Much discussion has generated from the first chapter of Genesis. One of the heated debates involves the “six days” of creation. Are these days literal, twenty-four hour days, or are they “ages” or “periods of time?” Often, 2 Peter 3:8 (“one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”) is used to justify a non-literal interpretation of the word “day” in Genesis. Is this exegetically accurate? Or is it a compromise offered by theistic evolutionists in an attempt to academically market their watered-down creation substitute?
An essential element in the evolutionary theory is the necessity of a long period of time – an old earth. Some who try to harmonize science (“science falsely so called,” one might add – 1 Timothy 6:20) and the Bible, do so through the “day-age theory.” This teaching, or perhaps more correctly, philosophy, claims that the days of Genesis 1 are not to be taken literally, but are actually long periods of time, corresponding to the major periods of evolution. It is important to note that much of the creation–evolution debate has focused on “science.” Often one foundational “religious” implication is ignored. If evolution is true, man is accountable to no one. If creation is true, man is accountable to the Creator.
First, consider 2 Peter 3:8 “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Richard Niessen declares 2 Peter 3:8 “was never intended to be a mathematical formula.” Henry Morris argues this verse “has been badly misapplied when used to teach the day-age theory. In the context, it teaches exactly the opposite, and one should remember that ‘a text without a context is a pretext.’” John Phillips commenting on this verse, says, “God, by contrast, gathers all of time, past and future, into an eternal present tense.”
Another consideration, mentioned simply as a side note, is that the compromise of theistic evolution is of very little benefit. On the one hand, evolution is an anti-God system, which is not going to embrace theistic evolution, even when it compromises in an attempt to make itself palatable with the evolution crowd. On the other hand, the time requirement necessitated by evolution is billions of years, not thousands. Thus, according to this view 2 Peter 3:8 should read, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a billion years, and a billion years as one day.”
Several arguments should clarify the meaning of the word “day” in Genesis 1. First, the word “day” occurs well over two thousand times in the Bible. In 95% of those occurrences the word is used literally. Richard Niessen further states, “The word ‘day’ appears over 200 times in the Old Testament with numbers (i.e., first day, second day, etc.). In every single case, without exception, it refers to a 24-hour day.”
Another consideration is the use of the phrase “the evening and the morning.” This phrase occurs six times in Genesis 1 (vv. 5, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31). It is used to describe each of the six days of creation. For the sake of argument, assume the “days” of Genesis 1 represent a period of one billion years. If the age-day theory is correct, that would mean that each one billion year long “day” would be followed by a one billion year long night. Mark Van Bebber and Paul S. Taylor state “When the phrase ‘evening and morning’ is coupled with a numbered modifier and the word ‘yom’, there is no stronger way of specifying a normal day. We understand that Genesis is describing six Earth rotations, not an unspecified period of billions of years.”
Niessen submits that the Reformers (Luther, Calvin, etc.) and the church fathers (with the exception of Origen and Clement of Alexandria) believed in a literal six-day creation. He submits further the Jewish rabbis held that position, “The Talmudic literature contains commentaries on virtually every passage in the Old Testament. The liberties they take in interpreting some passages boggle the imagination and yet one thing is certain: they are unanimous in accepting a normal, 24-hour day for Genesis 1.”
One final evidence to consider is the passage in Exodus 20, where the Ten Commandments are given. Verses 8-11 read, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” It is obvious that a careful reading and study of the Scriptures themselves would lead to the understanding of a literal, 24-hour day.
Pattle P.T. Pun submits, on the six days of creation “It is apparent that the most straightforward understanding of the Genesis record, without regard to all of the hermeneutical considerations suggested by science, is that God created heaven and earth in six solar days, that man was created in the sixth day, that death and chaos entered the world after the Fall of Adam and Eve, that all of the fossils were the result of the catastrophic universal deluge which spared only Noah’s family and the animals therewith.” (Pun, Pattle P. T., A Theology of Progressive Creationism, Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, Vol. 39, No. 1, March 1987.)
Henry Morris summarizes, in “Scientific Creationism,” “The most serious fallacy in the day-age theory is that it impugns the character of God.” In conclusion, the “days” recorded in Genesis 1 are literal, twenty-four hour days. God has created the world and man, just as He said. And we are not here by chance, but are accountable to Him as Romans 14:12 states, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”
