Information Related to "Genesis 1 and the Days of Creation (1998)"
| Audio/Video |
Genesis 1 and the Days of Creation
Did you know that no piece of ancient history is more scientifically grounded than
the book of Genesis, including its description of the 24-hour days of creation? The
evidence is astonishingly clear!
by John Ross Schroeder
During the last 150 years or so,
no part of the Bible has come under more rigorous attack than the creation account
in the first chapter of Genesis. Darwinists have made much of evidence that earth
is apparently anywhere from five to 15 billion years old. Yet a careful genealogical
study of the biblical record combined with history suggests to some people that the
earth has existed for a mere 6,000 years.
Before we address this discrepancy, let us first consider how the Bible, in its Genesis
narrative, presents creation. What is the organizing principle of the biblical account
of creation? How does the creation narrative present God's acts of creation to the
reader? On what does God hang the whole creation epic?
The creation account hangs first on the 24-hour day; then on the seven-day week.
(Genesis 1 describes the first six days of creation week; the first few verses of
chapter 2 recount the seventh day.)
The Earth in Orbit
We learn from observation that the earth makes one revolution around the sun
in a year, and it rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. The axis rotation produces
the familiar succession of day and night. The planet spins like a child's top at
a consistent angle to the sun, maintaining that angle while making its circular journey.
Earth revolves just rapidly enough to produce the 24-hour cycle (or, more precisely,
23 hours and 56 minutes). It revolves slightly obliquely to its plane of rotation,
which makes for the four annual seasons.
What does Genesis 1 have to do with these natural phenomena? Can we take seriously
the Bible's creation account?
"And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the
morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:4-5). We see from the account that God established
the day-and-night cycle from the beginning. Day and night are functions of the rotation
of the earth as it orbits the sun. Clearly the wording of Genesis describes the 24-hour
period we are all familiar with. Notice further that God appointed the sun to separate
light from darkness and to divide day from night (verse 14).
We can readily grasp the wording of the biblical creation account. It fits the context
of something we experience every day. From birth to death we live in a constant succession
of 24-hour days and nights."The several pictures of creation history are set within
the six work-day frames" (The New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 82).
How Long were the Days of Creation?
Ever since the realization by scientists that the earth's age must be measured
in the billions of years, well-meaning people have tried to reconcile the biblical
account with such scientific findings. Some have theorized that the seven 24-hour
creation days were really much longer--possibly epochs lasting thousands or millions
of years. To support this idea, some have argued that the Hebrew word for "day,"
yom, means an unspecified measure of time in Genesis 1.
It is true that yom can mean an indefinite period such as in the English expression
"at the end of the day." But the context of each of the six days of Genesis 1 makes
it clear how long each day of creation actually was. The expression "So the evening
and the morning were the first day" in Genesis 1 is repeated for every one of the
other five days.
One rotation of the earth on its axis is the unmistakable meaning of day in
the creation account. Throughout the history of the Hebrew people, the evening has
always signified the beginning of a new day, a specific 24 hours.
However, since that particular expression does not close the account of the seventh
day (Genesis 2:1-3), some have tried to lengthen the creation Sabbath as well. They
reason that the seventh day of creation has not yet ended, even after thousands of
years. Thus the earlier six days of creation may have lasted for thousands of years
as well. But does Scripture support this view?
The Bible interprets the Bible. The account relaying the giving of the Ten Commandments
confirms how long each of creation days was, including the seventh-day Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11 summarizes their significance:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all
your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall
do no work . . . For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth
. . . and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it (declared it holy)."
In defining when we are to keep one of God's annual Sabbaths, the Day of Atonement,
God tells us that, "from evening to evening (24 hours), you shall celebrate your
sabbath" (Leviticus 23:32). The same principle applies to the weekly Sabbath and
all of the annual feast days. (You might want to write for our free booklet Sunset
to Sunset: God's Sabbath Rest.)
Understanding Genesis 1:1-2
The first two verses of the Bible are critical in this discussion. "The Genesis
prologue presents those historical truths which are the necessary presuppositions
for the valid pursuit of human knowledge" (The New Bible Commentary: Revised,
p. 81). So let's take a fresh look at Genesis 1:1-2.
