Seventh-day Adventist Christians believe in "BIBLICAL LITERAL CREATION". Do you?

Question

The Creation is recorded in Genesis 1-2.

A Widespread teaching today holds that each day of Creation week wasn't a twenty-four hour day but a long period of time, perhaps billions of years long.

This day-age theory is taught by many who profess to believe the bible. They feel this theory solves one of the many problems faced by advocates of theistic evolution. But the Bible is totally against the day-age concept. Seventh-day adventists and many sincere Bible students reject such a theory.

When the Lord declares he made the world in six days and rested on the seventh, He makes it plain." HE MEANS A DAY OF TWENTY-FOUR HOURS", for he says, " THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE FIRST DAY.....THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE SECOND DAY.....THE EVENING AND THE MORNING WERE THE THIRD DAY," and so on. These words are literal and explicit that God did not need billions of years to create the earth as Scientists advocate. A day with God at creation was a 24 hour period.

Answer 1

As a Seventh-day Adventist I accept the literal 24 hour-days of creation. Our knowledge may not be perfect but so is scientific knowledge.

If anyone has any questions, I would suggest the following book for your study:

Answers to Objections
http://www.maranathamedia.com/start/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=140

Answer 2

Gilbert, this is not a simple subject. The seven days of the creation period (On the 7th day God created the Sabbath!), are, I believe, literal 24 hour days. However, that does not preclude the Earth from being millions or billions of years old. There is just no way to reject the science, except that science really has no absolute figure to give as to how old the Earth actually is. But, it existed long before the events in Genesis 1:3.

It is too much information to post but here are some links to study papers on the subject if you, or anyone else, care to begin to look into this further. The turth is simply amazing!

http://www.ucg.org/booklets/BT/versesofgenesis.htm

http://www.biblestudy.org/basicart/was-the-earth-recreated-after-an-initial-creation-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_creationism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Earth_creationism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gap_creationism

Edit 10/21/2007: Just to be clear, I do not consider the SDA's to be a cult. At the worst, I consider them fellow Sabbath keepers who just happen to have a lot of Protestant ideas, because, they have their errors IMO.
Limiting the events in Genesis 1 to just 7 days is one of them. If there were waters covering the face of the deep, where did the water come from and what exactly was that water covering. Genesis 1:1-2 is so obviously showing that something existed before Genesis 1:3, the first 24 hour period where God actually created a day.

Edit 10/23/2007: Surprised this question is still open! Below one person said that the dating is off because of the flood, this is true, only it is not just Noah's flood that has caused the dating discrepancies but the pre-adamic flood also.

Answer 3

I agree. There are several logical reasons why the Day/Age theory and the Gap Theory don't work. There is no scientific or logical reason to reject a literal interpretation of Genesis. The more modern science discovers, the more the theory of evolution crumbles, and the more the Bible is corroborated.

Answer 4

Genesis 1-2, is when God recreated, the original creation, the account of it is in Job 38, This was done after he had created the angels. Genesis 1-2 is after Satan and his angels were thrown from heaven, and satan's sin corrupted the heavens and earth, this may have been billions of years.
When God first created, He started from nothing, and spoke, and through the Word every thing was created.
In Genesis 1-2 , 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. This shows that there was something still there, only in a void condition. Yes God did it in the seven days. A day is from dust to dawn. As was the longest day , from sun down till sun up. God speaks and in the twinkling of an eye things are done.

Answer 5

I believe it is literal 24 hours days. The evening and the morning. I also believe that the creation of the world described in Genesis 1:1,2 states the creation of the heavens and earth and it's re-creation.

Verse 1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (There you have the creation.) Verse 2 "Now, the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.....the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." (There you have the re-creation.)

Compare this with Isa 45:18, "He who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty."

This can be read to be a creation and a re-creation.

So.....could it be that God has not enlightened us on the first creation of the world only the 6 day "re-creation" of the world?

Answer 6

Yep. Of course, there have been many, many folks outside of Adventism that have believed this for forever. Glad to see we can agree on this, if not on some of the other Adventist distinctives.

Incidentally, the alleged conflict between Genesis 1 versus Genesis 2 is simply a difference in position of the narrator. In Genesis 1, the story is being told from the grand perspective of the universe as a whole, and the planet in particular. In Genesis 2, we zoom in to the garden of Eden for a close up of the protagonists. Humans are animals and belong on the same day. No big deal. The plants mentioned are specific to the garden, not the planet as a whole, so there is no real surprise there either. This is no more contradictory than saying "we built this building in six days," and "on the sixth day, we made this very special office inside the building." No contradiction, only a strategic shift in focus, as any good narrative will have.

Answer 7

I believe what you wrote, those day's WERE 24hr day's.
But go back just a bit to Gen 1;2
Genesis 1
The Beginning
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
a Genesis 1:2 Or possibly became

Gen 1;1 was the creation of the Heaven & Earth, but then verse 2 doesn't discribe a "time frame", many call this "the gap theory", and I think it explains the billions of years that the scientist have (supposedly) prooved.

Answer 8

I am with you on this Gilbert. Lone Ranger...the Flood explains the billions of years. Carbon dating is only effective in the absence of water. The Flood covered the entire globe...what was the Flood but water. So no one can really say the Earth is billions and billions of years old. It explains lots of things...like why the Rocky Mountains have sea shells embedded in the layers. Why the same fossil of a large creature is different ages depending on the level of sediment it is found in....
Someone said SDA's are a cult...however there is not one thing I believe which cannot be found within the Bible. SDA's can proudly proclaim that we stand alone on the Word of God.
Someone else mentioned something about Elohim and YHWH...yes, YHWH is included when Elohim is mentioned...Elohim is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit...all of which were present at Creation. It is difficult for World minded people to comprehend the mysteries of God, until He chooses to allow us to discover these marvelous things.
Yes...and the Sabbath was made for all of mankind on the final day of Creation. It was the first Holy Day (holiday) instituted by God. God's Law was the same for Adam and Eve...the Children of Israel...and the adopted Children of Israel as well. Welcome to the Family, here are the rules that keep us straight. Here is our Father full of Grace who allows us to participate in His plan of Redemption. Without Him, these rules mean nothing...and we cannot save ourselves by our actions. Our actions are the fruit by which others can identify our allegiance. We do His Commandments because we love Him.

Answer 9

Yeah I believe that it was a 24 hour time period. Because of the fact that it mentioned evening and morning....I believe that's how he set the day up. Part of it to be evening....and morning.

That's what I personally believe. That it was 24 hours.


But people have given some really good answers on here....
I don't know. But I'll believe whatever the Lord shows and tells me and proves to me if what I believe is wrong.
God bless!

Answer 10

Well, you need to go back to the original Hebrew language and look at the words used and not the translations ascribed to those words. Why do I say this? I wish I could remember the word but the one that references "day" is a word that is flexible in its time reference. It could mean seconds all the way up to billions of years. It would be similar to "see you later." Where later is a flexible time reference.

Now, having said this, I do not know or care how God created the world. How long it took him or how long he took is irrelevant for ones walk. Going further. It does not matter if he evolved us through apes or dust from the ground. It only matters that he created. We cannot duplicate the act and to criticize him because we think one is superior to the other is beyond stupid.

Being too literal with the Bible is bad and being to loose with the Bible is bad. Remember the Pharasees and Sadducee. Where those lines are will forever be in contention.