This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig is all about connecting you to the never-changing truth of God's word through verse-by-verse teaching.
That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we want to invite you to check out connectwithskip.com. There, you'll find resources like full message series, daily devotionals, and more. While you're at it, be sure to sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and receive teaching from God's Word right in your inbox each day. Sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. You're going to find three usages of the word day in the Bible. The Hebrew word is yom. You've heard of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Yom is day.
Three ways it's used in the Bible. One is the portion of the 24-hour period where there is light. That is called the day.
That's number one. Number two, the Bible uses the term day for a period of time that is several days or weeks or months or years. The term the Day of the Lord is such a usage. It covers a whole bunch of events that don't happen in a 12-hour or 24-hour period. But years, the Day of the Lord or the Day of Christ is another.
But then the third usage is, I believe, this usage, a 24-hour period. And whenever you find a numerical adjective like first day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, like you do in Genesis, it refers to a 24-hour period. Thus, I do not believe in theistic evolution.
You could see where I was going with that. I don't believe that it took God millions of years and billions of years and he called that period a day and then more stuff took place and he called that a day. God did it in six 24-hour periods and I think that was a long time. I mean, God could have done it in six seconds. He took a whole day to do that.
He took his time. So I believe in these six days, 24-hour periods because it says and evening and morning were the first day and evening and morning were the second day. Now, in hearing that, you might think, didn't the author get that backwards? Shouldn't it be and morning and evening were the first day instead of and evening and morning were the first day?
Well, apparently not. In fact, the Hebrews, because of this verse, reckon the beginning of their day at twilight. Sun goes down, they see the first three stars, that's the beginning of the day and it goes all the way through to the next evening when it's twilight again. So if you're in Israel and you want to celebrate Shabbat Sabbath, which is Saturday, it begins Friday evening.
You better get home quickly. And evening and morning were the first day. Brings up a question. God said let there be light, yet we don't find the sun, moon and stars created until the fourth day. So how could there be light in our universe without everything that we know as the source or the reflection of light to be present? That's a good question. I can only answer it by saying I don't know, but I can speculate and I do want to say I'm giving my opinion now.
There's a couple of things here. The Bible says God dwells in unapproachable light. There was in the Old Testament this thing called the Shekinah glory of God, this visible, light-filled presence of God that appeared in the tabernacle later in the temple for a period of time. It was this manifestation of God and it was in light. It could have been that before God created the sun, moon, stars on day four, that day one, it was simply His Shekinah glory.
If you've studied the electromagnetic spectrum, you know that radiation that travels at 186,000 miles per second, photon energy, goes all the way from radio waves up through infrared, then visible light, and then ultraviolet, rankinographic rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays, but even in that visible light there's a range of size and length of waves. So that even without the sun, even without the moon, there certainly could have been just God emanating. Here's another explanation, that on day one God created the sun, stars, moon, et cetera, but they didn't become visible because of the canopy, the shroud around the earth until day four. That's what many speculate.
But I'll just say, I don't know. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night, so evening and morning were the first day. Now here's day two. Then God said, let there be a firmament, or a vault, or a dome, is the Hebrew translation of the word rakiah. Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament, and God called the firmament heaven.
And so evening and morning were the second day. Now it's believed that there was at this time a canopy, a water canopy, a vapor canopy like a dense fog above the atmosphere, in the ionosphere that did a number of things. It encircled the earth. It created sort of a greenhouse or hot house effect. You'd have temperate, mild, warm climate worldwide. You'd have no barren deserts.
You'd have no polar ice caps. There was this uniform temperature created by this hot house effect because of the vapor canopy that watered the earth. By the way, there's a lot of water up there, even without the canopy.
Kauai, there's a rainforest in Kauai that boasts of 200 inches of rain per year. There's a lot of water up there. Well at one time it is believed that this canopy of vapor, of water, that watered the whole earth, it would keep mass air movements from being created, winds, hurricanes, etc.
It would filter out the ultraviolet radiation, that very short wavelength radiation that either causes or helps in shortening the lifespan of man, so that would account for the longevity of people upon the earth. And so that there was the earth, this unformed mass, God created light, then God separated the vapor canopy above the atmosphere, creating this greenhouse effect so that carbon-based life could flourish upon the earth. And he called the firmament heaven.
