Lonang Commentary on Genesis 1

Gen. 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Uncreated Creator

In the beginning, God. And because the purpose of this commentary is to explore the Genesis scriptures in light of the laws of nature and nature’s God, not for the sake of theology, per se, I will not here devolve into a discussion of the Doctrine of God, the nature of the Trinity, or like things. Rather, my focus is on the fact that as the uncreated Creator, who exists apart from the creation and is the maker of all things, God is the universal, undeniable and absolute sovereign over all of creation – including people, the earth, and the universe in its entirety. Meaning, that all ultimate authority vests in Him, and He derives that authority from no other.

The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein. Ps. 24:1.

This flows directly from the law of creation: whoever creates something owns it completely, and may exercise an unlimited discretionary authority over the thing created – to use it, to name it, or to destroy it. God’s authority over people doesn’t arise from His infinite righteousness, power or knowledge, but solely by virtue of His having created us. God created not only every individual person, but He has also created every nation from among the earth. The absolute authority this vests in Him over the affairs of men is often referred to as the authority the potter has over the clay.

Who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay . . .?” Rom. 9:20-21.

“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” Jer. 18:6.

God’s ultimate authority over people translates into Him being the ultimate source of all laws, and His laws are of a superior obligation compared to any other laws. This was eloquently expressed by William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1, Intro, §2 (1765):

Man, considered as a creature, must necessarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. A being, independent of any other, has no rule to pursue, but such as he prescribes to himself; but a state of dependence will inevitably oblige the inferior to take the will of him, on whom he depends, as the rule of his conduct. … And consequently, as man depends absolutely upon his maker for every thing, it is necessary that he should in all points conform to his maker’s will.

This will of his maker is called the law of nature. …

Considering the creator only as a being of infinite power, he was able unquestionably to have prescribed whatever laws he pleased to his creature, man, however unjust or severe. But as be is also a being of infinite wisdom, he has laid down only such laws as were founded in those relations of justice, that existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all his dispensations conforms; and which he has enabled human reason to discover, so far as they are necessary for the conduct of human actions. * * *

This law of nature, being coeval with mankind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe in all countries, and at all times; no human laws are of any validity, if contrary to this: and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from this original.

Thus, God is the beginning of all laws, and also of all government. His laws are supreme in every conceivable sphere, whether laws of physics, chemistry, optics, biology, mathematics and all other physical laws, or the laws of behavior, whether of inanimate objects, plants, animals, human beings, nations, planets, stars or any other created thing, spiritual or physical. He is the supreme judge, lawgiver, and king of the universe. Isa. 33:22. Any accurate apprehension of the laws of the universe must begin here.

Gen. 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The Focus of the Universe

Verse 2 describes the earth in its very earliest phase of creation – that of a world completely covered in water, hanging in space in utter darkness. The phrase, without form and void, refers to the fact that the water on the earth had not yet been separated into the waters above and those below, and the land had not yet been separated from the seas, nor had any living thing yet been created on it. In other words, to use modern vernacular, the earth had not yet been terraformed, and was initially uninhabitable. And so we see here the analogy of the potter and the clay taken in its most comprehensive sense, that the earth itself is a lump of clay the Creator will mold as He sees fit.

As opposed to, and in direct contradiction of the speculation (and it is indeed nothing more than an extrapolated speculation), that the earth was formed by rocks and dust swirling around the sun which, via gravitational forces, amalgamated themselves into a rocky planet which was initially devoid of water and principally volcanic on its surface. Thus, water was upon the surface of the earth from the very first moment of its existence. We might say that since there were no witnesses to the earth’s creation other than the account given to us by the Creator Himself, all contrary accounts of the world’s creation lack any competent testimony to which any weight might be given.

What strikes me, however, is that when the earth was first formed, there was nothing else – at all. In the beginning God – then the earth – and literally everything else (sun, moon, stars, the rest of the universe) all came after. Not a Big Bang – then stars and galaxies – and then planets. Which makes the earth both the starting point and the focus of all creation, and necessarily of the entire universe. No place in the entire universe is more important than the earth. By definition, anything truly important in the universe is happening here.

Historically, this led some people to assert the earth was the literal physical center of the universe, and the concept was introduced that all else in the universe revolves around the earth as the pivot point. Unfortunately, this was eventually made into a point of religious doctrine by the institutional church, so that anyone expressing a different opinion (for example, that the earth revolves around the sun) was branded a heretic and severely persecuted. Such a course of conduct is indefensible – not that the church formed its own opinion of the matter, but that church leaders assumed an authority God never gave them to force their opinions on others, and to persecute or punish those who disagreed with them.

Biblically, legally and scientifically, everyone is entitled to form their own opinion based on the evidence which convinces them. Something every lawyer knows (but apparently not many scientists do), is that documentary evidence and eyewitness testimonial evidence is every bit as competent as any physical or scientific evidence to establish a proof of facts. No one ever said (or at least, no one ever had the right to say) physical evidence is the only evidence allowed to prove an origins theory. The biblical rule is: “Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.” Rom. 14:5. God is never threatened by people who have contrary opinions.

It matters not to me, nor to the law, whether the sun revolves around the earth, or vice versa. Because let us assume, arguendo, the earth revolves around the sun. Logically, it has no bearing on the importance of the earth in the solar system or the galaxy, or on the importance of humanity to the universe. Yes, having a central importance could conceivably indicate a central position in the universe, but not necessarily. The medieval mistake was linking the two together conceptually, so that if it could be proved the earth revolved around the sun, then it would be proved’ the earth was not of central importance to creation. When of course, that doesn’t logically follow at all.

