God's Timetable for Creation

It may surprise some of you, and even disappoint a few, to learn that yom, the Hebrew word for “day,” is defined as a common solar day, beginning with verse five of chapter one. It is used in the same sense at least 358 times elsewhere in the Old Testament scriptures. There is no logical reason why the first chapter of Genesis would be the exception. When we contemplate God’s awesome power, there’s hardly any question but that He could have created everything instantaneously. “In the beginning” of time, however, He chose to complete His creation in six solar days.

“For in six days the Lord made the heavens [universe and our solar system] and the Earth, the sea, and all that is in them” (Exodus 20:11).

Many of our common versions say He “rested” on the seventh day. If the first six days consisted of billions of years, so did the seventh day. Does this mean God “rested” for billions of years? (The correct translation, of course, is that God “ceased” creating after the sixth day.)

But another problem with the conception that God utilized billions of years to create everything is that He instructed the Jewish people to rest on the seventh day and keep it holy. If each day consisted of millions of years, were His people to rest millions of years on each seventh “day”? “Day” is employed in the same vein in referring to the seventh as it is used in referring to the other six. Thus whatever we attribute to the first six days, 24-hours or millions of years, we must also attribute to the seventh day. And if each of the six days comprised millions of years, the Jewish people, who were told to rest on the seventh, should have rested for millions of years. Sorry, but we cannot accept this logic.

If we must understand the days of creation figuratively, what is wrong with understanding figuratively the days Jesus’ body was in the tomb—three solar days or millions of years? True, “day” is sometimes used symbolically in the scriptures, but not in relation to creation and the time Jesus’ body was in the tomb.

Question
Could the material from which the Earth and universe were made have existed billions of years?

Answer
I understand verses one through five of the first chapter as the first 24-hour day of creation. It was on this first day that God created the substance from which He formed the universe, created the light, and separated the light from darkness. “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day” (v. 5). God took a chaotic mass of material He had made and fashioned our immaculate universe! Oh, the power of our Creator!

Question
Is it true the Hebrew “yom” may also be translated “era” or “epoch,” in addition to “day”?

Answer
Some Hebrew scholars say yom may be thus translated. There are numerous complexities with this claim, however, when applied to the six days of creation. For if yom is translated “era” or “epoch” and applied to the six days of creation, sea creatures and the birds of the air lived to be millions of years old for they were created before land animals and man. Sea creatures and birds were created on the fifth day; land animals and man were created on the sixth day.

Question
Are you saying there was no death of sea, air, and land animals prior to the Fall?

Answer
That’s precisely what I’m saying! Adam’s fall resulted in both physical and spiritual death. It appears that death among sea, air, and land creatures was non-existent prior to the Fall. In regards to death before the Fall, we might ponder the words of the great apostle Paul. He wrote, “For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man” (I Cor. 15:21). In the very next passage, Paul announces, “For in Adam all die.”

Question
Isn’t Paul alluding to humankind only in the scriptures you quoted? Surely he didn’t incorporate animals in his remarks!

Answer
Paul spoke of death without distinguishing between man and animals, although man was the thrust of his point. The Garden of Eden was designed to be a faultless, immaculate Paradise—no pain, no sorrow, no diseases, and no death. It seems to me that if animals experienced cessation of life before the Fall, the Garden was less than a faultless Paradise. Death became a curse because of Adam’s sin. This curse applied to both man and animal, but not before the Fall.

Question
What about vegetation? If nothing died, and if vegetation was the diet of dinosaurs and other animals, something died. What say ye?

Answer
God’s sea, air, and land creatures did not experience death until the Fall. One of the purposes of vegetation was to provide food. Listen to our Creator as He speaks to Adam:

“I give you every seed-bearing plant upon the face of the whole Earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the Earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food” (Genesis 1:29-30).

My good friend Rick Presley has this to say about death of vegetation prior to the Fall:

“The existence of annual plants in God’s Edenic economy was not death in the sense that we apply it to animals. Obviously, God did not consider the recycling of vegetation to be death because all creatures were given permission to eat vegetables without contradicting his original sinless created order. Prior to the fall, the creation was not subject to the ‘bondage of corruption’ mentioned in Romans 8:21, from which it will ultimately be redeemed. Recycling vegetative nutrients must not fall under the heading of ‘bondage of corruption’ since it occurred prior to the fall.”

Of special note is that God did not tell Adam he could also kill and eat animals—any animal. The diet of both man and animals was vegetation and vegetable products. Apparently, the consumption of meat by animals and humans was unknown until after the Fall. It was then that animals began to consume one another, and man began to consume animals. The first indication of animals being killed for any purpose is in Genesis 4, sometime after the Fall, when Abel brought to God “fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock” (verse 4). So allow me to repeat myself: It is strongly indicated that death among animals was absent before the Fall.

Question
“Regarding animals dying prior to Adam’s sin, would not microscopic animals be included in this? I think it is rather obvious that such animals died. This is a necessary process for the microscopic world to continue. For example, the common amoeba replicates itself through mitosis at a very rapid rate. If this process went unchecked (i.e., if the amoeba had not been subject the death) they would have covered the earth in a matter of weeks. And, of course, there are over 30,000 different kinds of protozoa.

“Likewise, as we move up the chain of animals, the same principle is true. The common housefly, for example, reproduces at an astounding rate. If not kept in check (by natural death due to age and being consumed by larger animals) it would, like the amoeba, create a catastrophe. Indeed, animals were (had to be) subject to death in God’s created world.”—Jon Gary Williams.

Answer
Assuming that prior to the Fall the world was also populated by microscopic animals, as Jon Gary indicates, God had the power to prevent reproduction until after the Fall. I’m not saying He did. I'm saying simply that He had the power to delay reproduction. Of the animals God created, He said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth” (Genesis 1:22). My question is: Did God intend for the increase, or reproduction, to occur before or after the Fall? Again, I don’t know assuredly.

One reader reminded me that the Second Law of Thermodynamics—a progression from order to disorder or degeneration—was not in place until after the Fall. That, too, is interesting. If valid, it would tend to bolster the possibility that death among animals was non-existent prior to sin.

It has been suggested that perhaps animals did not experience death inside the Garden of Eden, but did experience death outside of the Garden. The problem with that idea is that sin was nonexistent in the entire world until after the Fall. Death occurred worldwide only after sin entered.

Question
Is there a possibility dinosaurs existed long before man walked the Earth?

Answer
If death was absent until Adam and Eve fell from God’s grace, as heaven’s testimony seems to teach, dinosaurs and man walked the Earth together. There’s no other logical conclusion. Dinosaurs probably became extinct shortly after the Flood, due to drastic climatical changes. But regardless of when they became extinct, the truth remains they and man existed in the same time span.

According to the humanist theory, dinosaurs became extinct 60 to 70 million years before man walked the Earth. However, some years ago, near Glen Rose, Texas, in the Paluxy River bed, human footprints and dinosaur tracks were discovered side by side in the same layer of rock (stratum). Evolutionary scientists admit the dinosaur prints are real, but they’re now claiming the human prints are bogus—and all because of evolutionary bias.

Dr. Ronald T. Bird, a paleontologist, remarked, “Yes, they apparently were real enough—real as rock could be...the strangest things of their kind I had ever seen. On the surface of each was sprayed the near-likeness of a human foot, perfect in every detail” (Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Nov/Dec., 1979, pages 87-88).

But notice the outlandish turn of events. When Dr. Bird discovered there were also dinosaur tracks nearby, made in the same time span, he dismissed the human prints as skillful carvings because “no man had ever existed in the Age of Reptiles” (Natural History, May, 1939, pages 255-257). Is this not the history of many, perhaps even most, evolutionists? They invent a deduction, and then fit everything into that deduction—regardless of the evidence.

Dinosaur carvings have been found on the cliff walls of the Hava Supai Canyon of Arizona. Not too far from this site, dinosaur tracks were discovered. The external, non-biblical evidence is clear-cut and testifies that dinosaurs and man existed in the same time span.

Question
Is there a long time span between Genesis 1 and 2 and verse 3?

Answer
Not if we accept as valid Exodus 20:11. God Himself said, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens [universe] and the Earth, the sea, and all that is in them.” If each day consisted of millions of years, not only were sea and air creatures millions of years old when man was made, but vegetation went without sunlight for millions of years, for vegetation was created on the third day and the sun on the fourth day.

Question
Geologists tell us the Earth is millions of years old and the universe is billions of years old. How do you refute their claim?

Answer
Perhaps the Earth does appear to be millions of years old, and perhaps the universe appears to be billions of years old. However, if God’s awesome power could create a man (Adam), as opposed to a child, and make him look biologically older than he actually is, could He not create a planet and universe and make both appear older than they actually are? If not, why not?

Yes, this in spite of National Geographic’s long essay on radioactive carbon dating and the “expansion rate of the universe,” known as the “Hubble constant” (September, 2001). As I view it, God’s unequaled power created the stars and transported their light to Earth instantaneously—not over a period of billions of years.

And speaking of National Geographic, they say their “evidence” “yields an age for the universe of about 13 billion years” (September, 2001). “About” 13 billion years? They’re not always certain! Could they be “about 13 billion years” off? This is the history of evolutionists. They can’t even agree among themselves. I suggest they permit God to help them. He says six says. Evolutionists say 13 billion years. I’ll take God’s testimony above the reckless and uncertain testimony of evolutionists and atheists.

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array” (Genesis 2:1).

Did God create everything in six solar days or over a period of billions of years?