THE earth is the terrestrial globe and is the largest within the orbit of the planet of Jupiter, the latter being far greater in size than the earth. The earth is the third planet in distance from the sun and is one of the solar system. It revolves about the sun in an elliptical orbit. It also rotates about an axis. The sun furnishes the daylight to that part of the earth turned toward the sun. The mean distance from the earth to the sun is approximately ninety-three million miles.
The diameter of the earth is seven thousand nine hundred and seventeen miles, whereas the diameter of Jupiter is eighty-six thousand two hundred and fifty-nine miles. The circumference of the earth is twenty-five thousand miles. It moves ceaselessly and regularly in its orbit and fixes our year at exactly three hundred and sixty-five days, five hours, forty-eight minutes and forty-six seconds. The rotation of the earth is so perfectly regulated and uniform that experiments over a period of two thousand years show that the variation has been less than one thousandth of a second.
The earth is hung in space. It is hung on nothing. Its surface bears up great mountain ranges, tremendous bodies of waters, broad fields and a few things that man has built upon it. It contains all the precious metals known to man. Its soil produces innumerable kinds of plants and trees and flowers of surpassing beauty, and fruits and foods of a diversified form and kind.
Who made this wonderful planet and placed it in space? Savants, so-called, look wise, and in their assumed wisdom try to explain how nature formed it. But why waste time with the things of imperfect men, when we have the sure and positive testimony about which there cannot be the slightest doubt? The earth is the work of the great Creator, God. He caused his servant to write in his Sacred Record:
"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." (Psalm 24:1) "He stretcheth out the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." (Job 26: 7) "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul. 0 Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. . . . Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains." — Psalm 104:1, 5, 6.
Time of Creation
The time of the construction of the earth is nowhere stated. Men have expressed different opinions, but mere opinion proves nothing. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." (Genesis 1:1, 2) Such is the divine record.
If the earth was at one time an incandescent molten mass there could have been no oceans of water on it at that same time. The formations of the rocks show conclusively that at one time these rocks were subject to intense heat. Fiery rocks or molten minerals and oceans of water could not have remained long in the same place at the same time. Therefore the account of creation given in Genesis must pertain to the creative work of the earth preparatory for the sustenance of life thereupon.
When did that period of time begin? The Scriptures divide the creative work into seven days, or periods of time. While God could have done this work in seven days of twenty-four hours each, had he so desired, the facts show that he did not do so, but that the term "day" is a period of time covering many centuries. This creative period has no reference to a twenty-four-hour day. Since the Lord has divided the creative periods into seven it is reasonable that these creative days, or periods of time, are of equal length.
The law of God later given to man provided for a week of seven days each, each day being twenty-four hours long. Each of these days being of the same length, it is reasonable that the seven creative days or periods would each cover the same period of time. The Scriptures, together with subsequent facts which are indisputable proofs beyond a doubt, indicate that the seventh day or epoch of creation, mentioned in Genesis, covers a period of seven thousand years of our time. If then we assume that each of the creative days was of the same length, we must conclude that the period of time that elapsed from the beginning of the creative work to the end thereof is a period of forty-nine thousand years. How long prior to that time God began the formation or construction of the earth is not revealed, for the reason that it was not necessary and not the will of God that man should know. What we are concerned about is the beginning of the plan for the sustenance of life upon earth.
Moses, under inspiration and direction of Jehovah, wrote the book of Genesis. Of course it is God's record, which he caused his servant to write. The opening statement is: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." That is an abstract and profound statement. It is the end of all controversy. The Master Builder, in the beginning, created the heaven and
earth; and just when that beginning was is not material to our inquiry. God reveals his secrets when it pleases him. Then follows the Scriptural statement: "And the earth was without form, and void." Being without form it was a place of desolation, and no life was therein. It was void; that is to say, it was empty of any and all forms of life. It was dark and there was no light thereon. From this point dates the beginning of the creative period or week of seven creative days.
