In the beginning

[Arlene]

Genesis 1:14 “And God said ‘let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,”.

Genesis 13 “and God said ‘let there be light’ and there was light and God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. he called the light “day” and the darkness he called “night” and there was evening, and there was morning-the first day.

In verse 14 it specifically says “and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times and days and years,”. Verse 3 does not say anything about days and years but does say the “first day”.

If six days are six literal days how was the first day marked by time if time wasn’t created until Gen14?

Also, please explain what the night and day are in Genesis 1:3.

[Arlene]

Sorry, Genesis 1:3 not Genesis 13.

[Michael]

Hello Arlene,

These are good questions.

Time was not created on the fourth day as you are suggesting, but was created on the first day. When God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1, time was also created. The existence of the first physical creation demands the creation of time. For something to physically begin, it in itself demands there to be time. Since there was nothing before that point in time it means it is the beginning of time. God does not have a beginning, therefore, God does not need time. The description in verse 14 is describing to us that God has made it possible for us to discern and track time. The Israelite nation used a lunar calendar. Feasts and events often coincided or were marked by the new moon. It is not that they worshiped the moon, but they used that to mark the time in which the event would begin or end.

In Genesis 1:3 when it says the evening and the morning were the first day. It means just that. It seems the light was set in a specific location and the earth was already rotating around it. So if that is true the earth would rotate at the same or similar rate to the way it does now and you would still be able to see a full 24 hour cycle occurring on the earth. It would most likely have looked quite a bit differently than it does now as it seems that God had not created the sun and the moon specifically until the fourth day was completed. Also there would have been complete darkness during the evening because there were no stars or moon to light the night. Darkness is just the absence of light. As soon as there is no light or there is something to completely block or stop the light you have darkness.

The reasoning behind why I believe this to be true is that I have been taught to take the Bible as literally as possible until it just does not make sense to do so. So how this works in practice is I take what is said exactly how it is written until it comes to a statement like when Jesus says, “I am the door”. It is quite obvious to us all the Jesus who was a human as we are humans today is not literally a door to a building. It is a metaphor meaning that He is the means to which a passage opens so long as the criteria of salvation is met, which we know is to have a relationship with Him.

So if you put this into practice with the creation account found in Genesis 1 you can see where I am coming from. We know a day is 24 hours by how long the earth takes to rotate on its access for one complete revolution. According to what we see described in Genesis it says the evening and the morning were the first day. If the earth was not rotating we could not have both evening and morning in the same location on the earth. The morning would only be where the light was shining on the earth and the evening could only be where the light was not. If the earth were not rotating the portion that is covered by light would not be a location that is inhabitable by humans and neither would the portion that had no light. The portion that is covered in light would be like an oven and we would be cooked and the portion without the light would be like a constant ice cube with no hope for food. So this leads me to believe that the earth was doing then, exactly what it is doing now.

We know that God is not a man that he should lie and that He is not the author of confusion so when He says that it is one day it needs to be one day. Some will argue that the time it took to create the earth is not six days, but rather longer and is up for question. They are entitled to their opinion, but I don’t see that view to be true. God has already described what a day is, evening and morning. That is one rotation of the earth. If this is not the case in the Biblical account then what makes a day? How do we then count a year? How then should time be marked? There is more that goes into how He created all of creation. It was not necessary for God to take six days to create all of creation. He could easily have done it in the blink of an eye or less time. The six days of work and the seventh day which is for rest, teach us how God intended us to function. We were intended to be functioning in the capacity He created for six days all while cultivating a relationship with Him, but then stop and enjoy our relationship with Him exclusively on the seventh day.

Hopefully this gives you a good insight as to how I am able to come up with the answers above. I am so glad that you are reading through the Bible and that you are doing it thoughtfully. Please continue to keep asking questions as you read and feel free to post them here if you cannot find the answer. I love answering questions. 🙂

Michael Thom
Bible College Director.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 6 months ago by Michael.

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