Category Archives: Genesis

Could God Have Used Evolution?

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Ken Ham in a facebook post October 27, 2023 writes:

Could God have used evolution? Well, first of all, it’s not a matter of what God could have done but what he said he did. Secondly, if a Christian truly understands evolution and its processes of death, disease, and violence over millions of years, and understands the attributes of a holy God, then, no—God couldn’t have used evolution to create life. To do so would be against his own character.

Many Christians today claim that millions of years of earth history fit with the Bible and that God could have used evolutionary processes to create. This idea is not a recent invention. For over 200 years, many theologians have attempted such harmonizations in response to the work of people like Charles Darwin and Scottish geologist Charles Lyell before him, who helped popularize the idea of millions of years of earth history and slow geological processes.

When we consider the possibility that God used evolutionary processes to create over millions of years, we are faced with serious consequences: the Word of God is no longer authoritative, and the character of our loving God is questioned.

Already in Darwin’s day, one of the leading evolutionists saw the compromise involved in claiming that God used evolution, and his insightful comments are worth reading again. Once you accept evolution and its implications about history, then man becomes free to pick and choose which parts of the Bible he wants to accept.

The leading humanist of Darwin’s day, Thomas Huxley (1825–1895), eloquently pointed out the inconsistencies of reinterpreting Scripture to fit with popular scientific thinking. Huxley, an ardent evolutionary humanist, was known as “Darwin’s bulldog,” as he did more to popularize Darwin’s ideas than Darwin himself. Huxley understood Christianity much more clearly than did compromising theologians who tried to add evolution and millions of years to the Bible. He used their compromise against them to help his cause in undermining Christianity.

In his essay “Lights of the Church and Science,” Huxley stated,

“I am fairly at a loss to comprehend how anyone, for a moment, can doubt that Christian theology must stand or fall with the historical trustworthiness of the Jewish Scriptures. The very conception of the Messiah, or Christ, is inextricably interwoven with Jewish history…what about the authority of the writers of the books of the New Testament, who, on this theory, have not merely accepted flimsy fictions for solid truths, but have built the very foundations of Christian dogma upon legendary quicksands?”

Huxley made the point that if we are to believe the New Testament doctrines, we must believe the historical account of Genesis as historical truth.

Huxley was definitely out to destroy the truth of the biblical record. When people rejected the Bible, he was happy. But when they tried to harmonize evolutionary ideas with the Bible and reinterpret it, he vigorously attacked this position. He stated:

“I confess I soon lose my way when I try to follow those who walk delicately among ‘types’ and allegories. A certain passion for clearness forces me to ask, bluntly, whether the writer means to say that Jesus did not believe the stories in question or that he did? When Jesus spoke, as a matter of fact, that ‘the Flood came and destroyed them all,’ did he believe that the Deluge really took place, or not? It seems to me that, as the narrative mentions Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives, there is good scriptural warranty for the statement that the antediluvians married and were given in marriage: and I should have thought that their eating and drinking might be assumed by the firmest believer in the literal truth of the story. Moreover, I venture to ask what sort of value, as an illustration of God’s methods of dealing with sin, has an account of an event that never happened? If no Flood swept the careless people away, how is the warning of more worth than the cry of ‘Wolf’ when there is no wolf?“

Huxley also quoted 1 Corinthians 15:21–22: “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”

Huxley continued, “If Adam may be held to be no more real a personage than Prometheus, and if the story of the Fall is merely an instructive ‘type,’ comparable to the profound Promethean mythos, what value has Paul’s dialectic?

Thus, concerning those who accepted the New Testament doctrines that the Apostle Paul and Christ teach but rejected Genesis as literal history, Huxley claimed “the melancholy fact remains, that the position they have taken up is hopelessly untenable.”

He was adamant that science (by which he meant evolutionary, long-age ideas about the past) had proven that one cannot intelligently accept the Genesis account of creation and the flood as historical truth. He further pointed out that various doctrines in the New Testament are dependent on the truth of these events, such as Paul’s teaching on the doctrine of sin, Christ’s teaching on the doctrine of marriage, and the warning of future judgment. Huxley mocked those who try to harmonize evolution and millions of years with the Bible, because it requires them to give up a historical Genesis while still trying to hold to the doctrines of the New Testament.

