Science and Truth
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"Waste" and "void" are translated from the original "tohu wabohu." Both times this word combination is used, it describes a condition of judgment (Gen. 1:2; Jer. 4:23). Any other interpretation of the phrase violates the most obvious usage of language. The interpretation that it is a description of an unfinished world in process of creation is illogical, absurd, and unscriptural. If it meant unfinished, it would have to say so in order to be accurate. Inspiration demands this. For example, who would even think of speaking of a building or anything else under construction and therefore unfinished as waste and void, or as without form and void? It is well established custom, however, to speak of the ruin and destruction caused by a tornado or a hurricane as waste and void, because it plainly means that life and material things once in a useful state have been destroyed. The expression, "God created the earth not a waste," is a clear implication that it was created with life. And the expression of Isaiah 45:18, "He formed (not created) it to be inhabited," implies further that the life created in the beginning was destroyed. That which in the beginning (Gen. 1:1) was created perfect with life was later (during reconstruction week) "formed" for the purpose of being inhabited. After the plants of the third day were called into being, it was called good. Since good is the antithesis of evil, it is clear that calling these plants into being was pronounced good only by reason of contrast with the preexisting plants that had fallen under the influence of sin. After the animals were created on the fifth day, God called it good just as He had done on the third day with the plants. This implies that there had been other animals before these that had fallen under sin and that this was evil. There is a close analogy in this respect between the animals and the plants. In the case of the plants on the third day, God commanded the earth to bring them forth after their kind. The command was not addressed to the plants, but to the earth instead. It was the earth that was to bring forth in this manner. Of course the seeds and roots left from the great cataclysm were already in the ground or earth. Since God is perfect in all respects, His creation is the same. Plants must, of necessity, reproduce their own kind; otherwise the Creator would be a being of confusion instead of order and His world could not stand. When the first man and woman were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, they were not commanded to multiply after their kind either. What else would they produce? This is to be understood. So we know that the plants also would multiply after their kind without the express statement. Therefore, the command to the earth to bring plants forth "after their kind" must mean after their pre-existing kind. In the case of the animals, on the fifth day they were created "after their kind," yet not commanded to reproduce after their kind. Again, on the sixth day, it states that God made the animals after their kind. The reason is the same as that given for the plants. There had been animals before those created during reconstruction week. The existence of animals at the earlier time is proof that plants also existed then; for the animals required food. This is merely a confirmation of what has already been set forth as to pre-existing plants. Thus an examination of what the Bible actually states regarding plants and animals and what is implied in the context makes it entirely clear that both plants and animals existed on the earth prior to those mentioned in the record of reconstruction week. It is stated in verse 3 that God blessed and sanctified the Seventh Day because "in it He had rested from all His work." It follows again that at the time here referred to God had rested from all His work. The verb, had rested, means that His rest was already completed. This precludes all possibility of claiming that God’s rest is still continuing. To assert that it is still going on is to disregard completely the statement of the Bible; for the Bible states that at the time when "the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them" (Gen. 2:1), God’s work was not only ended, but His rest from it also was ended. As soon as sin entered the reconstructed world, God resumed work (John 5:17). Every time He heals the sick, it is, in a sense, an act of creation. And every time He saves a lost sinner unto life eternal, it is an act of new creation necessitated by the sin that followed the first seven days. It is, therefore, not true that God ceased from all work of creation at the close of the sixth day. Nor that He has continued His rest ever since that time. (5) Why is the expression, evening and morning, omitted from the Seventh Day? On each of the six days the record gives the several acts of God and the events for the day. For example, on the first day: Let there be light; God saw the light that it was good; God divided the light from the darkness; God called the light Day and the darkness Night. This is the list of recorded events for the first day. There were each instantaneous, yet the series of events was distributed over the period of one day made up of an evening (night) and a morning (daylight). Hence, to make this fact clear, the record of events for the day is followed by