The Days of Creation – Genesis 1

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Pastor Scott L. Harris

Grace Bible Church, NY

June 24, 2007

The Days of Creation

Genesis 1

Introduction

This morning we resume our overview of the Bible. So far we have covered several topics needed to lay a foundation for our study including: The Reliability of the Bible which explained the reasons we believe the Bible to be true. The Purpose of the Bible which is to reveal God to us and His instructions for how we are to live, and an overview of The Nature and Attributes of God. If you were not present for any of those studies I encourage you to pick up either an audio copy of the sermon or a printed copy of the notes, or both. You can get them by either filling out one of the request envelopes at the back of the church or downloading them from our website (www.GraceBibleNY.org).

This morning we start into the actual text of the Scriptures. I said when we began this series that it will be difficult for me to keep this as an overview because I like to dig into a text and can spend a long time on even a small section of a Biblical passage. I will be doing my best to not get bogged down in the minor points or chase rabbit trails, but instead keep this study as an overview so that you will understand the general flow and message of the Bible. However, in saying that I also want to let you know that it will take us awhile to get through Genesis simply because it lays the foundation for the rest of the Bible.

The Book of Genesis

There are many in our times, including professing Christians, that want to dismiss the book of Genesis as simply ancient fables that are interesting and have some good moral lessons, but which are not true and essentially irrelevant to living life in the 21st Century. It is understandable that non-Christians would attack Genesis since they do not want to live under the implications of its message that God is creator, that He judges those who are disobedient to Him and that He has chosen the nation of Israel as His special people who are to proclaim Him to the world. That means their Creator will hold them responsible for their sins, their god is false, and their ethnic group is not the superior of all others.

However, when professing Christians attack Genesis they are ignorantly attacking the foundation upon which all of the New Testament rests. I will get into this in depth next week, but if you say that you believe the New Testament and are a follower of Jesus but reject Genesis then either you are ignorant or your profession is false. Jesus quoted it extensively as did the Apostles. There are 39 direct quotes in the New Testament and many other allusions to it. If you are a follower of Jesus then you must believe what He believed and He believed Genesis as did the apostles.

Genesis was written by Moses during the wilderness wanderings with the specific purpose of introducing the nation of Israel to its origin in God’s sovereign establishment of a promised and chosen seed tracing back to Adam & Eve’s son, Seth, and then running through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Because Moses covers the origin of Israel all the way back to creation itself, Genesis is the “book of beginnings.” It tells not only the fundamental nature of God as the Creator who is holy, good, merciful and just, but it also tells us the origin of such things as: matter; the heavens along with the Sun, moon, stars and planets including earth; the seas & land, plants, water creatures & birds, land animals, men & women and marriage; sin and its consequences including death, weeds, and labor in work; the rainbow, languages, ethnic groups and several specific nations. Genesis also reveals the reality of and methodology of Satan, the first promise of redemption, a description of the antediluvian world, the long length of early human life and documentation of it shortening dramatically, a description of first global catastrophe (& hence origin of flood stories), and the establishment of God’s first covenants with Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Genesis also answers some intriguing questions for us too. When did the first animal die? Who was the first human to die? How long can people live? What was the extent of Noah’s flood and where did the water come? Who was the first man to see a rainbow? Should a murderer be subject to capital punishment? Are aboriginal cultures primitive? Who was the first musician and what instruments did he play? Which came first – stone implements? Bronze implements? Iron implements? What is the oldest profession? A few questions we will answer in our study this morning: Which animal is older: A Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Chicken? A whale or a Stegosaurus ? A dragonfly or an Eagle? A Sequoia Redwood or the moon? How long is a “day” in the creation?

Genesis 1 Overview

Turn to Genesis 1 which focuses on the first six days of creation. Chapter 2 focuses on the creation of man on the sixth day. We will get to that in a couple of weeks. This morning we will look at each day of creation in some detail. The week of Creation is outlined as follows:

        Day     Verses         Action

 

1      1-5           Heavens & Earth; Light; divided light & darkness

2     6-8             Expanse between waters;

3     9-13           Waters gathered, land appears; vegetation, seed plants, fruit trees

4     14-19         Sun to govern day; Moon to govern night; Stars

5     20-23         Living creatures in the water; Every winged bird

6     24-31         Living creatures on the earth: cattle, creeping things & beasts. Man in God’s image to rule the Earth.

                          Plants designated as food.

