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The first verse of the Bible merely reveals the origin of the cosmos without
going into detail; sort of like a children's story that begins with "Once upon a
time".
But before one even begins to interpret the time elements involved in the
creation story; it's very important to be aware that the Hebrew word for
"day" is ambiguous. For example; at Gen 2:4, yowm encompasses the entire
creation endeavor from start to finish.
It's all too easy to fall into the error of assuming that the phrase "evening
and morning" indicates a 24-hour calendar day; but God began marking off
His creation days with evenings and mornings before the sun even existed;
so I think it's pretty safe to rule the sun out as a time-keeping mechanism
relative to the days of creation.
According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all land animals on the
sixth day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other day did God
create land animals but the sixth. Hard core Bible thumpers insist the days
of creation were 24-hour calendar days in length; but the sciences have
easily proven that the Jurassic era was over and done several millions of
years prior to the entrance of truly human life.
So then, in my estimation, the days of creation should be taken to represent
epochs of indeterminable length rather than 24-hour calendar days.
In addition: I suggest that the expression "evening and morning" is simply a
place-card label; viz: a convenient way to indicate the simultaneous wrap of
one epoch and the beginning of another.
The Bible doesn't say right from the outset that creation's six days were 24
hour calendar events; but most of us assume the terms evening and
morning insist upon it; when even those terms are ambiguous. For example;
when Jesus was here, a day consisted of only 12 hours rather than 24 (John
11:9) which means that when he was here, evening consisted of the hours
between high noon and sundown, while morning consisted of the hours
between sunrise and high noon. Why only daylight hours? Because at Gen
1:3-5 God decreed "day" as a time of light, and "night" He decreed as a time
of darkness.
This has been a chronic problem for just about everybody who takes Genesis
seriously. We assume the "days" of creation consisted of twenty-four hours
apiece; so we end up stumped when trying to figure out how to cope with
the 4.5 billion-year age of the earth, and factor in the various eras, e.g.
Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Cretaceous, etc, plus the ice ages and
the mass extinction events. It just never seems to occur to us that it might
be okay in some cases to go ahead and think outside the box. When we do
that-- when we allow ourselves to think outside the box --that's when we
begin to really appreciate the contributions science has made towards
providing modern men a window into the Earth's amazing past.
In my opinion, the so-called Gap Theory is a chicken's exit. It's better to
come to grips with the Biblical record as-is and figure out how God did it
according to science rather than according to theory and sophistry.
NOTE: If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching History
Channel's two-season series titled: "How The Earth Was Made". The earth's
geological past, and its present, are just astounding. The series takes some
liberties here and there-- especially in its theories about the origin of the
blue planet's huge volume of water --but by and large, it's very informative;
and I believe quite useful to students of Genesis.
===================================
The first verse of the Bible merely reveals the origin of the cosmos without
going into detail; sort of like a children's story that begins with "Once upon a
time".
But before one even begins to interpret the time elements involved in the
creation story; it's very important to be aware that the Hebrew word for
"day" is ambiguous. For example; at Gen 2:4, yowm encompasses the entire
creation endeavor from start to finish.
It's all too easy to fall into the error of assuming that the phrase "evening
and morning" indicates a 24-hour calendar day; but God began marking off
His creation days with evenings and mornings before the sun even existed;
so I think it's pretty safe to rule the sun out as a time-keeping mechanism
relative to the days of creation.
According to Gen 1:24-31, God created humans and all land animals on the
sixth day; which has to include dinosaurs because on no other day did God
create land animals but the sixth. Hard core Bible thumpers insist the days
of creation were 24-hour calendar days in length; but the sciences have
easily proven that the Jurassic era was over and done several millions of
years prior to the entrance of truly human life.
So then, in my estimation, the days of creation should be taken to represent
epochs of indeterminable length rather than 24-hour calendar days.
In addition: I suggest that the expression "evening and morning" is simply a
place-card label; viz: a convenient way to indicate the simultaneous wrap of
one epoch and the beginning of another.
The Bible doesn't say right from the outset that creation's six days were 24
hour calendar events; but most of us assume the terms evening and
morning insist upon it; when even those terms are ambiguous. For example;
when Jesus was here, a day consisted of only 12 hours rather than 24 (John
11:9) which means that when he was here, evening consisted of the hours
between high noon and sundown, while morning consisted of the hours
between sunrise and high noon. Why only daylight hours? Because at Gen
1:3-5 God decreed "day" as a time of light, and "night" He decreed as a time
of darkness.
This has been a chronic problem for just about everybody who takes Genesis
seriously. We assume the "days" of creation consisted of twenty-four hours
apiece; so we end up stumped when trying to figure out how to cope with
the 4.5 billion-year age of the earth, and factor in the various eras, e.g.
Triassic, Jurassic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Cretaceous, etc, plus the ice ages and
the mass extinction events. It just never seems to occur to us that it might
be okay in some cases to go ahead and think outside the box. When we do
that-- when we allow ourselves to think outside the box --that's when we
begin to really appreciate the contributions science has made towards
providing modern men a window into the Earth's amazing past.
In my opinion, the so-called Gap Theory is a chicken's exit. It's better to
come to grips with the Biblical record as-is and figure out how God did it
according to science rather than according to theory and sophistry.
NOTE: If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend watching History
Channel's two-season series titled: "How The Earth Was Made". The earth's
geological past, and its present, are just astounding. The series takes some
liberties here and there-- especially in its theories about the origin of the
blue planet's huge volume of water --but by and large, it's very informative;
and I believe quite useful to students of Genesis.
===================================
