How Can the Six “Days” of Creation Not be Literal Days?

I like to think I’m an intellectually honest man­. Truthfully, I’ve wrestled plenty with the question of the literalness of the Six Days of Creation in Genesis 1-2. To be frank, apart from scientific investigation of the universe, there is no obvious reason not to take the six days literally—as 24-hour-long days. A cursory, Bible-alone interpretation of Genesis 1 tends more naturally to a literal creation week. Is that honest enough? So, the obvious question to answer is, “How can I—or anyone—feel that a nonliteral, Day-Age interpretation of Genesis 1 is justifiable and does not mangle the meaning of the creation account?” The answer involves the study of scriptural interpretation (i.e. hermeneutics), the nature of God and His revelation, and the place of human reasoning and investigation.

I was taught that Scripture should be taken literally, if at all possible. If a literal interpretation was not “ridiculous” then it was the preferred interpretation. However, I no longer accept this hermeneutical rule without further qualifications. [1.] The genre of a passage should influence the interpretive approach. Prophecy and poetry, for instance, are treated much differently than narrative, with plenty of figures of speech and symbolic language. In the case of poetry, literal interpretation is not as preferred. So, it is important to understand the literary form of the creation account. [2.] The original cultural context of biblical writing needs to be considered when interpreting the Bible in cases of historical literature. Modern, Western, Space Age thinking is far different from the ancient, Eastern, Bronze/Iron Age thinking. I suspect that modern Americans are more bent on literalism than perhaps any previous cultures. For this reason, I believe that the Bible is often less black-and-white than we might initially think. The biblical phrase “whole earth,” for instance, is demonstrably not speaking of the whole sphere of Earth in various places (e.g., Romans 1:8; Daniel 2:35). To get the most natural interpretation of narrative or historical literature, it can be helpful to understand the original audience, culture, and—especially—language of the writer. We should not think that God’s Word has been equally as plain in all languages and ages, for such a thing is not even possible. [3.] A Bible passage must always be interpreted in light of the rest of the Bible. A literal interpretation of a passage may become less justified due to another relevant passage that is shown to be nonliteral. Again, “whole earth” is a perfect example. Several passages use this phrase obviously in a nonliteral sense, making it become clear that anywhere this phrase is used it could be similarly a relative phrase speaking of a large region of the Earth.

I am confident that to the original audience of ancient Hebrews, the length of the days in the creation account was wide open to interpretation. As various scholars have noted, the Hebrew contains subtle, but significant clues all throughout Genesis 1 and 2 that point to longer, non-calendar “days” (e.g., Genesis 2:4 ESV; Genesis 1:11).

Now we come to the nature of God. God is fully honest, but He is also a God who does not reveal everything—certainly not all at once. He retains “secrets” to Himself, as the Bible clearly indicates (e.g., Deut. 29:29; Mt. 13:35; Dan. 8:26; Acts 1:7; Prov. 25:2; Job 11:7). When God speaks of a time before Man existed on Earth, we might be reasonable to assume that God withholds some significant details about what all happened (cf. Ecc. 3:11; 8:16-17). In fact, we might not even have wanted for God to tell us everything. (It would probably take a trilogy to tell us it all.) God’s special revelation to us is primarily about Him: His nature, His Salvation, His glory, His plans, and His relationship to Man. If the creation of the universe and life on Earth was incredibly complex, you would expect God to only give a rough outline of events, I believe.

Lastly, we must understand the place of human reasoning in God’s plans for our understanding of the universe and its history. Young-Earth creationists (YECs) like to say that the Bible is all-sufficient, and so it is when it comes to spiritual matters and our knowledge of God (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17). They like to say that the Bible alone can be trusted to give us knowledge of the formation of the universe, the Earth, and terrestrial life. However, they misunderstand one small thing: God Himself has shown us that the universe is a form of revelation (e.g., Ps. 19; Rom. 1:20-21) and that we should employ our “fallen” reasoning (e.g., Rom. 14:5; Is. 1:18; Acts 18:4; 24:25). It is fully consistent with biblical teaching that we apply our reasoning to discern truth about the universe and its history.

