Posted on 11/15/2003 10:50:03 PM PST by bondserv
Part One of a Series:
Why Six Days?
by Chuck Missler
The Book of Genesis presents a disturbing problem for many Bible-believing Christians. Did God really create the heaven and the earth in just six 24-hour days? How does a serious student of the Torah - the five books of Moses - reconcile the Genesis account with the "billions of years" encountered in the dictums of astronomy, geology, et al?
Many continue to attempt to circumvent the problem by assuming that the six days represent "geological eras," or that the traditional text is simply a rhetorical "framework" for a literary summary of the creative process. Various forms of "theistic evolution" have been contrived in attempts to reconcile the Biblical text with the various theories and conjectures which dominate our evolution-based society.
However, the sincere student cannot escape the confrontations which result from the straightforward reading of the text with the ostensible declarations of "science." How can we deal with these fundamental issues?
Why Is It So Critical?
There are four basic questions that confront all of us: Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going when I die?
And your eternal destiny will be determined by your "world view" in addressing these issues. And there are really only two world-views: either everything - including you - is the result of some kind of cosmic accident, or this is all the result of a deliberate design by a Designer.
This issue could not be more fundamental to everything. It comes as a shock to many to discover that every major theme and doctrine in the Bible has its roots in this "Book of Beginnings": sovereign election; salvation, justification by faith, believer's security, separation, disciplinary chastisement, the Divine Incarnation, the "rapture" of the church, death and resurrection, the priesthoods (both Aaronic and Melchizedekian), the Antichrist, and even the Palestinian Covenant that is being challenged by the continuing tensions throughout the world today all have their roots in this critical foundational book of the Bible. And each of these issues also has its consummation in the Book of (the) Revelation. (Like every good textbook, the answers are always in the back!)
Who Really Wrote the Torah?
There are those who have suggested the books of Moses were actually compilations by a number of redactors over the years - the common "Documentary Hypothesis" being one of the most prevalent theories. Fortunately, these previously popular notions have been thoroughly shredded by competent scholarship. But allow me to save you many hours of boring library research. I know who wrote the Books of Moses: Moses did. How do I know? Jesus Christ Himself said so! Many times.1
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? - John 5:45-47
Jesus quotes from each of the books of the Torah and attributes them each to Moses. The New Testament includes 165 direct quotes (and over 200 allusions) to the Book of Genesis, and over 100 of these are from the first 11 chapters. These include the Creator and the creation, 2 (and allusions3), creation of man and woman,4 the fall of man,5 the Flood of Noah,6 etc. So if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have no problem as to who wrote the Book of Genesis. (And if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you have much bigger problems than the authorship of Genesis!)
But "Six Days"?
The account of the creation of the universe in six days still is a "bone in the throat" to many Christians. Many point out that the word for "day" is yom
, and is translated to 54 other words; however, 1181 of 1480 occurrences it is "day," and when used with a number it is always a literal day. But the real problem isn't the account in Genesis. It is in Exodus. In the middle of the Ten Commandments, the Creator Himself wrote it with His own finger in stone!
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. - Exodus 20:11
It is undeniable that God intended us to understand that it was, indeed, six literal days. So how do we deal with the common understanding that "billions of years" was involved? How do we deal with the astronomical distances of millions of "light years" between the galaxies of the universe? Can anyone familiar with the discoveries of modern science take the Genesis account seriously?
It may come as a pleasant surprise to discover that the more you know about modern science - the real physics, not the mythology and conjectures that masquerade as "science" - the more you can take the Biblical text seriously. The Lord always rewards the diligent. (A recent book includes articles by fifty top scientists - from many different fields of specialization - who declare why they believe in a literal six-day creation. 7)
The Nature of Time
One of the many advantages that 20th century science has given us is that, thanks to Dr. Albert Einstein's brilliant discoveries, we now know that time is a physical property and is subject to mass, acceleration, and gravity. We have come to realize that we live in a four-dimensional continuum properly known as "space-time." (This is what Paul seems to imply in his letter to the Ephesians!8) It is interesting that when one takes the apparent 1012 expansion factor involved in the theories of the "expanding universe," that an assumed 16 billion years reduce to six days!
Furthermore, the astronomical timetables now seem to be entirely overturned with the reluctant acknowledgments that the speed of light is not longer regarded as the constant that the high priests of physics had been previously convinced of.
The Nature of Light
Not only have recent scientific articles highlighted the discoveries that the speed of light has changed over the centuries (something that Barry Setterfield has been declaring for decades) the very nature of light has ripped open the entire world of quantum physics that has shattered our concepts of reality itself.