Theory of Earth's Creation
It is to be expected that the theories of men with reference to the creation of the earth would differ. The theory that is reasonable and supported by the Scriptures is entitled to a candid consideration. Theories out of harmony with the Scriptures may be discarded as useless. It seems to have been the plan of Jehovah God to begin the increase of light upon his great work for the benefit of man about the year 1874 A. D. It was in that year that Isaac N. Vail first published a pamphlet entitled "The Earth's Annular System". Annular means having the form of rings, or ring-shaped, and has reference to successive rings or canopies of aqueous vapor which surrounded the earth and which fell upon the earth at different periods. A brief summary of the annular theory as stated by Mr. Vail is here given, before beginning the examination of the Scriptural record, to wit:
That the primitive earth was a molten mass rapidly rotating through space; that the intense heat therefrom expelled all vapors, whether aqueous or metallic, and these were carried to the skies; that both heat and centrifugal energy caused these vapors to accumulate in the skies, particularly in the equatorial region; that these red hot vapors contained all the fusible and vaporisable minerals
known to the earth; that as the earth cooled, the heaviest of these vapors formed into rings nearest the earth and the lighter substances formed numerous other rings according to their weight and density; that these rings or belts were separate and well defined; that the rotation of these near the polar belts was slower than at the equator; that as these rings, formed of aqueous vapors and heavily laden with carbon, cooled down they rotated near the earth until they fell, the nearest and heaviest one falling first and leaving those more distant and lighter to move on in their respective orbits about the earth; but that each one of these rings in due course cooled and fell.
Prof. Vail then reasons that while all of these rings contained quantities of carbon, and other mineral substances expelled from the earth by the great heat, the last one of these rings was composed chiefly of water; that the light penetrating the ring or rings around the earth in due time caused this canopy which enveloped, the earth to produce a hothouse condition, thus making plants and animal life flourish at the poles equally with any other part of the earth; that these rings encircling the earth rotated more rapidly than the earth rotates upon its axis, but in time the cooling process would cause them to fall to the earth; and that the falling of the last one of these aqueous canopies occurred after man was created, and produced the great deluge of Noah's time. The following is a quotation from Mr. Vail's "The Earth's Annular System":
All terrestrial waters were held in suspension during that age of inveterate heat, far removed from the surface of the boiling, flaming and smoking mass of the earth.
This suspended ocean of vapors rotated as a part and parcel of the earth, a primeval atmosphere of great complexity of materials, in the same time that the earth then rotated, just as our present atmosphere now does.
This suspended matter in the course of time gathered in the earth's equatorial heavens, and upon condensing necessarily contracted and segregated into rings, which revolved independently about the earth, thus causing a great lapse of time between the descent of the first, or primitive, ocean of water nearest the earth, and those waters most remote in the annular system.
This illustration shows a full-face view of the earth and its annular system. Here A is the earth, B the earth's atmosphere, C the heavy carbons and their accompanying mineral sublimations, D the lighter carbons and hydro-carbons, E glacial snows and their accompaniments, F outer vapors, principally aqueous and likely in a frozen state. From this outermost ring came the polar snows that chilled the Eden earth, and afterwards caused the deluge.
The waters remaining on high, after the interior waters or first ocean fell to the earth, fell in a succession of stupendous cataclysms, separated by unknown periods of time. The first ocean was necessarily impregnated with mineral and metallic salts, or filled with mineral and metallic particles, to a far greater extent than any other section or division of waters or exterior vapors, for the simple reason that in the system the heaviest vapors would settle lowest or nearest the earth as it cooled down.
All such changes required a great length of time, and a progressive motion of declining matter from the equator, polar-wise; also the bands and belts of the earth's annular system necessarily presented the same general aspect that Jupiter's and Saturn's do today.
A succession of concentric rings necessarily requires a vast lapse of time between the declension of one ring of vapors into the outskirts of the atmosphere, and the fall of the next succeeding one; so that each fall, or each ring, after it reached the attenuated atmosphere continued to revolve as a belt about the earth with an ever-decreasing velocity as it spread toward the poles and over-canopied the earth.
The smoke or unconsumed carbon that arose from the burning world commingled with the upper vapors, darkened them, and formed inevitably dark bands or belts among bright vaporous ones, as we now see on some other planets.
