Are the days of creation days literal 24 hours or time periods?
Geologists divide the history of the earth based on what has been discovered of the remains and animal and plant remains and fossils into two parts:
The first is called the preterozoic era, and the second is the post-protozoic era. The first is characterized by the formation of the earth and the existence of primary organisms that left no traces or residues.
The second section was divided into three eras: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
Each era has been divided into a group of ages, each characterized by fossils showing the organisms in which they lived, separate soil layers between the ages, sudden climate change, etc.
Scientists confirm that the universe was found in 10,000 million years, and the earth of about 5000 million years ago. This raises many questions:
How does the Bible state that the whole universe was created in just 144 hours ?!
Is there a contradiction between the Bible and science ?!
Are the days of creation six days literal today consists of only 24 hours, or the time periods may be thousands or millions of years?
The answer to these questions is:
Certainly there is no problem between the Bible and science, nor between faith and enlightened analytical thought. Francis Bacon says: "God has given us two books that have no fault:
The first is the "material universe" and is explained by scientists and science (Science).
The second: "The Bible" is interpreted by theologians and theological thought (Theology).
If the two books are infallible, their interpretation, for both interpretations, is a human action that is both right and wrong. Hence the obvious difference between the views of scholars and theologians, especially as theologians often, as happened in the days of Galileo in the seventeenth century, think that their scientific views are the same health as their theological views in the doctrine.
But one who studies the story of creation (Genesis 1-3) accurately, and with a broad-minded view he realizes that the six days of creation can not be one day consisting of only 24 hours, each day represents a time-span of thousands or millions of years.
But first let me introduce the point of view of those who faithfully believe in the Six Days of Creation with all accuracy and honesty:
First: Belief in six literal days:
The owners of this theory believe in craftsmanship (Genesis 1-3) and call the Creationists, and the universe for them created all of it in 144 hours only (six literal days), and support their view of the following arguments:
Today in (Genesis 1: 5) "God called light day, and darkness called it at night. It was evening and morning one day "and also in (Genesis 1: 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 and 2: 3) is a definite day as it is known now 24 hours. The Book said: "It was evening and morning one day." He did not say, "It was evening and the morning of one era." If God had intended the six days of creation to be the clearest of times, he explained to us the truth of "the coming ages" (Eph 2: 7).
For example, when the Bible says that the flood lasted for forty days (Genesis 7:17), and that water was poured after 150 days (Genesis 8: 3), and that Abraham went with Isaac (John 1:17), and that Christ spent three days in the tomb (Matthew 12:14), and that Jesus spent three days in the belly of the whale (John 1:17) And that he ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1: 3). These are all literal days. Thus, the days of creation are limited to 24 hours.
When the word "day" in the Bible refers to a period of time that is different from a 24-hour day, the context must explain this. [5] Since the book did not mention metaphorical or non-literal six days, it must be literal. In addition, the first direct reading of Genesis 1 and 2 supports the idea of literalism. If God wanted to tell us about a day that is different from 24 hours to mention it clearly and did not leave us perplexed.
The Book of Exodus states that the days of creation are six days in the literal sense, and therefore he made rest on the seventh day, and read: "Six days you shall do and make all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath for the LORD your God. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day "(Exodus 20: 9-11). "This divine commandment could not have been strong if the base of the week of work and rest in man was not equal or exactly equivalent to the week of work and rest at creation," says Henry Morris. [6] Since the Lord linked in the Book of Exodus the rest of the people after the work of six literal days of creation, we must conclude that the days in the exit craft.
In his explanation of this point, Charles MacIntosh says:
"Perhaps the reader does not need to assure him that" Today "in this number and the following numbers, is the day we have today, the twenty-four hours. And here saith Moses, saying in the Spirit of God, "Six days shall you work, and you shall make all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath for the LORD your God. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day "(Exodus 20: 9-11). If we take the seventh day literally, why not take the six days with the same account? [7]
When the revelation mentions the words: "It was evening and morning." This confirms the identification of the day as we understand it now, and the evening and the morning are mentioned all days - especially after the sun took place on the fourth day - without dispersion, it was decided that every day was 24 hours. The evening and the morning defined by the cosmic order and the creation of the sun on the fourth day are the same as the evening and the morning, which are mentioned on the first day before God created the sun.
If Adam was created at the beginning of the sixth day, and the sixth day is a period of time, it means that he lived half a day (the sixth day), which may be worth millions of years. If his age is not 930 years but millions of years !!
God is capable of creating the word of the whole universe and does not need long periods of time. The creation took only a few moments. " He is an order "(Psalm 33: 9). Creation is a sudden and instant creation, and the idea of creation in time is an idea that excludes revelation: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the men of the heavens were in it." (Psalm 33: 6) "God was light" ), "Who calls things that do not exist" (Revelation 4: 7), and therefore the assertion that the method of sudden creation overcame the story of creation. There is no need for a long day that represents a long time period ?!
In response to those who say that the first three days before the sun is a period of time, and the last three days after the sun are ordinary days, the book said about the six days "and it was evening and morning one day" without distinction. If the first three days were long, The next three days are literal days for the Bible to explain this fact.
Says Henry M. Morris: "There are two opinions: First: It is said that those used before the creation of the sun on the fourth day means a time period. The word "day" after the creation of the sun means "solar day" or 24 hours.
The second view is that the word "day" is mentioned in the Old Testament more than 700 times, and that there is a Hebrew word translated "forever" ie "infinite time" which could have been used by revelation to express the first three days if that is the intended meaning, But God used the word "day" and the word "days" without hinting that he used it symbolically, which means that it was used literally, and that six days of creation are normal days, every day of which 24 hours.
