Transcript for: Exploring the Day-Age Theory in Creation
All right. Well here we are, Genesis
lesson number six, and this one's entitled
the Day-Age Theory. The Day-Age Theory. All right, so to keep all
this material, you know, to keep all the balls in the air, we do a little bit of
review every time we start. So in our discussions
of the act of creation, because that's what we're talking about, we've seen that there are
certain order of events that are described in Genesis, and these order of events
follow a certain chronology, and that's what I want to take a look at. First of all, the Bible
doesn't explain it, it doesn't even state it,
it takes it for granted that the very first event,
or every first thing that we learn in the book of
Genesis is that God exists, God is eternal, God has no beginning. Now, the Bible doesn't say that. You simply assume it from
beginning to read it, because it says, "in the beginning, God". So right away, you know,
the Bible doesn't defend the idea of the existence of God. Just like in some debates sometimes. You know, you have one
guy whose an atheist, and the other guy is a believer, and they'll debate the existence of God. Well, you won't find
that debate in the Bible. The Bible assumes God exists, and that's the very first
assumption from the beginning. He is all powerful,
knowledgeable, all loving. He has the ability not
only to fashion and form, He also has the ability to
create, and so the first, sentences in Genesis are going to talk about
His creative power. Next, we have God creating
the basic elements. He creates the world. He brings into existence the time, space, and matter elements. These, we have learned, are without form. No light, no energy yet,
but this is the first act, the first acts on the first day. Then something that we have to find from other sources, God creates angels. It doesn't say it here,
but we have to put it into context here, because we learn that from other places in the Bible. If you go to Job chapter
38, for example, it says, God is speaking to Job here
at the end of the book, and He says to Job: "Where were you "when I laid the foundation of the earth? "Tell me, if you have understanding, "who set its measurements? Since you know. "Or stretched the line on it? "On what were its bases sunk? "Who laid its cornerstone, "when the morning stars sang together, "and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" The morning stars, the sons of God, those are angels that
God is talking about here in the book of Job, and
if you read this passage, it says they were there when God formed the initial elements, so we
can suppose, we can deduce, that the angels were not
created after the elements, they were created before the elements. Angels are created. Their purpose, again, not
written about in Genesis, but we find in other places. In Hebrews chapter one,
verse 14, the writer says: "Are they," speaking of
angels, "are they not all "ministering spirits,
sent out to render service "for the sake of those who
will inherit salvation?" Such a tantalizing piece of information. Such a tantalizing piece of information that the Bible gives us, that angels, one of their, not the only,
but one of their tasks is to minister to the
saints in a variety of ways. Now we don't know how, exactly. That curtain isn't open all
the way, that we can see it. But the Bible does say
that angels minister. Angels ministered to Jesus, right? And we see their appearance, of course, in the Old Testament, as
they appeared to Abraham and other individuals
in the Old Testament. So, somewhere between the
creation of the basic elements, the forming of the finished
earth, angels are created. All right, so we move on. Review of the day. God finishes the elements
into the universe that we now recognize as our world. And last week we talked
about the Holy Spirit hovering above the deep. The energizing power of the Holy Spirit brings together, begins to
form, all of those things that were formless and void. And so we see this creative
process will be done in a total of six days, and we'll talk about that, the days, in a moment. Now we know that this
scenario has been rejected by atheists and agnostics, doubters, who propose that the way that
the world came to be as it is was by a system of random
selection over a period of billions of years, within a context where matter is eternal. And so atheists and others
begin with the idea, and we've talked about
this in other classes, they start with the idea that all matter, it was always there, eternal. And then through a process of selection, and so on and so forth. Random, all right, random selection, eventually what we get
is what we have today. I know I'm putting it into
the simplest of terms, but basically, that's
what they are arguing. Now the creation account
has also been altered by those who want to reconcile. I mean, some people reject it altogether. We don't believe in creation. The world came to be, you know, through the system of evolution. But there are some people,