The point being that modern cosmology has gone out of its way to deny, ridicule and yes, persecute anyone holding onto the antiquated notion of the central importance of the earth and humanity in the universe. People say things like the earth is an insignificant planet, orbiting a second-rate star, on the edge of a mediocre galaxy in a remote corner of the universe. That if there aren’t millions of other intelligent beings in the universe, then it is a giant waste of space. That the more we learn about the universe, the more we validate our own insignificance as a species.

To prove’ such assertions, cosmologists have devised a model of the universe which is not merely expanding in all directions from a central point, but rather is expanding in all directions from any and all possible points all at once, so that the universe is getting bigger but has no center. People often use the example of the surface of a balloon to explain this notion, which as it inflates expands in all directions all at the same time. Except, of course, every balloon has a center. A universe without a center cannot exist in three-dimensional space. But oh, they have mathematical equations showing how such a space would behave – if it did exist. But such a space does not actually exist, and mathematical equations do not prove they are describing anything real.

All in a spectacularly hubristic attempt to deny the universe has a center – that if it did, to deny the earth could be at that center – that if it did, mankind would still lack any significance in the big picture.’ Using the guise of science to make a philosophical or theological point. Which ultimately traces to a denial of the existence of any God who could have made any such universe. But at least modern cosmologists will all have the comfort of their math equations when they die and appear before God.

So let me now come out and say what every cosmologist dreads: the earth is neither merely ordinary, nor insignificant with respect to the universe as a whole. The earth is not only uniquely suited for human habitation, it is absolutely unique in all of existence – there is no other like it. Whether any other planet has breathable air or liquid water is irrelevant – in any case, life as we know it did not start out there’ somewhere and then randomly find its way here to flourish. All life was created here on earth by the Almighty Creator. Consequently, regardless of our planetary position in the cosmos, the center of all life in the universe is right here on earth. Which means that all human efforts to find life elsewhere are wasted efforts of the blind leading the blind, trying to find what never was there – and a shameful squandering of resources on mere futility.

Plus, by definition, all those other galaxies and stars out there in the universe are not wasted space – they serve a very specific purpose, namely, to give light and to be for signs and seasons. Light, signs and seasons to us – people on the earth. Nothing else out in the universe has any importance except as it may be important here on earth. Just because people are curious about quasars, neutron stars and black holes does not make them important. And no matter what is learned about such phenomena, it will tell us nothing about where we came from, or why we are here.

Gen. 1:3-5 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

No Gaps In Time

Here I will briefly address the so-called Gap Theory, or ruin-restoration creationism theory, that postulates there was a long unstated period of time between Gen. 1:1 and Gen. 1:2. This theory is a misguided attempt to reconcile scripture with modern science, when of course it is modern science which must be reconciled with scripture. But in the minds of its advocates, this theory explains’ how the present world could have been created in six literal days, yet accommodate an old age of the earth and allow for the age of dinosaurs before mankind was created.

According to proponents, when verse 2 describes the earth as formless and void, it supposedly indicates the earth was in a state of ruin and destruction, that is, an accursed state under God’s judgment. Thus, verse 3 (“Let there be light”) is supposed to show God initiating a new creation to replace the one that was judged and ruined.

There are severe problems with this theory. First, and foremost, it is nowhere indicated in the text. Scripture nowhere indicates a passage of time between verses 1 and 2, and the rest of the creation account is so compressed in time (lasting only six 24-hour days), that a gap of indeterminate, but extreme length (thousands or millions of years), is completely inconsistent with the rest of Genesis 1. Second, as I’ve already indicated, formless and void have no necessary implications of destruction or judgment, but merely indicate God had not yet terraformed the earth.

Third, the theory postulates God had a reason to judge the earth during the gap period, which could only have been for moral reasons. Whose morality? The dinosaurs? Pre-human humans? Moral, but fallen and sinful creatures in addition to, and separate from, the present humanity? Why on earth would God want to do that twice? It makes no sense. Fourth, the theory postulates, in effect, that God made a mistake with the first creation, and had to resort to Plan B. Allow me to gently suggest: 1) God never makes mistakes; and 2) God never needs, and never has, a Plan B.

Sure this present creation that we live in now will be replaced by a new heavens and a new earth, when sin and death are abolished and the curse and the Fall are completely removed. But the Gap Theory suggests that God replaced the first sinful and fallen creation with a second sinful and fallen creation, both of which still ultimately need to be replaced by a perfect and sinless creation. Why go through the present mess at all, if that is the case – why not just skip from the first sinful creation to the perfect creation? God wanted to go through a fallen and sinful creation twice? I don’t get it. Plus, if you say the first creation (before the gap) wasn’t sinful and fallen, then why was it judged and destroyed? Again, it doesn’t make sense.

And if the first creation before the gap failed, why didn’t God plan for that in advance? Or didn’t He see it coming? Which brings up a fifth problem – the Gap Theory postulates an ineffective or an unprepared God who didn’t see where things would eventually lead, or in other words, a puny god. Ah, but the God of scripture declares, “for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.'” Isa. 46:9-10.

A sixth problem with the Gap Theory is that it is nothing more than raw eisegesis – reading into the text something that isn’t there. It’s just like the popular gap theory often applied to Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 weeks in Dan. 9:24-27, where supposedly the first 69 weeks all happened in the past, and the future 70^th week is separated by an indeterminate period of 2,000 years, at least. Not to mention the popular misinterpretation of the 70 weeks (490 literal days) as 490 years being the core assumption underlying the existence of a gap. Eisegesis, all of it. Unfounded assumptions, leading to gross misinterpretations and misunderstandings. Don’t get swept up in such nonsense.

