Biblical creation is one of the most difficult things to take by faith for many people. I don’t know if it is that God is not ‘big enough’ or if it is so contradictory to science that we are unable to believe it. Let’s take a look at what the Bible has to say.
First of all, proper hermeneutics is critical to an understanding of the creation accounts. Many people want to take certain stories, such as Job and Jonah, and say that they did not actually take place; rather they are stories which God designed in order to teach us something. Often times a large part of Genesis is put into this category.
The truth is that these are all Old Testament narratives, though. It does not matter if you are reading 1 Kings or Genesis 1, they are narrative and ought to be used the same. The Hebrew people, where they did make use of allegory, metaphor and other forms of imagery, reserved this practice for shorter proverbial or parabolic situations where something could be taught on the spot. The creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2 were written into a time line of the history of God’s chosen people. It should be understood as being historical.
So, it is not so much the fantastic elements that people reject. We understand that God is hear and working in this world to bring about the completion of His plan. But, we are used to seeing God work through this creation, so a seven day creation becomes very abstract and difficult to believe.
Here is something to ponder—not doctrine, but my own musings:
2 Peter 3.8 says, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (NASB). It seems to say that a day to the Lord, who is the one who created all things according to John 1, time is relative. So could it be that 7 days took place over some extended period of time according to Jesus’ divine control over time?
I have heard it argued repeatedly—and I tend to agree—that the Hebrew word used for day, literally means one day, a 24 hour period, sun down to sun down. Therefore, it had to take place in 7 earthly days. I myself am more interested to see how the Greek speaking Hebrews from before Christ viewed a day. In the LXX (the Greek translation of the Hebrew texts) they translate the word day in the Genesis account as ἡμέρα (aymera). This is the same word Jesus used in Matthew 26.61 to denote the number of days it would take for the temple to be rebuilt. Therefore a day is a day.
Where this seems to support the argument for a true 7/24, there is one other element to consider in the semantic argument. In 2 Peter 3.8, the word used is also ἡμέρα. So, in the end, what I see is a 7/24 (really 6/24) creation, where Jesus has taken divine control over time in order to complete what science says would take millions of years into 7 temporal days.
I’d encourage you to consider this and make your own judgment, according to the Spirit. Seek out the truth from scripture for yourself. I think this might just be one of those things we are to take on faith and may not be able to conclusively be settled until the Lord returns and we are given understanding.
Did Creation Take Place in 7 Literal Days?
Several places indicate, however, that we’re still in the seventh day, which means at least the seventh day lasts far longer than 24 hours.
Wow that is a really interesting perspective. I would be interested in some of those scriptures if you could provide them. Thanks. -Anthony
You can see my reasoning here.
>>>…2 Peter 3.8 says, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (NASB). It seems to say that a day to the Lord, who is the one who created all things according to John 1, time is relative….
That isn’t what 2 Peter 3:8 is saying. What Peter is saying that it is as difficult for God to **wait** for a thousand years as it is for us to wait a single day. It is a contrast of patience, not an assertion that God gets confused when he says a day and night passed and a thousand years passed.
But the reason that Gen 1 is so unbelievable is that it describes the sky as a solid structure, with waters above it, and stars embedded in it. We now have telescopes and jets and stuff and know it simply isn’t anything like that.
WoundedEgo, I have to disagree. The context of 2 Peter is the Day of the Lord, when He will return to collect His church. Where patience is a critical lesson we can learn from the passage, Peter aims to define the nature of God in relation to the time which He created. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness” (v. 9). He is challenging our understanding of time. God is far greater than time because He created it, so we cannot expect that God will always act in accordance with time.
The sky argument is a good argument for denying the reality of the creation story in the Bible. But again, God is greater than His creation. Genesis 1.7 says, “So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.” The firmament wasn’t solid. It was liquid. Creationists have studied this relentlessly to theorize what this looked like. Many believe that the layer of gasses that is the ozone layer was able to create a vapor barrier that kept the water from falling from the sky. The water then protected the earth from all of the harmful forces of the outer universe.
Aside from all that theorizing, it is clear that God made changes to the laws of life and physics after the fall, so who are we to say that what is true of physics now must line up with what was true then. We can’t put God in a box like that. He already has us in His box.