Articles
The Days of Genesis 1
A consistent criticism of the Bible by skeptics is that it simply fails to match with modern scientific conceptions of the world around us. Some use this concept to argue that the Bible, written thousands of years ago, is still a good moral book written by good moral men, but certainly not inspired directly by God. Others take this conclusion to its fullest and use the apparent contradictions between the Bible and science as proof that the Bible is not only uninspired but is worthless and should be discarded as a moral instrument for today’s world. This weaponization of science against the Bible has led some Christians to take a highly aggressive stance against science, and they seek to dismantle science whenever they can to introduce skepticism about its claims.
Are the Bible and Science truly irreconcilable? In truth, good science compliments the Bible and should be commended and encouraged by Christians; indeed, Paul referred to the glories of the natural world as evidence of the character and power of God (Romans 1:20). The scientific method is based on the ideas of careful observation, precise description, and reasoning from factual evidence; when done correctly, these techniques help us to understand the world around us and give even more glory to God for His amazing works! In fact, this is the type of careful deductive reasoning that the Scriptures consistently call for when discussing belief: Moses cautioned the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 13 and 18 to test a prophet’s words against what actually happened as proof of their validity, and to reject a prophet who made prophesies that did not come to pass. Despite this, there is often a mistaken concept that religion is grounded solely in faith in the Bible while Science is grounded in facts and rational thinking. One of the important things for Christians to do is to be able to demonstrate that their faith has, in fact, been carefully considered and measured, and that we have worked hard at understanding the claims of the Bible.
The Creation account of Genesis 1-2 is one of the most consistent battlegrounds for the scientific skeptic; there have been innumerable attempts to prove that the idea of a literal six-day creation is simply untenable, and that the claim of Genesis must surely be false. While it is important to remember that Genesis is not a scientific textbook (and that it’s purpose of showing the growth of God’s promises to mankind are far more important that our curiosities about creation), there is also merit in considering the days of creation and reassuring ourselves of the truth of the Biblical narrative therein!
One important thing to note here at the onset is that the idea that the six days somehow mean something other than six literal days is a very recent concept. For the first 1800 years of Christendom, it was nearly universally understood by Christians and skeptics alike that the Genesis account was discussing six literal, 24-hour days. It is only in the past 200 or so years that this concept has changed. While an idea being newer does not inherently mean it is flawed, it is certainly suspicious that the time this discussion of days being ages only started when evolution and other scientific theories began dismissing the idea of the Genesis account being possible.
Could the days of Genesis 1 be ages? There has been lots of discussion of the Hebrew word used translated as “days” in Genesis 1, yom, and how it is interpreted in multiple different ways: in various passages, yom is translated as age, all, once, period, whole, and even eternity. So the word is not required to be “days,” although it should be noted that 1) these different time periods all contain a sense of definite completion as opposed to vague time periods, and 2) of the 2247 times that yom occurs, roughly 1800 of those are literal 24-hour days. The reality is that the word is somewhat of a dead end, and is more likely to be influenced by your view of how long creation was: the six-day creationist will see it as a literal, definitive day, while an age-day creationist will see the interpretive room to consider it an age. So, the question is not really about what the word means; rather, the question is “Could God have created everything in six days?”
It is very true that God could have created the Earth in any fashion He wished; certainly He was not bound in any capacity to create the Earth in six literal days, but there’s also no reason to doubt that the power of God could create everything in six days. The only reason to rule out the six days is, essentially, a prior assumption that it couldn’t have happened. What can help us in this discussion is asking a slightly different question: WHY would God have created the Earth in six days? Nathan Ward, in his excellent book The Growth of the Seed, notes that the Bible is consistently figurative; this should not be confused as saying the Bible isn’t real or that it didn’t actually happen the way that it described, but that there are greater spiritual truths being discussed even through physical descriptions. He writes “His creation in six days is to set off and emphasize by contrast the seventh day, the Sabbath, and to highlight its purpose.” The climax of creation is indeed the creation of mankind, but the culmination of creation is the establishment of the Sabbath rest. The Sabbath was such an important part of Israelite culture that they were to not only observe the Sabbath day each week but an entire Sabbath year to rest the land; indeed, part of the prophets’ reasons for why Israel was taken into captivity was their failure to honor the Sabbath! In the New Testament, this theme of Sabbath rest is expanded in Hebrews 4:1-11 as a picture of the Sabbath rest that God’s people will enjoy in Heaven with Him. As Ward says, “the creation week was a figure for the Old Testament Sabbaths which were a figure for the final Sabbath rest.”
