The Days of Creation

THE DAYS OF CREATION

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The first chapter of the book of Genesis describes the six days of creation and the seventh day of God’s rest. These events happened as set forth. However, they also are symbolic of the true six days of creation and the true seventh day of God’s rest.

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Introduction

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. (Revelation 22:13)

This is not the first time I have written on this subject. It appears in several of my writings. However last evening, as I was teaching, it came to me with renewed clarity.

The understanding of the days of creation, and of the two witnesses that herald each of the days, entered my mind several years ago as I was driving to church. It came full blown with accompanying scripture references. I was so amazed when I got to church that I did not preach on it. I did not trust that I was hearing from God.

However, over the passing years the understanding seems to be on a solid foundation. Last night it appeared to be more complete and “right” than ever.

Those readers who are acquainted with my writings will be aware that sometimes I change the names of the days. I may refer to the sixth day as the Day of the Kingdom or the Day of Reconciliation. Presently I am referring to it as the Day of Image.

When the reader becomes aware of the overall concept he or she may desire to change the names to those that seem to be more fitting. He should do so in order to derive the most benefit from the topic.

God always sends two witnesses to announce the beginning of a day. The day they announce flows from the two witnesses themselves. Once a day is inaugurated it endures forever. The days interact and support each other.

The first day, the Day of Form. The first two witnesses were Adam and Eve. They reveal in themselves the form of mankind. People will always be of the form to which we are accustomed. A billion years from now they will be of the same form.

We may imagine that after we die, or when the new earth comes into view, people will look different than they do now. No, it is not so. Before God created man God decided what the form of man should be. What we see today is the eternal form of man, although in the future the form of the saints will be glorified, as is true of the Lord Jesus in the present hour.

The Lord Jesus Christ came forth from the cave in His original flesh and bones. So shall we come forth from where we are interred.

This is what we desire, isn’t it. Would we really want people to look different from what they do now? Probably not!

God created the sky and the earth on the first day, and gave light so we could see what God had made. It is true that one day in the future the earth and sky will flee from the face of Christ. But then God will create a new sky and earth. The point is, God is making all things new but they are the same things. They are not something different; they are a sky and an earth. Forever there will be a sky, an earth, and the people of the same form to which we are accustomed walking on the earth.

We speak of our desire to go to Heaven to live forever. This is because we want to get away from the troubles of life. Actually human beings will never be happy when they do not have a sky over them, and an earth on which to live.

The second day, the Day of Separation. On the second day of creation God separated the water under the sky from the water above the sky. Based on the Genesis record I am of the opinion that there is water above outer space.

The second day of creation is that of the Church, the called-out elect of God, the royal priesthood.

The two witnesses of the Day of Separation were Abraham and Sarah. Out from them came the promise of the Seed.

The division between the Church and the remainder of mankind will endure forever. This eternal separation is portrayed by the great jasper wall that divides between the Church, which is the new Jerusalem, and the nations of saved people who live on the new earth.

You remember the Lord said, “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me.” This statement reveals the division between the elect, those people whom God gives to Christ, and the rest of the people. This does not mean the rest of the people will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. It means merely that God has chosen to have a royal priesthood—members of the Body of Christ who are especially close to God and who will govern mankind for eternity.

I know the concept of a priesthood, and then people who are saved to live on the new earth but are not of the priesthood, is not familiar to many Christians. However, it is impossible to understand the Kingdom of God, or the book of Isaiah, or the New Testament, until one grasps the basic design—that of a governing priesthood, and then people who are the inheritance of the priesthood and whom the priesthood governs.

While it is always time for people to believe and be saved, the central purpose of the two thousand years of the Christian Era has been that of calling out from the ranks of mankind those people whom God has given to Jesus Christ to serve as His complement, the Bride of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem.

Another way of looking at the Day of Separation is that God saves us by removing our new born-again nature to His right hand in Christ, and then the Holy Spirit deals with us throughout our lifetime on the earth that we might learn to serve the Lord. There is a heaven, so to speak, dividing the earthly part of our personality from the heavenly. In the Day of Resurrection our personality once again shall be whole.

The third day, the Day of Moral Law. On the third day the dry ground appeared. The dry ground symbolizes the introduction of God’s moral law. Moses and Aaron were the two witnesses of the new Day of Moral Law, and it came through them.

