Monthly Archives: April 2023

The Days of Creation

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Ken Ham writes:

It’s amazing to me how many Christians claim the days of creation aren’t ordinary days, claim we can’t know, or it doesn’t matter.

But it does matter that we take God’s Word as written!

I remember one conversation that went something like this when discussing the meaning of the word “day” (Hebrew: “yom”) for the six days of creation:

The person said, “But the word ‘day’ can mean something other than an ordinary day.” I replied, “That’s true but the word ‘day’ can also mean an ordinary day.” The person said again, “But the word ‘day’ can mean something other than an ordinary day.” I realized this conversation could go on for ever, so I said, “The word ‘day’ can have a number of different meanings. The point is, ‘What does the word day mean in this context?’”

Actually, most words can have two or more meanings depending on context. For instance, take the word “back.” I could say to someone, “I see you came back after the intermission for my second talk and you’re sitting at the back with your back against the back of the seat because you have a sore back.”

Now we know what the word “back” means each time I used it because of the context.

The word “day” in English can have a number of different meanings. For instance I could say, as an Australian, that “one day I want to go to the outback and travel during the day for three days to get to a town I wanted to go to.”

I just used the word “day” to mean time (“one day”), the daylight portion of a day (“during the day”) and ordinary 24-hour days (“three days”).

Now in Hebrew, the word for “day,” “yom,” can have a number of different meanings. Context determines meaning.

Here are some general rules as to when “yom” means an ordinary day. Whenever it is qualified by morning, evening, number, or night it always means an ordinary day. Also when the phrase “evening and morning” occurs, this means an ordinary day. Let’s consider the six days in Genesis 1.

v. 5: “God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

v. 8: “There was evening and there was morning, the second day.”

v. 13: “There was evening and there was morning, the third day.”

v. 19: “There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”

v. 23: “There was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”

v. 31: “There was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

It’s so obvious that the word “day” for each of the days of creation must mean an ordinary day. It’s as if God qualified it over and over again to make sure we couldn’t miss it. That’s why Hebrew dictionaries make it clear that the word “day” in Genesis chapter 1 means an ordinary day.

For instance, the Hebrew dictionary by Koehler Baumgartner makes it clear that the first example of when the word day means a 24-hour day is Genesis 1:5, the first day of the creation week (see photo).

Another Hebrew dictionary (lexicon) by Brown, Driver, Briggs gives the creation days qualified by evening and morning as examples of when the word “day” means an ordinary day.

The Hebrew word for “day” (“yom”) is used over 2,300 times in the Old Testament (in the singular or plural forms), but I don’t encounter people questioning what the word “day” means anywhere except Genesis chapter 1. So why is that? Because people have been impacted by the false teaching of millions of years, and many Christians and Christian leaders try to fit the millions of years into Genesis 1 and thus want to interpret the creation days as long periods of time to try to do this.

And if those creation days are ordinary days, and Adam was created on day six, and we study the detailed genealogies in the Old Testament we can add up dates to come to the present about 6,000 years later. One doesn’t get millions of years from the Bible, nor can one fit millions of years into the Bible.

Now, God could have created everything in six hours, six minutes, six seconds, or no time at all, as he is the infinite Creator God. So the question is: why did God take so long to create everything? Six days is a long time for God to create the universe and everything in it. He did it for us. He created the week for us to be able to work for six days and rest for one. Our seven-day week is based on the first week in Genesis 1 and is used as the basis of the fourth commandment:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11).

Note also that the six days includes the creation of “heaven and earth” which is from Genesis 1:1. Thus it’s obvious that the first creation day includes Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 1:5.

Some people ask about the meaning of the word “day” in Genesis 2:4: “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.”

Here the word “day” is not qualified by evening, morning, or number, etc. So in context it means time.

Throughout the Old Testament, the word “day” can have a number of different meanings depending on context, but in Genesis 1 there is only one meaning for each of the days of the creation week—ordinary 24-hour days.