the statement, "And the evening and the morning were (constituted) the first day." Thus the record for the first day is complete and understandable. The six days on which God worked are all treated in the same way. The succession of days was established, and the reconstructed world was then complete. The days, each composed of an evening or night followed by a morning or daylight, were established to succeed each other regularly and indefinitely. God rested on the Seventh Day, however, and made this fact a part of the record for the week. After His work, rest was necessary. He had to be refreshed (Ex. 31:17) from His grief over the sin which made this work necessary, and thus be restored to His former state. On the Seventh Day He did not do any work at all. Hence, there were no acts of His nor events to record, and no occasion to state that they were distributed over the evening and the morning for this day. There was no more occasion to mention the fact of the evening and the morning for the Seventh Day than there was to mention any of the other things brought into being during the six days, as for example to state that the seas and the land were still separated, or that the plants and other forms of life were still living. God made the Seventh Day a perfect one, and recorded nothing at all except the fact that He rested, which was evidently the only purpose of the day. (6) According to the Genesis account, man’s sin did not occur until after the Seventh Day. It is not mentioned until after the account for this day. Man’s first sin called forth at once God’s work of dealing with it. If this had taken place on the Seventh Day, it would have been a most grievous disturbance of His rest and it would be mentioned in the record. We are certain that man’s sin did not occur until after the Seventh Day.
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About the Book
Many references have been made and are being made in much of literature, fiction, and non-fiction, about the creation of the world and how things might have been in the beginning. As we have further light on the subject, this book attempts to prove that the Bible account of creation and true science does not agree. Using the book Science and Truth, written by the noted scientist and outstanding Christian layman, Dr. L. Allen Higley, and the guidance of the learned Hebrew scholar, Dr. Wayne D. Bryan, I have revised Higley’s work by: updating some of the scientific information; strengthening the theology by quoting from the inspired original languages (Hebrew and Greek) as well as using different versions of the English translations (KJV and NASV mainly); inserting whole paragraphs of my own as examples; adding logic, observations, and suggestions of my own; and inserting comments on current events in history, which pertain to Higley’s argument. I have also added single words and inserted references throughout in an attempt to clarify sentences and intended meanings. I wish to show the deceptions of evolution of any kind and many other wrong conceptions. All who seek to find and heed the truth need to be assured that there is a cause that is clear, consistent, logical, and scientific, which they may take. These facts and statements can be and are verified. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6) Any explanation about the origin of the world and the things in it apart from Him cannot stand, for the truth is a Person, and by Him, were all things made (John 1:3). "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) Higley’s is a most extraordinary and illuminating work.
About the Author
L. ALLEN HIGLEY was born in 1871 in Wilmot, Ohio. He died in 1955, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Higley taught Chemistry and Geology at: Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, 1925-1939; and at The King’s College in Belmar, NJ (later relocated in New Castle, DE), 1939-1950. He was the New Mexico State Chemist, 1919-1920s, as well as Consulting Geologist for oil in New Mexico and Texas. After receiving a Doctor of Philosophy in Organic Chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1907, he later received the honorary Doctor of Science degree from Ohio Northern University, Ada, OH, where he had previously earned his Bachelor of Science degree. In the 1940s, he contributed a third of all the geological specimens at the Chicago Field Museum. Dr. Higley shows that there is actually no conflict between real science and Biblical truth, that there is no basis in fact for the evolutionary theory of creation, and that Biblical statements can be verified. He brings Science and Mathematics to bear on his proof and he makes the fact of creation according to the Genesis account so clear that the layman cannot fail to follow his reasoning. The work will be of invaluable assistance to those whom the Bible is a closed book because of its supposed internal conflict and its alleged conflict with "real" science. Betty Sue Bryan earned her Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Edison State College in Trenton, NJ, 1989, and a Master of Arts in English from Louisiana State University, 1992. She is the author of Monograms, Book of Devotional Poetry, Su-Del Publications, 1981. She was awarded the Gold and Silver Award, World of Poetry, 1990, International Society of Poets, 1993, and the International Library of Poetry, 1993, Editor’s Choice Award.