The Day of Moral Law, along with the Day of Form and the Day of Separation, will endure for eternity. Let me explain:

The form of Christ is the same as the form of man, it appears. But the image of Christ is what He is in personality. The image of Christ reflects the eternal moral law of God.

The eternal moral law of God constrains all of God’s creatures to be and behave according to the image of Christ.

The eternal moral law of God existed prior to the Law of Moses, and on the basis of the eternal moral law of God, Cain was found guilty; Enoch was translated; Noah and Abraham were deemed righteous.

The Law of Moses is an abridged, somewhat negative, covenantal form of the eternal moral law of God. For example, the Law of Moses forbids the eating of pork. The eternal moral law of God does not forbid the eating of pork, as we note when the sheet was let down in Peter’s vision.

The Law of Moses was given to Israel, and through Israel, to deal with sin until the promised Seed should come. Now that the promised Seed has come, the covenantal aspects of the Law of Moses are done away, and the manner in which the eternal aspects of the Law of Moses are interpreted and applied has been changed in order to fully conform to God’s intention to make man in His own image.

Christ did not come to do away with the law but to establish the law.

The eternal moral law of God operates in us as the Spirit of God creates Christ in us. Line by line the law is carved in our mind and in our heart.

Meanwhile, the commandments issued by Christ and His Apostles provide us with behavioral guidelines that we are obligated to follow, or risk being denied entrance to the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake about this!

The full development of the new covenant is not restricted to our following the commandments given by Christ and His Apostles. Rather it is the full growth of Christ in us until our personality and behavior are in the image of Christ—that is, until they reflect the eternal moral law of God.

By the eternal aspects of the Law of Moses, such as the commandment to have no gods other than the Lord our God, comes the knowledge of what sin is. But the development of total freedom from idolatry can be ours only as the Holy Spirit delivers us from sin and forms Christ in us.

Thus the third day, the Day of Moral Law, came through Moses and Aaron and shall endure forever. The Day of Moral Law was portrayed on the third day of creation as dry ground appeared. Man cannot stand and walk uprightly until there is dry ground. Man cannot stand and walk uprightly in the moral sense until God has provided him with God’s law.

The third day, the Day of Moral Law, will endure forever. Like all the other days of creation, the Day of Moral Law will find its ultimate expression in the new Jerusalem, the holy city. The new Jerusalem is the full revelation of God’s Person, will, way, and ultimate intention in Christ Jesus.

God will not be finished working until Christ is the Center and Circumference of the entire creation. Then God will rest for eternity.

The fourth day, the Day of Light. The two Witnesses of the fourth day are God and Christ. Although only Christ could be seen by the human eye, the truth is, the things Christ said and did were performed by the Father who always dwells in Christ.

On the fourth day the sun, moon, and stars were created, symbolizing the light that always comes with Christ and is Christ.

Compare in your mind the dark utterances of the Hebrew Prophets with the words of Jesus Christ. Can you see that Christ brings light to us? For one thing, we now have some understanding concerning the Persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These Three were not as clearly presented in the Old Testament.

What would we do without the words of Christ? We would be ignorant of so many things. Now that Christ has come and spoken to us we have become aware of God’s will concerning us, and also of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

Christ is the Light of the world. As His Word is being perfected in us, we are becoming the light of the world. This is to say, people can see in us God’s Person and His will concerning mankind.

John the Baptist was part of the third day, the Day of Moral Law. It is said of John that he was not that Light but came to bear witness of the true Light. So it is that the Day of Moral Law is not the Light but bears witness of the Light. The Law of Moses is as a slave who brings us to the school of Christ.

The fifth day, the Day of the Beginning of Life. The two witnesses of the Day of Life are the Apostles and the Holy Spirit. No person except Jesus Christ had eternal life until Christ was raised from the dead and shed forth the Spirit of God. From that point forward the believers were born again of the Spirit of God.

To this day we read the words of the Apostles. As we read, believe, and obey what is written, the Holy Spirit gives us eternal life.

The Day of Life came from the Apostles and the Spirit and will endure throughout eternity.

The sixth day, the Day of Image. Now we have come to the present hour.

The Day of Form is still operating. The Day of Separation is still operating. The Day of Moral Law is still operating. The Day of Light is still operating. The Day of Life is still operating.

All of these anticipate and provide a background for that which is at hand.

Isn’t it true that the first six days of creation anticipated and provided a background for the creation of man in God’s image? So it is today.