After a ring of vapors had fallen into the air, it is likely that it may have over-canopied the globe and finally descended to the earth, leaving the atmosphere clear, before another ring reached the atmosphere in its persistent decline.
The apparent retardation of the moon is but a gradual recession of our satellite, caused by diminished attraction as the annular system declined; and the necessary check put upon the revolving rings necessarily caused them to sink and finally fall to the earth, if no other cause of their fall existed; and further, this retardation proves the former existence of an annular system about the earth.
The archaean metalliferous deposits are so located as to be inexplicable by the old theory of aqueous denudation, but beautifully in accord with the new.
The Silurian beds, and particularly the order of their occurrence in the earth, utterly refute the idea that they were derived from pre-existing beds. Hence it is evident that during the silurian age there was an annular system about the earth. In other words, it is evident that all the primeval waters did not fall before the dawn of life on the globe. — The Earth's Annular System, pages 72-74.
A very forceful argument is produced by Mr. Vail to the effect that all planets are formed by universal or inexorable law; and since we now can see the rings surrounding Saturn, and can also see Uranus forming toward the uncompleted annular system, we must conclude that the earth also was developed by the progressive and successive collapse of aqueous canopies.
I believe the birth, growth and development of worlds are regulated by inexorable law; and if one planet was ever surrounded by rings, a sister planet under the same circumstances, ruled by the same dynamic and static conditions of force, in process of development, must also be attended by rings during some stage of its career. Not that I ignore the fact that circumstances varying must vary the resulting phenomena of ruling forces, but the great principles of planetary growth must obtain on all planets.
It is, for instance, as essential that ring-formation should follow igneous action, as the oblatoidal form of a planet should follow its rapid rotation. They are pure results of acting forces everywhere apparent in the solar system, from the great burning, seething and smoking sun, to the utmost and smallest satellites. If we can detect this universal disposition in the worlds around us, we may rest assured that our own has passed through the same grand cycles of change. Nay, we may in fact read the geological history of the earth in the ringed and belted worlds of the solar system.
It must now be clear that these features exhibited by the belted vapors of Saturn and Jupiter are vital considerations. Modern science has established beyond a doubt the fact that the motion of their polar belts is slower than the
equatorial. From this we are forced to the conclusion that they revolve nearer their primaries.
If those belts could by any possibility increase their motion they would rise and revolve in a larger orbit. That is, they would move from the poles toward the equator. On the other hand, if the equatorial belts should lose the smallest part of their motion they would sink along the lines of least resistance and greatest attraction — i. e., toward the poles. Now can it be possible in a universe of unchanging law, that one planet could become the possessor of a ring-system unless the causes that formed it were universal? Can it be possible that the earth, under the influences of these universal causes, has not passed through the same mode of planetary evolution?
I can no more doubt the universality of this process than I can doubt that an apple would fall from a Saturnian or Jovian tree; and when we see, that in addition to this necessarily universal annular development, the condition of the primitive earth demands such development, we are not even allowed to entertain a doubt upon the subject If the laws of gravitation be universal, the causes of annular formation are also; and effects must follow. It may be said that unknown conditions may modify the operations of the law. Certainly this is true, but they may also modify the operations of the law of universal gravitation; yet, where is the man who doubts its universal application in the midst of all modifying tendencies?
From this it must be seen that the mere fact that Jupiter's and Saturn's polar belts move more slowly than the equatorial, is positive proof that they have moved from the equatorial regions, and therefore there is a perpetual tendency in the solar system now for all belts to fall at the poles! Here, then, we are simply impelled to admit that the original form of all revolving planetary belts was annular, and that they were located in the equatorial regions of all planets during some period of their history. The supposition also that these belts must reach the surface of the planets in stupendous downfalls, during intervals of immeasurable time, receives here an emphatic avowal.
Thus by following the path pointed out by the unerring voice of law, we may look upon those giant worlds, and read a history of the mighty changes that made our world what it is today. For unknown ages rings and belts attended the earth. One by one they declined and reached its surface around the poles. — The Earth's Annular System, pages 42-44.
The annular system relative to the earth, as advocated by Mr. Vail, is reasonable. It is supported by truth revealed in the Word of God. God invites his creatures to reason with him, and we must therefore expect to find in his Word that which is reasonable when we properly apply it.