The book of Genesis teaches that death is the result of Adam’s sin (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12, 8:18–22) and that all of God’s creation was “very good” upon its completion (Genesis 1:31). All animals and humans were originally vegetarian (Genesis 1:29–30). But if we compromise on the history of Genesis by adding millions of years, we must believe that death and disease were part of the world before Adam sinned. You see, the (alleged) millions of years of earth history in the fossil record shows evidence of animals eating each other, diseases like cancer in their bones, violence, plants with thorns, and so on. All of this supposedly took place before man appears on the scene, and thus before sin (and its curse of death, disease, thorns, carnivory, and so on) entered the world.

Christians who believe in an old earth (billions of years) need to come to grips with the real nature of the god of an old earth—it is not the loving God of the Bible. Even many conservative, evangelical Christian leaders accept and actively promote a belief in millions and billions of years for the age of rocks. How could a God of love allow such horrible processes as disease, suffering, and death for millions of years as part of his “very good” creation?

The god of an old earth cannot therefore be the God of the Bible who is able to save us from sin and death. Thus, when Christians compromise with the millions of years attributed by many scientists to the fossil record, they are, in that sense, seemingly worshipping a different god—the cruel god of an old earth.

People must remember that God created a perfect world; so when they look at this present world, they are not looking at the nature of God but at the results of our sin.

The God of the Bible, the God of mercy, grace, and love, sent his one and only Son to become a man (but God nonetheless), to become our sin bearer so that we could be saved from sin and eternal separation from God. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He has made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

There’s no doubt—the god of an old earth destroys the gospel.

Now it is true that rejection of six literal days doesn’t ultimately affect one’s salvation, if one is truly born again. However, we need to stand back and look at the big picture.

In many nations, the Word of God was once widely respected and taken seriously. But once the door of compromise is unlocked, once Christian leaders concede that we shouldn’t interpret the Bible as written in Genesis, why should the world take heed of God’s Word in any area? Because the church has told the world that one can use man’s interpretation of the world, such as billions of years, to reinterpret the Bible, this Book is seen as an outdated, scientifically incorrect holy book not intended to be believed as written.

As each subsequent generation has pushed this door of compromise open farther and farther, they are increasingly not accepting the morality or salvation of the Bible either. After all, if the history in Genesis is not correct, how can one be sure the rest is correct? Jesus said, “If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).

The battle is not one of young earth vs. old earth, or billions of years vs. six days, or creation vs. evolution—the real battle is the authority of the Word of God vs. man’s fallible opinions. Is God’s Word the authority, or is man’s word the authority?

So, couldn’t God have used evolution to create? The answer is no. A belief in millions of years of evolution not only contradicts the clear teaching of Genesis and the rest of Scripture but also impugns the character of God. He told us in the book of Genesis that he created the whole universe and everything in it in six days by his word: “Then God said . . .” His Word is the evidence of how and when God created, and his Word is incredibly clear.

Compromise Positions

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An article by Ken Ham:

There are many different, what I call “compromise positions,” on Genesis such as theistic evolution, progressive creation, gap theory, day age theory, and many others. They actually all have one thing in common: trying to fit the supposed millions/billions of years into Scripture. Let’s look at one of these positions that has been fairly prevalent, progressive creation.

This position (popularized by Dr. Hugh Ross) allowed Christians to use the term “creationist” but still gave them supposed academic respectability in the eyes of the world by rejecting six literal days of creation and maintaining billions of years.

In summary, progressive creation teaches:

The big-bang origin of the universe occurred about 13–15 billion years ago.

The days of creation were overlapping periods of millions and billions of years.

Over millions of years, God created new species as others kept going extinct.

The record of nature (as interpreted by man) is just as reliable as the Word of God.

Death, bloodshed, and disease existed before Adam and Eve.

Manlike creatures that looked and behaved much like us (and painted on cave walls) existed before Adam and Eve but did not have a spirit that was made in the image of God, and thus had no hope of salvation.

The Genesis flood was a local event.

The big bang origin of the universe

Progressive creationists claim that the days of creation in Genesis chapter 1 represent long periods of time and that day three of creation week lasted more than three billion years! This assertion is made in order to allow for the billions of years that evolutionists claim are represented in the rock layers of earth. This position, however, has problems, both biblically and scientifically.

