Mission: Imperative!
At a convention recently, Carrie was talking to a young woman who told her that she had grown up being taught “all of that creation stuff”, having also watched many videos from various creation groups. Yet, she was at a total loss as to how to answer her friend who was critical of the literal, 6-day creation perspective. This illustrates a basic problem that many of us have: We know what we believe, but don’t know how to defend it.
We thought it might be a good idea to return briefly to the basics of the 6-day creation concept –how we know that it’s true, and why it’s important. However, there is something to remember as we revisit the topic: this is not a “salvation issue”. A person’s eternal destiny is not determined by what he/she believes about how long it took God to create. It is, however, an “authority of the Word of God” issue. God does not need billions of years to create something, and His word reflects no such time frame. The evolution model must have billions of years –it’s the main ingredient in the “recipe”.
Some people believe that there were too many events on creation day #6 for it to have been just a 24-hour day.
Let’s imagine that Day #6 was 1 million years
Now, when we consider all that God made during that day, let’s say that God made Adam later in the day, perhaps at “noon”, right in the middle of the period. Therefore, during the “morning” (500,000 years) God made all the land animals, and then Adam at noon.
Then, in the “afternoon” He moved Adam to the Garden of Eden and gave him instructions. Then, Adam named the animals that God brought to him and having completed this job, God put him to sleep and created Eve. These are the events of day #6.
Now, if day #6 was a million years, and if we divide the million-year “day” into 24 equal periods (like a day has 24 equal hours), the problems become clear. The Bible states that Adam lived 930 years. If so, then he would have died 1 minute and 20 seconds after he was made! (If he was made at noon, he would have died at 12:01:20pm!)
However, the Bible states that sin entered the world through Adam, so if Adam was made and lived and died on day #6, that would mean that sin entered the world on day #6, right? But that can’t be, because according to Genesis 1:31, as the sixth day ends, everything is still “very good”!
Sin cannot be considered “very good”, so the only logical conclusion is that it couldn’t possibly have been a long time period. It was simply –a day. If we insist on a long period, then we’d have to compromise other portions of the Bible. We’d have to conclude, for example, that Adam didn’t live 930 years, or that he didn’t sin, or that the sixth day did not end “very good”, etc.
The issue is further made plain for us in Exodus 20:8-11 where God makes the clear statement that the Jewish people are to work for six days and rest on the seventh. Why? Because God says that He himself laid the pattern down by doing exactly that when He created the world.
Also, if the writer of Genesis, Moses, had really intended to convey the idea that these creation days were very long periods of time, there are other Hebrew words he could have used that would have been much clearer. Why didn’t he use them instead?
Furthermore, there are several other issues to consider: 1) The Hebrew word “yom” is used here for “day”. In context, this word ONLY refers to a 24-hour period. 2) Psalm 33:9 gives us a great definition of creation. God “spoke”, and it came to be! No long periods to get the act to work! This is just like His miracles –they were instantaneous and perfect. Why would His creative acts be any different? 3) If creation days were millions of years, what pollinated the plants before insects arrived?
The list goes on. The problem is not with the Bible, which is clear on the issue. The problem develops when we try to mix what the world’s system teaches with the Word of God. The two don’t mix!
