Seven Literal Days

To look at the book of Genesis as a whole, there really is only one major milestone – Creation!  Before Gen. 1:1, there was nothing.  Then the Creation Event burst out of the mind & hand of God and brought into existence every atom, gas, planet, and creature of the universe.  The “world” — Earth and its fascinating neighbors of the solar systems, galaxies, and nebulae — came into being.   Then the sovereign God of the universe continued actively creating, maintaining, and providing for His creation.  Every part of the remaining Genesis record demonstrates that truth, a truth which continues its activity through every page of the Bible, every page of man’s history, and every moment of our own lives.

Of course, there has always been a substantial portion of the human race which has struggled to establish their own independence apart from accountability to the One True God of the Bible.  You could say that all of man’s history amounts to being a “cosmic struggle” (I say that to grab the attention of our Marvel/DC/Star Trek/Stars Wars enthusiasts), a very real  struggle between God & Satan for the sake of man’s destiny (see Eph. 2:2; 6:12).  It started with Satan, Adam  & Eve in the Garden, then to Cain and the rest of humanity.  This struggle is the central influence of every aspect of man’s experience in every corner of our world today.

The Creation Event itself is a touchstone point of reference for making it clear to all mankind just how critical it is to recognize the existence of God and His sovereignty.  The One True God, the God of Israel, the Master Creator.   D.Martin Lloyd-Jones commented that if Genesis isn’t literal history, we don’t have the Gospel!

Please pause here and open your Bible and read through Genesis 1-2 in one sitting before you continue on through this Bible Study.

Six Reasons for a Literal Creation in Six Literal Days

The fingerprints of God are on every aspect of Creation.  His infinite wisdom, His passion for love  and beauty, and especially His desire for relationship and enjoyment of  His creation by sharing it with Man.

1. 
   1. God’s holiness and righteousness is reflected in every day of Creation and we see His character every day of human history since creation.
   2. The Garden of Eden was beautiful and living as Adam & Eve walked together with the Lord.  Adam’s sin, however,  resulted in universal corruption & death.  Note that God’s curse on creation (thorns, mosquitos, etc.) didn’t occur until after Adam’s sin.
   3. The biblical pattern of Creation/Fall/Redemption culminates in the New Creation which God will create after the judgment of sin and Satan as described in the book Revelation.
   4. Man’s finite mind struggles with understanding and believing biblical Creation.  We know that Scripture must be used to interpret Scripture, but it is the Holy Spirit indwelling the born again Christian that helps us to understand and believe.  Then we can see things such as instances throughout the Bible that link to a dependency on a literal 6-day creation.
   5. Essential biblical doctrines are embedded in history that require the truth of Creation.
      • There is a necessary connection between events of history & Christian doctrine, 1 Cor.15; 2 Pet.3.
      • The unbeliever says “if a man really rose from the dead, that changes everything”.  The liberal Christian says, “if there really was a global flood, that changes everything”!  Why, yes – there really was, and it really does!
   6. Biblical presuppositional thinking helps us understand the discipline of science.  Science is a reasonable, logical discipline.  But people bring their own “glasses” to the interpretation of facts.  Isaiah 2:22, confronts this by saying “stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?”  This includes the immediate creation of everything in six normal days, a Fall that brought corruption and death into the universe, and a global Flood that destroyed the world.  Many seem unaware of the actual events which they must stubbornly adopt if they choose to believe such unfounded lies as a 13.8 billion-year-old universe.

Seven Literal Days of Creation

Day 1 – The Earth Created with Light & Darkness

• These seven days are literal 24 hour days.  The “Day-age” or “gap” theory is a concoction of skeptics to force the supernatural work of our sovereign God into fitting into our finite minds.  That way we can understand and explain it, thus enable us to control it.  This is an effort to legitimize “theistic evolution”, which is an oxymoron by the way — see a further discussion on this humanist distraction in this article by Answers in Genesis.  Moses, writing by the inspiration of God, used the very specific Hebrew term “yom”.  This refers to one specific occurence of a daytime and nighttime, one evening, one morning, a 24-hour period.  As I see it at this point, I understand God’s initial creative action regarding the “heavens and the earth” as having occurred as part of His Day 1 activity.  This included placing Earth and the other planets in their rotations around the Sun, giving Earth the gift and beauty of day and night by creating light as generated by the Earth’s Sun as well as other similar globes throughout the universe.  (It can be noted, considering Gen. 1:14-19, that God may have created initial light on Day 1, and then placed Earth and the other heavenly bodies in space on Day 4 to have our local light sources for day and night.)
• The Single Active Person in Creation is God, in three persons as we understand Father, Son and Holy Spirit all to be active.  The personal reference to God “Elohim” is used 32 times in Gen.1.   Note that when God speaks, things happen – the mountains begin to take shake and tremble!  He was active in all three persons – Acts 4:24; Jn. 1:1-3; Psa. 104:30.  God was active in all three spheres:  the heavens, land, and waters.
• Genesis 1:2, “the deep”, water covered the earth.  The Holy Spirit “moved” over the waters.  This is the third person of the Godhead – Psa. 33:6 (the Heb. “ruach” = “breath”, is used in Gen. 12; Job 26:13.  Doctrinally, we refer to the Holy Spirit as the “agent” of creation and salvation, the actual “mover and shaker” of God’s work.  Compare to His part in the work of Jesus’ resurrection, and then subsequently to the fact that the Spirit is viewed as the agent of the New Birth of a Christian (2 Cor. 3:5-6; Jn. 3:8; 6:63; 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 8:9).  This “moving” has the sense of to flutter, shake, vibrate – the earth was “energized” – the Hebrew word is the same as in Deuteronomy saying that God “hovered” over His people.   While it is true that all three persons of the Trinity were active in creation, this was the primary work of the Holy Spirit.  Christ, the second person of the Godhead, was active in Creation as well – Col. 1:15-17, He is the originator and architect of Creation, as well as its goal.
• God’s next creative work is “let there be light”.  Slow down here – on the first day of God’s creative work, He creates light!  Look at John 1:1-14 to see more about God &  how Light is a core element of His character.