Both the New International Version and the older Schofield Reference Bible suggest
the possibility that the expression "the earth was without form and void" (verse 2) can be rendered "the earth became without form and void." In other words,
something spoiled the original creation described in Genesis 1:1 and made it necessary
for God to restore order out of chaos--which He did during six 24-hour periods followed
by a Sabbath rest.
The Companion Bible points out that, in the King James Version (and most subsequent
translations), "the verb 'to be' is not distinguished from the verb 'to become,'
so that the lessons conveyed" in these first few verses "are lost.î It goes on to
explain that without form (Hebrew tohu) "is used of a subsequent event
which, we know not how long after the Creation, befell the primitive creation of
Gen. 1.1."
(For a detailed account of the rationale and reference sources that confirm the possibility
of the rendering "became" instead of ìwas,î see ìEarth's Age: Does the Bible Indicate
a Time Interval Between the First and Second Verses of Genesis?," p. 20).
Suffice it to say here that God does not create by first making a mess (1Corinthians 14:33). God told the cherub (angel) Lucifer, "You were perfect in your ways from
the day you were created, till iniquity (lawlessness) was found in you" (Ezekiel 28:15). God is the God of perfection, order and beauty. It is either the angelic
realm or man's world that makes the messes.
The conclusion is that an original creation (Genesis 1:1) preceded the making of
a gigantic mess by Satan (the former Lucifer) and a third of the angels (Revelation 12:4), who had become demons. Sometime later God accomplished a full restoration
during six 24-hour days, followed by the day of rest that created the seventh-day
Sabbath (Exodus 20:11).
The time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 is an unspecified period that could encompass
billions of years, accounting for the "deep time" that geologists and other scientists
have discovered in the last two centuries. So the Bible itself solves the enigma.
We do not need to artificially lengthen the seven 24-hour creation days to resolve
the problem.
More on Creation
We can learn something every time we study the magnificent creation account in
Genesis 1. Sometimes a different translation can shed new light on it and yield fresh
understanding.
Consider Genesis 1:14 in the Revised English Bible: "God said, `Let there be lights
in the vault of the heavens to separate day from night, and let them serve as signs
both for festivals and for seasons and years.' " Of course, no
translation is perfect. Sometimes another version can introduce a problem while shedding
light on something else, even in the same passage.
Although "vault" is an awkward rendering for ìskyî or ìfirmament,î the inclusion
of "festivals" along with seasons and years anticipates God's intentions for the
good of mankind. God gave the Sabbath at creation just after He made man (Mark 2:27).
But He revealed the biblical festivals much later to the "church in the wilderness"
(Leviticus 23; Acts 7:38).
As is the case with the seventh-day Sabbath, the annual festivals are important for
understanding God's plan for mankind. Yet mere knowledge of their existence is insufficient.
By actively observing the biblical festivals each year, the Church acts out the very
plan of God, growing in understanding of God's purpose (2Peter 3:18).
Their timing is interwoven with the seasons of the Northern Hemisphere. God's year
does not begin in the dead of winter as on our humanly devised calendars, but in
the spring when green plants emerge from the earth, birds are flying, and the creation
in general brightens with resurgent light and heat.
The United Church of God publishes a booklet that explains the meaning of the annual
biblical festivals. Please request your free copy of God's Holy Day Plan: The
Promise of Hope for All Mankind.
30
Sidebar: Why the Flat-Earth Effect?
We know the earth is a spinning sphere. But, to the untrained, naked eye, the
earth appears flat. Our individual observational range is too limited to tell us
otherwise. Of course, pictures taken from rockets and missiles from the late 1940s
have proved the wisdom of the adage "Seeing is believing"; planet earth is spherical--as
shown by photographs of our beautiful jewel-like orb taken from space since 1969.
Yet most of humanity lives its life as if the earth is flat. We go about our day-to-day
business unconscious of our planet's movement as a spinning ball hurtling through
space. Though we may sit quietly unaware in comfortable armchairs, we are completing
a gigantic sideways somersault once every 24 hours at a speed of 700 miles per hour
relative to the earth's axis.
