The Necessity for Believing
in Six Literal Days of Creation
By Ken Ham, President of
Answers in Genesis
The major reason
why people doubt that the days of creation are 24-hour literal days usually
has nothing to do with what the Bible
says, but comes from outside influences.
For example, many believe that because scientists have supposedly proven that
the earth is billions of years old then the days of creation cannot be ordinary
24-hour days. The fact of the matter is, scientists
have not proven that the earth is billions of years old.
A lot of people try to use Scripture to justify
that the days of creation were long periods of time and usually quote passages
such as 2 Peter 3:8, “…one day is
with the Lord as a thousand years….” Because
of this, they think the days could be a thousand years,
or perhaps even millions of years.
However, if you look at the rest of the verse,
it says, “…and a thousand years as one day”. This cancels out their argument! The context
of this passage concerns the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
particular verse is telling people that with God, waiting
a day is like waiting a thousand years, and waiting a thousand years
is like waiting a day because God is outside of time – He is not limited by
natural processes and time. This has absolutely nothing to do with defining
the days of creation. Besides, the word day
already exists and has been defined, which is why in 2 Peter it can be compared to a thousand years. There is no reference
in this passage to the days of creation.
How should we approach Scripture?
One of the major problems we all have (in fact,
it is the same problem Adam and Eve had) is that we tend to start from outside God's Word and then go to what
God has written in the Bible (or
– in Adam's case – what God said directly to him) to try to interpret it on
the basis of our own ideas. This is really the major reason why most people
question the days of creation.
We need to realize that the Bible is God's Word. And, as it is the inspired Word of the infinite
Creator, God, then it must be self-authenticating and self-attesting. Thus,
we should always start with what God's Word says regardless of outside ideas.
Only God's Word is infallible.
If we allow our children to accept the possibility
that we can doubt the days of creation when the languages speaks so plainly,
then we are teaching them a particular approach to all of Scripture. Why shouldn't
they then start to doubt that Christ's Virgin Birth really means a virgin
birth? Why shouldn't they start to doubt that the Resurrection really means
resurrection?
In fact, there are many theologians who doubt these
very things, as they have come to disbelieve the plain words of Scripture
written in the foundational Book of Genesis.
What if the days
were millions of years?
The idea of millions of years came from the belief
that the fossil record was built up over a long time. As soon as people allow
for millions of years, they allow for the fossil record to be millions of
years old. This creates an insurmountable problem regarding the Gospel. The
fossil record consists of the death of billions of creatures. In fact, it
is a record of death, disease, suffering, cruelty, and brutality. It is a
very ugly record.
The Bible
is adamant though, that death, disease, and suffering came into the world
as a result of sin. God instituted death and bloodshed because of sin so man
could be redeemed. As soon as Christians allow for death, suffering, and disease
before sin, then the whole foundations of the message of the Cross and the
Atonement have been destroyed. The doctrine of original sin is then totally
undermined.
If death, disease, and suffering existed before
Adam rebelled – then what did sin do to the world? What does Paul mean in
Romans 8 when he says the whole of creation
groans in pain because of the Curse? How can all things be restored in the
future to no more death and suffering, unless the beginning was also free
of death and suffering? The whole message of the Gospel falls apart if one
allows millions of years for the creation of the world.
Were the days of creation 24-hours long? Most definitely! “Let God be true, but every
man a liar.” (Romans 3:4)
Publisher’s
Note
The above
article was first published in Creation Ex Nihilo, Dec. 1995-1996.