The changes in the velocity of light not only impacts our understanding of the astronomical distances and properties, it affects the atomic behavior involved in the red shift of spectra, the reliability of radiological dating, etc. It is the peculiar properties of photons themselves that continue to astonish the quantum physicists wrestling with the very nature of our physical existence. It is now recognized that subatomic particles lack a property known as "locality." All subatomic particles are now understood to be immediately connected. There is a simultaneity - a "non-locality" - among all photons that has been confirmed in the laboratory. It now appears that our entire universe may actually be a gigantic hologram of some kind. 9
The Fabric of Space
Most of us assume that space is simply an empty vacuum with nothing "in it." However, it is increasingly evident that even empty space has astonishing properties that have yet to be fully understood. We now know that this "firmament,"(raqia) which the Scripture presents, possesses electromagnetic properties including dielectric permittivity, magnetic permeability, an intrinsic impedance,10 and has an astonishing "zero-point" energy sufficient to keep all the electrons in the entire universe in their orbits.11 The term "stretching the heavens" appears at least 17 times in the Scriptures.12
According to the Scriptures, the heavens can be "torn,"13 "worn out" like a garment,14 "shaken,"15 "burnt up,"16 "split apart" like a scroll,17 rolled up" like a mantle 18 or a scroll.19
The concept of being "rolled up" carries some additional insights. There must be some dimension in which space is "thin." If space can be "bent," there must be a direction it can be bent toward. Thus, this tells us that there must be additional dimensions beyond those of space itself. It is now understood that we live in even more than four dimensions: ten dimensions is the current estimate (which is precisely what Nachmonides concluded in his commentary on Genesis back in the 13th century!) The more we understand from the current perspectives of modern physics, the more comfortable we are with the chronicle in Genesis One.
The Architecture of the Solar System
The more we study our solar system, the more questions get raised. Here, too, the prevailing assumptions that are broadly taught are totally specious. The "Nebular Hypothesis," that the planets were somehow thrown off by the sun, is mathematically untenable. There is no plausible explanation that would support a solar origin of the planets. The sun contains 99.86% of all the mass of the solar system, and yet contains only 1.9% of the angular momentum. The nine planets contain 98.1%. Furthermore, the outer planets are far larger than the inner ones. (Jupiter is 5,750 times as massive as mercury, 2,958 times as massive as Mars, etc.)
There are many other provocative enigmas concerning our planetary history:
o There are three pairs of rapid-spin rates among our planets: Mars and Earth, Jupiter and Saturn, and Neptune and Uranus, are each within 3% of each other. Why?
o Earth and Mars have virtually identical spin axis tilts (about 23.5°). Why? (From angular momentum and orbital calculations, it would seem that the three pairs of these planets may have been brought here from elsewhere.)
o Why does Mars have 93% of its craters in one hemisphere and only 7% in the other? It would appear that over 80% occurred within a single half-hour!
It's almost as if God designed it to challenge any naturalistic hypotheses!
"Evening" and "Morning"?
The Hebrew terms, Erev,and Boker, now refer to "evening" and "morning" but their origins remain obscure. Erev
designates obscuration, mixture (increasing entropy). The time when encroaching darkness begins to deny the ability to discern forms, shapes, and identities; thus, it becomes a term for twilight or evening.20 This also marks the duration of impurity, when a ceremonially unclean person became clean again,21 and thus, the beginning of the Hebrew day.
Boker is a designation for becoming discernible, distinguishable, visible; perception of order; relief of obscurity (decreasing entropy). It thus is associated with being able to begin to discern forms, shapes, and distinct identities; breaking forth of light; revealing; hence, denotatively, dawn, morning. (As traditional designations for the Hebrew day, technically it would seem to only designate the nighttime hours, but it is used connotatively for the entire calendar day.)
It is noteworthy that neither of these are recorded on the seventh day, and thus their original significance may have been to designate the increments of creation.
Other Issues
There are other questions that arise from the Genesis narrative. When was the earth created? It seems to have preceded the rest of the universe. Surprisingly, there are some cosmologists that are (again) beginning to suspect that the universe may be geocentric after all! How did plants (3rd day) flourish without the sun's photosynthesis (4th day)? When were the angels created? (They apparently witnessed the events of Genesis 1.) 22 When did Satan fall? He had apparently already fallen by Chapter 3.
As we explore these, and other, enigmas that emerge from the Biblical text, let us not confuse the precision of the text with conjectures and mythology that pervades our pagan culture and uninformed classrooms. (It's tragic that we can't insist on evidence-based education for our children rather than the foolishness and dogma that continues to strip them of their God-fearing heritage.)