What do we Christians have to fear? We believe that biblical revelation will coincide with nature’s revelation. If the Bible is true then there will be no contradictions. God, I believe, wants us to see and know that His Word is true, and studying Creation gives us some measure of assurance of the validity of it. Our faith must be a reasonable faith that we can intellectually defend. Do we think that God tells us, “Believe My Word even if it contradicts so many things you see in Nature”? We should not think so poorly of God! No, what He tells us is perhaps something closer to: “Believe My Word and see how trustworthy it is in light of the revelation in Nature” (cf. Mark 16:20; Deut. 18:20-22).

YECs mistakenly pit Nature against the Bible in that they believe God’s Word is so much more easily interpreted (contradicted by 2 Peter 3:16 and 1 Cor. 2:14) than the evidence of Nature. However, as noted in previous posts, various ideas of the universe derived from a hyper-literal interpretation of the Bible—stemming from overconfidence that the most literal, straightforward reading of the Bible is the best interpretation—have been overwhelmingly overturned by evidence from Nature, such as geocentricity (cf. Josh. 10:12-13; 1 Chr. 16:30; Ps 19:6; Ecc. 1:5), the idea that the moon is a light source (cf. Is. 13:10; 60:19; Gen. 1:16), or that male sperm is fully human (i.e., needing no other components to develop into mature humans; cf. Heb. 7:5,10). Regardless of who held these positions, they are ideas that would seem to be the “plain reading” of Bible passages related to the natural world. When it is convenient, YECs do concede that overly literal readings of the Bible can be incorrect, though not known to be incorrect until science elucidates the matter.

What they are unwilling to admit is that God would ever use any poetic flare—or otherwise less than absolute literal language—when telling us about how He created our world. Why would God seem to speak of a literal six-day long process of creation, if it were billions of years and we weren’t there to see it happen? Doesn’t He know that we’d be confused by His Word? Doesn’t He want us to trust His Word more than our research of His creation? To these questions I answer that God expects us to search out His creation and His Word and discern His works of ancient times (e.g., Ps. 111:2). He expects us to believe His Word, but not to be presumptuous that a hard, wooden, literal interpretation is the best interpretation. He expects us to be humble enough to reconsider our understanding of the Bible when mountains of evidence in creation point to a better interpretation of His Word. This is not abandoning the Bible; it’s reevaluating our presuppositions about how God speaks to us concerning His creation. If strong evidence in the universe points to an old universe and earth, we should not question which is correct: the “plain reading” of the Bible or the plain interpretation of evidence in Nature. No, we consider if God’s Word amply allows for a less-wooden interpretation of long ages in Genesis 1.

In this way we honor God’s Word and the revelation coming to us directly from His creation. We must wisely discern when to abandon a fully literal interpretation of the Bible when the evidence of Nature consistently points to a less literal interpretation. If we are unwilling to receive the overwhelming witness of Creation about its age, because we think we’re honoring God’s Book by trusting the simplest possible meaning, then there could be a hint of pride or self-righteousness in that position that mistakes the purposes of God and His desire for us to grow and learn by employing sound reasoning. We do not honor God by portraying a blatant discrepancy between His natural revelation (Creation) and His special revelation (the Bible).

For these reasons, I no longer feel disturbed that the most literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2 may not be the correct interpretation. Certainly, God has not deceived us! He has simply withheld fascinating secrets that only in modern times are being revealed by careful study of His Word and Creation—study that He Himself wanted and encouraged in His Word. For perhaps hundreds of years, the absolute literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2 was accepted as orthodoxy, but from that there was no detriment to our understanding of God and our human nature. The lack of understanding was regarding the universe and the universe alone. An old universe changes nothing about our understanding of who God is or what His relationship is to us. And, for these reasons, I am not troubled that the Creator would speak of what sounds to modern ears like a young universe, or that He would not tell us the processes whereby He created life on earth.

TALES FROM EDEN: Day Three

Disclaimer: It should go without saying that these are by all means fictitious tales. I want to make this absolutely clear: This is not a new revelation from God. I am not dictating the Word of God. Please take everything I say here with great caution and perfect deference to the Bible. This is simply one man’s poor attempt at imagining what it would have been like to be Adam. I have tried to remain faithful to the Bible’s account and to not deviate from it.

