Were the Six Days of Creation Literal?

 

The Basis of Time in Genesis

Then God created light and we see something interesting.  We do not want to miss this because this is very vital to determining of what was taking place here.  This was not an omni-present burst of light.  It was light that emanated from a certain source.  While part of the earth was in darkness, the other part was in light.  While the light shone on part of the earth, the other part was turned away from the light.  God saw this light and He divided the light from the darkness.  He called the light day and the darkness He called night.  “And there was evening and there was morning; the first day.” 

Is There Symbolism Here, or Not?

There is much conjecture about Biblical symbolism.  Candidly, the Bible often uses the word day symbolically.  We can point, for example, to the 14th chapter of Zechariah, where there is such a symbolic use.  There the Bible talks about that day and it says, among other things, that it will be neither dark nor light, but it will be a long, drawn out day and then at evening it shall be light.  This is a metaphorical method by the prophets of talking about the Christ, the Church and the Gospel in this world.  We will not go off on that subject just now.  We simply want to point out that the word day is used metaphorically in the Bible.  There are many references to that day which do not actually mean a literal 24-hour day and we know that Scripture uses symbolism.  We also know that the Bible often does not use symbolism.  If the Bible is speaking symbolically, we need to know it because we are not going to find the truth otherwise.  But if the Bible is not speaking symbolically, we need to know that too.  If something is to be taken literally, we need to take it literally.  We do not need to take the Bible literally, and we do not need to take it figuratively.  We need to take it the way it was meant to be taken in any given instance. 

Normal Men and the Normal Sense of Language

Suppose you are sitting in a room and a man comes in from the outside.  He shakes himself off, rubs his hands together, and says, “It's raining cats and dogs out there.”  You listen to that and you get an opinion of what the man is saying.  It is easy to see what he means.  If you do not understand he is speaking symbolically, you will not know what he is talking about. 

Another man comes into the same room and say, “We simply must find the owners of all these cats and dogs out here.  They're all over the porch and the lawn making a big mess.  The situation is out of control.  We need to do something about this.”  It does not take a code book, a key, or a scheme for sensible men to know that in one instance one man is speaking symbolically, while the other is speaking literally.  We just know that.  There is no big thing in that; even children understand it.  Some speech is symbolic and the other is literal.  What about this day in Genesis?  What can we discover about it?  Let us look carefully and see.

The Light Shines

 God created a light out there somewhere, and it shone on part of the earth while the other part was in darkness.

The Earth Turns

There was one turning of the earth in relationship to that fixed light source out there somewhere. 

The Night Comes

There was one period of dark, which God called evening.

The Morning Comes

Then there was one period of light, which God called morning.

A Day Has Passed

This one revolution of the earth with relationship to this one fixed light source out in space was a day.

Question For The Students:  How Many Hours Have Passed?

Does this sound like symbolism to you?  How much more literally can you talk?  If speech is to be taken for anything, this has to be literally: One revolution of the earth in relationship to one fixed light source —a day.  It is the very same kind of day we have today; one 24-hour day.

How Long Was the Sabbath Day?

The ancient Jewish scholars and religionists understood it to be that way because God commanded them to hallow the seventh day to keep it holy.  How long a period is the Sabbath?  A million years?  It is one day in relationship to the other six days.  Everybody knows that.  One will only come to the conclusion that this is not a literal day if he has something to prove.  If he has a pre-conceived notion so that he cannot believe the literal account, then he is going to try to make something else out of it; but he is not going to derive that from the language of the Bible.  The language is unclouded in its clarity—one revolution of the earth in relationship to one fixed light source: one evening, and one morning—a day.

I am as willing as anyone to acknowledge the existence of symbolism in the Scripture.  I teach it; I believe it—sometimes to the dissatisfaction of my peers in the ministry. Evidently there is symbolism in the Scripture.  The point is that there is no symbolism in verse 5.  How can you find any symbolism in a description that calls a day one revolution of the earth in relationship to one fixed light source; one period of evening and one period of morning—a day.  Where is the symbolism here? 

Of course, anybody can believe anything they want to.  Wisdom is justified of her children; but what I am pointing out is one cannot get it out of the Scriptures.  This language is literal. 

So the first thing that the Holy Spirit did—the first thing that God did was to create light.  The earth revolved in relationship to this light and there was a day.