The Nature of Creation (Part 1)

On January 25, we began looking at the nature of creation in my Biblical Creation class. Initially, I covered the events treated in Genesis 1:1-31. After this, we began looking at the duration of each of the six days in the creation week. Initially, I covered the events treated in Genesis 1:1-31. After this, we began looking at the duration of each of the six days in the creation week.

As I have defended in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, each day of the creation week was a normal literal day. I treated two of five arguments that support the 24-hour day view: (1) the semantics of the singular use of ???day??? and (2) ???evening??? and ???morning??? as qualifiers of ???day.??? In reference to the first argument, the Hebrew word translated as ???day,??? yom is always used of a literal day when it_ appears alone as a singular noun (for an excellent treatment of 24-hour day view, see Gerhard F. Hasel’s ???The ???Days??? of Creation in Genesis 1,” Origins journal 21 [1994]: 5???38. About the second point, the qualifying expression ???evening??? and ???morning,??? used with the conclusion of each day of creation week, supports the literal day interpretation. A literal understanding of “day” is consistent with other Old Testament uses of ???evening??? and ???morning.??? Further, the general framework for each of the creation days also indicates that ???evening??? and ???morning??? are used to describe the completion of each day.

On February 8, I will finish a defense of literal creation day and then answer a number of common objections.

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Biblical Creationism, Seminary Life

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 1:59 pm and is filed under