The Six Days of Creation Genesis 1:3-27
Notes
Transcript
God created the earth in six days, or did he? This question has to be answered as we consider these verses that explicitly say that God created the earth in six days.
This has been an ongoing discussion in the world and in the Church for almost 200 years. There are some Christians who are called young earth Creationist where they believe the world is less than 10,000 years old.
There are Christians who call themselve old earth Creationists. They believe that God used the means of evolution to create the world. They believe the world is billions of years old.
Then there are are the non-Christians who believe entirely in evolution as a way of explaining the origins of the earth, its inhabitants and finally man. This is done so to do away with God entirely.
Why people believe these different things comes down to what we call presuppositions.
A presupposition is something that you assume to be true, especially something which you must assume is true in order to continue with what you are saying or thinking.
We all have our presuppositions. The majority of people in the western world due to our education system are materialists. That is the only things that are true made of matter that we can see, hear, touch, smell or touch. There is no God, there is no spiritual realm, there are no miracles that break the laws of nature. This is why they firmly hold to evolution as the way to explain our world and all that is in it.
Old earth creationists seek to bring God into this evolution explanation. Easy enough to do, they just say that God supervised evolution. They do this because their presupposition is essentially still materialistic. They concede too much to atheistic evolutionarists and therefore do not have any real impact on the culture.
This brings us back to the young earth creationists. What are their presuppositions? They believe in an all powerful God who can and did create the world in six calendar days. He is over and above his creation and if He wants can override what we call the laws of nature.
This sets the scene for our brief look at the six days of creation.
As well as the Creation account in Genesis. The Bible gives clear witness to the 6 day creation.
Day 1. Creation of light Verses 3-5
Day 1. Creation of light Verses 3-5
If we go back to verse 2 we read that the earth was without form and empty. This provides the program that God would follow in His creation.
The first three days of creation he would give form to the earth. The next three days of creation He would fill the empty earth.
God commanded light to separate light from darkness.
God commanded light to separate light from darkness.
Verse 2 also reminded us that darkness was over the face of the deep. So the first thing that God commanded was that there be light to separate the light and the dark.
Why is light important? It is essential for all life and therefore it was created first.
At the same time evolutionist will say here we got you now. This is supposed to be the first day and there was evening and there was morning. But how can this be since evening and morning are determined by the sun? Game, set, match that is the end of creationism.
But if God is God and he creates light he can also cause darkness and light to succeed eachother without the sun. At the end of the Bible in Revelation 21:23
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
This shows that for eternity we will live without the sun or moon since God gives it light and the Lamb, the Son, is the lamp. Jesus when he walked on earth said that he was the light of the world.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
So just as light is essential for physical life so Jesus is the only way we can have eternal life.
Days 2 to 3 Forming the earth Verses 6-13
Days 2 to 3 Forming the earth Verses 6-13
Separating the waters, land and bringing forth vegetation.
Separating the waters, land and bringing forth vegetation.
The next stage of the forming was to form the atmosphere as we know it by separating the waters above from the waters below. Once this was done then the waters below had to be gathered together so as to form the land. Then the Lord commanded that the land spring forth with vegetation.
This completed the forming of the earth ready for the filling.
Days 4 to 5 Filling the heavens and the sea Verses 14-23
Days 4 to 5 Filling the heavens and the sea Verses 14-23
The greater and lesser lights to be signs for seasons, days and years.
The greater and lesser lights to be signs for seasons, days and years.
Two things of significance here. First one is how the sun and the moon sign the seasons, days and years. Observational science supports this. Days determined by the earth spinning around the sun. Seasons determined by the most and least amount of sunlight. Year being determined by how long the earth traversed around the sun.
More importantly is the way The celestial objects are described. This record of creation was given by revelation to Moses after the event. At that time part of man’s sinfulness was revealed in the idolatry of worshipping the sun, moon and stars.
God puts these false gods in their place by not even giving them their names. The text only refers to the greater light and the lesser light. The stars are even mentioned just in passing.
So even in Genesis chapter 1 there is an attack on idolatry.
Sea creatures and birds after their kind to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
Sea creatures and birds after their kind to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
What does kind mean?
Day 6 Filling the earth with living creatures and mankind made in the image of God. Verses 24-27
Day 6 Filling the earth with living creatures and mankind made in the image of God. Verses 24-27
Man made in the image of God.
Man made in the image of God.
What is the image of God?
Various arguments.
Vice regent over this world.
2 Corinthians 4:1–6 (ESV)
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The Westminster Confession of Faith 4:1 “It pleased God…to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days; and all very good.”
Larger Catechism Q/A 15 “The work of creation is That wherein God did in the beginning, by the word of his power, make of nothing the world, and all things therein, within the space of six days, and all very good.”
Shorter Catechism Q/A 9 “The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.”