who are believers in God, who want to reconcile
the idea of evolution with the idea of, with
the teaching on creation. And one of these theories
that has been devised in order to reconcile the
two is the Gap theory, and we talked about that last week. And the Gap theory works like this: God created the world, and
because of Satan's rebellion, the world was destroyed. The earth then stayed empty
for billions of years, and this is the Gap theory
that they're talking about. And that is when all these fossils, and all of these dead
animals, and all of this. The geological
evidence that they claim to have. They say, well that all
happened right there, during the gap between
Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, they claim there's this billion year gap, where the process of evolution took place. And then, of course, Genesis 2. Then God recreated the
world in the way that it is, and in that way, they think
they're going to merge both the idea of evolution and creation. Now the problem here is that, if God destroyed the world, there would be a record of it in the geological
table, and there isn't. Not in the one that they're talking about. Also, this would mean that
there was sin in the world, in the physical world, before Adam. But the Bible says that
sin came through Adam. And so, dead things
representing the fossil record, point to death and sin, and we know that sin is what brings
death into the world, so you make the conclusion, hmm... If there are fossils
before Adam, that means there is sin and death
in the world before Adam, and that contradicts what the Bible says, because what does the Bible say? The Bible says through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death. So the Bible clearly
states that sinfulness entered the world through Adam,
and through that sin, death came into the world and
spread throughout the world. Well, if you believe
the gap theory, it means that there was sin and death before Adam, so there's a problem there,
there's a contradiction there. Some people say well, what about the disobedience of the angels? The disobedience of the angels happened in the Heavenly realm, not
here, not here on earth, so it had no effect on
the physical universe. So that brings us to tonight. Another theory that tries
to reconcile evolution with creation is called
the Day-Age theory, and this'll be what we'll be talking about for the next few minutes. The Day-Age theory is
something like the Gap theory, in that it tries to fit evolution and creation together in one piece. The Day-Age theory says
that each day in Genesis is not a literally 24 hour
day, but rather it's an age. A geological age, to be more specific. So, in the Day-Age theory,
each day represents millions of years, where
the process of evolution, or through the process
of evolution, the world slowly became what is described
as fully mature in Genesis. And so, when the Bible says day one, well, the Day-Age people say well,
that's not really just a day, that could be millions and
millions and millions of years. And then day two, that's
another couple hundred million, and so on and so forth. That's the way that they
reconcile creation and evolution. And you know, I mean, there
was a time, in all fairness. There was a time when the
discipline of apologetics in the defense of the creation narrative in Genesis was not well-developed. We have today,
a lot of people who are very expert in
science and in Bible who really are able to
defend, to argue for the creation story that is in Genesis. But, they also understand
the science, and they're able to kind of talk the talk,
that scientists talk. I've mentioned Kim Wall, he's a member of our congregation here, but
he's done some excellent work and produced videos,
and so on and so forth, that explains creation,
and answers the arguments of those that make
arguments in scientific terms. He answers in scientific terms, because he's
well-versed in scientific terms. And so that's great, because
you've got a Christian who's defending the simple,
plain Bible teaching of creation, but he's able to talk to other individuals using their language. The point I'm making is,
that wasn't always the case. There was a time when,
you know, Christians were not well-versed in
the ability to defend the first and second chapter of Genesis, using the language of scientists. Now we do, but there was a time. So this was a... These type of theories
developed during that time. People say well, I believe
in God, and I believe the Bible is explaining correctly creation, but maybe, maybe we're not
understanding it correctly. So maybe there's a way to merge
these two things together, and that's how these theories developed. So the Day-Age theory is
one of these theories, but there's problems with this theory, when you kind of look at it. The first problem is the order
in the geological tables. The order of created events in Genesis is very different from the order found in the geological table
used by evolutionists. For example, in the geological
