Genesis 1:2 describes the earth as being “without form, and void,” but offers no explanation why the earth was in this condition. God explains angels were present at the creation of the earth, when He asks Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?… when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted with joy?” (Job 38:4 and 7). In the book of Isaiah we are told that God did not create the earth in vain, but : “formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18).
God reveals elsewhere in His Word the earth became “without form and void” because some of the angels rebelled, and Satan was cast down to earth because of his rebellion before the creation of man took place. His attempt to overthrow God, resulted in a supernatural battle and he was cast back down to earth: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! … you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…I will be like the Most High'” (Isaiah 14:12-14). Jesus Christ said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18).
God explains Lucifer had a throne, representing a position of leadership and authority, and after his rebellion he retained his authority when he was cast back down to earth. He tried to tempt Christ by showing “Him all the kingdoms of the world” and telling Him “’All this authority I will give You…for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish'” (Luke 4:5-6). Jesus resisted this temptation, but did not dispute Satan’s authority, even later calling him “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). He is elsewhere called “the god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
The surface of the earth needed a renewal when God created the present life-forms. The fossil record shows a series of fossilized life-forms in layered deposits scattered in the earth’s crust, and geologists agree, something dramatic occurred between the age of reptiles and the age of mammals. The famous paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson once remarked: “The most puzzling event in the history of life on the earth is the change from the Mesozoic Age of Reptiles, to the… Age of Mammals. It is as if the curtain were rung down suddenly on a stage where all the leading roles were taken by reptiles, especially dinosaurs, in great numbers and bewildering variety, and rose again…to reveal the same setting but an entirely new cast, a cast in which the dinosaurs do not appear at all… and the leading parts are all played by mammals ….” (Life Before Man, 1972, p. 42). This change in the fossil record apparently reflects the change from the pre-Adamic world to the world of man.
