What Did God Create on Day One?

Eric Lyons

Creation vs. EvolutionTheistic Evolution

Oftentimes when a person is asked what God made on the first day of Creation, he responds by saying, “God made light.” When young people sing the “Days of Creation” song (where each verse in the song corresponds with what God did during each day of the Creation week), the first verse they sing is: “Day one, day one, God made light when there was none.” Both of these statements are true. Genesis 1:3-5 reads: “Then 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. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” But was light the only thing that God created on the first day of Creation?

The work of day one may appear at first to include only the creation of light, however, it was not the only thing that God made on day one. If light were the only thing created on day one, then one must ask whence the water came that was already in existence on day two. For on the second day of Creation, God made an expanse to divide “the waters from the waters.” Apparently, these “waters” already were present on day two when the expanse (atmosphere) was made. In fact, that is exactly what Genesis 1:1-2 teaches: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (emp. added). The initial creation of the earth (on day one) was that of a watery, unformed-and-unfilled substance over which the Spirit hovered. (Remember, it was not until day three that God made an Earth composed of land, sea, and vegetation.) Thus, God not only created light on day one (vs. 3-5), but also created “the heavens and the earth” (vs. 1-2).

Some claim that Genesis 1:1-2 is a kind of “summation” of all that God did during the Creation week. However, Exodus 20:11 states, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” If all things were created within this week, then day one actually begins in verse one, with the creation of the watery void called “earth” and the dark space called “heaven.” Thus, contrary to what some may think, on day one God created the heavens, the earth, and light. Although it is correct to sing and teach that God made light on day one, we also need to remember that on that same day God created the “heavens and the earth.”

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