Creation – The Literal Week
Some believe that the days of creation week were long geological periods of time. But this is not consistent with the Bible. Here, are some of the reasons that prove that the creation of the world took place in a literal week:
- The Hebrew word for day is “yom.” Throughout the Bible, when this word “yom” is used, it always has reference to a literal solar day. “Yom” is used in reference to a twenty-four-hour day; therefore, it seems reasonable to assume that it is so used in dealing with the first, second, and third days of creation also.
- According to the Bible, every day of that first week was made up of darkness and light and evening and morning (Genesis 1:8, 13, 19, 23, 31). So, whatever length of day that might have been, it was composed of half darkness and half light. If we suppose that a day was a long geological period or even one thousand years in length, it would mean that five hundred years (supposing that a day stood for a thousand years) would be light and five hundred years would be darkened. This would make it impossible for any living vegetation to survive.
- We know that the creation days were not longer periods and irregular solar days because plants were created on the third day and the insects on the fifth day. Bees and insects are absolutely necessary for the process of pollination which reproduce the flowers and the grass. Had those days of creation been long periods of time, none of the flowers could have survived without the bees which were created on the fifth day.
- Adam was created on the sixth day. Now had those days been long periods of time, Adam would have been many thousands of years old before he died, yet we are plainly told in the Bible that he was only nine hundred and thirty years of age when he died (Genesis 5:5).
- The book of Genesis used the language of immediacy in the expression “it was so” (Genesis 1:7,11,15,24). This shows that creation happened quickly and not over a long period of time. “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalms 33:9).
- Concerning the Sabbath Day: In Genesis 2:1-3 we read, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made.”
Later in Exodus 20:8-11, God actually included the Sabbath commandment as one of the Ten Commandments. He commanded man to keep the sabbath day holy; “six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Then He goes on to tell why it’s the sabbath of the Lord. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.”
There would have been no meaning at all in resting every seventh day if the work of creation had been accomplished over long geological periods. The reason God commanded man to keep every seventh day was to remember that God had created the world in six literal days. - Jesus referred to the literal story of the creation of Adam and Eve in Matthew 19:4-6. Adam and Eve were not created over a long period of time. Also, the apostle Paul taught the same truth in 1 Corinthians 15:47.
So, to be true to the Bible account, we must believe that the days of creation were literal solar days just as they are now.
In His service,
BibleAsk Team