Understanding “A Day is Like a Thousand Years”

Ken Ham writes:

I have to admit it. Every time I hear someone say it, it drives me nuts.

What am I referring to?

Over the past 40 years, as I’ve spoken all over the world, I’ve had many people in churches come up and say something like, “But how can the days of creation in Genesis 1 be ordinary days when the Bible says a day is like a thousand years?” Ugh!

This is when I groan internally, and then set out to explain the many problems with what they stated.

1. They are quoting a small section from 2 Peter 3:8. Now this is a passage from the New Testament, and you cannot use such a passage to determine the meaning of a Hebrew word. The meaning of a Hebrew word in Genesis (eg: “yom,” used for the word day in Genesis 1) depends on the Hebrew language. One needs to use the immediate and wider context or a Hebrew Lexicon (dictionary) to determine the meaning of a Hebrew word.

2. When I’ve been asked this question, I can’t remember a time when the person asking the question actually quoted that passage correctly. They usually say, “But a day is like a thousand years.” That is not what the Scripture states. Let’s look at 2 Peter 3:8:

“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8)

Now note that the text actually states, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years.” In other words, the reference is to God, telling us that to God a day is like a thousand years. God is not limited by natural processes and time. God is outside of time. He created time. So, to God, a day is no different than a thousand years because God exists in eternity and is not bound by time.

3. I notice they always seem to quote the first part of the verse and not the rest. After “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years,” the verse continues, “and a thousand years as one day.” Now this in essence cancels out the first section.

The whole point is to God a day is like a thousand years or a thousand years a like a day. Again, it’s because God is outside of time. So, to God, a day or a thousand years doesn’t make any difference in regard to time. Now humans are created in time and we measure time by days and years. To humans, a thousand years is so much longer than one day. But that is not so for God.

4. Now let’s look at the context of 2 Peter 3. The passage leading up to verse 8 starting in verse 3 states, “Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (2 Peter 3:3). The passage is discussing the second coming of Christ, the last days, and the scoffers who scoff at Jesus coming again: “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:4).

So, these scoffers are saying that things just go on and on, so Jesus is obviously not coming back.

The passage is teaching us that for those scoffers that believe Jesus isn’t coming back again as things just seem to continue on and on, God through Peter tells us that we need to understand that to God, a day is no different to a thousand years. So humans think it’s been a long time since Jesus said he was coming back again, but, to God, it’s not a long time because he is not bound by time.

5. Then we are told why Jesus hasn’t come back yet, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God will decide when he will return, but in the meantime, people need to hear the gospel as it’s not his will “that any should perish.”

6. Now think about this. I have found the main reason many Christians try to reinterpret the word “day” in Genesis and use this passage from 2 Peter 3 to justify this is because they really are trying to fit the false millions of years belief into Scripture. But how will making each day 1,000 years help accommodate millions of years—it won’t!

7. I also note something else. The Hebrew word for day (“yom”) is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament, but I don’t hear anyone questioning what those days mean by claiming a day is like a thousand years. So why is it they only single out the use of word “day” in Genesis 1? Again, it’s because they’re impacted by millions of years and they’re trying to fit long ages into Genesis 1. Do we ever hear anyone claiming Jonah was in the great fish for 3,000 years because a day is like a thousand years? Of course not.

8. Now, if we take Genesis 1 as written, and look at the context for the word “day” (“yom”) for each of the days of creation, we can come to no other conclusion than those days are ordinary, approximately 24-hour days. When yom is qualified by night, evening, morning, or number it always means an ordinary day. All six days have yom qualified by evening, morning, and number. Day one also qualifies yom with night, and day seven with a number. All seven days in Genesis one are ordinary days.

Now can you see why it drives me nuts when people, usually rather glibly, say, “Oh the days of creation aren’t ordinary days as a day is like a thousand years”? I find most say this because they heard it from a friend, their pastor, Bible school teacher, or read it somewhere. Once I explain what I’ve listed above to them, most realize they have not been thinking about this correctly at all.

