Creation and Time – Part 1

 Creationism, ah you said the nasty word!  Watch out!  This is a short series on how a Christian can interpret the bible.  Based on my research and thoughts there are several easily understandable passages that may help you to form a basis for what God intended and/or revealed through His word.

I’ll start with “days” as referenced in Genesis and other places.  This has traditionally been a hot topic where over the years there have been gap theories, ideas that a day is not a day, and the literal definition of a 24 hour day.  For this series, I will stick to a traditional, literal approach to form my logic.  I think you will find it reasonable, yet controversial.

“In the beginning….” God did lots of stuff!  I love the word ’stuff’, it sure helps to condense a lot of reading.  Ha!  Moving on… God is portrayed as creating various aspects of our universe over specific “days”.  The written language uses the word YOM which means “24 hour day” in the context of Genesis**.  I will not go into all the details, but throughout the bible, whenever YOM is used in conjunction with a time period (…the third day) or noting a beginning or end (…And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day) it is always a 24 hour time period.  I’m no theologian so permit me some leeway if some of my thoughts are a little off, but in my studies, this is how I recall the YOM conversations.

So we have a precident that has been set over the ages and we must choose to believe that God created based on these “rules”, or we must choose to believe “man’s ideas” are superior.  As a Christian, I know man is imperfect, I know man is corrupt, I know man is full of pride.  Now, if you don’t believe the bible is God’s word, then why in the world are you still reading this!  That is a basic assumption in this series.  The bible is the Word of God.

Now, the last part of today’s blog is from Exodus.

^8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ^9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ^10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ^11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  (The Holy Bible : NIV Ex 20:8-11)

To me this passage is great!  It’s a clear reference to Genesis that reclaims that God created in six 24 hour days.  The same word YOM is used here and the reference is clear.  I will also proclaim that God is all powerful, and there is no question that he could create whatever he wanted in whatever time period he wanted.  It seems clear he chose to model a work week so we would have a guide.  This makes sense since the bible repeatedly calls us to model our lives after how Jesus lived his life.  Doesn’t it make sense that God would take the first step and model something for us to follow and not lie, be unclear, nor be deceitful about what he did?

Oh, and as for man’s ideas, if each “day” was an eon, then how did the flowers and trees get pollinated?  Wind could do it some, but the primary mechanism to pollination is…………Insects!!!  The birds and the bees were created on a different day than vegetation.  I’m sure after an eon of failed pollination, most vegetation would have been dead.  OR, if only the plants that DIDN’T need pollination ‘evolved’, then what would be the need for the hummingbirds and the bees or butterflies?  Just some thoughts that shoot down some “day” theories rather quickly.  More on days in Part 2.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about “a day is like a thousand years” and start to delve into what Jesus said about Genesis.

Peace in Christ!

Jeff

**YOM :3427 I. יוֹם (yôm): n.masc.; ≡ Str 3117; TWOT 852—1. LN 67.163-67.200 day, i.e., a unit of time reckoned from sunset to the next sunset, including two or more segments (morning and evening) about 24 hours (Ge 1:5), cf. also 3429