WONDERS passing human knowledge and understanding the great God and Creator made for the use and joy and delight of his spirit sons in the heavens. His beloved and only begotten Son was with him in these grand creative works, and each fresh new creation caused all living creatures to praise and adore the Almighty One, "which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number," (Job 9:10) Jehovah God and his "master workman", the Word, were The Higher Powers, and under them the universal organization of spirit creatures, seraphim, cherubim, and angels, lived and moved and served the purpose of God with perfect obedience and all to his glory.—Romans 13:1.

    Then the much diversified wisdom of God was expanded to those spiritual heavens by the beginning of a new form of creation, the material creation. There were vast, fathomless depths of space, and at God's command his mighty Son, the Word, began to adorn these with awesome material things. "By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm 33: 6, 9, A.R.V.) Glorious spiral nebulae were formed, and globular clusters of stars, suns and their planets and comets to move about the suns in a well-defined orbit, all together billions of milky ways, or galaxies of stars. The vision of the omnipotent Creator could take in the beautiful sight, and it was all well done in perfect agreement with his irresistible will. There was no chaos or wild confusion, but all these heavenly bodies moved with orderliness and regularity according to the hand of the groat Former of all things. The formation of each spherical body went forward according to the divinely fixed law. The Creator by his Word held in control all created, forming and developing things. His invisible force, which the Bible calls "the spirit of God", was sent forth from him to work and fulfill his pleasure toward all these inanimate creations in the limitless reaches of space.
There, in assigned places, were the heavenly bodies Ash and Cesil and Cimah and Mazzaroth, which men have misnamed Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the zodiac, after the names of false gods, or demons.—Job 9: 9 and 38: 31, 32, marginal readings.

    At this point the opening book of the Holy Scriptures begins its matchless and truthful record : "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1, A.R.V.) Whether the mass of matter composing the earth was originally thrown off from the fiery sun about which it revolves, and just how long before this the earth mass was being formed, the Divine Record does not say. Hence the Scripture record that follows, in Genesis, chapter 1, does not describe the creation of the earth mass itself, but the ordering and preparing of it for the final purpose of its Creator.

    What was and is that final purpose? The Creator's answer is the answer of truth, which truth frees the human mind and heart of all fears concerning the destiny of the earth we inhabit: "For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else." (Isaiah 45:18, A.R.V.) "One generation passeth away, and an-other generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose." (Ecclesiastes 1:4,5) "The earth which he hath established for ever."—Psalm 78: 69.

    The preparing of the earth and the disposing of things upon it for inhabitation the Creator's record divides into six work periods. These six periods are followed by a period of rest or sabbath toward earthly works, but not a sabbath toward other parts of the universe and the work there. That rest period of God toward the earth still continues, as a comparison of his Word at Genesis 2:1-3 and Psalm 95: 7-11 and Hebrews 3:15-19; 4:1-11 shows. Already about six thousand years of that great rest or sabbath of God have passed, and his Word assures us definitely that there is another thousand years thereof yet to run. Hence this great rest day of the Creator toward the earth appears to he about seven thousand years long. This seventh "day" being of such length, it is but reasonable to conclude that the preceding six work-days were each of the same length, the six spanning a total period of forty-two thousand years.

    The record of earth's creation, being of things before man's existence, is therefore inspired of God. God asks man: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast understanding. . . . when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? 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 swad-dlinghand for it." (Job 38:4-9) "Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a laming fire: 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 104:4-6) These and other Scripture statements unite in testifying that the earthly sphere was one enveloped in a canopy of water and other materials suspended above the surface of the globe. Great bands or belts of such enwrapped the earth and hid its face from view.

    Originally the earth was a fiery mass of matter. In this incandescent state it glowed like a miniature sun, like a star. No seas could exist upon its surface then, but all moisture was driven off as steam and its hydrocarbons were vaporized and its metal and minerals were sublimated and thrown far out into space, about the boiling, burning earth-core. As the earth rotated on its axis, this thrown-off matter gradually formed into great rings about the earth at its equator, where the centrifugal force of the spinning earth was most powerful. Yet the earth's power of gravity held the rings in the vicinity of the earth's equator. According to the density and specific gravity of the materials thrown off from the molten earth, they formed into rings of water mixed with mineral substance, the densest and heaviest being nearest the earth-core, the next heavy being immediately next out beyond it, and so on, the lightest being thrown out farthest and being almost wholly a water ring. Thus an annular or ring system existed, and the appearance to the eye of God was like that of a great wheel, with wheels within wheels, and with the molten earth itself as the spherical hub of them. The formation was exactly like that of the planet which astronomers call "Sat-urn" and which still has a ring system about it, three rings concentric yet swinging about its equator. ( See the book The Earth's Annular SyHcm, by Isaac N. VaU 1886).

    The planet Saturn is progressing to its final creative form according to the same divine laws that governed the earth at its early stages of creation. The evidence tends to the conclusion that these rings are composed of frozen snow particles. With the aid of a telescope it is noticeable not only that Saturn has rings, but that about the sphere there are bands of various widths and brightness, and these are at various latitudes above and below Saturn's equator. However, at its north and south poles there are no canopies, but the poles are exposed. There the canopy belts are falling, those being the areas of least resistance to gravitational forces. Such belts are produced by the rings at the equator falling one after another and then spreading out to form belts on either side of the equator. Each of these canopy belts revolves about Saturn at its own specific speed, gradually slowing down as it nears the polar region. Unseen within and beneath these canopy belts the planet Saturn itself rotates on its axis like a central core at its own as yet unmeasured speed.

