God Creates Outer Space

And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

(Genesis 1:6-8)

In the language of Genesis formless matter is described as "waters." God first created matter without energy. Then, He created light which energized matter and did so at an atomic level, forming the elements. The mass of the material universe is finite, as implied by the description "face of the waters" or "face of the deep." The energy imparted to matter is also finite. In creating light, God also defined time. The basic unit of time is to be the 24-hour cycle of day and night.

In Genesis 1:6-8, God forms the earth. He does so by creating space. He "carves out" the earth by placing an expanse around it, separating it from the rest of the "waters." The name given to outer space is "heaven." This is not the same "heavens" mentioned in Genesis 1:1. (In the New Testament, Paul speaks of the "third heaven" (2 Corinthians 12:2)).

The special "waters" for which space was created would become the earth. We can understand that the "waters" beyond in space is the same material as the "waters" that would comprise the earth. Those "waters" outside the expanse would later become the sun, moon, and planets, and stars.

With the creation of space, God also created the three dimensions, length, width, and height. We can also understand, that the earth took on its spherical shape, surrounded by space. It was no longer "formless" and "void."

It wasn't until the end of the second day that the most important physical quantities were present in the creation: mass, energy, time, and space.