God knows how to tell time, and He knows how to convey a proper sense of time to us. If God had actually intended for any of these alleged gaps to be understood as such, He has the language skills to be able to express those thoughts directly, instead of leaving people to have their imaginations run rampant.

Gen. 1:6-19 [Summary] Second day – separated the waters above from the waters below with an expanse called Heaven. Third day – separated the dry land from the seas, and created all land-based vegetation. Fourth day – created the sun, moon and stars to give light on the earth, rule over the day and night, and for signs and seasons, days and years.

The Divine Calendar

The creation account here in Genesis 1 gives us not only a sequence of events, but also a precise measurement of time intervals between events. In other words, Genesis gives us the foundations of the calendar which, being rooted in the creation account itself, is a part of the law of nature. A day is a day, a week is a week, and a month is a month, etc., precisely because God made them a certain way, conformed all of nature to that way (including people), and then told us what those measurements are so as to eliminate any doubt or ambiguity. And mankind, being who we are (self-willed, stubborn, wanting to be like God) still screwed it up.

Let’s consider the textual evidence. God defined a day as one complete cycle of evening and morning, i.e., from sunset to sunset. Thus, the phrase, “and there was evening and there was morning, the [blank] day,” is used six times in Genesis 1, one for each day of creation. So it would seem self-evident that when Genesis 2 moves to a description of the seventh day, the measurement remains the same (from evening to morning) even though unstated. And the Jews have always observed the Sabbath (i.e., the seventh day) as beginning on Friday at sunset, with the first day of the week beginning on Saturday at sunset.

Next, God defined a week as seven days – six days of work followed by one day of rest. Gen. 1:31 – 2:3. Or, as later described, from Sabbath to Sabbath (Isa. 66:23), that is, from the completion of one Sabbath, to the completion of the next Sabbath. God defined a month as one complete lunar cycle, that is, from one new moon to the next – always 29 or 30 days. See again, Isa. 66:23. Although Genesis uses the term years quite frequently beginning in chapter 5, no year-end definitions are provided until Exodus.

In Exodus 12, when the Jews were still captive in Egypt and they were about to observe the first Passover, God told Moses that “this month [Nisan] shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.” Exo. 12:2. See also, Est. 3:7. Historically, the Jews have recognized two annual calendars. There is a religious year which begins on Nisan 1 (in the Spring), and there is a civil year beginning on Tishrei 1, which comes in the Fall. I, not being a Jew, regard the yearly definition which came first, and from the mouth of God, as being more likely to be aligned with the law of nature. Thus, a year beginning in Spring.

I also note that ancient Gentile nations tended to observe an annual calendar which began on or about March 1. You can still see the remnants of this today. Thus, September, October, November and December are named as the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th and 10^th months (check your Latin – sept = seven, oct = eight, etc.), but that only makes sense if New Year’s Day is/was March 1. However, those months are the 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th months in the current western calendar. The Gregorian calendar that we now use, which incorporates all of these changes, was first introduced in Europe in 1582 and only became effective in Britain and America in 1752.

Which leads me to believe that the calendar year, as defined by God and nature, likely begins in the Spring, around March 1. Of course, as per the aforementioned willful stubbornness of people, over time, people have gradually changed all of these basic definitions to suit our purposes. Instead of starting each day at sunset, we define it as beginning at midnight. God defined a week as having seven days with one day of rest (the Sabbath), with Friday sunset to Saturday sunset counting as the last day of the week. We define a week with two days of rest (a weekend), and what most Christians call the Sabbath is actually the first day of the week (Sunday), not the last.

Western civilization has completely divorced the concept of a month from the lunar cycle of new moons by introducing 28 day and 31 day months. And we base the year not on lunar cycles, but on solar cycles, having completely disposed of the concept of an intercalary month for an intercalary day (i.e., leap year, February 29). Additionally, New Year’s day was changed to January 1 from dates roughly correlating with March 1 as used by ancient calendars.

Since God implanted the nature of the calendar in the laws of creation, people have redefined the calendar in almost every imaginable way. But just because people have done this, does not mean it is binding on God, or that the actions of mere men have changed the way God keeps time. It kind of gives a new meaning to Job 10:5, does it not? (“Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years?”) In other words, does God measure time the way men measure time?

And, since the legal implications of creation are of primary concern here, at what point, exactly, did God authorize people to redefine the calendar He gave us? God said the sun, moon and stars were given to us for signs and seasons (verse 14) before he gave us dominion over the earth in verse 28. Frankly, I don’t see how earthly dominion fairly implies an authority to redefine the signs and seasons of the heavens. I look forward to seeing if, in the Millennium when Jesus returns to rule over the earth, the worldwide calendar gets readjusted to conform to the laws of nature.

Gen. 1:20-25 And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

And God Said

In the Introduction to this Commentary, I said that the law of nature is the will of God impressed upon the creation when it was made, being an intrinsic part of the nature of the universe so long as it exists. The question naturally arises as to how this was accomplished. And the answer, clearly provided in Genesis 1, is that the entire creation was spoken into existence by the Word of God. It is fairly to be implied, therefore, that this is how the law of nature also came into being.

For we see repeatedly in the account of creation, on each of the creation days, the statement “and God said,” which is the exclusive mechanism provided for the manner in which the creation took place. Thus, the creation was not only spoken into existence, piece by piece, but in so doing, God implanted His will, that is His laws, into the creation piece by piece as it was being made.

