Six days of Creation (last updated: 27th april 2024)
Why the controversy?
Even intelligent design advocates have doubts about the 6 days Genesis pronoucement, but why?
Why make an issue of this? Does it matter how long it took God to perform His miracle of Creation?
Those who doubt the veracity of the 6 day proclamation never come up with an alternative figure. Did
it take God 6 days, 6 years or 6 million years? Did he slave over a desk, or a hot stove, in His laboratory in the heavens day
after day, year after year trying to figure out how to create life? Did He have a team of experts helping Him perhaps?
We contend that God is all powerful and could do anything He wanted, at any suitable time in history He chose, taking as little or
as long as necessary to accomplish His aims. The complexity of the inner workings of living cells is evidence enough that He has
limitless knowledge, capabilities and power, and none of the limitations that we suffer from apply to Him. Stephen C Meyer one of
the brains behind the ID movement acknowledges that an all powerful being created life but the notion that it could be
accomplished in 6 days is a step too far for him, but why? We suggest to avoid potential derision from atheist leaning scientists.
One can have some sympathy for his position on this because scientists cannot prove or disprove the 6 day statement and it would be
unscientific to make bold claims of an unproven or unprovable nature.
Many in the ID fraternity also believe in long ages but why? Is it because they believe it took God millions of years to perfect life,
perhaps tinkering with single-celled microorganisms over millennia to produce more and more advanced life forms until eventually, 'hey
presto', human beings emerged? If not what are the millions of years all about?
There is scope for confusion here. Agreeing that God is Eternal does not lend weight to the argument that life developed over long
ages. The two concepts are independent of one another.
Neither does it lend weight to the idea in stark contrast to the Bible that the Universe came into being at the Big Bang
14 billion years ago.
Given that the Universe was Created by God, and that He has always existed, any past event such as the Creation of the
Universe with all its life forms could have taken place at any time, taking any length of time. It does not require the
event to have taken place in the far distant past, or for it to have taken a long period of time to complete.
Human reasoning might argue that the older God gets, provided His assumed genome holds fast, i.e. doesn't suffer from aging,
the cleverer He must become. So perhaps it was only in relatively recent times that He figured out how to create life!
We contend that this is nonsense and that God was all powerful from day one, whenever that was (*)!
Another man contrived story would be that God actually took a lot longer than 6 days, maybe 6 billion years, but he didn't want to
admit it so He decided to impress his audience (us) with the Bible account. In other words God was economical with the truth
knowing that we could never uncover the details, and that we were gullible enough to believe anything He said. Human beings do not
lack expertise when it comes to conjuring up figments of imagination, we are renowned for inventing them!
Another tall story that could circulate is that God got so carried away with the excitement of the task in hand that He completely
lost track of time and mistook the passing of millions of years for 6 days.
In conclusion, it is understandable why people question the 6 day account, and I imagine God would have some sympathy with us for
harbouring such doubts. However, if we accept that He created the Universe and everything in it, including life, then He is a
miracle worker, and the 6 days is just another illustration of His limitless power.
Drone Footage by Stefan Zimmermann: BEAUTIFUL SCOTLAND (Highlands / Isle of Skye)
* When was day 1, the date when God came into existence? Does the question make any sense? Knowing the answer to this question
should be very revealing. Here is an erudite explanation readily available from an Internet search:
'God has been God from all of eternity. Nothing caused Him to exist. He had no beginning and he will have no end.
Although we are used to thinking that everything must have a beginning, there had to be something that has existed eternally.
The Bible states that it is an infinite, personal God.'
Given that God is Eternal means of course that He had plenty of time to decide how to Create Life, to formulate a plan,
so it is arguable that He only needed a mere 6 days to bring his accumulated wisdom and knowledge to bear, and produce fruit.
Genesis 1:21, 22 states,
21 So God Created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teams, according to their
Kinds, and every winged bird according to its Kind. And God saw that it was good.
22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on
the Earth.
It is perhaps worth noting that God does not claim He populated the entire Earth with these creatures on day 5, rather that
He set the ball rolling. The Bible makes no claim as to how long this took! Perhaps while Adam and Eve were ensconced in the Garden
of Eden the proliferation gradually took place over a long period of time covering more and more of the Earth. The Bible only
reports that He Created just one of each Kind initially.
It is also interesting to note that recent scientific research reveals snakes as originally designed emerged as 4 legged
reptiles. This has been deduced
by an in depth analysis of the genomes of 20 plus species of snakes at the Chengdu Institute of Biology which shows they came into
existence when a 4 legged reptile lost genetic information (therefore devolution not evolution). This transformation must have
occured suddenly because the reptile would have been unable to survive without any means of propulsion. Well, we know when, and how,
this redesign took place:
Genesis 3:14 (the serpent having tempted Eve):
So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life"
An erudite account of what transpired now backed up by science. Snakes have slithered ever since that fateful day long ago!
It is reasonable to think that God mulled over the idea of creating life, and how to carry it out, for a very long time
before deciding to act. Whether this is a true reading of the situation is open to conjecture but given the enormous
complexity of even the simplest organism at the cellular level it would be a reasonable conclusion. An example of this
complexity is the human immune system without which life could not be sustained, it therefore had to be fully operational from the
beginning (Adam and Eve):
Any organism without a fully operational immune response would rapidly become extinct, thus an evolutionary origin of immunity
is essentially impossible. Like all other complex systems in the human body for example, the immune response is a design feature:
So what does the immune system do? It is a network of biological systems that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and
responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters,
distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue. It then immediately proceeds to eradicate the threat to keep us alive.
It goes without saying that a gradual trial and error evolutionary development of an immune system would not work!
The immune systems is immensely complex and is even able to learn from bad experiences, assuming its host survives to tell
the tale, which it normally does:
'After an invader is removed, the adaptive cells that recognised it are kept, as specialised "memory cells".
If we see the same invader again, those cells can respond before we get ill. This is how the adaptive immune system learns.'
One of His greatest achievements is the way He manages to influence our lives without us ever being certain of His involvement.
This demonstrates His caring attitude towards us despite all our failings and inclination to deny His existence.
There clearly is no limit to God's ingenuity and uniqueness, He has left no stone unturned!
He designed our bodies from day one as integral organisms. We along with all the other life forms on Earth are the work of a
genius (the words of scientists at the Creation Science Movement (CSM), Portsmouth, England.). We do not have adequate words to give
Him the credit He is due. He went to extraordinary lengths to provide automatic protection for us from daily pathogen attacks and
we only become aware of this activity in extreme situations. Even then after a few days we normally recover once the immune system
has pulled together sufficient resources to recognise and overcome the pathogen attack.
Scientists and engineers today achieve great things but their accomplishments pale into insignificance
compared to the works of God. We must also never forget that these talents were bestowed on men and women by God in the first place.
I wonder if God regrets the decision to 'go the whole hog' and Create troublesome men and women on the final day of His
Creation week? The limitless expanse of time that lapsed before Creation Week would have been relatively trouble free for Him! I
wonder if He now wishes He had never set it all in motion?
"O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." - Psalm 104:24
1. Creation sings the Father's song.
He calls the sun to wake the dawn
And run the course of day
'Til evening falls in crimson rays.
His fingerprints in flakes of snow,
His breath upon this spinning globe;
He charts the eagle's flight;
Commands the newborn baby's cry.
Refrain:
Hallelujah!
Let all creation stand and sing, "Hallelujah!"
Fill the earth with songs of worship, tell the wonders of creation's King.
2. Creation gazed upon His face;
The ageless One in time's embrace
Unveiled the Father's plan
Of reconciling God to man.
A second Adam walked the earth,
Whose blameless life would break the curse,
Whose death would set us free
To live with Him eternally.
3. Creation longs for His return,
When Christ shall reign upon the earth;
The bitter wars that rage
Are birth pains of a coming age.
When He renews the land and sky,
All heav'n will sing and earth reply
With one resplendent theme:
The glory of our God and King!