The text of Genesis 1 clearly states that God supernaturally created all that is in six actual days. If we are prepared to let the words of the text speak to us in accord with the context and their normal definitions, without influence from outside ideas, then the word for “day” in Genesis 1 obviously means an ordinary day of about 24 hours. It is qualified by a number, the phrase “evening and morning,” and for day one, the words “light and darkness.”

As their name indicates, progressive creationists believe that God progressively created species on earth over billions of years, with new species replacing extinct ones, starting with simple organisms and culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve. They accept the evolutionary order for the development of life on earth, even though this contradicts the order given in the Genesis account of creation. Evolutionary belief holds that the first life forms were marine organisms, while the Bible says that God created land plants first. Reptiles are supposed to have predated birds, while Genesis says that birds came first. Evolutionists believe that land mammals came before whales, while the Bible teaches that God created whales first.

Progressive creationists have stated that nature is “just as perfect” as the Bible and call nature the “sixty-seventh book” of the Bible.

Now God tells us in Romans 8:22 that “the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs” because of sin. And not only was the universe cursed, but man himself has been affected by the fall. So how can sinful, fallible human beings in a sin-cursed universe say that their interpretation of the evidence (nature) is as perfect as God’s written revelation? Scientific assertions must use fallible assumptions and fallen reasoning—how can this be the Word of God? It can’t.

Christians should build their thinking on the Bible, not on fallible interpretations of scientific observations about the past.

Progressive creationists believe the fossil record was formed from the millions of animals that lived and died before Adam and Eve were created. They accept the idea that there was death, bloodshed, and disease (including cancer) before sin, which goes directly against the teaching of the Bible and dishonors the character of God.

But God created a perfect world at the beginning. When he was finished, God stated that his creation was “very good.” The Bible makes it clear that man and all the animals were vegetarians before the fall (Genesis 1:29-30). Plants were given to them for food (plants do not have a nephesh [life spirit] as man and animals do and thus eating them would not constitute “death” in the biblical sense).

Concerning the entrance of sin into the world, progressive creationist Dr. Ross writes, “The groaning of creation in anticipation of release from sin has lasted fifteen billion years and affected a hundred billion trillion stars.”

The Bible,however, teaches something quite different. In the context of human death, the apostle Paul states, “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin” (Romans 5:12). It is clear that there was no sin in the world before Adam sinned, and thus no death.

Since evolutionary radiometric dating methods have dated certain humanlike fossils as older than Ross’s date for modern humans (approx. 40,000 years), he and other progressive creationists insist that these are fossils of pre-Adamic creatures that had no spirit, and thus no salvation.

Progressive creationists accept and defend evolutionary dating methods, so they must redefine all evidence of humans (descendants of Noah) if they are given evolutionary dates of more than about 40,000 years (e.g., the Neanderthal cave sites) as related to spiritless “hominids,” which the Bible does not mention. However, these same methods have been used to “date” the Australian Aborigines back at least 60,000 years (some have claimed much older) and fossils of “anatomically modern humans” to over 100,000 years. By Ross’s reasoning, none of these (including the Australian Aborigines) could be descendants of Adam and Eve and so wouldn’t have souls. However, Acts 17:26 says, “And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings”. All people who have lived on earth are descendants of Adam.

In addition, the fossil record cannot, by its very nature, conclusively reveal if a creature had a spirit or not, since spirits are not fossilized. But there is clear evidence that creatures, which progressive creationists place before Adam, had art and clever technology and that they buried their dead in a way that many of Adam’s descendants did. They were fully human and actually descendants of Adam, and they lived only a few thousand years ago.

Progressive creationists will say they believe in a “universal” or “worldwide” flood, but in reality they do not believe that the flood covered the whole earth. They believe in a local flood. They argue that the text of Genesis 7 doesn’t really say that the flood covered the whole earth. But read it for yourself and you will find the language overwhelmingly speaks of a flood covering the entire earth and everything on it.

Now it is true that whether one believes in six literal days does not ultimately affect one’s salvation, if one is truly born again. However, we need to stand back and look at the “big picture.” In many nations, the Word of God was once widely respected and taken seriously. But once the door of compromise is unlocked and Christian leaders concede that we shouldn’t take the Bible as written in Genesis, why should the world take heed of it in any area? Because the Church has told the world that one can use man’s interpretation of the world (such as billions of years) to reinterpret the Bible, it is seen as an outdated, scientifically incorrect “holy book,” not intended to be taken seriously.