Okay, there's another word. Beware that in the Bible the word heaven is used three different ways, just like day. Sometimes the Bible speaks of the heavens as the atmosphere, that firmament of space above the earth. Jesus spoke about the birds of the heaven. Sometimes the Bible speaks of the heavens being outer space. The heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm 19, David said. Space was James T. Kirk's final frontier. Remember that? Space, the final frontier.
Well, not really. That's only the second heaven. The Bible speaks about, yes, the terrestrial heaven, the atmosphere, the celestial heaven, the space, outer space, but there's a third heaven the Bible speaks about, the third heaven. 2 Corinthians 12, Paul said, I was taken into the third heaven. Now that's the heaven of heavens, that's God's heaven, that's the place where God's glory dwells in its fullness.
But this is the heaven of the atmosphere, and above that firmament was thought to be this canopy. Now the third day, verse 9, God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear, and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters he called seas, and God saw that it was good. So there must have been some cataclysmic upheaval, shifting of the surface of the earth and the tectonic plates and the water was plunged downward and gathered into what we call seas. By the way, the term seas is a general term for all bodies of water, lakes, rivers, bays, oceans, not just oceans, but it includes all of that.
God saw that it was good. And boy, it is good, because water is so essential to our life. Three quarters of this planet is covered in water. 65% of your flesh is made out of water. 90% of your blood is made out of water.
It is essential to digestion, reproduction, respiration, everything we do. We need water in the air, et cetera, et cetera. That's why when I read Revelation 21, I am so disheartened when it says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and there was no more sea. And I'm thinking, that's heaven? You know, if I was writing the book, this is how I'd want to describe heaven, and there will be no more cities, but lots of sea and lots of beach. But apparently it indicates that it's not going to be a water-based planet. The new heaven, the new earth that will be created after this one is destroyed, because we're going to have resurrected bodies and not depend on the same elements that we have, that there's not going to be any need for it. And before you get too bummed out, realize that the oceans have been part of the separation that keeps one people group from another people group.
There'll be no more separations, no sea, instant access. But that's for the book of Revelation, and judging from how we're going, it's going to take a while to get there. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, some people think that Jesus was nothing more than a prophet or a good teacher.
These misconceptions existed 2,000 years ago, and Jesus is still misunderstood today. Discover Who Jesus Really Is with Skip Heitzig's riveting nine-part series, Who Is This Jesus?, which examines Christ's humanity and deity to equip you to confidently answer questions about Jesus. This resource, along with Skip's Life Change booklet designed to help new Christians embrace their transformed life in Christ, is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copies when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. God saw that it was good. And God said, verse 11, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, whose seed is in itself on the earth, and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God already established the reproduction in the plant world seeds.
Obviously, when they were made then, there was a certain age. It was built into that creation because they had seeds in them, able to then reproduce, have other plants like it according to its kind. Now, something you will notice in the creation, though it's done just in a few words very briefly, there never is a movement vertically, though there is certainly movement horizontally. That is, it defies the evolutionary theory, which believes in the principle of transmutation, that over a period of time, species changed and tails fell off and limbs grew, etc. The only problem is there's no real evidence, as I said in the fossil record, to show that.
If that were true, there wouldn't just be evidence, there'd be an abundance of transmutative forms in our world. And there's not in the strata. There's plenty of room for horizontal movement and horizontal latitude.
Micro movements, not macro movements. Back in 1934, they were able to cross a Logan berry and a raspberry and a blackberry and come up with a raspberry. I mean, a boysenberry. So they took those three berries and they were able to make this hybrid cross of a boysenberry. So it's still a berry. They didn't take three berries and make an orange. They were able to move laterally in small increments, not macro but micro increments, not transmutation but crossing and mutation. And there is a big difference between mutative forms and transmutative forms, which there's a glaring lack of. So it's according to its kind, according to its kind, according to its kind.
And though there can be micro movements, there's certainly no vertical movements. God saw that it was good, so evening and morning were the third day. Verse 14, and God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and seasons for days and years.
And you know what? We still use them. The original calendar was the lunar calendar based on the movement of the moon. Our calendar is the solar calendar based upon the relationship of the earth to the sun for signs. Let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, and it was so. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And He set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on 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, so evening and morning were the fourth day. The Milky Way galaxy is this strangely shaped cluster of luminaries that sort of resembles a wide, very thin watch.
