she became a pillar of salt",

indicating a catastrophe subsequent to her normal well being. At some time after the

initial creation of heaven and earth, a period as long as astronomy and geology may

demand, the earth became without form and void. This places the teaching of Genesis on

its true basis. It teaches that the universe was created "in the beginning"; that a chaotic

condition at some time supervened and that this period of darkness and deluge can be of

any length of time, and that the present heaven and earth, prepared for the habitation of

man, came into being some 6,000 years ago. There is more to it than merely settling a

scientific objection however. The question arises "why did this state of affairs take

place?" Science here can provide no answer. Unless God Himself has told us, we do not

know. The reader will probably remember that on page 65 we set out a tentative

illustration of the pattern of the ages, in which we balanced the state of affairs described

in Gen. 1: 2, with that described in I Pet. 3:, a chaotic condition supervening at the

beginning and again at the end of the present world system. This is completely justify by

the way in which inspired Scripture uses the words translated "without form and void"

elsewhere. Let us turn to Jer. 4: Jeremiah laments the condition of Israel, and foresees

the terrible consequences of its departure from the Lord.

Here the same Hebrew words are used as found in Gen. 1: 2. Let us in the next place

observe their setting here.