Ex 20:11
“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.”
” כי שׁשׁת ימים עשׂה יהוה את השׁמים ואת הארץ את הים ואת כל אשׁר בם וינח ביום השׁביעי על כן ברך יהוה את יום השׁבת ויקדשׁהו"
“kıy shishshah yom asah yehovah 'eth shameh 'eth 'erets 'eth yam 'eth kol 'asher nuach yom shebi‛ıy ‛al ken barak yehovah 'eth yom shabbath qadash”
Those that know me well should not be surprised that this verse came up… Nor should they be surprised that I am going to spread the creation series over a week or two… In this short series of Creation we will run through some Scriptures that explain Creation, specifically, a young-universe.
We will start this series at the beginning, when the Bible tells us that God created everything in six days.
Two groups:
There are two groups within Christianity when looking at this verse (and creationism in general).
Group 1: The first group believes that there is a strict 24-hour time period associated with the word “days”. This group is the young-universe creationists.
Group 2: The second group believes that evolution was far too complex to explain to an uneducated people; therefore God simplified it by explaining it a metaphorical 6 days. These people believe in Theistic evolution – i.e. God created the universe and used evolution to do it.
To what group do you belong? I belong to group 1 and to everyone in group 2: You are wrong… How can I say group 2 is wrong? Well, that is what the next few weeks are all about.
When the Theory of Evolution was introduced by evolutionary scientists, the Christians made one of the biggest mistakes ever. They (or at least the majority) accepted this theory and then tried to force the Bible into confirming the new popular belief inspired by Darwin. They forced the Bible to fit their own belief (eisegesis), rather than conforming their belief to fit with the Bible.
Many people are shocked when they hear that there are people who do not believe in evolution. These statistics are a good eye-opener:
In America only 14% of the population firmly believes in the evolution theory. 40% believe in a young universe. The remaining 46% is unsure/undecided.
Between 55-60% of scientists believe in evolution, and 40-45% actually reject the evolution theory
There are highly intelligent people on both sides of the scale, so no person needs to feel “uneducated” just because they believe in a young universe!
Evidence, Proof, Science:
We must start by stating that there is no proof for evolution, nor is there proof for creation... There is, however, plenty of evidence that can, depending on the interpretation, support either of the two theories. There is a lot of evidence that makes the evolution theory (at least in its current form) impossible – we will look at some of this at a later stage.
The Oxford dictionary describes “science”:
The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment
No one has ever been able to observe or experiment with evolution – other than micro-evolution, which is small variations within a kind of animal. Micro-evolution does not, in any way, prove that macro-evolution (where one kind of animal becomes another kind of animal) ever took place – which we will be looking at in more detail in another study. For something to be SCIENCE, we need proof; evidence is not enough.
Therefore, Evolution is not science. It is a belief system, just like Creation. The Bible supports only one of these belief systems. It is our choice which one we believe in.
How long were the 6 days?
A popular theory among theistic evolutionists is the day-age theory. The argument usually refers to 2 Peter 3:8 that speaks about 1 day being the same as a 1000 years to the Lord and vice versa. They go on to say that each day represents a period of time, since the word “day” in Hebrew can mean “a period of time” – often suggesting that the word “day” does not indicate a 24-hour day.
The word “Day” in Hebrew is “ימים”, pronounced “yom / yome”. In the Hebrew it has three different meanings.
1) 24-hours: That is from sunrise to sunrise
2) +/- 12-hours: That is the “sunny” hours (sunrise to sunset)
3) A period of time: the length of which is usually indicated by the surrounding text.
It is true that the word “day” in Hebrew could mean a period of time, however, the context of the verse, as well as the rest of the Bible does not agree with this interpretation, as we will see:
The day-age theory explains that each day was actually millions of years and therefore fits with the evolution theory. However, there are a few problems with this theory:
a) Plants were created on day 3. The sun was created on day 4. Plants need sunlight in order to live. If these days are millions of years apart, then the plants would have died… This is also completely different from the evolution theory, where the sun formed billions of years before plant life started growing.
b) Sea and birdlife was created on day 5. Plants were created on day 3. There are hundreds of plant species that require birds in order to spread their seeds. If these days were millions of years long, then those plant species would have died out in the first generation. Evolution also teaches that birds developed last, therefore, the day-age theory does not fit with evolution.
c) Land animals were only created on the sixth day (along with man). Evolution has sea animals turning into land animals, which then turn into flying animals. The day-age theory and the evolution theory contradicts each other.
d) The phrase “and there was an evening and a morning” in Genesis indicates that each day was a 24-hour day. (If the day represents millions of years, what would the night represent?)
e) Hebrew scholars agree that the context of the verse does not allow for any interpretation other than a 24-hour day.
f) Jesus references the creation of man as the beginning, which means that He took these verses as historical, not poetic.
There are plenty more reasons why the day-age theory is stupid, however, these will do for now. The biggest problem with the day-age theory is that (ironically) it completely contradicts the evolution theory – and the reason it was created was to make the Biblical points agree with “modern science” (aka: modern fairy tales). So those who cling to the day-age theory to agree with evolution actually disagree with evolution and their entire theory is based on impossibilities.
6 Literal Days:
The Bible clearly indicates 6 literal days.
Those who believe the Bible must therefore believe in 6 literal days of creation.
As we have seen, the Bible does not indicate anything other than six 24-hour days, so those Christians who do not believe in 6 literal days are actually saying that the Bible is either in error or simply lying to us. I would hate to be in the shoes of somebody that, in the Day of Judgment, has to give God a reason why they thought God’s word was lying or was wrong… Don’t compromise the Word of God.
Now that we understand that the Bible indicates 6 literal days we need to try and understand how this is possible. This cannot be explained in one study, therefore it must be spread over a few weeks. Hopefully you will find this subject as interesting as I do and that you will be blessed through it!
