When Did God Create the Heavens & the Earth?

The secret of the Lord from the pages of the Holy Bible!

Fred R. Coulter—January 6, 2024

- Video |  - PDF | Audio | [Up]

Now then, let me tell you what's happening with distributing the Bibles. It's going very well. We're sending out boxes and boxes of Bibles.

I had one independent group from West Virginia contact me. Never heard of them. Don't know anything about them. All used to be Worldwide and suffered through everything. But they didn't want to get involved with anyone because of all the corruption that was going on.

So it had been all these years they've been following us, and we didn't know it! Using our material, we didn't know it!  I finally got a letter from the elder and I called him on the phone and he wanted to know about the Bibles.  They've got 12 to 20, depending on how transportation is.

So, we sent them three boxes of calfskin Bibles. Now this is the best thing we can do, especially when you consider they're all paid for. So, thank you for doing your part. You can have as many Bibles as you need. Remember:

• calfskin: 8 in a box
• vinyl: 6 in a box
• Greek Interlinear: 4 in a box

For those of you who have access to taking Bibles to prisoners, we have the paperback Bible and there are 8 in a carton. Sending them out in cartons is the best way to go, because we can just bring in a carton, put on the return address, put on the mailing address, stamp it with media class mail, and take it down to the post office.

And we've been sending out an awful lot, and we have an awful lot left. So remember, the best thing we can give anyone is the Word of God!

If they're really interested and they really want to know, God will begin dealing with them. That's what we want. God has His seven spirits going throughout the earth all the time, looking for those who are seeking God, and to help draw them.

IF they have the Bible, the Word of God, and they read in there the things that they understand, THEN God will lead them with His Spirit to understand the things that they don't.

In addition to that, we have more printed material available. One of the best ones you can give to those who have been in the Church for quite a while is God's Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days. That is the framework on which everything is based.

Think about this: In creation week on day four God set the calendar in motion of the sun and the moon and so forth; for the appointed times and seasons!

You can read that and that sounds innocent enough. You can read Lev. 23 and too many people dismisses it as just ritual. Yet, it contains all the Holy Days of God, and all of those Holy Days are the structure in which we understand the unfolding of prophecy.

My January letter will be a detailed letter going through the prophecies at the end-time. We want to get as much of this out as we can through distributing the Bibles.

Then I also had a man from Church of God International call me and order a box of Bibles. He was there in Texas right where their headquarters is. I said, 'Well, you think they'll receive them?' He said, 'Oh yes, many of them already have it.'

So, look at it this way: This is what the tithes and offerings are for. Everything to spread the Word of God as much as possible. If we do our part here in Hollister, you do your part out there. and then different ones do their part. You see how it will work?

Today my message is:

• How old is the earth and when did God create it?
• How about the creation of God concerning everything.

IF we stay close to God, grow in grace and knowledge and understand God's way and God's Word, THEN we understand things that the world cannot know.

One of the things they don't know is: How old is the earth? They can measure certain things and determine that it's more than 6,000-years-old. So organizations like The Bible Foundation, preach that God didn't do anything until the beginning of Gen. 1, but they don't understand Gen. 1:1.

Now let's see a key in how we understand the Bible.

Psalm 25:14:" The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him…"

Fear is the first step in love, because fear means you are afraid to sin.

God has said, 'You shall not do this, you shall not do that, you shall do the other.'  Whatever it is. Then that grows into loving God.

"…and He will show them His covenant" (v 14).

Yes, "The secret of the LORD is with those that fear Him…"

What we're going to cover today is the secret of creation, because it's more than just Gen. 1; it's not all revealed in Gen. 1; it's revealed in other places.

Then it says here, "…and He will show them His covenant" (v 14). That's just what Norbert talked about, the covenant of eternal life!

Note message: Immortality and Everlasting Life

Norbert covered one of the Scriptures that I wanted to cover, which is 2-Tim. 1:9-11 and also in:

Titus 1:2: "In the hope of eternal life, which God Who cannot lie promised before the ages of time" (vs 1-2).