Creative Periods
God has divided the work of the preparation of the earth into periods of creation which he calls "days", and which are numbered in their order from one to seven. It seems clearly proven from the Scriptures, however, that the material forming the earth had been brought together and the earth formed long before the beginning of these epochs or creative days began. Long before the beginning of those seven days the molten mass had thrown off great quantities of mineral substances in vapor form, and these had formed into rings around the earth.
These great masses of hot vapors were heavy with car-bun, thus causing "thick darkness" to surround the earth. Without doubt this darkness extended for a great number of miles beyond the earth and all around it. In the prophecy of Job there is written information concerning the beginning of the creative period which corroborates the Genesis account: "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment
thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors." — Job 38: 8-10.
This thick darkness extending all around the earth formed the "swaddling band", and corresponds to the statement in Genesis that "darkness was upon the face of the deep". No light was then penetrating to the earth. Surrounded by numerous rings or canopies, composed of heavily carbonized vapors and other mineral substances, it was impossible for the light to penetrate that thick darkness which formed a band around the earth.
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." This statement must refer to the light that came from the heavenly sphere illuminating the rings around the earth but not reaching the earth. Light is coexistent with Jehovah. Concerning this it is written in God's Word: "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all". (1 John 1:5) "0 Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain." — Psalm 104:1,2.
The sun must have been created long before the earth became a form, because the sun is the center of attraction of the solar system. Light from the sun was shining through space, but had not yet shined upon the earth because of the "swaddling band" that surrounded it. God needs only to express his will, and things transpire. The time came for the light to shine upon that which surrounded the earth. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." — Genesis 1: 3-5.
Prior to the beginning of the first creative day, as described by the Genesis account, some of the rings around the earth may have fallen or may not have. It is manifest, however, that many remained. With the beginning of the first creative day or period, "darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
What is meant here by "the deep" and "the face of the waters"? Beyond a question of a doubt there were waters above the earth and upon the earth. This is apparent from the Genesis statement. The great deep therefore must have reference to the waters above the earth, which waters could have been held up only by reason of the fact that they were revolving rapidly in an orbit about the earth. As soon as they would become inactive they would necessarily fall. The lighter one of these rings would necessarily be farthest out from the earth and nearest the sun.
The time came when the spirit of the Lord God, that is to say, his power, exercised according to his sovereign will, moved upon or took action upon the face of the waters, and the light penetrated this great deep or canopy that surrounded the earth. What it really means is that God caused the rays of the sun's orb to shine upon the face of the waters or great deep, illuminating them. God pronounced the light good, and the light God called day and the darkness he called night, and God divided the light from the darkness. That was the beginning of the division of day and night. So far as the Sacred Record discloses such constituted the work of the first creative day, which record concludes with the words: "And the evening and the morning were the first day." There is no evidence to warrant the conclusion that at this time the light had penetrated to the earth.
Firmament
The visible arch of the sky which we behold when we look aloft is called the firmament. It is a great aerial expanse wherein are the atmosphere and ether surrounding the earth. The work of the second creative day or period was devoted to preparing this great expanse and to dividing the waters. The firmament is called heaven because it is high and lofty, above the earth. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so." — Genesis 1: 6-8.
All the rings formed by the rising vapors surrounding the earth necessarily contained great quantities of water, as well as carbon and other mineral substances. These revolved with greater rapidity near the equator and gradually spread out like an envelope toward the poles until they enveloped the earth as a canopy. As these rings neared the poles their motion was retarded, and both the weight and the retarded velocity caused them to fall. As each one fell, necessarily great pools of water or bodies of water were precipitated upon the earth. All the mineral substances taken up in solution were brought down at the poles and were rushed on toward the equator.
There would then, of course, be water upon the earth and waters above the earth. The prophet of God sustains this conclusion in the inspired Word when he says: "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me" (Psalm 42: 7); "Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains." (Psalm 104:6; Proverbs 8:27,28; Job 38:
9-11) By the falling of these aqueous rings or canopies the oceans were formed, and these great bodies on the earth were separated from the deep above the earth by the firmament. The firmament was not holding up the water; the great deep above the earth was held there by virtue of the fact that it was rapidly revolving in its orbit. In the same way a flying machine remains in the air above the earth when in motion, but when it stops its forward movement it falls.
