But did each creative day of Genesis chapter 1 always see the completion of what was started on that day, or did creative events continue beyond the day on which they began?

In the Bible the imperfect state of the Hebrew verbs used in Genesis chapter 1 indicates that creation involved ongoing activity by God.

Was Adam created in heaven, or on earth?​—Genesis 1:26-28.

By his sin, did Adam lose an earthly home, or a heavenly one?​—Genesis 1:26-28.

But a noteworthy statement appears repeatedly in the account in Genesis chapter 1.

Thus, the early chapters of Genesis 1-3 provide a glimpse of the beginning of things.

The fundamentalists believe that their teaching is based on the Bible, but a careful reading of Genesis chapter one reveals that they are mistaken.

The Bible states that the earth was created at some unspecified time in the past, and the famous “six days” involved the preparing of it for man to live there.​—Genesis 1:1-31.

However, in considering creation, the main reference that need be made to the Bible is the first chapter of Genesis.

Within the family kind there is variation, but viable changes are limited to the family circle. (Genesis, chap. one)

The Bible, however, states unequivocally that God “proceeded to create” separately, “according to their kinds,” types of vegetable, aquatic, bird and animal life, as well as humans. (Gen. 1:11, 12, 20-22, 24-28; 2:7, 21-23)

“The God that made the world and all the things in it . . . made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth.”​—Acts 17:24-26; compare Genesis 1:27, 28.

The peg on which they hang their charge is the statement in the Bible at Genesis 1:28, which says: “God blessed them and God said to them: ‘Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.’”

University of Pennsylvania’s Ian McHarg, in his book Design with Nature, published in 1971, said: “Indeed, if one seeks license for those who would increase radioactivity, create canals and harbors with atomic bombs, employ poisons without restraint, or give consent to the bulldozer mentality, there could be no better injunction than this text (Genesis 1:28).