First day of
Creation
“And
God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the
darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And
the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen 1:4-5).
The phrase “first day” was
translated from the Hebrew yom echad,
which literally signifies “day one” or “one day.” (“First day” is yom hari’shon.) The succeeding days of
creation, though, have been written in Hebrew as “second day,” “third day,” and
so forth.
The
course of the first day is exactly the opposite of the way we reckon the
passage of a day today, which begins in the morning. The first day began in the
evening. For this reason, and in obedience to the commandments of God (Lev 23:32 ; Ex 12:18 ), Jews have always marked the start of a
24-hour day at sunset, ending at sunset of the following day.
However,
the first day, if we reread the passage, ended in the morning. It did not
continue through noon and
finally come to a close at the start of another evening. So, the first “day”
was just a 12-hour period from evening to morning, a time of darkness. It is
logical that God did His first creative act in darkness, because there was
darkness before light, but did He also work in darkness for the next several
days of the Creation “week”? Scripture suggests that ever since He created
light, God has always worked in the light (1 John 1:5-7).
Period of inactivity?
Ralph
Woodrow’s research clarifies things for us: “The word that is translated ‘were’ in the expression ‘the evening and the morning were the first
day’, the second day, the third day, etc., is hayah (Strong’s Concordance,
#1961). It appears many times in the Bible and has been translated a variety of
ways. In the references (that follow) it is translated ‘follow’ or ‘followed’: Ex
21:22 – ‘yet no mischief follow’; 21:23 – ‘if any mischief follow’; 23:2 – ‘thou shalt not follow a multitude’; Deut. 18:22 – ‘if
the thing follow not’; 2 Sam. 2:10
– ‘Judah 16:21
– ‘the people followed Tibni.’
“If
we apply this translation in Genesis 1, we would have: ‘And the evening and the morning followed the first day… and the evening
and the morning followed the second day… and the evening and the morning followed
the third day.’ This would give a good sense to the passage and allow it to
flow in a logical sequence.”62
It
becomes clear as day, pardon the expression, that the phrase “the evening and the morning” does not
denote a full Creation “day,” but instead indicates an inactive second period
following the active first half of each of God’s creative “days.” Thus, the
creation of light made up the daylight half of the first day, followed by a
second half of darkness – a time of inactivity. The next five “days” apparently
followed this pattern: God worked during daylight, then stopped when evening
came.
When was the first
“day”?
According
to some Jewish rabbis, Adam was created on the first day of Tishri -- the first
month of the Jewish civil year, which begins in the evening of the first new
moon of autumn in late September or early October.
Archbishop
James Ussher (1581-1656) of Armagh ,
Ireland October
23, 4004 B.C.64 The astronomer Johannes Kepler
disagreed, he believed creation began in the spring.
In
1654 John Lightfoot refined Archbishop Ussher's calculation of the first day of
creation to an extreme degree of precision: 9:00 A.M. , October 26, 4004 B.C. in the Julian calendar, in
Mesopotamia.65
In
2005, Prophecy in the News
editor-publisher J.R.
Church September 25, 4004 B.C. , a Sunday, the first day of the
week.66
How long is a “day”?
The Genesis account narrates that
God began to create heaven and earth on the first “day.” However,
interpretations of the word “day”
vary considerably. The International
Standard Bible Encyclopaedia informs us, “the word is used in several
different senses in the English Bible…
“(1) It sometimes means the time
from daylight till dark…
“(2) Day also means a period of 24
hours, or the time from sunset to sunset… (…where night is put before day)…
“(3) The word ‘day’ is also used
of an indefinite period, e.g ‘the day’ or ‘day that’ means in general ‘that
time’ (see Gen 2:4; Lev 14:2); ‘day of trouble’ (Ps 20:1); ‘day of his wrath’
(Job 20:28); ‘day of (the LORD,’ Isa 2:12); ‘day of the Lord’ (1 Cor 5:5; 1
Thess 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10); ‘day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2); ‘day of Jesus Christ’
(Phil 1:6).
