There are three ‘earth ages’ and by this I mean ‘ages’ that reflect great physical changes upon earth’s surface configuration. As noted in Part 1, the first earth age was the earth’s original creation, ‘the age of generation’; it was perfect in its original creation, “formed to be inhabited” (Isa 45:18).   

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; “God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, He Created It NOT In ‘Vain’ (Heb tohu, void, in empty waste), He Formed It To Be Inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. (Isa 45:18 KJV).

We today live in the earth age of degeneration, occurring after the ‘flood’ judgment noted in Gen 1:2. This was a pre-Adamite flood, not Noah’s flood that occurred much later.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. ²  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2 KJV)

Today’s earth age will continue until Christ returns to the Mount of Olives to set up His prophesied Millennial Kingdom on the physical earth. Then, the land of Palestine will be altered (Zech 14:4-10, Eze 47:1-12); e.g., The Mount of Olives will split in two, “east to west” (Zech 14:4).’

But here we are considering the first earth age, ‘the age of generation.’ Considering that the earth had originally been perfectly “formed… to be inhabited” in the timeless past, we don’t really know how old the earth is. The earth could be billions of years old from the time of its original creation. It could have been billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

We do know Biblically and genealogically that Adam was created only about 6,000 years ago. Some people wonder how the world’s population could have grown to over 7 billion from just 2 people in 6,000 years. But that’s easy to explain. If the total number of people doubled every 150 years, today’s population could have easily arisen since Noah’s Flood. On the other hand, if man evolved 50,000 years ago, and the population doubled every 150 years, we would have one ‘googol’ people -  a ‘googol’ is‘1’ followed by 100 zeroes! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googol

The created earth was originally perfect for habitation, but then is described in Genesis 1:2 as being “waste and empty” and under judgment waters, in darkness. John Nelson Darby’s Bible translates Gen. 1:2 as follows.

“And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)

The Amplified Bible translates Genesis 1:2 as follows. (Note the Hebrew transliterations.)

“The earth was (became) without form (Heb. tohu, formless) and an empty waste (Heb. bohu, void), and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep (the waters). The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 AMP).

Note also how “the Spirit of God” was then moving or hovering, as a ‘brooding hen,’ ready to produce life on the wasted earth.

The angels, here called “morning stars,” rejoiced at the earth’s original creation.

“⁴Where wast thou (Job) when I (the Lord) laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding… ⁷When the morning stars (angels) sang together, and all the sons (creatures) of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4, 7)

The obvious conclusion is that in the interim time period between Gen 1:1 and Gen 1:2, something significant must had occurred to cause God to judge the earth with flood… before Adam was created, long before Noah’s flood. Consider that in “darkness” the earth must have been frozen, melting in the restoration. We know paleontologist have found long extinct Wooly Mammoths with frozen vegetation their mouths.

Now note that in the account of God’s restoration of the chaotic formless earth, as seen in Gen 1:3-31, God created some things, but vegetation simply was ‘brought forth” when the “dry land” appeared out of the judgement waters. Note below how on the “third day” of restoration, the “dry land” came forth, much like Jesus Christ’s resurrection on “the third day.”

Note also that in the very same day that “the dry land” reappeared “the earth brought forth” all vegetation. It does NOT say here that God created the “grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit,” but rather the land simply “brought forth” vegetation (v 12 below). Therefore, it appears that the water-submerged seeds and roots of a pre-Adamite age “brought forth” vegetation when the land became elevated.

Genesis 1:9-13 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. ¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good. ¹¹ And God said, let the earth Bring Forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. ¹² And the earth Brought Forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. ¹³ And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Peter here refers to the pre-Adamite world as “the world that then was, that being overflowed with water, perished” (2Peter 3:5-7). Peter here is addressing the first watery judgment on earth that occurred long before Noah’s flood. The ‘world’ of creatures did not ‘perish’ by Noah’s flood; Noah, his wife, his three sons with their wives survived. But the world perished in the pre-Adamite earth age flood. Recall that it was only after the 2^nd flood, Noah’s flood, that God said He would not again flood the earth (cf. Gen 9:15).

Now contrast how the vegetation grew with how the ‘living creatures’ in the sea were “CREATED,” both fish and fowl, on the 6^th day.

