Questions That Spring From Doubt, With Simple Bible Answers
By CLARENCE SANTEE
I. How do you prove that the week as we have it is the same length as the first seven days of creation week? There is no other period from which the seven-day week could claim its origin. The seven-day period called week, is marked throughout Bible times. In Genesis 1 we have the first week of seven days, each day definitely marked by “the evening and the morning,”—dark and light,—which could apply to no other than our twenty-four-hour day—half dark and half light. The last half of that first week was ruled by the sun by day, and by the moon and stars by night. Gen. 1:14-19. The revolution of the earth upon its axis marks the day. It would be difficult to conceive of a revolution differing from that we now have, with no date of a change in the revolution. From the most ancient times, the week is mentioned at different periods. God said to Noah, “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth.” Gen. 7:4. At the ancient marriages it was customary to make a seven days’ feast,—“the seven days of the feast.” Judges 14:12, 17. This was also recognized in the case of Jacob when he was given Leah, instead of Rachel, for whom he had labored. Laban asked him to “fulfill her week,” and Rachel should be given him, with a contract for seven years more of service. This was agreed to. Jacob observed the seven days’ feast, then Rachel was given to him, and he served “yet seven other years.” Gen. 29:27, 28. The same penman who wrote the record of creation, uses interchangeably the terms “seven days” and “week.” Our attention has been called to efforts to change the number of days composing a week, but those efforts have been futile. There is no other week recognized by the Word of Inspiration. 2. But is it reasonable to suppose that the trees, grass, etc., could have grown from the earth and borne fruit as noted in Gen. 1:11-13 in one day of twenty-four hours? It certainly is, when brought forth in the way that they were. The second chapter of Genesis explains many things which are but stated in chapter one. In Gen. 2:4, 5, you will see the different methods used as to time. The last part of verse 4 points to the Lord as Creator: “The Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.” With this divine explanation, there can be but little room for uncertainty or doubt. The Lord commanded, and they sprang from the earth and were perfect models of fruit bearing, instantly at his word. That creation week was a literal week, just as we have the week today, and ever have had, is also stated in Ex. 20:11. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [for this reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” It will be noticed that God’s command to observe the Sabbath, after six days of labor, rested upon his use of the first seven days marking the same period. 3. What reason have you for believing that there were no rains before the flood? There are several texts of Scripture that speak of this condition. In Gen. 2:5, 6, we are told that “the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth,” and “there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.” When the flood came in Noah’s day, it is said, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, . . . prepared an ark.” Heb. 11:7. Noah was “warned of God of things not seen as yet.” Of what was he “warned of God”? “And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth.” “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Gen. 6:17; 7:12. Noah, then, was warned of God of a great rain, but it had not been “seen as yet.” Another evidence that would seem quite conclusive is that the rainbow was not seen until after the flood. As an evidence that there should not again be a flood to destroy all flesh, God said, “I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant,” etc. Gen. 9:13. Read verses 11-16. If the bow had been seen before the flood, it could not have been to them a forcible token, after the flood, that there would not again be a flood. The flood was a great cataclysm of nature, remodeling the earth, and puny man was brought safely through it. Never having seen clouds of rain before the flood, such a sight, after that experience, must have filled them with dread and terror had not God graciously called their attention to the bow that would be to them a pledge that they would not again be subjected to such an experience. 4. Why did the Lord wait about twenty-five hundred years before giving the law and the Sabbath if they were to be observed by all, and there was to be no change? The Lord did not wait the period suggested before giving the law and the Sabbath. There are many reasons for this answer. It is believed that Moses wrote the book of Genesis while in the wilderness, keeping the sheep of Jethro, before he was called to deliver Israel out of Egypt. This was many years before the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai, yet in that book he recorded the giving of the Sabbath and its setting apart for man. See Gen. 2:2, 3, and Mark 2:27. He again and again calls attention to the sins of the people, as in the case of those living before the flood (Gen. 6:5), those living in Sodom (Gen. 13:13; 18:20). If they sinned, the law of God must have been there. The inspired penman has said, “Because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression.” Rom. 4:15. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. And again, to add to the assurance that the law did exist, the apostle says, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin.” Rom. 5:12. The next verse asserts that “sin is not imputed when there is no law.” It is, then, certain that the law, and the Sabbath as a part of that law, were in existence and in active force from the time that Adam and Eve were placed in the garden of Eden. About one month before the children of Israel reached Sinai, the Lord arraigned them for breaking both his law and the Sabbath. “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.” Ex. 16:28-30. This was while they were in the wilderness of Sin, which they reached on the fifteenth day of the second month after leaving Egypt. Ex. 16:1. From the wilderness of Sin they went to Rephidim (Ex. 17:1), and from Rephidim to Sinai, where the law was spoken (Ex. 19:1, 2). They reached Sinai in the third month, while, as we have seen, God called their attention to his law and his Sabbath, which some had disobeyed, while they were in the wilderness of Sin, in the second month. This again is positive evidence that the law10and the Sabbath were well known, and that disobedience to their requirements demanded the death of the transgressor, before the law was spoken from Sinai, and before the Israelites reached that mountain. Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Rev. 13:8. Yet there could be no sacrifice for sin until sin existed. By Adam, sin entered into the world, as we have seen; and then Christ became the slain Lamb, the sacrifice for sin. At that time, then, the law was of such positive force that nothing less than the death of the Son of God could remove the guilt of the transgressor. While God does not compel any one to accept his law, he gives evidence that it has always existed, that it is perfect (Ps. 19:7), and that it is unchangeable (Ps. 111:7-9).