But the more acquainted you become with the amazing discoveries and insights from the frontiers of science - and are able to dismiss the nonsense that prevails among the uninformed - the more comfortable the Genesis text becomes! We plan to continue this series of articles in the unmitigated aspiration of stimulating you to dig ever deeper into God's inerrant Word!
Notes:
Of course not!
It's up to YOU to determine what that is.
And, to change it if you find it necessary.
I've been unable to find this on the web. Would you post a link for me please?
If you know, what did they replace their belief in evolution with?
So let me get this straight: You believe God created all the vastness of the universe and all the intricacy of life, but have a problem reconciling the scientific observation of billions of years with the biblical six days?
What a hoot. This is a thread for those who are both scientifically and biblically illiterate.
Romans 111. I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah--how he appealed to God against Israel:
3. "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me" ?
Revelation 121. A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.
3. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
4. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
5. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
6. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
7. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
8. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
9. The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
10. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
11. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
12. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
13. When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
14. The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach.
15. Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
16. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
17. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring--those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.
Revelation 221. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
2. down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
3. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
You are DEFINITLY right about the hoot!
Let me explain.
It really depends on WHAT we are 'grasping' in our hands, doesn't it?
Just WHAT do we hold onto and proclaim THAT to be 'right' with the exclusion of all other viewpoints....
Gen. 1:26 (KJV) 'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'I doubt that God just hoped that evolution would create man in His own image.
Gen 1:31 (KJV) 'And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.'Millions or billions of years of death and imperfection leading to perfection? More believable is six literal days. I mean, if I believe that God created this entire universe from nothingness, why then think that He would take 7 billion years hoping that it would turn out right?
For once I'd like to see "man" create matter from nothingness, or even explain where matter came from.
C4 .... A10 .... B17 ... T38 .... ;o)
Maybe the light God is referring to isn't the sun, but rather the light of the big bang. He separated the light (galaxy's, suns, planets, life) from the dark (dark matter, death).
Just a thought.
The author of the article and I agree with you.
However, being that the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church has left the door open for a Theistic Evolutionary model in order to reconcile the Bible with modern sciences "current" understandings, Chuck is compelled to use the Bible and Science to combat the misconceptions being propagated.
There are also many Christians, who feel that they would be intellectually dishonest to deny science's conclusions, which they realize differs from the Biblical account. So they have determined in their heart that they will take the scripture and wring out a twisted version, ignoring a multitude of very straightforward passages, drawing their information from non-Biblical sources such as Rabbinical commentaries, in order to claim they are a Christian before their fellow students, colleagues and family.
Dr. Chuck Missler has the credentials and the know-how necessary to put the myth to rest for those fence sitters who will choose to follow God's Word because it reliably speaks of the Creator of Science, with no contradictions in that regard.
Not necessarily so. While I believe the "Six Days" was a literal measure of time, the question is from whose perspective was it measured?
Genesis Ch.2 V.4 "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,"
Genesis Ch.2 V.17 "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Clearly the use of "DAY" does not refer to a 24 hour span of time - from our perspective, nor does it mean that in any of the other instances where "in the day that" is used.
Ecclesiastes Ch.3 V.15 "That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past."
Time doesn't appear to be "linear" in its form as viewed by the Sovereign. It, too, is the created, subject to the Creator. If Moses transcribed God's words as He spoke them, the translation of DAY from God's POV to Moses' POV, and subsequently ours, would definitely have had different meanings. (In the first few "DAYS" of creation, there wouldn't have been the capacity to measure a "day" as 24 hours relative to the sun and earth.)
However, God gave His word of truth to the patriarch Moses and "Six Days" are the spoken word. Since the prince of this world is Satan, the Deciever and father of lies, it's possible for Satan to use every ploy to decieve those who would trust their own sight rather than believe God's word. None living has seen God, yet we believe He is. We see an "Aged Earth", but it could be we see a Universe that "appears" as what it is not - like a hologram appears to have more dimension than there actually is.
The final question is do we live by faith or by sight. If we live by sight, then belief in God's being is questionable. If we live by faith in God's spoken word, then God's word should have more influence over our perception of the world. Whether "DAY" is 24 hours or 24 million years becomes irrelevant. It's the same mincing of words Satan did with Eve in telling her "surely you will not die" when he knew she wouldn't die immediately....
If that is the case, why is the following stated as such -
Exodus 20:8-11, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
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