Thus we have the “and God said” statement in verse 26, specifically relating to the creation of mankind, separate and distinct from the “and God said” statements in verse 20 (birds and sea creatures) and verse 24 (all land animals). So it may reasonably be inferred that God’s will for birds and sea creatures might be (and probably is) different from His will for land animals, and both of those are different from God’s will for humans. Such that God’s will for how people are to behave is different than His will for how other animals are to behave – regardless of whether the underlying physical laws would be the same, similar, or different. Although these various aspects of the law of nature – physical vs. behavioral laws, and human vs. animal laws – would all exist harmoniously in an integrated system compatible with each other consistent with God’s nature.

This is consistent with a variety of scriptures linking Jesus as the Word of God with the creation of the world. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Jn. 1:1-3. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him.” Col. 1:16.

Many people take this phrase in Colossians – thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – to mean heavenly forces, i.e., angels and demons. For my part, I can allow that as a possible meaning of the phrase, but one which is not necessarily intended, nor is it required, so I leave it to others to consider in that light. Rather, I see the words as clearly indicating laws and governments, for that is quite clearly the ordinary meaning of the words, that is, thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities. And since God has given us very little information in the scriptures about heavenly laws and governments, I must conclude the phrase primarily refers to earthly laws and governments, about which the scriptures give us much more information.

The clear meaning of Col. 1:16 is that when the universe was created, laws and governments were expressly made a part of that creation. For both law and government are very clearly a part of the nature of God – as God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), neither is He the Creator of randomness, chaos or disorder. And the creation as a whole, just as the law of nature does specifically, reflects the nature of its Creator.

Thus, the law of nature did not in any part evolve over time, as the defining factor in evolution is randomness, as opposed to being created with a fixed beginning. “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, . . . Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth! . . . Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their rule over the earth?'” Job 38:1,4,33. Plus, the law of nature did not gradually develop from the operation of impersonal forces, but was imposed by the Creator from the necessity that the entire creation should be subjected to His will, giving Him the right to judge the entire world.

Hence, we should be mindful that the creation account in Genesis 1 is as much about human behavior, laws and governments, as it is about the physical universe, the environment, and mankind’s relationship to them.

Gen. 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The Pinnacle of Creation

I’ll talk about what it means to be created in God’s image shortly, but first I want to simply recognize that being made in God’s image is as high as any creature can get. First, it means that of all the creatures God made on the earth, mankind is the pinnacle of creation. Of no creatures besides mankind does God say they bear His image. God does command that the animals of the earth should be fruitful and multiple several times (Gen. 1:22; 8:17; Eze. 36:11), but never does He say they have been made in His image. Instead, the scripture says this:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [or angels] and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. Ps. 8:3-8.

Now, this Psalm does have some specific Messianic references in it. Nevertheless, the dominion spoken of here, over sheep and oxen, beasts of the field, birds and fish – all these are specifically covered in the granting of dominion to mankind in general (not merely the Messiah) in verses 26 and 28. Therefore it is humanity in general, not only the Messiah, who is crowned with glory and honor, and is made a little lower than the angels. And the dominion spoken of here is a very large part of that glory and honor.

Second, it means that there cannot be any alien species or life forms, extra-terrestrials, nor any Ancients’ pre-dating humanity who are superior, more powerful, more intelligent, or more advanced, than earthly human beings. I suppose I can see why some people might find it a disappointment, that we are the most intelligent creatures in the universe. Nonetheless, that is a fact we have to work with.

For indeed the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is very much an enterprise engaged in for the purpose of avoiding the obvious – namely, God the Creator. This idea floating around, that once we find other intelligent beings in the universe we will finally know that we are not alone – what a bunch of utter nonsense. We have never been alone – God is with us, Immanuel. To say that we are now alone, and we will only ever not be alone when we finally encounter beings not created by the God of this earth, is to spit in God’s face and deny that He exists, and is who He says He is.

Deeply ironic, isn’t it, that we as the pinnacle of creation don’t even recognize who we are, and what our proper place in the universe is? And to think, this is the opinion of some of our brightest minds. Man, are we (as a species) dumb!

All Men Are Created Equal

The key legal effect of mankind being the pinnacle of creation, is that every human being equally shares in this high position. It was not merely Adam and Eve who were made in God’s image, but all who are descended from them. For the dominion granted to them here in v. 26 and v. 28 did not terminate with the death of Adam and Eve, but continues to this present day. Or else, I suppose, the animal kingdom would have risen up and deposed its human masters, and human beings might long ago have stopped having children – but no, these never happened, and never will. Meaning, that every descendant of Adam and Eve today (which includes literally everyone) is made in the image of God to the same degree and extent as everyone else. Thus, all men are created equal.

