By Tin-chee Lo
Science (astronomy, geology, archaeology, anthropology, cosmology, big bang theory) suggests:
- Age of Earth: 4.5 billion years
- Age of the universe: 13.7 billion years
Literal Interpretation of Genesis 1 suggests
- The day in Genesis 1 is 24-hour solar day
- It follows that the universe was created in six solar days.
How old was Adam:
- Adam was last created in God’s creation order.
- Adam was created in 4004 B.C. according to Bishop James Ussher’s calculation which is based on biblical genealogy.
- The recorded history of mankind is about five to six thousand years.
- Therefore, it is an acceptable to say that Adam appeared on earth no more than 10,000 years ago.
- Christians and non-Christians generally agree without controversies that modern-man history is around 10,000 years.
What is human?
- Christians believe that Adam was the first human, because he was the first creature possessing the breath of life (soul-ness) from God. Hence, Adam was mankind’s first ancestor.
- Evolutionists believe that some monkey-like men of antiquity (millions of years ago based on fossil record) were the ancestors of man. So, the difference between thousands of years and millions of years of human ages stem from “the definition of man”.
The age of our universe
- Scientists believe that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old (as already mentioned above).
- Biblical literalists insist that the age of the universe equals to ten-thousand years (age of the last created Adam) plus his preceding five 24-hour days.
- Such a gargantuan time difference not only makes the accuracy of scientific dating irrelevant, and also begs the question: “who is right?”
The “inerrancy” of the Bible vs. “the interpretation” of the Bible
- Christians are expected to believe that the Bible is infallible (cannot make mistake) and inerrant (makes no mistake) as our first-principle.
- Biblical literalists insist that they are faithful to the Bible; this is a commendable attitude.
- In light of such gigantic difference regarding the age of the universe, literalists must examine whether they think they are faithful to the divine Bible—or–they actually are faithful to their “human interpretation” of the Bible. Such distinction must be made with open-mindedness.
- Divine Bible (refers to the very original) is absolutely inerrant, human interpretations of the Bible are not infallible and have been historically confirmed.
- To say <a “day” is 24 hour> in Genesis 1 is an “interpretation” but not a full interpretation. The Hebrew word for day is yom, it does not strictly translate into the literal twenty-four-hour day. Within the context of the first two chapters of Genesis we find the word yom used in three different ways.
- A solar day (1:14) – 24 hours
- Daylight as opposed to night (1:5,14,16) – 12 hours
- The entire creative period (2:4) – a stage, a phase.
To insist on <a “day” equals to 24 hour> exclusively is not faithful to the Bible.
How long was the time between the creation of Adam and the creation of Eve?
(Gn. 1:27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Literal interpretation of Chapter 1:27 yields this statement: “Adam and Eve were created in the last hours of the sixth 24-hour day.” Does it make sense? Let us examine the text further:
After Adam was created in the sixth day, he did many great things. Neither one of them can be accomplished in a single 24-hour day.
- Keep up the garden; diligently cultivate the land (1:28)
- Classify and give names to every living creature (2:19)
- Feel the need of a helper as a gardener, and feel the sense of loneliness as a single man (2:20)
Psychological feelings cannot be developed in few hours. Adam was without sin but he was still a human being, so he had psychological needs that took time (much more than 24 hours) to discover as part of his human nature. When God saw the time is ripe (2:20), He took a rib from Adam’s side and create a woman for him as wife (Gn. 2:21-23). So, it is safe to conclude that Eve could not have been created in less than 24-hours after Adam was created as literalist suggested in Genesis 1:27. It follows that the Sixth Creation Day cannot be a 24-hours day but an unspecified long period of time.
If one insists that the “Sixth Creation Day” must be 24 hours, the Bible and science cannot be reconciled.
What are God’s Teachings in Genesis Chapter 1 which is less than a thousand words.
The first chapter of Genesis provides a framework of Creation not the details and certainly not the speed of creation. What God wants us to know are the following key points:
- God is the sole Creator of the universe (1:1)
- The universe had a beginning: “In the beginning…” (1:1)
- God’s creation is “from nothing (Ex nihilo)”
- He created all things with His Word: “And God said”
- Genesis 1’s focus is not about the speed of creation
- Genesis 1 states that there were six stages of creation. This is the methodical and systematic way, expressed by the word “yom”. Therefore, it is more reasonable for “day” to refer to “stage”.
