In previous generations, the past was the key to the present. People would study history, and that information would provide a context for why things are as they presently are. This began to change in the 18th century with the advent of a theory called uniformitarianism. It says that the present is the key to the past. In other words, it is assumed that how things are now is how it has always been. This perspective is primarily applied to the field of geology, but it is really a philosophical construct of a generation that is self-focused, and believes that everything that happened, and everyone who lived before them is irrelevant. One example of this is seen in questions like this: If Noah was to take two of every animal on his ark, how did kangaroos get to the ark from Australia, and back again after the flood? This question assumes that the geography of the earth at that time is as it is today. It's amazing to realize how much of science is based on assumptions. This is because scientists are trying to figure out a universe that they didn't create, but that is another subject.
For now, it is written, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." Ecclesiastes 1:9, Isaiah 30:26. In order for the moon to have the reflective equivalent of our present sun, it would need an atmosphere, be covered with water, and located farther from the earth. In order for the light of the sun to be sevenfold, the earth would have to be about as close to the sun as the planet Venus. A person with a uniformitarian perspective would be quick to assert that the earth couldn't support life if it were that close to the sun, therefore the fulfillment of this verse is impossible, and thus irrational. That would be the case if the atmosphere of the earth at creation consisted of the same elemental composition that it does now. After all, it is the atmosphere of a planet that has more to do with its ability to support life than its distance from the sun.
As stated in a previous post, the water at creation went underground so that the dry land could appear. Later it says, "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." Genesis 2:10. Eden was not a typical backyard garden of today. It is believed that it was the size of the New Jerusalem mentioned in the book of Revelation. Based on the dimensions given of that city (in a literal sense), the garden of Eden would have been about the size of the state of Oregon. The four heads became four rivers that watered the whole earth. The river that went out of Eden would have been much larger than any river that exists today in order to provide sufficient water for the entire earth. This river had its source in the fountains of the great deep, earth's underground watering system. When the Creator started the earth spinning on its axis, centrifugal forces were generated at the earth's equatorial diameter, which stretched the earth and expanded it to a much larger diameter through the equator, than through the poles. The Creator had so designed the foundations, or substructure of the earth's land beneath the waters, so that there were strategically placed underground seams and channels girding the earth's equator, and also coming into it laterally in a multitude of channels from the poles of the earth toward the central channel around the equator. These numberless lateral channels surfaced not only at or near the poles, but at thousands of points in between. The earth was covered with a fine network of channels leading into the greater channel around its equatorial diameter. These channels were covered and sealed until the earth started to rotate. For two days, the earth rotated, stretching itself like an awakening giant at its equatorial girth. On the third day the Lord commanded, and these channels now expanded fully, were opened, and the water covering the earth which was much less in those days than now (for reasons that will be explained later), ran off the surface into those prepared underground channels. When completed, the Lord sealed most of the openings around the earth's equator, leaving certain strategic ones open, as also he left open most of the lateral branches. He had arranged low places for certain small seas and lakes, scattered plentifully over the earth's surface. These all concealed entrances to lateral underground channels and their waters were continually returning underground. Their waters were replaced by the many branches of the four great rivers which terminated many of their branches in these lakes and seas.
This watering system was the opposite of the rivers of today. Today's rivers are drainage streams only. They start out as small creeks and streams which run into larger, and still larger streams as a collecting system rather than a distributing system, finally emptying into the oceans. Eden's river started in largest volume from the source, where the river Eden fountained in the garden. As these four rivers branching from it sent out their branches around the earth in every direction, the branches became more numerous and of ever decreasing size until small streams emptied their waters into lakes, seas, or simply disappeared underground. Thus the water circulated in the opposite direction in the streams branches than they do today. The Creator had arranged the newly created topography of the earth so that its highest elevations predominated along the equatorial diameter, and very gradually tapered off downward toward the poles. Thus the water would flow out from underground channels in a great fountainhead in the garden of Eden under great pressure, flowing throughout the earth, going underground at the outer extremities of the branches near the poles, and then returning underground to the equatorial starting point. What provided the source of pressure, and the forces necessary to make the water circulate in this fashion? The answer is in earth's rotational centrifugal force. The same force that still stretches the earth's diameter today to a larger dirth than the polar diameter also pulls earth's oceans toward the equator with such force that ocean water at the equator measures above mean sea level, gathering them together there in a great heap. Yet, this heap is so wide and so broad, that ships at sea do not notice any difference. But in the earth before the flood, those waters had a land covering over them. They still gathered in the underground channels at the equator, but they could not heap themselves up, as do the oceans because the land covering held them down. Instead they came under pressure. That pressure was relieved in the garden of Eden, and possibly a few other strategic points around the earth's equator, sending adequate supply out into those four great rivers. Thus, out of the earth's rotational force, the Lord made of the earth a giant water pump, which drew the water inward to the center from the lateral branches, force them under pressure up through the openings to the surface, where by gravity the water flowed over the surface, down underground, returning again by the drawing power of the great pump to the center again.
Before going into detail about the changes that have occurred to the earth, and the other heavenly bodies of the solar system, there are some observations about the creation of man that are pertinent to understanding our relationship with our Creator. "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Genesis 2:7. This statement is as simple as 1+1=2. A body plus the breath of life equals a living soul. The term "breath of life" is synonymous with the word, spirit. "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of god is in my nostrils." Job 27:3. The spirit allows us to be conscious of God. It's functions are conscience, intuition, and communion. The body allows us to be conscious of the physical world through our senses. When these things are combined, it produces a soul whose function is the seat of our intellect, emotions, and volition.
"And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of 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 2:15-17. In this short passage, it can be seen that the man was given certain responsibilities. One of those was occupational (dress and keep the garden), the other was to obey the law.
Continuing on, it is written, "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 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. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him." Genesis 2:18-20. After fulfilling the first two duties, the man was tested as to whether he would settle for something less than God's ideal in regards to a help for him. Because he didn't settle for less, he was given the ideal. "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed." Genesis 2:21-25.
Had this been the end of it, the Bible would not have needed to be written except for a concluding clause of "and they lived happily ever after." But the fact is, there is one who is adversarial to the law of God, who sees the universe operating on the basis of good and evil rather than cause and effect. And it was the agreement of our first parents with this being that has brought death and dysfunction to this world. Fortunately, there is a remedy for this, and it will be covered in future posts.