Bible Study Journal
1.  Make some notes on how the Holy Spirit is expressed in Psa. 33:4-9.
2.  Find how each Person of the Godhead is mentioned in Acts 4:24; Jn 1:1-3; and  Psa. 104:30.

Day 2 – Creation of the Sea & Sky

Two types of water are mentioned, atmospheric & land-based. The “expanse” or “firmament” is what man sees when he looks up – the sky, atmosphere, the heavens – see how Paul makes a similar reference to  the “third heaven” in 2 Cor.12:2.  Perhaps something like a dense moisture enshrouded the earth when first created, this vapor canopy was like a greenhouse effect – God caused the clouds to “float”.  At the time of the Flood, this canopy would have been removed as a part of God opening up the heavens with rain.

Day 3 –Land & Vegetation Created

• On Days 1 & 2, 4 & 5, one creative work done on each, but there are two great works done on Days 3 & 6.
• Land and sea – this encompasses the  mountains on earth and the ocean depths, great heights & depths – 6 miles up and 7 miles down!
• Plants created, with seeds ready for propagation – no matter how much agnostic theory is proposed, these plants did not evolve  from a swampy ooze – and as other elements of Creation, vegetation was created with age, fully developed
• Note that plants need sun and God had already provided that on Day 1.
• A key phrase “after their kind” – multiple “families” all specifically created, modern science corroborates this seeing that reproduction only occurs within a “kind”, and there is no magical jump from one kind to another

Day 4 – Sun, Moon, Stars

• In the first three days, God created three special spaces for things to occur – note how He fills each of these spaces.
• Gen. 1:14, “let there be light-bearers” –  the narrative indicates these bodies are intended to serve man by providing demarcation of time.
• Perhaps light was provided on Day 1, but sun & moon separately on Day 4 – note v14, to help man keep track of time
• Consider God created light on the first day, but then on Day 4, the sun, moon, and stars appeared distinctly for the first time.
• Remember that in heaven beginning with the Millennial Kingdom, no sun will be needed because of the radiance of Jesus Christ the Lamb on the Throne – Rev.21:23; 22:5.

Day 5 – Fish & Birds are Created

• The Creatures of sea & air – think of the quantity, variety and  beauty of what God created!
• Be fruitful & multiply – the is the first reference to God having “blessed”, in this case His creatures – enabling animals & man to enjoy God’s beautiful creation and reproduce in it.

Day 6 – Animals & Man

• Animals & man were “made” in God’s “image” – that’s a big deal… they share God’s nature in limited form.
  • The animals are to fill the land, and man was to have dominion over all the earth and its creatures.
  • Note the profound “discussion” among the Godhead/Trinity – 1:26, let “Us” make man in “Our” image, likeness.
  • Dinosaurs – Gen. 1:24-25; Job 40:15-41:1 – they were created along with Man 6000 years ago.  The skeletal remains that are discovered have been impacted by the water pressure of the Flood which skewers dating analysis.  The only reason that it the subject of when dinosaurs existed would be if you believe evolution.
• What does “image” infer? Not just a human form that bears a likeness to Him (after all God is Spirit), but the likeness of an actual person; God has attributes – some which are internal to Him and not able to be shared with any other being; others are describable and shareable; God seeks to share His attributes such as love with man, for example life, personality, truth, wisdom, love, holiness, justice.  Our body, soul and spirit mirror God’s nature.
  • • God gives man capability for personal, spiritual relationship.
    • Man is self-consciousness (animals only have external consciousness).
    • Man has unique personality, a rational mind with the ability to process information and come to a conclusion.
    • Man has emotions, will, creativity, the ability to develop Relationships.
• Man has an inner spiritual nature, the capacity and urgent need to know and worship the One True God

Day 7 – And then God Rested

• As God steps back to delight in the unimaginable beauty of His creative work, crowned with Man in His own image, He allows Himself the blessing of a day where He does nothing but rejoice in the richness of His creation.
• Psalm 19 raises up a great anthem of praise for out God, the Creator of heaven and earth.  The entire creation is intended to show the greatness of God.  The verb tenses expresses an ongoing demonstration and declaration of His masterwork which in turn expresses His person and character.
• The creation itself gives us the greatest evidence of our One True God’s existence.  As man’s technology enables us to see deeper into our own physical elements, and also to see deeper out into the universe, the constant of “Intelligent Design” which shows itself everywhere man looks turns his heart and mind back to God.
• Rest on the Seventh Day became a decreed principle from God.  This became distinctive with the Mosaic Law, but the principle of man benefitting from a weekly day of rest is clearly still applicable for us today.

Study Questions

1. 1. 1. Read Psalm 8 and make some notes on your thoughts about Creation.
      2. Why did God create water right away in Creation?   What our world be like if we didn’t have salt water? Fresh water?
      3. Psalm 78:5; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; 2 Peter 1:19-21; Titus. 1:2 — God, who inspired the Bible, has always existed, is perfect, and never lies.  How do these verses support that statement?
      4. There are several major covenants made by God with Man, and the first 3-4 are in Genesis.  It is suggested that the first is here in Gen. 1:26-30 (Edenic Covenant) and 2:16-17 (Adamic Covenant).  What are the promises and agreements made in these verses?