Page 87 - Bible Doctrine Survey I - Student Textbook (3)

12.3 How long did it take God to Create the Universe?

As we read the account of creation, you notice that God numbered the days of
creation. He spoke it into existence and He did it in six days. People ask, "Well
what about the word day, can't it mean an eon of time?" It's the plain old
Hebrew word yom, it means day. It's used in the Bible to indicate a 24-hour
normal solar day or sometimes to refer to the daylight portion of a day. You might say, "I'll be gone
four days," and you mean four days, both day and night. Or you might say to someone, "This has been
a beautiful day," and you're referring to the daylight portion of it. You use the word the same way the
Hebrews used it.

When yom is modified by a number, universally, without exception, in Scripture it refers to a normal
solar day. Now sometimes "day" is used in Scripture to refer to some period of time not precisely
defined. Job said, "My days are vanity." Psalm 90 verse 9 says, "Our days are passed away." And that's
not defined, but we understand what that means, a period of time. But even at that, day still means
some finite succession of normal days, not some vast age of millennial years, or millions of years.

If God is that powerful, why take six days. Why not do it all at one moment? The answer is He took six
days because He wanted to establish a pattern. In Exodus chapter 20 He gives us the pattern.

"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days you shall labor, do all your work. But the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your
daughter, your male or your female servant, or your cattle, or your sojourner who stays with you. For
in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." God wanted to establish a
pattern for mankind. And that pattern was, you work six days and you have one day when you set it
aside to rest and replenish your body and focus on worshiping God.

God chose to do it in six days to set a pattern for us.

Now if in fact it took Him billions of years, then the pattern is ridiculous. God's work of creation set the
pattern for man who bears His image...six days you work and one day you worship.

There's absolutely nothing whatsoever on the pages of Genesis 1 and 2 that allows anything but a six,
24-hour, solar-day creation. It may offend the evolutionists but that doesn't change the truth.

God created the world with “apparent age.” Plants, animals and man had some appearance of age when
God made them. So it’s not surprising that the rest of the universe has “apparent age.”

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