Gen. 1:6-8 "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." We see right away that God is speaking again. Something new is going to be made - a firmament, an expanse. God was preparing to make a space and there was a purpose for this firmament: to divide the waters from the waters. At this point the earth was still completely covered with water. From the lowest depths of the deepest ocean to the top of Mt. Everest, the earth was flooded. Water seeks its own level - this was a lot of water!

"And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so." We see that God was again dividing something: water from water. This division actually separated waters beneath from waters above. This may be where the concept of the greenhouse theory begins, i.e. the water above was a vapor canopy that covered the earth filtering out the damaging rays of the sun thus providing for the extremely long life spans that occurred before the flood. But as we shall see, there is a problem with this idea.

Verse 8 "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and morning were the second day." In this verse God names the expanse - he calls it Heaven. This is the same word as we saw in Gen. 1:1 - shamayim, which is the duel of shameh. We see two heavens in the name that God gave the firmament, and they are the atmosphere and the outer space area (cosmos). This was a very large expanse or space. As we shall see, on the fourth day (vs. 14) God creates the planets and places them in this expanse, which means that the waters above the expanse are further out in space than our solar system.  This would indicate that these outer waters would not have formed a vapor barrier around the earth alone.

Just as at the original creation, the angels, including Satan, were watching God create (Job 37:7). Satan would have been familiar with the concept of these two heavens that God was creating. But here God also gave Satan a warning: the earth is still flooded, but some of that water was now located beyond the second heaven; on the other side of the cosmos. Just as the earth had been judged and ruined before, it could happen again.

There’s something very significant about this second day of creation - it is the only day out of the six that scripture does NOT say ‘And God saw that it was good.’ There was no blanket approval given because this firmament is the dwelling place of something unholy. Eph 6:12 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

The word ‘principalities’ is a plural reference to government domains ruled by a prince. Dan. 10:13 refers to the prince of Persia with whom the messenger had to contend, or fight, and Michael the archangel is referenced in this verse as one of the chief Princes who came to assist the messenger. Daniel was living in the capital of Persia and knew nothing of this war that had been occurring, therefore the war was spiritual and did not involve the human ruler of Persia. It had to be angelic warfare. To take the warfare to its conclusion, we learn from Rev. 12:11 that the final battle in this war will be won by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their (human) testimony. The faith and obedience of God’s people actually become weapons in the hands of angels who are actually doing battle.

The word ‘powers’ is the Greek word exousia, and it means ruling authority. In this verse it refers to non-human entities that hold and exercise a certain power in the spiritual realm.

‘Rulers of the darkness of this world’ indicates spiritual darkness, again, the domain of Satan.

‘Spiritual wickedness in high places’ can be stated another way: wicked spirits in the heavenly realms. There are two heavenly realms these wicked spirits have access to: the atmosphere and the outer space area. God did not declare this firmament good because it would become the habitation and dwelling place of wicked spirits. Eph. 6:12 should be considered in the context of UFOs.