The 6-day Creation in view of 2 Peter 3:8

Theophane · Mar 18, 2013

I take this to mean that time has no meaning for God, who is outside of time, standing at the centre of it time like the sun stands in the center of its own rays. A day is the same as one thousand years for the One who dwells outside of time and linearity; that much I understand. But then why are we given six chronological Gregorian Calendar days (144 hrs.)as the length of time God spent creating the heavens and the earth? The age of the earth doesn't concern me all that much. Billions of years or thousands of years, makes no difference to me.

justamazed · Mar 18, 2013

Who said God created the earth in 6 24hr days?

Ariel82 · Mar 18, 2013

the 24 hour day was not even possible until God created the Sun and the Moon on the 4th "day" of creation.

[h=3]Genesis 1[/h]
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [SUP]2 [/SUP]The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[SUP][a][/SUP] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
[SUP]3 [/SUP]Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. [SUP]4 [/SUP]And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. [SUP]5 [/SUP]God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

[SUP]6 [/SUP]Then God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” [SUP]7 [/SUP]Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. [SUP]8 [/SUP]And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.

[SUP]9 [/SUP]Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. [SUP]10 [/SUP]And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
[SUP]11 [/SUP]Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. [SUP]12 [/SUP]And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. [SUP]13 [/SUP]So the evening and the morning were the third day.

[SUP]14 [/SUP]Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; [SUP]15 [/SUP]and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. [SUP]16 [/SUP]Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. [SUP]17 [/SUP]God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, [SUP]18 [/SUP]and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. [SUP]19 [/SUP]So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

even back then "hours" were not set times but 12 hours divided equally for the daylight and 12 for the nighttime meaning each "hour" could consist of different lengths of time.

I don't understand why people are so obsessed with "time" when in the ancient days most people didn't have watches and not everyone could use sundials either.

when were old fashion sand hour glasses invented?

Theophane · Mar 18, 2013

Could it be that the six days of creation are/were utterly independent of how we measure terrestrial time?

justamazed · Mar 18, 2013

Theophane said:

Our "week" is given to us as an example and is but a shadow of the larger picture. It is an exercise to remember. If you notice in Genesis, the seventh day never ended.

Theophane · Mar 18, 2013

Just like 2 Peter 3:8 suggests, the "days" of creation are pretty nebulous. Maybe the whole thing was described in units of time we would understand for our sake. Out in the cold void of space, there is no time. No way to measure time without the great celestial clock of our solar system.

justamazed · Mar 18, 2013

Theophane said:

It was given to us in order to tell where we are at along the plan of God. In the story of God feeding Israel for a week, On the sixth day God gave them enough food to last 2 days. Israel however still went to search for food in the field. The purpose of this exercise is to REMEMBER the sabbath. And we understand this by knowing the seasons as God has indeed gave the increase. But as with the example, we CONTINUE to search for our food in the field.

Anonimous · Mar 18, 2013

I won't be losing any sleep over this...

justamazed · Mar 18, 2013

Anonimous said:

Why even respond? Seems you could've saved the posting space.

RedTent · Mar 18, 2013

justamazed said:

I think it is a wonderful post for making us think about what God wants us to know.

God is eternal, with all that means. God gave us understanding through using time.

If you look at creation through the eyes of the Hebrew those thousands of years ago, Hebrews didn't think in terms of why, step by step logic. He looked for facts and how those facts worked in his life. We didn't really understand that about the way of Hebrew thinking at the time the book of Genesis was given to man, but through the deep sea scrolls we learn more about how they thought. Those scrolls were hidden from us until now when we need them. To the Hebrews, learning how God created the earth simply wasn't part of how they thought. He created it, that was all they needed to know.

God did not explain creation for our time conscious minds, so it isn't to be important for us to put it in our time frame. God told us to use faith and obedience as we gain knowledge of Him. That includes faith in how God does things.

God did put such as the day He blessed as the Sabbath in terms of our time frame. So with faith, that is how we are to understand Sabbath.

Elizabeth619 · Mar 18, 2013

Copied from creation.com or something like that. Will post link later when I'm not on my phone....

"Question: Doesn’t 2 Peter 3:8 indicate that the days of creation might not be literal, but thousands of years long?

Answer: 2 Peter 3:8–9 reads:

‘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. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.’
The first thing to note that the context has nothing to do with the days of creation. Also, it is not defining a day because it doesn’t say ‘a day is a thousand years’. The correct understanding is derived from the context—the Apostle Peter’s readers should not lose heart because God seems slow at fulfilling His promises because He is patient, and also because He is not bound by time as we are.

