Why did God create heaven on Day 1 before there was a need for it - as man (Day 4) had yet to sin?

Question

Why would God create heaven on Day 1, as a place of accommodation for dedeemed men's souls, if man himself was only created on Day 4, and had not yet fallen from God's grace? Therefore there would be no need of heaven until after Day 4.

Christians would therefore have to believe that God had a preconceived idea of Adam's fall on Day 1 - and so created heaven ahead of it.

Answer 1

God did not create heaven on day one. God Created the heavens (plural) and the earth in Genesis 1:1 some undisclosed time before day one which began in Genesis 1:3



"Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Yes, but the answer is given in Gen 1:5 "And the evening and the morning were the first day". Meaning all the subsequent creations up till then were on Day 1 .

13 minutes ago



Incorrect but a common mistake made by people who are ignorant of oriental literary devices.



Genesis uses a literary device called an inclusio.. The Inclusio acts like a parenthesis with a key phrase marking the opening parenthesis and another key phrase marking the closing parenthesis.. If you read the text closely you will see that each day is marked by the inclusion with the opening phrase "And God Said" and each day is closed with the Phrase "It was morning it was evening day #"



This pattern is consistent for each of the six days.. Recognizing this we then see that the first day began in Genesis 1:3 which is the first occurrence of "And God Said".



When reading a text one must consider it's origins - the Bible is an ancient text written by an oriental culture, and so one should read the text with an oriental mindset and recognize common oriental axioms and literary devices. Too many people read the Bible with a occidental mindset and are apparent oblivious to oriental axioms and literary devices. this results in poor or incorrect interpretations like the one you offered.



Literature



In literature, inclusio is a literary device based on a concentric principle, also known as bracketing or an envelope structure, which consists of creating a frame by placing similar material at the beginning and end of a section, although whether this material should consist of a word or a phrase, or whether greater amounts of text also qualify, and of what length the frames section should be, are matters of some debate. Inclusio is found in various sources, both antique and new.

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Inclusio in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament)



While this may not be evident to many of the Bible's modern lay readers, the Hebrew Bible is actually full of literary devices, some of which, having fallen out of favor over the years, are lost on most modern readers. Inclusio, of which many instances can be found in the Bible, is one of these, although many instances of its usage are not apparent to those reading translations of the Bible rather than the Hebrew source.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusio

Answer 2

First of all God didn't say that He created heaven on Day 1. He said that ...



Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.



Its a misconception based on a false assumption resulting in a building of a hypothesis that is fraught with error.



Anyway, Secondly the heaven God is talking about is the Universe as in Job 38 ...



Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?



The third heaven is the Eternal Heaven - the abode of God - and to say that it had a beginning is saying that you don't know what eternity is.



Thirdly, the Old Testament saints did not go to heaven. They couldn't because they had not been redeemed by Jesus Christ. They went to a place called Paradise in the heart of the earth - that's in Luke 16.



You really need to read the Bible through at least once before starting to make your theories. I would say it would be much safer to go through it 40 times before drawing conclusions.

Answer 3

its referring to the sky, moon, sun, stars, etc

Answer 4

There are different meanings of "heaven" in scripture - the heavens that are our atmosphere, the heavens beyond that of the universe where the planets and stars are, etc... Paul spoke of a man being taken up into the "third heaven" in 2 Cr 12:2 -



I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

Answer 5

A construction manager usually has an office as close to the building site as feasible.

Likewise God, who exists in Eternity, should also have a base of operations, and it is written:

"Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool..."-Isaiah 66:1.



Obviously, "time" provides a setting for this world to continue, and is not the "norm" in the universe (Revelation 10:6), because Heaven exists in Eternity.

Only beings with the Holy Spirit exist in Heaven/Eternity...

"Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, Yah (Psalm 68:4). Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven..."



It is impossible to please My Father without the Holy Spirit.



All sons of God have the Holy Spirit.

