“The problem is that our churches don’t teach...”
You and I are in agreement. And I understand the reason you give that the “day with the Lord is as a thousand years” is important. And the problem is THAT OUR CHURCHES DON’T TEACH. Our churches regurgatate Church Doctrine - and all doctrine is man-made. Religion is man-made. God is a spiritual being, and what is of God is spiritual, not religious.
You are correct in saying that this present age began when the “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. I believe the last ice age ended with that beginning. When Lucifer fell, we are told that the Sun, Moon and Stars were turned off - waters flooded the earth to wipe out the creation under Lucifer’s dominion. With the “Sun turned off”, we have instant deep freeze and an ice age that ended with the thawing resulting when the “Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”.
The “creative acts” in the first few verses of Genesis were “restorative acts”. We had creative acts when living things were put upon the earth. The forming of Man from the dust of the earth, and God breathing life into that Man, was a creative act.
When God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, what he actually told them was to “replenish” the earth. This is exactly the same thing God said to Noah after the flood - “replenish” the earth.
Yes, Noah’s flood was the second flood. I believe the sign of the rainbow as God’s covenant sign that he would not again destroy the earth with flood, was because it was not the first time, but would be the last.
Until Noah’s flood, it had not rained on the earth. Watering was done from the ground. So, where did the rain come from? Where was this water, enough to cover the earth? We know from various scientific discoveries that air pressure was at one time nearly twice what it is now. We also know that the oxygen content was 30 + percent. For the first 1600 years or so the creation lived in a hyperbaric chamber. Man’s lifespan approached a thousand years. I think there was an ice shield that completely covered the earth, some miles up. This trapped the oxygen and enabled higher atmospheric pressure.
When it was time for 40 days and 40 nights of continuous rain upon the earth, God caused this ice shield to be broken, and as the ice chunks fell into the warm atmosphere they thawed and produced rain.
Now, of course, such conversation as we have been having on this thread blows fundamentalist minds, but I think we are much closer to the truth of the Bible and to the truth of scientific discovery.
Religion and science both make a similar mistake. They each one decide on their “conclusions” and then try to make their “discoveries” fit their “conclusions”. Religion and science remain at odds because each is trying to “prove” their “conclusions”. In reality, the truth of the Bible and the truth of Science are not at odds, but in agreement. Science will find no “missing link” because there is no evolution. When Science lets the evidence lead to a conclusion, Science will begin to know the truth of Science. Religion will not know the truth of the Bible unless religious men become spiritual men and let the Spirit of God lead them through His Word.
Another interesting but confusing point for those who believe in a literal Bible is Genesis 4:15-24, which says in part. “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Enoch, etc. etc.”
So as you mentioned regarding early peoples, obviously the Bible also refers to this possibility, otherwise why would God need to protect Cain from “any finding him” and how would he have been able to find a wife. Certainly these others were not in any way related to Adam and Eve, or this would undoubtedly have been explained. Actually reading the Bible is so interesting.
I think there was an ice shield that completely covered the earth, some miles up.
I don't know if it was ice or water but I too believe that is where some of the waters of the flood came from.