However, I use this concept of equality strictly in its legal sense. Obviously people are made with different appearances, different personalities, different gifts, talents and abilities, and may be born into very different circumstances or environments. But I am not addressing any of those things. Rather, I see the legal equality of people as including these attributes:

1. All people equally bear God’s image. Thus, among humans, there are no lesser creatures, nor any people with any more or less individual dignity compared to anyone else. No race or nation of people – nor even any individuals – are more cursed than any others, more inclined to sin than any others, more the spawn of the devil or any unholy offspring compared to others, or are inherently more wicked than any others. No people are to be treated as mere animals, or mere property.
2. All people are equally fitted by God for self-government. Which means every person: a) has a conscience; b) is capable of making right and wrong moral choices; c) is accountable for their own actions or choices only and not the actions or choices of others; d) is subject to the laws of God and man for the proper regulation of their behavior; e) will give an account before God on the Day of Judgment; f) is capable of making right moral choices during their lifetime.
3. All people have the same authority to subdue the earth, exercise dominion over the animal kingdom, and to be fruitful and multiply (see v. 28). In other words, legally people have the same rights and authority to choose an occupation and engage in honest work, to own, possess and use property, to marry, to have children and to raise them, to keep and tame animals for their use or profit, to derive food from the natural resources God has provided, and to engage in commerce, industry (i.e., to make things), and form voluntary associations, etc.
4. All people are endowed with inalienable rights in the same number, to the same degree, and to the same extent as any others. All inalienable rights are God-given, so they cannot be taken away from, or deprived of, any person except by voluntary waiver by a person for themselves only, or by forfeiture for a crime committed. No one can forfeit or deprive the inalienable rights of others, including their descendants. Children cannot be punished for the sins of their parents, or vice versa. The inalienable rights of every person include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, of course, but also many others – religious liberty, freedom of speech and assembly, the right to bear arms and others too numerous to list here.
5. All people are born free. Under the laws of God, no one can rightfully be born into slavery, nor be made a slave or sold as a slave. But the reverse is also true – no one is born with an inherent right to rule others. All human beings are created equally free before God, and any right to rule can only be conferred by the consent of the governed in keeping with the limitations and restraints of God’s laws. No one, by reason of their birth, is vested with any authority to rule others for any reason whatsoever.
6. All people are equally born with a fallen state, or sin nature, under a universal condemnation and judgment of sin, and are equally capable of partaking of the redemption in Christ. However, as those do not actually arise in the Genesis narrative until chapter 3, and are more of a religious nature than a legal nature, I will defer discussion of them until later.

Gen. 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Made In God’s Image

Now there are several attributes of humanity which irrevocably separate people from animals, by which we may say that all people bear the image of God, but animals and all other aspects of the creation do not. Foremost among these is the eternal spirit given to each person, sometimes called the soul, which survives the death of the body and lives forever in the hereafter.’ Several consequences flow from this, such as personal moral responsibility, the ability to make right and wrong choices, and individual accountability before God, etc.

Other unique attributes of bearing God’s image, or personhood,’ are the ability to exercise reason and understanding, to speak and write complex languages, to tap into the conscience – an a priori knowledge of right and wrong based on God’s laws partially written on our hearts – and the ability to invent, to produce and create, for as God was able to create us, so we are also able to create things lesser than us. All these, and some others, distinguish people from animals and mark us as the pinnacle of creation, made in God’s image.

However, for legal purposes, that is, under the laws of nature and nature’s God, what most distinguishes people from the rest of creation is that we are vested with authority. Think back to the Ps. 8 quotation a couple pages back – what was it that made man crowned with glory and honor, the pinnacle of creation? It is that God granted mankind dominion over the works of His hands, and put all things under our feet. In other words, God put humanity in the position of being Second-In-Command over the whole world. That’s what makes us most reflective of God’s nature (made in His image) compared to all other creatures.

But note, this authority doesn’t vest in humans simply because we are higher life forms,’ have sentience or self-awareness, or by reason of evolutionary processes allowing us to claw our way to the top of the heap of creatures on the earth. Rather, we are crowned with this authority by the express verbal declaration of God, by which He has given, or delegated, this authority to us. Which, to be perfectly blunt, would not belong to us but for the verbal declaration of God. That is, if God had not expressly said so, in so many words, we would have no claim to that authority.

Thus in v. 26, we have a discussion among the Godhead, as it were, expressing a divine intention to let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion. Again directly linking God’s image to dominion authority. Then in v. 28, we have God speaking an express blessing and command to the man and woman, to be fruitful and multiply, subdue the earth, and have dominion. And since this all occurs in the same act of creation, everything authorized in v. 28 is to be understood as being a part of the image of God in man, as well.

Earlier I commented that God implanted His will, that is the laws of nature, into the creation piece by piece as it was spoken into existence. Thus, we can infer from v. 26 that the phrase then God said is the means by which the laws of human behavior were impressed upon the creation, not only in the physical world, per se, but in the very makeup of human nature. Further, the phrase and God said to them in v. 28 is the means by which mankind’s dominion authority was bestowed upon Adam and Eve and their descendants until the end of time.

In a technical sense, since the law of nature is non-verbal, the delegation of dominion authority (being expressly verbal) in v. 28 is part of the laws of nature’s God, which are verbal. But I take this to mainly mean, with respect to dominion authority, that we would not have known about it, except that God has given us the scriptures telling of it. For all practical purposes though, since the grant of dominion was declared during the six days of creation, and not merely some time afterward, it signifies that our dominion is built into the fabric of the universe, for there was never a time in the history of creation when mankind did not have this dominion.

This leads me to conclude that our dominion is a law of the creation. I mean this in at least two senses.

First, the physical creation itself must respect this authority – that is, the earth knows who its master is. This unfettered dominion was of course altered in the Fall – the earth no longer yields its produce freely and abundantly, but must be coerced by the sweat of the brow. Nonetheless, the original grant of authority remains unaltered. Humans are still the masters of the earth, and we have no equal. We do not need to ask the ground, the birds, fish or animals for permission to dominate them – and they have no claim to dominion superior to ours – we are their unquestioned masters and we need not apologize for it.

