In Genesis, how did day and night exist on the first day, when the sun wasn't created until the fourth day?

Question

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And 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 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
...
16 And 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 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon 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 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Markyyy: A good catch-all answer :-)

Answer 1

wasn't the bible suppose to be written by god and infallible and factual???

Why is it when there is a hole pointed out then it becomes "non-literal" or suggestion, or my favorite

'As any devout bible reader would know...the bible doesn't always tell things in the order that they occur. It gives a general explanation and then retells in detail, or it tells the same story from a different perspective, like the gospels for example.'

again what happened to the literal word given by god as infallible???

caught in their own lie again? DAMN!!!

Answer 2

That is an excellent question and one which Bible scholars have wrestled with a great deal. There are several proposed answers to this. One answer cites Revelation 22:5 which says those in the New Jerusalem "Will not need the light of the sun for the Lord God will give them light." The inference for Genesis 1 would be that the light before the sun was supernatural in origin. Another very interesting interpretation (not enough space here to describe fully) is known as the "framework theory," which sees the creation account as a fairly well structured, ancient literary form which should be interpreted according to its genre. Framework theorist do not believe light was created before the sun. Your question is a very good one and I regret that space does not allow a lengthier answer.

Answer 3

God created this world over a period of time.A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to God.There was light but what kind?There was a firmament created before rain so the earth would be fertile.It says that the earth was without form and was void.He created the stars the sun the moon and all the galaxies,for there are many.Life was put here or created here and I`m sure there are other worlds where there is life.The Bible tells us that Angels have their own habitation.God didn`t just say the words and things just appeared ,they developed over time with him making sure that all was going as planned.

Answer 4

Hello, Icarus:

The answer is quite simple when you realize that the Bible says God is light.

Yes, verse three says there was light, His light. So, as God viewed our mass of chaos--without form and void mean a chaotic something or another--evening and morning was the first day.

On day four He created our luminaries--did you know that every star you see with the naked eye is in our unique galaxy? It was created for us.

Incidentally, when sin entered this celestial sphere, God has demanded sin can not perpetuate in His perfect universe, so "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Romans 8:22). That is the third rule of thermodynamics--everything is in a state of decay.

Even our sun is shrinking about five feet per year. But it will one day be renewed to God's original specifications.

The plan of redemption and restoration of earth, the identity of Messiah, and who is Antichrist? All answered by a secret code, sealed until the end of the days. Read: www.revelado.org/revealed.htm

Blessings and AGAPE love, One-Way

Answer 5

Well, Cosmology doesn't view the Sun as being created immediately.

What this indicates is that bodies of mass existed in free space with elements and were put into orbit around the sun.

Light did not occur immediately at the big bang. It started with small particle emissions and then possibly a discharge of matter.

Light would not occur until it could excape the gravitation pull of the singularity or until a discahrge of photons occured as a result of the internal fusion discharge.

Cooler mass would be on the outside and pushed outwards by the interior fusion.

This all meets with physics.

Suns didn't form until the hydrogen plama started cooling and bunching together. It's possible fragments of mass from the singularity are what caused gravity wells to form and draw nearby plasma to the surface.

What is the scientific age (estimated of course) of the sun and how does it compare to the age of the universe.

Divde the age of the universe by 6

Divide the age of the sun by 4

How close do they come to the scinetific figures.

It also establishes that a DAY is not a SOLAR DAY, but a GOD day.

This can explain a lot.

High density molten core mass, attracting smaller bodies and imploding them to form a crust.

These bodies create gravity wells and attract lesser mass.

It would take a great gravity well to attract a layer of Hydrogen and a lesser body to attract a layer of Methane

A rock body in the right place with a variety of elements could easily spaw oxygen/nitrogen covering.

The Bible explains it all. Do enough pencil pushing with what we know and you can postulate how all things developed.

That's how Big Bang got postualted.

By a Catholic Priest.

Remember according to SCIENCE one gram of a singularity weighs more than 1,000 suns.

Fusion occurs int he singularity, pushing outwards and generating very hot plasma and sending chuncks and grains of singularity outwards.

Each grain of singularity weight is enough to cause a good size gravity well.

A nice size chunk of singularity can easily become what we call a black hole.

Remember, the primordial atom contracted the universe to a very small size and after the bang the universe expanded.

No black hole is contracting our universe to it's size.

Maybe in the future it can, but right now it's just sucking in nearby space.

Unless, of course, you also disbelieve in science and can't believe that the universe was once the size in space maybe 4 light years across maximum and as small as a molecule minimum. And that was the ENTIRE universe until the Primordial Atom exploded from an internal fusion reaction expanding the the universe to the current 30 to 100 trillion or billion of whatever it is light years in diameter.

See, that's easy for people to buy into for some strange reason.

Any fool can easily see how the entire universe can expand and contract from trillions of light years to a few light years or less in diameter.

Totally logical to anyone that can happen.

Answer 6

Well, it's very simple really. The primitive men that wrote that story knew nothing at all about astronomy, and how stellar bodies related to each other. They had no idea what the sun actually was, what the stars were, or how they worked. I mean, they thought that the moon generated it's own light. It would be hundreds of years before humans even discovered that we revolve around the sun, and not the other way around (and incidently, the person who discovered this was persecuted by the church. Funny, huh?).

The bible, and all of the stories in it were written by men, men that had no scientific knowledge about the world around them. They created stories because they were afraid of the unknown. It isn't suprising that many things throughout the bible were scientifically wrong. What is suprising, at least to me, is that now that we live in an age where we do have tremendous knowledge about our universe, there are people who prefer the stories to real life. This makes me very sad.

Answer 7

Light and darkness where created prior to the sun and moon.
Light (day) and darkness (night) are marked by the sun and moon.

In separating Heaven and Earth and giving form to the earth, God created matter, time, and established several universal laws (in those 2 actions).

Look at it like this: day and night are not times. Your day is someone else's night, and vice versa. Day and night are divisions of time itself, they are not times of day. What is being said, is that a 24 hour period has passed (day = 12 hours & night = 12 hours).

Answer 8

you're decrease than the fake impact that the sunlight and different heavenly bodies have been created in six days. The Bible says at Gen. a million:a million that "in the start, God created the heavens and the earth." How long it took him to end that feat, the Bible would not say. The six days of creation in touch six extensive classes of time that Jehovah used to coach the earth for human and animal habitation. in case you will see at Gen. a million:2 that the earth strengthen into already in existence earlier the 1st creative day began (Gen. a million:3) A branch between day and night began while God led to the earth to rotate on its axis. the easy from the luminaries it is suggested at Gen. a million:14 strengthen into already in existence earlier any of the creative days began. although, on day 4, God led to that easy to come again into view. earlier that, the earth were shrouded in dense water vapor.

Answer 9

good question :-D Unfortunately, I have no answer for ya.. lol

hey Lion of Judah - I´m happy your faith is so deep that you feel compelled to go into such detail..
BUT WHYdid you have to judge Icarus right in your first sentence? That implies you might not be a good christian who wants only good things for his brothers and sisters and is tolerant towards others but only a good bible beater who is ignorant? A deep trust in your faith is a great thing but don´t try to act like you´ve eaten the truth of all truths with a holy spoon, ok? Then maybe we´ll take the time to read your answer...

Answer 10

The lights turned off at night, obviously. Remember there was obviously light and dark before the sun was created because the god created the sun to be a marker for day and the moon to be a marker for night.

I wonder if the moon shows during the day because of original sin.