• How does God measure time in the universe? Don't know!
• How vast is the universe? I've mentioned many times go to the James Webb Telescope website, and you look at those pictures.

You look at those fantastic array of stars and galaxies, and they claim they are 13-billion light years away. Now, when you consider that light travels 186,000 miles per second:

• How vast is eternity?
• How far is that out there?

We have another thing about God; Isaiah 57:15:"For thus says the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity…" He is eternal!

So, we need to have all of this in consideration when we come to understanding about the creation of God.

One man wrote me—and this is why I'm giving this message—that he wanted to explain to his grandson about the creation of God. His grandson is going to school, and what do they hear? Evolution, and that we just are all one big accident!

Now then, before we get into that, let me just tell you about something that they put online in demonstration about how the DNA and RNA works in our systems. Now, that's quite a thing!

Remember that I mentioned to you that everything God does is in a vortex or a whirlwind; everything! Now then, when the genes and chromosomes unite from father and mother, they come together, and remember how they show chromosomes in a helix; they operate and join together.

At that point, God gives the spirit of man to that new conception, and you are what you will become at that instant, because God said to Jeremiah, 'Before you were formed, I knew you.' That means, when he was conceived, God understood this is the one I'm going to use as the prophet.

Now, the genes and chromosomes lock together, and that's how we're created. Everything is listed as it says in Psa. 139; this becomes very important, and you can bring this out to your grandson so that he can understand.

Let's think of it this way: In Jer. 23, God says, 'I'm not a God far off, but I'm a God near, I fill heaven and earth.'

How does God fill heaven and earth? Some philosophers look at that and say that God is just 'a mysterious thing out there spread everywhere.' No! He fills it with His creation, and everything is done by God!

The whole thing here in Psa. 139 is quite a thing. Think about this for a minute, and this is something we all need to understand. No one can get away from God!

You can deny Him; you can say He doesn't exist. But:

• How do you live?
• What makes everything in your body work and function together?

Because there are trillions of cells within your body that are working, and they're working according to the laws that God has made!

So, the vanity of human nature is there's no God. Well, Psa. 139 answers that! This is important for all young teenagers, young youth, older youth, and all of us gray-heads at the end. We need to know this, because there is nothing, nothing that you can do that is not connected with something that God has made! Everything in this room!

Men have rearranged what God has made to make tables, to make chairs, to make carpets, to make lights, and used the electronics so what we have here can go out. Think about how closely God can be with you IF you're with Him!.

Psalm 139:1: "O LORD, You have searched me and have known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts afar off" (vs 1-2).

What does he say about the thoughts of man? It's vanity! The thoughts of man without God always end in death!

Verse 3: "You measure my going about and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways."

God knows everything about how we work; everything how our mind works. That's an amazing thing! Think of this like our book: From a Speck of Dust to A Son of God: Why Were You Born? Everything that you are when you were born came from something that you could not see with the naked eye!

Verse 4: "For there is not a word on my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have enclosed me behind and in front, and laid Your hand upon me" (vs 4-5).

That's something! In other words, no one anywhere can do anything without God, whether they know God or not. What works when you decide to raise your hand or stand up or sit down or walk or run or think?

Verse 6: "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I go up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the grave, behold, You are there" (vs 6-8)—and can even raise the dead!

That's why the account of Lazarus was the last straw that the religious leaders could take from Jesus, because they knew he was dead; he was in the grave for four days. Even Mary or Martha said to Jesus when He was going to have the tomb open, 'Lord, by now he stinks.'

So, He rolled the stone back and He said, 'Lazarus, come here.' He came back to life, started walking out and taking off all the wrappings around him. I don't know what he thought when he got out of the tomb and saw all these people out there. He was probably wondering, 'How did I get here? What is this?'