If the last three days were periods of impossibility to live on plants, lakes and animals, if we assume that today these days represent an era estimated at ten million years, this means that the night lasted five million, and the day five million more, how can plants, animals and animals live in total darkness And coldness up to freezing or increase for five million years, and then living these beings in a constant light and heat, severe to the extent of ignition for another five million years ?!
It is impossible for the third day to be more than 24 hours because it created plants that needed the sun to be able to live, and the sun itself was created by its fourth day. If the third day was a period of time, the plants would have perished because there was no sun for this period, whatever it was.
The words of the Lord Jesus: "But from the beginning of creation, male and female God created them" (Psalm 10: 6), confirms that Adam and Eve did not create millions of years after the beginning of creation - if today is an era - but at the beginning of creation.
The Jews understood that the day of creation was twenty-four hours, so they used the same concept to express their days (No 23:23, Psalm 55:17) and still begin their day in the evening before the morning.
Second: the attempt to reconcile the Bible and science:
Unfortunately, those who believe that the universe was created in only 144 hours (six days) reject the scientific data, claiming that scientists are aiming to fight the faith, so much so that Dr. WI. "It is impossible to be a Christian believer, yet you believe that the six days are not literal, so you distort the biblical right in favor of scientific truths." [10]
They often ask: Do you agree with the biblical view inspired by God or follow the opinion of science and scientists who contravene the word of God?
Here science seems to be against the Bible. Therefore, many scholars and thinkers have tried over the course of history between the Bible's saying that the process of creation took place in six days, and between what science says it took millions of years, and these attempts:
The Intermittent Day Theory
Peter Stoner, a mathematician and astronomer at the University of Pasadena, Calif., Wrote in his book Science Speaks and concluded that creation was made in short periods of the six creation days, but God separated between short periods of creation with commas Long time represents millions of years. That is, between the creation day and the last God stops the process of creation! If today means a normal day and a time period at the same time, the end of each day refers to the end of a stage of creation. If today means a normal day and a time period at the same time, the end of each day refers to the end of a stage of creation. A process that occurs suddenly and quickly, and this is illustrated by the sudden change between the different layers of the earth and its fossils.
"My personal belief is that most of the days of Genesis are very short periods of time separated by very long periods. Most of the works of God recorded in Genesis 1 can be verified by the large and extensive changes recorded in geology. Where dramatic changes in the forms of life between two geological layers are mentioned that cause the emergence of many new forms of life at the same time and the disappearance of many earlier forms (the disappearance is not intended to disappear but the disappearance of fossils) That there is no layer - no matter how little fish - contained, but that the geological composition of the earth suddenly jump from one layer to another in the excavations.
To answer this theory, we say:
The number of geological seasons that should separate the days of creation is totally incompatible with the days of creation itself.
It is observed that there are days of creation containing living organisms whose fossils are spread over a period of time more than a geological period, such as the fifth day in which organisms were created and gradually spread in all the ancient and middle ages.
There are also epochs that have been temporally linked to natural phenomena, earth movements or the existence of objects spoken by the Bible in more than one day. For example, the pre-Cambrian period contains the first four days.
Theory of re-creation:
Which is mentioned by William Kelly in his book "In the beginning and the earth of Adam", and this opinion is concentrated in the existence of two sets of creation: the first of which is mentioned by science in detail in the geological era, and this life has completely disappeared. And the second mentioned in detail in the Bible as a new creation after the destruction of the first creation! It is reported that the first found over the second and only time periods in 6 days! He says that the saying of the book "The earth was desolate and void" (Genesis 1: 2) speaks of the destruction of the first creation mentioned in the verse "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1: 1)!
When he says: "At first God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1: 1). This means that the earth was already present, but wrapped in a blanket of immersion, which is covered by other plumes of darkness. And when the light of the first day shone on it, the night and the day began to turn against it in light of the light, and now they are now completely rotating in front of the sun. "
To answer this theory, we say:
If God had created the first creation in long periods scientifically stated under the term "epochs" in a period of hundreds of millions of years. So why should he change his style in the second creation process and create creation in just six days? Does God develop in his style and abilities of creation ?! God forbid. And also why was the creation of the first creation ?!
Her creation was created and then they were redeemed as a kind of preparation and preparation to create man ?! This is illogical and unconvincing.
Looking at the verse that is based on it in the courtyard of the first creation "and the earth was desolate and void" (Genesis 1: 2), we note several observations including:
He says: "The land was desolate and empty." He did not say, "The land has become desolate and void." This means that it is an acknowledgment of a situation, not an explanation for an event change.
The phrase "desolate and free", scientifically corresponded with the nature of the earth at the beginning of its composition before the existence of any creature on it was a body of high temperature, and there is no kind of life.
The phrase "on the face of immersion darkness" because of the heavy vapors that came out of it because of the high temperature, which was surrounded by high altitudes to prevent the entry of light to it.
It is noted that many of the creatures of creation, which according to theory are extinct, are still present, and even the traitor to their career development finds that the present ones are a natural extension gradient of what has long been found and still preserved in the ground as fossils where they claim to be ended !
Third: The belief that today is a time period: (The Day - Age Theory)
A scholar of the word of God can easily discover that the Bible does not contradict science, and that the six creation days can not be only 144 hours, but are time-lapses of thousands or millions of years.
St. Augustine said: "The days of Creation are different from the present days."
