The Meaning of the Days of Creation in Genesis One
A matter that weighs heavily between the science world and the biblical world is the meaning of the ?days? of creation in Genesis 1. Are God?s creative days to be taken as long periods of time, eons, or short periods of time, i.e. 24 hours? We will examine the biblical evidence for possibly applying a long-term definition to the word, ?day? in English, yom in Hebrew, and see that in the Bible; it is all a matter of timing. Remember the article by Pinnock; we must not let our long-standing presuppositions fog our objective look at the issue.
After God divided the light from the darkness, ?God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day? (Gen. 1:5). For Moses, was it his intention to convey a day?s period of time in this and succeeding passages in exactly the same measure as a man?s day? Or was a day of God?s time intended, which could contrast as sharply from our measure, as man in the flesh contrasts against God Himself? As we saw in class, the stages of God?s creation are written in sequence. The first day began when the sun was created and the first bright light struck the planet Earth. On the second day, the Lord divided the waters; vapor or mist was in the air, and water covered the surface. Dry land and vegetation were created on the third day. The sun, moon, and stars were designated created on the fourth day. Day five was devoted to creating the world?s fish and fowl flying creatures. Land animals came on the scene, and man was created on day six. The Lord rested on the seventh day, signaling his completeness and his favor on His work. Next we come to the question of the hour, what were the actual time...
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...Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), 7.
4. Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids: The Zondervan Corporation, 1982), 63.
5. Ross, Hugh
6. William Wilson, Old Testament Word Studies (McLean: MacDonald Publishing Co., 1978), 109.
7. Pattle P. T. Pun, Evolution: Nature and Scripture in Conflict? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), 269.
8. Morris, The Genesis Record, 55.
9. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, 61.
10. Perry G. Phillips, ?Are the Days of Genesis Longer than 24 hours? The Bible Says Yes!? IBRI Research Report No. 40 (1991), 3.
11. Morris, The Genesis Record, 79.
12. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, 68.
13. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, 62.
14. J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., A Systemic Theology of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids:The Zondervan Corporation, 1962), 1:144-5.
Chapter 3, The Bible, Creation, and Science by Robert Branson, PhD presented some interesting aspects of biblical interpretations relative to science. “With the rapid changes and developments that all areas of modern science produce, it is a general belief that if an informed person is made to choose between science or the Bible, science will be chosen.” (loc 647 Kindle, Branson) Dr. Branson tries and explain the three positions people take with biblical studies. The three positions examined by Dr. Branson are 1. Concordance, 2. Young-Earth Creati...
... defines the scriptural meaning of the word “day” and explores its usage throughout the Scriptures to provide evidence for a literal six day creation. MacArthur dispels the notion that each day was a long period of time, an idea held by old-earth creationist, through scriptural insight that “whenever the word [day] is modified by a number the clear reference is to a normal solar day” (40). To MacArthur the word day marks “clearly defined boundaries” instead of indeterminate span of time (39). MacArthur beautifully challenges his readers to see that the purpose of Scriptural account of creation is to reveal an infinitely powerful God, who created everything perfectly in a short period of time (41).
Mark Driscoll, the Pastor at Mars Hill, discusses six different views in his article, “What are the Various Views on Creation?” They are Historic and Young-Earth Creationism, the Gap Theory, the Literary Framework View, the Day-Age View and the Theistic Evolution. In each of these views, Driscoll discusses the age of the earth and the amount of time it took God to create the earth. I believe the Historic Creationism is more scriptural. Genesis 1:1 is self-explanatory when it states, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”. There was no time frame listed.
middle of paper ... ... Works Cited The Bible. The Bible. NIV. Freidel, Frank.
The Original Context Summary: Genesis 1: 1- 32 is the story of Creation. It is defined as either a Historic and/or poetic narrative. The narrative was written to tell the story of how God had created the world we live in today. “Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath” is the chapter title and it goes on to give details of what was created on each of the six days. Each day the world had gotten better and more useful. The first day god created the earth and made day and night. The second day he made the sky. The third day he separated the land and sea. The fourth day God created the Sun, Stars and Moon. The fifth day God created animals for the sea and air. The last day was the sixth day and god created animals for the dry land as well as the first
Inc. Doctrine of the Person of Christ. Volume II. 1970. The. Gruden, Wayne. Systematic Theology.
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Publishing House, 1961). Dummelow, J.R.; ed., pp. 113- The One Volume Bible Commentary (New York: The Macmillan). Company, 1957)..
A Natural Theology for Our Time, Charles Hartshorne, La Salle, Ill. Open Court, 1967, pp. 116-20
Paley, William. “Natural Theology,” in Introduction to Philosophy. 6th edition. Perry, Bratman, and Fischer. Oxford University Press. 2013, pp. 47-51.
The book of Genesis describes the creation of the world in six days and talks about the first humans Adam and Eve.
" Christianity & Literature 58.1 (2008): 81-92. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Fienberg, Lorne. "
In Genesis I, God creates an orderly natural universe. He separates and categorizes everything he creates. For instance, he separates the seventh day from all the others. This suggests that everything in the universe has its proper place and will follow its regular path. In addition, the cosmos is purposeful and unified. What is created each day depends upon what was previously created. Those things created on the fourth through sixth days are dependant on those things created on the first through third days. For instance, air, water, birds, and fish are dependant on light, sun, moon, and stars, and land, vegetation, animals, and mankind are dependant among air, water, birds, and fish as well as light, sun, moon and stars. This suggests God created things in the world to fit together in an orderly and hierarchical fashion. Things are creat...
Kerr, H. (1990). Readings in christian thought (2nd ed.). H. T. Kerr (Ed.). Nashville: Abingdon Press.
Genesis 1 is titled “The Beginning” discussing how the earth was formed. The very first paragraph discusses God creating the heavens and the earth. This includes the whole frame and furniture of the universe. As Christians, their duty is to keep heaven in their eyes and the earth under their feet. The earth was made empty and formless. God decided the earth was so shapeless that he needed to create light and darkness to separate day from night. God saw that the light was good and would call the light “day”, and the darkness would represent “night”. Light was seen as the great beauty and blessing of the universe. The light was made purely by the word of God’s power. God saw the light as good, exactly how he designed it. Light was fit to answer the end for which he designed it. He had simply said, let there be light and it was done, there was light. This is how the separation of day and night was created by God, never allowing them to be joined together.