Who are the two witnesses from whom the new day will flow? The two witnesses are Christ and His Body.

It is the Day of Image, the image of God.

Stop and think. The only human being who ever appeared on the earth in the image of God is the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know it says Adam was in the image of God. But compare Adam with Jesus Christ and you will see what I mean.

Let’s consider the attributes of the image of Christ, and then think about Adam. Then I suppose you will agree with me that while Adam was created in the form of God, he hardly was in the moral image of Christ. Yet God has decreed that man shall be in His image.

Some of the attributes of the image of God, all of which are found in the Lord Jesus Christ, are as follows:

Love.
Joy.
Peace.
Patience.
Gentleness.
Goodness.
Faithfulness.
Meekness.
Self-control.
Holiness.
Freedom from idolatry.
Total obedience to God.
Moral purity.
Continual dependence on God for everything.
Courage.
Freedom from presumption.
Humility.
A continual attitude of repentance.
A willingness to deny one’s self when it is necessary to meet the needs of the
Lord and of other people.
Freedom from the desire to seek great things for one’s self.

The above characteristics give us some idea of the image of God. Can you see that Adam did not have these but the Lord Jesus Christ does? Therefore Jesus Christ is the first Man to walk the earth in the full image of God.

We still are experiencing the works of the first five days. We are approaching the sixth day, the Day of Image.

What does this mean to us? It means that the Holy Spirit is ready now to reveal to us all that is in our personality that is not in the image of God, to remove these urges and motivations, and to form in us the moral Nature of Jesus Christ.

At this point our faith will be tested. For so many centuries we Christians have been taught that it is impossible to gain the victory over sin while we are alive on the earth. We forget that sin is a spiritual force and originated in Heaven around the Throne of God.

We suppose that when we die we will be free from sin; or when the Lord Jesus appears we will be instantly set free from sin; or God is willing to receive our sinful nature and overlook it on the basis of grace. None of these three assumptions is scriptural. None of the three is true.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the author and the finisher of our faith. The Author means that through Him we are enabled to walk the path the leads to eternal life. The Finisher means He will bring us into the full image of God.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)

Man was made in God’s image on the sixth day.

The sixth of the seven feasts of the Lord was the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement reminds us that God intends not only to cover our sins, or forgive our sins but to remove our sins.

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert. (Leviticus 16:20-22)

Redemption from the power of Satan is not accomplished when we merely are forgiven. The sin nature must be demolished and the Nature of Christ formed in its place. Only then are we fully redeemed from the hand of the enemy.

This program has commenced. Its operation is simple. The Holy Spirit shows us the urges and motivations in our life that are not in the image of God. Then we confess these urges and motivations as sin, denounce them as fit only for the Lake of Fire, and renounce them, declaring we want nothing more to do with them ever again.

When we perform this action, God forgives our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

In reality we are being revealed before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We are being created in the image of God. We are being reconciled to God in our personality.

Those who are willing to diligently follow the program of “pronounce, denounce, and renounce” will be eligible to be raised from the dead when Christ appears and to participate with Him in the installation of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

We see then that on the sixth day of creation man is to be made in the image of God.

During the sixth feast of the Lord our sins are confessed and then removed from us.

What other sixes do we have?

The sixth item of furniture in the Tabernacle of the Congregation was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant represents Christ and those who are in the image of Christ.

Inside the Ark were three items.

The most important of the items were the two tables of stone on which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. This signifies that those who are in the image of Christ must show in themselves the moral Nature of God.
A second item was the memorial jar of manna. The jar of manna portrays the willingness of the saint to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This means we always flow with the Life of God in all matters of our being and doing. Such is the perfect fulfillment of the Sabbath commandment.
A third item in the Ark was Aaron’s rod that budded. Aaron’s rod shows that only those whom God has chosen are members of the royal priesthood. It indicates that we are free from the dreadful sin of presumption—of aspiring to a role not intended for us.

We must be holy. We must live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. We must be called of God, as was Aaron.

The high hills do leap, but God has chosen Zion for His eternal dwelling place.

Religion in our day has become an enterprise, a product to be marketed and exported. Talented people rise to the top of the religious organizations.

So it was in the days of Christ. Talented rabbis rose to the top ranks of the Aaronic order. But they crucified Jesus.

There are two forces that make people less than human. One is sin; the other is religion. The extent that religion can make people less than human is revealed in the fact that the chief priests of Israel made plans to kill Lazarus, after Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead. It seems that the reviving of Lazarus caused many Jews to believe. This the chief priests could not tolerate. Their religion had made them subhuman.