Henry Thyssen says of the literal and non-literal days of creation says: The unscrupulous reading of Genesis is what is likely to be 24 hours today. So I invite you to study in depth and in depth.
Today in (Tk1-3) is a day of Rzmzi refers to a period of time, regardless of the period of time it refers to .. It may point to a period of time or less ... ie, it does not mean a day of 24 hours [11]. Today, even if it is short for us, so the era with God, and as the day of the evening and morning any beginning and end, so the ages no matter how long it has a beginning and an end. That is, today in the story of creation does not come literally, but in a symbolic sense.
What confirms my words this is what follows:
The concept of the Word of the Day in the Bible:
The word "day" in the Bible, although it means a specific day in twenty-four hours in most cases, but it also often comes symbolically with several meanings as follows:
The word day refers to moments or minutes:
"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Psalm 95: 7).
The word day refers to part of the day: for example, the burial of Christ in the tomb, which did not complete 48 hours, but was distributed over three days was said to be placed in the tomb three days.
"I am small in the days, and you are elders" (32: 6), "Behold, I have made my days as Ashbaras, and I will make every thing before you" (Psalm 39). : 5). "My days are extinguished" (ie 17: 1), "Man is like a puff. (Matthew 2: 1), "And as it was in the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:37), and when Zacharias says to the angel, "How do I know this, because I I am an elder and my wife advanced in her days? "(Luke 1:18), or" The prophetess was Henna the daughter of Fenuel of the tribe of Asher, and she was advanced in many days "(Luke 2:36). She was about 105 years old at the time. And also: "As for my people, I have forgotten me days without number" (II: 32). He had forgotten it for years without number. See Psalm 90: 12, Isaiah 24:22, Jeremiah 31:31, Heb. 10:16, 12:10, 1 Peter 3:20.
Word of the Day refers to the future:
"Hear, O Israel, you are now crossing Jordan to enter and possess greater and greater people than you" (Deut. 9: 1). But the Israelites did not cross Jordan until many years later.
"I tell you concerning the judgment of the Lord: He said to me," You are my son; today I have borne you "(Ps 2: 8).
"This is the day which the Lord has made, we rejoice and rejoice in" (Psalm 118: 24). The psalm here refers to the day of salvation that God will complete on the cross, and this is what happened long after.
The word of the day refers to eternity: "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for days" (Psalm 23: 6).
The word days refers to the whole history of mankind: "And I am with you all the days until the end of time" (Matthew 28:20).
The word of the days refers to the end of the world: "For the Lord of hosts has a day for every great and high, and for every high, he shall be put" (Isaiah 2:12). , So he will not keep them at all and no branch "(Mulla 4: 1).
The word of the day refers to thousands of years: "For a thousand years are in your eyes, like yesterday, after what passed, and as a hymn of the night" (Psalm 90: 4), but this one thing does not hide you, beloved ones: One year as one day "(2 Peter 3: 8).
The words of the days refer forever: "I will make his seed forever, and his throne like the days of the heavens" (Psalm 89, 29). "Your judgments are established today, for all are your servants." (Psalm 119: 91) The judgments of God are fixed until the end of time.
The Word of Days refers to the Eternal: "I saw in the visions of the night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, like the Son of Man, came and came to the old days, and brought him before him. 14 He gave power and glory and kingdom to serve him all nations, nations, and tongues. His dominion is an eternal power that will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be extinct "(Deut. 7: 13-14). Father Antonius Fekri says that the phrase "old days" here confirms that the word day is larger and wider than the day of time [12].
After the first chapter says that God created the heavens and the earth in six days he returned in chapter two to say that the Lord created them in one day: "These are the principles of heaven and earth when created, the day of the Lord God's earth and heavens" (Genesis 2: 4).
The words "evening and morning" do not mean the sunset and sunrise, but mean the end of the stage of the vessels of creation, and the evening has progressed on the morning because darkness was first on the ground and lasted a long time and then returned the light when God said: "Let there be light,
Creation Day is a time period.
It is confirmed by this theory that the Bible mentions the phrase: "It was evening and morning" for all days except the seventh day, did not mention the book "It was evening and morning was the seventh day." That is, the days of creation are all beginning and end, but the seventh day began and did not end ... We are still now living on the seventh day "and God blessed the seventh day and holiness, because it rested from all his work, which God created a Creator" (Genesis 2: 3) From Adam's creation to the end of the world. The eighth day refers to the eternal eternity. This shows us how long it is, so we can expect what the term "day" refers to in the days of creation of length that may extend to thousands or millions of years.
The Bible clearly states that God does not adhere to His work in our limited days. He is above time: "For a thousand years are in your eyes like yesterday after what passed, and as a hymn of the night (Psalm 90: 4)." But this one thing does not hide you, That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and one thousand years as one day "(2 Peter 3: 8).
As for the linking of God in the last (20) incident of creation in the comfort of man on the seventh day, and as some claim that this incident supports the idea that as Saturday rest in the (20) is about 24 hours must be days of creation days in the same sense, "The readers were aware that those days were indefinite periods of time, and that the commandment of the Sabbath was to tell people that, as God followed the pattern of six periods of work followed by rest, they should also follow," says Grodem. The same pattern {six + one} in their lives ie six working days followed by a rest day. It is not reasonable if the days of creation were periods of unspecified time that God would say to His people: "If you work in the seventh era, you will rest." The concept of time for God is different from that of man. In the same point, Grudem concludes: God in (23: 10-11) recommended in the same way that man should work six years followed by a restful Sabbath year. [13] Clearly, the authors of the literal theory of days emphasized that they would match these days in Exodus } In the days of {Genesis}, why there is no match between the days in the composition and years in the coming out and between the day of rest in Genesis and the year of the Sabbath in the exit !! Perhaps this congruence makes us deduce - in the same way as before - that today was a period of time?
The idea of associating the day with a number that must indicate an actual day (24 hours) is an entirely inaccurate idea. For example, in Daniel's book, we read a lot about specific days and they refer to a different period of time.
"Seventy weeks I have spent your people and your holy city to complete sin and complete sin, and to purify sin, and to come in eternal righteousness, and to seal the vision and prophecy, and to wipe out the holy of the holy" (Deut. 9:24). Here, when Daniel prophesied about the coming of the Savior, he set the time at 490 days. We note that Christ did not come and did not wipe out after seventy weeks or seventy months, but after about 490 years.
"The prince of the kingdom of Persia stood before me twenty-one days" (Deut. 10:13).
"And from the time of the removal of the permanent burnt offering, and the abomination of the spoiler, a thousand and two hundred and ninety days." Blessed is he that waits, and reaches to one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. "(Da 12: 12-12)
When the Spirit says to the angel of Ephesus: "Do not be afraid of what you must suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you in prison, that you might try, and you shall have tribulation ten days. "(Rev. 2:10). If I read any explanation for the two theoreticians, you would find him saying, "It is a limited period, not ten literal days."
It is also possible that the six creation days are not literal.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III says: "Today is determined either from the sunrise to the sunrise the next day, or from sunset to sunset the next day. Revelation tells us that the Lord made the sun on the fourth day (Gen. 1:16). The first three days are not specified, They are not literal days but are long periods of time "[14].
This thought is supported by Father Matthew the Tabernacle, saying that the first three days before the creation of the sun and the moon were necessarily not like our days, whose length is determined by the rotation of the Earth around its axis and in front of the sun. This point confirms that the days of creation are not literal. Please read carefully what happened on the fourth day:
"And God said," Let there be lights in the skin of the sky to separate the day and the night, and be signs, times, days, and years .... It was. 16 And God made the two great lights: the great light of the judgment of the day, and the lesser light of the judgment of the night, and of the stars. 17 And God made it in the skin of heaven to shine on the earth.
Until the fourth day, neither the days nor the years were specific.
Therefore, the sign of the Bishop Bishop Esodorus said: "The days mentioned are not meant to be the days in our custom, which limit each sunrise and sunset, for the three days that preceded the appearance of the sun and the moon were not natural days, for the sun did not appear at the first and sunset at the end. Be the days Which is followed by this, and this view is old in the church approved by St. John Chrysostom in explaining the book of Genesis and motivate him in various texts, which mentioned today is synonymous with the memory of time, so it is meant six days six days.
"The word" day ", as it is in the language of the Hebrews in which Genesis was written, bears an unspecified time in the solar system," Bishop Gregory said.
The word "day" used in the text does not have to be 24 hours, and there are many evidences in the book that support it. "The day of their death is near," says Henry Thessen. : 35), "It is a day of destruction that holds the wicked. For the day of discontent they will lead "(ie, 21:30). "In the day of trouble, call me to save you and glorify me" (Psalm 50:15). "For he will hide me in his shade in the day of evil" (Psalm 27: 5)? "On the day of my fear, I will depend on you" (Psalm 56: 3). "On the day of good be well, and on the day of evil I will be considered" (Jn 7:14). "And what shall ye do in the day of punishment" (Isaiah 10: 3)? A word may also be translated in the sense of time (Genesis 26: 8) [16].
Gurdem agrees with this, too, referring to numerous references [17], such as: "May the Lord respond to you in the day of trouble" (Psalm 20: 1).
I hope you ask yourself: What is meant by: {last days}? Are they just a few days or are they meant by the days that began with the coming of Christ in the flesh and will end by the end of history? "And in the last days I shall be poured out ..." (Acts 2:17), "He spoke to us in these last days in his Son" (Heb. 1: 2).
Also ask yourself: What is meant by the Day of the Lord? Is it just a day ?!
"Lo! For the day of the Lord is near, coming as the desolation of the Almighty" (Isaiah 13: 6).
"To proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord, and a day of revenge for our God. I will give thanks to all those who are thirsty "(Isaiah 61: 2).
After presenting the different pillars of both groups, I would like to emphasize that both groups believe in the existence of God the Great Creator behind the story of creation, and believe in the stigma of the Word, the truth of the divine revelation, and the power of God over the universe.
REFERENCES:
[5] - Wayne Grodome, What the Evangelists Think, p. 245.
[6] - The Bible and modern science p.
[7] - Charles MacIntosh, Explanation of Genesis, 14.
[8] -http: //www.kalimatalhayat.com/outlines/66-early-earth/1009-page04.html
[9] - Wayne Grodem, op. Cit., 246.
[10] - and Y. O'Neill, Which Is Right: Creation or Evolution, Arabic Service for Preaching the Gospel, 2005.
[11] - Henry Theissen, op. Cit., 203.
[12] - Antonius Fekri, Introduction to the Old Testament: Genesis, 30.
[13] - Wayne Grodome, op. Cit., 246.
Pope Shenouda III. Years with people's questions, c 1, p. 32.
[15] - The Monastery of Anba Makar, Explanation of Genesis, p. 195.
[16] - Henry Thesen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 202.
[17] - Wayne Grodem, What the Evangelists Think, 245.
Thanks
Geologists divide the history of the earth based on what has been discovered of the remains and animal and plant remains and fossils into two parts:
The first is called the preterozoic era, and the second is the post-protozoic era. The first is characterized by the formation of the earth and the existence of primary organisms that left no traces or residues.
The second section was divided into three eras: Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic.
Each era has been divided into a group of ages, each characterized by fossils showing the organisms in which they lived, separate soil layers between the ages, sudden climate change, etc.
Scientists confirm that the universe was found in 10,000 million years, and the earth of about 5000 million years ago. This raises many questions:
How does the Bible state that the whole universe was created in just 144 hours ?!
Is there a contradiction between the Bible and science ?!
Are the days of creation six days literal today consists of only 24 hours, or the time periods may be thousands or millions of years?
The answer to these questions is:
Certainly there is no problem between the Bible and science, nor between faith and enlightened analytical thought. Francis Bacon says: "God has given us two books that have no fault:
The first is the "material universe" and is explained by scientists and science (Science).
The second: "The Bible" is interpreted by theologians and theological thought (Theology).
If the two books are infallible, their interpretation, for both interpretations, is a human action that is both right and wrong. Hence the obvious difference between the views of scholars and theologians, especially as theologians often, as happened in the days of Galileo in the seventeenth century, think that their scientific views are the same health as their theological views in the doctrine.
But one who studies the story of creation (Genesis 1-3) accurately, and with a broad-minded view he realizes that the six days of creation can not be one day consisting of only 24 hours, each day represents a time-span of thousands or millions of years.
But first let me introduce the point of view of those who faithfully believe in the Six Days of Creation with all accuracy and honesty:
First: Belief in six literal days:
The owners of this theory believe in craftsmanship (Genesis 1-3) and call the Creationists, and the universe for them created all of it in 144 hours only (six literal days), and support their view of the following arguments:
Today in (Genesis 1: 5) "God called light day, and darkness called it at night. It was evening and morning one day "and also in (Genesis 1: 8, 13, 19, 23, 31 and 2: 3) is a definite day as it is known now 24 hours. The Book said: "It was evening and morning one day." He did not say, "It was evening and the morning of one era." If God had intended the six days of creation to be the clearest of times, he explained to us the truth of "the coming ages" (Eph 2: 7).
For example, when the Bible says that the flood lasted for forty days (Genesis 7:17), and that water was poured after 150 days (Genesis 8: 3), and that Abraham went with Isaac (John 1:17), and that Christ spent three days in the tomb (Matthew 12:14), and that Jesus spent three days in the belly of the whale (John 1:17) And that he ascended to heaven forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1: 3). These are all literal days. Thus, the days of creation are limited to 24 hours.
When the word "day" in the Bible refers to a period of time that is different from a 24-hour day, the context must explain this. [5] Since the book did not mention metaphorical or non-literal six days, it must be literal. In addition, the first direct reading of Genesis 1 and 2 supports the idea of literalism. If God wanted to tell us about a day that is different from 24 hours to mention it clearly and did not leave us perplexed.
The Book of Exodus states that the days of creation are six days in the literal sense, and therefore he made rest on the seventh day, and read: "Six days you shall do and make all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath for the LORD your God. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day "(Exodus 20: 9-11). "This divine commandment could not have been strong if the base of the week of work and rest in man was not equal or exactly equivalent to the week of work and rest at creation," says Henry Morris. [6] Since the Lord linked in the Book of Exodus the rest of the people after the work of six literal days of creation, we must conclude that the days in the exit craft.
In his explanation of this point, Charles MacIntosh says:
"Perhaps the reader does not need to assure him that" Today "in this number and the following numbers, is the day we have today, the twenty-four hours. And here saith Moses, saying in the Spirit of God, "Six days shall you work, and you shall make all your work. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath for the LORD your God. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven, earth, and sea, and all that is therein, and rested on the seventh day "(Exodus 20: 9-11). If we take the seventh day literally, why not take the six days with the same account? [7]
When the revelation mentions the words: "It was evening and morning." This confirms the identification of the day as we understand it now, and the evening and the morning are mentioned all days - especially after the sun took place on the fourth day - without dispersion, it was decided that every day was 24 hours. The evening and the morning defined by the cosmic order and the creation of the sun on the fourth day are the same as the evening and the morning, which are mentioned on the first day before God created the sun.
If Adam was created at the beginning of the sixth day, and the sixth day is a period of time, it means that he lived half a day (the sixth day), which may be worth millions of years. If his age is not 930 years but millions of years !!
God is capable of creating the word of the whole universe and does not need long periods of time. The creation took only a few moments. " He is an order "(Psalm 33: 9). Creation is a sudden and instant creation, and the idea of creation in time is an idea that excludes revelation: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the men of the heavens were in it." (Psalm 33: 6) "God was light" ), "Who calls things that do not exist" (Revelation 4: 7), and therefore the assertion that the method of sudden creation overcame the story of creation. There is no need for a long day that represents a long time period ?!
In response to those who say that the first three days before the sun is a period of time, and the last three days after the sun are ordinary days, the book said about the six days "and it was evening and morning one day" without distinction. If the first three days were long, The next three days are literal days for the Bible to explain this fact.
Says Henry M. Morris: "There are two opinions: First: It is said that those used before the creation of the sun on the fourth day means a time period. The word "day" after the creation of the sun means "solar day" or 24 hours.
The second view is that the word "day" is mentioned in the Old Testament more than 700 times, and that there is a Hebrew word translated "forever" ie "infinite time" which could have been used by revelation to express the first three days if that is the intended meaning, But God used the word "day" and the word "days" without hinting that he used it symbolically, which means that it was used literally, and that six days of creation are normal days, every day of which 24 hours.
If the last three days were periods of impossibility to live on plants, lakes and animals, if we assume that today these days represent an era estimated at ten million years, this means that the night lasted five million, and the day five million more, how can plants, animals and animals live in total darkness And coldness up to freezing or increase for five million years, and then living these beings in a constant light and heat, severe to the extent of ignition for another five million years ?!
It is impossible for the third day to be more than 24 hours because it created plants that needed the sun to be able to live, and the sun itself was created by its fourth day. If the third day was a period of time, the plants would have perished because there was no sun for this period, whatever it was.
The words of the Lord Jesus: "But from the beginning of creation, male and female God created them" (Psalm 10: 6), confirms that Adam and Eve did not create millions of years after the beginning of creation - if today is an era - but at the beginning of creation.
The Jews understood that the day of creation was twenty-four hours, so they used the same concept to express their days (No 23:23, Psalm 55:17) and still begin their day in the evening before the morning.
Second: the attempt to reconcile the Bible and science:
Unfortunately, those who believe that the universe was created in only 144 hours (six days) reject the scientific data, claiming that scientists are aiming to fight the faith, so much so that Dr. WI. "It is impossible to be a Christian believer, yet you believe that the six days are not literal, so you distort the biblical right in favor of scientific truths." [10]
They often ask: Do you agree with the biblical view inspired by God or follow the opinion of science and scientists who contravene the word of God?
Here science seems to be against the Bible. Therefore, many scholars and thinkers have tried over the course of history between the Bible's saying that the process of creation took place in six days, and between what science says it took millions of years, and these attempts:
The Intermittent Day Theory
Peter Stoner, a mathematician and astronomer at the University of Pasadena, Calif., Wrote in his book Science Speaks and concluded that creation was made in short periods of the six creation days, but God separated between short periods of creation with commas Long time represents millions of years. That is, between the creation day and the last God stops the process of creation! If today means a normal day and a time period at the same time, the end of each day refers to the end of a stage of creation. If today means a normal day and a time period at the same time, the end of each day refers to the end of a stage of creation. A process that occurs suddenly and quickly, and this is illustrated by the sudden change between the different layers of the earth and its fossils.
"My personal belief is that most of the days of Genesis are very short periods of time separated by very long periods. Most of the works of God recorded in Genesis 1 can be verified by the large and extensive changes recorded in geology. Where dramatic changes in the forms of life between two geological layers are mentioned that cause the emergence of many new forms of life at the same time and the disappearance of many earlier forms (the disappearance is not intended to disappear but the disappearance of fossils) That there is no layer - no matter how little fish - contained, but that the geological composition of the earth suddenly jump from one layer to another in the excavations.
To answer this theory, we say:
The number of geological seasons that should separate the days of creation is totally incompatible with the days of creation itself.
It is observed that there are days of creation containing living organisms whose fossils are spread over a period of time more than a geological period, such as the fifth day in which organisms were created and gradually spread in all the ancient and middle ages.
There are also epochs that have been temporally linked to natural phenomena, earth movements or the existence of objects spoken by the Bible in more than one day. For example, the pre-Cambrian period contains the first four days.
Theory of re-creation:
Which is mentioned by William Kelly in his book "In the beginning and the earth of Adam", and this opinion is concentrated in the existence of two sets of creation: the first of which is mentioned by science in detail in the geological era, and this life has completely disappeared. And the second mentioned in detail in the Bible as a new creation after the destruction of the first creation! It is reported that the first found over the second and only time periods in 6 days! He says that the saying of the book "The earth was desolate and void" (Genesis 1: 2) speaks of the destruction of the first creation mentioned in the verse "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1: 1)!
When he says: "At first God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1: 1). This means that the earth was already present, but wrapped in a blanket of immersion, which is covered by other plumes of darkness. And when the light of the first day shone on it, the night and the day began to turn against it in light of the light, and now they are now completely rotating in front of the sun. "
To answer this theory, we say:
If God had created the first creation in long periods scientifically stated under the term "epochs" in a period of hundreds of millions of years. So why should he change his style in the second creation process and create creation in just six days? Does God develop in his style and abilities of creation ?! God forbid. And also why was the creation of the first creation ?!
Her creation was created and then they were redeemed as a kind of preparation and preparation to create man ?! This is illogical and unconvincing.
Looking at the verse that is based on it in the courtyard of the first creation "and the earth was desolate and void" (Genesis 1: 2), we note several observations including:
He says: "The land was desolate and empty." He did not say, "The land has become desolate and void." This means that it is an acknowledgment of a situation, not an explanation for an event change.
The phrase "desolate and free", scientifically corresponded with the nature of the earth at the beginning of its composition before the existence of any creature on it was a body of high temperature, and there is no kind of life.
The phrase "on the face of immersion darkness" because of the heavy vapors that came out of it because of the high temperature, which was surrounded by high altitudes to prevent the entry of light to it.
It is noted that many of the creatures of creation, which according to theory are extinct, are still present, and even the traitor to their career development finds that the present ones are a natural extension gradient of what has long been found and still preserved in the ground as fossils where they claim to be ended !
Third: The belief that today is a time period: (The Day - Age Theory)
A scholar of the word of God can easily discover that the Bible does not contradict science, and that the six creation days can not be only 144 hours, but are time-lapses of thousands or millions of years.
St. Augustine said: "The days of Creation are different from the present days."
Henry Thyssen says of the literal and non-literal days of creation says: The unscrupulous reading of Genesis is what is likely to be 24 hours today. So I invite you to study in depth and in depth.
Today in (Tk1-3) is a day of Rzmzi refers to a period of time, regardless of the period of time it refers to .. It may point to a period of time or less ... ie, it does not mean a day of 24 hours [11]. Today, even if it is short for us, so the era with God, and as the day of the evening and morning any beginning and end, so the ages no matter how long it has a beginning and an end. That is, today in the story of creation does not come literally, but in a symbolic sense.
What confirms my words this is what follows:
The concept of the Word of the Day in the Bible:
The word "day" in the Bible, although it means a specific day in twenty-four hours in most cases, but it also often comes symbolically with several meanings as follows:
The word day refers to moments or minutes:
"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts" (Psalm 95: 7).
The word day refers to part of the day: for example, the burial of Christ in the tomb, which did not complete 48 hours, but was distributed over three days was said to be placed in the tomb three days.
"I am small in the days, and you are elders" (32: 6), "Behold, I have made my days as Ashbaras, and I will make every thing before you" (Psalm 39). : 5). "My days are extinguished" (ie 17: 1), "Man is like a puff. (Matthew 2: 1), "And as it was in the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:37), and when Zacharias says to the angel, "How do I know this, because I I am an elder and my wife advanced in her days? "(Luke 1:18), or" The prophetess was Henna the daughter of Fenuel of the tribe of Asher, and she was advanced in many days "(Luke 2:36). She was about 105 years old at the time. And also: "As for my people, I have forgotten me days without number" (II: 32). He had forgotten it for years without number. See Psalm 90: 12, Isaiah 24:22, Jeremiah 31:31, Heb. 10:16, 12:10, 1 Peter 3:20.
Word of the Day refers to the future:
"Hear, O Israel, you are now crossing Jordan to enter and possess greater and greater people than you" (Deut. 9: 1). But the Israelites did not cross Jordan until many years later.
"I tell you concerning the judgment of the Lord: He said to me," You are my son; today I have borne you "(Ps 2: 8).
"This is the day which the Lord has made, we rejoice and rejoice in" (Psalm 118: 24). The psalm here refers to the day of salvation that God will complete on the cross, and this is what happened long after.
The word of the day refers to eternity: "And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for days" (Psalm 23: 6).
The word days refers to the whole history of mankind: "And I am with you all the days until the end of time" (Matthew 28:20).
The word of the days refers to the end of the world: "For the Lord of hosts has a day for every great and high, and for every high, he shall be put" (Isaiah 2:12). , So he will not keep them at all and no branch "(Mulla 4: 1).
The word of the day refers to thousands of years: "For a thousand years are in your eyes, like yesterday, after what passed, and as a hymn of the night" (Psalm 90: 4), but this one thing does not hide you, beloved ones: One year as one day "(2 Peter 3: 8).
The words of the days refer forever: "I will make his seed forever, and his throne like the days of the heavens" (Psalm 89, 29). "Your judgments are established today, for all are your servants." (Psalm 119: 91) The judgments of God are fixed until the end of time.
The Word of Days refers to the Eternal: "I saw in the visions of the night, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, like the Son of Man, came and came to the old days, and brought him before him. 14 He gave power and glory and kingdom to serve him all nations, nations, and tongues. His dominion is an eternal power that will not pass away, and his kingdom will not be extinct "(Deut. 7: 13-14). Father Antonius Fekri says that the phrase "old days" here confirms that the word day is larger and wider than the day of time [12].
After the first chapter says that God created the heavens and the earth in six days he returned in chapter two to say that the Lord created them in one day: "These are the principles of heaven and earth when created, the day of the Lord God's earth and heavens" (Genesis 2: 4).
The words "evening and morning" do not mean the sunset and sunrise, but mean the end of the stage of the vessels of creation, and the evening has progressed on the morning because darkness was first on the ground and lasted a long time and then returned the light when God said: "Let there be light,
Creation Day is a time period.
It is confirmed by this theory that the Bible mentions the phrase: "It was evening and morning" for all days except the seventh day, did not mention the book "It was evening and morning was the seventh day." That is, the days of creation are all beginning and end, but the seventh day began and did not end ... We are still now living on the seventh day "and God blessed the seventh day and holiness, because it rested from all his work, which God created a Creator" (Genesis 2: 3) From Adam's creation to the end of the world. The eighth day refers to the eternal eternity. This shows us how long it is, so we can expect what the term "day" refers to in the days of creation of length that may extend to thousands or millions of years.
The Bible clearly states that God does not adhere to His work in our limited days. He is above time: "For a thousand years are in your eyes like yesterday after what passed, and as a hymn of the night (Psalm 90: 4)." But this one thing does not hide you, That one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and one thousand years as one day "(2 Peter 3: 8).
As for the linking of God in the last (20) incident of creation in the comfort of man on the seventh day, and as some claim that this incident supports the idea that as Saturday rest in the (20) is about 24 hours must be days of creation days in the same sense, "The readers were aware that those days were indefinite periods of time, and that the commandment of the Sabbath was to tell people that, as God followed the pattern of six periods of work followed by rest, they should also follow," says Grodem. The same pattern {six + one} in their lives ie six working days followed by a rest day. It is not reasonable if the days of creation were periods of unspecified time that God would say to His people: "If you work in the seventh era, you will rest." The concept of time for God is different from that of man. In the same point, Grudem concludes: God in (23: 10-11) recommended in the same way that man should work six years followed by a restful Sabbath year. [13] Clearly, the authors of the literal theory of days emphasized that they would match these days in Exodus } In the days of {Genesis}, why there is no match between the days in the composition and years in the coming out and between the day of rest in Genesis and the year of the Sabbath in the exit !! Perhaps this congruence makes us deduce - in the same way as before - that today was a period of time?
The idea of associating the day with a number that must indicate an actual day (24 hours) is an entirely inaccurate idea. For example, in Daniel's book, we read a lot about specific days and they refer to a different period of time.
"Seventy weeks I have spent your people and your holy city to complete sin and complete sin, and to purify sin, and to come in eternal righteousness, and to seal the vision and prophecy, and to wipe out the holy of the holy" (Deut. 9:24). Here, when Daniel prophesied about the coming of the Savior, he set the time at 490 days. We note that Christ did not come and did not wipe out after seventy weeks or seventy months, but after about 490 years.
"The prince of the kingdom of Persia stood before me twenty-one days" (Deut. 10:13).
"And from the time of the removal of the permanent burnt offering, and the abomination of the spoiler, a thousand and two hundred and ninety days." Blessed is he that waits, and reaches to one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. "(Da 12: 12-12)
When the Spirit says to the angel of Ephesus: "Do not be afraid of what you must suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you in prison, that you might try, and you shall have tribulation ten days. "(Rev. 2:10). If I read any explanation for the two theoreticians, you would find him saying, "It is a limited period, not ten literal days."
It is also possible that the six creation days are not literal.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III says: "Today is determined either from the sunrise to the sunrise the next day, or from sunset to sunset the next day. Revelation tells us that the Lord made the sun on the fourth day (Gen. 1:16). The first three days are not specified, They are not literal days but are long periods of time "[14].
This thought is supported by Father Matthew the Tabernacle, saying that the first three days before the creation of the sun and the moon were necessarily not like our days, whose length is determined by the rotation of the Earth around its axis and in front of the sun. This point confirms that the days of creation are not literal. Please read carefully what happened on the fourth day:
"And God said," Let there be lights in the skin of the sky to separate the day and the night, and be signs, times, days, and years .... It was. 16 And God made the two great lights: the great light of the judgment of the day, and the lesser light of the judgment of the night, and of the stars. 17 And God made it in the skin of heaven to shine on the earth.
Until the fourth day, neither the days nor the years were specific.
Therefore, the sign of the Bishop Bishop Esodorus said: "The days mentioned are not meant to be the days in our custom, which limit each sunrise and sunset, for the three days that preceded the appearance of the sun and the moon were not natural days, for the sun did not appear at the first and sunset at the end. Be the days Which is followed by this, and this view is old in the church approved by St. John Chrysostom in explaining the book of Genesis and motivate him in various texts, which mentioned today is synonymous with the memory of time, so it is meant six days six days.
"The word" day ", as it is in the language of the Hebrews in which Genesis was written, bears an unspecified time in the solar system," Bishop Gregory said.
The word "day" used in the text does not have to be 24 hours, and there are many evidences in the book that support it. "The day of their death is near," says Henry Thessen. : 35), "It is a day of destruction that holds the wicked. For the day of discontent they will lead "(ie, 21:30). "In the day of trouble, call me to save you and glorify me" (Psalm 50:15). "For he will hide me in his shade in the day of evil" (Psalm 27: 5)? "On the day of my fear, I will depend on you" (Psalm 56: 3). "On the day of good be well, and on the day of evil I will be considered" (Jn 7:14). "And what shall ye do in the day of punishment" (Isaiah 10: 3)? A word may also be translated in the sense of time (Genesis 26: 8) [16].
Gurdem agrees with this, too, referring to numerous references [17], such as: "May the Lord respond to you in the day of trouble" (Psalm 20: 1).
I hope you ask yourself: What is meant by: {last days}? Are they just a few days or are they meant by the days that began with the coming of Christ in the flesh and will end by the end of history? "And in the last days I shall be poured out ..." (Acts 2:17), "He spoke to us in these last days in his Son" (Heb. 1: 2).
Also ask yourself: What is meant by the Day of the Lord? Is it just a day ?!
"Lo! For the day of the Lord is near, coming as the desolation of the Almighty" (Isaiah 13: 6).
"To proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord, and a day of revenge for our God. I will give thanks to all those who are thirsty "(Isaiah 61: 2).
Conclusion:
After presenting the different pillars of both groups, I would like to emphasize that both groups believe in the existence of God the Great Creator behind the story of creation, and believe in the stigma of the Word, the truth of the divine revelation, and the power of God over the universe.
REFERENCES:
[5] - Wayne Grodome, What the Evangelists Think, p. 245.
[6] - The Bible and modern science p.
[7] - Charles MacIntosh, Explanation of Genesis, 14.
[8] -http: //www.kalimatalhayat.com/outlines/66-early-earth/1009-page04.html
[9] - Wayne Grodem, op. Cit., 246.
[10] - and Y. O'Neill, Which Is Right: Creation or Evolution, Arabic Service for Preaching the Gospel, 2005.
[11] - Henry Theissen, op. Cit., 203.
[12] - Antonius Fekri, Introduction to the Old Testament: Genesis, 30.
[13] - Wayne Grodome, op. Cit., 246.
Pope Shenouda III. Years with people's questions, c 1, p. 32.
[15] - The Monastery of Anba Makar, Explanation of Genesis, p. 195.
[16] - Henry Thesen, Lectures in Systematic Theology, p. 202.
[17] - Wayne Grodem, What the Evangelists Think, 245.
Thanks