Quote:
Originally Posted by houston
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
I never noticed (until now) that every day of creation is followed with "And the evening and the morning were the [insert numerical value] day. "
So, even though "day" can mean an unspecified amount of time, the text (in English) does not allow us to make that conclusion.
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I think the more we look at Genesis there is no other good hermeneutic alternative except that the days are literal "24 hour" days, for precisely the same reasons you list.
1)Day is defined in
Genesis 1 as consisting of light and darkness (evening and morning)
2)The days in Genesis are given a numerical value, further strengthening the argument for literal days
in addition to this
3)Every time the creation account is referred to in scripture, it is referred to as a literal historical event. Granted there are times in which spiritual lessons are taught from
Genesis 1 (such as
2 Corinthians 4:6).
4)Jesus himself referred to the creation account as literal, as did all NT writers, and traced the "beginning" back to the creation week, in particular day 6 (
Mark 10:6). This should have some serious weight if Jesus is who we believe Him to be, he certainly could have clarified the issue:
John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him:
17 And he is before all things, and
by him all things consist.
5)IF God is indeed infinite in power and wisdom, is eternal, and time itself is simply a creation of His, why do we think 6 days is too brief a time period for Him to create the universe? Especially if His Word alone is powerful enough to speak things into existence (
Genesis 1:3,
Psalm 33:6)? He didn't need 6 days, he didn't even need 1 hour. He is mighty and able to do anything He wants as He wants. And will do so again in when he creates all things anew, which is an instantaneous act, not an act which takes hundreds, thousands, or millions of years. Beyond all of this, the only scripture that we have, which is said to come directly from the hand of God, the scripture engraved on the tablets given to Moses, contains an first hand account of creation given by God himself:
Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 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:
11 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.
I think there are a lot of good reasons to affirm the literal account of Genesis, especially if someone affirms the inspiration and authority of the scriptures (and ESPECIALLY so if they affirm the inerrancy of the scriptures). IF you notice the large majority of arguments made by theistic evolutionists/progressive creationists ALWAYS center around and are based on scientific theories, such as red shift, c-14 dating, the geological column, etc. They do not make their case from the scripture, they spend their whole time trying to explain away scriptures which plainly refute their conclusions in much the same way the universalist will attempt to explain away/redefine scriptures such as
Matthew 25:41. Its the same tactic, just another subject. The whole argument always comes back to the inspiration, inerrancy, and authority of the Word of God. And as always, the Word of God is assailed generation by generation, and continually emerges triumphant. If evolution was true, the Scopes monkey trial of the 1920's would have been the final nail in the coffin. Instead, the more technologically advanced we become, and the things that can be tested by true science (such as DNA) continually point toward an all wise designer.
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