Are there any other important sixes?

Yes, the entrance into Canaan was the sixth episode of the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the land of promise.

The battle to enter Canaan tells us that if we are to enter the rest of God, the image of Christ, we must be prepared to fight. God did all the fighting when we left Egypt; when we first were saved. But when we try to enter the fullness of our inheritance in Christ we will discover that Satan will resist us furiously. He has held us in the chains of sin all our life, even though we professed Christ. Now as he sees us leaving his domain he will seek to seduce us from the truth. He will endeavor to turn our eyes away from Christ.

Satan often is successful in seducing the elect, so we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

We understand, then, that the two witnesses of the eleventh chapter of the book of Revelation are Christ and His Body. Just as was true of the Father and Christ, while Christ was on the earth, only one person will be seen. Christ will be invisible. But as it was true of the Father and Christ while Christ ministered on the earth, so it will be that although the world will see only the members of the Body of Christ, it will be Christ who is revealing His moral character and His power in them.

The Day of Image will come forth through Christ and His Body, and then will continue for eternity. During the thousand-year period sometimes referred to as the Millennium, Christ and the members of His Body will have ready access to both the spirit realm and the earth. They will govern the nations of the earth with a rod of iron, and they will spend time also in the spirit realm, ministering to the weaker believers in order to bring them to the stature of the fullness of Christ. This is my understanding in the present hour.

We of today, if we are determined enough to claim the promise of God by faith, are going to be conformed to the image of Christ. As we are being conformed we are going to be entrusted with the fullness of God’s power. We will bear witness of the soon coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, as described in the eleventh chapter of the book of Revelation.

The Day of Image is beginning now and will continue throughout the thousand-year Kingdom Age. It will not be finished until the end of the thousand years. Then the present earth and sky will vanish, there will come into view a new sky and a new earth, the perfected Church will descend through the new sky and come to rest on the new earth, and those people who were found written in the book of Life will be brought over to life on the new earth as members of the nations of saved people.

The purpose of the Day of Image is to bring all of God’s elect to the stature of the fullness of Christ. As that moral light then shines from the new Jerusalem, the nations of saved people will be conformed to that same image.

The seventh day, the Day of God’s Rest. God worked for six days and then rested. He did not rest because He was tired but because the work had been completed.

It is interesting that there were no evening and morning of the seventh day. This is because the seventh day is eternity.

The two witnesses of the seventh day, the Day of God’s Rest, are God and His Tabernacles. His Tabernacle is Christ and those who are an eternal part of Christ. The Throne of God and of the Lamb are in the new Jerusalem, which is the Wife of the Lamb.

The nature of eternity will come forth from God and His Tabernacle.

The six days of creation have operated to bring us to the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem reveals in itself:

The Day of Form.
The Day of Separation.
The Day of Moral Law.
The Day of Light.
The Day of Life.
The Day of Image.

Now God can rest. He has made an end of rebellion and wickedness. He has created a living temple through which He can touch all of His creatures.

He has produced sons for Himself and a bride for the Lamb.

He has holy rulers and priests who are able to govern His creatures satisfactorily.

Conclusion. Just think! We who are alive now will experience the working of the Day of Atonement as the Spirit of God begins to conform us to the image of Christ.

Some will go all the way through with God. Others will find the path too painful. Thus they will miss the day of their visitation.

Since many of us are not in the best moral condition, it probably is true that the Lord Jesus will not return tomorrow. It will take time to remove from the Kingdom of God that which is offensive.

America is facing trouble. But during the trouble the Spirit of God will be given to us so we can be changed, and also perform the works that God wants to take place. I cannot tell you where or how God will send people forth, but it is clear that many Christians in various countries of the world are not aware of the fullness of the plan of redemption. God may take it upon Himself to use some of us to bring to other believers additional insight into God’s Kingdom. I think this is not unlikely.

Trouble certainly is coming, but God is all-powerful. He will protect every person who is doing His will. Many believers are not faithfully doing God’s will and their protection is not assured.

Let each one of us resolve to turn aside from the endless distractions in the American culture and follow the Lord Jesus as closely as we can. If we do this, then we will be able to lay hold on the place in the Kingdom that has been assigned to us from the beginning of the world.

(“The Days of Creation”, 3422-1)