16. Verse 1. In the beginning God created heaven and earth. The most ancient times of all are called 'the beginning', and are throughout the Prophets referred to as 'days of antiquity' and also 'days of eternity'. 'The beginning' also embodies within it that first Period when a person is being regenerated, for at that time he is being born anew and receiving life. Regeneration itself is therefore called a new creation of man. Almost everywhere in the prophetical sections 'to create', 'to form', and 'to make' mean to regenerate, though each of these verbs has a different shade of meaning, as in Isaiah,

Every one who is called by My name - I have created him for My glory, I have formed him, I have also made him. Isaiah 43:7

This is why the Lord is called Redeemer, One who forms from the womb, Maker, and also Creator, as in the same prophet,

I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King. Isaiah 43:15.

In David,

A people to be created will praise Jah. Psalms 102:18.

In the same author,

You send forth Your Spirit; they are created; and You renewest the face ¹ of the ground. Psalms 104:30.

'Heaven' means the internal man, and 'earth' the external man prior to regeneration. This will be seen further on.

Footnotes:

1255. That 'according to their generations' means insofar as they were capable of being reformed is clear from the meaning of 'a generation' as reformation. When someone is born again or regenerated by the Lord, every single thing he receives anew is in that case a generation. So also here, since the Ancient Church is the subject, 'generations' means insofar as they were capable of being reformed. As for the reformations of these nations, the latter did not all have the same form of worship, nor did they all have the same doctrine, the reasons being that they were not all of the same disposition, and had not all been brought up in the same ways and from early childhood been taught the same things. The Lord in no way destroys the basic attitudes a person acquires from early childhood, but modifies them. And if these are held sacred by the person and are such as do not stand contrary to Divine and natural order but are in themselves of little importance, the Lord lets them alone and allows them to remain with that person, as He did with many things in the second Ancient Church, which things will in the Lord's Divine mercy be dealt with later on.