Away back, many thousands and thousands of years ago, in the beginning of all things, there were no cities, no towns, or villages, as we now see them; there were no homes, no farms, no trees, no green fields, no cattle, no sheep or lambs, and no birds. There were no seas, no lakes, no rivers, no streams of any kind. Why at one time, there was no ground, no sky, no sun, no moon, or stars. There was neither day nor night; there were no people, neither men or women, boys or girls. There was nothing-nothing of all that we see now.
Today the existence of this world in all its beauty and grandeur, of the great planets and myriads of stars in the vast expanse of the universe, are actualities before our eyes, realities to the five senses of human beings throughout the world. Men and women, boys and girls, everywhere, hunger to know something of the mystery and origin of these things. For thousands of years there have been many speculations as to how the world came into being. We know by intuition that it had a commencement; and our instinct and reason revolt at the suggestion that it sprang into existence by chance, or was formed by spontaneous emanations from a source not yet discovered by science.
People are always asking: Has the world always existed? If not, how did it begin? Did the sun make itself? If not, what brought it into existence? What is the source of the great planetary systems of the universe? Was this source created? If so, by whom?
There is a GOOD BOOK which we call the Bible in which we find the only satisfactory answers to these, and scores of other similar, questions. The opening statement of that Divinely inspired Book is:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
For there existed before the world was, one Great Being whom we call God: uncreated, self-existent, all-sufficient, and eternal; who always was and always will be. In His infinite purpose He planned the creation of man in His own image and likeness; and He wished to provide for man a suitable place to live-a place with rivers and lakes and great seas to sail over, with mountains and forests and green fields, with animals and birds and living creatures for his use, a world with great unlimited material resources for man's exploitation. And so before creating man, God first brought into existence the earth as his home; the sun, moon, other great planets, and millions of stars-all for man's benefit.
Into the primal chaos, described as empty, dark and formless, God brought into being by His word all that exists in the natural world. In six stages which are defined as "days" there occurred first the creation of light, creation of the "firmament" dividing the upper waters, the formation of earth and seas, with the earth producing vegetation; the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars; followed by the creation of the creatures that inhabit the waters and the air, and the creation of all the creatures that inhabit the land; including man as His top-most act of creative genius. These stages of creation called "days" were not periods of twenty-four hours each as we know them, for there was no sun to regulate time; and with the Lord:
"A day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day."
"Let there be light, and there was light."
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