In the Beginning

In The Beginning “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1 properly reads, “God created the heavens and the earth in the beginning.” Placing “God” first in the verse and in the Word of God puts Him in His proper position. The words “in the beginning,” breashith in Hebrew, mean “origin” or genēsis in Greek. The word “God,” Elohim , is plural to emphasize God’s creative greatness. “Heaven,” shamayim , also is in the plural form to point out the vastness of this expanse. The heavens are so extensive that even though man has reached the moon, he has not begun to explore the heavens which God created in the beginning. Verse 1 sets like a diamond. If I had divided the Bible into chapters, I would have made this one verse a chapter in itself and started chapter 2 with what now is verse 2 of chapter 1. The reason for my dividing the first part of Genesis into chapters in this way is that trillions of years may have elapsed between verse 1 and verse 2. No one knows the length of time between the events recorded in verses 1 and 2; but it is known that when the account given by verse 2 begins, something catastrophic had happened in the heavens and on the earth. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, all the creation was in perfect condition. But an astounding change occurred by the time of the record of Genesis 1:2. About this cataclysmic occurrence, II Peter 3 gives more information. II Peter 3:5-7: 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: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. II Peter states that there were the original heavens and earth of Genesis 1:1, and then came the heavens and earth which are now. This present heavens and eart