“(4) It is used figuratively also
in John 9:4, where ‘while it is day’ means ‘while I have opportunity to work,
as daytime is the time for work’…
“(5) We must also bear in mind
that with God time is not reckoned as with us (see Ps 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8).
“(6) The apocalyptic use of the
word ‘day’ in Dan 12:11 ; Rev 2:10 , etc., is difficult to
define. It evidently does not
mean a natural day…
“(7) On the meaning of ‘day’ in
the story of Creation we note (a) the word ‘day’ is used of the whole
period of creation (Gen 2:4); (b) these days are days of God… the whole
age or period of salvation is
called ‘the day of salvation’; see above. So we believe that in harmony with
Bible usage we may understand the creative days as creative periods…”67 (Underscoring by the author.)
The wise men of Israel
Over the last two hundred years, differing
schools of thought have polarized believers concerning the actual length of each
“day” of the Creation “week,” leading to the formation of separate camps: Young
Earth and Old Earth Creationists…
Young Earth
Creationism
Young
Earth Creationists are traditionalists who believe that, based on the Biblical
narrative, the universe today is no older than a little over 6,000 or 12,000
years. They advocate two different interpretations of Creation “days”: Literal
24-Hour Days and Thousand-Year “Days.”
Literal 24-Hour Days.
Adherents
of this belief hold that each set of “evening
and morning” in the Genesis account constituted one literal 24-hour day.
Hence, if we add the six days of creation to the time that has elapsed from
4004 B.C. until the present, the universe today is just a little over 6,000
years old.
No sunset, no sunrise.
Detractors argue
that the “evening and morning” cannot
possibly be literal, since they are characterized by the setting and rising of
the sun, which had not yet been created on the first “day.” The rotation of the
earth around its axis cannot be cited, either, because Genesis 1:6-8 infers
that the Earth’s sphere formed only on the second “day,” with the appearance of
the firmament or vault of the sky. Besides, the earth has not always rotated
around its axis in 24 hours. In conformity with the laws of nature, after
gravitational attraction caused the gases and dust that would form the Earth to
agglomerate, the planetesimals rotated very slowly at first, before gradually
gaining momentum as the new planet solidified.
Further,
if those were literal 24-hour days, why were no parts of the day ever mentioned
when several entities were created in succession – say, grass in the morning,
herbs at noon , trees in the
afternoon?
Thousand-Year “Days.”
A second Young Earth belief holds
that each creation “day” is one millennium, or a period of 1,000 years, based
on two passages in the Bible: (1) “For a
thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a
watch in the night” (Ps 90:4); and (2) “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” (2 Pet 3:8).
If
we add the 6,000 years of the first six “days” to the 6,000 years that have
gone by since the creation of Adam in 4004 B.C., the universe would be about
12,000 years old today, as illustrated below:
Thousand-Year “Days”
Chronology
(1
Creation “Day” = 1,000 Years)
Day
|
Years ago
|
Period
(approx.)/Entity(ies) created
|
1
|
12,000-11,000
|
10,000-9000 B.C.; light
|
2
|
11,000-10,000
|
9000-8000 B.C.; firmament, waters above/below
|
3
|
10,000-9,000
|
8000-7000 B.C.; grass, herbs, trees
|
4
|
9,000-8,000
|
7000-6000 B.C.; sun, moon, stars
|
5
|
8,000-7,000
|
6000-5000 B.C.; sea creatures, flying creatures
|
6
|
7,000-6,000
|
5000-4000 B.C.; land animals, creeping things, man
|
7
|
6,000-5,000
|
4000-3000 B.C. (God’s day of rest)
|
8
|
5,000-4,000
|
3000-2000 B.C.
|
9
|
4,000-3,000
|
2000-1000 B.C.
|
10
|
3,000-2,000
|
1000-1 B.C.
|
11
|
2,000-1,000
|
1-1000 A.D.
|
12
|
1,000-recent
|
1000-2000 A.D.
|
Total:
12,000
|
||
13
|
Present-
|
2000-3000 A.D. (man’s Millennium rest)
|
14
|
3000-4000 A.D. (God’s next day of rest)
|
NOTE:
God created Adam in 4004 B.C., part of Day 6 (Ussher’s Chronology).
