Genesis 2:1

How could the world be created in six days?

PROBLEM: The Bible says that God created the world in six days (Exodus 20:11). But modern science declares that it took billions of years. Both cannot be true.

SOLUTION: There are basically two ways to reconcile this difficulty.

1. The days of Genesis each have “evening and the morning,” (cf. Genesis 1:5; Genesis 1:8; Genesis 1:13; Genesis 1:19; Genesis 1:23; Genesis 1:31), something unique to 24-hour days in the Bible.

2. The days were numbered (first, second, third, etc.), a feature found only with 24- hour days in the Bible.

3.Exodus 20:11 compares the six days of creation with the six days of a literal work week of 144 hours.

4. There is scientific evidence to support a young age (of thousands of years) for the earth.

Other Bible scholars claim that the universe could be billions of years old without sacrificing a literal understanding of Genesis 1 and

2. They argue that:

1. The days of Genesis 1 could have a time lapse before the days began (before Genesis 1:3), or a time gap between the days. There are gaps elsewhere in the Bible (cf. Matthew 1:8, where threegenerations are omitted, with 1 Chronicles 3:11-14).

2. The same Hebrew word “day” (yom) is used in Genesis 1–2 as a period of time longer than 24 hours. For example, Genesis 2:4 uses it of the whole six day period of creation.

3. Sometimes the Bible uses the word “day” for long periods of time: “One day is as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:8; cf. Psalms 90:4).

4. There are some indications in Genesis 1–2 that days could be longer than 24 hours:

c) The Bible says God “rested” on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2), and that He is still in His rest from creation (Hebrews 4:4). Thus, the seventh day is thousands of years long already. If so, then other days could be thousands of years too. 5.Exodus 20:11 could be making a unit-for-unit comparison between the days of Genesis and a work week (of 144 hours), not a minute-by-minute comparison.

Conclusion: There is no demonstrated contradiction of fact between Genesis 1 and science. There is only a conflict of interpretation. Either, most modern scientists are wrong in insisting the world is billions of years old, or else some Bible interpreters are wrong in insisting on only 144 hours of creation some several thousand years before Christ with no gaps allowing millions of years. But, in either case it is not a question of inspiration of Scripture, but of the interpretation of Scripture (and of the scientific data).