The firmament merely served to form a division between the waters on the earth and the great deep far out from and surrounding the earth. We understand the formation to be something like this: First the earth; then the firmament or earth's atmosphere; and beyond that many rings containing heavy carbon and other minerals and sublimations, the lighter rings containing hydro-carbons being still further from the earth, and the outermost ring being principally water. The firmament above the earth God called heaven.
Land Appears
It was during the third creative day or epoch that the dry land appeared. Men have advanced different theories as to the process of bringing forth the dry land. The land might have been brought forth by pressure of water causing some portions to sink and others to arise, or it might have been caused by waters running down into the crevices of the heated rock, which caused great upheavals. However it was done the Lord God's statement is that it was done according to his will. There the controversy ends. God then gathered together the waters on the earth in order that other portions of the earth might be free from water, as it is written: "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the
dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good." —Genesis 1: 9,10.
For the first time the Scriptures here mention waters upon the earth as seas. The Scriptural proof therefore is conclusive that there was a great deep above the earth, separate and distinct from the waters upon the earth. The waters above the earth are designated in the Scriptures as "the deep"; whereas the waters upon the earth are called "the seas" or oceans.
The preparatory work progressed. The dry land did not appear suddenly but gradually, and doubtless the appearing covered a large part of the third creative day. During that period the earth brought forth grass and herbs, each yielding seed and fruit after his own kind. One kind of seed did not develop another kind of seed; but each kind produced its own seed, which seed in due course produced other grass and herbs. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day." — Genesis 1:11-13.
Because of the canopies or rings surrounding the earth the heat and conditions upon the earth were conducive to the growth of plants and herbs. It seems that the plant formation during that period grew rapidly and very large. Some geologists claim that it is from these plants of prodigious growth that the coal beds were formed; that these plants and mosses were covered with sand and clay, and that in the course of time coal beds resulted. Others advance a much more reasonable theory, to wit, that the incandescent or molten mass
forming the earth threw off great quantities of vapor charged with carbon, which vapors formed rings or canopies about the earth each of which contained great quantities of carbon; that these rings falling at different intervals of time upon the earth caused the deposit of great quantities of carbon; and that thereby the coal beds were formed, which are found today in the earth at different depths.
Coal is carbon. It follows conclusively that the smoke and gas passing off from the earth contained carbon, and when these returned to the earth it would be much more reasonable that such deposits of carbon formed the coal fields than that this carbon was first converted into plants and then plants formed carbon fields. Great quantities of carbon are found in the oldest beds of the earth, which of necessity existed before any plants were known.
All geologists admit that if coal be a vegetable product graphite must also have had a vegetable origin; compromising only so far as to admit that animal organisms may have aided in the process, which of course only adds to the difficulty, since it is carbon that makes the organism, not the organism the carbon. Here, then, is a problem which the vegetarian can neither circumvent nor climb over without the aid of the annular theory. The foundation stone upon which the vegetarian theory stands has vanished in primitive fire, and the whole edifice tumbles into a mighty mass of ruins.
Here we are compelled to admit that the graphite is a primitive carbon; that carbon did exist, and was placed as sedimentary beds in the earth before a plant ever grew upon its surface. Hence the plant did not form the carbon, but the carbon formed the plant. Upon this eternal plan the world was built. From the carbon beds locked amid the metallic and granite sills of the earth's crust to the peat swamp of the present day, carbon has been king, and the plant its pliant product. — The Earth's Annular System, page 398.
It also seems reasonable that the petroleum or rock oil comes from the same source. All these elements were in the igneous rock before thrown off from the earth; and the same reasonable deduction is that coal and oil in the earth were formed from deposits made by the falling of the rings, long before there was any plant or vegetation on the earth.
