07262015CreationInSixDaysOrSixBillionYearsDonRuhl

Creation: In Six Days or Six Billion Years? 

We gain nothing by compromising the creation account

Romans 1.20

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 26, In the year of our Lord, 2015

Prelude: 

  1. We reverence both the Bible and science. 
    1. Yet, the record of the creation of the universe in six days
    2. conflicts the story of atheistic cosmologists who say it took billions of years.
      1. Wanting to believe in both,
      2. some people have attempted a compromise between the two.
        1. Interestingly, staunch evolutionists fight this compromise
        2. as much as any diehard creationist.
  2. Did the Lord leave the door open to compromise 
    1. when He used the Holy Spirit to write the Bible?
    2. Or did He make Himself clear on what He did?

Persuasion: 

  1. The Day-Age Theory 
    1. “Day” can be used metaphorically
      1. Daylight
      2. 24-hour day
      3. Period in history—back in the day
      4. Event—Day of Judgment
    2. The context determines!
      1. Does Gen 1 define?

        5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day (Gen 1.5).
      2. How else can we understand this, other than days as we know them?
    3. What happens when we come to Gen 1.14–19?

      14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day (Gen 1.14–19).

      1. If the days are millions or billions of years, what are the years?
      2. If “day” is an age, what is “night”?
    4. If the days are ages,
      1. what do we do about plants created on day 3, but
      2. the sun appears on day 4?
        1. If a day was an age,
        2. I think plants would have had trouble making food.
    5. What about 2Pe 3.8?

      8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day (2Pe 3.8).

      1. Did Peter say, “A day is a thousand years”?
      2. Or did he say, “A day is as a thousand years” and vice versa, by the way?
        1. The context
        2. Moreover, if day is a thousand years,
          1. it is a thousand years,
          2. not a million or a billion!
      3. Assume 1 = 1,000 years
        1. How does that help?
        2. Would teach creation in 6,000 years!
    6. If in Genesis 1,
      1. God wanted us to get the idea
      2. that creation happened in 24-hour days,
        1. how else would He have said it,
        2. other than the way that He said it?
  2. Age of the Earth 
    1. Jesus to us = 2,000 years
    2. Jesus to Abraham = 2,000 years
    3. Luke 3 = Abraham to Adam — 20 generations
      1. Gen 5 and 11 ages of men and their ages when sons were born
      2. Jude 14 = Enoch 7th from Adam
        1. Leaves 13 generations for gaps.
        2. Have to insert 308,000 years between each gap.
          1. Why precision on other generations, but
          2. not with these 13?
    4. The Sabbath

      8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exo 20.8–11).
  3. NT Evidence 
    1. The Lord’s testimony,

      6 “But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female’” (Mark 10.6).

      1. If man is only 4 million years old on a 4.5 billion year planet,
      2. is he a new-comer or a late-comer?
    2. Paul’s testimony,

      20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse… (Rom 1.20).

Exhortation: 

  1. Why not just believe the words of the One who created all things? 
    1. You want proof?
    2. What proof do you have of the Big Bang?
      1. Does not every effect have a cause?
      2. What caused the alleged Big Bang?
  2. Evolutionists will change their declarations. 
    1. The Scriptures remain the same.
    2. Therefore, do not compromise.
      1. Will you keep compromising to accommodate new “discoveries”?
      2. Jesus as Lord never changes.