Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

een ridiculed in view of the fact that the sun was not created until the fourth day, but
science itself silenced the ridicule by proving that light is not a substance emanating
from the sun, but consists of ether waves produced by energetic electrons. Notice also
that Genesis does not speak of the sun as light (or), but as light-bearer (ma’or), exactly
what science has discovered it to be. In view of the fact that light is the condition of all
life, it was but natural that it should be created first. God also at once instituted the
ordinance of the alternation of light and darkness, calling the light day and the darkness
night. We are not told, however, how this alternation was effected. The account of each
day’s work closes with the words, “and there was evening and there was morning.” The
days are not reckoned from evening to evening, but from morning to morning. After
twelve hours there was evening, and after another twelve hours there was morning.
b. The second day. The work of the second day was also a work of separation: the
firmament was established by dividing the waters above and the waters below. The
waters above are the clouds, and not, as some would have it, the sea of glass, Rev. 4:6;
15:2, and the river of life, Rev. 22:1. Some have discredited the Mosaic account on the
supposition that it represents the firmament as a solid vault; but this is entirely
unwarranted, for the Hebrew word raqia does not denote a solid vault at all, but is
equivalent to our word “expanse.”
c. The third day. The separation is carried still further in the separation of the sea from
the dry land, cf. Ps. 104:8. In addition to that the vegetable kingdom of plants and trees
was established. Three great classes are mentioned, namely, deshe’, that is flowerless
plants, which do not fructify one another in the usual way; ’esebh, consisting of
vegetables and grain yielding seed; and ’ets peri or fruit trees, bearing fruit according to
their kind. It should be noted here: (1) That, when God said, “Let the earth put forth
grass” etc., this was not equivalent to saying: Let inorganic matter develop by its own
inherent force into vegetable life. It was a word of power by which God implanted the
principle of life in the earth, and thus enabled it to bring forth grass and herbs and trees.
That it was a creative word is evident from Gen. 2:9. (2) That the statement, “and the
earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit,
wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind” (vs. 12), distinctly favors the idea that the
different species of plants were created by God, and did not develop the one out of the
other. Each one brought forth seed after its kind, and could therefore only reproduce its
kind. The doctrine of evolution, of course, negatives both of these assertions; but it
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