Was the World Created in Six days?

Q: I had never really thought about whether the days of creation were six literal days or an extended period of time. I just knew that God did it, and I did not worry about how. I want to prepare my daughter to defend her faith. I tell her that we really do not know for sure how old things are. I am torn between the literal 6 days and the Old-Earth view, and I’m hoping you can help me out.

A: You are right— we really do not know for sure how old the universe is. However, the evidence from the natural world seems to indicate an old universe. The question for the Christian is whether an old universe is compatible with the Bible. Old-Earth creationists —those who favor the view that God created the universe over the course of billions of years—believe that it is. Young-Earth creationists—those who believe that God created the universe in six literal days—don’t think so.

There are good arguments from scripture for both a Young-Earth and an Old-Earth view, but our study has led us to believe that the Old-Earth view is not only compatible with science but with the scriptures as well. To say it another way, we don’t think the Old-Earth creation view conflicts with scriptures, mainly because the Hebrew word “day” (yom) in scripture (found in Genesis and elsewhere) allows for three different meanings. It can mean a 12-hour day (as in, “I worked a 12 hour day”), it can mean a 24 hour day (as in, “there are seven days in a week”), or it can mean a longer period of (as in, “in my day we didn’t have computers”). In the Bible, the same Hebrew word is used in all three ways. In fact, one of the most famous uses of the word “day” is in Psalms 90:4, where Moses (who also wrote the book of Genesis) writes “a thousand years in your sight are like a day”.

Now, having said all of that, we want to be very clear that we believe God could have created the universe in six literal days. He could have done it in six literal minutes. To limit God and say that He had to do it one way or another is to limit His power, which is not possible (He is all powerful). So why do we favor the Old-Earth creation view? Because it is compatible with the evidence of age from God’s created world. The Young-Earth creation view is possible philosophically and theologically, but it doesn’t appear to be compatible scientifically.

Do Fossils Disprove the Creation Story?

Q: I have always wondered about the fact that fossils have been found to prove that we evolved from apes. They have supposedly proved the process of evolution from various skulls and bones that have been dug up, thereby proving that we have slowly evolved from the ape into the upright humans we are today. I am a dedicated Christian, and I have no doubt at all about how we were created, but this question has always bothered me. How is this explained?

A: Despite what you’ve read about fossils, the indisputable fact is that no one has ever found any transitionary fossils between apes and humans. Over the last hundred years or so, anthropologists have uncovered fossils they initially identified as being links between apes and humans, but every single one of them has eventually been classified as an ape, not human. In other words, all the fossils—including some very famous ones, such as the Lucy fossil — are of apes or other non-human primates.

Charles Darwin believed that man descended from primates, but he never had the evidence. He believed it would be eventually found, but so far none has. In fact, we have much more scientific evidence for a Creator than we do no creator (the basic belief of Darwinism). You don’t need to apologize for your beliefs in the one true God, who created the universe and everything in it, but you do need to be informed. Read some basic books on the subject, such as Creation and Evolution 101 by Bickel & Jantz or the excellent The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel.

We should never use science and scientific theories to explain the Bible, mainly because science has not reached its limit. Even though we know a lot about how the universe works, we don’t know everything. At the same time, we must be careful about applying the Bible to science, especially when it comes to Genesis 1 and 2. This isn’t because the Bible contradicts science (that is impossible, since the Creator of the universe also wrote the Bible). As Dr. Norman Geisler says, “there is no demonstrated conflict between Genesis 1-2 and scientific fact.”

The real conflict comes when certain interpretations of the Bible (such as the interpretation of the universe as 10,000 years old) clash with certain scientific theories (such as the theory that the universe is 15 billion years old). That’s why we have to be careful about taking firm stands on issues like the age of the universe. The truth is that the Bible just doesn’t definitely say how old the universe is. That’s why we agree with Dr. Geisler that the age of the universe and the earth “is not a test of orthodoxy.”

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Relevant Scripture

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8)

Reference

Bible Answers 101 by Bickel & Jantz