Beware of compromise positions that attempt to fit man’s evolutionary/millions of years beliefs into the Bible.

Who Do You Trust? Who Should You Trust?

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Ken Ham (in a facebook post) writes:

Who should you trust first? God or the scientist? God or the theologian? God or the Christian academic?

Many times over the years, I’ve had a number of conversations with Christians who won’t accept the days of creation as ordinary days and vehemently defend millions of years and other evolutionary beliefs. Often, the person talking to me has quoted various Christian academics, well-known theologians/Christian leaders, or certain church fathers claiming that I should give up my position on a historical Genesis because these academics/famous Christians do not agree with me.

My answer to them has been, “But what does God clearly state in his Word? I judge the people you quoted against God’s Word, not the other way round.”

I have certainly been scoffed at and mocked at over the years because of my position. Now don’t get me wrong. I respect scholarship. But regardless, we need to recognize that we could have 100 PhDs from Harvard university, but compared to what God knows we would still know nearly nothing.

When I teach children about dinosaurs, creation, and evolution, I like to ask them these questions:

•“Has any human being always been there?” They answer, “No.”

•“Has any scientist always been there?” They answer, “No.”

•“Does any human being know everything?” They answer, “No.”

•“Does any scientist know everything?” They answer, “No.”

•“Who is the only one who has always been there?” They shout out, “God.”

•“Who is the only one who knows everything?” The shout out, “God.”

I then ask:

“Who is the one we should always trust first? God or the scientist?” They call out, “God.”

And I could add, “Who should we always trust first: God, the scientist, the theologian, the teacher, the pastor, the professor?” And the answer will always be God.

In a way that sounds rather simplistic. In fact, I’ve had people who oppose my position claim that I have too simplistic a belief to just take Genesis 1-11 as it is written. Now when someone claims it’s too simplistic, I believe this is showing up a problem we all have to battle with because it’s a part of our nature, the sin nature we have, because we are descendants of Adam. The problem is pride.

God’s Word has a lot to say about pride:

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom”(Proverbs 11:2).

“Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).

And God’s Word tells how to gain wisdom and knowledge:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7).

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

I would rather stand before the Lord and say that I’m guilty of simplistically believing what his Word states in Genesis than to trust the word of fallible humans and reinterpret God’s Word.

I’m reminded about this so-called “simplistic” approach when I read what Jesus said about children:

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3–4).

It is so much easier for children who have not had years of indoctrination from the world to believe God’s Word as written. Reading Genesis for them is just like reading a history book. Well, it is history, and history as God had it recorded for us. Sadly, the more educated people become, many find it harder to believe God’s Word as written in Genesis. And it’s not because Genesis is literal history, but I believe it’s because of pride.

And a reason for that is we all have an underlying problem.

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all have sinful hearts.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

The origin of sin is found in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil to disobey God. Now consider two elements of the temptation that help us understand our sin nature:

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say . . .” (Genesis 3:1).

Note the first attack by the devil was on the Word of God to get Adam and Eve to doubt God’s Word so that doubt would lead to unbelief.

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).

The second part of the temptation was really to offer them to be their own god.

We know Adam took the fruit and disobeyed God and brought sin and the judgment of death into the world. God’s Word states:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:12–14).

So we have that sin nature. And Genesis 3:1 and 3:5 sum up that nature.

Our propensity will be to doubt the Word of God, as we would rather trust the word of man. I see that over and over again with Christian leaders/academics who would rather trust man’s word (beliefs) about millions of years and evolution instead of God’s Word as it’s clearly stated in Genesis 1-11.

Also, we have this propensity to be our own god. We want to decide truth for ourselves. We see ourselves as being proud of what we know. We think we can reason correctly by ourselves, so we have that problem of intellectual pride wanting intellectual respectability.

I believe this is why there is so much compromise in the church when it comes to God’s Word in Genesis. Our heart is such that we would rather trust man’s word than God’s Word, so we have a problem with intellectual pride and thus we cave to peer pressure. We must guard against this. However, none of us like being called anti-intellectual or anti-academic. And we will be called that if we believe in six literal days of creation and a young earth and universe.

