The Second Earth Age

The Second Earth Age begins with Genesis Chapter one verse three where God takes a lightless, deluged, chaotic planet and begins to bring order back to it. On the sixth day God (Elohiym) created mankind.

Genesis 1:26-31, "And God said, 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. 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, 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, 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."

I guess most Christians have read these verses many times and yet because of popular teachings don't really see what is written here. By the end of the sixth day God has spoken into existence all the order of the planet, all the trees and vegetation, all the animals and above all, mankind (both male and female).. Every living creature has been given the command to "be fruitful and multiply". The second chapter starts with the seventh day and the Bible says God rested. The next part of chapter two is where there is much confusion because it appears to retell the same story again. However there is a difference between this account and that of chapter one. In this account the first big departure is the timeline. First of all no longer are "days" mentioned and at the end God doesn't rest. In fact the interaction between God and man flows on throughout the rest of the Bible. In the chapter two account it appears to say that it is going to tell us how the chapter one story unfolds but it does not.

Genesis 2:1-3, "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.

(At this point Creation is finished in the general sense).

Genesis 2:4These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,"

This is the verse that gives many the sense that Chapter two is trying to explain how Chapter one unfolds. Many seem to think that the words "the generations" mean "the chronological order of events". In reality it means "what follows" or "the results of" these events. Definitely implying something that came later or after the Genesis Chapter one account.

generations is the Strong's Concordance #08435 towl@dah {to-led-aw'} or tol@dah {to-led-aw'}and it literally means:

1) descendants, results, proceedings, generations, genealogies

1a) account of men and their descendants

1a1) genealogical list of one's descendants

1a2) one's contemporaries

Is there any other evidence in the Chapter two account that would also imply this? The answer is definitely yes. If Chapter two is suppose to be a step by step explanation of Chapter one there is a major flaw. In Chapter One the animals are created before Man is created: Genesis 1:20-25, "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. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good."

Then man is created and is created both male and female. Genesis 1:26-27, "And God said, 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Man or mankind is created as were the animals male and female after their kind and at the same time. Then God said: Genesis 1:31, "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."

It is clear that at the end if the sixth day everything is finished and everything is good. In striking contrast, Genesis Chapter Two, this so called detailed explanation has man created by God's own hand, out of clay and taught by him to till the ground and it was still not good. Then after man is in the Garden and tilled the soil, God creates animals in the Garden to keep him company and after a while, time passed and Adam (man) had named all these newly created animals he became lonely again and God said that that wasn't good so God created a woman for him.Genesis 2:15-23, "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress (till) it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

So what is really going on here? It appears that by every test, these are two totally different events both in their order and their purpose. God has a plan that necessitates the deliberate sequestering of a man, personally formed by his hand, not one spoken into an impersonal existence as in Chapter One. This man is placed into a fenced plot of land and surrounded only by plants that are pleasing to the eye and good eating. No thorns and thistles, no noxious or poisonous fruit. He is preparing a special man for a special purpose. This plan was fashioned from the "foundation" of the Earth and the focal point would put Christ on the cross to see it accomplished. 1 Peter 1:20, "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,"

There is more evidence of the two separate man creations. As we see after the "fall" of Adam and Eve, they are evicted from the Garden and bare two sons, Cain and Able. Immediately after Cain murders his brother Able, God banishes Cain to a distant land but before he leaves Cain makes a statement to God. Genesis 4:13-15, "And Cain said unto the LORD, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the LORD said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him."

Who are the everyone and the anyone?

Genesis 4:16-17, "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch." Where did Cain's wife come from? Boy, how I hated it when people use to ask me this question. The answer was there all along. They were the ones of Chapter one the "mankind". The ones that were created before God built the Garden (the enclosure) and before the formed Adam with his own hands. The people whose daughters in Genesis chapter six are called "the daughters of men" that marry the "sons of God" the descendants of Adam and Eve and Seth.

They were the same people, according to extra-biblical records, who inhabited the city of Enoch. If only Cain and his wife lived there he would have lived in a cave or a tent. Instead there was a great number of people there and because of Cain's invulnerability he became their leader and a great King. (Genesis 4:16-17, "... and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.")He was called Sargon the Magnificent the first and greatest King in Babylonian history in 3800 B.C. Sargon being translated "King Cain" and the city he built being "Erech" (translated as) "Enoch" which was named after his son, according to Assyrian and Babylonian historical writings. (reference: "Sargon the Magnificent" by Mrs. Sydney Bristowe and author of "The Oldest Letters in the World")

According to many Biblical Commentators including Archbishop Ussher*, Adam was formed and breathed into life in 4004 BC. If this is anywhere near accurate then the timeline of separation between the first Man of Genesis Chapter one and the Adam creation in the Garden is very large indeed. This could also account for the disparity between the Creationists view of history and that of the archeological record. The scientists say that man has been here in one form or another for as much as a million years or more. Neanderthal and modern human DNA comparisons suggest that our common ancestors existed about 550,000 to 690,000 years ago. Too recent for First Earth Age man but timely for Second Earth Age man if in fact Man was created shortly after modern animals as in the Genesis chapter one account. *(James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as a churchman and as a scholar. Of his many works, his treatise on chronology has proved the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean histories and Holy writ, it was incorporated into an authorized version of the Bible printed in 1701, and thus came to be regarded with almost as much unquestioning reverence as the Bible itself. Craig, G. Y. and E. J. Jones. A Geological Miscellany. Princeton University Press, 1982)

The popular teachings of many Christian Denominations is that the Earth is only seven to nine thousand years old depending on which group you have heard teach. It is no wonder that in this time of DNA and Carbon 14 testing, with Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon skeletons being unearthed yearly, that thinking people are being driven away from the Church because it all doesn't make any sense to them. They more and more view the Bible as fiction and not fact by these absurd Creation teachings. The truth is that the Bible actually is extremely accurate as both a historical and spiritual communication between God and Man.

Why was it necessary for God to wait so long to create Adam. At some point in time God desired a son. A special being like himself that could love him as he loves, understand Him as he understands, to know as we are known. 1 Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known." To accomplish this the "man" Adam must be in a position where he is content, in a nice safe place and without outside pressure to please anyone, especially God. A person who out of his free will would love God because of who He is, not what He is. Most Biblical scholars agree that without the temptation that eventually takes place at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, free will would not and could not be tested or exercised and was necessary to fulfil the plan of God.

Remember the Garden was also a place where God could walk with the man, and possibly it even opened to what is to us an invisible realm where fellowship with God was not by faith but in fact. Adam and Eve fell spiritually and where they found themselves (while still in the Garden) no longer able to see in the same way. That realm was no longer visible and all they could see was their physical nakedness and they could only hear God's voice and footsteps . God is surely going to return man to that earlier relationship where we will be able to walk with Him in the "cool of the day".