"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen 1:1-2).

As verse 2 says, The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. We know, however, that nothing God creates is dark and void; everything He creates is good. For the earth to be described as dark and void and without form shows us that something must have happened.

Before "The Beginning"
Like some theologians, I believe we have not been informed by God of everything there is to know about pre-earth or what happened in heaven.

Now this is just my opinion, and opinion is different from "Thus saith the Lord…." It's only speculation and I can't prove it, but I believe there was a passage of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 when certain things occurred. I believe that this passage of time took place before Adam and Eve ever existed and that there was a civilization prior to them.

According to Scripture, there was a war in heaven. Satan (known then as an angelic being named Lucifer) was joined by a third of the angels to rebel against God. They, of course, lost the fight and were tossed out of heaven. That's when Satan and his host of angels were cast down to the earth (See Rev. 12:3-4, 7-9). I believe when they came to this earth they destroyed everything that was here at that time.

Science and the Bible are not necessarily crosswise to one another. Dinosaurs and other creatures walked the earth before man. Then something bad happened. A terrible and cataclysmic event occurred on the earth and everything was wiped out. It was after that, I believe, when the earth was dark and void.

The Earth Was Replenished
Let's take a look at Genesis 1:28 for a moment. It says: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…."

Notice it says, "God blessed them, and God said unto them…." That means God was dealing with both the male and the female.

God was speaking to Adam and Eve, saying, "I want you to replenish the earth." To replenish means to restock. God was having man restock the earth.

We know what it's like at our house to replenish something. Frequently we have to replenish the refrigerator once our three teenagers have gotten into it, especially our 18-year-old son. When I was 18, I could eat all day long and never gain a pound. With three fairly good-sized kids at our house, we have to restock the refrigerator every few days because the supply is gone.

Adam and Eve being told to replenish the earth implies that there must have been something on the earth prior to them. Clearly, things had been deleted from the earth and there needed to be a restocking.

This has given us clues that much more had occurred in the beginning. The Word tells us, We see through a glass, darkly (1 Cor. 13:12), so we are now seeing only a part of all the things concerning God and His creation.

The First Five Days of Creation
Day One - In Scripture, we can watch as each day unfolds:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God said…. This is how God created everything: by speaking it into existence. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day (Gen. 1:1-5).

Day Two - As we continue on in Scripture, day two unfolds with God's re-creation of the heavens in verses 6 through 8: And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Day Three - At that time this whole planet was nothing but water, so God divided the earth from the seas: "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good" (Gen 1:9-10).

Then God said: "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind…" (Gen 1:11-12).

God intended for everything in the earth to reproduce after its own kind, because everything in the earth had been given the seed within itself to reproduce. This was God's plan for the whole planet before it was His plan for man. (We will consider the subject of seed in more detail later in this study.)

Now let's continue with the latter part of verse 12: "…and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day" (Gen. 1:12-13).

Day Four - In day four God divided day from night: And God said:
Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19).

On day four God put lights in the heavens, which we call stars. He set up the brightest light, the sun, to give light for the day and a lesser light, the moon, to give light for the night.

Day Five - And God said:
Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day (Gen. 1:20-23).

God's will was for every species in this planet to be fruitful and multiply itself. That was day five.

"Seedtime and Harvest"
God spoke about this principle again when He was making a covenant with Noah. He said: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease" (Gen. 8:22).

Notice particularly in this verse that there was seedtime and harvest.

You will never see a male and a female cat come together and produce a litter of dogs or mice. Cats produce only cats. Apple trees produce only apples. Orange trees produce only oranges. The seeds are in everything. Slice open an apple or an orange and you will find seeds to reproduce that particular fruit. That's God's plan for everything - including man.

Day Six: The Creation of Man
In verse 26 we go into the sixth day of God's creation - or re-creation - of the earth: And God said, "Let us make man in our image…."

When God said, Let us make man, who was He talking to?

To the angels? No. The angels weren't involved in making mankind.

To the devil? Certainly not! God wasn't in league with the devil.

Created in the Image and Likeness of God
The word us in this verse refers to the triunity of God - the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. The triune God was saying: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness….

The Hebrew word for image here, tselem, meaning "resemblance," is accompanied by demuwth, meaning "likeness." "Likeness added to image tells us that the divine image that man bears is one corresponding to the original pattern."

Created to Have Dominion Over the Earth
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (Gen. 1:26).

The first thing God did was to give man dominion over all the earth and everything in it. The word translated "dominion" is the Hebrew word, radah, which means to "rule" or to "reign." God's original will and intention was for man, who was made in His image and likeness, to rule and reign over everything in this planet. God gave man authority over it all.

God's First Commandment to Man
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth..." (Gen. 1:27-28).

Note that God's first commandment was for man to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. God intended for mankind to perpetuate himself.

For this reason I must make a statement here that is clearly in opposition to the beliefs of a certain segment of today's society: Homosexuality is against God's will!

Homosexuality cannot be the will of God. It does not follow the principle God set out for man from the beginning.

Two men engaging in sex with one another will never produce anything. The same is true of the sexual relationship between two women. No children can ever be created by such a union. Nothing can come of it. God's plan is for everything on this planet to have the seed in itself to produce.

Now that's not to say God hates people who happen to be gay or lesbian. No, God doesn't hate them; He loves them. Neither are we to hate them; we too are to love them. But their lifestyle has never been a part of God's plan; and what isn't God's plan isn't right. The Creator's plan for mankind is the same as His original plan for this planet: that everything produce after its kind (Gen. 1:11,24).

Starting in the Old Testament and going all the way through the New Testament, God intended for His people as a whole to procreate and raise up a godly seed. That's why believers in Jesus Christ have been instructed to raise up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (Gen. 1:28).

God Gave Man Seed for Harvest
I want you to notice God's original design before sin came into the earth through man's disobedience:

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in that which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day (Gen. 1:29-31).

On day six when man was originally created by God, he was not carnivorous. Neither was any other creature at that time. God said, To every beast of the earth (meaning every lion, every tiger, every creature on the earth)…I have given every green herb for meat.

The way God designed things in the beginning is not the way things are today. It was only after sin and the nature of Satan came into the world that this whole planet changed. The Bible tells us that Creation groans even now in travail waiting for its deliverance (Rom. 8:22).

You may ask, "Does that mean we're not to eat meat?" No, I didn't say that. As the Bible tells us: Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:4-5). Just make sure you sanctify it by God's Word and prayer before you consume it.

God's Day of Rest
Let's continue reading in the book of Genesis, chapter 2: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" (Gen. 2:1-3).

God blessed day seven as the day of rest and He sanctified it, or set it apart.

As we see here in His Word, God never intended for His creation to work seven days a week. We were not made to do so. God blessed day seven as a day of rest. Believe it or not, everybody needs some rest - including you. If you don't take a rest, you could wind up in bad shape.

So God rested Himself after working for six days in the Creation: And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made (Gen. 2:3).

Source: What on Earth Are We Here For? by Keith Butler
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers