Creating the earth in 7 days..

[MikelKenn89]

was this meant to be taken absolutely literal?

i ask because 2 Peter 3:8 says one day is like a thousand years.


just curious.

 

[Southern Presbyterian]

According to your profile you subscribe to the London Baptist Confession. Find quoted below....

CHAPTER 4; OF CREATION

Paragraph 1. In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,1 for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power,2 wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.3
1 John 1:2,3; Heb. 1:2; Job 26:13
2 Rom. 1:20
3 Col. 1:16; Gen. 1:31

 

[David]

Given that Genesis 1 seems to describe a day as having morning and evening, I'd say it is literal. I do believe that 2 Peter 3:8 is a verse often used as evidence to the contrary, however.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

 

[VictorBravo]

Peter is answering the scoffers who say this: "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

He assuring the believers that God is not slack in his promise and telling them God's longsuffering shall last until all of the elect have come to faith.

And then the judgment day comes immediately.

I don't see Peter's purpose here as defining how long the days were at creation, so the passage does nothing for that purpose.

 

[Jon Peters]

There are exegetical alternatives to the 6/24 hour day view. If you are interested in reading about some of these alternative views (held by many in Reformed churches), you can begin with the OPC report on creation. https://www.opc.org/GA/creation.html

 

[Wayne]

Mikel:

Context is everything, and context starts with looking at the full verse:

But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

If the verse only said "one day is as a thousand years", then there might be an argument in that direction, though that would be to forget the preposition "as". The preposition indicates that the verse is establishing similitude, not literality, and that is borne out by the final clause of the verse, which inverts the order of the statement. It is that inversion which undoes any conclusion that this verse might be used to interpret the creation account in Genesis 1.

In the larger context the verse serves to underscore the idea that judgment is sure and that judgment is coming, regardless of how slow or delayed it may seem. It cannot or should not be applied to the chronological length of days in Genesis 1.

 

[MikelKenn89]

aha, i got it now alot of people like to take it literal and i never was sure what to believe, but it makes perfect sense now

 

[MW]

It might also be worth noting that the same chapter takes the creation account literally when it refers to the historical reality of the earth standing out of the water and in the water, verse 5.

 

[Peairtach]

It's also interesting to note that the fossil record doesn't show

(a) Gradual evolution as Darwin predicted

but nor does it show

(b) Gradual creation, as Old Earth Creationists posit. Old Earth Creationists, I believe, generally believe that the fossil record is a record of the Days of Creation.

The fossil record appears to show a mass of death and mass death, extinctions of numerous phyla and species, disaster, etc.

If this is how God created was He working in a mysterious way, speaking reverently?