We well know our days and our seasons, but God has so designed spaceship earth with
such magnificent stability that we can go through life without much conscious thought
of the marvelously complicated mechanisms that undergird our journey. Long before
people came to understand the invisible force of gravity that keeps the heavenly
bodies in place, a Bible writer wrote that the Creator "hangs the earth on nothing"
(Job 26:7). How marvelous are the works of our God!
We scarcely give a thought to the gravitational pulls and counterpulls that keep
us on course and enable the normal cycle of the four seasons. We can be thankful
we don't have to fully understand the complex astronomical machinery to enjoy the
ride.
Sidebar: The Round Earth
"If the earth were really flat, then the same stars ought to be visible in the
sky from all points . . . Yet it was the universal experience of the travellers
that if one travelled north, some stars disappeared beyond the southern horizon and
new stars appeared from beyond the northern horizon . . . This could easily
be explained by supposing that the earth curved in a north-south direction.
"Whether there was a similar east-west effect was obscured by the general east-west
motion of the entire sky, which made one complete turn every twenty-four hours" (Isaac
Asimov, The Universe, pp. 15-16).
Sidebar: Giant Space Mirrors: A Source for Winter Light?
Forget about the extreme cold. Without the light of the sun, life near the
North Pole and South Pole can grow bleak indeed in the dead of the poles' respective
winter seasons. In these conditions people can succumb to alcohol abuse, severe depression
and even suicide. That is surely one reason most of humanity is concentrated in the
temperate zones of the earth.
The two poles don't receive much light during the long winter months Complete darkness
occurs for up to six or seven weeks of the year. In Northern Greenland, for instance,
the sun virtually disappears in mid-October.
The temptation is great to technologically alter these harsh conditions. Engineers
have plans to transport an array of giant mirrors into space to beam reflected light
into the polar north. A preliminary trial of this technology is tentatively scheduled
for November of this year.
Sidebar: The Sun: The Great Yellow Orb
According to astronomers, compared with other stars the sun is nothing to write home
about. Yet the energy that animates living matter on planet earth--every flower,
each tree, all living creatures--is derived from the heat and light of the sun. Move
it a little closer or farther away and we find ourselves in deep trouble. Extinguish
it and we are goners.
We survive because we soak up only a fraction of the sun's heat. Our star is 93 million
miles away from the earth, a comfortable distance from this powerhouse of white-hot
molten energy.The space probe Soho provides us with scientific facts about the sun
we never knew before. But certain fundamental understanding can only come from only
one source.
It would be strange indeed had the Bible said nothing about the sun. But God's Word
mentions the solar body more than 150 times throughout its pages. Perhaps most important
biblical reference about the sun is the simple observation that God created it (Genesis 1:1,14). Thus humanity has no valid reason to worship the flaming orb as some of
the Israelites and other ancient peoples did (2Kings 23:11; Ezekiel 8:16-17; see
also Romans 1:25).
Sometimes the sun is mentioned in Scripture in the context of the 24-hour day. At
other times it is used metaphorically. For instance, in the transfiguration account,
depicting the glorified Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God, His face shone like the
sun (Matthew l7:2). In the book of Revelation describes the face of Christ as "the
sun shining in its strength" (Revelation 1:16). The glory of God the Father and of
Jesus Christ is declared to be greater and more enduring than sunlight (Revelation 21:23).
The apostle Paul even compares the resurrection of the righteous to the heavenly
bodies in their glory, mentioning the sun in particular (1Corinthians 15:40-44).
The Hebrew Bible shows that these same righteous men and women "shall shine like
the brightness of the firmament" (Daniel 12:3). Jesus Christ Himself said that "the
righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father" (Matthew 13:43).
If you would like to know more about the purpose of human life, please write for
our free booklet What Is Your Destiny? from the office nearest you.
© 1999-2022 United Church of God, an International Association
Related Information:
Table of Contents that includes "Genesis 1 and the Days of Creation (1998)"
Other Articles by John Ross Schroeder
Origin of article "Genesis 1 and the Days of Creation (1998)"
Re-published from an earlier version
Keywords: Genesis days of creation Sabbath seventh day biblical festivals creation earth
Seventh day: