Page 23 - Advanced Genesis - Creationism - Student Textbook

Study Section 4: When Did God Create All This?

4.1 Connect

On that first day of creation, God created TIME. Before that, time did not exist. God made
time for mankind and his entire creation. He set in motion a beginning to things and they
are subject to time. The clock started ticking on Day One of creation. Since then, we have
been able to keep track of time using sundials, watches, and even calendars.

God’s creation is bound by time. But God is not. He transcends time. He can move through time with
ease, because He is not limited by it. But for us, we keep track of hours, days, and years. We would like
to know how long ago all this happened. Why? Because many scientists say it happened billions of
years ago. The Bible, however, indicates it all happened a few thousand years ago. Do we trust our
Bible, or the scientific community? Who is right? In today’s lesson, we will try to figure out how long
ago all this happened.

4.2 Objectives

1. The student should be able to discuss some chronologies that have been suggested for the
Genesis act of creation.

2. The student should be able to discuss how various Biblical scholars can support their supposed time
theories.

3. Science says it was billions of years ago but the Bible says it was thousands of years ago. The student
should be able to describe at the Gap Theory to try to reconcile the two views.

4. The Bible speaks of God creating in six days and resting on the seventh day. But scientists say it took
billions of years for all the creation to come together. The student should be able to
pose a biblical time frame for the Genesis one account.

4.3 The Date of Creation
The question now arises, when did this significant event of Genesis 1:1
occur? A great number of men have labored to produce a complete
chronology of the Bible, the very fact that they all disagree with each other
demonstrates that there are serious problems with determining the date and
settling the issue.

Some of the difficulties are:
1. The uncertainty of accurate copying and transmissions of the numbers originally recorded since
the Masoretic, Septuagint, and Samaritan texts all disagree in this respect.
2. The uncertainty as to whether the length of the ancient calendar year was the same as the length
of our present year.
3. The possibility of missing generations in the genealogies of the Old Testament.
4. The confusing and sometimes apparently contradictory list of the durations of the administrations
of the various judges and kings of Israel and Judah.

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