DAYS OF CREATION

Genesis the first chapter speaks of God creating the heavens and the earth. Because it seems difficult to believe that the world as we know it could have been created in seven literal days, many people view these as long periods of time.

I. Evidence from scripture indicating these are literal days.

A. The first chapter itself is very specific as to what is a “day.”

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

B. References in other places to the days of creation indicating they were literal days.

Ex. 20:11

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Ex. 31:17

14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

II. Arguments for the days being long periods.

ARGUMENT:

This chapter is a form of poetry, not intended to be literal.

ANSWER:

That is possible. However, it is overwhelmingly used in the sense of a literal day elsewhere, especially in referring back to the account of creation.

ARGUMENT:

There some instances where “day” is used figuratively of a long period .

Gen. 2:4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,

ANSWER:

That may be but it is overwhelmingly used in the sense of a literal day elsewhere, especially in referring back to the account of creation.

ARGUMENT:

If the days were literal, how could there be light before the sun, moon and stars?

ANSWER:

God provided the light.

Rev. 21:23

23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

ARGUMENT:

The time necessary for light to travel from the stars to earth would be too much for them to have been created on the fourth day a few thousand years ago.

ANSWER:

The time necessary for light to travel is a limitation we perceive that is not necessarily a limit for God. In fact, if you saw the recent series on television, even respected scientists are suggesting that under some circumstances light may travel faster than our present measurements.

However, there is another possible view of our passage. It is called the “Gap” theory. According to this, there is a gap between verse one and verse two. Verse one declares that in the beginning God created heaven and earth. The rest of the chapter speaks of the more recent events when He “made” it into its present form. Two different Hebrew words are used. During this “gap” in time, anything could have taken place in that gap –even previous periods of life.

Whether chapter one is a poetic representation of creation, or whether the “days” are literal 24-hour periods, is not necessarily a serious problem. Scripture teaches that God formed man from the dust of the earth.

Gen. 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

We do not have to understand it all. The Scriptures have provided firm evidence of their divine origin and the creation itself shows the handiwork of God. We walk by faith, not sight.