“… God CREATED great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” (Gen 1:21)

Then also God created man and made the beast and cattle on the 6^th day.

“God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind... (Gen 1:25)

- So the question remains; What occurred between Gen 1:1, wherein the earth was originally ‘formed habitable,’ and Genesis 1:2 where the earth is described as being;

“without form (Heb. tohu, in chaos) and an empty waste (Heb. bohu, void), and DARKNESS was upon the face of the very great deep (waters)?

- The answer is this. The Genesis 1:2 degradation evidences fallen Satan’s hand having already brought chaos on the perfectly created earth.

This was before God’s judgment with darkness and a flood. The original vegetation on the earth obviously required sunlight, but God withheld the light. Then after the flood, God restored the earth in preparation for ‘mankind,’ through whom the Savior would come.

“So God CREATED man in his own ‘image’ (Heb selem, shadow) in the image of God CREATED He him; male and female created he them.” (Gen 1:27).

“… LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (Heb, ruach, spirit) of life (Heb. chay, the breath of creatures); and man became a living soul (Heb. nephesh, ‘soul,’ feminine).” (Gen 2:7)

God’s eternal purpose in creating man was first to recover the earth from the hand of fallen Lucifer through the cross of the incarnated Savior who would come to earth through Adam’s line of humanity.

God expected Adam’s lineage would “Replenish, Subdue… Have Dominion” on earth (Gen 1:28). By this we can see a God-opposing force had earlier usurped the earth from the hand of God, before Adam was created. This is the ‘conflict of the ages’ we introduced in Part 1 of this series.

Very soon after Adam’s creation, likely within the first week, Satan came to Eve in the form of “the Serpent” to deceive her, tempting her with what I call ‘the original lie.’ Note in the Biblical account (Gen 3:1-15) that Eve misquoted God’s words and the Serpent contradicted God’s words, calling God a liar - God had said Adam and Eve could “eat freely” of all the trees of the garden, except;

“… the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:17)

The Serpent thereby sowed his conflict with God into Eve’s mind, saying if she did eat of that “the knowledge of good and evil” she and Adam would not only not die, but that she and Adam would obtain new found ‘knowledge’ that would make Adam and Eve to “… be as gods knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5).

Be as gods? Hardly! Note that the Serpent, “the liar... from the beginning” (John 8:44), deceived them entirely. We today are all born into this world with the false self-godhood of the Sin-nature of the Serpent in all men due to Adam’s rebellion against God’s ‘words.’ Mankind was usurped by the Serpent by the fall of Adam.

Of course we know how God in His mercy intervened after Adam and Eve ate of that deadly ‘Tree’ such that they did not immediately die. God provided a way of reconciliation for fallen Adam and his lineage. God introduced this ‘way’ by killing an innocent animal, shedding its blood to cover their newly recognized nakedness with its skins. This first shedding of blood to cover man’s sins was the very first Biblical witness of the coming redemptive work of God through shedding the blood of His “only begotten Son.” God ultimately redeemed fallen mankind from their sins with by blood of THE innocent “lamb of God.” – All that is left for men to do is to “believe on (trust in) the Lord Jesus Christ and though shalt be saved. (Act 16:31)

Nevertheless, Adam and Eve were now separated from God, being driven from the Garden of Eden, which was now guarded by two Angelic Cherubim with flaming swords.

“So he (the Lord) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep (preserve) the way of the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:24)

Due to the deception and fall of Adam and Eve, every human born since is born falsely assuming they are the god of their own life and thus proceed to live independent of consideration of God.

Formerly, in the Garden, God was Adam’s protector, guide, joy, and provider; all Adam was to do was “dress and keep the garden” (Gen 2:15) in cooperation with God. But now, being fallen and independent from God, man was outside of God’s provision. So mankind evolved a fallen, Satanic, world system that has matured to what we see on earth today. The seeds of today’s world system are seen below with the three sons of Lamech; “Jabal, Jubal, and Tubalcain.”

Shortly after the fall of Adam we see the seeds of the godless culture man then devised for himself.

Genesis 4:19-22 And Lamech took unto him two wives…

²⁰ And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle (for commerce).

²¹ And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ (for entertainment).

²² And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron (for weapons)…