Now, there are some things known in the proposition we have in hand. It is known that this earth, in the dawn of geologic time, was an igneous, incandescent mass; and, whether we choose to call it the Great Chemist's crucible, a flaming sun, or scintillating star, it is all one in the grand scheme of world making. Fire held dynamic control. It is known that carbon and hydrogen were two all-abounding elements in that primitive furnace. It is known that carbon and hydrogen, thus conditioned, actively seek combination; and unless they passed through a sea of free oxygen on their way to the skies, they arose as oily products of the infant earth and filled the surrounding heavens — light carbons, heavy carbons, asphaltic and graphitic carbons; and we know, too, that all this occurred long, long before the day of fishes.
It is known that the vaporized oceans were there, a world of superheated steam, and took an active part in this plan of world evolution, ever active and eager to increase and enrich the planet's oily products. It is known that the resolution and decomposition of world matter in its primitive stage is not different from that of matter in its secondary condition, except in degree of competency; hence, if the decomposition of organic matter can make petroleum in infinitesimal quantities by bringing nascent carbon and hydrogen into contact, how much more must have been produced when all the hydrogen and carbon of the molten earth came in contact for millions of years, under conditions a thousandfold more adequate to effect rapid combination! It is, therefore, not so much a question as to the ability of the igneous earth to make oil compounds, as to how it could have failed to make them. It would be just as reasonable to deny the adequacy of the chemist's retort
as that of the molten earth, since the selfsame elements are treated in the selfsame way — comparing the small with the great.
One of the great lessons we learn at the retort is, that it requires a great heat and the presence of steam to make truly oily hydro-carbons, even with organic matter supplied. A molten world supplied inveterate heat and all the elements needed, and the chemist can only imitate in the most impractical way what nature is continually doing in millions of molten orbs. If the geologist denies this universal process he must also deny that hydrogen and carbon are universe elements, and so far as our world is concerned it cannot be denied; and hence he cannot for a moment logically or reasonably oppose the claim I have made, that all the petroleum of the earth was found in the world furnace when it shone out as a star. — The Earth's Annular System, pages 398, 399.
The weight of authority does not support the theory that the coal and oil beds were laid down by the perishing of vegetable or animal life, but that these elements were in the igneous rock mass and were placed there by the great Creator. When carried off as a vapor which formed the rings around the earth these in due time fell and were deposited in the various parts of the earth, forming the coal beds and oil fields at different depths. Instead therefore of these being formed in the third creative day or epoch it seems quite reasonable to conclude that they were formed prior thereto.
Lights in the Firmament
The Scriptural account of the fourth epoch or creative day reads: "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon 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." — Genesis 1:14-19.
If it is true, as hereinbefore stated, that the light which appeared at the command of God on the first creative day was from the sun's rays, how can we harmonize that thought with the statement that the sun and moon could he seen on the fourth day? There is no proof in the Scriptures or anywhere else that the sun shone upon the earth on the fourth creative day, or that if it were possible for a man to have been on the earth he could then have seen the sun, moon and stars. The sun, moon and stars must have been created long prior to the time which we are now discussing; for the earth is one of the solar system, as hereinbefore stated.
But the sun did not shine directly on the earth on the fourth creative day. On the contrary the proof is quite conclusive that even on the sixth day, when Adam was on earth, the sun did not shine, and that no man could see the sun prior to Noah's time. This does not militate at all against the fact that the light emanating from the sun illuminated the "great deep", and, as the further statement of the scripture above quoted shows, that the sun appeared in the firmament.
Be it noted that during the first creative day the statement is: "The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. . . . and there was light." This light was doubtless from the sun's rays, and it lighted the great body of water or deep above the earth and around the earth; on the second day or creative period God created the firmament; and on the fourth creative day the light from the sun's rays for the first time reached the firmament.
The Genesis record bears this out, wherein it is recorded: "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night." Never before is there any mention made in the Scriptures of light in the firmament, and it must be taken as conclusive that the time here mentioned is the first time that light ever appeared in the firmament; and this was on the fourth creative day. The light from the sun, moon and stars, shining through the depth of waters above the firmament and upon the firmament, lighted the firmament and divided the day from the night.
