Six Days Of Creation

QUESTION: What happened on each of the six days of creation in Genesis?

ANSWER:

The account of the six days of creation in Genesis tends to be a controversial subject among Christians. There are various theories to reconcile the biblical account of creation with the secular account of creation. Taken literally, the biblical account of creation does contradict the majority of university textbooks on the issue of our origins.

1. On the first day God created the Earth, which at the time would have been a giant ball of water, and He divided light from darkness. The supernatural light would not be talked about in science textbooks.
2. On day two God separated the water from the air. In most textbooks, the origins of oxygen would not predate land.
3. On the third day God created the land and plants.
4. On the fourth day God created the stars and the sun. The Earth predating the sun and stars by three days is considered a heresy among secular scientists.
5. On day five fish and birds were created. The birds coming before land animals contradict macro-evolutionary models.
6. On the sixth day of creation, land animals and man were created. At this time there was no death on the Earth, and God proclaimed it was good. The six days of creation contradicts the Darwinian model, which claims death predates man.

In order to reconcile these contradictions with secular science, Christians have proposed several theories. One is the gap theory, which claims there are billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth” and shortly after that Darwinian evolution takes place. Of course this still requires ignoring the various contradictions with secular science described in the six days of creation.

Another is the day-age theory. This is the belief that each of the six days of creation could represent more than an actual day, as we know according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, time is relative. A day to God could mean a thousand years to us. Again, this does nothing to explain the contradictions between God’s Word and the word of secular science. Billions of years cannot be added to any particular day, and still reconcile the word of God with the word of the science of today.

Even if we could miraculously find a place for the billions of years within the six days of creation without sacrificing the inerrancy of the bible, we would then have to accept that death and bloodshed came before sin. Death came as the result of sin. Because of this, the crucifixion was needed to reconcile us to God in accordance with the law of the Old Testament that states that death is the consequence of sin. Reinterpreting the bible to suit the science of the day undermines this concept.

Another theory is that the Bible is only the word of man, and not the truth. The truth is that science is also the word of man, and it changes from day to day. The proofs of evolution and an old Earth today are completely different from the evidence my father would have learned about going through school. And what we know today will most likely be discarded when the next generation comes along. The Bible, on the other hand, has remained unchanged.

The final theory is that every word of the Bible is true. Every day, creation scientists are finding more and more evidence to support the six days of creation. There is nothing wrong with science, but in the end it is the fallible word of man.

This article is also available in Spanish.