Rom. 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned"
Adams sin has subjected ALL creation to God's curse. Rom. 8:20-22 "Against its will, all creation was subjected to God's curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
God declared the completed creation "very good". *You are being a bit heretical if you are judging God saying creation was "not very good" as He completed each step / each day.*
So, only smart people like you can really understand Scripture?
Oh... and compromises like Hugh Ross also understand scripture?
There is nothing good
by Gen 1's own standards about being formless, chaotic, dark, watery and not having the Spirit at work in it. Every reference to the 'deep' in Hebrew is frightful; just check Job--Isaiah. You are such a confused reader of what is actually there. That is before the 6 days. There was a pre-existing condition.
In addition, what is good about 'formless and void' in Jer 4:23? Nothing!!! What is good about God having to remove evil ____s from the earth before laying the foundation of what we now have, Job 38? Nothing. Are those not the two closest literary comparisons we are forced to make?
Besides, he didn't say that the pre-existing condition was good. Instead, he needed to redeem it, to reform it. The indications of other texts on this do not lay the fault of a mess at God's feet but others. Or it is simply what's there when he has finished executing judgement on something, which is not his fault either.
re Ross: I think you missed that I heard Ross recently in debate and he did very poorly on answering counter-questions about 'what do things look like after millions of years?' It would have been better if he had said 'I don't know' than what he did. I don't remember the counterpart person but it was on NRBTV about 2 weeks ago. He may have a point about the age of the distant universe (like 2 Pet 3), but yes, I believe he has missed the point about the speed and force with which granitic magmatism can take place and catastrophic vertical tectonics. In fact, I get the impression he'd rather like to avoid the flood altogether.
The creation that Paul was speaking of in Rom 8 is everything downstream from mankind. I don't believe he meant it universally. Sin was already in the universe when Satan tempted Adam, and who knows where he'd been. What exactly did the rebellious angels do who sinned, and how long would that take? How long were they confined at 'blackest darkness' places which also show up in other cultures? Even Peter borrowed 'Tartarus' regarding that in 2 Pet 2.
Your conception of a strict absence of time, drama, action, entities except for day 1 of creation forward is completely foreign to the Bible and an unnecessary obstacle to people inquiring here. Jn 17:24. God's works are manifold. Unless God is at work in many things and levels in his universe, it is silly to have him show up just for things here, and doing only the most unusual things here. What I'm saying is what Lewis said, and should relieve some of the difficult pressure a person like OliviaM has reading Gen 1-11.
And I haven't even talked about 'sons of God', Nephilim, giantism, etc.