By the way, Psalm 90:4 states something similar as 2 Peter 3:8, “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” This is teaching us that with God a thousand years is like a day or a watch in the night which was four hours. So, God is not limited by time, as he is outside of time.

I urge people to study God’s Word carefully before making off-hand statements. I think people do this because we humans are so quick to question God’s Word as that’s our propensity because of our sin nature.

7 Hours on the Doctrines of Grace

Throughout 2014, while Dr. James White was away on various ministry trips, Pastor John had the distinct honor and privilege of guest-hosting his “Dividing Line” broadcasts. This has allowed him the opportunity of teaching on some major doctrines at the heart of our Christian faith. Subjects include:

Law and Gospel
The Five Solas
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints

LAW AND GOSPEL:

THE FIVE SOLAS:

TOTAL DEPRAVITY:
UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION:

LIMITED ATONEMENT:

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE:

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS:

Well Said, Pastor Joel!

My friend, Pastor Joel Ellis of Reformation Orthodox Presbyterean Church, Apache Junction, AZ writes:

“Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

Over the weekend a statute of Frederick Douglass was vandalized and toppled in New York. Yes, that Frederick Douglass: minister, orator, author, social reformer, statesman, also a former slave, a black man, and an abolitionist. Maybe you thought the only statutes that would be torn down were those honoring Confederate generals and founding fathers who owned slaves. Maybe you felt sympathy for the grief and moral outrage such monuments were said to cause. Your heart was in the right place, but your sympathy was misguided.

The civil unrest, moral outrage, and (not so peaceful) protests we are witnessing around the nation are not about what the agitators, advocates, and apologists in the media claim. This is not about racial injustice, ongoing oppression, or restorative justice and reconciliation. This is about anarchy. The enemy is not white supremacy; we all agree in condemning such evil. The enemy is not police brutality; we all agree in standing against such violence. The enemy is tradition, history, and the present order. That is what must be deconstructed, destabilized, and finally destroyed.

“This is the revolution. Change is coming.” “Now, we transform.” Those are the slogans posted on the homepage of Black Lives Matter. It’s not as though they are hiding the agenda. On the contrary, they are proud to say the quiet part out loud, because they are empowered and protected by those who lack the moral conviction and courage to speak truth.

“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.

“We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).” —https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/

Tradition is regarded as evil. History must be erased and rewritten. Violent revolution is in order. That is the world in which you live. These are the ideals that a significant number of Americans, and sadly many professing Christians and leaders in the visible Church, are supporting. But there are two things we ought to bear in mind.

First, those who seek to burn the world down and re-make it in their own image will not succeed. They may destroy America. Our society may never recover from recent events. But creation is larger than any one nation. Nations rise and fall. Movements develop and then die. But the purpose of God stands forever. It cannot be thwarted.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,

The plans of His heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11)

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD

As the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty,

The One who is and who was and who is to come,

Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.

The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come,

And the time of the dead, that they should be judged,

And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints,

And those who fear Your name, small and great,

And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

(Revelation 11:15-18) Second, the visible Church must maintain her spiritual, otherworldly, boldly confessing identity in the face of social turmoil and change. We are not a political action group. Our hope is not in the Republican (or Democrat or Libertarian) party. We will not be spared temporal persecution or eternal judgment by capitulating to and compromising with the spirit of the age. If they are willing to tear down statutes of Frederick Douglass, do you suppose they will be content to leave your congregation alone because you agree that black lives matter? Our hope is in Jesus Christ. We must stand upon the Word of God and behind the cross. As history and tradition are attacked all around us, the Church must re-dig her fathers’ wells. There has been far too much of the world in the Church for far too long. We don’t need more pastors in skinny jeans, more praise teams that rival the local rock band, or more worship programs that feel more like a social mixer than an ancient service of prayer in the presence of God. Now is not the time for the Church to forget her history, but rather to remember, learn from, and cherish it. “We are God’s people, the chosen of the Lord.” Let’s not only say and sing it. Let’s be sure we sincerely mean it.