Second, because this dominion authority is the law of our nature, built into the world by the very God who made it, it is an inalienable right which can never rightfully be taken away or deprived by any human government. For when this authority was delegated, there were in fact no human governments in existence, nor would there be any for a few thousand years. Which means that accountability for the manner of taking dominion is personal and private, between each person and God alone. Think of it as an aspect of religious freedom, where no one else is authorized to step in between us and God and direct the manner of how we discharge our duty to Him.

Male and Female He Created Them

Lord knows there are all kinds of things which could be said about sex and gender, gender fluidity, transgenderism, gender reassignment surgeries (a/k/a sex change operations) that just a few decades ago, no one would ever have thought necessary to talk about. However, my comments will be brief.

When v. 27 says that God created mankind as male and female, it means that every person ever born in the history of the world was born either male or female – not both, not neither, but one or the other in a binary system. This determination was and is made by God alone, assigned at birth, fixed for life (not subject to change), and is biologically based. There are no inner boys’ lurking within a girl’s body, nor any inner girls’ waiting to burst forth from a boy. People do not get to select their own genders, nor indeed even what genders they want to have sex with, and multiple options are never an option. Neither parents nor children have the right to change anyone’s gender, nor schools, governments or society.

When God gave mankind dominion authority, it only included authority over the earth and the animal kingdom. Dominion authority does not include what today is euphemistically called reproductive freedom,’ or the right to terminate a pregnancy other than by giving birth. Similarly, dominion authority does not include the right to select, ignore or change gender; the right ro redefine gender; the right to give birth to, or adopt, a child by an unmarried person; the right to marry a person of the same gender; or the right to cross-dress, etc. All actions taken in disregard of these limitations are unlawful and forbidden.

According to Rom. 1:18-32, the fact that these things are wrong, they will eventually be judged by God, and all who do such things deserve only death, is plainly revealed to all people in the creation itself, so that no one can claim to be excused by reason of ignorance. And far from being actually ignorant, people deny and suppress this truth in active rebellion against their Creator. We can only hope that in the larger flow of history, the current prevalence of these practices will be short lived.

Gen. 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The Dominion Mandate

Although the creation account is full of instances where God spoke things into existence, for the most part no one (humanly speaking) was there to hear those words. The writer of Genesis wasn’t so much an eyewitness of the creation, as a recorder of the words God told him to write down at a later point. Here in v. 28 for the first time, God spoke words out loud in the hearing and presence of the man and woman, telling them exactly why they were here on the earth and what God wanted them to do. Which in the scheme of the laws of nature and nature’s God, is the first instance of the law of nature’s God, that is, the first verbal revelation of God’s will.

Now, whatever God has to say at this point – it being the beginning point – is likely to be the most important thing possible for people to know, in order to survive, thrive, and carry out God’s intentions on the earth. So what is the very first thing God says to man? Bow down and worship Me? Love and serve Me? Preach the gospel to all creation? No. Have sex and make babies; conquer and control the world; and dominate all animal life. That’s it, right there – the reason why God made mankind and put us on the earth.

These things all need to be done lawfully, as further revealed (primarily in the context of a lawful family), but a person does not have to be a Christian to do them. This is not a command for the Church to fulfill, nor is it a call for Christian families to take Christian dominion. This is God’s will for all people – Jew and Gentile, saint and sinner alike.

Verse 28 is commonly referred to as the Dominion Mandate, and we need to say some generalized things about it. First and foremost, when God granted dominion authority to mankind, it was given to us in our private capacities (i.e., as individuals and members of families). No civil government then existed at the time of God’s grant, nor did God thereafter transfer this private dominion to the jurisdiction of civil rulers. Civil government has no original, inherent or superior right to supervise, superintend, regulate, license, tax or otherwise police the private dominion of individuals and families. Thus, the Dominion Mandate was from its inception, and still is, one hundred percent private, not public or communal, and not subject to any human institution, whether church, state or corporation.

The practical consequences of earthly dominion being vested in the private sector are far-reaching. Thus, the right to conceive and bear children, as well as the care, discipline and education of them, is the exclusive province of families.

This is amply demonstrated by the fact that the first civil government did not arise until almost 2,000 years later (after the dispersion from Babel), during which period families were the primary governing unit of society. When nations and governments eventually arose, God at that time made no pronouncements concerning the nature and extent of national or civil powers that might have operated to insert those institutions into the parent-child or marital relationships, leaving them firmly in the hands of private families. Even when the nature of national and civil power is summarized in Rom. 13:1-7 and 1 Pet. 2:13-14, more than 4,000 years after the Garden of Eden, no mention is made of familial purposes resting in the hands of public officials or the public sector.

Similarly, when Jesus laid out the authority of the Church in Mat. 28:18-20, it included only the authority to make disciples via the second or spiritual birth, and made no mention of children or physical birth. Following the Law of Enumerated Powers, no authority is given unless it is expressly granted, and the only express grant of familial authority by God is right here in the Dominion Mandate.

The same principles hold true for the authority to subdue the earth (including, without limitation, private property) and the authority to exercise dominion over the animal kingdom. At no time subsequent to the initial creation did God grant any similar authority to nations, civil governments or the Church. It never has been, and never will be, the lawful authority of governments to conquer or control the world, nor to treat natural resources (including all animals) as inherently under the control of government institutions. That this has ever been the presupposition of all governments in history only shows the extent to which God’s commands have been ignored, violated and perverted.

