Genesis 1:26 “And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
God created man in His own image. Notice when God is speaking, He didn’t say, “I am going to make man.” He said, “Let us.” This is proof of the trinity. God refers to Himself as us.
People against the trinity will argue that “us” is referring to God and His angels. The problem is that the angels are credited for creating man. But look at verse 27, “so God created man in His own image.” When God talks about “our image,” verse 27 shows that it refers to God alone.
The next part of the verse says, “after our likeness.” So, God wants to create man in His own image after his likeness.
Male and female
The next part of the verse says, “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea.” So, God says “let them” (plural) have dominion. The plural form is because He will say, “male and female created he them” in the next verse. “Them” is referring to humanity.
Whenever you look at the word “man,” it will often be referring to a general sense as human. That is how it is done in old English. When they refer to humanity in general, it was common that they would use the masculine term. One might say, “Well, that is politically incorrect. I don’t like that.” People do not realize the following: Man is created after the image of God, and woman is created after the image of man. Christians must first understand that God is a male and not a female. We cannot try to make God a Yin and Yang thing, male/female.
1 Corinthians 11:7 “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.”
God separates the woman because God is not female. Bible believers need to clear out those “drugs” called liberalism and feminism.
God did not create Eve and Adam at the same time together from His own image. When God created man after His own image, He put His power and image into man. We will see that in chapter 2, He breathed into him. How did He create woman? He created the woman out of the man. Female out of male.
Genesis 2:22 “And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
You see, she is from man and not from God. That is why we see in the next verse, “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man (Genesis 2:23).”
Dominion over all the earth
Genesis 1:26 “And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and overall the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
Mankind is in charge of the animals in the sea, birds, cattle, and everything in the world. Everything that creepeth is the insects.
Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
God created man in His own image.
If we go back to verse 26, God gave man dominion of the earth but not all of His creation. They have control over the earth, not for example, the firmament. Mankind does not have dominion over outer space.
Look at Genesis 11 and Isaiah 14. Notice mankind does not have dominion or control over the above. That’s why they strive to attain and control the above. Mankind wants to reach up, but God disapproves of that.
Genesis 11:4 “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
Obviously, God disapproves of that. Who tries to do that? Satan.
Isaiah 14:12-13 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:”
So, we can see that God disapproves of mankind populating throughout outer space, but Satan wants mankind to achieve that.
Debunking evolution
Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
God blessed them and wants them to multiply and be fruitful. The idea of fruitfulness is like the other context of his other parts of creation. We see common traits because it is a common designer. For example, the same words such as “be fruitful,” “multiply,” and “seed” are used for reproduction in vegetation to animals.
Another way to debunk evolution is how male and female are derived. If things naturally evolved throughout time, then why is it mainly male and female throughout creation? There is a mind behind creation.
Here is another thing: reproduction is essential for survival. How can the process of evolution yield males and females? The male and the female would somehow have to be different beings of different substances that somehow have the right connection and fit together in unity to reproduce something? It makes more sense to say it was intelligent design. Genesis 1 is filled with arguments against evolution.
Replenish versus fill
God says, “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” The word “replenish” is important because it points out the Genesis gap. There are two reasons why it supports the Genesis gap. The first reason is, “replenish” means to fill again.
The people arguing against the Genesis gap will say that in old dictionaries, “replenish” means “fill.” If God wanted it to say “fill” He would. Look at verse 22. What did He say to the fowls of the air and the fish of the sea? He said, “be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters.” Notice, when God says “fill,” He means fill, and when He says “replenish” He means fill again. Look at Genesis 9. What does God say to Noah after humans were washed away by the flood? He says “replenish.”
Genesis 9:1 “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
Here is another example of the difference of “fill” and “replenish.”
Exodus 1:7 “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.”
Genesis 1:28 says “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish…” So, God is using the same idea as Exodus 1:7. Why does it say “fill” and not “replenish” in Exodus 1:7? It is because this is the first time that the Jews filled out the land of Egypt.
Satan who’s unhappy
In Genesis 1:28, we see that God gives man dominion over all creatures. If it is every living thing that moves upon the earth, then no wonder there is a creature somewhere that is not happy. Go to Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 to learn more about this creature. This creature’s domain has been taken over by a being who is weaker than him. Notice that Satan cannot have control over the earth, and this is during his fall. His is before mankind’s fall.
Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
This is the time when Lucifer fell. When he fell, what did he do before? We can get some clues from Isaiah 14. “I will ascend into heaven”- that means he was below. “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”- That means his throne is below the stars of God. He says, “exalt my throne”- That means he has a throne. Where do you think he is in this text? It is obvious, but let’s point it out further. “I will ascend above the heights of the clouds”- So he is below the clouds. That is proof, Lucifer was ruling on the earth.
