Bible believing Christians sometimes ask, “On what day was the earth created?”  The answer is actually quite simple, but people get confused because of how they understand the very first verse in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Many people understand this verse to be a summary of the verses that follow, or that this verse is describing events before the start of the first day. 

However, if you understand verse 1 to be the start of the first day of creation, it is remarkably simple.  “In the beginning” means the beginning of the physical creation.  At the start of the physical creation, God created the heavens and the earth.  The heavens are outer space and the earth’s atmosphere.  (For more information on this see “What are the three heavens?”)  This does not include the sun, moon, or stars, because they were created on the fourth day. 

The first act of creation on the first day was the creation of the heavens and the earth.  So, the answer to the question “What day was the earth created?” is the first day.  But this isn’t the full picture.  The next verse explains what the earth looked like immediately after God created it. 

Gen 1:2  The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

The earth was not initially created with geological formations (mountains and rivers); it was without form.  Nor was the earth initially created full of life (plants and animals); it was void or empty.  The earth was covered with water.  There was no dry land at this point, as dry land appeared on the third day. 

God’s next act of creation – still on the first day – was the creation of light.

Gen 1:3  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

Some might object to placing these two acts of creation on one day.  Yet, God had multiple acts of creation on other days.  For example, on the third day God gathered the waters together to form dry land and created vegetation, on the fifth day God created birds and sea creatures, and on the sixth day God created land animals and man.

Conclusion

The simple and plain reading of Scripture is that God created the heavens and the earth as the first act of creation on the first day.  The earth was initially covered with water, but throughout the six days of creation God formed dry land and filled the earth with plants and living creatures.