[Faithwalker012]

The first thing I would perhaps like everyone to get set in their mind is that as we look around the world today and look at God's creation everything is very natural. You know, while there are fruits and other things that grow that people can eat which are very healthy and have some amazing health benefits, there are no magical trees or pieces of fruit out there. And in as much as God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, I feel fairly certain that we can say there never were. The only thing that has changed about this world and God's creation is, other than man polluting it, when Satan rebelled, there was a great shaking and upheaval, or as the Greek put it, a katabole.

I'm going to make reference to an appendix in the King James Version Companion Bible. These appendices were done by a scholar by the name of E.W. Bullinger. There are 198 of them in the Companion Bible, and this is from Appendix 146.

Quote:

The Noun, katabole, occurs in Matthew 13:35, 25:34, Luke 11:50, John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 4:3, 9:26 , 11:11, 1Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8, 17:8 and the corresponding Verb (kataballo) occurs in 2Corinthians 4:9, Hebrews 6:1 and Revelation 12:10.

A comparison of all these passages (especially 2Corinthians 4:9 and Revelation 12:10) will show that kataballo and katabole are not the proper terms for founding and foundation, but the correct meaning is casting down, or overthrow.

Consistency, therefore, calls for the same translation in Hebrews 6:1, where, instead of "not laying again", the rendering should be "not casting down". That is to say, the foundation already laid, of repentance, etc., was not to be cast down or overthrown, but was to be left and progress made unto the perfection.

Accordingly, the Noun katabole, derived from, and cognate with the Verb, ought to be translated "disruption", or "ruin".

The remarkable thing is that in all occurrences (except Hebrews 11:11) the word is connected with "the world" (Greek kosmos. Appendix 129.1), and therefore the expression should be rendered "the disruption (or ruin) of the world", clearly referring to the condition indicated in Genesis 1:2, and described in 2Peter 3:5-6. For the earth was not created tohu (Isaiah 45:18) but became so, as stated in the Hebrew of Genesis 1:2 and confirmed by 2Peter 3:6, where "the world that then was by the word of God" (Genesis 1:1) perished and "the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word" were created (Genesis 2:4), and are "kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment" (2Peter 3:7) which shall usher in the "new heavens and the new earth" of 2Peter 3:13.

"The disruption of the world" is an event forming a great dividing line in the dispensations of the ages. In Genesis 1:1 we have the founding of the world (Hebrews 1:10 = themelioo), but in Genesis 1:2 we have its overthrow.

This is confirmed by a further remarkable fact, that the phrase, which occurs ten times, is associated with the Preposition apo = from (Appendix 104. iv) seven times, and with pro = before (Appendix 104. xiv) three times. The former refers to the kingdom, and is connected with the "counsels" of God; the latter refers to the Mystery (or Secret; See Appendix 193) and is connected with the "purpose" of God (see John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4, 1Peter 1:20).

Ample New Testament testimony is thus given to the profoundly significant fact recorded in Genesis 1:2, that "the earth became tohu and bohu (i.e. waste end desolate); and darkness was on the face of the deep", before the creation of "the heavens and the earth which are now" (2Peter 3:7).

Now, there's a couple of interesting things about that text, and I don't want to venture too far off the subject here. But first of all, you really need to study the Hebrew especially to get a true picture and definition of what has occurred and what is occurring in the very beginning of the bible in Genesis 1. See, that's really what's so sad is so many people get it wrong coming right out the gate, literally right at "In the beginning". They stand there and proclaim that the world is 6,000 or so years old and right away they lose an open minded person of science or geography or archaeology and can go out and prove that there are things in this world that are much older than 6,000 years old. They miss the fact that in the Hebrew that one little word "was" as in the earth "was" without form, and void, it isn't "was" in the Hebrew, but became. In other words, God didn't create this world tohu in the Hebrew, or without form. Anyone who thinks He did apparently has never read or never had pointed out to them the verse in Isaiah that Bullinger mentions.

Isaiah 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Now I suppose in the English that may not look like much. But guess what the word "vain" is in the Hebrew? It's tohuw. Guess what the word in Genesis 1:2 is where it says without form? You've got it, it's tohuw.

Well if God didn't create the world without form, or void, what happened? A disruption or ruin happened, an overthrow, a "katabole". I want to take a look at this whole phrase without form and void from Genesis 1:2. It's tohuw va bohuw in the Hebrew. What's that mean? Well, let's look at the words.

Tohuw is Hebrew word 8414 in a Strong's Concordance.

tohuw
to'-hoo


from an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), i.e. desert; figuratively, a worthless thing; adverbially, in vain:--confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.

Now remember, Isaiah 45:18. God created the world not in vain, but to be inhabited.

Now, how about the word bohuw?

bohuw
bo'-hoo


from an unused root (meaning to be empty); a vacuity, i.e. (superficially) an undistinguishable ruin:--emptiness, void.

Total ruin, total emptiness

Now again, did God create it that way? No way! I would advise everyone to do a study of Jeremiah 4, starting specifically with verse 19 and going to the end of that chapter. God destroyed everything that was on this earth...almost wiped it out completely, but He didn't make a full end of it. He didn't destroy the souls of His children that fell at that time. He gave them 1 more chance to get it right, and that's what this particular earth age is about.

But you know, the other thing is, science backs that up. We had a cataclysm that wiped out the dinosaurs and life on earth millions of years ago. We've had shaking and upheaval that literally broke apart the continents.

It's amazing when you look back at the world that was. We've gone out and we've found the remains, the fossilized or petrified remains of palm trees in what today is desert. There have been frozen, flash frozen mammoths found in Alaska with still undigested buttercups in their stomachs. Buttercups don't grow in Alaska, but they used to. We see evidence of remains of the same types of animals that lived millions of years ago in countries and on continents that are far apart now and don't have the same climate or same native species today, but back then they did.

Ash Falls Nebraska.... there's a state park called Ash Falls State Park. But the interesting thing about it, the back story is about 12 million years ago there was a massive volcanic eruption in what today is Idaho. It literally threw all this volcanic ash into the atmosphere and it fell among other places onto Ash Falls, Nebraska. This caused the death of many of the animals at the time... some immediately, some over time from a result of eating the ash covered vegetation. But the amazing thing, and you can go to Ash Falls State Park and see this, the amazing thing is some of the animals that were killed by this, that were native at this time to "Nebraska" were basically a type of rhino and more than one type of camel. I don't seem to see, or I don't think the people of Nebraska seem to see rhinos and camels wandering through the countryside of their state today. But they did back then.

One of the most amazing things I've seen that so beautifully and amazingly illustrates this was the story I saw of people exploring a cave in Illinois, looking at the ceiling of the cave above them, and seeing suspended upside down, the petrified remains of an ancient rain forest. You think the climate today in Illinois would support a rain forest? Of course not... but obviously it once did.

This world was once a beautiful place. It still is in many places, but I mean world wide. It will be again when God returns it to that. Romans 8:19-22 says that even the world itself, the creation or creature anticipates, is anxiously waiting for God to return and set things right... and He certainly will.

But the point is that creation, the world as God created it, is natural and always has been. No magic fruit, no talking snakes. Yes, God did open the mouth of Balaam's donkey, but that was an act of God to try to wake Balaam up to the truth. It should be noted as well that a donkey does have a "voice" and can make sound, while a snake does not. All it can do is hiss, but it has no vocal cords to make sound in that sense.

I'll be getting more on the subject in my next post, right now that's just some food for thought.

Jason