Out-of-place Sabbath. The Thousand-Year “Days”
Chronology entails at least one major difficulty: God’s Sabbath rest on the
seventh “day” (the seventh 1,000 years after the first six “days” or 6,000
years). During that supposed period of rest, God actively interacted with Cain
and Abel, Enoch, and others. God’s seventh-day Sabbath thus appears out-of-place
in the Thousand-Year “Days” timeline. Further, God’s next Sabbath rest would
not coincide with man’s coming Millennial rest (about 2000-3000 A.D.). God’s
rest would be in the next 1,000-year period yet (around 3000-4000 A.D.). This
means God would not have any active dealings with man during that 1,000-year
period, contrary to Biblical prophecy.
Light from the
stars. If the Earth
is only 6,000–12,000 years old, we cannot see light from stars hundreds of
thousands or millions of light-years away. Although light is the fastest thing
in the universe, it covers less than 6 trillion miles (10 trillion km.) in one
year (1 light-year). Light from a star that is, say, one million light-years
away will become visible on Earth only after one million years. In 1987,
astronomers spotted a supernova (exploding star, SN 1987A) about 170,000
light-years away. That means the explosion took place 170,000 years ago,
something they could not have seen if the Earth is just 6,000-12,000 years old.
“Time dilation.” In 1994, nuclear physicist D. Russell
Humphreys, a Young Earth Creationist, published his book Starlight and Time to prove otherwise. He built his case around “an effect in general relativity called gravitational
time dilation…” He explains: “Experiment and Einstein's theory agree that time
and all physical processes run more slowly in areas which are lower in a
gravitational field than in areas which are higher… the expanding universe was
at a critical size (about fifty times smaller than it is now)… during the
fourth day of Creation Week. While one ordinary day was elapsing on earth,
billions of years worth of physical processes were taking place in distant
parts of the universe.” Humphreys postulates that time elapsed very rapidly at the
outer edges, but was virtually at a standstill at and near the center.69
“This allows starlight from even the most distant star to arrive during or soon
after the fourth day, the same day God created all the stars.”70
Bottom
line: Relativity allows us to choose by which clock to tell the age of the universe,
as well as the time events occurred in it. Humphreys chose the one that tells time
in terms of the "earth's frame of reference, not some other frame." He
concludes that “the universe is young as measured by clocks on earth.”71
One
problem with the Humphreys scenario is its having two different locales. The
six 24-hour “days” transpired on Earth, while the billions of years elapsed in
the outermost reaches of the universe. The Starlight
and Time hypothesis falls short of explaining the apparent old age of
fossils and the Earth’s geological rock layers.
Billions of years?
Some
300 years ago, the new science of geology began shaking the foundations of
Young Earth Creationism by stating that the Earth is much older than 6,000
years, or even 12,000 years. Two landmark books were at the frontline: A New Theory of the Earth (1696) by
William Whiston and Theory of the Earth
(1785) by James Hutton, called the father of modern geology. By the end of
the 1800s, estimates of the age of the Earth were in hundreds of millions of
years.72
Catastrophism vs.
Uniformitarianism.
Until
the 19th century, most geologists explained the origins of rock
layers and other geological formations by saying that the earth had gone
through many sudden catastrophes -- the most recent being the Biblical Flood.
The doctrine was called “catastrophism.” In line with this view, the majority
of fossilized plants and animals being unearthed today were buried during the
Deluge about 4,350 years ago.
In
1830-1833, Scottish lawyer-turned-geologist Charles Lyell formed the idea of “uniformitarianism,”
explained in his Principles of Geology. Based
on the concepts he laid out, the Earth’s surface is constantly changing, and
geological features are the result of natural forces working slowly, but uniformly,
over vast ages. The idea has since become the cornerstone of the modern science
of geology.
