BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD #1

By: Eld. G.T. Haywood

FOREWORD

“Before the Foundation of the World” is our new title to the enlarged and revised edition of the little booklet formerly called “A Revelation of the Ages,” which has had a wide circulation in the past few years. Those who have read the former edition will surely enjoy this enlarged edition, because it contains many new paragraphs and illustrations not found in the other book.

The contents of this book is an unfolding of the mystery of time from Creation until the dawn of eternity. It is not a mere piece of guesswork, or fancy imagination, set forth that one should glory in the flesh, or exalt himself in any way above others, but is in perfect harmony with the word of God, having been hidden away in the feasts of the Lord which were given Israel in the days of her wandering in the Wilderness. Her days, weeks, sabbaths, months, years and jubilees all operating on the perfect cycle of the number seven (the number of completion) , hold the secret of the mystery of the ages past, age present, and ages that are to come. It is from these cycles of time that the Spirit of God has made known the things that have been kept
secret since the world began.

It may be asked by many “What good is it to us ?” “What has it to do with salvation?” Let me say right here that it is of very great importance to us in every way. It answers the skeptics, infidels, scientists, and higher critics of the Bible; it “turns the wise men backwards and maketh their knowledge foolish;” it inspires faith in the word of God, and feeds the souls of His anointed; it shows the age of the earth, and silences wild speculations; it proves that the Spirit of God has come and has given us an understanding; it tells of the age of the monsters whose bones are being discovered; it opens the door of the future and shows us things to come; it gives the truth of the Sabbath that awaits the people of God (Heb. 4:1-11); it removes the veil that obscured the time of the new heaven and Earth; it tells why Enoch, the SEVENTH from Adam, was translated at 365 years; it reveals the final end of all nations and the preservation of Israel forever; and to us who have obtained salvation it gives a greater knowledge and understanding of the greatness, and the majesty of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ by whom were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him.

CHAPTER I

The Wisdom of God Versus the Wisdom of Man

In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. How long that has been the sons of men have been unable to comprehend. History is silent. Chronology bears no record. The wisest of men are lost for an
answer, and the diviners have gone mad over the mystery and indulge themselves in the wildest kind of speculation in their effort to lift the veil of obscurity. (See Gen. 1:1; Isa. 44:24, 25.)

Geologists have searched the strata of the earth in hopes of finding a key that would admit them into the knowledge of the time required in creation, but they returned with nothing definite to satisfy their expectation, only that they are satisfied that it was utterly impossible for such a vast structure to have been formed and set in motion in six twenty-four-hour days, as are now allotted to man.

On the other hand, there are those who claim to be well versed in the word of God who will contend that the earth was made in a moment, and that the Bible teaches that it is in its six-thousandth year. In this
statement they have no scriptural foundation. The Bible nowhere teaches that the earth was made in a “moment” and that its existence has been but six thousand years. All that it openly declares is that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Everything that God hath made, or exists today, requires a limited space of time to reach its perfection. Nothing materially springs into existence on
a moment’s notice. The law of the Lord is perfect.

Although His ways to man (natural) are past finding out, yet there is no secret but what He will reveal to His saints, for the “secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.” (Psa. 25:14.) “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are His: * * * He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.” (Dan. 2:20-22.) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches, and Thy glory extends to the heavens.

The wisdom with which God has created all things and the perfect harmony in which they were arranged, and to this day continue, has caused those who have searched into them to stand aghast and lend relief to their feeling of amazement by merely sighing, “Wonderful.” That these things are hidden from the eyes and understanding of the natural man, we only need to listen to the words of the Mighty Creator Himself in His conversation with the patriarch Job: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundation of the earth?  Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars sing together? * * * When I made the clouds a garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it?” (Job 38.) All that Job could say in answer to such astonishing interrogatives was, “things too wonderful for me.”

But was it God’s intention that these things should not be known? Has He shut them up to be kept secret forever? Is there no way by which these things can be searched out that we might “praise the Lord for
His goodness, and for His wonderful works unto the children of men?” Surely there is a way, for it is written that in Christ Jesus are “hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:2,3.) Christ is the Wisdom of God and the power of God. If we believe the Word of God to be true, there is no way for us to dispute the possibility of a revelation of a perfect knowledge of the ages, whether they be ages past, ages present, or ages that are to come.