table used by creationists, if you wish, there are complex and there are simple organisms everywhere. Top to bottom, right? But in the Day-Age theory,
and in the Gap theory, you have to have simple
organisms at the bottom, complex organisms at the top. In other words, the further
back in history you go, the more simple organisms become. In more recent history, you have complex. That's how they explain it. But we know that that's not true, as far as the evidence is concerned. Also, like the Gap
theory, the Day-Age theory has death, and by conclusion, sin, appearing in the physical
world before Adam, and that contradicts
what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches no,
sin came through Adam. You know, it's just taking
the Bible for what it says. You know, there's one
point where we'll get here where it says that Eve was the
mother of all living, right? Eve was the mother of all living. Can that be twisted? But what does it just say? It says, well Eve is the
mother of all living. Meaning what, all living animals? Well no, all living humans. And who are the humans? Well they're the ones
created in the image of God. So that's why, and it's
only my opinion here, we can debate it later, this is why I find that looking for other life,
you know, on other planets, other human-like life on other
planets is a waste of time. Why? Because it says that Eve is
the mother of all living. But like I said, we can chew on that, we can debate it later. The other important idea here, as far as the Day-Age theory
is concerned is the grammar. The grammar in the book of
Genesis supports literal days, and not the idea of long ages, or periods. Although it is possible for the word yom, which is the Hebrew word for day, although it's possible
for that word in Hebrew to mean an indefinite time,
the context of Genesis does not permit this type interpretation. In other words, yom never means a period, although it may mean an indefinite time. For example, you can use
the word yom in the Hebrew in the phrase, "It is
the day of the judges." So that may refer to a
kind of a period of time, perhaps more that 24 hours. It's the day. Or like, "Your day will come one day." You can use it like that, where it's not necessarily
referring to Tuesday, or one 24-hour period, it's
referring to a time to come, or a time, a period of time. But you can't use it. You can't use that word in the Hebrew to refer to an eon, okay? Or a period of time of a million years. You know, that word... There are other words you can use, but you can't use that one. It usually means one day, one 24... Actually, it usually means in Hebrew, it usually refers to the
light portion of the day, even though we know a day is 24 hours. The word yom usually referring to the light portion of the day. It's never used in the
indefinite time period, unless its literal one day meaning is clearly shown not to be used. So if a person wanted to express the idea of a long geological age,
he could have done it in a much clearer and concise way. He would not have selected... The Spirit of God would not have selected the word yom for that idea. So the normal and contextual
way of interpreting Genesis 1 is to read 24-hour days. To do otherwise is to stretch
the meaning to fit the theory. A lot of people do that. They have a theory, and so
they're going to take the Bible and they're going kind of elasticize it to make sure it fits around the theory. But we know good Bible study
doesn't work like that. You have to first find out
what the words actually mean, and create your theory from that, okay? So there's no need to add meaning. It just means what it says, that's all. It just means what it says. All right, for those of you
who are anxious to move on to verse three of chapter one. [laughter] So Genesis chapter one
verses three to five. It says: "Then God said,
let there be light, "and there was light. "And God saw the light was good, and God "separated the light from the darkness. "God called the light day, and
the darkness He called night. "And there was evening and
there was morning, one day." So the next event recorded
is the creation of light. In the same way that Genesis
separates the creation of the basic elements from the final form. Remember when we talked about that? First God creates time,
space, matter, the elements. And then it says the Holy Spirit hovered, right, that vibration? Well, that was the energizing
of this matter into its form. He made something out of it. It's like you have a lump of clay, and then you begin making
something out of it. So time, space, matter was
there, and then the Holy Spirit, through the energy of the Holy Spirit, that matter was formed into something. Okay. Well, the creation of light
follows the same kind of pattern but it also reveals
something about God Himself. Take a look at that. So first of all, the elements
for light are created. When the Holy Spirit moved
over the surface of the deep, the gravitation forces were
activated, and He brought form and motion to initially
static and formless matter. Matter was just laying there,