Day 3

The morning came and I awoke to the sound of birds chirping beside me. They seemed to be joyfully dancing across the ground and playing a game of chasing each other. Then I noticed they were eating fruit from the ground. But one of them started to fly off with the fruit, and the others flew after him. They started fighting with the first bird and trying to steal back the fruit. My heart sank. I gasped in horror. What was happening?! It was so wrong and unpleasant to watch in the beautiful paradise. I could not comprehend this unkindness in the birds, which seemed to me to be the most harmless and cheerful of animals.

Without thinking, I rose to my knees and cried out, “O my Father, what is this?!”

I did not see Him appear, but without delay, the Lord was there standing beside me. His hand reached down to my shoulder.[1] “This is the way of life apart from Me, Adam. See and understand.[2] Though I did not make these animals evil or unkind, they do not walk in My Light nor do they know or understand wisdom and holiness. They are without knowledge.[3] They can only act according to their blind senses. They desire only their own ways and to feed their own bellies, because they are but animals without true life in Me. They do not have self-control. They do not understand as you do that life is more than food.”[4]

I wondered for a moment at these sayings. What a pointless life these animals must have! What a sad life. “Why did You make such unfeeling animals, my Lord?”

“They are for your pleasure.[5] The pain and hurt is for your instruction.[6] By seeing them, you know your own blessedness. These animals are here to reveal to you life and death, foolishness and wisdom, and joy and sorrow. But remember how I have told you, beware[7] lest you partake of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, lest you die and lose your life and joy.”

I bowed in worship. I did truly feel blessed to know Him and to be alive. I worshipped Him for His wisdom and kindness. Knowledge of Him was what set me apart from all the animals, and such knowledge was unspeakable. Tears of joy nearly gushed out from my eyes. “May I never partake of that horrible tree, my God!”

“Adam, my beloved son, you are made in My image and have the gift of free will. You always have before you the choice between Life and Death.[8] It is a simple choice, but you must guard yourself from drifting from Me, for I am your Life and your Light. None can know Life but in Me.”[9]

It was then that I realized that all of this Creation testified of this truth: The air I breathed, the water I drank, the food I was sustained by, the ground that supported me, and the sun that warmed me were all there to remind me that I could not live apart from Him.

But, then I wondered at something, “Are there others who know Life in You?”

“Yes, and I have more to speak to you of that later. There are other spirits—Sons of God[10]—who dwell in the Third Heaven[11] where you cannot go yet, but they can see you and are even now ministering to you[12] in this world. Beware, however, for there are also evil ones among these spirits who have turned from Me to their own destruction and death. They will seek to deceive you.”

Once more, I spent much of the day talking with the Lord about many things like these. His wisdom was boundless. I was continually in awe of His unsearchable[13] depth of character.

After this more animals were brought before me to name. The variety of animals impressed me, and I asked the Lord how many animals there were in the world. He told me that there were so many that no one could ever count them all. The world was huge and the animals were different from region to region. He said that there would always be new things to discover.

The evening brought another vision of Creation:

The Angel of the Lord, hovering over the waters, spoke and said that the waters should be gathered together unto one place and that dry land should appear.[14] There were earthquakes and lightnings and thundering, and the hills from beneath the waters rose up; and, beneath the waters, I could see the valleys sinking down deep within the earth.[15] I did not understand, but I saw fountains of fire and smoke bursting also forth from the earth and darkening the sky. The land grew as the mountains continually rose up.

I heard the Lord name the land Earth and the waters Seas.[16]

It was as if by the breath of His voice, He gathered the land together and formed a unified whole. The land struggled and wrested and turned. It broke apart and spread to the four winds of the Earth and changed. Again and again, the land was gathered together by Him and struggled and broke apart and changed.

So God spoke and set a limit for the waters that they might never again cover over the whole land.[17] He said, “Thus far you may come and no farther, and here your proud waves shall be stopped.”[18]

Then He spoke, “Let the Earth be causing simple vegetation to be coming forth, plants seeding seed, and then fruitful trees producing fruit according to its kind, whichever seed is in it on the Earth.”[19] The Earth obeyed. Green vegetation sprang up from the Earth.[20] The Earth came to be covered with green vegetation. Then I beheld simple plants also coming up. These multiplied upon the Earth.

The Earth soon grew cold, ice covered many parts of the seas and the land, and blankets of clouds hovered low over the land. Yet it was not long before I saw the ice begin melting.