To my mind, the people of God should hold the knowledge of these things above all others. This, I most firmly believe, is the perfect will of God concerning them. For thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer
* * * “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth out the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself; that frustrateth the tokens of liars, and maketh the diviners mad; that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish; confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth the counsel of His messengers.” (Isa. 44:24-26.) The Apostle Paul declares that it was God’s intention that the “manifold wisdom of God” might be known by the Church. (Eph. 3:9-10.) For that cause He has given to us the Holy Spirit, that He might teach us all things, guide us unto all truth, take of His things and show them to US-search out the deep things of God-and show us things to come, See John 14:26; 16:12-15; 1 Cor. 2:10.

The heavens and the earth are and were created for the glory of God. All things were made by Him and for Him. It is to the glory of God that the wise men of this world be confounded in their efforts to search out the mystery of the works of His hands –“intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshy mind.” (Col. 2:18;1 Cor. 3;18-20; Jer. 9:23,24.) For this cause He has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and hath revealed them to babes,–those that are born of the Spirit, and walk humbly before Him. (Isa. 28:9; Matt. 18:3,4.) These are they with whom God’s secrets will be found, for it seemeth good in His sight that these things should be so. (Matt. 11:25-29.)

If those who scan these lines, in reality, believe the Word of God, we feel sure that sufficient evidence is produced through the Scriptures to remove all doubts as to the possibility of obtaining such revelations as are set forth in the following pages. It was God who said, “Let there be light,” and it was the Spirit of God that moved upon the face of the waters. Since He who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts” and has put His Spirit within us, why should it be thought a thing incredible with you
that God should make these secrets known?

He made His ways known unto Moses, and His acts to the children of Israel. (Psa. 103:7.) In the tabernacle of old, and its feasts, Sabbath, yearly Sabbaths, and jubilees, God brought forth the secrets that had been hid for ages, in an embryonic manner, awaiting the days when the Holy Spirit should be poured out upon His people to make these things fully known. And as the Spirit of God brooded upon the waters and brought forth order out of chaos, even soon doth the same Spirit brood over the baptismal waters to bring to light the hidden things of God. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Cor.
4:6.) The secrets of the Old Testament types were hidden from the eyes of the Pharisees because they rejected the baptism of John through which it was God’s purpose to manifest Christ Jesus, in whom was
hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (See John 1:31; Luke 7:29, 30; 20:2-8.)

CHAPTER II

Before the Foundation of the World
THE Book of Genesis has been looked upon as a mere historical record of ancient events through Hebrew traditions. In a measure, this is true. The greater part of the writings of that book produces a chronological record of God’s dealings with mankind, but the things that are recorded in the first and second chapters are things that could be known only by a revelation from God. For there was no man there when God said, “Let there be light,” and began His great work to make the things that are seen from the things that do not appear. (Heb. 11:3.) But Christ, the wisdom and power of God, was there; and it was He who revealed these things to Moses, who feared Him rather than Pharaoh, making his choice to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” (Heb. 11:24-27; Prov. 8:22-31.)

Moses was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after. (Heb. 3:1-5.) Fearing God rather than kings and people, he became heir to the secrets of the Lord and produced a perfect pattern of things that were kept secret from the foundation of the world. And God hath said “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show him His covenant.”

The six “days” recorded in Genesis, the first chapter, are of longer duration than what it has been generally believed and taught. From a prayerful and careful study of the Word of God we feel assured that this great secret has been made known. For many days, while in our Bible study class studying on the chart of the dispensation of time from Adam to the close of the Millennium–the seven thousand years from the formation of man–the Spirit of God would seem to speak to us in inaudible words that the period of seven thousand years of God’s dealings with mankind was only one-seventh of the entire time which was before ordained of God to bring all things pertaining to this earth to its final perfection. At first it was like seeing “through a glass darkly,” but as we waited patiently the vision began to clear up and the veil began to lift like a fog disappearing before the brilliant rays of the rising sun.

