The Modern Creation Trilogy. Dr. Henry M. Morris

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СКАЧАТЬ But yom by itself can apparently never be proved, in one single case, to require the meaning of a long period of time, and certainly no usage that would suggest a geological age.

      It might still be contended that, even though yom never requires the meaning of a long age, it might possibly permit it. However, the writer of the first chapter of Genesis has very carefully guarded against such a notion, both by modifying the noun by a numerical adjective (“first day,” “second day,” etc.), and also by indicating the boundaries of the time period in each case as “evening and morning.” Either one of these devices would suffice to limit the meaning of yom to that of a solar day, and when both are used, there could be no better or surer way possible for the writer to convey the intended meaning of a literal solar day.

      To prove this, it is noted that whenever a limiting numeral or ordinal is attached to “day” in the Old Testament (and there are over 200 such instances), the meaning is always that of a literal day. Similarly, the words “evening” and “morning,” each occurring more than a hundred times in the Hebrew, never are used to mean anything but a literal evening and a literal morning, ending and beginning a literal day.

      As added proof, the word yom is clearly defined the first time it is used. God defines His terms! “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen. 1:5). The word yom is defined here as the light period in the regular succession of light and darkness, which, as the earth rotates on its axis, has continued ever since. This definition obviously precludes any possible interpretation as a geological age.

      The objection is sometimes raised that the first three days were not days as they are today, since the sun was not created until day four. One could, of course, turn this objection against those who raise it. The longer the first three days, the more catastrophic it would be for the sun not to be functioning if indeed the sun is the only possible source of light for the earth. The vegetation created on the third day might endure for a few hours without sunlight, but hardly for a geological age!

Regardless of the precise length of the first three days, there must have been some source of light available to separate light and darkness, evening and morning. It was apparently not the sun as it is now known, but, of course, God is not limited to the sun as a source of light.1 Whatever it may have been, the earth was evidently rotating on its axis, since evenings and mornings were occurring regularly for those three days. The placing of the two great “light-bearers” in the heavens need have no great effect on the rate of this rotation, so that the duration of day four and those following was most probably the same as that of days one through three.

      It is interesting also that Genesis 1:14–19 further clarifies the meaning of “day” and “days”: “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years . . . the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night . . . and the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” It would certainly seem that there could be no possible doubt as to the meaning and duration of day after at least this fourth day.

      In view of all the above considerations, it seems impossible to accept the day-age theory, regardless of the number of eminent scientists and theologians who have advocated it. The writer of Genesis 1 clearly intended to describe a creation accomplished in six literal days. He could not possibly have expressed such a meaning any more clearly and emphatically than in the words and sentences which are actually used.

      Not only is a six-literal-day creation taught in Genesis, but also in Exodus within the Ten Commandments. The Fourth Commandment says: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it” (Exod. 20:8–11).

      It is quite clear that the six work days of God are identical in duration to the six days of man’s work week. The basis for this very precise commandment is trivial and vacuous otherwise. The observance of seven-day weeks, all through history, and all over the world, with no astronomical basis, is further evidence.

      Furthermore, the plural yamim is used here for the six work “days” of God. This word is used more than 700 times in the Old Testament. In none of these occurrences can it be proved to have any meaning except that of literal days.

      Two or three secondary arguments relating to the word “day” need to be mentioned. It is frequently urged that since it is not used in a strict literal sense in Genesis 2:4, which says, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,” it is proper also to interpret it that way in Genesis 1.

      At the most, of course, the interpretation could be rendered “in the time that the Lord God” and this has been already recognized as a proper use of yom when the context so justifies. The context does not so justify in Genesis 1, as has been seen. On the other hand, this verse (Gen. 2:4) seems primarily to refer to the first day of creation when, as stated in Genesis 1:1, “God created the heavens and the earth.” But even if the context identifies the entire creation week, that was only six solar days. There is no victory here for those who would advocate long ages.

      Another argument has been that since God is still “resting” from His work of creation, and since the seventh day is not concluded by the phrase “evening and morning,” the seventh day is still continuing. Then, if the seventh day has a duration of at least 6,000 years, the other six days also may have been long periods. The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ denomination, in fact, teaches this, maintaining that since the seventh day is 7,000 years in length (including the coming millennium), each of the days is 7,000 years, so that God’s work week was 42,000 years long! Theistic evolutionists or progressive creationists would, on the same basis, have to say that God’s rest day has been at least a million years long since the appearance of man on earth.

      Such exegesis is strained, to say the least. The verse does not say, “God is resting on the seventh day,” but rather, “God rested on the seventh day.” Exodus 31:17 even says, “. . . in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” It is recorded that God “blessed” and “sanctified” the seventh day (Gen. 2:3), but such a beatitude can hardly apply to this present evil age. God’s rest was soon to be interrupted by the entrance of sin “into the world, and death by sin” (Rom. 5:12), so that He had to set about the work of redeeming and restoring His groaning creation. As Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). Were it not for the weekly rest day, recalling God’s all-too-brief rest after creation, and now also commemorating His victory over death and the grave, “All the works that are done under the sun . . . [are] vanity and vexation of spirit” (Eccles. 1:14).

      Similarly, the verse 2 Peter 3:8, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” has been badly misapplied when used to teach the day-age theory. In its biblical context, it teaches exactly the opposite, and one should remember that “a text without a context is a pretext.” Peter is dealing here with the conflict between uniformitarianism and creationism prophesied in the last days. He is saying that, despite man’s naturalistic scoffings, God can do in one day what, on uniformitarian premises, might seem to require a thousand years. God does not require eons of time to accomplish His work of creating and redeeming all things. It is even interesting that using the above equation — one day for a thousand years or 365,000 days — the actual duration of God’s work with the earth and man — say about 7,000 years — becomes about two and a half billion years, which is at least on the order of magnitude of the “apparent age” of the world as calculated by uniformitarianism!

      2. Contradictions between Genesis and the Geological Ages

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