Was the creation of the world in 7 literal days?
A fair question to an open and fair-minded person. Should scientific discoveries and theory be dismissed out of hand if it appears not to support a literal reading of the Bible record?
No doubt there will be thoughts and considerations proffered to these questions. But let’s see what we can glean by a careful study of the Bible account.
The Genesis 1 account
The Bible record provides the following sequence of creation:
- by the end of Day 1 Light – divided the darkness
- by the end of Day 2 Sky (air) atmosphere
- by the end of Day 3 Dry land and seas; vegetation
- by the end of Day 4 Sun, moon and stars => time starts and seasonal changes obvious
- by the end of Day 5 Water life and air life
- by the end of Day 6 Land animals and mankind
- Day 7 God rested
At the end of each creative episode of God there are the words: And the evening and morning were the first [2nd,3rd,4th,5th,6th] day. [Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31]
Over time a number of considerations have developed to explain the creation account as recorded in Genesis 1. This is a list of those considerations, in no particular order:
Option 1: It was six 24-hour days. (Starting at 4004BC) (Literal-day theory)
Option 2: It was six 24-hours days but there were large periods of time between each day (Gap Theory).
Option 3: Each day was an undefined period of time. (Day-age theory)
Option 4: Each day was an undefined period of time and God used evolution to bring about the existence of all living creatures. (Theistic evolutionist theory)
Option 5: The days refer to the days that God revealed to Moses how He created all things. Thus, it is just the days in Moses’ life. (Revelatory-day theory)
Option 6: As God spoke the Word it all happened in an instant unmeasurable time frame.
Option 7: Each day of creation was 1000 years. (Millennial-day theory)
Each of the above considerations hinge on the meaning of the word day. According to Strong’s Exhaustive concordance of the Bible, the Hebrew meaning of the word day or yowm is; the warm hours of a day from sunrise to sunset; a space of time defined by an associated term; an age. So, depending on your bent you could proffer your case based on this definition.
So, When did God create all things?
Well, how long did the yowm last? 24 hours or 24 million years? How long between the end of the first yowm and start of the second yowm? God’s Word does not give us a direct answer to these questions but if we look at the meaning of the word for day, we can see it was 6 periods of time, whether they be 24 hours or 24 years or 24 million years.
No matter what the answer is or what view you take it is incidental as the importance is in the fact that God did create all things. Hebrew 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
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[1] See article on Was Adam the first person?