Before one can have a clear conception of the preceding paragraph it must be understood that what is recorded in Genesis 1:3 to 2:3 is the plan of creation as God “declared” it in the beginning. In other words, the seven “days” work spoken of is the plan of His “week’s work” laid out from the beginning to the end, even before He laid the “foundation” of the earth, before the “plants of the field” were in the earth, and “every herb of the field before it grew.” (Gen. 2:4-5.) As an architect draws a complete plan of the building that is to be erected, even so God planned His creation, “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are NOT YET DONE, saying, “MY counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isa. 46:10.) His six days of labour and seventh day’s rest were recorded in past tense, not because the work was complete, but because He is able to “call those which be not, as though they were.” (Rom. 4:17.)

In noticing Gen. 2:4 we will see that the inspired writer declares that “these (seven days previously spoken of) are the seven generations (not 24-hour days) of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” In the beginning when God created them (Gen. 1:1) He declared those seven days, or generations, through which His work was to pass in its progress toward completion.

There is a difference between “creating” and “making.” To “create” is to “originate, to cause to exist,” while to “make” is to “form,” or “produce.” In Gen. 2:3 this distinction is clearly shown when it says, “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it He “had rested from all His work which God created to make” (margin.) His creative plan was finished before the foundation of the world, but His work “is not yet done.”

At the time when God revealed His great plan of creation to Moses five of these “days,” or “generations” had already been fulfilled, and the sixth “day” had reached more than two thousand (2,000) years of its
allotted time.

The Lamb Slain

It was after God had completed His creative plan that He saw everything that He had made was very good. His plan was perfect, in every detail, from the beginning to the end. But before He began the formation of those things which He created to make, through His infinite wisdom and foreknowledge, He saw the fall of Lucifer, and the host of angels with him; He saw the fall of man and his ruined condition; He saw his work marred, made void, ruined, without form and wasted, but this could not alter His purpose. His plan was already laid and must be carried out. He had declared the end from the beginning, therefore, He said, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”

To meet the foreseen calamity a remedy must be provided. His purpose in man, that he should be “to the praise of His glory” must be fulfilled. To accomplish this, a sacrifice, and a substitute must be supplied. He determined that when the fullness of time was come He would send forth His Spirit and prepare a body, as the only begotten of the Father, through whose death He might ransom mankind from the fall. And through this plan He had “chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that (in spite of the fall) we should be without blame before him in love.” (Eph. 1:3-10; 1 Pet. 1:18-20.) Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18.) Let us not overlook the fact that all that is recorded
in Gen. 1:3, to Gen. 2:3 was spoken “in the beginning,” before the foundation of the world. This is a cardinal point in the secret of the revelation of the ages. At the time (in the beginning) when God hallowed the seventh day, none of His work was in process of formation, yet His plan was complete from the  beginning to the end. With these points established there should be no difficulty in grasping the things which have been kept secret since the world began.

When God said, “Let us make man,” he was to be made in His “image” and “likeness,” but in verse 27 it says, “So God created man in His own image,” and nothing is said of the “likeness” by the inspired writer
of this verse. From this we saw that when God made Adam of the “earth earthy” (1 Cor. 15:47-49), His work on man was “not yet done” (Isa. 46:10). He had made him out of the dust of the ground and placed in him all the attributes of Himself, with the exception of the knowledge of “good and evil” (Gen. 3:22). The attributes of God, the Holy Spirit, are Wisdom, Counsel, Might, Holy, Proficience, Reason, etc. It was through the adorning of these attributes that man “was made in the image of God.” Of all the creatures that God made none of them bore these attributes but man.

There is another very plausible interpretation to the meaning of the Creator when He said, “Let us make man in our image.” We note that in Eph. 1:3 it states that He chose us (the Church) in Christ before the
foundation of the world. Through this it could be that man (-kind), after being formed out of the dust of the ground, was to be made into the image of God in righteousness and true holiness by Christ and the
church. We, who have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit are ordained to be “workers together with him” to bring the natural man into the image of God which we now bear through Christ. The “US”
spoken of could refer to the Christ the Church. For if He chose “US” in Him before the foundation of the world, why should it be thought a thing impossible to you for God to speak to “US” before the world began?

From his formation mankind has continued to bear this image of God, but His “likeness” has been attained by one Man alone, and that is “the Man Christ Jesus.” He only hath (attained unto) immortality. It is He alone who has been clothed in glory and honor, bearing the perfect “likeness” and brightness of God’s eternal glory. David, foreseeing this grand purpose of God in man, looked with a steadfast hope into the ages to come and declared, “I shall be satisfied when I awake with Thy LIKENESS.” (Psa. 17:15.) The Apostle Paul assures us that our vile bodies shall be fashioned in the LIKENESS of His glorious body. (Phil. 3:20, 21.) The Prophet Ezekiel, having beheld the brightness of the glory of the Lord at His future appearing, declares that this was the LIKENESS of the glory of Jehovah. (Ezek. 1:26-28.) And John, the Beloved, as he sat writing his letter to the saints in days of old , tells that “when He shall appear, we shall be
LIKE Him,” (1 John 3:2.) From this we have gleaned that the “image” of God is one thing and the “likeness” is another. (Gen. 1:26.) It is evident that no man from the formation of Adam unto this day, has ever
borne the likeness of His glorious body. From all appearances the making of man into both the “image” and “likeness” of God must include the entire period from the time that man was made of the dust of the ground until the close of the Millennium, a period of 7,000 years. And that “evening and morning” will be the Sixth Day (a day 7,000 years long).

Since the sixth day of Creation is of 7,000 years’ duration, then it is evident that the other “days” before it undoubtedly contained the same number of years, for the “law of the Lord is perfect.” To this some may take exception on the grounds that the Scriptures say a day with the Lord is a thousand years and a  thousand years as one day (2 Pet. 3:8; Psa. 90:4), but if you will be patient you will see that it is in perfect harmony with these things of which we have spoken. There will be no conflict at all.

CHAPTER III

Types and Shadows

When God gave unto man six days to labor and the seventh rest (Ex. 20:9-11), it was typical of the six periods of creation and the seventh period of rest which God declared “from the beginning * * * things not yet done.” (Isa. 46:10.) When God rests from all His work it will be in the Seventh period of 7,000 years.

The feast of Pentecost was the day following the “seventh sabbath” from the feasts of the first fruits, that is, seven times seven days, making forty-nine days, on the fiftieth day was Pentecost. This is one of “the feasts of the LORD” (Lev. 23:2,15,16) , and as “a day with the Lord is a thousand years” (2 Pet. 3:8), then it evidently bears witness to the fact that there is a period of 50,000 years to be allotted somewhere in God’s dealing with this earth and the children of men; and thus we find through the Revelation of the ages that from the beginning of the present heaven and earth to the dawn of the glory of Eternity is ordained to be a period of fifty thousand (50,000) years. The spiritual fulfilling of this type on the day of Pentecost, the 50th day from the waving of The first-fruit, was truly glorious, but we are told that this is but “an earnest of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:13, 14), and if this be but a foretaste, who among us is able to tell what Eternity shall be?

The feast of Trumpets occurred in the seventh month, at which time there was a great gathering together (Lev. 23:23,24.) Spiritually, this feast is a type of the rapture, or “catching away” of the saints some time during the seventh (7th) stage of the Church age (the Laodicean period, Rev. 3:14, etc.), but its final fulfillment extends to the seventh period of 7,000 years of the earth’s existence, the new heaven and new earth period, when God shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are in earth” in the dispensation of “the fulness of times.” (Eph. 1:8-10.)

This feast, being the fifth in order named in Leviticus 23rd chapter, also has in it something touching the fifth day of Creation which will be dealt with further on in this book.

After six years of tilling the soil and reaping the fields, God appointed a year of rest, or the Sabbath year, in which the land was to rest, and all that grew during that year was not to be reaped by the owners of the fields, but instead it was to be gathered by everybody alike. (Lev. 25:1-7.) Through the observance of the Sabbath year He hath endeavored to show us that in the Seventh period of 7,000 years His sabbath, the new heaven and new earth period, there will be no more earning of one’s bread by “the sweat of his face,” but that the earth shall produce of its “own accord.” There shall be no envy and strife upon the earth in the day that the Lord shall do this, neither shall there be briers and thorns, for in that day shall the curse be removed (Rev. 22:3). Then shall the righteous go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and hills shall break forth before them into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. And instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isa. 55:12,13.)

In that day violence shall no more be heard in the land, neither wasting nor destruction within its borders; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. The sun shall no more go down; neither shall the moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of mourning shall be ended. God’s people shall all be righteous, and shall inherit the land forever. See Isa. 60:18-21; Rev. 21:1-7 and verses 23 and 24.

The year of Jubilee occurred every fifty years, the year following every seventh sabbatical year. (Lev. 25:8-54.) Seven weeks of years. At this time liberty was proclaimed throughout the whole land. This also, like the feast of Pentecost, foreshadows a great rejoicing, and liberty to be brought unto the earth and its inhabitants when Eternity has begun. As we muse upon these things, how the fire of God burns in our soul! Surely eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But He hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea the DEEP things of God. (1 Cor. 2:9, 10.) O the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out.

The seven-thousand-year period allotted man as a race, or family, was typified by seven twenty-four-hour days which God gave man individually as a cycle of time in which to labor and do all his work, and rest on
the seventh. Man, as a race, has been toiling, and eating his bread by the sweat of his face nearly 6,000 years (Six days), but his days of labor are almost ended, and his Sabbath of a thousand years will soon begin.

Man, personally, has been given six (24 hour) days to labor, and on the seventh day he rests from his work.

Man, as a race, or family, has had almost six thousand years of toil and labor, and in the seventh thousand years (the Millennium) he shall rest.

God has worked six seven-thousand-years periods, and on the seventh period of seven-thousand-years (the new heaven and earth period) He will end His work and rest from all His work which He created and made. (Gen. 2:1-3.)

CHAPTER IV

The Formation of the First, and Second Creative Day

The First Day

THE formation of God’s creative work began after He had declared it from beginning to end He created His six days of labour and hallowed His seventh day of rest long before He began to perform, or bring to
pass the things which even to this day are not yet done.” (Isa. 46:9, 10; Gen. 2:4,5.)

The Word of God plainly tells that “the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Heb. 11:1-3.) That there was a beginning of the present
order of things is a fact that must be conceded by all. The things that are, evidently were not made of anything that the mortal eye can behold. We must acknowledge that it was made by the word of God.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” (Gen. 1:3-5.) That light was life. It was the bursting forth of the invisible God into the midst of empty space, grappling with things unseen, whirling them round and round, thus creating an unmeasurable, luminous mass of gaseous substance, mingled with vapors, fumes, and gases, finally crystallizing into molten matter as the period of the first seven
thousand years drew to its close. At that time water seemed to have enveloped the entire works of God’s hands, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

When we consider the length and breadth of the earth, and its strata of soil, rocks, gravel, and sand; its gold, gases, ore and minerals lying in a wavelike position far beneath the earth’s surface; and the hot, molten mass of liquid fire belching forth from the crater of some volcano, disclosing the central nature of the earth’s present condition, we are forced to admit that at one time this world was a mass of shapeless, molten matter. Whirling through boundless space, steaming and hissing, many a year before it was prepared for habitation. In the book of Job there is a confirmation of the foregoing statement when he says, “As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.” (Job 28:5.)

All this is in perfect harmony with what is commonly called the laws of nature, but what I am obliged to call the Law of God. It is He who created all things. Out of the great ocean of unfathomable depths the worlds move, live and have their being. From it the billions of creatures draw their existence. The many wonderful and mighty laws of God in the realms of the universe, such as electricity, magnetism, gravity, heat and cold, with the multitude of others, both known and unknown to man, all united in the mighty hand of God for the purpose of building and maintaining the universe, each plays its part, in its appointed time, in unfolding the wonderful things that God created to make.

Perhaps 95 per cent of all forms of life build up their bodies in which they live from things invisible. In fact, everything that is, can be easily returned to that invisible state from whence it came. “There is no known substance which can not be converted to gas and driven back to the ether kingdom by a sufficiently great heat, thus showing from whence it came,” says one writer. This proves sufficiently that “the things that are seen were not made from things that do appear.”

Through powerful telescopes of today, far away in the depth of the universe, can be seen great masses of gaseous substance, which many believe to be other worlds in process of formation. These great masses
are called spiral nebulae. The relative rotation of the earth from west to east on its axis gives rise to the opinion that it, too, was once possibly a spiral nebula, or “a luminous molten mass of gaseous substance,” whirling in the empty space preparatory to its final position among its sister planets of our present solar system.

The Second Day

“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters.” (Gen. 1:6-8.)

There is nothing said in the book of Genesis about God creating the waters, yet in this is second period of the earth’s development we find the whole mass enveloped in water. There is a known law that water is produced by certain temperatures of the atmosphere coming in contact one with the other. A vessel filled with cold water coming in contact with warm atmosphere will be found dripping water from the outside. The heat from within a room on a cold day will cause water to form on a window pane and run down upon the floor of the room. The chemical analysis of water is one part hydrogen and two parts oxygen (H20). It is evident from these facts that the heat from the molten matter, coming in contact with cooler strata of the atmospheric regions produced dense, cloudy, vapor, which, in the process of time, settled upon the shrinking substance, enveloping it in great volumes of water which afterwards were called seas.

In the midst of these waters God placed this great mass of created matter, and by the word of His mouth He caused there to be a “firmament in the midst of waters.” The margin reads “expansion.” There was evidently a solidifying process wrought on this molten matter, thereby shrinking it, causing there to be an “expansion,” or space, in the midst of the water. The waters were divided under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. Here we see God placing the waters under the surface of the solidifying matter, thereby forming the rivers and streams that flow today far beneath the earth’s surface. It is commonly known by all that there are lakes, rivers, streams and fountains of water under the earth as well as on the earth.

There is a natural law that all heated matter shrinks as it begins to cool off. Thus evidently it was with the molten, gaseous substance on the second “day” of creation; as it cooled it shrank, thereby leaving an “expansion,” the present atmospheric regions of the earth.

The firmament, or expansion, above the earth God called heaven. The waters above were no doubt of an unsolid form, being a cloudy vapor, decking the space above and encircling the shrinking mass as it was
gradually being formed into rocks, clay, sand, metal and other mineral substances that are today found in the bowels of the earth. This period by geologists is called the “mineral, or geological period.” These things have been discovered by them, but they were created by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The time in which these things were made and the length of time God consumed in completing this work has been hidden from the wise and prudent, but He showeth to His sons all things that the Father doeth. (John 5:20, 14:26; 1 Cor. 2:9,10.)

In the Literary Digest of December 29, 1917, a subject appeared under the heading, “Fossil Oceans,” in which it was stated that “Great bodies of salt water are encountered by a large proportion of the wells sunk to depths below 1,000 feet. The flow may be so great that the driller thinks he must have struck the Gulf of Mexico or some other immense body of salt water. * * * This salt water is generally contained in some bed of unusually porous rock, and it is nothing less than the remains of a prehistoric ocean entombed among the strata.” Concerning these great bodies of water, another publication (School Science and Mathematics) inquires, “How did this salt water get into the porous rock? Has rain water soaked far down in the earth and found some bed rock salt which it dissolved and thereby became salty, or had the salt water some source far within the earth from which it has arisen toward the surface; or is it the water of some ancient ocean that filled the pores of sand and mud of its bed, which in AGES GONE BY became buried under sand and mud that gradually accumulated on the ocean bottom?”

Thus hath mortal man presented the great subject of their discovery to the people and many reasons will be given by them as to the source of these fossil oceans, but if we will turn to the word of God, the Creator of all things, there need rise no further questions as to their origin. It was God who divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament in AGES GONE BY more than 26,000 years ago, or in the second period of 7,000 years of the earth’s creation.

(The above material is Part I of G. T. Haywood’s book published in 1923; Chapters 1-4.)

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