The Milky Way galaxy in measurement is 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years. And where the earth is situated, scientists have discovered it's just situated perfectly for the kind of life that we now have. Now people say, well, it just so happened.
Okay? It just so happened that the earth is 93 million miles away from its sun that has a surface temperature of 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Just so happened. If we were as close as Venus, the surface temperature of Venus is 850 degrees Fahrenheit, we'd burn up.
We couldn't last. If we were as far away as Mars, the temperature dips to minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit on Mars. But it just so happens that we're 93 million miles away from a surface that's 12,000 degrees.
Just so happened. And by the way, it just so happened that the earth makes 365 revolutions as it makes its journey around the sun. Why not 30? Well, the days would be 10 times longer. There would be alternate burning and freezing and carbon-based life. This kind of life we enjoy in this biosphere would not be sustained. And it just so happened that that revolving sphere is tilted 23 and a third degrees on its axis in relationship to the sun to give us four beautiful seasons.
Oh, something else. It just so happens that the makeup of the atmosphere is a percentage of oxygen to nitrogen, 79% to 20% with 1% of variant gases. It makes breathing just a pleasure. What if it weren't 79 to 20? What if it were 50 to 50? 50% oxygen, 50% nitrogen.
Well, the first guy to light up a cigarette. Talk about the big bang theory. It'd be all over in a flash. And it just so happens that this water-laden earth, if the oceans, they tell us, were half of the present dimensions that they are now, there would only be or there would be less than a fourth of the rainfall that we have on the earth. Life couldn't be sustained.
If they were just a bit bigger, like an eighth bigger, the earth would be a flood. All of the things are just right. And it just so happened. It's a wonderful accident.
No back to the car oozing out of the ground. It's a marvelous design by a creator. And by the way, this galaxy, it speaks about the galaxy and the stars and the moon and the sun, but the center of it is earth.
That's right. We are the center of the universe, as far as life is concerned. It's a pretty big universe. I said it's 10,000 by 100,000 light years. If you could hop on a ray of light and go 186,000 miles per second, you could go around the earth. At that speed, you could do it seven and a half times in one second. If you're doing that speed and you shoot out to the moon, in 1.5 seconds, you'll sail past the moon, going the speed of light. In two minutes and 18 seconds, you'll sail past Venus. In four minutes, you'll sail past Mercury. In seven and a half minutes, you'll get past the sun. In four hours, you'll go to Pluto. But in four years and four months, you'll make it from earth to the nearest neighbor star, Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light years away from the earth. But if you're traveling 186,000 miles per second, it'll take you 100,000 years to get from one end of your Milky Way galaxy to the other end of it.
100,000 years at 186,000 miles per second. And if you do that, you haven't even left the front yard, because they tell us there are 100 billion more galaxies beyond. But God's interested in the earth. And all of these serve His created life upon the earth. Now, how does that make you feel? I hope you say, well, I don't know about life, man, such a bummer. I'll be careful.
And I'll be quick. God said, let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures. Let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens and God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves with which the waters abounded according to their kind, every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them.
Isn't that great? God blessed the birds and blessed the whales and the squids and the sharks and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters and the seas. Let the birds be multiplied on the earth.
So evening and morning were the fifth day. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to its kind. Cattle, these are domestic animals, is the better term, and creeping things. And the beast, these are non-domestic animals, wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps. So all the creeps were made on the sixth day as well.
According to its kind. And God saw that it was good. I'm just going to plant something in your brain because I'm out of time. It would appear then, according to the Bible, that dinosaurs, which did exist, there's plenty of evidence, and man were created on the same day and thus lived at the same time. Now I'm planting that in your mind because you have seen signs in natural history museums that are before a dinosaur skeleton and say that dinosaurs reigned for 140 million years but quickly died 60 million years before the advent of man on the earth. Well, the Bible disagrees with that and I believe science disagrees with that and I'll show you why next time. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.
Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.
Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, see I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food. Also to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food. And it was so. God said, God saw everything that he had made and indeed it was very good.
So evening and morning were the sixth day. So I wanted to say I did Genesis 1 tonight. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you confidently answer questions about who Jesus is and understand the new life you have as a believer in him. Pastor Skip's nine message series, Who Is This Jesus? and his life change booklet are our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today.
Request your copies when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
