Six Literal Days, No Room for Doubt
In an age riddled with compromise and intellectual gymnastics, the very bedrock of Christian faith—the Genesis account of Creation—is under relentless assault, often from within the Church itself. Modern interpretations that attempt to reconcile the infallible Word of God with fallible human theories like evolution or “deep time” are not merely theological missteps; they are a dangerous erosion of biblical authority, leading inevitably to doubt in other core doctrines.
The Unwavering Testimony of Scripture
The Bible’s account of creation is clear, unequivocal, and devoid of ambiguity. Genesis chapter 1 presents a straightforward narrative: God created the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them, in six literal, 24-hour days. The repeated phrase, “the evening and the morning were the [first/second/etc.] day,” leaves no room for allegorical interpretation or eons of time. The Hebrew word “yom,” translated as “day,” when used with an ordinal number (first, second, third) and the “evening and morning” construct, always denotes a normal, solar day in Scripture. To suggest otherwise is to impose external philosophies onto the sacred text rather than allowing the text to speak for itself.
“For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” — Exodus 20:11
This passage, part of the Ten Commandments given directly by God, unequivocally links the Sabbath to a literal six-day creation week. There is no exegetical escape from this divine declaration.
The Slippery Slope of Compromise
When we surrender the literal interpretation of Genesis 1, we open a Pandora’s Box of theological compromise. If God did not mean what He said about the days of creation, then where else do we begin to doubt His Word?
- The Nature of God: If God used millions of years of death, disease, and suffering (as evolution posits) to “create,” then His character as a perfectly good, loving, and omnipotent Creator is severely undermined.
- The Origin of Sin and Death: A literal six-day creation firmly places death as a consequence of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12). If millions of years of death preceded Adam, then the Gospel message itself—that Christ conquered sin and death—loses its logical and historical foundation.
- The Authority of Christ: Jesus Himself affirmed a literal, recent creation, referencing Adam and Eve as being “at the beginning of the creation” (Mark 10:6), not billions of years later. To deny a literal Genesis is to implicitly question the veracity of Christ’s own words.
A Stern Rebuke to Intellectual Arrogance
We must stand firm against the intellectual arrogance of those who place human scientific theories above the revealed Word of God. The “science” of today often becomes the discarded theory of tomorrow, but “the word of our God shall stand for ever” (Isaiah 40:8). It is a dangerous folly to interpret the infallible by the fallible.
We do not need to “help” God’s Word fit into man’s theories. We need to believe it, preach it, and defend it without apology or compromise. The battle for the literal six-day creation is not a peripheral issue; it is a battle for the very authority and trustworthiness of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Let us be unwavering in our conviction that God meant precisely what He said when He declared the universe into existence in six literal days.