Recently I had a discussion with a well recognized creation scientist, and during our discussion I was a bit thrown back when he said “We don’t know what the source of light was for the first three days of creation.”
Knowing that Scripture always answers itself, my response was that that “Light” was the glory of Jesus Christ, the second Person of the Trinity, remembering that Jesus said:
“I am the Light of the world, he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
The Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle where we often need to piece certain pieces of Scripture together to get the full picture of what the Lord has revealed to us. This is especially true with how our Lord designed creation and the details of His handiwork.
When we take the time to properly connect the jigsaw pieces of Scripture together concerning creation, we get a beautiful artistic picture of all three Persons of the Trinity working together at the dawn of creation with the Holy Spirit hovering over the face of the waters and laying out the Holy canvas (Genesis 1:2), then the Son illuminating the canvas as a Lamp (Genesis 1:3), for no artist can work in the dark.
Next, we find the Father drawing the circle of the earth in that Light (Proverbs 8:27). That is why Jesus says in Proverbs 8:27 that “He was there” when He (the Father) drew a circle on the face of the deep! In fact, when placed into the proper sequence you could insert Proverbs 8:27 between verses 4 and 5 in Genesis 1.
Backing up again in Genesis 1:2, its says that darkness was on the face of the deep and then the Lord commanded that the light come into the world and separate the light from the darkness and He called them night and day.
Now on the third day of creation, green grass and seed bearing herb and fruit trees came forth. Notice how this is still before the sun was made! So what made the green grass, herbs and fruit trees grow? The life giving presence of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Notice that in John 8:12 Jesus had said that anyone that follows Him would have the “light of life”. This is the same Light that brought life to those seed bearing fruit trees on the third day of creation, before the sun was even created! Science says that all life needs the sun to sustain itself, but the Bible says differently. All life needs Jesus Christ!
It is also important to note that it is the light of Christ that separated the darkness. Job 26:10 reads; “He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness.”
Many creationists incorrectly interpret this verse to mean that this “boundary” is the description of the earth being illuminated on one side by a distant sun, however, there is a big problem with that. The problem with that interpretation is that the sun was not even created yet when the Lord drew the circular horizon on the face of the waters!
The separation of light and darkness was the face of the earth combined with the heavens, (where His light is available), being separated from the underworld where hell is. Jesus would sometimes even refer to this place as the “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13 & 25:30). This has Biblical support because the punishment of hell is eternal separation from God and God is Light (1 John 1:5).
Going back to the Job 26:10 verse, it is important to note that the Lord created “boundaries” that mortal man is not permitted to cross. Just as Jesus said, “no one has ascended to heaven, but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” (John 3:13).
No mortal man is permitted to descend into hell either. These are the boundaries that were laid out at the dawn of creation, spoken of in Job 26:10, and they aren’t just spiritual boundaries, they are physical as well!
Further support that the “light” in the first three days of creation is the Light of our Lord Jesus Christ is the fact that the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation are paralleling bookends to His-story. As it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end and in Revelation 22:5, while describing the new earth after the curse is removed, it says this:
“There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”
Notice how there is no curse in the first two chapters of the Bible or in the last two chapters of the Bible and the “light” that the redeemed world will live under will be the glorious Light of the Lord.
However, this does not mean that anyone has to wait until the world is redeemed to receive and experience the life-giving light of Jesus Christ. That light is abundantly available now through the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ.
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6)
When we receive Jesus Christ into our hearts after hearing the good news of the gospel, we then become children of the light!
“You are all children of the light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1 Thessalonians 5:5)
After we have become children of the light, we are now partakers of that separation of light and darkness that was first implemented at the very dawn of creation.
“For you were once in darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8)
As children of light it is very important that we maintain a close daily walk with our Lord and Savior and we can only do that through prayer and daily reading of the Scriptures.
We are living in dark times and it is getting darker by the day and it is important that we recognize this encroaching darkness so that we may be more diligent in our witness towards the lost.
“I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:4-5)
Despite the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended up to heaven almost two thousand years ago, (Acts 1:9), He is still in the world via the Holy Spirit who was sent at Pentecost to empower His church to continue to spread His life saving gospel. Just as all three Persons of the Trinity worked together at the dawn of creation, our Triune God continues to work together to draw lost souls unto Him during this Age of Grace.