    Likewise with the early earth. As it cooled, its nearest and heaviest ring fell first toward the equator. But the earth's centrifugal force prevented its fall to the earth's surface, and the ring flattened out and spread out like a belt, one part to the north and the other to the south. Ring after ring fell, and belt after belt formed. The belts moved toward the north and the south pole and there to a final fall to the earth itself. At the polar points of least resistance the earth's gravity pulled down each bolt as it reached such weak spot, and the waters and their valuable treasures took a Niagara-like plunge. Reaching the earth, the watery deluge swept as a terrific inundation or flood from the poles toward the equator, carrying along its wealth of metals and minerals, together with ice. This greatly enriched the surface of the cooling earth.

    At a certain stage, then, the surface of the earth, except at the poles, was completely enveloped in a canopy of mineralized and watery belts, like swaddling bands, high in suspension about the earthly globe. There was yet a series of rings riding on high at its equator, and thus the appearance of our planet was then like that of Saturn at present, whose rings are 171,000 miles across diametrically. The earth reached this stage of annular and canopy development more quickly than Saturn, because, being a smaller body, it cooled more rapidly and its exhalations condensed sooner. No form of a continent then showed upon the earth, but there was water directly upon the bosom of the earth, as well as a watery deep swirling high in above. Then the invisible force or "spirit" of Jehovah acted upon those exterior waters, moving upon the outer face or surface of them. "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."—Genesis 1:2.

    The earth having now cooled and solidified, it no longer glowed like a star, but was dark. "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.
This was not some electrical light created at the earth itself, otherwise it would have shone all around the earth at the same time and there would have been no division between light and darkness. Whence, then, came the light? From the sun, which had been created unknown time prior to our tiny planet earth of the solar system.

    The sunlight shone only upon the upper surface of the frozen or watery canopy high up above and around the earth. Only half of this canopy received the light of the sun at any time, the other half being away from the face of the sun and being in darkness. But, like the earth within, the belt canopy about it was also revolving around the earth's axis. Thus there was a division between the daylight period and the night period. However, the light of the sun did not penetrate through those canopy belts and reach the surface of the earth itself or reach the waters immediately upon the earth. The canopy belts were practically opaque, and between them and the earth the intervening space was dense with carbon, worse than a "pea-soup fog" in London. Note, too, that in describing this first day, as well as all following creative days, the Creator God puts the evening before the morning. He begins each creative day of seven thousand years with the evening period. At evening the final form of stable things to come is seen only in dim outline at first, if at all; and then it becomes clearer and, at last, fully distinct at the climax or "morning" of the day.

    “And God said, Let there be a firmament [an expansion] 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. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." (Genesis 1:6-8) This appears to mean a clearing up to some extent of the expanse between the waters under which earth's surface was buried and the watery belts suspended above the earth. The firmament or "heaven" was not holding up the canopy belts on high, but the establishment of the firmament marked a clear separation between such waters above and those under it. It was in this firmament that the winged creatures yet to be made would fly, and which in time man himself would invade with the airship, the airplane and the rocket. At the close of the second creative day the light from the sun had not yet pierced through the canopy and reached the firmament. All was still dark there.

    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) Thus at the beginning of the third creative day of seven thousand years there were great convulsions within the bowels of the earth, very likely caused by the falling of more belts of the canopy at the poles of the earth and subjecting it to new weights and pressures. At any rate, God's directive power was operating, and bodies of land were forced up above the surface of the hitherto watery waste. Vast continents and islands pushed up. They were nude of all vegetation or plant life.

    "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) There was no evolution or developing of one form or specialty of plant life through indefinite, indistinct changes into another form of plant life. God's manifold wisdom created the multitude of definite forms of plants and vegetation, each one bearing seed within itself to reproduce and continue its own kind unchanged. All this bringing forth of the first forms of plant life took place in the darkness that still hovered in the firmament over the earth and within the dense watery canopy.

    "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. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." (Genesis 1: 14-19) This does not say or mean that first during earth's fourth creative day God produced the sun around which the earth revolves and also produced the earth's satellite, the moon, and also the stars visible far beyond to the naked eye. These celestial bodies existed long before the earth's "fourth day" began. God had made them and hung them in the space at vast distances out beyond the rings and canopy circling the earth, and hence high above the firmament or "heaven" surrounding the earth, which "heaven" divided the waters on the earth from those above.

    Now, however, for the first time the light of the sun, moon and stars appeared in the firmament of earth's heaven and that light penetrated trough to the land surfaces and seas of the earth itself. Evidently by this time more of the canopy's densely-laden watery belts had reached the poles and fallen, deluging the whole earth for the time and wiping out the growing plant life. After such floods subsided, more plants sprang up and covered the protruding land surfaces with herbage. The canopy belt last falling in the course of the fourth day left only the lightest rings of almost pure water to drop at the equator and to spread out northward and southward like a tent or canopy over the earth. This remaining aqueous canopy was translucent. It therefore let the light of the sun, moon and stars far outside to stream through and light up the firmament, the air expanse which had now become relatively free of carbon. The effect of this was to produce a hothouse state upon the earth under its translucent canopy. This was very conducive to the luxuriant growth of plant life, even to the northern and southern polar regions, in the intervals between the fall of canopy belts.

    Due to the aqueous canopy still enveloping the earth above the firmament the definite outline of the sun, moon and stars could not have been seen at the surface of the earth. Only their light diffused through the canopy. As time went on, the canopy would become very thin immediately above the equator of the earth, and the sunlight would penetrate through and be refracted with unusual brilliancy. What creatures would now inhabit the earth?