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the phrase “evening and morning,” when “evening”

is coupled with the word “day,” when “morning”

is connected with “day,” and when “night” is used

with “day.”

Because so many Christians say we don’t know what

the days of creation were, it must be pretty hard to work

out what the word “day” means in Genesis 1. Let’s see

how hard.

§

§

First day: evening, morning, number, day.

§

§

Second day: evening, morning, number, day.

§

§

Third day: evening, morning, number, day.

In Genesis 1, the word “day” is qualified by evening,

by morning, and by number.

WHY GO BEYOND THE BIBLE?

In 40 years of ministry all over America and the

world, as I’ve spoken to Christian leaders, theologians,

Christian academics, pastors, and people in the

churches, I’ve never found an example where people

question the days in creation, except they’re influenced

by the idea of millions of years. In other words, it’s

not because of what Scripture says, it’s because they’re

influenced by something outside of Scripture. You’ve

just unlocked a door where you don’t have to take God’s

Word as written. You’ve just said, “Did God really say?”

The idea of millions of years came out of naturalism

— we need to explain all this without God. And you

knowwhat happened in history? Many of our Christian

leaders said, “What are we going to do with millions of

years? We’ll have to fit them between Genesis 1:1 and

1:2, or fit them in the days.” And so in the church there

are ideas like the Day-Age Theory, Theistic Evolution,

Gap Theory, and the Big Bang Theory. Why would

you want to adopt something to explain processes by

naturalism and add that into the Bible? Because you’re

trying to fit millions of years into the Bible.

There’s a difference between knowledge you gain by

using your five senses that can build our technology —

and I call that experimental or observational science

— or beliefs about the past when you weren’t there

concerning origins. When our Christian leaders are

saying things like, “Because of science we can’t believe

in six literal days,” what they’re really saying is, “Because

of man’s beliefs about origins.”

WHAT’S THE FALLOUT?

We’ve raised up generations in our churches to

believe you can take what man says outside the Bible,

what they call “science,” Big Bang, and millions of years,

and reinterpret Genesis; we should not be surprised

when they then reinterpret marriage. And once you’ve

said the Bible is not the infallible Word of God, then

who decides right and wrong? How do you define

marriage? And, by the way, not just marriage, ultimately

every single biblical doctrine of theology, directly or

indirectly, is founded in Genesis chapters 1–11.

There’s been a battle ever since the beginning

between God’s Word and man’s word. It started in

Genesis 3: trust God or you can become like God.

It’s a battle between two worldviews: one is based on

the absolutes of God’s Word, the other is based on

man’s word and moral relativism. We see the collapse

of Christian morality and increasing moral

relativism. Why? Because we have generations

that no longer build their thinking on God’s

Word. It’s not just a problem in the culture; it’s

becoming a massive problem in the church.

We need to raise up generations of young

people whowill be able to go out into this culture

and stand on the authority of the Word of God,

emboldened to proclaim the truth of God’s Word and

equipped to defend the Christian faith against secular

attacks in an uncompromising way, preach the Gospel,

and see people saved and won to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ken Ham

is President, Founder, and CEO of Answers in

Genesis.

We need to raise up generations of young people

who will stand on the authority of the Word of God,

equipped to defend the Christian faith, preach the

Gospel, and see people won to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Cedarville Magazine