“Stones and bones.”
By the 20th century,
cosmologists theorized, based on the estimated age of the oldest rocks, that
the Earth and its moon came from the same materials that formed the solar
system around 4.6 billion years ago.
In
addition, paleontologists have unearthed numerous petrified plants and animals
estimated to be millions and even billions of years old. Some of the most
spectacular bones are those of dinosaurs, which are thought to have dominated
the planet for some 120 million years before becoming extinct approximately 65
million years ago.
And
then there are the manlike remains in the fossil collection. If God created the
perfect man Adam on the sixth “day,” just 6,000-7,000 years ago, did He create
the evidently inferior subhumans just a few hours, or even a few hundred years,
earlier on the same “day”?
Sheep and dinosaurs.
The first land
animal specifically mentioned in the Bible is the sheep: “And Abel was a keeper of sheep…” (Gen 4:2b). If God created all
land animals on the same “day” 6,000-7,000 years ago, sheep and dinosaurs would
have lived alongside each other. But while there are still millions of sheep
today, dinosaurs (which should have devoured the sheep) have disappeared long
ago. And, because they have proven to be the more durable species, more sheep
than dinosaurs should be in the fossil record. But no sheep fossil has been reported
vis-à-vis numerous dinosaur remains.
Besides,
God gave all animals plants for food (Gen 1:30 ), allowing flesh-eating only after the Flood (Gen
9:3). When did some reptiles develop sharp teeth, claws, and other predatory
features to become carnivorous dinosaurs? Were some 1½ thousand years from
Creation enough for all those physical changes to develop before the dinosaurs
supposedly became extinct in the Flood? In contrast, there is no record of the
sheep ever having changed in the last 6,000 years. It looks clear the dinosaurs
appeared long before the sheep.
Old Earth
Creationism
Scientific
estimates pointing to an old Earth that was billions of years old divided Bible-believers.
Many worried 19th century churchmen felt the pressing need to
harmonize the Biblical six-day creation story and the scientifically reckoned ancient
age of the Earth.
Old
Earth Creationism emerged from the confusion. Its advocates hold that God
created the universe over immense ages spanning billions of years. By 1852,
American commentator William Hayden estimated that about 50% of all Christians,
to accept an old Earth without giving up their faith in the Bible, had adopted
either one of two teachings: (1) the “Gap Theory”; and (2) the “Day-Age Theory.”73
“Gap Theory.”
“Gappists”
claim there is a “gap” or time interval between the first two sentences of the
Bible: “1 In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth” and “2 And
the earth was without form, and void…” (Gen 1:1-2a). Their theory hinges
upon one simple word in verse 2, “was,”
the past tense of the verb “to be” (Hebrew hayah).
They argue that “hayah” can also be
translated “became.” Thus, verse 2 should read, “And the earth became without form, and void…” In short, the earth
was created in verse 1, but after an untold period was found in a ruined state in
verse 2. The unspecified span of time between verses 1 and 2 are taken to be
the geological ages arrived at by scientists. God then recreated the earth in
the next verses.
The
recent popularity of the Gap Theory is credited to 19th century
Scotsman Thomas Chalmers, who wrote about it in 1814. The concept, though, has
been around as early as the 2nd century A.D. when the Hebrew scribes
who composed the Onkelos Targum
translated Genesis 1:2 as “and the earth
was laid waste.”74 Church theologian Origen (186-254) wrote in
his commentary De Principiis that in
Genesis 1:2 the original earth had been “cast downwards.”75 Medieval
scholars, such as Dionysius Peavius and Pererius, also seriously considered a
time gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2.”76 The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge states
that “the Dutch scholar Simon Episcopius (1583-1643) taught that the earth had
originally been created before the six days of creation described in Genesis.
This was roughly 200 years before geology discovered evidence for the ancient
origin of earth.”77 In 1876, George Pember further publicized the
theory in his book, Earth’s Earliest Ages.
