The Seven Days of Creation

[Wick Stick]

.
● Gen 1:9 . . And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered
together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

At this point, the Earth's surface likely resembled the topography of a billiard
ball so it would remain entirely flooded were it not reshaped.

"He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You
covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the
mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took
to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you
appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they
might not again cover the earth." (Ps 104:5-9)

That passage is stunning; and clearly way ahead of its time. Mountains
rising, and valleys sinking speaks of magma pressure and tectonic plate
subduction-- powerful forces of nature that keep the Earth's surface in a
perpetual state of alteration.

Now, it's right about here that Young-Earth theorists have a problem
because it's obvious from physical evidence that much of the Earth's higher
elevations were inundated for a very long time before they were pushed up
to where they are now.

Take for example Mount Everest. Today its tippy top is something like
29,029 feet above sea level. The discovery of fossilized sea lilies near its
summit proves that the Himalayan land mass has not always been
mountainous; but at one time was the floor of an ancient sea bed. This is
confirmed by the "yellow band" below Everest's summit consisting of
limestone: a type of rock made from calcite sediments containing the
skeletal remains of countless trillions of organisms who lived, not on dry
land, rather, underwater in an ocean.
_

If you want to give commentary on Genesis, I'd encourage you to start your own thread, rather than taking over mine.

 

[Jack]

(11) for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,

Amen! It certainly is literal!

 

[Deborah_]

Genesis 1 doesn't read like a "historical" account. It's too formulaic, and the material is arranged conceptually instead of chronologically. At the beginning, the earth is "formless" and "empty". God spends three "days" forming it (with two distinct creative acts on the third day) and then three "days" filling it (with two distinct creative acts on the sixth day). This is an artistic pattern - that doesn't make it "untrue", but we shouldn't take it "literally".

And the number 7 should always prompt careful consideration that it may be symbolic - especially since, in the Hebrew, the total word count is a multiple of 7 and many words and phrases appear exactly 7 times.

Remember also that the Sabbath applied to years as well as days. Seven is the guiding principle, because it symbolises completeness.

 

[Jack]

Genesis 1 doesn't read like a "historical" account. It's too formulaic, and the material is arranged conceptually instead of chronologically. At the beginning, the earth is "formless" and "empty". God spends three "days" forming it (with two distinct creative acts on the third day) and then three "days" filling it (with two distinct creative acts on the sixth day). This is an artistic pattern - that doesn't make it "untrue", but we shouldn't take it "literally".

And the number 7 should always prompt careful consideration that it may be symbolic - especially since, in the Hebrew, the total word count is a multiple of 7 and many words and phrases appear exactly 7 times.

Remember also that the Sabbath applied to years as well as days. Seven is the guiding principle, because it symbolises completeness.

Jesus said it's "historical"!

 

[Deborah_]

The word "historical' isn't in the Bible. What did He actually say?

 

[Webers_Home]

.
In the very beginning, the Earth was chaotic, incoherent, and had neither
form nor function.

● Gen 1:2a . . the earth being unformed and void

As such it was unsuitable for human habitation. (Isa 45:18)

● Gen 1:3 . . Then God said "Let there be light" and there was light.

The Earth wasn't illuminated by celestial sources till the fourth day when
God created the Sun, Moon, and Stars; so the cosmos' first light has become
somewhat controversial.

There exists a variety of opinions to choose from relative to the
characteristics of the cosmos' first light. The one that satisfies my curiosity
pertains to the laws of nature, a.k.a. the laws of physics. (cf. Prov 6:23
where law is depicted as light)

Without the laws of physics, it would be nigh unto impossible to shape all
the cosmos' materials, let alone the Earth's materials, into a complex
precision machine.
_

 

[Ronald Nolette]

.
FAQ: Young-Earth theorists calculate planet Earth is no more than +/- 6,000
years old. They get that number by working with the Bible's genealogies
beginning with Adam and his son Seth, and from taking into account
portions of world history. Why do Old-Earth theorists dispute their
results?

REPLY: We cannot know for a rock-solid, bullet-proof, verifiable certainty
that the days of creation were no more than twenty-four hours apiece. In
other words: it's very possible that those 6,000 years are merely a drop of
pigment in a bucket of paint.
_

Yes we can know they are literal 24 hour days! Why? Because we have the testimony of the one who was there and merely by HIs word created all things.

why trust in men who are trying to gaze in to the past with atrociously faulty dating measurements instead of the living God?

 

[Mark51]

What has Genesis 2:7 got to do with the seventh day? Genesis 2:7 (WEB):

(7) Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.​

What it says in Genesis about the seventh day is:

Genesis 2:1-3 (WEB):

(1) The heavens, the earth, and all their vast array were finished.​

(2) On the seventh day God finished his work which he had done; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done.​

(3) God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done.​

It simply says that God rested on the seventh day; it doesn't say that the seventh day never ended. God started his rest on the seventh day, i.e. He had finished His work on the sixth day, and He continues to rest from His work of creation, but that doesn't mean that the length of a day changed at that time, that there was never an eighth day and that we've all been living in just one day!