The Five Solas Book

I am very much encouraged (and thankful to God) due to the feedback I am continuing to receive regarding the Five Solas book. It is now available in a number of formats (including a newly translated Spanish version):

The books starts with these words:

“Light dispels darkness. When the light of God’s Word shines into places of spiritual and cultural darkness, it transforms people, families and nations. It does not matter how long the darkness has persisted; when light appears, darkness, like a hostile, renegade, usurper to the throne, must submit, bow its head, and walk away in shame. Again, light dispels darkness. The entrance of God’s word brings light!

Darkness is the shared experience of a people without light. Such was the case before the Protestant Reformation. The Bible was not known. In its place, religious superstition, tradition and falsehood reigned. The Reformation brought God’s word and the Gospel back into the hands of the masses.

Man-made traditions that had kept the people in bondage for centuries were now exposed for what they really were. Entire nations, held captive by the powers of darkness, were now exposed to the truth. Dramatic change occurred. Outside the book of Acts in the New Testament, there has not been a greater move of the Holy Spirit in the history of the church. Our world would never be the same. A Latin phrase, ‘Post tenebras lux’ captured the enfolding, historical drama, meaning, ‘After darkness, light!’

As the Bible came to be read in the common language of the people, the great central truths the Bible proclaimed were recovered, often at great cost to those who came to embrace them.

The Reformation recovered and highlighted glorious Scriptural truths which have been expressed in five memorable phrases, now known as the Five Solas. Properly understood, these Five Solas bring us back to the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Paperback Version

Ebook and Audiobook version

Spanish translation

Endorsements:

“You have succinctly and clearly distilled the essence of the ‘solas.’ May God mightily use your book for His glory. Thank you for the encouragement in the gospel you have brought to me.” R. C. Sproul

“This is such a crucial topic; and having read many pieces written on the five solas, this one stands out for not only being theologically sound, but also clear and concise. It is written in a way that just about anyone could pick up and understand. I am thankful that God has raised up his servant John Samson for this deeply needed work; a work we ought to get into the hands of as many people as possible.” – John Hendryx, monergism.com

“Get this book! Then get several more to share with your friends and family. John Samson has the remarkable ability to communicate essential truths with an undeniable passion and faithfulness that is winsome, clear, and devastating to the opposition. The people of God in this generation are in need of these old truths: the same truths that transformed the early church and led our heroes (throughout history) into living lives that changed the world. Go sell 100 of your vapid, modern Evangellyfish books and turn that money into getting this book into the hearts and minds of Christians everywhere.” – Jeff Durbin, Pastor, Apologia Church, Tempe, Arizona

“Recent years have seen a number of key anniversaries connected with events and people who were vital catalysts in the Protestant Reformation. Thankfully this has resulted in a renewed focus on the ‘five solas’–a convenient shorthand list of the Reformers’ key convictions. Throughout church history, wherever these principles have been stressed and adhered to, the church has always flourished. So it is a highly encouraging trend. I’m thankful for this excellent book by John Samson; a cogent, focused, and accessible study of the solas that not only reminds us what these principles mean, but also shows us why they are important–and why they must stand together.” – Phil Johnson, Executive Director, Grace to You

“Some authors make you read three chapters before getting to the first point in their outline. If you wish to understand the foundation of the solas of the Reformation but would like to do so in under an hour, John Samson provides you with the basics right here.” – Dr. James White, Alpha & Omega Ministries, Phoenix, Arizona

“Part celebration and part exposition, Pastor John Samson has provided a brief and readable introduction to the grand framing truths of the Reformation. In this timely little work, Samson particularly emphasizes how the five “Onlies” magnify God’s complete and gracious work of salvation in Jesus Christ — of which we learn in Scripture alone, which we find in Christ alone and enjoy by grace alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone! As a bonus, Samson not only concisely shows the radiance of each, but also the interrelationship of the whole. Pastors will find this a very useful introductory work for use in ministry.” – Dan Phillips, Pastor, Copperfield Bible Church, Houston, Texas