The text says ‘one day is like [or as] a thousand years’—the word ‘like’ (or ‘as’) shows that it is a figure of speech, called a simile, to teach that God is outside of time (because He is the Creator of time itself). In fact, the figure of speech is so effective in its intended aim precisely because the day is literal and contrasts so vividly with 1000 years—to the eternal Creator of time, a short period of time and a long period of time may as well be the same.

The fact that the passage is actually contrasting a short and long period can be shown by the fact that Peter is quoting Psalm 90:4 (Peter’s statement ‘do not forget’ implies that his readers were expected to recall something, and this passage has this very teaching). This reads:

‘For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.’
This is synonymous parallelism, where a long period of a thousand years is contrasted with two short periods: a day, and a night watch. But those who try to use this verse to teach that the days of Genesis might be 1000 years long forget the additional part in bold. For if they were consistent, they would have to say that a watch in the night here also means 1000 years. It’s difficult to imagine that a Psalmist (Psalm 63:6) is thinking on his bed for thousands of years or that his eyes stay open for thousands of years (Psalm 119:148).

The immediate context of the Psalm is the frailty of mere mortal man in comparison to God. This verse amplifies the teaching, saying that no matter how long a time interval is from man’s time-bound perspective, it’s like a twinkling of an eye from God’s eternal perspective.

In any case, the meaning of ‘day’ in Genesis 1 is defined by the context there—the Hebrew word for day, yôm יום , is used with the words ‘evening’ and ‘morning’, and the days are numbered (first day, second day, etc.). Whenever yôm is used in such a context, it is always an ordinary day, never a long period of time. The meaning of the days of creation as ordinary days is also affirmed by Exodus 20:8–11, where God told the Israelites to work for six days and rest on the seventh because God had made all things in six days and rested on the seventh. For more information, see other articles in Q&A: Genesis under ‘Days of Creation’."

JesusChica1991 · Mar 18, 2013

We need to remember that a 24 hour day wasn't used early in the Bible times. "Day" in Hebrew terms simply yields "morning" and day". It did not include night hours. So, no. Six literal days are not to be taken literally. Our current aspect of a "day" comes from what would be considered Pagan to the Jews. We also need to remember that they did not have Leap Year and time changes. This is just a small amount of things to consider. I used to be a literalist in believing the earth was created in six days but I have since changed. God is outside of the human time. Just because he created it does not mean he is subject to it either. Remember, he died and rose from the grave! That defies everything he created! I'm sure you get my point by now

Elizabeth619 · Mar 18, 2013

Bottom line is in 2 Peter the passage is not even referring to the creation. It is a pretty long stretch to make it fit.

JGPS · Mar 18, 2013

Are we SURE it was just three literal days Paul was without sight? It could have been three thousand years with Pauls life being extended supernaturally by Gods power.

Or, you know, we could take Peter to mean what it says and not try to grossly cross apply it where it doesn't belong.

But if you really insist on making they days of creation to untold long abstractions, have fun with this:

Plants existing for a thousand or untold thousands of years without sunlight. There's a whole slew of problems for that idea in that fact alone...

Elizabeth619 · Mar 18, 2013

"1000" It's a booger of a number. Is it literal or symbolic?

Elizabeth619 · Mar 18, 2013

JGPS said:

Are we SURE it was just three literal days Paul was without sight? It could have been three thousand years with Pauls life being extended supernaturally by Gods power.

Or, you know, we could take Peter to mean what it says and not try to grossly cross apply it where it doesn't belong.

But if you really insist on making they days of creation to untold long abstractions, have fun with this:

Plants existing for a thousand or untold thousands of years without sunlight. There's a whole slew of problems for that idea in that fact alone...

Did Christ rise 3 days after his burial or 3,000 years?

Theophane · Mar 18, 2013

He rose 3 literal days after His burial. Had it been three thousand years after, none of the disciples would have been alive to see Jesus appear in the upper room.

PS · Mar 18, 2013

Does this help?

Creation of the Earth

Earth time and cosmological time are best explained by considering two twins, one of whom traveled into space at near the speed of light for a few minutes while his twin remained on earth. After returning to earth a few minutes later the space age twin would find several decades had elapsed on earth and his twin brother would be an old man. What took a short time when the universe expanded faster than the speed of light at the Big Bang can take millions of years measured by earth time. The Bible bears an uncanny similarity to creation as understood by science when it is compared with the fossil record where one day in God’s time as recorded in the Bible equates to millions of years in geological era.