7     2:1-3         God rested

Up through the mid-1800’s the only serious interpretation given to Genesis 1 was that it was literal and that each day mentioned was the same as we refer to a day at present – a 24 hour period. With the rise of the idea of geologic ages as well as evolutionary thought presented in Darwin’s book, The Origin of Species, there arose with it a pressure to believe that the earth was very old in order for any feasibility for evolution to take place and with that came a pressure to re-interpret Genesis in light of such supposed “scientific” information. Next week I will show that evolution and the claim for an earth billions of years old is not scientific, but for this week I want to concentrate on Genesis itself. I bring this up today only to let you know that the various additional ways of interpreting Genesis 1 other than literal were developed not from a study of the text itself, but because of pressure to somehow make what Genesis 1 states compatible with evolutionary thought. In other words, people have expended a lot of effort to try to make what the God who created it all has revealed compatible with the musings and speculations of men. The result are ten different interpretations of Genesis 1. These are:

1 Literal: A Six, 24 hour day Creation

2 Gap, Reconstruction, Re-creation or Pre-world: A gap exists between Genesis 1:1 & 1:2 or 2:3 & 2:4. Original creation destroyed and world re-created.

3 Progressive Creation or Evolution: Evolution is helped along by creative acts of God.

4 Day-age Theory: Each day of Genesis 1 is an undetermined length of time.

5 Theistic Evolution: “God’s method of creation is evolution.”

6 Day of Revelation or Framework Hypothesis : Each Genesis 1 day gives an idea of the framework of creation, but the account it not literal.

7 Pictorial or Allegorical

8 Literary                                 7 – 10 differ in minor points but all say Genesis is only

9 Poetical                                 a story which is not to be taken as actual fact

10 Mythological

Again, next week I will talk more about why we do not need to bend the Bible to somehow agree with the ideas of evolution for evolution is a fairy tale for grown-up that do not want to deal with the reality of a God who created them and will hold them accountable for their disobedience to Him. Today, I want stick to the text itself and show why Genesis 1 cannot be made compatible with evolution by any means. Either evolution is true or Genesis 1 is true. Both cannot be true. Lets begin by looking at the events of the first day in vs 1-5.

Day One: verses 1-5

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

There is actually a lot in just the first verse. In the last message in this series we spent the whole sermon just on the fourth word, God, and briefly described His nature and attributes. Let me briefly point out some of the other significant aspects to the statement of this verse.

A) In the beginning denies the eternity of time for there was a point at which time began.

B) In the beginning God. This denies atheism’s doctrine that there is no God. It also denies polytheism’s doctrine of many gods.

C) In the beginning God created. The word for created (bara) is used exclusively for the work of God for only He can call into existence what had no existence. Man can “form” or “make” something from what already exists, but only God can create. This denies fatalism’s doctrine of chance for it was a direct and purposeful action of God. It also denies evolution’s doctrine of either progressive or infinite becoming because God created at specific points of time and not over continuing lengths of time.

D) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This denies pantheism which makes God and the universe identical because God is the creator of the universe. It also denies the eternity of matter, upon which evolution is based. God created matter at a point in time.

Verse 2 states, “And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” This is a simple statement that though the earth was created and all the materials were present, it was not yet shaped nor was there any life placed in it yet.

Some try to put a time gap between verse 1 and 2 for various reasons though there is nothing in the text suggesting it. In fact, the conjunction (and – waw) used at the start the verse connects it immediately to verse 1. Some say that Satan fell into sin in that time, though the only thing that the Bible tells about timing of Satan’s fall is that it had occurred by Genesis 3 when he tempts Eve. There is no Biblical or theological reason for an extended length of time needed for Satan’s fall. The only reason people look for a time gap in the passage is as a method to reconcile Genesis with an old earth.

Others mistranslate the verse and render it as “and the earth became ruined and desolate” and then advocate either a re-creation or re-construction theory in which a previous world was destroyed and then either re-created or reconstructed as described in the rest of the chapter. These ideas fail for several reasons the first of which is that it is contrary to the text and the meanings of the words used (cf. Isaiah 45:18). Second, Romans 5:12 states that death came into the world through Adam’s sin, and these theories end up with a lot of death as recorded in the fossils even before Adam was formed. Third, both theories demand either a re-creation or a re-construction of the previous world which would actually have destroyed the evidence of them since in their own terms it had become “ruined and desolate” with everything including oceans, land, Sun, moon, stars and all life being reformed after the so called time gap. These ideas are advocated as a means to reconcile the Bible with the idea of an old earth, but the theories do not help reconcile the Bible with evolutionary ideas.