Then the statement follows that God made two great lights to rule the day and the night. It does not follow that he made them at that time but they were previously made by him, and now the time had come for one to rule the day and the other to rule the night. The sun was not then visible from the earth and could not have been. The light of the sun which illuminated the firmament would cast light upon the earth through the remaining rings, which were doubtless by that time translucent; but the sun could not shine directly upon the earth.
One of the most conclusive proofs that Adam did not see the sun, and that no man saw the sun until the deluge of Noah's day, is the fact that the rainbow appeared for the first time after Noah was delivered from the ark. (Genesis 9: 9-13) That was the first time that the sun's rays lighted rainfall and produced the rainbow. In the day of Adam there was no rain, but the earth was watered by a mist rising from it. (Genesis 2:5, 6) There could have been no rainfall as long as there was an aqueous canopy above the earth; and there could have been no deluge, which the Scriptures say did occur, without the existence of such a ring
or aqueous canopy. There could have been no rainbow until after that last aqueous canopy fell.
The irresistible conclusion therefore is that the sun's rays began to shine in the firmament or aerial expanse on the fourth creative day. Plants and herbs of necessity greatly increased from that day, because the sun shining in the firmament would warm it and cause a condition on the earth conducive to the growth of luxuriant plants. Up to this time, as the Sacred Record discloses, no living creatures had appeared on the earth.
Living Creatures
The fifth creative day or period of time now opened. The aqueous ring or rings surrounding the earth, and forming the canopy, now receiving the light from the sun would produce a condition conducive to animal life upon the earth. The spirit or invisible power of the Almighty God, now operating upon the waters in harmony with his fixed law, caused these waters to bring forth abundantly moving, living creatures, such as fish and other creature life, and fowl that flew above the earth.
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And 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. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." — Genesis 1: 20-23.
During this fifth creative period God caused to come forth great swarms of living creatures into the waters, whales, reptiles and creatures which could live out
on land or in water, also shell-fish and like creatures. Geologists have discovered that there are immense beds of limestone in various parts of the earth wherein are great quantities of shells of fish, and these are called "shell-fish cemeteries". This would support the conclusion that after the beginning of this fifth creative day there was a falling of one or more of the rings near the poles, and an inrushing of snow and ice which swept to the equator and destroyed great quantities of these living creatures; and afterwards the way was opened for the creation and bringing forth of other living creatures.
Sixth Creative Day
With the opening of the sixth creative period or day the dry land had been separated from the waters for a period of approximately twenty thousand years. The earth's surface was cool by this time. It produced grass and herbs and fruit; and these, together with the climatic conditions, were suitable for animal life. The Scriptural account concerning this creative period reads: "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good." — Genesis 1: 24, 25.
Beasts of the earth have not always been the same. At one time there were upon the earth great numbers of mammoth animals, some of them measuring eighty feet in length. Proof of this is now found in skeletons digged from great depths in the earth. Great numbers of these mammoths roamed the earth. Some have been found frozen in the ice and snow, while skeletons of others
have been digged from the beds of earth and stone in the tropical regions.
The reasonable conclusion is that each one of the ages or creative periods ended with a great catastrophe, caused by the breaking and falling at the poles of one of the aqueous rings which, in turn, permitted the inrushing of great bodies of water and ice and snow which swept away the animal and plant life and rendered desolate the earth. In the course of time other animals and plants took their places on the earth. Different kinds of animals appeared at different stages of the animal creative period. During these periods a hothouse condition existed on the earth, which was destroyed by snow and ice, and this is proven by the physical facts. A letter written by Mr. Vail, and appearing in the Scientific American, is of much interest upon this point:
To the Editor of the Scientific American:
I have read with great interest in your issue of April 12 the note on the recent discovery of the body of a mammoth, in cold storage, by Dr. Herz, in the ice-bound region of Eastern Siberia. This, it seems to me, is more than a "Rosetta Stone" in the path of the geologist. It offers the strongest testimony in support of the claim that all the glacial epochs and all the deluges the earth ever saw, were caused by the progressive and successive decline of primitive earth vapors, lingering about our planet as the cloud vapors of the planets Jupiter and Saturn linger about those bodies today.
