In our previous post we had mentioned that as the shrouded world began to cool the various vapors comprised of waters and minerals held in suspension above the earth would begin to condense and as their mass increased would naturally be drawn to the point of least resistance, the two magnetic poles, here the deluge of waters and minerals would rush down one after another until they had completely covered the earth in waters.

During each of these long “days,“ which we contend were of seven thousand years each, a certain work progressed, as told in Genesis; each possibly ending with a deluge, which worked radical changes and prepared the way for still further steps of creation and preparation for man. This Vailian Theory ( or “Annular System” as referred to by its author Prof. L N. Vail) assumes that the last of these “rings” was freest from minerals and all impurities–pure water; that it had not yet broken and come down in the day of Adam’s creation, but that it completely overspread the earth as a translucent veil above the atmosphere (in other words by this time the last of the various rings circling the earth had disappeared, the last spreading out both north and south until it finally eloped the entire earth). Gen 1:7 It served, as does the whitened glass of a hot-house (greenhouse), to equalize the temperature–so that the climate at the poles would be little, if any, different from that at the equator. Under such equable conditions, tropical plants would grow exponentially everywhere, as geology shows that they did; and storms, which result from rapid changes of temperature, must then have been unknown; and for similar reasons there could then have been no rain. The Scriptural account agrees with this; declaring that there was no rain on the earth until the deluge; that vegetation was watered by a mist rising from the earth–a moist, or humid, hot-house-like condition. (Gen 2:5, 6)

Following the deluge in Noah’s day came great changes, accompanied by a great shortening of the span of human life. With the breaking of the watery veil the hot-house condition ceased: the equatorial path of the sun became hotter, while at the poles the change must have been terrific–an almost instantaneous transition from a hot-house temperature to arctic coldness.

Corroborations of this sudden change of temperature have been found in the arctic region: Two complete mastodons were found embedded in clear, solid ice, which evidently froze them in quickly. Tons of elephant tusks have been found in the same frozen Siberia, too inhospitably cold, within the range of history, for elephants, mastodons, etc. An antelope was found similarly embedded in a huge block of ice in that arctic region. That it was suddenly overwhelmed is clearly demonstrated by the fact that grass was found in its stomach undigested, indicating that the animal had eaten it only a few minutes before being frozen to death–and that in a location where no grass could now grow.

This sudden downpour of water–this sudden breaking of the envelope which held the warmth of the earth and sun equably–produced the great ice-fields and ice-mountains of the arctic regions, from which every year hundreds of icebergs break loose and float southward toward the equator. So far as we can judge, this has been the procedure for centuries, but is continually growing less. Here we see the Ice Age, or Glacial Period, of the geologists, when great icebergs, borne by swift currents, cut deep crevasses throughout North America, distinctly traceable in the hills; northwestern Europe, too, bears the same testimony in its hills. But not so southeastern Europe, Armenia and vicinity– the cradle of our race, where also the ark was built, and near which, on Mount Ararat, it finally rested.

The testimony in general would seem to imply that the ark floated in a comparatively quiet eddy, aside from the general rush of the waters. This is indicated by the exceedingly heavy alluvial deposit declared to be present in that entire region. Evidently waters from the North and South Poles deluged the whole earth, while the cradle of the race was specially dealt with by first depressing, and then at the proper time elevating it.

Knowing the end from the beginning, the Lord so timed the introduction of man upon the earth that the last of the rings came down in a deluge just at the proper time to destroy the corrupted race in Noah’s day, and thus to introduce the present dispensation, known in the Scriptures as “this present evil world.”

In this particular instance we note the scriptural account as taken from the Ferrar Fenton Paraphrased Translation.

“For this they willfully forget: that by the intention of God the skies (the firmament or atmosphere) existed from of old, and the earth with water above (that is, above the atmosphere) and water below (below the earth, i.e. underground), arranged for the purpose of God, by means of which the then existing world (age or epoch) perished, by the water having rushed down.” (2 Pet 3:5, 6)

The removal of the watery envelope not only gave changing seasons of summer and winter, and opened the way for violent storms, but it also made possible the rainbow, which was first seen after the flood, this because previously the direct rays of the sun could not so penetrate the watery canopy as to give the rainbow effect. Gen 9:12-17

Gen 1:2 continued, “Now 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.”

Explain what is meant by the “face of the deep” the “face of the waters”?

Possible explanation:

What is meant here by “the deep” and “the face of the waters“? Without a doubt there were waters ABOVE the earth and waters UPON the earth. This is obvious from the Genesis statement. The great deep, therefore, must have particular reference to the waters above the earth — waters that could have been held up only by reason of the fact that they were revolving rapidly in an orbit about the earth. As soon as they would become inactive they would necessarily fall to earth. The lighter one of these rings would necessarily be farthest out from the earth and nearest the sun.

The time came when the spirit of YEHOVAH God, that is to say, His power, moved upon or took action upon the face of the waters, and the light penetrated this great deep or canopy that surrounded the earth. What this really means is that YEHOVAH God caused the sun’s rays to shine upon the face of the waters or great deep, ILLUMINATING THEM. YEHOVAH pronounced the light good, and the light YEHOVAH called day and the darkness he called night, and YEHOVAH divided the light from the darkness. That was the beginning of the division of day and night. So far as the Bible discloses, such constituted the work of the first creative day, and concludes with the words: “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” There is NO evidence to warrant the conclusion that at this time the light had penetrated to the earth. (Hope of Israel Ministries, Ecclesia of YEHOVAH)

As illustrated in the diagram above it is important to understand that the “deep” consisted not only of those waters in a liquid state, those found upon the surface of the earth, but likewise those waters found above the earth those in a vaporous or gaseous state, together these waters comprised “the deep”. Now in considering the statement “darkness was upon the face of the water(s),” surely one would not suggest that the sun’s rays i.e. light had never shown upon the outer surface of these waters.

No, in this instance we are to consider “the face of the waters” as taken from God’s perspective beneath the canopy, as his spirit hovered over the deep (over the ocean of liquid waters, yet beneath those which were suspended above them, those in a gaseous state). It is here where no light was visible that the Lord made the statement, “Let there be Light”.

With this general view of creation before our minds, we will with our preceding posts turn to the Genesis account, and endeavor to harmonize these conjectures with its statements.