I only need to briefly mention that to the extent the institutional church has exercised control over nations and kingdoms, waged war with armies, and subjugated lands and people by coercion, it too has ignored, violated and perverted the laws of God. But in the case of churches, they should have known better, and also claimed to be the people of God, so their transgressions are the worst.

Secondly, the Dominion Mandate has never expired, nor has it been superseded. The authority granted to be fruitful and multiply has never expired, as people have continued to reproduce throughout history, and the authority to reproduce did not expire when Adam and Eve died. Further, the dominion authority granted was and is a package deal. By that I mean all of the various authorities granted – to subdue the earth, dominate all animals, to bear and raise children – are all bundled together. They were spoken to the same people at the same time and in the same circumstance, literally in the same sentence, and applied to the same beneficiaries. They cannot be separated from each other, but must all rise and fall together.

Which means that as long as God allows families to bear children, then dominion over the earth and the animals continues to reside in the hands of the private sector – families and individuals.

Neither was the Dominion Mandate terminated at the Fall, nor was mankind’s dominion lost at that point. The curses pronounced on the man and the woman in Gen. 3 made taking dominion more difficult from that point onward, but the commands of the mandate itself remain unchanged. In spite of the fact that childbirth would become painful, women were still commanded to be fruitful and multiply. In spite of the fact that man would need to work for his food, he was still commanded to subdue the earth. The conditions of keeping the covenant had changed, but not its terms.

When you want to modify an agreement, how is that done? The parties get together and either make an all new agreement, or they make an amendment. It takes new words between the parties to change old words between the same parties. Just because you lost your job (a change in conditions) does not mean the terms of your mortgage have changed. Just because you move to another state does not change your credit card terms or the amount you owe. Circumstances and conditions do not create changes to the terms of a man-made agreement – much less could they ever change a divine covenant.

The inevitable result of which is this: the Dominion Mandate is as much the law of human nature today as it was when first spoken. Insofar as the authority which was granted, nothing has changed. Nor was it ever optional, and is not optional now. Nor has the Dominion Mandate been made less important over time, nor is it less important than, say, the Great Commission. It is still the Prime Directive, if you will, of humanity. The family is still the primary governing unit of society, over both church and state. This is the reason people were put on the earth.

Gen. 1:29-30 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Unfettered Private Dominion Over Plants

Some aspects of dominion, particularly child-bearing, by subsequent revelation of God’s laws, are restricted to being carried out lawfully only by a man and woman united in marriage. That is, no man has the right to father children by any woman not his wife, and no woman without a husband has the right to conceive a child either naturally or artificially. But not all aspects of dominion are like this. Thus, single men and single women are authorized by God’s laws to own and hold property, to choose and exercise a lawful occupation, and to exercise dominion over animals.

Here in verses 29-30, God expresses another aspect of dominion capable of being exercised by any individual as well as a family unit, namely dominion over plants. Specifically, people are given plants yielding seed and trees having fruit bearing seed for food. Animals are given a larger diet – every green plant, not just those yielding seeds or fruit trees. But by fair implication, since people have dominion over the animals, whatever it is that the animals are authorized to eat, people must be authorized to procure, grow, harvest, and use for related purposes, such as animal bedding, etc. Further, it would seem these verses grant an unfettered private dominion over plants, as food for people, food for animals, and for related dominion purposes (to make dwellings, tools, etc.).

Which, for our purposes here, means that this dominion over plants is the law of human nature, in effect now as much as it was at the beginning, and it continues to reside exclusively in private hands (individuals and families) without any part of that dominion having been transferred over to nations, governments, or any other human institution. Thus, when nations and governments tell people what plants they can and cannot grow, sell, or use, it is a fundamental violation of the laws of nature and nature’s God, a usurpation of private dominion, and an unjustifiable injustice. And this leads to some inconvenient truths.

Many plants can be used for multiple purposes, some of which can be potentially harmful, or at least risky. Thus, hemp is a plant product that can be used to make rope, cordage and fabric. But the hemp plant is otherwise known as marijuana, or cannabis – a flowering plant yielding seed – that can be ingested or smoked to produce pain relief, yes, but also a drug induced high which can impair one’s brain functions and judgment. And cannabis is hardly unique in this respect.

Tobacco is a seed-bearing plant, which in colonial times was often used as a monetary currency, even in the payment of church tithes. Yet, the primary use for tobacco is in making products for smoking, which is addictive and causes lung cancer. Wine is made from grapes, beer is made from barley, and whiskey is made from various grains – all of which are seed bearing plants having legitimate uses as food quite separate from any considerations of producing alcohol for consumption. The opium poppy, the source of various narcotics including morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone and many other derivatives, is a seed-bearing plant. These powerful drugs all have legitimate medical uses, but at the same time are easily abused recreationally.

Nonetheless, whether used for food, beverages, medicines, or ten thousand other possible uses, people have an unrestricted private dominion to use plants any way they wish, for plants are a natural part of the earth that people have the right to subdue and control. So it frankly doesn’t matter whether tobacco or poppies or marijuana are food or not. We have dominion over them. And this dominion, being given to us by God, is an inalienable right and authority – no civil government that ever has existed or ever will can lawfully deprive anyone of God’s delegation of this authority. I go so far as to say civil government (according to the laws of nature and nature’s God) has no legitimate jurisdiction over the private dominion of people with respect to plants.

