There is a movie entitled "Land Before Time" and all sorts of gadgets to sell folks, especially our young people, on the theory, that there was a creation of life, even billions of years before the days of Adam and Eve in the Genesis account of Genesis 1. Such reasoning comes from thinking that the Bible teaches a re-making from a previous existence.

Create and Make

Because God uses the word "create" and "make," men have concluded that there is a difference in the terms as used in the book of Genesis. Actually the words are used interchangeably. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). "And God made two great lights" (Gen. 1:16). "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:26-27). "God created great whales" (Gen. 1:21). "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind" (Gen. 1:25). Later it is said, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is" (Exod. 20:11). But remember that Genesis 1: 1 said that "God created" them! When Jesus referred to the creation, he said, "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female" (Matt. 19:4). The Psalmist said, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Psa. 33:6). When God created, he made and when he made he created!

Consistency

If some things were created from nothing and some made from pre-existing matter, there is no consistency in God's creation. The Bible says, "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" (Gen. 1:21). Then it was said concerning land animals, "And God made the beast of the earth" (Gen. 1:25). Is the origin of the sea creatures and birds of the fifth day different from the land animals on the following day? Who can believe there is?

No Gap

We are told that there is a gap of maybe billions of years between Genesis 1:1 ("In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth") and Genesis 1:2 ("And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep"). God simply created the earth without form and void, at the beginning. Isaiah said, "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord" (Isa. 45:18). God created the earth to be inhabited and he made it into such a place, A careful reading of Genesis 1:1 and 2 will show that the two verses are connected together by the word "and."

No Man Before Adam

If there was pre-existence before Adam who was he? What was his name? The Bible teaches that Adam was the first man. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul" (1 Cor. 15:45). Furthermore Adam introduced sin into the world. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" (Rom. 5:12). If there was a pre-existence there was no sin there.

No Woman Before Eve

There were no women before Eve for she is called "the mother of all living" (Gen. 3:20). For a while Adam was alone and God said, "I will make him an help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18). Eve was created a full-grown woman as God starts things with a miracle and from then on things continue by a different process (Gen. 2:21-24). You might also observe in this story the use of the words "formed," "make" and "created" as used in Genesis 1:27.

Six Days

"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is" (Exod. 20:11). This passage excludes a prior creation. If these things had previously been created why did God have to do it all over?

24 Hour Day

The evolutionary theory gave birth to the day-age theory. We are told that one day may have been billions of years. So one false doctrine creates another one. The days of Genesis I are divided into light and darkness just like a day that you and I know (Gen. 1:4-5). "And the evening and the morning were the first day" (Gen. 1:5). There are some real problems if these days of creation were long periods of time. Plant life was created before the sunlight and it would have been impossible for plant life to survive without light all of those years (Gen. 1: 11; 14-19)! Another problem with this concept is the age of Adam. Adam was created on the sixth day, lived through the seventh day and into at least a part of the eighth day. If these days were billions of years, how old do you think Adam was when he died? The Bible says of Adam's age, "And all of the days that Adam lived were nine hundred, and thirty years: and he died" (Gen. 5:5).

Conclusion

There was no land before time! It is said concerning Christ: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Col. 1:16-17).

The Hebrew writer declared, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. 11:3).

Guardian of Truth XXXIV: 5, pp. 139, 151
March 1, 1990