Should the 7 days of creation be taken as literal 24 hour days? If we apply the principles of taking the scripture literally then we will find that the book of Genesis is an historical account of the creation of the universe. What has happened over the course of the last couple of hundred years is that the theory of evolution has crept in and many scholars have tried to bend scripture to support this theory.
What does the Bible say about creation? Genesis 1-2 gives the creation account. At the end of each day of creation it is qualified with the statement “the evening and the morning were the x day.” Genesis 1:3-5 says “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
Here we see the word day which in the Hebrew is Yom. Yom could mean a 24 hour day or refer to an age as in “in that day” or “the day of the Lord”. So how can we tell when Yom means a 24 hour day? Anytime Yom (Day) is also used with the phrase evening and morning it means a 24 hour day. Also, anytime a number is used with Yom (Day) it means a 24 hour day. When the Bible says that “the evening and the morning were the first day” the “first” in front of day signify this is talking about a literal 24 hour day. What is interesting in Genesis 1 is that each day of creation has evening and morning along with the number just to make double sure the reader understands the word Yom (Day) means a literal 24 hour day.
Why do so many people try to refute this and make the word Yom (Day) mean day as in long ages or periods of time? Since the emergence of the idea of evolution came about, there became a conflict with what evolution teaches versus what the Bible teaches. So, is evolution really a true fact and we somehow have to bend scripture to fit this or has scripture been right all along? This is a topic that could fill volumes but if we look closely at evolution, We can see that it is really just a world view to fit a narrative without God. There is no scientific fact that can back up the creation of our universe through evolution. Just on the surface we would have to believe that something came from nothing by itself and that is impossible. Another reason evolution is just a world view is because it is not something that can be observed or repeated following the scientific method. No one was there to witness creation and we don’t see evolution of one family of animal to another today. The discussion on evolution vs creation will be the topic of a future article as there is way more information that can be covered.
The purpose of this article is to focus on what the Bible says about creation and it taking place in 6 literal days. If you would like more information on this a good resource from Answers in Genesis can be found here. Please take a moment to read through their information as it really expands and explains all of this very well.
0 Comments