Day 1 of Creation

"In the beginning about 4.6 billion years ago God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

DAY 2 (Ediacaran Era, began about 600 million years ago.)

The Bible says: "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

DAY 3 (Prechmbrian Era, began about 542 million years ago.

The Bible says: "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day."

DAY 4 (Paleozoic Era From the Greek meaning "Old Animals." It includes the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian periods and is characterized by the appearance of marine invertebrates, primitive fishes, land plants, and reptiles that ended about 251 million years ago. Most species became extinct but the tree and plant life remained.)

The Paleozoic is bracketed by two of the most important events in the history of animal life. At its beginning, multi-celled animals underwent a dramatic explosion in diversity, and almost all living animal phyla appeared within a few millions of years.

At the other end of the Paleozoic Era, the largest mass extinction in history wiped out approximately 90% of all marine animal species. The causes of both these events are still not fully understood and the subject of much research and controversy, some say it was due to a meteorite hitting the earth and blotting out the sun which accounts for the reappearance of the sun and moon on day four.

The Bible says about day 4: "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day."

DAY 5 (Mesozoic Era, ended about 65 million years ago. Popular name: Age of Reptiles that evolved from the reptiles of the Paleozoic Era becoming increasingly adapted to life on dry land.)

The Bible says: "Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day."

DAY 6 Cenozoic Era. This era began about 65 million years ago and includes the geological present including humankind. Popular name: Age of Mammals.

The Bible says: "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 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."

PS · Mar 18, 2013

Elizabeth619 said:

"Is it literal or symbolic?" It's Hebrew and depending on context day or 'yom' can mean either 24 hours or it can be used figuratively to mean age, continually, everlasting, perpetually, season or time.

H3117
יום
yôm
yome
From an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literally (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverbially): - age, + always, + chronicles, continually (-ance), daily, ([birth-], each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, X end, + evening, + (for) ever (-lasting, -more), X full, life, as (so) long as (. . . live), (even) now, + old, + outlived, + perpetually, presently, + remaineth, X required, season, X since, space, then, (process of) time, + as at other times, + in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), X whole (+ age), (full) year (-ly), + younger.

nathan3 · Mar 18, 2013

1Theophane said:

When we are trying to study the Bible, we have to put aside preconceived notions about what we ''think" about God. We have to be sure, what we believe is taught by the Words of God in his Bible.

This statement I hear that God is outside of time, does not mean that God does not measure time. No where scripture are we to take God as being eternal as also to mean, He does not or we are not to measure time and keep track of it. The Bible tells us to note times; in scripture .

The age of the earth should concern you if, it is written. Since The Bible mentions times and ( the lack of time teaches also ) , we have to take note & learn what it is God is teaching us through His Word.

In 2nd Peter Chapter 3:

Peter is talking about the 3 ages. The same Paul and the other apostles taught .Along with God and Christ.

When Peter says not to be ignorant that one day to God is like a thousand years, he means just what he said .

The part that people fail to understand or learn from the Bible, is that from Genesis 1:3 and forward, the days you read about is showing God rejuvenate ; the earth. Not creating it. The earth and everything was created in Verses One , of Genesis chapter One... In the Hebrew Genesis 1:2 was written in: verse two, God destroyed the earth.

Each day after that, God is rejuvenating the earth: and Peter says each one of those days, are equal to One thousand years. So you can work in the time even that has passed since the rejuvenation , and you can figure out how many years man in flesh has walked the earth. But, the rejuvenation does not tell you the age of the earth.

You are told about the age of the earth in Genesis 1:1..

Genesis 1

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.( dot )

The dot on the end of a sentence shows it is a complete thought here. God says, In the beginning He created the heaven and the earth. The only time you are given, is that it was in the beginning. It does not tell you when, the beginning was. All your given for the age of the earth is it was in the beginning.

If you then want a true age of the earth, you then have to look at the sciences that can date the earth ; to give us a close estimate of how old the earth is: that is called simply studying God creation for those answers. I believe God is in agreement with the age we have for the earth. It is very very very old. Billions of years. But man in flesh has only walked the earth according to the Bible, thousands of years. And we know , that one thousand is just a day, to God.

The 6-day Creation in view of 2 Peter 3:8

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