But I often think about those in Hebrews 11 and the Christian martyrs of the past. They were sawn in half, thrown to lions, burned alive, lived in caves, were destitute and suffered many atrocities. And yet, so many Christians today cave because they are belittled by secular academics for believing the “simplistic” account of creation, the fall, the flood, and Tower of Babel as related in Scripture.

I wonder how many in the church today would have stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Would you? Who do you trust first: God or the scientist?

“‘Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?’

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up’” (Daniel 3:15–18).

All “Very Good”?

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Ken Ham:

Does God call cancer “very good?”

Does God call arthritis “very good?”

Does God call abscesses “very good?”

Does God call tumors “very good?”

Did thorns exist before the fall?

Did animals eat other animals before the fall?

For those Christians who believe in millions of years, then the answers to the above questions are “Yes” to all!

Before I explain this, we first of all need to understand how we should define the word “good.” Let’s consider this passage:

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone’” (Mark 10:17–18).

Only God is “good.” This means the attributes of God define what the word “good” means.

From reading through the Scriptures, we learn God is infinite, self-existing, never changes, has no needs, all knowing, all powerful, all loving, everywhere, infinitely wise, unchangingly kind, full of good will, perfect in all he does, compassionate and merciful, perfect in all his ways, infinitely beautiful.

So when God defines anything as “very good,” then it must be exceedingly good. It must mean perfect and beautiful.

In Genesis 1:31 we read, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Now “everything that he had made” includes everything created over the six days in Genesis 1. And as we read in Exodus 20:11, “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.”

God’s Word makes it clear that everything God created, from the earth, to the plants, stars, animals, and man were all “very good.” They were perfect at the beginning.

Here’s an insurmountable problem for those Christians who believe the fossil record was laid down over millions of years before man.

First, the belief in millions of years came out of naturalism, the religion of atheism. Atheists postulated that fossil layers were laid down over millions of years by natural processes (no supernatural involved), capturing evidence of life as it supposedly evolved.

Secondly, in the fossil record there are many instances documented of disease like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses in the remains of various creatures. So, if a Christian believes in millions of years, then such diseases existed over millions of years before man existed. Now the Bible tells us as I quoted above that after God made everything including man, he said everything he made was “very good.” Thus, those Christians who believe in millions of years have to admit that this would mean God calls diseases like cancer, tumors, arthritis, and abscesses as “very good.”

There is no way God calls diseases “very good.” Death and disease exist in this fallen world because of sin. Death is described as an “enemy” in 1 Corinthians 15:26. Death is an intrusion! That’s why one day it will be thrown into the lake of fire. Romans 8:22 tells us the whole creation is groaning because of sin. To accuse God of saying diseases like cancer are “very good” and to accuse God of using death as part of the process of creating life, is to attack the very character of God.

Those Christians who believe in millions of years also therefore can’t get around that this means when we look at this world of death, suffering and disease, then God must be responsible for this. But the Bible makes it clear our sin is responsible of this groaning creation. That’s why Jesus came to die on a cross because death was the penalty for sin.

Thirdly, those who believe in millions of years have to then answer the question, “what did sin do to the world?” If all that death, suffering and disease existed before man sinned, then what did sin do? Apparently nothing that we observe in this groaning world is because of sin!!!!

Fourthly, there are two more items.

1. The Scripture teaches plainly that thorns came after the curse because of man’s sin:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;”(Genesis 3:17–18)

But there are many examples of fossil thorns supposedly formed millions of years ago!

No, you can’t have thorns millions of years before man.

2. The Scripture teaches plainly that animals were vegetarian before the fall.

“And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”(Genesis 1:30).

But there are many examples of animals having eaten other animals or in the midst of eating another creature in the fossil record supposedly millions of years before man and before man sinned.

No, you can’t have animals eating each other before the fall.

Christians who compromise God’s Word and undermine its authority with the belief in millions of years need to give it up and take God at his Word.

The Genesis Foundation

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Ken Ham writes:

The meaning of anything depends on its origin. And did you know that the book of Genesis gives us an account of the origin of all the basic entities of life and the universe? Let’s start listing them:

•The origin of space, matter, and time.

•The origin of the earth.

•The origin of water.

•The origin of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.

•The origin of light.

•The origin of plants.