In the waters, I saw strange creatures springing up and multiplying. I heard the Lord speak to me, “Child, these strange creatures you see are destined to perish from the Earth. They are to give rise later to the creatures of the Seas that are in your days.”

I looked back to the Earth and plants were flourishing in the cloudy world. I continued to watch and ferns arose, mosses, bushes, and strange trees. I observed that the vegetation was changing and new kinds were appearing and understood that all kinds of plants would come to appear from these plants after many generations.

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[1] Rev 1:17

[2] Mark 7:14

[3] Cf. Psalm 32:9

[4] Luke 12:23

[5] Psalm 8:6-7

[6] Cf. Job 12:7-9

[7] Mark 13:23

[8] Deuteronomy 30:15-18

[9] John 17:3

[10] Job 1:6-7

[11] 2 Corinthians 12:2

[12] Psalm 91:11-12

[13] Isaiah 40:28

[14] Gen 1:9

[15] Psalm 104:7-8

[16] Gen 1:10

[17] Psalm 104:9

[18] Job 38:10-11

[19] Gen 1:11

[20] Gen 1:12

Lower Cambrian Complexity

If humans had been the first living creatures on earth, shown by the fossil record, the theory of Darwinian evolution would not exist. Darwin would have never considered such a theory because it would be preposterous. As we all know, Darwinism only works if there is gradual change. Along came Punctuated Equilibrium (which I hardly consider a theory but more of a description of how evolution has worked), which said that evolution happens more rapidly but less frequently, with long periods of stasis between bursts of speciation. Even in this “theory” new species cannot form overnight. Under no circumstances should a fly be able to evolve into a hopping insect in a few generations. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of how to calculate the maximum rate of evolution (which I think is almost impossible to calculate theoretically in Darwinism), it is intuitively obvious that un-designed evolution has a speed limit. That speed limit might change through time, but there must always be a maximum rate of change.

So, why do I mention this point? The Cambrian Explosion is problematic to Darwinists, and they have known for a long time. That’s why they keep trying to find earlier, simpler creatures that led up to the Trilobites and other complex organisms that arose rapidly in that period of time. That’s why some have proposed a genetic toolkit must have existed before these Cambrian and Ediacaran creatures. Whenever a new complex creature is found fossilized in the Cambrian layers, that increases the difficulty of explaining how evolution appears to have moved along so rapidly.

That brings us to the latest enigmatic Cambrian fossil that has been found, called Metaspriggina. It’s a vertebrate fish, apparently complete with binocular eyes, complex digestive system, gills, muscles, nerves, nasal sacs, and blood vessels.^[2,3] This creature existed in the early Cambrian, some 540 – 500 Ma, perhaps even before the famous trilobites. And while this fish is being called “primitive,” there is no reason why this fish wouldn’t be able to exist in today’s modern oceans. It was a fully functional fish with complex features. How would these complex anatomical features evolve so rapidly? (Binocular eyes, by the way, supposedly evolved from simple pinpoint photoreceptor eyespots to a pinhole eye to a lens-based eye.^[1] The evolution of such a complex organ would take many millions of years even under conservative estimates. There is no clear progression of less complex eyes to more complex eyes in the Cambrian Explosion, especially with this new fossil under consideration.)

Even as someone who believes that evolution was an intelligent, designed process that happened with efficiency, I consider this rate of evolution to be incredible and almost unbelievable. How much more unbelievable should it be if evolution were an unintelligent, random process? To me personally, Darwinism now borders on absurdity. How do you have simple plantlike organisms going to complex vertebrate animals in about 70 million years, with little fossil evidence of intermediate forms? I’m tempted to question whether or not any kind of evolution can explain the fossil record. No, I’m not ready to toss the theory of created evolution, but there are major questions that need some answers.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_eye
[2] http://www.evolutionnews.org/2014/08/metaspriggina_v089471.html
[3] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v512/n7515/full/nature13414.html

TALES FROM EDEN: Day Two

Disclaimer: It should go without saying that these are by all means fictitious tales. I want to make this absolutely clear: This is not a new revelation from God. I am not dictating the Word of God. Please take everything I say here with great caution and perfect deference to the Bible. This is simply one man’s poor attempt at imagining what it would have been like to be Adam. I have tried to remain faithful to the Bible’s account and to not deviate from it.