The earth was created, but it was still without order and without the life for which it was created (Isaiah 45:18), but the Spirit of God was at work over it.

In verse 3 God commands for light to appear, but there is no indication of a source except for His command, for there is no Sun or moon nor are their stars yet. God then separated the light from darkness and he called the period of light, “day,” and the period of darkness, “night.” This is then summarized with the statement, “then there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

Verse 5 is the key to understanding what is meant by “day” throughout the rest of the text. The word translated here as “day” is the Hebrew word “yom.” Yom can be used either figuratively or literally in the same way we use our English word “day.” Context will determine the meaning of its usage. If it is night and someone says to you, “I wish it was day,” you know they are specifically talking about that period of time when your part of the earth is in the light. If you order something and they tell you that shipping takes three days, you know they are talking about three 24 hour periods. Those are both literal uses of the word “day.” When I say, “in my grandfather’s day there were still people using horse and wagon in the area he lived,” you know that “day” refers to the years in which my grandfather was alive. That is a figurative use. The Hebrew word “yom” is used in the same manner. It is context that determines exactly what is meant.

In the Old Testament the word “yom” is translated in a figurative sense about 65 times while it is translated in a literal sense over 1200 times with the plural form translated literally over 700 times. This means that yom is normally used in the literal sense and any figurative usage would have to be clearly indicated by the context of the passage. What does the context of Genesis 1 tell us?

In 1:5 yom is used specifically to describe both the period of light and the sequence of “evening and morning.” This sequence is then used throughout the rest of the chapter to describe each day. The formula is “and there was evening and there was morning, a X day” (verses 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). The word “yom” (day) is clearly defined throughout the chapter as this sequence of “evening and morning,” a period of dark followed by light. There is nothing in either this chapter or any reference to it throughout the rest of the Bible to even suggest any sort of figurative meaning. Those who claim that it is somehow figurative are completely without any kind of support from this text or any other Biblical passage. Their claims are made only on the basis of what they want to believe instead of what the text of Genesis actually states.

But some might argue that the length of time of this sequence of “evening and morning” is not defined. That is true, but the events that occur on each subsequent day quickly rule out anything other than a period of time very close to our current 24 hour day.

Day Two – verses 6-8

(NASB) Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8 And God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

An expanse (firmament – KJV) is made between the waters. The expanse is then called “sky” or “heaven.” There are waters above it and waters below it. There has been a lot of discussion of this verse in recent years as different people ponder the possibilities of what may have occurred on this day. A fascinating book entitled “Starlight in Time” by Dr. D.R. Humphreys discusses this stretching out of the expanse in relationship to Einstein’s theory of relativity, E=MC2. Since the speed of light (C in the formula) has a time element in it Dr Humphreys uses it to explain why stars can have such apparent immense distances from the earth even though they were created less than 8,000 years ago.

Another area in which this verse receives great discussion is the nature of the water that is or was above the expanse. Among the many interesting things that Dr. Humphreys points out in his book is the fact that water molecules are found out in space which gives physical proof of water being above the expanse as well as below it. When we get to Genesis 7 we will discuss some of the possibilities for some of the waters that were part of the flood of Noah’s day specifically came through “the floodgates of the sky” (7:11). The only thing to keep in mind at present is that regardless of the specific form in which the water canopy existed it would have had an effect on the climate of the earth prior to its collapse at the flood.

On the second day of creation the waters are separated by an expanse or firmament which is then called “heaven.”

Day Three – Verses 9-13

9 Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, [and] fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth”; and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

To summarize, the waters under the heavens are gathered into seas which allows the dry land to appear which is called earth. God saw it was good and then created various kinds of plants including vegetation, seed bearing plants and fruit trees. God saw all this was good and so ended the third day.

It is important to note here that with the actions of Day Three there now must be a limit on the length of time for the period of light and dark that make up a day, for plants cannot live for extensive periods of time in darkness. You can prove this on your own by putting one of your potted plants in a windowless room and then seeing how long it takes for it to die.

Day Four – Verses 14-19

(NASB) Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth “;and it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; [He made] the stars also. 17 And God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

On Day Four God created the Sun, moon and stars and set them in order in the expanse of the heavens. The Sun would govern and separate the period of light, the day, from the period of dark, the night, which is governed by the moon. These heavenly bodies would be used for signs for seasons, days and years because of their regular and precise movements.