Quotes to Ponder (116)

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“Much of the evangelical preaching with which I am familiar inspires neither a terror of God’s righteousness nor praise for the depths of God’s grace in His gift of righteousness.” – Dr. Michael Horton

“You must not judge your life by your past messes but by Christ’s present graces.” – Dr. Sam Waldron

“To love the doctrines of grace is to love God as He has revealed Himself in His Word.” – Richard Phillips

“We shall all do well to remember the charge: ‘Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is.’ (Heb. 10:25). Never to be absent from God’s house on Sundays, without good reason – never to miss the Lord’s Supper when administered in our own congregation – never to let our place be empty when means of grace are going on, this is one way to be a growing and prosperous Christian. The very sermon that we needlessly miss, may contain a precious word in season for our souls. The very assembly for prayer and praise from which we stay away, may be the very gathering that would have cheered, established, and revived our hearts. We know very little how dependent our spiritual health is on little, regular, habitual helps, and how much we suffer if we miss our medicine.” – J. C. Ryle

“Happy are they, who in the matter of marriage observe three rules: The first is to marry only in the Lord, and after prayer for God’s approval and blessing. The second is not to expect too much from their partners, and to remember that marriage is, after all, the union of two sinners, and not of two angels. The third rule is to strive first and foremost for one another’s sanctification. The more holy married people are, the happier they are.” – J. C. Ryle

“The trouble with all false evangelism is that it does not start with doctrine, it does not start by realising man’s condition… If you and I realised that every man who is yet a sinner is absolutely dominated by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, if we only understood that he is really a child of wrath and dead in trespasses and sins, we would realise that only one power can deal with such an individual, and that is the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we would put our confidence, not in man-made organisations, but in the power of God, in the prayer that holds on to God and asks for revival and a descent of the Spirit. We would realise that nothing else can do it. We can change men superficially, we can win men to our side and to our party, we can persuade them to join a church, but we can never raise the spiritually dead; God alone can do that.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Faith is nothing but the instrument of our salvation. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified because of our faith; nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified on account of our faith. The Scripture says that we are justified by faith or through faith. Faith is nothing but the instrument or the channel by which this righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. It is not faith that saves us. What saves us is the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work. It is the death of Christ upon Calvary’s Cross that saves us. It is His perfect life that saves us. It is His appealing on our behalf in the presence of God that saves us. It is God putting Christ’s righteousness to our account that saves us. That is the righteousness that saves; faith is but the channel and the instrument by which His righteousness becomes mine. The righteousness is entirely Christ’s. My faith is not my righteousness and I must never think of faith as righteousness. Faith is nothing but that which links us to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.” – Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“An ambassador is not a man who voices his own thoughts or his own opinions or views, or his own desires. The very essence of the position of the ambassador is that he is a man who has been sent to speak for somebody else. He is the speaker for his Government or his President or his King or Emperor, or whatever form of government his country may have. He is not a man who speculates and gives his own views and ideas. He is the bearer of a message, he is commissioned to do this, he is sent to do this; and that is what he must do. In other words, the content of the sermon is what is called in the New Testament ‘The Word’. ‘Preach the word’, or ‘preach the Gospel’, or ‘the whole counsel of God.’ That being interpreted means the message of the Bible, the message of the Scriptures.” – MLJ, pg 61, ‘Preaching and Preachers’

“My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn! I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to you by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.” – George Matheson // “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:9).

“When the devil accuses us and says, ‘You are a sinner and therefore damned,’ we should answer, ‘Because you say I am a sinner, I will be righteous and saved.’ ‘No,’ says the devil, ‘you will be damned.’ And I reply, ‘No, for I fly to Christ, who gave himself for my sins. Satan, you will not prevail against me when you try to terrify me by setting forth the greatness of my sins and try to bring me into heaviness, distrust, despair, hatred, contempt and blasphemy against God. On the contrary, when you say I am a sinner, you give me armor and weapons against yourself, so that with your own sword I may cut your throat and tread you under my feet, for Christ died for sinners. . . . As often as you object that I am a sinner, so often you remind me of the benefit of Christ my Redeemer, on whose shoulders, and not on mine, lie all my sins. So when you say I am a sinner, you do not terrify me but comfort me immeasurably.’” – Martin Luther, commenting on Galatians 1:4, “. . . the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.”