Allow me to suggest to my brother geologists that remnants of the terrestrial watery vapors may have revolved about the earth as a Jupiter-like canopy, even down to very recent geologic times. Such vapors must fall chiefly in polar lands, through the channel of least resistance and greatest attraction, and certainly as vast avalanches of tellurio-cosmic snows. Then, too, such a canopy, or world-roof, must have tempered the climate up to the poles, and
thus afforded pasturage to the mammoth and his congeners of the Arctic world — making a greenhouse earth under a greenhouse roof. If this be admitted, we can place no limits to the magnitude and efficiency of canopy avalanches to desolate a world of exuberant life.
It seems that Dr. Herz's mammoth, like many others found burled in glacier ice, with their food undigested in their stomachs, proves that it was suddenly overtaken with a crushing fall of snow. In this case, with grass in its mouth unmasticated, it tells an unerring tale of death in a snowy grave. If this be conceded, we have what may have been an all-competent source of glacial snows, and we may gladly escape the unphilosophic alternative that the earth grew cold in order to get its casement of snow, while, as I see it, it got its snows and grew cold.
The above represents the earth stripped of its annular appendage and with its last lingering canopy suspended over the regions of both poles as vast clouds. Over the tropics and much of the temperate zones the vapors had become so thin that the clear sky could be seen at times in certain places. The sun shone into this thin vapor sky and made it a most brilliant illuminator. The sun itself was dimly seen in this effulgent heaven as a conquering hero waging victorious contest with vapor foes.
During the igneous age the oceans went to the skies, along with a measureless fund of mineral and metallic sublimations; and if we concede these vapors formed into an annular system, and returned during the ages in grand
installments, some of them lingering even down to the age of man, we may explain many things that are dark and perplexing today.
As far back as 1874 I published some of these thoughts in pamphlet form, and it is with the hope that the thinkers of this twentieth century will look after them that I again call up the "Canopy Theory".
ISAAC N. VAIL.
When it is considered that each one of these creative days or periods was of seven thousand years duration it can be understood how one kind of animal appeared and perished, to be succeeded by another kind and within the same creative day. In due season God created the cattle after his kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth, including all the domestic animals, some of which kind are still on the earth. Each one had come in its due time according to the divine will, each kind had its function to perform, and all were necessarily important in the creative work of Jehovah relative to the earth.
It seems evident that more than forty thousand years had passed since God began the creative work as described in Genesis 1:2. In that period of time the great ball of fire called the earth had shot forth vast quantities of mineral substances in the form of vapors, and these had formed rings around the earth which in due time developed into canopies which enveloped and surrounded the earth.
At regular intervals, and exactly as God had timed them, these respective rings (with probably but one exception) had fallen, depositing in the earth gold, silver and all the precious metals, great beds of iron, coal, oil, asphalt and other valuable substances; the dry land had appeared; the vegetation had come, and one kind after another had perished only to make way for another kind. Then came the fishes and the fowls and the
animals of their kind. Seemingly one disaster came after another, and this continued until the earth was cool and in form to produce and sustain plant and animal life.
During all that creative period God had been acting by and through his beloved One, the Logos, who was always faithful and true to the Eternal One. Great hosts of angels had performed their respective parts as messengers of the mighty Master Workman. It is recorded of one of these great spirit beings: "Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." (Ezekiel 28:14) Again it is written: "Who maketh his angels spirits: his ministers a flaming fire." — Psalm 104: 4.
These spirit beings had watched the great fires relating to the earth and the progressive results thereof. Evidently these incandescent planets or balls of fire held no terrors for them. Each had gone about his respective duty in carrying out the orders of the great Jehovah God in the preparation of the earth. Every one of the heavenly host had watched with keen interest and delight the progressive steps of this development or period of earth's creation and preparation, because they must have known that it was being prepared for some creature yet unmade.
Why then was the earth created? Why after great cost and effort was it brought into existence? Why had the great Jehovah God occupied all these centuries and expended so much energy to bring the earth to the condition in which it was now found at the close of the sixth creative day? Why had he laid the foundation of the earth and why had he developed it? If for the benefit of some creature, it must be admitted that his love for that creature is very great. Every one who reads these lines is keenly and vitally interested in the correct answer to the question: Why did God create the earth? Let the Sacred Word of God give the answer.