Then they had to tell him, 'Lazarus, you died, but God raised you up.'

Verse 9: "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the farthest parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, 'Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me shall be night'; even the darkness does not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; as is the darkness, so is the light to You, for You have possessed my reins; You have knit me together in my mother's womb" (vs 9-13).

That's exactly, precisely how human life comes, and all other life. Think about it. If you hold a grain of whatever kind of grain you have in your hand, that grain remains ready to grow with the right circumstances. You put it in the ground, has to be good ground, and you water it; it grows, and it grows in a spiral.

How does it know what to do? And it reproduces itself many fold over! Great lesson for us. That's what God wants with us.

Verse 14: "I will praise You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; Your works are marvelous and my soul knows it very well. My substance was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and intricately formed in the lowest parts of the earth" (vs 14-15).

Now think about that! God gave to human life—and all other life—the key of reproducing itself. To tell us that God is going to reproduce Himself! That we will be His son and His daughters!

Verse 16: "Your eyes did see my substance, yet, being unformed; and in Your book all my members were written…"

On something we can't see, everything about reproducing a human being is there. So, the first thing we need to understand is that God created us!

"….which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet, there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!" (vs 16-17).

Can you add them all together? Amazing thing!

Verse 18: "If I should count them, they are more than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You."

• What does all of this have to do with creation?
• When did God create the heavens and the earth?

The reason we need to understand about the nature of God is because, as The Bible Foundation says, God didn't start creating anything until Gen. 1. Yet, it is evident by true facts from God's creation that some things were created millions of years ago.

Psalm 90:2: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God." God's level of existence is eternal and lives forever!

Isaiah 57:15: "For thus says the high and lofty One Who inhabits eternity…"

Now that's quite a statement, isn't it? Inhabits eternity! So, when God creates something, it can go back in time that we don't even know. Some of the scientists there at the James Webb Telescope website…

What you might do if you're going to teach children about it, you download the website onto your computer and show them these vast stars; show them everything that is there and let them know that God spoke and they were created!

When did God create the heavens and the earth?

We've learned this about from God: He is from everlasting to everlasting! We have also learned from 2-Tim. 1 and Titus 1:2 that God was doing things before the ages of time!

Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God..." In the Hebrew, that's a full stop! God was there before anything else!

John 1—we see the same thing, and we will see something else that's important to understand. Also, you can emphasize to anyone that you're going over this with concerning creation of anything that there is: this tells us very precisely!

John 1:1[transcriber's correction]: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

So the very first verse tells us that in the Godhead there are two, which also tells us that the doctrine of the trinity by the philosophies of men cannot be true!

You need our new book: Holy Spirit, The Power of God, A Scriptural Perspective.

Verse 2: "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him…" (vs 2-3)—each and every thing came into being through Him!

This is what everyone needs to understand regardless of your age: evolution is a fantasy of men, a lie of Satan the devil! There has not been one missing link discovered that shows there was a transition in different forms coming up the scale of the evolutionary walk as they have it. Not one missing link! Yet, they say it's millions and millions of years. That's all fantasy in their minds.

Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him."

What does this tell you? There is no such thing as spontaneous life! Maybe to our visual appearance it may appear that way, but that's not so.

Heb. 1 tells you something very important; the universe and everything that there is has to be maintained; it has to be kept working.

• Who does that?
• How is that done?

Hebrews 1:1: "God Who spoke to the fathers at different times in the past and in many ways by the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days by His Son, Whom He has appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the ages" (vs 1-2)—the ages of time!

We are living in that age of time that God has chosen for man.

Verse 3: Who, being the brightness of His glory and the exact image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His own power…"—by the Word of Christ!

• think about the power that God has.
• think about what God is doing with us in His Plan

"…by the word of His own power when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (v 3).

#1—God
#2—created the heavens

Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God… [full stop] …created the heavens… [full stop]"

The mistake that The Bible Foundation makes is this. They never account for when God created the angels, because He did. Nor do they account for when Lucifer rebelled.