“Life, death, hell and world’s unknown may hang on the preaching and hearing of a sermon.” – C. H. Spurgeon (So please pray for your pastor)

“When you get to heaven, you will not complain of the way by which the Lord brought you.” – John Newton

“One of the most counter-cultural things you can do is become an engaged member of a faithful local church.” – David Mathis

“Hell is eternity in the presence of God. Heaven is eternity in the presence of God with a Mediator.” – Roderick A. Finlayson

“We persevere because we are preserved by our High Priest’s intercession.” – R.C. Sproul

“The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is a very freeing and joyous experience. But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.” – Jerry Bridges

“God is the owner; we are stewards. We need to adopt a steward’s mentality toward the assets He has entrusted – not given – to us. Stewards manage assets for the owner’s benefit. Stewards carry no sense of entitlement to the assets they manage. It’s the steward’s job to find out what the owner wants done with his assets, then carry out his will.” – Randy Alcorn

“From every little village in England—it does not matter where it is—there is sure to be a road to London. Though there may not be a road to certain other places, there is certain to be a road to London. Now, from every text in the Bible there is a road to Jesus Christ…” – C. H. Spurgeon

“He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his feet into the grave.” – Matthew Henry

“Historic confessions and creeds protect the Church from foolish ‘cereal aisle’ autonomy. The Spirit who authored Scripture has through the years drawn the Church to understand it, and the great Church confessions greatly aid us in employing faithful hermeneutics. We are not advocating a paper pope, but a biblically grounded confidence in the historic analogy of faith. God is able to reveal clearly in his Word precisely what he wishes – not only to this generation, but consistently over the entire life of the Church.” – David B. Garner

“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” – Martin Luther

“My God, I have never thanked you for my thorn! I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to you by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.” – George Matheson // “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses” (2 Cor. 12:9).

“The Word of God can take care of itself, and will do so if we preach it, and cease defending it. See you that lion. They have caged him for his preservation; shut him up behind iron bars to secure him from his foes! See how a band of armed men have gathered together to protect the lion. What a clatter they make with their swords and spears! These mighty men are intent upon defending a lion. O fools, and slow of heart! Open that door! Let the lord of the forest come forth free. Who will dare to encounter him? What does he want with your guardian care? Let the pure gospel go forth in all its lion-like majesty, and it will soon clear its own way and ease itself of its adversaries.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“A company of mean-spirited, wicked men, who are no bigger than bees, mentally or spiritually, can get together, and sting a good man in a thousand places, till he is well-nigh maddened by their scorn, their ridicule, their slander, and their misrepresentation. Their very littleness gives them the power to wound with impunity. Such has been the experience of some of us, especially in days now happily past. For one, I can say, I grew inured to falsehood and spite. The stings at last caused me no more pain than if I had been made of iron, but at first they were galling enough. Do not be surprised, dear friends, if you have the same experience, and if it comes, count it no strange thing, for in this way the saints have been treated in all time. Thank God, the wounds are not fatal, nor of long continuance! Time brings ease, and use creates hardihood. No real harm has come to any of us who have run the gauntlet of abuse; not even a bruise remains.” – C.H. Spurgeon Autobiography, Vol 1, pp. 304-05

“That I am drawing breath this morning is an act of divine mercy. God owes me nothing. I owe Him everything.” – R.C. Sproul

“We find Christ in all the Scriptures. In the Old Testament He is predicted, in the Gospels He is revealed, in Acts He is preached, in the epistles He is explained, and in Revelation He is expected.” – Alistair Begg

“Before Calvary, Christ was represented by way of a blood-shedding ritual on an altar; after Calvary, he is represented by a blood-less feast at a table.” – Derek Thomas

A Right View of the Lord’s Day

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“Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day. What a blessing it is each week for the Lord’s Day to finally come. Sometimes we come to the Lord’s Day weary. Sometimes we come feeling great. But every week we come, we come knowing our God will meet us there. We want to be fresh and energetic and well-prepared for every Sunday—it is good for us to be so—but in some ways the weeks when we are the most worn out may be those that speak most clearly to us of our condition and need as we assemble for worship. Weekly worship has been historically known as The Divine Service, because it is God’s service to us, preeminently, and not our service to him. We gather not because we have energy and gifts to bring but because we need the strength and grace he brings to us.

We come weary, but the Lord brings his fullness. We come sinful, but he comes to cleanse us. We come worried, and he comes to comfort. We come haughty, and he comes to humble us. We come discouraged, and he comes to build us up.

Whatever your week has been like, wherever you are coming from on Sunday, remember that the Lord knows your needs better than you do. He knows your weakness. He knows your emptiness apart from his grace. And he is ready, willing, and eager to meet you in worship and to minister to you there. Come to the means of grace. Come to the ministry of the Word. Come to the Table. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.”

– Pastor Joel Ellis