Pastor's Blog

What about the length of creation days?

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Pastor Tom

But what about the length of those creation days? How do they fit or harmonize with the claims of modern science? There have been different interpretations offered by Christians committed to the divine inspiration of Scripture. These include the 24 hour interpretation where God accomplished His work in a 24 hour period. There is the day age view which basically claims that the days of creation represent ages of time. There is the literary framework view which argues that Genesis 1 is arranged in a way to that communicates God’s order and design for creation and not necessarily the time of creation.
Now the length of the creation days is an important question. A lot of good work and study has gone into the various positions held. But is the length of the creation days the most important question? As soon as I asked about this, what happened to your focus? What did you begin to think about? Some of you who have looked into this may have started to think about your own conclusions about the length of creation days. Some may have drawn up battle lines. Suddenly, we’re not thinking about this chapter in terms of the One Triune God creating everything that exists. We may think about winning an argument.
Sadly, some Christians have taken this question and used it to vilify their brothers and sisters in Christ who hold to different interpretations. Instead of the world hearing about God as the Creator of everything, they witness or read about Christians intensely fighting about this. Friends there are some people in this room who hold a different interpretation of the length of days of creation than you do. If you know of someone who holds a different interpretation than you, will that affect your view of them? Will that affect your fellowship with them?
There is a book entitled the “The Genesis Debate” which specifically deals with the length of the creation days. It contains proponents of those 3 views. They engage in fairly respectful dialogue and debate. But I think the most helpful part of that book was the forward. Christian apologist and philosopher Dr. Norman Geisler writes:
The Genesis Debate points out the need for that old saying – “In essentials unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity. All participants in this debate hold a high view of Scripture, affirming both the infallibility and inerrancy of Holy Scripture. Within this context, the participants carry on a civil and scholarly interchange on topic of considerable interest: whether the Genesis creation days are 24 hours long, ages of time or merely a literary framework.
This debate teaches us several important lessons.
• The creation day debate is not over the inspiration of the Bible, but over it’s interpretation. So different interpretations do not necessarily imply false teaching.
• Second – at best the creation day debate is not one of evangelical authenticity but of evangelical consistency. That is, the maximum charge that should be leveled by one proponent against another is that his view is not consistent with Scripture or the facts of nature, not that it is unorthodox.
• Third, the time of creation is not as important as the fact of creation. That is, it is far more important to defend the biblical position that God created the universe, all basic kinds of life, and man in His image than it is to argue about how long it took God to do so.
• Fourth, the issue is not one of morality. Good and Godly people are found on all sides of the creation debate. No one should doubt or question another’s faith or character simply because he holds one of the views represented in this volume. Yet sadly, some Christians have concluded that because another Christian holds a different interpretation on creation days, they must be an immoral person or a stupid person. Neither of these conclusions is helpful or God-honoring.
• Fifth, the real opponent is the naturalistic no-God worldview. But when approaching people who hold this view, our approach must not be to win an argument but to win them.
Certainly, we must uphold the historical nature of the creation account. On it rest other important doctrines of Scripture (R 5:12, Matt 19:4–6). In addition, we must uphold the factual nature of the record as important to orthodoxy. We should reject all attempts to reduce the creation record to fable as opposed to fact, or to mythology as opposed to history. But we must also guard against the temptation of getting sarcastic, disrespectful and judgmental towards others.
I hope this little interlude points to how careful we have to be about this. I believe we can get seriously sidetracked about the primary purpose of this passage – to declare and demonstrate that the One God created everything that exists. This is the starting point of the Bible’s storyline. It lays the framework through which we must look at the rest of the Bible and through which we can look at the rest of the world.

(Next time – what does Genesis 1 and its revelation about God mean for our lives today?)

← Previous Article

Next Article →