Adam was a son of God, as Yahshua Christ, but Adam lost the Holy Spirit when he turned away: "You shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from me".-Jeremiah 3:19

That rendered Adam unable to pass the Holy Spirit to his children, us.

And we couldn't get it until another son of God became born into this world to complete the job, which is what Yahshua Christ did.



This earth is currently a stage for as many who will to recieve the Holy Spirit, in order to continue living into Eternity.

Answer 6

Im no Bible expert, but I do know that the Bible is a collection of different books. Now these books were put together by man. We cant take dates and numbers in a literal sense when reading these books. There is alot of truth in the bible,quran and torah but we need to remmember that all these books were written many years ago by man. And man has manipulate these books trough history.

Answer 7

The scriptures refer to the physical heavens, where there are stars and the sun etc, and closer to us, where the birds fly.



(Matthew 6:26) 26 Observe intently the birds of heaven, because they do not sow seed or reap or gather into storehouses; still YOUR heavenly Father feeds them. Are YOU not worth more than they are?



(1 Corinthians 15:40, 41) 40 And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one sort, and that of the earthly bodies is a different sort. 41 The glory of the sun is one sort, and the glory of the moon is another, and the glory of the stars is another; in fact, star differs from star in glory.



The scriptures also refer to heaven which is the place of God's dwelling - this is where he and other spirits reside, and you can't see that unless you are invited there.



(Psalm 33:13, 14) 13 From the heavens Jehovah has looked, He has seen all the sons of men. 14 From the established place where he dwells He has gazed at all those dwelling on the earth.



(Daniel 2:44) 44 “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people. It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it itself will stand to times indefinite.



These were not created in order to reward those who are faithful. The way for humans to go to heaven was not opened up until Jesus. These ones will sit on thrones with Jesus::



(John 3:13) Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man.



(Luke 22:28-30) “However, YOU are the ones that have stuck with me in my trials; 29 and I make a covenant with YOU, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, 30 that YOU may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.



The promise for the righteous to live on earth forever predated this arrangement:



(Psalm 37:11) But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth, And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace.

(Psalm 37:29) The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it.



(Proverbs 2:21, 22) For the upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. 22 As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth; and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.



We have a choice - and God reacts to that choice instead of foreordaining our destiny, which is what is meant by our being free moral agents



(Galatians 6:7, 8) Do not be misled: God is not one to be mocked. For whatever a man is sowing, this he will also reap; 8 because he who is sowing with a view to his flesh will reap corruption from his flesh, but he who is sowing with a view to the spirit will reap everlasting life from the spirit.



(Deuteronomy 30:19) I do take the heavens and the earth as witnesses against YOU today, that I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the malediction; and you must choose life in order that you may keep alive, you and your offspring.



This idea of fate and predestination came from pagan Greek philosophy, which came into church thinking by way of Augustine. --



According to Jewish historian Josephus (first century C.E.), the Pharisees endeavored to harmonize the idea of fate with their belief in God and with the free moral agency granted to man. (The Jewish War, II, 162, 163 [viii, 14]; Jewish Antiquities, XVIII, 13, 14 [i, 3])



The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge says: “Previous to Augustine [of the fourth and fifth centuries C.E.] there was no serious development in Christianity of a theory of predestination.”



Before Augustine, earlier so-called “Church Fathers” such as Justin, Origen, and Irenaeus “know nothing of unconditional predestination; they teach free will.” (Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, 1919, Vol. X, p. 231)



In their refutation of Gnosticism, they are described as regularly expressing their belief in the free moral agency of man as “the distinguishing characteristic of human personality, the basis of moral responsibility, a divine gift whereby man might choose that which was well-pleasing to God,” and as speaking of “the autonomy of man and the counsel of God who constraineth not.”—The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, edited by S. Jackson, 1957, Vol. IX, pp. 192, 193.

Answer 8

I guess so the angels would have a place to hang out.