The Chiastic Structure of the Bible and History and an Immediately Appearing Earth (Young Earth)

 How did the physical universe get here?  When you read Genesis 1, it reads like what I am titling, an "Immediately Appearing Earth" (IAE).  In other words, the creation of or origin of the earth wasn't a process.  There are many arguments for the young earth or immediately appearing earth.  What does the Bible say?  Or what does God say?  Let's admit, no one was there to see it, except for God, so we should trust what He said.  God created the universe and He gave the account of what He did.  If we believe He created it, we should also believe how He said He did it.

Genesis 1 doesn't indicate a process to the origin of the earth.  What we read is immediate appearance.  This is seen in the grammar and syntax of Genesis 1, but it's also portrayed in the structure of the entire Bible.  Very often the narratives of Old Testament or Hebrews texts or passages were written in what is called a chiastic structure, also called an inverted parallelism.

The entire book of Lamentations takes the chiastic structure as well as it's middle chapter.  The chiastic structure of the whole book emphasizes the third chapter of five, and then the third chapter, the lengthiest of the five, three times longer than the other chapters, is also chiastic, giving a clue to the point of Lamentations.  The central axis of the book is Lamentations 3:22-36.    With none to comfort Jerusalem in her affliction, she comforts herself when she remembers that the LORD is merciful and compassionate, faithful and good to those who seek Him.

The Bible also has a point to it as seen in its structure.  One could go much more detailed than the following, but consider this schematic.

The Bible starts with creation and ends with creation.  The chiastic structure moves forward from the first creation, which is the doctrine of first things, and moves backward from second creation, the doctrine of last things.  The Bible and history pivots on Jesus Christ.  He is the beginning and the ending, the alpha and omega, but He is also everything in between.  In the diagram above, the chiasm forms an apex, where Jesus stands at the top.  That's what this structure shows more than anything. 

God creates in the first creation and in the second creation.  They are parallel in the chiasm.  If the second creation is an immediate appearing earth, which it is, then the first also is.  It must be.  There are other parallels to indicate all this is an existing structure.  One that supports the position of an immediate appearing earth is that the first creation and the second creation have light provided directly by God.  It's a kind of tip that says God doesn't need our science.  He does want our faith though.

Does anyone question the immediate appearance of the second earth?  Does anyone posit a process for the future earth?  They argue for a very slow process for the first earth and for reasons unnecessary if they believe in creation in the first place.

The ground out of which God formed Adam in Genesis 2:17 is the same ground out of which He formed the animals in Genesis 2:19, both Hebrew words for ground related to the Hebrew word for man, Adam.  Animals appear instantaneously, as does Adam.  None of this is a process.  It doesn't read like so.  What makes Adam unique to the animals is the breath of God, the spirit in man (Genesis 2:7), breathed into him, which is the image of God in man (Genesis 1:26).  This is not a development.  Both animals and man appear with age at a necessary degree of difficulty, one of impossibility without the power of God, that is the same as the original appearance of the heavens and the earth.  The Hebrew verb bara, to create something out of nothing, is used with heavens and earth (1:1), animals (1:21), and man (1:27).

Hebrews 11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

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I wanted to have the above post out last night and wasn't sure I could write more.  There are a few more chiastic structure points that relate, I believe, to an Immediately Appearing Earth.   Man immediately appeared with his own creation in Genesis 1 and the expansion on that account in Genesis 2.  Man immediately is recreated in his resurrection and glorification.  This structure matches that of the earth.  Man waits for His redemption as does creation groan for its day of redemption (Romans 8:22).