This is a good question, and I’ll state from the outset that I do not believe the Lord created a ‘formless and void earth.’ To show why I believe that let’s read Genesis 1:1-2, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” You’ll notice these specific words that “the world WAS without form, and void.” The Hebrew word for WAS in this verse is “hâyâh” and its definition is “to be or become.”
• This same word is used in Genesis 4:14, “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and IT SHALL COME TO PASS, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.”
• It is used in Genesis 27:1, “And IT CAME TO PASS, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.”
• It is used in Genesis 34:10, “And ye shall dwell with us: and the land SHALL BE before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you possessions therein.”
• It is used in Ezekiel 20:32, “And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all, that ye say, We WILL BE as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.”

It is used in many places throughout the Old Testament. In fact, the ONLY time this word is translated as WAS is in Genesis 1:2. We can readily see this word can indicate a future event. In saying “the earth was without form, and void,” it is very possible that the wording indicates that the earth BECAME without form, and void, which indicates this was not its original state.

Genesis 1:2 also tells us the earth was “without form.” The Hebrew word translated as ‘without form’ is ‘tôhûw’ and that is defined as “to lie waste; a desolation.” This same word is used in Isaiah 45:18, “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not IN VAIN, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” This shows us that the Lord DID NOT create the world in vain, or without form. No, He formed it to be inhabited. In other words, the Lord’s original creation was habitable.

I trust this is clear to all our readers, even though this might be new to many. It stands to reason that a perfect God would create a perfect earth. You may well ask, “if the Lord created the earth perfect, what happened, then, to cause the earth to become without form and void?” At this point, I can only speculate as to what caused the earth to become imperfect. Certainly, some great devastating event occurred. Some have said it was due to the fall of Lucifer that the earth was put into a state of disarray. Whatever may have caused it, I believe that what we read in Genesis 1, is the Lord restoring order to His original creation. He did this in six days and rested on the seventh. (CC) (731.6)