Days of Creation 2

The Days of Creation (2)
Tim Haile, for the Parkway church of Christ

As we began to discuss in last week’s article, some have attempted to harmonize the Genesis creation account with evolutionary uniformitarianism. This has led some to claim that the “days” of Genesis chapter one are not literal, 24-hour days, or to claim that the days are literal, but that they have long ages between them. There are irrefutable reasons for concluding that the Genesis creation days are literal, consecutive, 24-hour days. Let us consider some of these reasons:

1. A basic rule of interpretation says that text should be interpreted and understood literally unless there are good reasons for it to be interpreted figuratively. A natural reading of Genesis 1:1-31 leads one to think that God created all things in 6, literal, consecutive 24-hour days.

2. The “days” of Genesis one are mentioned in connection with the phrase “evening and morning” (1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). As a rule, whenever the Bible describes the “evening” or “morning” of a particular day, those “days” are literal, 24-hour days.

3. The Jewish workweek was fashioned upon the creation week. Moses wrote, “It [the Sabbath] is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed” (Ex. 31:17). Moses was clearly describing a normal 7-day week, and he drew a parallel between that week and God’s creation week. Six days were to be devoted to work, and the seventh day was to be devoted to God. The point and parallel are lost if the creation week was not a normal calendar week.

4. Jesus placed the creation of mankind at “the beginning of the creation of God” (Mark 10:6). If the creation days were literal, 24-hour days, then the Lord’s description works. Very little time would have passed from the first day to the sixth. However, how could Jesus’ description be accurate if each day of creation spanned 700 million years? With such an interpretation there is no sense in which it would be accurate to identify human creation with “the beginning of creation!” We shall examine this further in our next article.

View past articles at http://parkwayarticles.blogspot.com. Please join us for worship and Bible study at our building located at 125 Hilltopper Ave, Bowling Green, KY 42101. We meet each Sunday at 10:00AM and 6:00PM for worship, and Sundays at 9:00AM and Wednesdays at 7:00PM for Bible study. Our radio program is aired each Sunday morning at 8:00AM on the WKCT 930AM band. Phone: (270) 842-2049 – Email: timhaile@mac.com.

Days of Creation 1

The Days of Creation (1)
Tim Haile, for the Parkway church of Christ

In spite of its many infallible proofs, including its hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, the Bible is always under assault. These attacks come primarily from people who wish to live their lives as they please, absent of any moral standards or restraints. These people certainly do not want to be told that they are wrong, nor do they even want people thinking that they are wrong! They hope to banish all inhibitions and the stigma that is attached to certain behavior and conduct. The first and greatest hindrance to them is obviously the Bible. They need for the Bible to be destroyed or at least discredited. History records many attempts at both.

Infidels of the past have attempted to prevent the very publishing of the Bible. Henry VIII outlawed the translation of the Scriptures into the English language (1530). In 1535, the famous commentator, William Tyndale was strangled and burned at the stake for smuggling 18,000 copies of the English Bible into England. Incidentally, only 2 of those copies survived! Others have tried similar things and have failed.

Having lost the battle to rid the earth of Bibles, infidels and others now use a more “civil” method in their attempt to destroy the Bible. They seek to discredit the Bible by alleging that it contains errors and discrepancies. One of the most common allegations is that the Bible contradicts “science.” I placed “science” in quotation marks, for true science is knowledge: It has to do with what is factual, observable, provable and demonstrable. The Bible never contradicts true science. This claim that the Bible contradicts science has opened the door for an assault upon the very first chapter of the Bible: Genesis chapter one – the Creation account. The evolutionary THEORY denies creation, and requires a uniformitarian approach to origins. The Bible timeline for origins is entirely inconsistent with their time range. Evolutionists require billions of years for their theory to work. The Bible does not provide for such a long period of time. This has led some people to look for a way to harmonize the statements of Genesis one with certain evolutionary tenets. Consequently, some claim that the “days” of Genesis one are not literal, 24-hour days, but represent eons of time. Others claim that the days are literal, but that they are not contiguous. It is claimed that the days have long ages sandwiched in between them. We shall examine this matter in subsequent articles.

View past articles at http://parkwayarticles.blogspot.com. Please join us for worship and Bible study at our building located at 125 Hilltopper Ave, Bowling Green, KY 42101. We meet each Sunday at 10:00AM and 6:00PM for worship, and Sundays at 9:00AM and Wednesdays at 7:00PM for Bible study. Our radio program is aired each Sunday morning at 8:00AM on the WKCT 930AM band. Phone: (270) 842-2049 – Email: timhaile@mac.com.