•The origin of the sun, moon, and stars.

•The origin of the universe and solar system.

•The origin of land animals, flying creatures, and aquatic creatures.

•The origin of man.

•The origin of man’s dominion over the creation.

•The origin of why man has to work hard.

•The origin of woman.

•The origin of marriage.

•The origin of the family.

•The origin of evil.

•The origin of sin.

•The origin of death.

•The origin of clothing.

•The origin of man’s need for a Savior.

•The origin of the sacrificial system.

•The origin of thorns.

•The origin of languages.

•The origin of government.

•The origin of culture.

•The origin of people groups.

•The origin of nations.

•The origin of the chosen people.

Genesis is a very important book, as it provides the foundational knowledge for the rest of the Bible, for our Christian worldview, for all doctrine, and, in fact, for everything.

Let’s consider marriage. God created marriage when he created the first man and woman:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Genesis 2:24–25).

Marriage was not invented by judges or government leaders.

When Jesus as the Godman was asked about marriage, he responded this way:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4–6).

Jesus actually quoted the text of Genesis 1:27 (“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”) and Genesis 2:24 in giving the foundation for marriage. Marriage is between one man (male) and one woman (female). Yes, there are only two genders.

To understand the meaning of marriage, we need to understand its origin. Sadly, many Christian leaders who compromised Genesis with evolution and millions of years haven’t taught this foundational history to coming generations. If people don’t have the foundation in Genesis concerning the origin of marriage, one can understand how they might be easily influenced by the LGBTQ worldview, which is sadly happening to many young people, even from the church.

Satan knows if he can cause people to reject the literal history of Genesis, then the foundation of the whole Bible, of all doctrine, of the Christian worldview and, in fact, everything is undermined. That’s why in our day, Genesis has been so attacked. Christians must stand against those who compromise Genesis.

Even many conservative church leaders have been so intimidated by secular scientists and compromising Christian academics that they have not taught Genesis as literal history. As a result, biblical illiteracy permeates the church. Many don’t really understand Christianity as they should and can’t explain what Christians really believe and how to defend the Christian faith.

How can a Christian explain the gospel without teaching where man came from, why we are accountable to God, what sin is, why we die, why we needed a Savior, and why Christ died and rose again, without the foundational history in Genesis?

The Apostle Paul quotes or refers to Genesis many times when explaining the gospel message:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

“Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:45–49).

Paul goes back to Genesis in discussing the doctrine of marriage and the church:

“’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:31–33).

The above is just a tiny glimpse of why Genesis is so important and why it is vital that Christians take it as written—as literal history. No wonder Jesus said:

“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45–47).

Noah’s Flood – Global or Local

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Ken Ham writes:

Was Noah’s flood a global or local event?

To be consistent, those Christians who believe in millions of years really have to make Noah’s flood just a local event. In fact, many have done so over the years. Let me explain why.

The idea of millions of years primarily came out of the atheism/deism of the 1800s. Secularists, in attempting to explain the fossil record by natural processes, promoted the (false) idea that the rock layers, filled with fossils, were laid down slowly over millions of years before man supposedly evolved.

Now, there are billions of dead things buried in rock layers, laid down by water all over the earth.

For those Christians who have accepted the belief in millions of years and attempted to add that into the Genesis account of origins, they have a major problem.

“The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days” (Genesis 7:17–24).

You can’t read that passage in a straightforward way and come to any other conclusion than this was a global flood covering the highest mountains over all of the earth.

What do those who accept the millions of years do then with the account of the flood of Noah’s day? If you accept the millions of years for the formation of the massive fossil record all over the earth, the question becomes, “What did Noah’s flood do?”

If it really was a global, catastrophic event as the Bible clearly describes, it would have eroded those layers and the fossils and redeposited the sediment. In other words, it would have destroyed the fossil record. That’s why some Christians claimed it must have been a “tranquil” flood. But I’ve never seen a tranquil flood! Floods of any size do catastrophic damage. Others claim it must have been a local flood. But the description given in Genesis chapter 7 does not describe a local flood at all. It was a catastrophic global flood.

Also, the description in Genesis makes it clear that all land-dwelling, air-breathing animals that weren’t on the ark died and only eight people survived the flood. No other people survived as it was a global event. Even in the New Testament we read confirmation that only eight people survived the Flood:

“Because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water” (1 Peter 3:20).