Hebrews 3 (WEB):

(11) as I swore in my wrath, ‘They will not enter into my rest.’”​

(19) We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief.​

The rest that Paul is referring to is the rest that God had promised to men if they would obey Him, and in particular to the rest in heaven promised to the Christians he was writing to. Barnes' Notes on Hebrew 3:11 says:

It is called “my rest” here, meaning that it was such rest as God had provided, or such as he enjoyed. The particular “rest” referred to here was that of the land of Canaan, but which was undoubtedly regarded as emblematic of the “rest” in heaven. Into that rest God solemnly said they should never enter. They had been rebellious. All the means of reclaiming them had failed. God had warned and entreated them; he had caused his mercies to pass before them, and had visited them with judgments in vain; and he now declares that for all their rebellion they should be excluded from the promised land. God speaks here in the manner of human beings. Men are affected with feelings of indignation in such circumstances, and God makes use of such language as expresses such feelings. But we are to understand it in a manner consistent with his character, and we are not to suppose that he is affected with the same emotions which agitate the bosoms of people. The meaning is, that he formed and expressed a deliberate and solemn purpose that they should never enter into the promised land. Whether this “rest” refers here to heaven, and whether the meaning is that God would exclude them from that blessed world, will be more appropriately considered in the next chapter. The particular idea is, that they were to be excluded from the promised land, and that they should fall in the wilderness. No one can doubt, also, that their conduct had been such as to show that the great body of them were unfit to enter into heaven.​

Barnes' Notes on Hebrew 4:4 ("For he has said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from all his works;”") says:

For he spake - Gen_2:2. “And God did rest.” “At the close of the work of creation he rested. The work was done. “That” was the rest of God. He was happy in the contemplation of his own works; and he instituted that day to be observed as a memorial of “his” resting from his works, and as a “type” of the eternal rest which remained for man.” The idea is this, that the notion of “rest” of some kind runs through all dispensations. It was seen in the finishing of the work of creation; seen in the appointment of the Sabbath; seen in the offer of the promised land, and is seen now in the promise of heaven. All dispensations contemplate “rest,” and there must be such a prospect before man now. When it is said that “God did rest,” of course it does not mean that he was wearied with his toil, but merely that he “ceased” from the stupendous work of creation. He no more put forth creative energy, but calmly contemplated his own works in their beauty and grandeur; Gen_1:31. In carrying forward the great affairs of the universe, he always has been actively employed - John 5:17 [But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.”], but he is not employed in the work of “creation” properly so called. That is done; and the sublime cessation from that constitutes the “rest of God.”​

You're believing the theories of men and forcing God's word to fit in with that, rather than believing God. The "community" that guesses at the date of creation of animals and plants, and theorises that they were created millions of years ago, have not been very scientific and they have got it wrong! The more "scientific" evidence, such as the slowing speed of light and our modern uderstanding of genetics, prove those old theories to be wrong.

Exodus 20:9-11 (WEB):

(9) You shall labor six days, and do all your work,​

(10) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;​

(11) for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.​

Keithr,

It seem to me that we are of the same interpretaion of the "day of rest." I am comfortable, with my underatanding of the Bible accounts, that the seventh day did not come to a completion.

I clearly am not "...believing the theories of men and forcing God's word to fit in with that, rather than believing God." I was directing this point of reasoning-of the early part of the 6th creative day being millions of years apart from the latter part of the same days-to thoise that believe that the creative days were litteral 24-hour periods.

 

[Webers_Home]

.
● Ex 31:16-17 . .The children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe
the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a
sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days The Lord
made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was
refreshed.

The Jews' routine sabbath is a calendar day; as such it is no more than
twenty-four hours in length. However, the creation sabbath that the Jews'
routine sabbath commemorates is very different.

Six of the creation days were bounded by an evening and a morning;
whereas the seventh day isn't bounded, viz: the seventh day per Gen 2:1-3
hasn't ended. God has yet to pick up where He left off and continue making
things for the current cosmos. In other words; the original sabbath has thus
far been a perpetual, never-ending day.

That passage in Exodus is oftentimes appropriated by certain folks to prove
creation days were twenty-four hour events. But that argument is very weak
because the original sabbath day is on-going, and has thus far consumed
quite a few more hours than that of a natural day.

The original sabbath day is a useful figure of speech in the 3rd and 4th
chapters of the letter to Hebrews wherein it's used in a discussion of the
Jews' future.

Their occupation of the promised land was intended to be permanent, but
due to a failure of the people to move in and take the land when God
instructed them to, many at that time missed the boat.

Messiah's theocratic kingdom-- described and foretold by the prophets -
presents a second chance for the Jews to occupy that land permanently.
However; numbers of Jews are allowing the opportunity to slip thru their
fingers via their stubborn refusal to accept Jesus (a.k.a. Y'shua) as the
monarch designated by God to govern the kingdom.
_