Day 2
When I awoke in the morning, He was smiling down at me. The smile: the pleasure of my Father was then a delight to me. It was satisfying to know He was pleased with me.

“My Father,” I spoke, “You are better than all this world, and I am glad You have returned!”

“Son, I never truly left you alone. Not even the farthest heavens can contain Me,[1] and yet I dwell always with you, Adam. Someday you will need to know that truth.” There was a short moment of sadness in His face that I did not then understand. “Yet, even so, it is not good for you to be alone in this garden when I leave you.[2] –Come, there is work for you to do.”

He set me to the work of naming all the kinds of animals in the region.[3] They all came to me at the Lord’s direction. Birds, lions, camels, deer, serpents, rodents, goats, horses, swine, and many other animals. It was an enjoyable task. I grouped the animals into several main classes: birds, wild beasts, grazing animals, scurrying animals, and slithering, crawling, or hopping animals.[4] The lions were of the beasts, the goats were of the grazing animals, and the rodents were of the scurrying animals. Each animal was named using these five classes.[5] I named them according to their features and their sizes and their movements—a name befitting each one.

In all this naming, it became clear to me that none of them were anything like me.[6] So, I asked my Lord, “Am I the only one of my kind? Have not all of these animals mates? Why am I so different from these?”

“I have many things to teach you, Adam.[7] All things will become known to you in time. You alone of all creatures have been made in My Image and in My likeness.[8] You know Me because you are a living spirit.[9] You are an eternal spirit. You see these animals are different. They have no awareness of Me. They have not the understanding of self or reasoning or contemplation that you possess. You alone were made to walk with Me and to delight in Me. You are made for wonderment; they are made for you.[10] Yet, shortly you will have one like yourself, who is comparable to you.”[11] 

Then I inquired about the vision of the night, wondering at what it was and why I had seen it.

“I have revealed to you the First Day of My creation. You are being given the knowledge of the creation from the beginning, so that all may know of My work from the Ages of Old.”[12] 

The afternoon was sweet as I walked and talked with my Father and Lord regarding many things of which I cannot now all recount accurately. He spoke to me of the stars, of the earth, of the sky, and of the animals. He explained the circuits of the moon and the wind. He answered all my deep questions. He withheld no knowledge from me that related to the world. Much of Himself He revealed, also. Yet, the future He told me was not for me to know,[13] and which was something I contentedly accepted. He also told me that He wished for me to study the world and learn much on my own. I was designed to seek, to study, and to apprehend knowledge and understanding and wisdom. In honor of that, from that point on, I asked Him no more of my questions regarding the world, for I thought it best to heed His infinite wisdom and to seek to gain understanding by observing all things.

It happened again that the evening came, and I slept and had another great vision of Creation:

The earth, formless and barren,[14] was first in my vision. The Sea waters had become deep upon the earth, and the mist was still thick within the sky. Then, I heard the voice of God say, “Let there come to be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let the expanse separate between the waters below and waters above.”[15] And so it was that the waters in the air collected and separated from the air. The mist cleared, and the waters below formed clouds above which rained down in an endless cycle.[16] So an expanse of clear air was formed between the Seas and the clouds.[17] The clouds lay thickly, high within the expanse. There was yet no sun or moon or stars seen above, neither were there any birds flying in the sky. Yet, even so, there was sufficient light brighter than the light of many moons.

Then God spoke and said, “This is the First Heaven.”[18]

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[1] 1 Kings 8:27

[2] Gen 2:18

[3] Gen 2:19

[4] Gen 1:20, 24

[5] Gen 2:20a

[6] Gen 2:20b

[7] Cf. 1 Cor 3:2; Heb 5:11

[8] Gen 1:26

[9] Gen 2:7; John 4:24

[10] Psalm 8:4-8; Gen 1:26

[11] Gen 2:18b

[12] Isaiah 37:26; 46:10; 2 Kings 19:25

[13] Acts 1:7; Deuteronomy 29:29

[14] Genesis 1:2

[15] Genesis 1:6

[16] Ecclesiastes 1:7; Job 36:27-28

[17] Genesis 1:7; Psalm 148:4

[18] Genesis 1:8