Doesn’t civil government have the right to punish wrongdoers (it does not “bear the sword in vain” – Rom. 13:4)? Yes – but that power is limited to matters which God has declared to be wrong. If your argument to me is that civil government is a servant of God to punish people for exercising a God-given authority, then my answer to you is that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. (Mat. 12:25-26). God never gave authority over the same things to separate segments of society, so they could fight each other for control. Plus, God is not the author of confusion. (1 Cor. 14:33). What God gave the private sector He did not “re-give” to civil government to superintend, regulate or control. Nor did the good Lord position civil government between God and individuals.

This is not merely God’s permissive will. This is God’s law – a divine commandment which, when violated by any person or government, is a sin.

Of course, substance abuse can cause real harm to people, and the scriptures indicate inebriation, drunkenness, and getting high are morally wrong. However, we are not here discussing the wisdom of substance abuse. We are here considering who has authority before God to do what. And just because people do harmful, foolish and stupid stuff of their own volition does not thereby deprive them of the authority to do so, nor does it operate to vest governments with authority not expressly granted to step in. God lets people fail, and fail miserably. God even lets people (gasp!) go to Hell. God never stops people from being foolish or self-destructive. Who are we, as a society, to think we can do what even God does not? Who is the real law-breaker in this situation?

Gen. 1:31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The Adamic Covenant

Although there are no express words of covenant used in the text (such as, “this shall be a covenant between Me and you for all generations”), verses 28-30 are typically regarded as constituting a divine covenant between God and all of mankind through Adam, as progenitor of the entire human race. And as v. 31 informs us, everything God made – necessarily including not only the physical world and all creatures, but as Col. 1:16 states, all dominions and authorities – was very good. Thus, v. 31 must be taken as a statement that the Adamic covenant, which is an authorization to take dominion, is itself very good – meaning that it lacked nothing, and was and is perfect.

It also means that we need to look no further than the words of the authorization expressed here in chapter 1, to fully understand its terms. We do not need to look at the circumstances and conditions of the Fall in chapter 3 to understand what dominion means. In particular, I reject the tendency of some to superimpose a spiritual gloss on the Adamic covenant, such as: 1) the covenant contains a promise by God that Adam would have eternal life if only he would obey God’s command; or 2) the covenant contains a promise of redemption (foreshadowing Christ) in that God clothed the man and woman after the Fall.

None of these things were included in the express terms of the covenant (i.e., the grant of authority) that was completed and approved by God on the sixth day of creation. From a covenantal perspective, verse 31 is essentially a statement that, “and this is all there was to it.” People have often wondered why the Genesis narrative seems to wrap up the six days of creation in chapter 1, then backtracks in chapter 2 to describe additional events which, logically, had to also have happened on the sixth day. Such as, the naming of the animals, the creation of Eve, and man being placed in the Garden to work it. And, of course, God’s institution of marriage and the family.

For chapter 1 is, above all else, a description of the creation of the world and the imposition of the laws of nature upon it, and the creation of mankind and the delegation of authority to them so they could survive and thrive upon the earth. Chapter 2, in essence, gives us further guidance as to how reproduction and dominion are to be carried out lawfully in fulfillment of the Dominion Mandate. Which, because marriage and the family were instituted on the sixth day, means that they are foundationally part of human nature, and there has never been a time in the history of the world when they did not exist. But that merely helps to explain the Dominion Mandate, it does not expand its terms.

Neither does anything in chapter 2 operate to make any part of the Adamic covenant “spiritual.” Neither eternal life nor redemption are mention in chapters 1 or 2, and there is no reason to suppose that the events of chapter 3 relating to the Fall happened on the sixth day of creation. And the absolute last thing anyone should ever suppose about the Adamic covenant is that it applies primarily or exclusively to the spiritual descendants of Adam. Nothing about the Adamic covenant depends on, or is related to, faith or belief.

The Adamic covenant, same as all the other divine covenants in the Old Testament, applies to people solely on the basis of physical or biological ancestry. Which means that in order for you to know how the Adamic covenant applies to you (if at all), you must know whose descendant you are. Thus, it is absolutely crucial to believe in a literal Adam and Eve – two literal, physical people who were the first people to ever exist, and who were the biological parents of us all. For if those things are not true, then the Adamic covenant is nothing more than an idealized moral principle, and perhaps only a mere myth. But if these things are true, then the Adamic covenant is binding law on every person alive today – absolutely mandatory, not merely optional or a rule of thumb.

If Adam and Eve were not literal and historical people, then the covenantal aspects of the Dominion Mandate fall apart. If Adam and Eve were not the literal parents of us all, since the Dominion Mandate was expressly given to them, then that means there are some people to whom the Mandate and the Adamic covenant do not apply. If the inalienable right of married couples to have children might or might not apply to any specific couple, then it opens the door for governments to regulate and even limit or stop babies from being born. The command of God is no longer an inalienable legal right at all, but only has the power of a rule of thumb.

Similarly, if earthly dominion itself might or might not apply to specific people (because we really can’t tell whose descendants they are), then private property, occupational choice, the dominion over animals and the private right over plants all disappear into the vastness of state power to control.

Looking ahead a bit, if Adam and Eve were not the real biological parents of us all, then it opens the door to the possibility that some people – perhaps a majority of people – have never fallen spiritually. Which leaves society (via government) to decide who the cursed people are and aren’t – and that always works out so well. Without a literal Adam and Eve, not only do all of our fundamental inalienable rights of dominion vanish, but so does the fundamental legal equality of all people vanish into thin air.

Since all of the Old Testament divine covenants apply to the biological descendants of the original parties, if we can’t determine who those people are with great certainty, it destroys the efficacy of all of the divine covenants. That is a primary reason why I reject altogether an allegorical reading of the scriptures, especially Genesis 1-11.