The Father draws the sinner into repentance via the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit draws that sinner into accepting the gift of pardon that was provided by the Son, Jesus Christ.
It is through the light of the Holy Spirit that we are able to discern and combat the “false” light that is often imitated through the dark practices of occultism and Freemasonry. This false light is often referred to as “enlightenment” and its practitioners as the “enlightened ones” or “illuminated ones.”
One of Satan’s most devious disguises is to appear as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Since Satan cannot supersede God or His ways, he can only imitate them and many people have fallen prey to his masquerade and tricks.
“Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness” (Luke 11:35)
It is critical that the Christian soldier is equipped with the full armor of God, (Ephesians 6:10-20) to be able to recognize and combat such deceptive evil practices and bring those evil-doers into the light so that they may be exposed and perhaps repent.
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.” (Ephesians 5:11-13)
As I stated earlier, darkness is encroaching upon the world at a rapid pace and the generation that we are living in has become extremely crooked and perverse to which we, as children of light, are to shine even more brightly as the night draws nearer (see Philippians 2:15-16).
“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
It is the Holy Spirit empowered church that is restraining evil from completely taking over this world, but when the Church is removed via the Rapture, then evil will prevail over the world and the “son of perdition” (commonly referred to as the Antichrist) will be revealed (2 Thessalonians 2:7-8).
This time of evil and darkness that is coming upon the world will eventually bring all nations to their end except for the one and only nation that is the apple of God’s eye, Israel, (Jeremiah 30:11). However, Israel will only be a remnant at that point and will survive only because the Lord Jesus Christ will come to save her, otherwise all flesh would be destroyed (Matthew 24:22).
This terrible time that is going to come upon Israel is due to their rejection of their Messiah when Christ presented Himself to them at His first advent. It was spiritual blindness on their part that has caused them grief since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Jesus had given them many chances to repent but they remained blind to who He was. While speaking with the Pharisees in John chapter 8, Jesus said:
“And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.” (John 8:45-46)
Jesus was offering them life and light but they chose darkness, (John 1:11). This Scripture reference also happens to be the third time in the book of John that Jesus referred to Himself as “the Light” (John 8:12; 9:5; 12:46).
Although the Lord is going to allow Israel to have to go through this terrible time of darkness, it isn’t so much because of the Lord’s anger towards them but rather a purging process so that Israel will finally “see the light” and come to know Jesus Christ as their true Messiah and Savior.
In complete contrast, the Church does not need to be purged and is already in “the light” and saved from the coming darkness.
During that time of judgment upon the world, the heathen nations that have rejected Christ and mocked God will be permanently eliminated as the Lord purges the world for His coming kingdom!
“The light of the righteous rejoices, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.” (Proverbs 13:9)
While we are living in this current Age of Grace, both Jew and Gentile still have the opportunity to come to Christ and be saved from the coming darkness of His wrath and judgment.
In chapter 26 of the book of Acts, Paul is recounting his Damascus moment conversion to King Agrippa and while reciting what Jesus had said to him he said:
“I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26:17-18)
It is interesting that Jesus had ordained Paul to turn the Gentiles from darkness to light although at that same moment Paul was being blinded by “a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone all around him” (v. 13).
The light that Paul saw was supernatural, for it was the glory of God revealed from heaven. It had blinded Paul for three days, but his spiritual eyes had been opened to behold the living Christ! After Paul’s eyes were restored he would then have sight with light and a spiritual armor of light (Romans 13:12).
I began this commentary pointing out that ever since the dawn of creation the Lord has separated the darkness from the light and that the Bible has paralleling bookends in the beginning and end.
The end of His-story is quickly approaching and the Lord will again separate the “children of light” from the darkest time in all of history that will take place on earth (Amos 5:18).
Even the sun and the moon will not give their light, (Revelation 6:12). But the Lord has promised to never leave us in darkness and that promise wasn’t just spiritual darkness but the darkness of the wrath that is to come upon this world.
For those that hold to the post-Tribulation view, I would like to encourage you to spend time acknowledging the loving nature of our Lord and His promises to keep us from darkness, rather than squawking about such one dimensional things like not being able to find the word “Rapture” in the Bible.
If you are reading this and you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, there is still time to come into His glorious Light and be saved out of the darkness. Many of you may not even know that you are in darkness!
“A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” (John 12:35-36)