Genesis creation order – was the sun created after the earth?

Did God create the sun after the earth? Take a casual read of God’s creation order in Genesis 1, and you will see

1) In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth
2) On Day 4 of creation, God created 2 lights – one to rule the day and one to rule the night

It gives the impression that God created the sun after the earth, which is not impossible for God, but totally contrary to science.

But this reading of Genesis 1 is superficial. God actually created the Sun before planet earth. In this article, we will investigate what God created on each day of creation.

Main Points

1. 1. The terminology of the Bible is different from modern terminology e.g. earth in the Bible does not mean planet earth, it means dry land.
   2. God created the sun on day 1, and He created “planet earth” on day 2.
   3. The sun’s light first appears on earth on day 4.

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Terminology

First of all, let’s get our terminology straight. In God’s creation order, earth does not mean planet earth.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth … Genesis 1:1

When we read Genesis 1:1, we very often see the word EARTH and we think PLANET EARTH. But that is NOT what the scripture is saying. Planet earth is a concept influenced by science not scripture. The understanding that earth is a planet is a recent concept. Back when the Old Testament was written, no one knew that earth was a planet revolving around the sun. They thought that the sun moved around in the canopy we called the sky.

According to Genesis 1:9-10, EARTH is a term that was used to refer to DRY LAND.

And God called the dry land Earth … Genesis 1:10

Also, HEAVEN is not outer space. Heaven refers to the SKY.

Heaven = sky or firmament (Genesis 1:8)
Earth = dry land (Genesis 1:9-10)
Seas = ocean (Genesis 1:10)
Day = light (Genesis 1:5)
Night = darkness (Genesis 1:5)

We must understand that when Genesis was written, modern science did not exist. So Genesis was not intended to be a scientific document, but rather an account of creation that human beings at the time could understand in a language they could relate to.

God’s Creation Order – What did God create on each day?

Here is a summary of God’s creation order exactly as the Genesis 1 narrated it. Later on, I’ll tie it in with modern science.

Scientific parallel

Now I will attempt to recount the Genesis 1 account in a slightly more scientific language, and we will see precisely how the earth was formed..

Day 0 – In the beginning

In the beginning the heavens and the earth existed in an empty form. I believe this means that the gaseous and vacuous matter that would eventually be formed into something meaningful was created in a raw form. That’s why it was without form, and void, and in darkness.

Genesis 1:2 talks about the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. This means that water (liquid and vapor) was a major constituent of this raw creation.

Day 1 –Let there be light

This could only be referring to the sun and stars.

Because it appeared as though God created the sun on Day 4, some theologians believe that the light created on Day 1 was referring to God’s light or some “primordial light”. But I strongly disagree with that. This light was a created entity. God’s light is an eternal attribute of His deity and was never created. Therefore, Genesis 1:2 could only be referring to a created light – the sun and stars are the only thing that makes sense. I’ll explain Day 4 in a while.

Genesis 1:4 said that God divided the light from the darkness. But scientifically, darkness is not an entity. Darkness is simply the blocking of the light. We have night when we are in the sun’s shadow.

I understand Genesis 1:4 to mean that the raw matter was now subject to light on one side and shadow (darkness) on the other side.

Day 2 Let there be a firmament

What the folk living at that time called the firmament or sky, I believe is a reference to planet earth’s atmosphere. So on Day 2, God formed the earth’s atmosphere to contain everything in a spherical shape. Now it existed in planet form, but at this point, the earth was simply a watery ball with a vapory atmosphere. This is how earth was formed (as a planet).

Day 3 Let the dry land appear

Now God caused the waters on planet earth to separate so that dry land appeared. Science actually believes that the continents were created when seismic activity caused the ocean floor to rise up out of the water. This is perfectly in congruence with Genesis 1.

Now the earth had land (continents) and ocean. This is how earth was formed (dry land).

Then God caused vegetation to grow.

Day 4 God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night

Here is where it gets complicated because it appears that God had already created the sun on Day 1.

The word CREATE (Hebrew bara), used 5 times in Genesis 1, means to form, fashion by cutting, shape out. It can mean:

1) Make out of nothing (supernaturally)
2) Make using natural processes
3) Cause to appear

Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 2:4 said that God created the earth (dry land). Genesis 1:9-10 said that God caused the waters to gather together causing dry land (earth) to appear.

So God CREATED the earth by moving aside the water so that the dry land could APPEAR. Remember, earth = dry land in Biblical terminology. God created dry land (earth) using natural processes.

In Genesis 1:11, God said “let the earth bring forth grass”. It sounds like He is creating it out of nothing. But Genesis 2:5-6 said that God caused a mist to water the earth, and that’s how He caused the grass to grow. He was using natural processes.

He caused light to appear

Similarly when it says that God made the two lights on Day 4, it could simply mean that God CREATED the moon, but caused the light of the sun (which was already created) to APPEAR on earth. Perhaps God lightened up some of that thick vapor in the earth’s atmosphere to finally allow the sun’s light to penetrate. Or maybe the earth was at this point very far from the sun and it took a long time for the light to reach it. Either way, the creation of the greater light (sun) on Day 4 means that He caused that light to appear on earth for the first time.

Day and night (or light and darkness) was already in existence in outer space (Day 1). Now finally the concept of day and night ON EARTH was established.

Also, the concept of years and seasons were established on Day 4. I understand this to mean that prior to this, the movement of the earth around the sun had not as yet been established. Now on Day 4, God set this rotation and revolution in order.

Day 5-6 God created life

Then God created fish and birds, followed by land animals and then finally, humans.

It should be noted that this order is NOT consistent with popular theories of evolution. Evolution teaches that fishes grew legs and the ability to breathe outside of water, then crawled on land and evolved into land animals. These land animals evolved wings and turned into birds.

This is NOT the order of creation in Genesis 1. Thus it cannot be said that God created life through a process called theistic evolution. Genesis clearly teaches that God created man out of the dust and not from other life.

Conclusion

Once we get past the terminology barrier, and we see exactly what God created on each day of creation, we see that God created the sun before planet earth, although the raw matter for earth existed at the beginning. God’s creation order in Genesis is very similar to the ORDER of events in popular scientific theories such as the Big Bang Theory, but not the TIMEFRAME.

The universe existed in a dense form of raw matter
The sun was created (light)
The earth was formed into a spherical (watery) planet
The water was separated from dry land
The rotation and revolution of the earth around the sun were set in motion
God created life in this order: fish and birds, land animals, man

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