Now, the fossil record is not just one of death (the remains of billions of creatures), but also a record of disease as there are many instances where evidence of diseases like cancer are found in fossil bones.

For the Christian looking at the fossil record, how could one accept billions of dead things with evidence of diseases like cancer, tumors, arthritis, etc., millions of years before man when the Bible makes it clear that after man was created, God described everything he made as “very good”? Accepting millions of years is blaming God for death and disease and calling cancer “very good.”

But the Bible states death is an “enemy.”

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Death will one day be thrown into the lake of fire: “Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14).

Death is an intrusion because of sin. Death did not exist before sin. Those who believe in millions of years are blaming God of death instead of blaming our sin.

And the Bible makes it clear that the world of death and disease we live in is one that’s groaning because of our sin, “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22).

It is actually a serious thing for Christians to accept millions of years, which is all part of the pagan religion of naturalism where people try to explain this world without God. Of course, evolutionists need millions of years, as in a way time is their god, as they have to have millions of years to try to propose an impossible process—evolution. Without time, they can’t propose their evolutionary ideas.

Noah’s flood was not a tranquil flood. Noah’s flood was not a local event. Noah’s flood was a catastrophic event sent to judge a wicked world.

“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

If there was such a flood, we would find billions of dead things buried in rock layers laid down by water all over the earth. And that’s exactly what you find.

Also, consider the covenant of the rainbow! After the flood, God made a promise:

“And God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh’” (Genesis 9:12–15).

We’ve had lots of local floods since, so did God break his promise? NO! Noah’s flood wasn’t a local event—it was a global cataclysmic event.

The fossil record is not the graveyard of millions of years of slow processes recording the supposed evolution of life.

NO!

Most of the fossil record is the graveyard of the flood that occurred about 4,300 years ago.

And just as surely as God judged the wickedness of man with a global flood, he is going to judge this earth again but by fire next time. And this will be a global event, not a local one. In fact, he will judge the whole universe with fire and make a new heavens and earth.

***

“Scoffers and the last days”

Yes, we are in the last days. But how “last” are we? We don’t know. We just know every day is more last than the day before. We’ve been in the last days for nearly 2,000 years, ever since the life and earthly ministry of Jesus as the Godman. When Jesus’ earthly ministry was completed, we read:

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven’” (Acts 1:9–11).

Jesus left earth for heaven and said he would return. We’ve been waiting for that return for about 2,000 years.

In 2 Peter 3, we read about scoffers in the last days who scoff at the idea Jesus will return, as they say, “For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). They claim things have just gone on and on, and so Jesus can’t be returning as it’s been such a long time. But we’re told in this passage that to God, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. God is outside of time and 2,000 years is not a long time for God as he is not bound by time. And we’re given the reason why Jesus is patient and has not returned it:

“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).

Now consider what is told to us about these scoffers in the last days.

These scoffers, as per 2 Peter 3:4, believe that things have just gone on and on for a long time.

They will reject creation:

“For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,” (2 Peter 3:5).

They not only reject God created the earth, but that the earth was created covered with water as it states in Genesis 1.

Then they will reject the flood of Noah’s day:

“and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Peter 3:6).

And they will reject the coming judgment by fire:

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Peter 3:10).

Let’s apply this to the scoffers today:

They believe things on this earth have gone on for millions and millions of years. They believe life and the universe evolved over millions of years by chance random processes.

They reject that God created the earth and believe it came about by a supposed big bang.

They reject that the earth was covered by water and claim it was a hot molten blob to start with.

They reject the global flood of Noah’s day.

They reject that Jesus is going to come back and judge this earth with fire.

So scoffers down through the ages, just as scoffers in our day, reject God’s Word! And why do they reject God’s Word? Because they don’t want to be accountable to God. If God created them (and he did), then God owns them and God has a right to set the rules and determine what’s right and wrong. Then marriage is one man and one woman, there are only two genders of humans (male and female), the rightful place for sex is within marriage only, abortion is murdering a human being, and so on, as God’s Word instructs clearly.

God’s Word tells us that man is a sinner, and his sin nature is that he would rather believe man’s word (e.g., millions of years of evolution) than God’s Word in Genesis about creation, the fall, and the flood.