and the Spirit energized it. Made it something. In the same way, the
electromagnetic forces were activated by the word of God, when God called light out of darkness. How does God create things? You know, does He wave His
hand? Does he smack something? He speaks it. He speaks it into existence, okay? And so I repeat, the
electromagnetic forces were activated by the word, when God called light out of darkness. So just like energy cannot produce itself, light cannot produce itself. And so the Holy Spirit
moved to energize the world, and then the word calls light, all forms of electromagnetism, to complete the energizing of the universe. So the sun, a source of light and energy, will be created later on, but for now the earth spins, and goes through a light-dark sequence provided by God. All right, so here's the revelation part. The triune nature of God is
also revealed at this point. He says He creates
man in His image, right? But He also creates,
everything in His image. So the Father is the source of
all things, of the elements. We see that. The Holy Spirit is the
energizer of all things. And the Word is the
revealer of all things. Light, okay? Don't always think of
light as candle power. We think of light as candle power, always. But in the Bible the word
light has many nuances. Sometimes light is not just candle power, how bright something is, you know. Sometimes light is understanding, of how something works,
or how something is. And so, the Father, in the same way, I'll give you a mirror image now. In the same way that
the Father is the source of our salvation, He sends
the Word, and the Word is made flesh and reveals the
Father, the plan of salvation. Jesus is the light. And the Holy Spirit energizes the Son, because it's through the Holy Spirit that the Son does the miracles,
speaks the word of God, and then ultimately is
raised from the dead. We see the triune nature of God working, you know, in our salvation. Well in the same way, we see the triune nature of God
working to create the world. From the Father comes the
original, essential elements. The Holy Spirit energizes the elements. The Son, the spoken word,
brings light, understanding, perception, depth to the creation itself. And then, we have the
day-night cycle established. Now, this has been the cycle
of life from the beginning. Light is day, when work is
done, when things are seen. Even God did not add any new
dimensions during the darkness. Did you ever think about that? God didn't create
anything in the darkness. Always the day, yom. So it was necessary to be specific here, because a lot of pagan
religions in the future would have creation histories that dealt with eons or ages, during
which the world developed. Christianity, or Judaism, every religion has a creation story, every one of them. Because, in every religion,
people ask themselves, how did we get here, where
does all this come from? And so every religion has
some form of creation story. The Shinto religion, from Japan. I mean, they believe that their country fell from the sky, from God Himself, and they believe that their leaders, or at one time believed that their leaders were the descendants of the gods. You know, everybody's got
some sort of creation story. So the Bible, in establishing clearly 24, or natural day-night boundaries,
God clearly indicates that all of what He did was done in the normal cycle of day and night. If you read some of these creation stories from other religions, I mean,
they are phantasmagorical. I mean, they're like, whoa! They do sound like myths
when you compare them to the very simple, straightforward... Some people say well,
don't you think it's hard to believe in the creation
story in the Bible? Not really. Because if God is the all-powerful God, I mean if God is really
God, then it's not a stretch to believe that God could
create, and God could do this, and, you know, God could do that. And He could do it effortlessly. In other words, simply by
speaking it into existence. And not having to take what
we consider a gazillion years. You know, we live in one a week, we live in a day-light, you know, day-night cycle. We live, we've always
lived in a day-night cycle, and so the Bible says,
and then God created, in six cycles, He
created the entire world. So yeah, no, it's not
that much of a stretch. So, God did not abolish darkness,
darkness will be abolished when the new Heavens and the new earth. When God creates the new Heavens. Do you ever realize that His work of creation is not finished yet? I mean, it was finished
for the physical universe, but the Bible also says that there will be a new Heaven, and a new earth. In other words, it's the
way of saying in the Bible, it's the way of saying a new dimension. So a new dimension will be created, and in that dimension, certain
elements will not be there. Sin will not be there, and
everything that comes with it. But also darkness will not be there. You know, the absence of light. On a metaphysical plane,
the idea that darkness won't be there means that
