Moses could not have intended that we interpret creation with verb tenses or a scientific mindset, since neither existed in his day. Most of the Hebrew verbs in the creation account refer to actions that continue or repeat. Even when He finished the creation of the heavens and Earth on the seventh day, the Hebrew verbs show actions that continue, evidently not with the intensity of the first week. According to Zechariah 12:1, God continues (in unbroken continuity) to lay the foundations of the Earth. The image of the expanding earth is from Michael Netzer (CC 3.0 attribution license) and shows how the continents spread apart as the Earth continues to grow. A growing earth cannot be adjusted to fit science.

Consider the record of how the Earth changed during the creation week. First God created (completed action) the plural heavens and the Earth. The expression “heavens and earth” is an all-inclusive term encompassing the entire physical universe. At that early stage, the earth was dark and formless (see Genesis 1:2).

Then Elohim’s wind dithered in unbroken continuity above the face (Hebrew paniym) of the abyss and He continued to command light to continue to be. (Hebrew imperfect verbs refer to continuing or incomplete actions.) Experiments with modern atoms show that they are mostly empty space and the internal voids are filled with dithering light. This internal light (called virtual photons)  continues to give matter extension and its other properties. He also continued, in unbroken continuity, to divide the light from the darkness. To this day, a barrier exists between the light that dithers around within matter and the light to the outside. The atom is the house of light, see Job 38:19 – 21, but it also the place where darkness dwells.

On the next day, Elohim continued to command a spreading atmosphere to continue to divide waters above from surface waters. How do we know the word shamayim means atmosphere, since it can also refer to the starry sky? The Sun, Moon and stars did not continue to form until day four. What about the galaxies, when did they begin to  form? We can see the past to the creation era. We observe at many ranges how billions of galaxies grew, the stars continuing to come out (see day four) from things not seen . By processes of elimination and the textual context, shamayim on day two refers to the atmosphere. The text uses the word raqia (things that spread out) to refer to the atmosphere five times on day two. The verb for the dividing of waters is a participle, an action that continues in unbroken continuity.

We see a modern example of the processes that may have occurred on Earth’s days two. Over ninety surface geysers on Enceladus (a moon of Saturn) are jetting water into space, forming an ice ring as atmospheric gases also emerge from under the surface. Evidently Earth’s atmosphere formed as the upper waters (that became ice – Proverbs 8:27-28)  were separated from the surface. All the outer planets have ice rings, but Earth’s ice mostly returned during Noah’s cataclysm. Only about 20 house-sized snowballs are currently hitting Earth each minute. See University of Iowa page here.
At the beginning of day three, the Earth contained surface water, a spreading atmosphere and ice around the planet. Then the surface waters seeped underground so that the dry land emerged. We know this is so because God called the “confluence of the waters into one place” – plural seas. In contrast, the dry land which appeared is singular, a single continent. How can plural seas be all in one place?  They were all underground in the tehom, subterranean caverns. The fountains of the great tehom (the subterranean seas) collapsed during Noah’s cataclysm, see Genesis 7:11.

Why did the waters continue to seep underground? Water is an extremely small molecule. It naturally seeps down through cracks or fissures in rocks, especially if it is acidic. We find quartz veins running through many rocks, evidence that mineral laden waters reacted with earth’s rocks long ago.

Peter explained the geology of the early earth and the obscurantist tactics of last-day mockers. “For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.” Literally the Earth emerged out of the water (Greek ek) by means of (Greek dia) the water. Notice that the water itself was the causal reason why the ground emerged from the water as surface waters seeped underground.

Other biblical statements support this exegesis. It did not rain during the age of the first people. Instead water emerged from the ground, circled the land in rivers that divided, instead of ending in an ocean.  There were no desserts in that early earth because the whole face of the land was watered from underground, rather than by rain. This also implies that their were no mountains on the early earth, since all the land was watered by the up flowing waters.

One of the most powerful evidences for Moses’ geology is that the deep ocean floors are younger than the land. The continents only fit together on a tiny globe, without major surface seas. A global expansion seam runs through every ocean. Submarine cameras show fresh, new basaltic lavas emerging along this global seam and hardening as new seafloor. The youngest seafloor is adjacent to the expansion seam. The oldest seafloor is adjacent to the continental shelves.  Three times the Bible states that God spreads out the earth in unbroken continuity.In the above map, the oldest seafloor is deep purple (Eastern Mediterranean).  The next older is blue, then green, orange and the youngest seafloor is red. Clearly the Earth has steadily increased in diameter as new volcanic sea floors slowly keep separating the older continents.  (Image Source: Elliot Lim, CIRES & NOAA/NGDC).

The Hebrew grammar for Isaiah 42:5 shows that the spreading out of the earth continues in unbroken continuity.

In Psalm 136:6 the continual spreading out of the earth happens above the waters, in unbroken continuity. Indeed, a global expansion seam runs through every ocean.

In Isaiah 44:24 God actively and in unbroken continuity continues to spread out the Earth that is evidence for what He alone can do.

Zechariah 12:1 God continues in unbroken continuity to lay the foundation of the earth.

Changing Earth Creationists try to understand creation literally and grammatically, not with the Latin traditions that had a powerful influence on modern translations.