Ezek. 28—about the covering cherub was 'perfect in his ways until iniquity was  found in him.' In other words, he chose to sin!

We find in Rev. 12 that when that rebellion of Isa. 14 took place, he took a third of the angels with Him in the rebellion.

• When did that happen?
• Did it happen before the earth was created?

or

• Did it happen after the earth was created?

We will see! Let's look at something very important in the book of Job.

What we are doing is exactly as the Bible tells us. There's 'a little here, there's a little there.' As Paul instructed Timothy, you have to 'straightly cut the Word of God.' That means to divide it so you can put the pieces together and understand what occurred.

Now, we're going to see something important. We're going to see that the angels were created right after God created the heavens. Before He created the earth.

How long a time was that time span? We don't know because we don't know how to measure eternity; we don't know how to measure from everlasting to everlasting.

Job 38—Job wanted to talk to God because he thought he was so good. But here's a big lesson from Job. We'll summarize it very quickly:

 Whenever you do what God says to do, you give God the credit. But Job gave himself the credit. Then his vanity caused him to believe that he was as good as God! So, Job demanded a judge or umpire to referee between himself and God.

Then Elihu the youngest one who were with him in his trial.

Job 35:1: "And Elihu answered and said, 'Do you think this to be right, you that say, "My righteousness is more than God's"'"? (vs 1-2).

So, Job said, 'Oh, I wished I could talk with God.' Well, sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for because it may happen.

Job 38:1: Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said… [another spiral] …'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?'" (vs 1-2).

That's a nice way of saying, 'Job, you were stupid to say this.' That's true! Think about all of the men and women who say, 'There's no God.' Well, one day God is going to say, What was that you said?

So, God said, v 3: "Now gird up your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?…." (vs 3-4).

• What is the foundation of the earth?
• What's right at the core of the earth? Molten iron, which produces gravity, and it's in motion under the earth!

Then God laid everything else on it!

Verse 4: "Where were you…? Declare it if you have understanding! Who has determined its measurements if you know?" (vs 4-5).

• What is the earth like?
• How is it measured?

Today we can measure the mountains. We can go down in the ocean where in some places it's seven miles deep.

"…Or who has stretched the line upon it? On what are the foundations fastened to?…." (vs 5-6).  

How did God do it, Job? You tell Me, if you want to be like Me, what I did! He couldn't do it.

"…Or who laid its cornerstone? (v 6).

Notice v 7, which is the key that tells us God first created the heavens and then.

#3—the angels
#4—the earth

Verse 7: When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

"When He"…laid the foundations of the earth…" (v 4).

• Why were they "…shouting for joy?"
• Why were they happy about it?

Because God gave it to them!

We find in Isa. 14 that when the rebellion took place that they ascended through the cloud to attack the Most High. So, they were on the earth.

The book of Jude tells us that 'the angels who kept not their first estate'. What was their first estate? The earth! That's why they were singing for joy.

Verse 8: "Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as it came from the womb?" God created water on the earth

So we have the order of creation:

• God
• the heavens
• the angels
• the earth

This is what The Bible Foundation misses completely.

Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God… [full stop] …created the heavens… [full stop and insert right there, the angels] …and the earth." Right after the earth:

• the rebellion led by Lucifer taking one-third of the angels

That comes into play right there!

Rev. 12 also tells us about God's Plan. This actually is referring to a time when the angels were on the earth and then Lucifer enticed them to rebel. So, they thought they could take over the Throne of God.

Revelation 12:1: "Then there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

What is this? This is the picture of God's Plan! That's why Lucifer and the angels rebelled, because when they understood what God's Plan was, that human beings would be created and they would be greater than the angels, greater than them! Lucifer then said that 'I will become like the Most High' (Isa. 14).

When the rebellion took place, they ascended through the clouds to go after God.