Cyrus
Scofield (1843-1921), in his Scofield Reference Bible, said the verb “was” in Genesis 1:2 can also be written
as “became.” The 1973-79 New International Version (NIV) had a note in the
margin saying, “Now the earth was (or
possibly became) formless and empty…” The
inclusion of a hint supporting the Gap Theory in Bibles used by millions all
over the world facilitated the widespread acceptance of the theory.
Many scenarios. The Gap scenario has many
versions. For lack of any proof text in the Bible, anyone can come up
with his or her own story of what happened. The Gappists have conjured many
fantastic tableaux. The freewheeling models present a world that pre-existed in
the distant, dateless past before verse 2, inhabited by manlike, but soul-less beings
whose fossils are being unearthed today. One elaborate narrative tells of a technologically
advanced civilization of angels and supermen who became evil under the
influence of Satan. After many ages, God destroyed their world in a cataclysm
called “Lucifer’s Flood.” The destruction is said to have produced the earth’s
geological strata and all the plant and animal fossils.
No Biblical basis. Hebrew expert Charles Taylor, in
an article entitled “The First 100 Words," explains that the word "was" has been translated from the
Hebrew verb form haythah. According
to the rules of Hebrew grammar, the word cannot be correctly rendered "became" as in the Gap version. For haythah to be translated as "became"
it must be preceded by a Hebrew preposition meaning "to."78
Further,
The Complete Word Study: Old Testament,
KJV says that the Hebrew construction of “verse two is disjunctive and is
describing the result of the creation described in verse one. It is not
describing the result of any judgment.”79
The Gap Theory, based on a single
presumed word (“became”), requires God to recreate everything from light to stars
to man. If a prior and original Creation truly took place, does not such a
grand act of the Creator deserve a richly detailed account? Evidently, all the
bizarre scenarios engendered by the Gap Theory have no Biblical basis.
“Day-Age” Theory.
In
1823, Anglican theologian George Stanley Faber introduced the Day-Age Theory, which
proposed that, while the creation account in the Bible is true, the “days” were
mere figures of speech and not ordinary 24-hour days – because the Hebrew word
for "day" (yom) can be
interpreted to mean an “age” or a long stretch of time. As the theory's name suggests,
each "day" was an “age.”
Day-Agers
claim that the sequence of events during the six Biblical “days" of
Creation generally match the cosmic and terrestrial stages that scientists today
theorize occurred during the birth and early development of the universe. The
Genesis account, they contend, is a simplified summary of the discoveries of modern
science, written in advance for an ancient, pre-scientific audience.
No death before sin?
Some of the most telling
evidences cited for an old Earth are the fossilized plants and animals
estimated to be tens, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of years old.
Young Earthers reject the age estimates for fossils on the belief that death
was unknown before Adam sinned, based on Paul’s epistles: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom 5:12). He even
stressed: “For the wages of sin is death…”
(Rom 6:23a). Adam’s disobedience was the sin that brought death into the
world. Since then, sinners must pay for their sins with their lives. Even
plants and animals, which cannot sin, supposedly started dying only after sin
came in about 6,000 years ago. Hence, no fossils are supposed to be older than
6,000 years.
Two kinds of death. Let us examine the context of
Romans 5:12 in a following verse: “Nevertheless,
death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who
did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam…” (Rom 5:14a, NIV). If “death reigned from the time of Adam to the
time of Moses” death should have ceased when Moses came! Yet, men continued
to die even after Moses, who himself died. What “death” was Paul talking about?
Christ
clarifies things for us: “And fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt 10:28 ). So, men can die two kinds of
death. Paul was talking about spiritual death, not physical death! Plants and
animals, which have no spirits and cannot sin, are exempt from spiritual death.
