Beth-El Baptist Church

02/10/2007

Greg Tomlinson


Can the days of Genesis 1 be taken as literal 24 hour days?


For many inside and outside of the Christian community, the question of origins and especially the first eleven chapters of Genesis result is great difficulties. Most, if not all, Christians who question the days of Genesis do so as a result of modern day secular scientific thought. The secular scientists proclaim that the age of the universe being billions of years old is an undeniable fact that cannot and should not be questioned. The issue at hand though is how to understand the book of Genesis, especially chapter 1.


  1. Is there anything about God and His Word that can help us to understand?

Titus 1:2 1 Timothy 3:15

John 1:14; 8:31-32, 40, 46; 10:35; 14:6; 17:17; 18:37

Psalm 33:4; 117:2; 119:142 2 Peter 1:20-21

2 Timothy 3:16-17; 4:3-4 1 John 1:5

Isaiah 40:28 Hebrews 6:18


The word of God is reliable and trustworthy, as is the God that stands behind it. The scriptures that we have are not originated from the mind of man but from God. God is the true author of all scripture. A major description of God's character is that it is impossible for God to lie. He cannot and He will not lie to anyone. A deception would be a form of a lie and is therefor outside of the character of God.


  1. Is there anything about men that can help us to understand?

Romans 1:22-25; 3:3-4 Jeremiah 17:9

Deuteronomy 11:16 Isaiah 44:17-20

Matthew 24:11, 24; 27:63 cmp 28:5-6 Romans 4:3; 7:11

1 Corinthians 2:14; 3:18-20 2 Timothy 3:13

Titus 3:3 2 Corinthians 4:1-4


Contrary to God's nature and character, man is a liar and a deceiver by nature. Man is more than willing to believe anything that will remove his sense of accountability before a Holy and a righteous God.


  1. Is there anything about the text itself that can help us to understand?

Genesis 1:5 cmp John 11:9 - Defined day, affirmed by Jesus

Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 - Evening and morning, the # day

Genesis 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25 - days 3-5 called 'good'

Genesis 1:31 cmp Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:26 – ' Very good' until sin.


It is important to remember that God established the meaning behind the word 'day' in this passage. Jesus uses the same meaning in the New Testament. The fact that each of the days of creation are mentioned not only with its numeric value (1, 2, ...) but also with the 'Evening and Morning' would strongly say that God is talking about literal time. It is important to remember that during days 3 through 5, God refers to his accomplished work as 'good', except for the sixth day in which God declared all of His creation as 'very good' (ultimate in goodness). Since sin and death are called enemies, how then could the historical existence of the enemy be considered not only 'good' but 'very good'. That would be a corrupt declaration of 'good'.


For more information on 'evening and morning' see:

Exodus 16:8; 18:13; 27:21 Leviticus 24:3

1 Samuel 17:16 1 Kings 17:6

2 Kings 16:15


For more information on numeric days see:

Genesis 7:11; 8:5, 13-14; 22:4; 31:22; 34:25 Exodus 2:13; 12:15-18; 16:1; 40:2, 17

Leviticus 14:10; 23:5-7 Esther 1:10; 5:1

Nehemiah 8:18; 9:1 Zechariah 7:1

Judges 19:8 Ezekiel 8:1

Haggai 1:1, 15 2 Samuel 12:18


In Hebrew there is a marker called the 'waw-consecutive' that is used to link events. It would more naturally be translated 'then' rather than 'and'. For example: verse 5 could be properly translated as “then God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. Then the evening then the morning were the first day”


This demonstrates the consecutive nature with a historical intention behind it for Genesis 1.


  1. What else does the Old Testament have to tell us?

Exodus 20:10-11; 31:16-17 Isaiah 41:19-20; 42:5; 45:12, 18; 48:6-8, 13

Job 38:3-7


It is important to remember that it is God who is the creator. Since God cannot lie, and He told us not only in Genesis 1, but also Exodus 20 that creation took six days, who are we to think that the scriptures are not quite right? Also keep in mind, that there is no living man that was there when the universe was created. We do however have a written record from someone who was there and His character is without question to be trusted.


  1. What does the New Testament have to tell us?

Mark 10:5-9, 27; 13:19-20 Romans 1:18-22; 8:22

Ephesians 3:9 Colossians 1:16-17

2 Peter 3:4-6 Revelation 3:14; 10:6

Matthew 19:26 Luke 1:37; 18:27

John 1:1-3


Jesus was there when the creation took place and since He was there, He ought to know what happened. He is very clear in Mark that marriage has been around since the beginning of creation. What is closer to the beginning of creation, day six after it all began or several billion years after it all began?


Summary:


It would be very consistent to believe Genesis 1 is historical in nature describing six consecutive, 24-hour days that God used to create the whole universe. After all, there is nothing that is impossible for God.