Verse 2: "And being with child…"—this is talking about Christ!

What does it say? Christ was slain from the foundation of the world!

So you see how you must put all these Scriptures together in the right order.

"…she cried in travail, and was in pain to deliver. And another sign was seen in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads; and his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth" (vs 2-4). Full stop!

Then it goes clear forward in time to when Christ would be born.

So let's come back here to Gen. 1, and let's see what happened when there was  that rebellion.

Genesis 1:2: "And the earth was…"—or became!

Remember the angels rejoiced when the foundation of the world was laid and Jude tells us that that was their first estate. Isa. 14 tells us they were on the earth. Revelation tells us that—and we have no time span with that, how long they were here.

What kind of animals did they have? We have one clue: all the dinosaurs died at once. We don't have them today. So those were probably with the creation that God gave to the angels when He first gave the earth to them as their domain. Then they rebelled and that rebellion took place just before Gen. 1:2.

So, you have to take that very first verse of Gen. 1 and understand the events that took place. If you don't do what we just did, you're stuck with a problem.

• Where were the angels and Satan's demons?
• How do you account for it?
• It's not here!

If God was up in the heavens, inhabiting eternity forever, everlasting to everlasting:

• What was He doing nothing until 6,000 years ago?
• Would He just sit there with Christ and do nothing?

Of course not!

• Could there be millions of years involved?

Yes there could be!

Remember that the covering cherub was perfect when he was created until iniquity was found in him and he sinned!

• How long was that?
• How long did that take?
• How long was it in Satan's mind that he was planning to take over the Throne of God?

We don't know, but we have evidence of millions of years!'

• How old is the earth? It's got to be far more than 6,000-years-old!
• How did it become without form and void? The Hebrew is 'tohu' and 'bohu'—chaos and confusion!

The Bible tells us God is not the author of confusion! He didn't create the earth in chaos and confusion!

The evidence is that it was beautiful. All of the correct geological strata, when analyzed, tells you there were two floods. This one here in v 2: What was that the result of? The rebellion by Lucifer and the third of the angels!

There was war and there was fighting, and they were cast back down to the earth and God covered the earth with water. That's how the earth was flooded the first time.

Now let's go forward to the Flood of Noah.

• Why did God flood the world? Well let's look at it!
• How evil did the angels become? Look at all the works of the demons that are going on today; the works of Satan that are going on today!

We can take this and apply it back to the first flood because of the war that Satan and the angels who followed him brought upon themselves.

Genesis 6:5: And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

So, God decided to destroy it. That's what the first flood was when the angels rebelled. Destroyed everything. Now what happened? They also know this and it's a mystery. They can't figure it out.

Just south and east of the Wyoming Yellowstone caldaria', Do you know what that is? A 'caldaria' is a huge round area of mountains with a valley right in it, because that huge area was a huge volcanic eruption.

So when God, just like today, is going to shake the heavens and the earth, what did He do with the earth back then? He shook the heavens and the earth, and there were volcanoes that took place before the Flood.

In Iowa there's a whole place they discovered buried in volcanic ash thousands and thousands of dinosaurs, young and old, and still with petrified food in their stomachs. They're all in a heap and all in a mess because of what happened.

That probably happened in the event leading up to the flooding of the first flood on the world because of the rebellion of Satan. And worldwide, all dinosaurs are in the same strata, showing that they all died at the same time.

God said that He would destroy man, and we have the Flood of Noah. What happened with that? Well, we won't get into it.

We'll look at some Psalms. There are a lot in the Psalms, which are magnificent. You can see why God put them there so that we could connect with God not only with our mind but with our heart. Quite a thing!

And again, there's a little bit here and a little bit there!

Psalm 102:25: "Of old You have laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands." Again, verifying that God did it!

We're taking a precept here, a line here, a line there, and properly putting them together so we understand the secret of the Lord that He put in the Bible, which tells us when He created the earth! He doesn't tell us in terms of years as we understand them, but He tells us of events.