Author Hugh Ross (The Fingerprint of God,
1989) notes that by the word “death” Paul meant human spiritual death; not biological
death of either of humans or animals.80
A fact of life. God gave Adam and the animals “every herb bearing seed” and “fruit of a tree yielding seed” (Gen 1:29 -30) for food. What are the
implications? When man and animals ate herbs, the plants they ate died. And why
did God tell man and the animals to eat in the first place? Was not the reason
for them to become strong and healthy, and live long? Without eating they
would, according to the laws of nature God Himself had established, grow weak,
become sickly, and eventually die. Otherwise, God would not have told them to
eat at all. Plants also have to “eat” moisture and nutrients from the soil, and
light from the sun, or they, too, would waste away, wither, and die.
Furthermore,
why did God plant the tree of life in Eden Paradise .
Natural cycle. Birth and death, growth and
decay, creation and destruction seem to be the natural rhythmic cycle of the
universe. Matter and antimatter appear and mutually annihilate. Stars are born
and die. Oxford
The
wisdom of the Holy Scriptures declares: “To
every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die… (Eccl
3:1-2a).
Non-salvation issue
Belief
in either a Young Earth or an Old Earth is a non-salvation issue. Charles Hodge
(1779-1878), Presbyterian theologian at Princeton Seminary, taught that one’s
belief in the age of the earth was of no consequence to spiritual salvation. He
first embraced the Gap Theory, then shifted to the Day-Age doctrine towards the
end of his life.82 Therefore, you may believe that the universe has
been created in just six 24-hour days, or 6,000 years, or over millions and
billions of years, and still be saved spiritually. Whatever timeline we believe
in, at the end of the day, no pun intended, we are saved if we “keep the commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev
12:17 ; cf. 14:12 ).
The
two camps, and their sub-groups, should not be regarded as adversaries. They
are actually on the same side – defending the faith in one God who created heaven
and earth.
Same
timeline from Adam.
Actually, the Young Earthers and Old Earthers, particularly Day-Agers, hold the
same Biblical chronology for mankind. Both groups generally believe that God
created Adam 6,000 years ago, as calculated from the life spans of his descendants.
The dispute lies in the length of time involved in the other Creation events
before Adam...
62D. Russell Humphreys, “Seven Years
of Starlight and Time,” Internet
63Ralph Woodrow, “Three Days and
Three Nights,” p. 42; cited in “When Is The Evening, In Scripture?”, tract,
Last Day Ministries, undated
64James Ussher, The Annals of the World, 1658; translated by Larry and Marion
Pierce; book review by Bob Ulrich, Prophecy
in the News, March 2004, p. 18
65Lawrence Badash, “The
Age-of-the-Earth Debate,” Scientific
American, August 1989; in Dating Methods, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
66J.R. Church, “Creation Week,” Prophecy in the News, Nov. 2005, p. 3
67Day, International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, 1996
68Quoted
by Schroeder, op. cit., p. 45
69Creation Science Evangelism,
Internet
70D. Russell Humphreys, “Seven Years
of Starlight and Time,” Institute for Creation Research, Internet
71Ibid.
72Terry Mortenson, “Where Did the
Idea of ‘Millions of Years’ Come From?”, The
New Answers Book 2, 2008, pp. 114-117
73Creationism, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
74“Earth’s Age: Does Genesis 1
Indicate a Time Interval?”, Creation or
Evolution, 2002, p. 29
75Ante-Nicene
Fathers, 1917, p.
342
76“Earth’s Age…”, loc. cit.
77The
New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1952, Vol. 3, p. 302; quoted in
“Earth’s Age…”, loc. cit.
78Charles Taylor, "The First
100 Words," undated
79The
Complete Word Study: Old Testament, KJV, 1994, p. 3
80Hugh Ross, The Fingerprint of God, 1989, p. 154
81Arthur Peacocke, “The Challenge of
Science to Theology and the Church,” The
New Faith-Science Debate, 1989, p. 16
82Mortenson, loc. cit.
(Excerpted from Chapter 3, Conundrums of Creation, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)
(Excerpted from Chapter 3, Conundrums of Creation, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)