So, the idea of a six-day creation certainly fits with the overall picture of the Bible, and there are multiple places where the Bible relies on the idea of a literal six-day creation. In Romans 5:12, Paul makes the point that the sin in Eden is what introduced death to the world – if the six days are ages of thousands or millions of years, that would indicate that there was no death for this great length of time. Even a precursory knowledge of fossil records indicates that this would mean a huge gap in the Earth’s soil levels where there were simply no fossils of dead plants or animals, and there are no such things. This is a hard point to overcome for an age-day argument.
So why is this discussion of days and ages important? One of the temptations that can face Christians in these discussions is to water down the truth of God’s Word in favor of a hybridization between the Bible and Science. This often takes the form of “Old Earth” creationism ideas where the six days of creation are stretched out into millions of years. Please don’t misunderstand: there are faithful brethren that have wrestled with the text of Genesis 1 and have found difficulties with the standard “days” explanation, and this is not meant to diminish someone who reads this passage faithfully and comes out with a different view. What is dangerous, however, is when we seek to appease skeptics of the Bible by arguing for something we don’t genuinely see in the text. One scholar wrote “Whenever there is apparent conflict between the conclusions of the scientist and the conclusions of the theologian…the theologian must rethink its interpretation of the Scriptures at these points in such a way as to bring it into harmony with the general consensus of scientific opinion on these matters, since the Bible is not a textbook on science, and these problems overlap the territory in which science alone must give us the detailed and authoritative answers.” This is a dangerous attitude because it seeks to circumvent the authority and truth of what God has said in favor of mankind’s knowledge on the basis.
As an example of this fallacy, one of the problems with some “Old Earth” creationism is that they seek to argue that traditional scientific beliefs about evolution and traditional religious beliefs about creation can be melded together into a hybrid belief: the six days become the millions of years where animals and plants evolved as traditionally argued by Darwinists, and Genesis records these evolutions as “days” of creation. The problem with this type of hybridization is that it’s inherently contradictory. While science argues the sun was created before the earth, Genesis has the earth before the sun. Science argues that liquid water came long after the formation of landmasses, while Genesis has the sea before the dry land. On and on this could go, but the point is that this type of explanation falls short of both the traditional scientific explanation AND the traditional Biblical explanation. In seeking to appease both groups, the Christian merely succeeded in diluting both into a lukewarm mess.
Now, the reality is that the age of the Earth is ultimately a very unimportant discussion from a Biblical perspective; not a single author is concerned with answering the question, which means that God has not deemed this an important issue for mankind to have settled. So, we can certainly have disagreements on the age of the Earth and still be united in the important truths of God’s Word. The caution, however, should be given: regardless of the conclusion we come to on an issue like the age of the Earth, the process of how we answer questions like these is important. If one concludes that the days of Genesis 1 are ages through honest and diligent study, so be it! We can happily live and walk together even in disagreement over such things. If one concludes that the days of Genesis 1 are ages because they seek to fit in with the world and avoid conflict over standing for God’s truth, then there is a far greater issue. We all continue to grow in our understanding of God’s Word, and we will certainly encounter disagreements as we do so. What we must prioritize, though, is that we approach God’s Word with reverence and respect. If God’s Word and man’s knowledge come into conflict, we must have the faith and trust in God to stand by Him rather than with the World!