Psalm 119:81: "My soul faints for Your salvation; I hope in Your Word." That's the very thing that gives us sustaining power in days of trouble!

Verse 82: My eyes fail for Your Word, saying, 'When will You comfort me?'"

Know this: For every trial and every difficulty you're going to go through, God will eventually comfort you with it!

Verse 89: "Forever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in the heavens."

That's interesting, too. Can you think of a verse that this applies to? No one's going to change it!

Verse 90: "Your faithfulness is to all generations; You have established the earth, and it stands."

• What is the ultimate outcome of the earth? We read that in Rev, 21 and 22, which is a New Heavens and a New Earth!
• How is God going to renew the earth? He did it twice with a flood and then renewed it!
• How is He going to renew it for the New Heaven and the New Earth?

2-Peter 3 tells us that the whole earth is going to be spread out from the Lake of Fire of the wicked thrown into the Lake of Fire and it will melt the elements!

•  everything to do with man in the flesh
• Satan removed with the demons to the blackest darkness forever
• Going to be renewed by melting everything that was done by man

I think about that whenever I watch any of these specials about the tunnels, the things that man has done and all their evil deeds they have down underground. I tell you it's something!

Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the LORD'S, and the fullness of it, the world, and those who dwell in it, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters" (vs 1-2)

Isn't that true? There's more water under the surface of the earth than there is in the oceans!

Psa. 37—I want us to keep this in mind. We're going to find that David mentions this one phrase five times.

Verse 9: "For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait upon the LORD, [#1]they shall inherit the earth"—the new earth and the new heavens!

Verse 11: "But the meek shall [#2]inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." No more war! No more fighting!

Verse 18: "The Lord knows the days of the upright and [#3]their inheritance, shall be forever."

Verse 22:"For those blessed of Him [#4] shall inherit the earth…"

This on the other hand, quite a description of the Lake of Fire:

"…and those cursed of Him shall be cut off" (v 22).

Verse 29: "The righteous [#5]shall inherit the earth and dwell in it forever." That's quite a thing!

Verse 34: "Wait on the LORD and keep His way, and He shall exalt you to inherit the earth; when the wicked are cut off you shall see it."

Remember:

• it begins with God
• He created the heavens
• He created the angels
• He created the earth
• there was the war
• the first flood
• creation of the world for man, the number of man

So you tie it all together! This is how you answer those who say that the Bible doesn't know what it's talking about. It does!

There can be millions of years in between these things that we cannot measure. I hope this helps settle the questions:

• How old is the earth?
• When was it created?
• When did He create the angels?
• When did He create human beings?

Then we focus on the Plan of God, which He has for us!

Scriptural References:

• Psalm 25:14
• Titus 1:2
• Isaiah 57:15
• Psalm 139:1-18
• Psalm 90:2
• Isaiah 57:15
• Genesis 1:1
• John 1:1-3
• Hebrews 1:1-3
• Genesis 1:1
• Job 35:1
• Job 38:1-7, 4, 8
• Genesis 1:1
• Revelation 12:1-2
• Genesis 1:2
• Genesis 6:5
• Psalm 102:25
• Psalm  119:81-82, 89-90
• Psalm 24:1-2
• Psalm 37:9, 11, 18, 22, 29, 34

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Leviticus 23
• 2 Timothy 1:9-1
• Jeremiah 23
• Ezekiel 28
• Revelation 12
• Isaiah 14
• Jude
• Revelation 21; 22
• 2-Peter 3

Also referenced: {truthofGod.org}

Message: Immortality and Everlasting Life by Norbert Bohnert

Books by Fred R. Coulter

• God's Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days
• From a Speck of Dust to A Son of God: Why Were You Born?
• Holy Spirit, The Power of God, A Scriptural Perspective.

FRC:bo/po
Transcribed: 1/10/24

Copyright 2024—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.