Now let’s look at Ezekiel 28:12:
Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.”
Who is this? This is a person who has rulership since he is the king of Tyrus. Look at verse 14 for further description of this person.
Ezekiel 28:14 “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.”
This is Satan during his fall:
Ezekiel 28:15 “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”
Where was Satan during his fall? Look at verse 13:
Ezekiel 28:13 “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”
“Thou hast been in the garden of God”- Lucifer was on the earth during his fall and had leadership on earth. He must be very mad.
Vegetarian mankind (originally)
Genesis 1:29 “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
So, vegetation was mankind’s food. When the Bible says meat, it is not referring to steak but vegetation. So, mankind is originally vegetarian.
One day in the future, the Lord will make that kind of paradise. During the millennium, it will be like how God did with mankind originally at the garden of Eden.
Isaiah 11:6-7 “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”
This is very similar to the garden of Eden; it is paradise. Imagine your children riding on a leopard, and you do not have to worry.
Genesis 1:30 “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so”
So, all animals were vegetarians.
Two theories about the sixth day
Genesis 1:31 “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Again, we see that God saw that everything he made was good. “Behold”- means look. You can notice today that God’s creation is beautiful even after Noah’s flood. Look around you. Even in this sinful world, you can see the beautiful handiwork of God.
The last part of verse 31, “And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” So, all of this came about in 24 hours in the sixth day. There is an important note here, which is two wild theories.
Theory #1:
He says, “the sixth day” in this verse. If this happened on the sixth day, notice he said, “man and woman.” Did you notice that man and woman were created on the sixth day (Genesis 1:27)? Woman was made after man (Genesis 2:22). But in verse 19 we see:
Genesis 2:19 “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.”
Adam named every biological species and all the classification systems before any Ph.D. scientist. This was before the woman was made, and she was made on the same day as Adam was created. This is just a theory, but it is possible that Adam named all the animals within half a day. That shows the intellect of the original mankind.
Theory #2:
Here’s another theory. Genesis 1:28 says that mankind is to have dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. God worded it in that manner. It might be an indication that there might be other living entities there.
Genesis 4 can explain this further. There is a controversy concerning Adam and Eve producing children and their children reproducing themselves and so on. There was incest going on. What might be interesting is there may not have been what they might see as incest relations. There might have been other living beings there. There could have been other living beings or entities there that Cain and Adam mingled with. The supporting notion is because Cain mentions other beings where there were supposedly no other beings during this time.
Genesis 4:14 “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”
Who was living there? Who are those other beings he is afraid of? It could perhaps be the fallen angels? Did they come down again after Satan tempted mankind? When Eve talked to Satan, she was not surprised or in shock. She just took it as a normal conversation.
Two theories about the “heavens and the earth were finished”
Now, we will look at the next verse:
Genesis 2:1 “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”
The word thus means, therefore. Notice it says “heavens” in plural. We saw God created the first and the second heaven. They are referring to the space in the skies and the third heaven where God lives. God finished the earth and all the hosts of them. The word host has a connection with stars as well as angels. The Bible shows that angels have some connection with the stars too.
We will look at two possibilities for Genesis 2:1.
Possibility #1
Perhaps Genesis 2:1 is referring to the totality of God’s creation. In other words, from the beginning (Genesis 1:1). That is because Genesis 1:1 is not a part of the six days of creation. So, in Genesis 2:1, God is summarizing all the way from Genesis 1:1 and onwards.
Possibility #2
It is referring to the six days of creation because “the host” could be a reference to the stars. God mentioned on the third day that God called the dry land earth and the heavens; we can see that on the second day.
The seventh day rest
Genesis 2:2 “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
Why did God say that he ended his work on the seventh day? He did not have to put the seventh day. He could have just the sixth day and then start with the first day again. That shows that there is something significant. Why didn’t he create anything on the seventh day? Why did he rest?
Genesis 2:3 “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
We see that God blesses the seventh day. He sanctified it, so He made it holy. The number seven is important. Throughout the Bible, the number 7 has a significant meaning. Look at what God says about the sabbath. This is where Bible believers might get their timing of the rapture, which is interesting. Bible believers cannot pinpoint an exact date because we are going by human calendars. The millennium is known as “rest,” the whole world is at rest then.
It says that God rested on the seventh day. Apparently, the atheist was right. God is not omnipotent, and that he was very tired and exhausted after creating mankind. No! That is ridiculous. The Bible shows at Genesis 2:7 that all God must do to create is breath. In etymology, the word “rest” means “cease” or “end.”