Home	Our Hope
Bible Study		April 10, 2013
7 Days

Introduction

Genesis 1

Christian beliefs about the creation story

It's a fable, like a parable, not meant to be literally true but to convey a truth
The story is true but so is the big bang theory and evolution so the days aren't literal days
The story is true and the days are literal days

In the verses below, which are from the 2011 NIV, I have in some places replaced a word or phrase with the word or phrase directly translated from the Hebrew text. In all case I've marked the replacement text in [ ].

1 ¹ In the beginning God created the heaven(s) and the earth. ² Now the earth was [in chaos] and [vacant], darkness was over the surface of the [abyss], and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. ³ And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night."	And [it became] evening, and [it became] morning - [day one].
The Hebrew word used here for "heaven(s)" is the same whether it is singular or plural. The reader must determine from the context which is intended. In this case "it is plural. The Bible is very clear that there are three heavens, the space containing the atmosphere where birds fly, the space containing the sun, moon, planets and stars, and the Heaven of God. So the first verse of Genesis tells us that God mapped out these spaces, what we would call the universe, as the first step. With that, the earth comes into existence but in a void form. At the close of each day of creation God will say it is "good" or "very good". At the close of each day of creation except the 7th the text will have a day number. The first day is different though. It says "day one" not "day first". All the others say second, third, fourth, and so on. Hebrew language scholars say this emphasizes that the description is of a single day-long period not a long or undefined length period as some people want it to be. God knew from creation that there would be a time when a different story of the origin of the earth would be told by scholars. There would be people, even believers, who, because of their respect for these scholars, would try to get that story to fit into the Genesis account. He wanted to make it clear that it happened in one day At the close of each day of creation except the 7th the text will say "it became evening and it became morning". Again this is God emphasizing that these were literal days Some people ask how it could be a day when the sun wasn't even created yet and it is the sun that causes days, evenings and mornings. From before the days of creation God knew everything that would happen through to the end. He even knew that he would create a sun and set the earth in orbit around it and how long a day would be. One of the most important things to understand from the first day of creation is that the earth was created on this day and the sun, moon, and stars do not come until the 4^th day. There are some Christians who want to merge the Big Bang Theory from science with the creation account here. They do this because they are unjustifiably in awe of scientists. But the Big Bang theory says stars first, planets next and then moons and the earth is just another planet. So, right from the first day the two are incompatible
⁶ And God said, "Let there be [atmosphere] between the waters to separate water from water." ⁷ So God made the [atmosphere] and separated the water under the [atmosphere] from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the [atmosphere] "[heaven(s)]."	And [it became] evening, and [it became] morning - [second day].
In this case the context of the word "heaven(s)" tells us it is singular. That is, the atmosphere is a heaven.
⁹ And God said, "Let the water under the [heaven(s)] be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. ¹¹ Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.	¹³ And [it became] evening, and [it became] morning - [third day].
Note the consequence of the water being "gathered to one place"; the land must also be in one place. It seems clear that the original creation had a single land mass or continent, Secular scientists agree with this and call it Pangaea. The reason secular science believes this is because the continents look like they could be joined together like pieces in a puzzle and become one continent. Secular scientists believe Pangaea broke up into the continents that we now know over billions of years. Creation scientists believe the land mass was shattered at the beginning of the flood and the pieces moved very quickly during the year the earth was covered by water. The use of the word "kind" here probably doesn't mean what we would mean if we said "every kind of dog". It probably means something closer to the scientific term "species", a group of plants or animals that cannot breed outside its group. Even to scientists, however, the dividing lines between species are not clear. For example, God created plant "kinds" one of which includes roses. God did not create Knockout Roses though. Man "created" those and probably most if not all rose breeds by mixing breeds and selecting for certain characteristics from the range that God made possible in the plant kind that includes roses.
¹⁴ And God said, "Let there be lights in the [heaven(s)] to separate the day from the night, and let them serve [for signs and appointments], and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the [heaven(s)] to give light on the earth." And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights - the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the [heaven(s)] to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.	¹⁹ And [it became] evening, and [it became] morning - [fourth day].
Here again the context shows us that the word "heaven(s)" is singular. God did not create lights (sun, moon, stars) in his Heaven, nor in the atmosphere; he created them in the second heaven. Notice that God creates light on the 1^st day but on this day, the 4^th, he creates sources for light. We understand that light was everywhere until this time and there was no darkness. Once the sources of light are created, darkness is possible. Earth and the plants and creatures on it will now experience the first cycle of night and day, the first lunar cycle, and the first year.
²⁰ And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the [heaven(s)]." ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth."	²³ And [it became] evening, and [it became] morning - [fifth day].
²⁴ And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." ²⁹ Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground - everything that has the breath of life in it - I give every green plant for food." And it was so. ³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.	And [it became] evening, And [it became] morning - [sixth day].
There is something important about the creation of man that appears in the Hebrew but cannot be translated. An extra character appears in the word "created." It is the Hebrew letter yodh, the smallest of the Hebrew letters. In English it would be as though the word "created" was used for everything else but the word "creeated" (extra 'e') was used for man. From this we understand that man has something that the others do not, a spirit. Notice that plants and fruits are the food for all the creatures that have the breath of life. This term "breath of life" appears in other places in the Bible for example Isaiah 2:22. The idea is that this breath is something special that God has given man and the animals. It is not a quality of themselves that they can sustain but a gift that they can lose. The other side of that is that plants do not die in the same way as the creatures. No creature will eat another creature, but only plants. This holds until, at least, the sin of Adam and Eve, when sin and death enter the world. Man probably ate only plants and fruits until the time of the flood and certainly righteous Noah and his family would have eaten only plants. Certainly after the flood man and animal are eating other animals. God specifically allows this at that time.
2 ¹ Thus the heaven(s) and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
The 7^th day does not say evening and morning as the other days do. That rest of God is the same rest that those who are faithful to him will enjoy in the future. See Hebrews 3 and 4.

