Creative Day 1

Forward: In the Beginning

God creates the Earth
Long ago,[1] (Psalm 102:25) At the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. (Hebrews 1:10) Now the earth was formless[2] and desolate,[3] and there was darkness upon the surface[4] of the watery deep, and the Spirit of God[5] was moving about over the surface of the waters. And God said: “Let there be light.” Then there was light. After that God saw that the light was good, and God began to divide the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, but the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, a first day. (Genesis 1:1-5)


 * Footnotes
 * [1] Or "Of old,"
 * [2] Or "without form"
 * [3] Or "empty", or "void"
 * [4] Or "face"
 * [5] Or "God’s active force" [NWT]

Earth without form
Geologists estimate that the Earth developed about 4.5 billion years ago, while orbiting the newly formed Sun. In Hadean theory, the Earth glowed like a faint star due to oceans of magma, along with repeated bombardments of massive meteorite strikes. Meanwhile, dense iron is theorized to have sunk out of the magma oceans, forming Earth's metallic core. This process may have produced enough gravitational energy to melt the entire planet.


 * Christian meditation


 * Could the Hadean theory explain the formlessness of Earth as described in Genesis 1:2?

Earth's watery deep
After the discovery of 4.4 billion year old zircon in Jack Hills, Australia, geologists now theorize that Earth's surface may have been cooled sooner than realized. The Cool early Earth theory, purposes that oceans may have been introduced 100 million years into the Hadean period, immediately cooling the magma rich surface of the Earth.

Darkness upon Earth's surface
Today's sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuated by Earth's atmosphere so that less power arrives at the surface—closer to 1 368 W/m2 in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith. However, during the Sun's development from about 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, during the Archean period, theoretical models have shown that the Sun was only about 75% as bright as it is today. From the Sun's formation, 4.567 billion years ago, its brightness may have been even less during Earth's Hadean period.

Let there be light


In Nebular hypothesis, the Solar System formed by the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud 4.6 billion years ago. In modern observations of young stars, it is typical to find them surrounded by an accretion disc. The disc is a large cloud of gas and dust made up of diffused circumstellar material. Gravity causes material in the disc to spiral inward towards the central body. Meanwhile, gravitational and frictional forces compress and raise the temperature of the material so that it causes emissions of electromagnetic radiation. During the Hadean period, the faint young Sun's output is calculated to be about 70% as intense as it is during the modern epoch. According to the Standard Solar Model, stars similar to the Sun gradually brighten over their main sequence lifetime.

God's questions to Job
 '''Job 38:1-21


 * Then Jehovah answered Job out of the windstorm:
 * “Who is this who is obscuring my counsel
 * And speaking without knowledge?
 * Brace yourself, please, like a man;


 * I will question you, and you inform me.
 * Where were you when I founded the earth?
 * Tell me, if you think you understand.


 * Who set its measurements, in case you know,
 * Or who stretched a measuring line across it?
 * Into what were its pedestals sunk,
 * Or who laid its cornerstone,


 * When the morning stars joyfully cried out together,
 * And all the sons of God began shouting in applause?


 * And who barricaded the sea behind doors
 * When it burst out from the womb,
 * When I clothed it with clouds
 * And wrapped it in thick gloom,


 * When I established my limit for it
 * And put its bars and doors in place,
 * And I said, ‘You may come this far, and no farther;
 * Here is where your proud waves will stop’?


 * Have you ever commanded the morning
 * Or made the dawn know its place,
 * To take hold of the ends of the earth
 * And to shake the wicked out of it?


 * It is transformed like clay under a seal,
 * And its features stand out like those of a garment.
 * But the light of the wicked is held back from them,
 * And their uplifted arm is broken.


 * Have you gone down to the sources of the sea
 * Or explored the deep waters?
 * Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
 * Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?


 * Have you understood the vast expanse of the earth?
 * Tell me, if you know all of this.


 * In which direction does the light reside?
 * And where is the place of darkness,
 * That you should take it to its territory
 * And understand the paths to its home?


 * Do you know this because you were already born
 * And the number of your years is great?