God’s Word here in 2 Peter 3:5 tells us these scoffers will “deliberately overlook” the truth of creation, the flood, and coming judgement by fire. Some translations state they are “willingly ignorant.”

These scoffers will reject the obvious evidence for creation and the flood, which is exactly what we see happening today. It’s so obvious life had to be created when one looks at DNA, the most complex information and language system in the universe—that could never arise by chance. It’s so obvious there was a global flood as we find billions of dead things (fossils) buried in the rock layers laid down by water all over the earth.

Don’t be led astray by scoffers—believe God’s Word.

***

Is the account of the creation of the male and female humans in Genesis 1:27 referring to the same humans created in Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 2:21, 22?

The simple answer is yes. Let me explain.

Genesis chapter 1 is an overview of creation in chronological order. God explains in summary what he did on each of the six days of creation. On day six, he created the land-dwelling, air-breathing animals and the first two humans:

“And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds . . .’

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’” (Genesis 1:24–27).

Now, Genesis 2 focuses upon the creation of man specifically and gives specific details of how God made the first human man and first human woman (Adam and Eve).

We learn in Genesis 2:7, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

By the way, this first man could not have evolved from some ape-like creature as some claim because:

1. He was made from directly from dust, not from a previously existing creature. And the “dust” can’t be symbolic of an animal because God said this man would return to “dust” when he dies (Genesis 3:19) because of sin. Humans don’t return to some creature like an ape-man when they die.

2. The first man did not become a “living creature” until God breathed into him. He could not have come from an already existing living creature.

Now in Genesis 2:21-22, we read how God created the first woman:

“So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.”

The first woman could not have evolved from an ape-woman as this account makes it clear that God created this woman from the first man’s rib:

1. That’s why the first recorded words of the first man Adam were: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:23).

2. God, through the apostle Paul, states: “For as woman was made from man” (1 Corinthians 11:12).

After the details of the creation of the man and woman in Genesis 2, we read in Genesis 2:24:

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

This is the creation of marriage. It’s a reminder that God created marriage, not the US Supreme Court Justices or the president of the USA. Marriage is a God-ordained institution, and there’s only one marriage—the one God created—which consists of one male and one female (one man and one woman). This also means there is no such thing as gay “marriage.” People can call it gay union or whatever they want, but it’s not marriage.

Note that the devil takes what God has created and turns it around to pervert it. We see that happening with marriage. And it’s also interesting that in gay “marriage” they want to have two people. Why two? Well, two comes from the Bible because God created the first marriage to be one man and one woman—only two.

But as people abandon true marriage and God’s created purpose for marriage, we will see all sorts of perversion as moral relativism permeates the culture. For instance, now we see increasing polyamory where there’s any number of any sort of relationship with multiple men and women.

And really, when people abandon the basis of marriage in Scripture, why shouldn’t people then define marriage anyway they want? Why not polygamy, polyamory, or any combination that someone determines? After all, without an absolute authority, anything goes.

Now, when we jump over to the New Testament to Matthew 19 where Jesus is asked about marriage, note carefully his answer:

“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4–5).

Jesus is referring back to the history in Genesis as the foundation for marriage. In fact, every single biblical doctrine of theology is ultimately founded in Genesis chapters 1–11. Jesus is referring to the text of Genesis 1:27 where he made male and female and the text of Genesis 2:24 the creation of marriage referring to one flesh as the woman as made from the man. This is also recorded in Mark 10.

In other words, Jesus is referring to the same one man and one woman as recorded in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24. Jesus obviously quoted the text in Genesis 1 and 2 as complementary accounts—not different accounts.

It’s amazing how many Christians including pastors and Christian college professors who think Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are contradictory accounts of creation. No, they are complementary accounts with Genesis 1 serving as a summary in chronological order, and Genesis 2 focusing in on the details of how God created the first man and woman. This then sets the stage for the fall of man in Genesis 3.

Isn’t it amazing how so many Christians and Christian leaders will question just about every aspect of Genesis 1–11, but don’t do this with most of the rest of Scripture? The devil knows that Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything and so he will do whatever he can to get the church to reject or question the history in Genesis 1–11. This has been one of the greatest attacks on God’s Word in our time and, sadly, many Christians have succumbed to this attack.

Understanding “A Day is Like a Thousand Years”

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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.

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.