At the end of this day there can no longer be any question as to the length of the time period for a day for it would be governed by the rotational speed of the earth. There is no reason within the text to believe otherwise from the first day forward, but after the fourth day there can be no question about it. When I am asked if I believe the days of creation were only 24 hour periods I tell them that because the rotational speed of the earth is known to be slowing down, then the earth was spinning faster in the past and so the length of a day would have been a little less than 24 hours. This debunks the day-age theory as nonsense. Besides, since those who advocate that idea base it on the phrase Peter uses to express the Lord’s patience with men, “that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8), then at most all they could gain would be seven thousand years (see also Psalm 90:4). Each day of the week of creation is a normal, 24 hour day.

Note as well here that the Sun & Moon are made on Day Four which is after light was created on Day One and after land plants were made on Day Three.

Day Five – Verses 20-23

(NASB) Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

On the fifth day all the marine creatures are created along with all the birds and they were commanded to reproduce after their kind. This defines a “kind” and puts a limit on what is called “speciation.” Animals are in the same kind if they can produce viable, reproducible offspring. God saw this was good, and there was evening and morning, the fifth day.

Day Six – Verses 24-31

(NASB) Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind”; and it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, [I have given] every green plant for food “;and it was so. 31 And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

God created the cattle, creeping things, and beasts of the earth and saw that is was good. God then created man, male & female, in His image. They were given dominion (rule) over the earth and all the animals. The plants were given to man and the animals for food. (Genesis 2 is a summary of the Creation week and an expansion on the events of this day focused on the formation and activities of man). God saw it was very good and there was evening and morning, the sixth day.

Day Seven – Genesis 2:1-3

We are told about the final day of Creation week at the beginning of chapter 2. (NASB) Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God rested on the Seventh day, blessing it and sanctifying it.

The Order of Creation

There is nothing in Genesis or any other book of the Bible to suggest that Genesis 1 is poetical, allegorical or mythological. In addition, the sequential order of creation excludes it from any reconciliation with any proposed evolutionary scheme. Consider the following chart.

Order of Creation Vs. Evolution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVOLUTION

 

CREATION

Matter Eternal

God Eternal (1:1)

Sun & Stars before Earth

Earth before Sun & Stars (1:1,14)

Sun: Earth’s first light

Light before Sun (1:3,16)

Sun before Land plants

Land plants before Sun (1:11,16)

Land before Oceans

Oceans before Land (1:1,10)

Contiguous Atmosphere & Hydrosphere

Atmosphere between two Hydrospheres (1:6,8)

First Life: Marine Cells

First Life: Land Plants (1:11)

Fish before fruit trees

Fruit trees before fish (1:11,20)

Insects & Reptiles before Birds

Birds before Insects and Reptiles (1:20,24)

Women before men

Man before woman (2:20-22)

Rain before man

Man before rain (2:7 & 7:12)

Conclusions

To answer the questions I posed earlier, whales came before Stegosaurus, eagles came before dragonflies, Redwoods came before the moon, chickens came before dinosaurs and a “day” in the creation is the sequence of light and dark, one rotation of the earth, about 24 hours.

Those facts can either be accepted or rejected, but you had better consider very carefully your reasons for doing so. The text itself does not lend itself to any other interpretation other than the literal one. Genesis and evolution cannot both be true. If you reject Genesis 1, then you are rejecting the revelation of God in favor of the musings presuppositions and schemes of men, and not just any men, but those men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, reject the evidence God has given them both internally and externally, and who profess to be wise but have become fools (Romans 1:18-23). You have accepted the mocking of ungodly men who reject the overwhelming evidence that God has judged the world by the means of a worldwide flood because they do not want to subject themselves to the fact that this God is still judge and will judge them for their sins in the future (2 Peter 3:3-7). You have made for yourself a god who is small, impotent and incapable of both communicating clearly to man what He has done and doing what He claims. If you profess to believe the God of the Bible, then why limit His ability to do what He says that He has done.

Man’s only hope is God’s gracious offer of salvation from sin and its consequential condemnation through faith in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Talk with me or any of our church leaders after the service if you do not have this hope.

Next week I will expand on the necessity of professing Christians to believe the Genesis 1 account of creation as well as briefly prove that evolution is not based in true science, but is rather a fairly tale for grown-ups developed to free them from their responsibility to God.

