Someone asked me the dinosaur question recently.
Inherent in that question was the underlying question of whether God really created the universe and the earth in six human days.
And so I went to do a bit of reading up on the internet. Apparently, with regard to the age of the earth, there are two primary schools of thought:
(1) Young-earth proponents (biblical age of the universe and earth of about 6,000 years*); and
(2) Old-earth proponents (secular age of the earth of about 4.5 billion years and the universe of about 14 billion years).
*The 6,000-year estimate was based on the history of mankind from Adam to Jesus (about 6,000 years of human history).
Source: http://answersingenesis.org/age-of-the-earth/how-old-is-the-earth/.
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Intuitively, I have no issue with the 6,000-year history of mankind.
The perennially intriguing question was whether creation was really completed in six human days.
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As a rule, I believe in the absolute authority, truth, precision and therefore, the infallibility of the Word of God. But something just doesn’t really sit quite right in the depth of my heart where the creation timeframe is concerned. So I’m gonna explore/explain/resolve it the Reana way (proceed at your own risk!!).
Here it goes…
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The timeframe for day and night in the creation record is DIFFERENT from the timeframe for day and night that is known to and relevant for mankind, i.e. totally different operative time system.
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Essentially, the Reana proposition is based on the premise that the timeframe for one day during those six days of creation was different from the timeframe for one day in human terms, i.e. “the evening and the morning” mentioned during creation was NOT a literal 24-hour period per human terms.
Time is a created entity.
It goes back to the whole concept of time itself. My position is that the whole idea or concept of time as we know it was created by God for man. And therefore, the time system applicable for man here on this earth today was created to guide and govern men, but it does not apply to God – God does not measure His days by human time, much less is governed by it.
God exists and functions outside of man’s time system.
MAN’S TIME SYSTEM
Now, how did this thing called time for man come about? The concept of time was created for man when the sun and moon were created – time for mankind is essentially governed by the movement of the sun and the turn of seasons.
This was first referenced in the creation account.
Genesis 1: 14-18, “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 then, after the 1st renewal of the world post-The Great Flood, God again reinforced time concept for mankind.
Genesis 8:22, “22 While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”
Time shall not cease while the earth remains.
GOD’S TIME SYSTEM
God, on the other hand, operates on a different time system and is not bound by the cycle of day and night and the four seasons, which He created for the benefit of mankind.
If we go back to Genesis 1:3-5, it says,
“3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”
Note that at this point of creation, the sun and the moon had not been created yet, but there was already the existence of the idea of night and day.
And so, under God’s time system:
Yes, there was (1) still the concept of night and day;
And yes, there was (2) still the concept of a daily cycle, which makes up one day.
But there, the similarity ends.
For I am of the view that the duration of an “evening and the morning” in Genesis 1:5 was not the same as the duration of an “evening and the morning” under man’s time system.
It may be useful to highlight here again that man’s time system had not even been created at this point in time. And so, I think it would be arrogant of us to presume to measure the creation account against our time system (no, the universe really does not revolve around us… and no, we are NOT the center of the universe, much as we’d like to believe so…), but rather, I think it may be worthwhile to consider the possibility that God’s time system forms a pattern for the time system He created for man, albeit on a much, much more compressed scale.
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And so, God operates on a different time system.
But I would go one step further to say this:
GOD HIMSELF IS THE LIVING, BREATHING, WALKING TIME SYSTEM.
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Why do I say that? It goes back to a even more fundamental question: What, exactly, does the light in Genesis 1:3 refer to?
The “light” in Genesis 1:3 refers to the Shekinah glory of God.
What is the Shekinah glory of God?
The Shekinah Glory is the visible manifestation of the presence of God the Father – YEHOVAH or YHVH. In the Old Testament, most of these visible manifestations took the form of light, fire, cloud or combinations of these. Rabbi Michael L. Munk in The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet referred to the “light” in Genesis 1:3 as the “Primeval Light” that was spiritual in nature (Source: http://hope-of-israel.org/shekina2.htm).
Now, in Genesis 1:3, it says that God called this light, i.e. His Shekinah glory, Day, and the darkness He called Night.
What does this mean or imply?
It would mean that not only does God not follow any time system – time being essentially a unit of measurement – but He Himself is that unit of measurement against which time is measured, i.e.
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Where God is present, Day is; and where God is not present, Night is.
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And so, not only is God not governed or bound by any time system at all, but God Himself is the living, breathing, walking time system.
Jesus referenced a similar idea when He said in John 9:4-5, “4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Why was it day? Because He was still present in the world. Why was the night coming? Because He was going to leave the world. The idea of day and night here was defined by His presence or absence, and is separate from the daily cycle of day and night known to man.
WHEN MAN’S TIME SYSTEM CEASES
There will come a day when man’s time system ceases, not that it is destroyed, but that it ceases to make sense or be relevant as a concept in light of eternity. And not surprisingly, that will happen when the sun and moon – objects on which man’s time system is based – are made obsolete.
It says in the Book of Revelations:
Revelation 21:22-24, “22 But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. 24 And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.”
Revelation 22:4-5, “4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”
Therefore, when the governing objects (i.e. the sun and the moon) of mankind’s time system are removed in the New Jerusalem, the concept of eternity comes in, as God replaces our concept of time with His very own Presence.
And there we will live in a land where it is eternally Day – where the sun never sets.
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