What Does Earth Mean in the Description of Creation?
Earth means material manifestation. Everything that appears in material form.
Appearance in material form does not mean only matter. A spoken word or sentence can mean something completely different with a different emphasis, in a different context, or when spoken by a different person. The meaning of Earth is always closely connected to the meaning of Heaven, because that which appears in material form is that whose appearance has been defined.
The totality of definitions is Heaven, but if a definition does not appear in any form whatsoever, then it is not truly a definition, because nothing appears through it.
Therefore, Earth does not mean only matter, but appearance in the material world. There is no difference at the material level between a piece of stone and a statue, yet the difference is significant at the level of definitions. The words listed in a dictionary are not the same as those same words arranged by a poet.
God’s laws appear in Earth; therefore, experiences that appear in time also appear in Earth, because we are capable of perceiving change only in time. It is not at all the same whether we listen to a piece of music at its intended speed or at a different speed, nor whether we watch a film at its intended speed or at a different speed. What would we understand from a two-hour film if we watched it at such a speed that it ended in ten minutes?
Through the experiences that appear in the material world, the laws present in Heaven appear, and thus we can come to know them through experience. Therefore, Earth, the material world, is practically the medium of manifestation, where the definitions that exist in Heaven appear in space and time.