ignorance will not be there. We will know who God is. And He, of course,
already knows who we are. But we will also know who we are, and we will know each other. This is the essential
difference between Christianity and its concept of the afterlife,
and all other religions and their idea of the afterlife. We're the only religion,
actually, that believes that we will maintain our conscious being in a perfected state, in an
intimate relationship with God. Christianity is the only religion that has that as its Heaven, if you wish. All right, so let's summarize. First of all, God creates the
basic matter of the universe. Then He creates angels,
judges the ones who will fall. There are all kinds of
passages in the New Testament. In Jude, for example, 1
Peter, that talk about angels, and their judgment,
and how they are restricted. The evil ones. He energizes matter, to
give it form and motion. Then He creates the basis for light. In other words, the
electromagnetic spectrum. And then, He sets into
motion the day-night cycle. Now, people reject this because
it seems hard to believe that God could do it,
or that He could do it in a one day period. You know, they say how could
God do this in six days? So instead of believing that,
they would rather believe that it all took place by chance. That's like a better way to believe, that it all happened by
chance, or that God started it, and then He just let it go. You know, like the
pinball machine, you know? You just... You know, sometimes you
play the little flippers to try to move the ball, but imagine if you didn't play the flippers, you know? It's just chance, right? So some people would
rather believe that God, ping, let the ball go. Created everything,
and then just sat there for a couple of billion
human years, to watch it kind of
come together by chance. And I say to myself, really? That's how God works? Because, when we examine how God works in other parts of the Bible,
He sure doesn't work like that. He gives to Moses and to
Aaron very specific, detailed plans of how to build the
tabernacle, and how to offer worship, and very, very
detailed, very, very planned. Nothing left to chance. Okay, so we're asked
to believe that the God who acted like this
with the Jewish people, and with Christians, that God left to chance everything else? Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Genesis tells us, in
rather plain language, that this tremendous activity was all done in one day-night
cycle, and we are called to believe God's account,
not man's account. Some people ask me, well, how do you get to a point of being at peace
with a very complex idea of how the creation was
made, and so on and so forth? There's so much science involved, and I'm certainly not a
scientist, and so on and so forth. And I'll tell you how I
get to it, me personally. This is the verse that gets me to it. It's not even in the Old Testament, it's in the New Testament. It's Hebrews 11:3. The writer says: "By faith
we understand that the worlds "were prepared by the word
of God, so that what is seen "was not made out of
things which are visible." That's the New Testament.
That's the New Testament. So in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit, through the inspired
writer, is saying to me, "Michael, I'm not asking you
to understand how God did it, "I'm asking you to
believe that He did do it, "and He did it in a way
that you can't grasp. "You don't know how He
made the things that are." And you notice, it doesn't
say here He made them out of things that didn't exist. That's something out of nothing. He says it was made out of
things which are not visible. The things that are visible are made from things that are not visible. It didn't say they didn't
exist, just not visible to us. Okay? So again, it's like Acts 2:38 tells us that when we believe and repent,
we're baptized into Christ, not only are our sins
forgiven, but we receive the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit within us. All right? How does that happen? How does the Spirit live
inside of a human body? What's the... How does that work? Does He complete me from
the scalp to my toes? We have a doctor here, can He explain, where does the Spirit live inside of us? Is there a space between
the liver and the heart? We don't know. It's one of those things
where the Bible says, I'm not asking you to
understand how it's done, I'm asking you to believe that it is done, and we see the evidence of it, of course, in a spiritual and faithful life. We see the evidence of
the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, so on and so forth. But we don't quite understand how the two coexist in one form. In the same way, there are
many things we don't understand about the creation, but God
has asked us simply to believe that He has created the world,
and according to Genesis, He did it in six one-day periods. All right, that's it for now. We'll move on. Less theory, more verses next week. All right, that's good,
thank you for your attention.