Posted by
Bob Siegel on Monday, February 09, 2009 6:02:17 PM
“Bob, do you accept a literal six day creation account?”
I have no problem believing that an all powerful God could
have created the world in six literal days. He could also have done it in six
minutes or six seconds. Having said that, we are not forced to this
conclusion.
Although I myself do not believe in the theory of
evolution,
it should still be pointed out that Genesis was not written as a
science book,
but rather, as a history of the people of Israel. Only the first
three chapters talk about the
creation of the world and the fall of human beings into sin. This
tells us something about the priority of
the writer. He was obviously giving a
quick review of an oral tradition already known to the people.
Only when Abraham comes on the scene in Chapter 12 does the narrative
slow down and begin to give intricate
detail. We conclude that specifics about
creation were not the writer’s intention.
The first chapter of Genesis is written in a style of
writing known as Hebrew Poetry. It is
not seeking to give any kind of order to creation as evidenced by the fact that the world
exists with water and vegetation prior to the creation of the sun (Gen 1:14).
The word for day (yom) is a Hebrew word that did not have to mean a literal 24
hour day, but could also be referring to an event (Joel 1-3).
This poem then, could simply be God’s way of discussing different events
in the stages of creation.
The Bible portrays God as being completely removed from time
( 2 Peter 3:8, Revelation 13:8). Time is a human limitation. When we ask whether it took God six days or
six million years to create the world, the question is irrelevant. In fact, it took God no amount of time at all
to create the world because God does not exist in time. To speak at our level, God is using language
we will relate to. Since we live in time
and space, it is possible that a very long process over the years (as we
understand years) created the world and slowly brought about different forms of
life.
Also by Bob Siegel:
How Can God Exist Without Beginning or End?
Should Christian Leaders Be Predicting the End of the World?