Question:
What do you believe about the creation of the earth? Do you think that God created it in 6 days as defined by man or in 6 *days* as defined by God that were not necessarily 24 hours?
Answer:
In neither Genesis or any other passage where “day” is used in normal context, God never defines “day” as anything different than “day” has always been defined… as a day. Where the word “day” means something generic or symbolic, that meaning is made perfect clear such as “the day of the Lord” or “in that day” (mean during that time). In Genesis one, no such alternative meaning is defined, and to the contrary, “day” is specifically defined as “the morning and the evening”, just like we would describe a single “day” in our life.
I have studied, taught and wrote about Origins, Creation and Genesis for about 20 years. The evidence for Biblical creation is undeniable and overwhelming for any person actually seeking the truth and not simply trying proving their already determined viewpoint. In other words, if you have already decided Darwinism is true by default, then no amount of evidence will change your mind. Ironically, and sometimes humorously, the fact is: THERE IS ABSOLUTELY ZERO, ZILCH, NADA, NO EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS THE IDEA OF ‘MOLECULES TO MAN’ DARWINIAN EVOLUTION, and even LESS evidence (less than zero?) that “something came from nothing” which is the inevitable and unavoidable leap of purely blind faith that a person must make if they do not believe that “the Creator created something”.
As for the six literal days question, of course I believe the universe and all creation was created in six literal days. The Genesis narrative is simple, concise, unmistakable and unambiguous about this. It only becomes a “question” when humans come along and INSERT “MILLIONS OF YEARS” into the Scripture based on a humanistic viewpoint. The MILLIONS (or billions) OF YEARS, does not exist until “science” introduces it into the simple statements of Scriptures. Predictably, science “proves” MILLIONS OF YEARS in its finding because it already BELIEVES and ASSUMES this to be true. So Science starts with this presumption and interprets the information to fit, thus “proving” what they already believed to be true. That’s not science… that’s a religion called Materialism using circular reasoning to prove itself true. Only in “religion” can you get away with that, and make no mistake, Darwinism (materialistic origins) IS A RELIGION.
Volumes have been written on the topic, but for those Christians who really struggle honestly with the six day question, let me ask you the only question that matters: at what point does Genesis become literal if the entire chapter on creation and origins is not? Where does the narrative become literal? Adam? Cain? The tower of Babel? Noah?
Here is the crux that cannot be avoided: EVERY SINGLE FACT, EVENT AND TRUTH IN THE BIBLE DEPENDS ON THE NARRATIVE AND HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF GENESIS CHAPTER ONE TO BE TRUE AND LITERAL. Don’t believe me? I challenge any person to present a Bible character, event, fact, truth or doctrine to me that they think DOES NOT rely on the literal truth of Genesis 1 for it to be true itself.
“Oh, well everything in Genesis chapter one is literal except six 24 hour days. That’s symbolic”. How convenient. And wrong.
The Bible states that death came into creation by Adam’s sin making it impossible for evolution to have been at work for millions of years “before God created Adam”. It also makes a confusing mess of the Creation account because you have to believe that God created it all, let evolution take over, then stepped in and breathed an eternal spirit into an evolved ape-human, then lied about death having entered creation at that point. Or you have to accept that plants and animals “evolved” but God stepped in and created humans, which makes absolutely no sense and also causes the Creation narrative to be confusing and deceitful.
The unavoidable fact is, Genesis One is simple and clear. It only becomes unclear when “science” tries to inject its bias into it. However, if you start with Genesis One as literal and true, then what we seen in science makes perfect sense and the evidence of Science is in perfect harmony with Scripture including a young creation, Noah’s flood, etc. You cannot, nor can anyone, find any speck of observable science (as opposed to Darwinian theory) that disproves or even disagrees with Scripture.
Darwinism and Biblical Creationism are wholly incompatible. Christians who straddle the fence are either ignorant of the facts (Biblical or as taught by Evolutionists), have succumbed to cultural pressure, or think it doesn’t matter (it does). To choose Darwinism is to deny the Bible and the Creator. To choose the Genesis creation account is to incur the wrath of the pop culture, academia and liberal religionists, and deny Darwinism. People want it both ways, but if intellectual honestly is in play, you can’t.
Make no mistake. If you entertain some compromise that claims Christianity but allows for Darwinism, you deny BOTH… for they are utterly incompatible with each other no matter how many $12 words and fancy explanations people want to dream up. Why? Here’s just a nibble of things totally incompatible:
- Darwinism relies on materialism: there is no God, all things have a materialistic origin and explanation
- The Bible teaches that death came through one man’s choice to sin, not billions of years of trial and error
- The Bible teaches that man has an eternal soul, is unique from animals, and created after and above animals
- Darwinism teaches that “once there was nothing, and then there was something” which any honest person knows is utterly impossible (talk about blind faith)
- The Bible teaches that “once there was an eternal God, and He chose to create “, a reasonable proposal we see happen countless times a day (a designer/creator creating something that would not have existed without a higher intelligence choosing to create something of a lower form).
- The Bible teaches that “kinds produce kinds”, ie. dogs create dogs, plants create plants, humans create humans
- Darwinism teaches that “kinds evolve into new kinds”
- The Bible teaches that all creation disintegrates, including humans, without the infusion of an outside organizing force (we see this irrefutable fact in nature and society every day and is proclaimed by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics)
- Darwinism teaches that random chance and long periods of time introduce higher order and beneficial mutations, an occurrence that has NEVER been witnessed and flies in the face of centuries of established and irrefutable observation
Anyway, I could go on and on, but the point it this: Christians need to quit being wishy-washy about this and stop straddling the fence. You need to at least know the basic reasons why the Bible and Darwinism cannot coexist and take a stand for one or the other. Don’t patronize the Evolutionist (and political correctness) and insult Scripture by pretending that the Bible is true but Genesis One is a fairy tale or symbolic or doesn’t mean exactly what it clearly says. If the simple creation account in Genesis of six literal days and the Creator are not true, then the whole Bible is not true.
You don’t build a House of Truth on a Foundation of Lies.
Other than that. I don’t really have an opinion.