 

Sermon Study Sheets

 

Sermon Notes – June 24, 2007

The Days of Creation Genesis 1

Introduction

 

The Book of Genesis

 

Genesis 1 Overview

        Day     Verses         Action

 

1      1-5           Heavens & Earth; Light; divided light & darkness

2     6-8             Expanse between waters;

3     9-13           Waters gathered, land appears; vegetation, seed plants, fruit trees

4     14-19         Sun to govern day; Moon to govern night; Stars

5     20-23         Living creatures in the water; Every winged bird

6     24-31         Living creatures on the earth: cattle, creeping things & beasts. Man in God’s image to rule the Earth.

                          Plants designated as food.

7     2:1-3         God rested

 

Ten Different Interpretations of Genesis

1 Literal: A Six, 24 hour day Creation

2 Gap, Reconstruction, Re-creation or Pre-world: A gap exists between Genesis 1:1 & 1:2 or 2:3 & 2:4. Original creation destroyed and world re-created.

3 Progressive Creation or Evolution: Evolution is helped along by creative acts of God.

4 Day-age Theory: Each day of Genesis 1 is an undetermined length of time.

5 Theistic Evolution: “God’s method of creation is evolution.”

6 Day of Revelation or Framework Hypothesis : Each Genesis 1 day gives an idea of the framework of creation, but the account it not literal.

7 Pictorial or Allegorical

8 Literary                                 7 – 10 differ in minor points but all say Genesis is only

9 Poetical                                 a story which is not to be taken as actual fact

10 Mythological

Day One: verses 1-5

A) In the beginning denies the eternity of ______________.B) In the beginning God. This denies atheism’s doctrine that there is _______________..

It also denies polytheism’s doctrine of ____________.

C) In the beginning God created. This denies fatalism’s doctrine of _____________It also denies evolution’s doctrine of either progressive or infinite becoming ______________.

D) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.This denies pantheism which makes God and the universe _____________

It denies the eternity of _________________

All forms of the Gap theory fail because

1) The text __________________________

2) It makes death prevalent prior to sin – Romans 5:12

3) A reconstruction or re-creation would have destroyed the evidence of a previous earth

Hebrew “yom” = day. Type of usage and length of time is determined by ________________

In O.T. “yom” is translated in a figurative sense about ______ times

It is translated in a literal sense over ______ times with the plural form and additional ____________

1:5 defines day as ____________________ and as a sequence of ______________ and _____________

Day Two – verses 6-8

 

Day Three – Verses 9-13

 

Day Four – Verses 14-19

 

Day Five – Verses 20-23

 

Day Six – Verses 24-31

 

Day Seven – Genesis 2:1-3

The Order of Creation Vs. Evolution

 

EVOLUTION

 

CREATION

Matter Eternal

God Eternal (1:1)

Sun & Stars before Earth

Earth before Sun & Stars (1:1,14)

Sun: Earth’s first light

______________ before __________ (1:3,16)

Sun before Land plants

______________ before __________ (1:11,16)

Land before Oceans

______________ before __________ (1:1,10)

Contiguous Atmosphere & Hydrosphere

Atmosphere between two Hydrospheres (1:6,8)

First Life: Marine Cells

First Life: ____________________ (1:11)

Fish before fruit trees

______________ before __________ (1:11,20)

Insects & Reptiles before Birds

Birds before Insects and Reptiles (1:20,24)

Women before men

Man before woman (2:20-22)

Rain before man

Man before rain (2:7 & 7:12)

Conclusions

 

KIDS CORNER

Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help.

Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – Do one or more of the following: 1) Write down all the verses mentioned in the sermon and look them up later. 2) Count how many times “day” “is mentioned in the sermon. Talk with your parents about each day of the Creation Week and what God did on each one.

THINK ABOUT IT!

Questions to consider in discussing the sermon with others. Why do people attack the book of Genesis? Why is Genesis important? Give an outline of what God accomplished on each day in Genesis 1. When did other than a literal interpretation begin to be used for Genesis 1? What are the reasons for non-literal interpretations of Genesis 1? What philosophies are denied by the phrase, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”? Why are gap / reconstruction / re-creation theories invalid? Context determines the usage and length of yom (day) in a passage. What is the usage of yom (day) in Genesis 1? What is its length of time? Why? What is the “expanse” (firmament) and what does it contain? How long can a plant live without light? What is created before the Sun, moon and stars? What was the first form of animal life? The second? The third? The fourth? The last? What does it mean that man is made in God’s “image?” Compare the order of creation and evolution? Can the text of Genesis 1 be true and also reconciled with evolution? Why or why not? See the links page on the church website for resources on this subject.


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