How do we resolve the conflict between the creation story and the big bang theory?
The conflict cannot be resolved. Hebrew language scholars say that the text of the Genesis creation is very clearly intended to mean literal days. Many Christians have tried to fit billions of years into those days but those are dishonest interpretations. It remains then for Christians to determine if the Bible is the word of God. The problem with choosing to say the Genesis account is not literal is that you don't know where to stop. Where Adam and Eve literal? Original Sin? The Flood? Some of the most basic concepts of both Judaism and Christianity are introduced in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.

How do we resolve the conflict between the creation story and the theory of evolution?
The answer is really the same as the answer above, the Genesis account is clearly written to show they were literal days. Evolution would take much longer than that.

What is this 1 week old earth like?
Not many people think about it but Adam wasn't created as a baby. He was created as an adult and the same for Eve. By looking at them you would say the world was at least 20 years old when it was only 8 days old. Also Adam and Eve didn't learn to speak. They were created with the knowledge of language and how to speak and not just that they knew how to see, how to walk, run, laugh, and all the other things that people do. Birds were created knowing how to fly and perhaps some were even created in flight. God created a universe that was in motion, not one that needed to startup.

If an astrophysicist was taken back in time to the day after the creation week, what would he say about the age of the universe?
He would analyze the orbits of the earth and moon and study the stars and he would say he could tell you the positions of everything 1 year ago, 1000 years ago, or even longer. God created the universe in motion, with the moon in orbit around the earth, which is in orbit around the Sun. The astrophysicist would see no reason to think it had always been that way. Therefore he would use their current motions and positions to predict where they would have been in the past. He would be wrong though because they didn't exist then.

If a biologist was taken back in time to the day after the creation week, what would he say about the age of the planet
He would look at the age of the animals, and trees, he would look for a layers of dead vegetation and he would say that the planet was very old. There are bugs that live off dead vegetation, therefore it was necessary for God to create dead vegetation for them. God created a world that was fully in action with a complete environment.

Biosphere II

Biosphere II is a 3.14-acre structure originally built to be an artificial, closed ecological system. This was man's attempt to build a complete ecological system, just as God had done. Biosphere II was only used twice for its original intended purposes. Both attempts ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animal and plant species, squabbling among the resident scientists and management issues. Building a balanced ecological system is not such an easy thing to do.