THE CHAOTIC EARTH
The creation of the "Original Earth" was in the
dateless past. It was doubtless a most beautiful earth, covered with vegetation
and inhabited with fish and fowl and animal life, and probably with human life.
How long it continued in this condition we are not told, but an awful
catastrophe befell it - it became "FORMLESS AND VOlD," and submerged in water
and darkness. Gen. 1: 2. That it was not originally so we know from Isa. 45:18
(R.V.). "Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; he is God; that formed
the earth and made it; He established it, He created it NOT A WASTE, he formed
it to be inhabited."
What caused the earth to become a "Waste" after its
original creation is not clearly revealed. It is clear from the account of the
Fall of Adam and Eve that sin existed before man was created.
In that
remarkable passage in Ez. 28:12-19 there is revealed to us under the title
of
"The King of Tyrus,"a being of surpassing beaiity and
wisdom, who had been in "Eden," the "Garden of God." Not the Eden of Adam's day,
but possibly the Eden of the Earth as it was first created. This being is spoken
of as the "Anointed Cherub that Covereth," who "walked upon the 'Holy Mountain
of God'," and was "perfect in all his ways from the day that he was created,
until iniquity was found in him." But his "heart was lifted up because of his
beauty," and his wisdom was thus corrupted.
As no King of Tyrus answering
this description has, as yet, existed, this passage is taken to be a prophetic
portrait of the "Antichrist," and as Antichrist is to be an incarnation of
Satan, it probably is a description of Satan before his fall. The intimation in
this scripture then is, that Satan, with a host of angelic beings, was placed in
charge of the original or primeval earth, and that he through pride (1 Tim. 3:6;
Isa. 14:12-14) sought to be equal with God, and that to punish him the earth was
thrown into a chaotic state, and Satan and his angels, amounting to a third of
the angelic hosts (Rev. 12: 4) were excluded from Heaven, and took up their
abode in the heavenlies, the Second Heaven, located between the atmosphere of
our earth and the Heaven where God dwells, and thus became the "Principalities
and Powers," and "Rulers of the Darkness of this Age," and the "Spiritual
Wickedness" in High Places" (the Second Heaven), of whom we are warned in Eph.
6:12. This seems very plausible, for Satan is said to be the "Prince of the
Powers of the Air" (Eph. 2: 2), and the "God of this World" (age), and it looks
as if his plan for the Fall of man was a scheme to regain control of this
earth.
If there were human beings on the Original or Pre-Adamite Earth, they
were doubtless involved in Satan's fall and destroyed. In fact, the "demons" are
believed by many to be the disembodied spirits (of the inhabitants of the
Pre-Adamite Earth, and their efforts to reembody themselves in human beings, as
in the days of Christ, is looked upon as evidence that they once possessed
bodies similar to human bodies. Naturally the question arises, "if the
inhabitants of the Pre-Adamite Earth were human beings like ourselves, and were
destroyed when the Pre-Adamite Earth was thrown into a chaotic form, where are
their fossil remains; why have we not discovered them in the soil or rocks of
the earth?" The answer is, their "bodies" may have been consumed by fire, as
will be the case with the rebellious hosts of Gog and Magog at the end of the
Millennium (Rev. 20:7-9), and their escaping "spirits" became the demons
referred to above. It is dear that the "demons" are not Satan's angels, for they
are free, while the demons are confined in the Bottomless Pit and are only given
liberty as it suits God's purpose. Rev. 9:1-21. Neither are they the "Fallen
Angels" of 2 Pet. 2:4, and Jude 6-7, for they are reserved in chains under
darkness against the Judgment of the Great Day. The "demons" then are in a class
by themselves and for aught we know shall never be different. What we do know in
reference to them is that the time is coming when they are to suffer "torment."
Matt. 8:29.
If death reigned on the Pre-Adamite Earth, and the bodies of the
Pre-Adamites were buried in the earth, they may still remain buried in that part
of the earth which they occupied, which now may be the bed of the Atlantic or
Pacific Ocean. If this be so, it helps to explain the Scripture passage which
reads-"And the SEA gave up the dead which were in it; and 'Death' and 'Hell'
(Hades) delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man
according to his works." Rev. 20:13. Here we have the "SEA" differentiated from
"DEATH," (the Grave), which swallows up the body, and "HELL" or "HADES," the
abode of the soul between death and the resurrection, and this seems to imply
that the "DEAD OF THE SEA" are a different class from mankind and may refer to
the dead of the Pre-Adamite World as now resting at the bottom of the sea. As
God's creatures are to be judged each in his own order, it would seem no more
than right that the dead of the Pre-Adamite World should be judged before the
wicked dead of this present world.
The manner in which the Pre-Adamite Earth
was made "formless and void," and this refers only to the exterior surface, the
habitableness of the earth, is dearly revealed by Peter, where he says-"For this
they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old,
and the earth standing out of the water and in the water; whereby the world that
then was, BEING OVERFLOWED WITH WATER, perished." 2 Pet. 3: 5-6.
It is dear
that Peter does not refer here to Noah's Flood, for the world of Noah's day did
not perish, and Peter goes on to add the that-"The heavens and the earth which
are now (that is, have been in existence since the restoration of the earth of
Gen. 1:3-31), by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men (Great White Throne Judgment)."
Rev. 20:11-15. The manner then in which the Pre-Adamite Earth was made "formless
and void" was by WATER. The water which lies upon the surface of the earth is
about 1/4950 part of the earth's mass. If the land surface was even the water
would cover it to the depth of 11 miles. Violent convulsions must have wrecked
the Pre-Adamite Earth and covered its surface with the waters of its oceans. Not
a living creature remained alive upon it, and its atmosphere of murky darkness
hid the light of the sun, moon and stars. To all intents and purposes it was a
dead planet, though the seeds of its vegetable life remained entombed in its
bosom ready to spring into resurrection life on the "Third Day." The absence of
the warm rays of the sun caused the earth to pass through the "Winter" of its
life, and the submerging waters were congealed into ice that preserved in "COLD
STORAGE" the remains of immense quadrupeds and winged creatures, that we might
know the kind of animal life that inhabited the Pre-Adamite Earth. This was
probably the Glacial Period of Geologic Times. The Prophet Jeremiah records a
vision of the time.
"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was WITHOUT FORM AND
VOlD; and the heavens, and they had NO LIGHT. I beheld the mountains, and, lo,
they TREMBLED, and all the hills MOVED LIGHTLY. I beheld, and, lo, there was NO
MAN, and all the BIRDS OF THE HEAVENS WERE FLED. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful
place was a WILDERNESS, and all the CITIES thereof were broken down at the
presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger." Jer. 4: 23-26.
If this was,
as it appears, an account of the destruction of the Pre-Adamite Earth, then the
Pre-Adamite Earth was inhabited, and its inhabitants dwelt in cities, and God's
purpose in destroying the Pre-Adamite Earth was to efface all historic monuments
and evidences of the sinfulness of its occupants.
How long a period elapsed
between the creation of the earth and its becoming "formless and void" we do not
know; neither do we know how long it continued in that condition, but when the
time came in the purpose of God to restore the earth to its habitable state, and
make it fit for the abode of man, He did it in six periods of longer or shorter
duration. The Hebrew word translated "day" may mean either a day of 24 hours or
a longer period of time. The probability is that the time was short.
Used with permission of the Rev. Clarence Larkin Estate, P.O. Box 334, Glenside, PA 19038,
U.S.A., 215-576-5590
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