generations. The Greek literally reads, "I am making all things new" (Rev. 21:5). Corresponding to these different worlds are the six different Ages. The first two ages referred to in Gen. 1:1 may be said to be prehistoric. How much of the conflict between science and religion would have been prevented by merely noting that the term “beginning” was in the plural! There is room for millions of years, if necessary, in this first verse of the Bible. We know that there was a cataclysm between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2. These early creations ended in “waste and ruin” (Gen. 1:2, Hebrew). There may be a long period between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis one. From Gen. 1:2 to Gen. 8:14, we have the Antediluvian Age. From Gen. 8:15 to Rev. 19, we have the Age of Promise, sometimes called the "present evil age” (Gal. 1:4). Then the Millennial Age will follow, and finally the Age of the Ages. There are thus six ages. The number six seems to us appropriate as it is the number of creaturely self-will and also of the work of God in bringing the creature into His image.

It is also to be noted that when we use the word "age," we do not mean dispensation, as there may be a number of dispensations in an age.

In eternity, heaven and earth were not separated, but formed a glorious oneness and they will again reunite as one at the end of the ages. All separation comes originally from sin.

The first two ages, which are noticed in the plural of the word "beginning" in Gen. 1:1 and Heb. 1:10, may be distinguished spiritually even tho it does not appear to be God's purpose to speak particularly of them in the Bible. The fall of Satan and his angelic associates evidently was in two stages. The first was a fall into selfhood as intimated in Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:12-15. The result of this was the "casting down" (katabole, Greek) from the eternal state into a temporal one and the separation of the spiritual glory that originally existed into a heaven and an earth. God's creative work operated even in the "casting down" and this temporal world and universe was founded. This explains the reason that two different words are used in the original Greek for the word "foundation": they are katabole and themelion. The first one signifies a "casting down"; the second is the regular word for "foundation." In the "casting down" of the creation because of sin, God introduced His creative work and made it the foundation of His temporal universe. God's creative work is always animated by love and has so crystalized and bound His falling creation that it is kept from descending to such an extent that evil would have unlimited scope and development.

There are some careful students of the Word that make the word katabole refer to Gen. 1:2, which literally reads, "And the earth became a

waste and a ruin." There is no doubt that judgment and ruin are spoken of in Gen. 1:2, but the time referred to is the sad condition at the end of the second great age. Their explanation fails to take into full account the eternal creation (Col. 1:16) and to note that the “casting down” is used synonymous with "foundation." Heb. 1:10 uses the same root that always means "foundation." Compare with it Eph. 1:4 and John 17:24, which have the word katabole, or “casting down,” referring apparently to the same event from the standpoint of the first fall.

In the first age there was a heaven and an earth and, altho the first sin of the angels had taken place, the sin was confined and the creation was largely spiritual.

In the second age there seems to have been a further fall which caused the spiritual creation to become earthly and grossly material, something after the manner as we now know it. This is implied in Gen. 1:2, which represents that age in ruins.

The arrangement of the ages as presented in this chapter is further attested by their remarkable correspondence and contrast.

The first age and the sixth age need to be thus associated and compared. Both have a spiritual heaven and earth with evil little in evidence.

The second age and the fifth age help to explain each other. The second age shows the earth be

THE CHART OF THE AGES

The descending arrow represents the foundation of the earth called in a number of passages in the original “the casting down.” It also represents the beginning of time. The arrows indicate the course of time in the ages and the ascending arrow in the sixth age shows the end of the ages and the return of all things into God's eternity again. This illustrates the great law of circularity referred to in the chapter, God's Accommodation to a Fallen World.