Peculiarities of the First Day of Time by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 20, 1871

Peculiarities of the First Day of Time.

By John Nevins Andrews

BY ELD. J. N. ANDREWS.

The first individuals or things of the various series which exist in the creation are necessarily different in some respects from those which exist after them. The reason is obvious: the first of each series comes into existence directly from the hand of God, whereas all the subsequent members of that series exist in consequence of the laws of nature which the Creator has established.

Thus the first trees, the first plants, and the first grass, rose up out of the earth by the direct power of God, and without springing from the seed of previous trees, or plants, or grass, or going through the slow process of natural growth. But every tree, and every plant, and every living thing, which springs from the ground since the first of each series, must come from its predecessor in some way which God has ordained, and each has to go through the gradual process of growth.

The like remarks apply to the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and to the beasts and reptiles of the earth. The first individuals of each kind were created by the direct power of God, while all other members of those classes derive their existence from those who live before them.

The first man was formed of the dust of the ground, and awoke to life in the possession of full mental powers, and a fully developed physical frame. The first woman was taken from the side of the first man, and she also had no period of childhood, and no process of gradual development to pass through. But their posterity have not begun life thus. These cases justify the statement that the first individual of each series of beings or things which the Creator has ordained or established is necessarily in some respects different from those which come after in the series. The beginning of existence of the first member of each series is different from that of all those which succeed.

We need not therefore be surprised to find that this principle holds good with reference to the first day of time. Though the first division of the first day was night, in which respect it is like all other days, yet that first night was not introduced by twilight; for it began at the moment when God said, Let the earth exist, and it was then profound darkness. And again, though that first night began as much in one place as another, for it was marked simply by the creative act, every evening since that has begun with twilight or sunset, and this can exist only on a narrow tract at any one time. So that each evening since has begun at the place of the first evening twilight, and has thence made the circuit of the globe. There was nothing by which to measure the time from the creation of the world to the creation of light; for there was no luminary in existence, and darkness prevailed over the whole globe. But there were then no dwellers upon the earth, and therefore no inconvenience resulted; for it was not difficult for the Creator to measure the hours of the first night, and to determine the proper moment when daylight should succeed darkness in such manner as to give the proper period of each to the first day of time. But when light was created, the measurement of days in their two great divisions of light and darkness became not only possible, but inevitable. Thenceforward there was, each twenty-four hours, a period of some twelve hours of darkness and one of the like duration for light.

And here two methods of measuring time were open to the choice of the Creator. He could, after the first twelve hours of universal darkness, had he seen fit to do so, have commanded the light to shine upon every part of the earth for the ensuing twelve hours, and then in an instant he could have extinguished that light, thus marking the close of the first day. Then after twelve hours of night the world over, he could have created universal light, and then in another twelve hours he could have struck this also from existence, thus marking the termination of the second day. And this method he might have adopted had it seemed good to him.

But he created light once for all. And that both day and night might come once each day of twenty-four hours, he caused the earth to revolve, so that these should succeed each other in the daily circuit of the world. Had he adopted the first of these methods for the measurement of time, he would have given to the human family days which would begin at the same instant over the whole earth. And by this means he would have avoided the establishment of a day line from which day should make the circuit of the globe. But, instead of this, he chose that day should begin in one place earliest of all, and that it should from thence go round the world. And thus the day line forms a part of God's arrangement in the measurement of time, and is a necessary consequence from his act of lighting one side of the world and causing that it should thenceforward revolve from the darkness into the light, and from the light into the darkness; so that the western extremity of the light was the place or line where the twilight existed on first-day morning, followed by twelve hours of daylight; and this must have been the day line in the purpose of God, for it was the place of twilight at the close of the first day; and if at the close of the first day, so was it also at the close of the third. And the sun beginning his rule at this point, it was manifestly the place or line whence the first sunset commenced to make the circuit of the globe.

But it may be asked, Why select as the place of the day line the western side of that field which covered one side of the globe at the creation of light? Why not consider the whole of that field of light the morning of the first day, and thus exclude the idea of a day line at that time? Or if the place from which the first morning is reckoned must be where twilight exists, why not take the twilight on the east side of the field of light with quite as much propriety as that on the west side of that field? Our answer to this is direct and explicit. Three things unite to prove that the standpoint of the Holy Spirit in the notation of time in Gen. 1 must have been the line where light on its west side at the time of its creation mingled with the darkness.

1. Morning is introduced by twilight. Twilight existed on the eastern and the western edges of the field of light, and it did not exist between those two lines. The first morning must therefore be at one of those two extremities, and could not be at any part of the intermediate territory. And, still further, it must be where twilight gives place to daylight. This was true of that narrow tract on the western confines of light, where light and darkness first mingled; but it was not true of the like tract on the eastern border of light, for the revolution of the earth to the eastward carried that western tract where light and darkness mingled into and across that field of light, while the eastern tract where light and darkness mingled was at the same time carried into and across the field of darkness.

2. It must also be where twelve hours of daylight can succeed the twilight of morning, so that it may with the previous twelve hours of darkness, or night, make up the first twenty-four-hour day. But this is just the length of time requisite for that narrow tract of the earth's surface where, at the creation of light, darkness mingled with the west edge of the light, to be carried eastward across that field of light; whereas a tract midway between the edges of that field of light would require six hours only to reach the darkness on the east, and cannot therefore be the place where morning first existed. And as to the line of twilight on the east side of the lighted surface of the earth, it could not be the place from which the reckoning of morning first began; for as the earth turned eastward on its axis, it did at once begin to enter the darkness which lay to the east of it.

3. The standpoint of the Spirit of God is indicated by two things which, on examination, are found to be in exact agreement: (1.) When God had created light, he immediately began to separate the light from the darkness by causing the earth to revolve eastward. This shows that the standpoint of the Spirit of God in this narration is where light and darkness mingled, on the west side of the light, which place thus occupying the west edge of the light, was carried eastward through it. (2.) And this same point must also have been where the first morning was noted by the Spirit of God, and that was the western, and not the eastern, twilight; for at the place of that western twilight alone could follow the twelve hours of daylight, while the eastern twilight immediately gave place to darkness.

These three statements are quite sufficient to answer the question why we fix the standpoint of the Spirit of God for the measurement of time on the west side of the light at the twilight of that first morning. But here is also another fact worthy of mention in this connection. Darkness and light make the apparent circuit of the earth westward, though really making no circuit at all, simply because that the earth turns eastward. In the divine order, the darkness is in advance, and the light is behind it, in their course around the earth. And now observe: could we waive the facts above noticed, we should still be unable to fix the line of morning twilight elsewhere than on the west edge of the light, for this recognizes the fact that the darkness, lying as it does to the west of that line, leads the train in the circuit of day around our globe; whereas if we could otherwise see how to place the line of morning twilight on the east side of the field of light, we should then have the light in the advance, and the darkness in the rear, in the circuit of the globe, which is false in fact.

When God had lighted one half of our globe by the creation of the light, the other half remaining dark, the time of day at different points in the circuit of the globe was in appearance this: the line where the western extremity of the light mingled with the eastern extremity of the darkness, was that of morning twilight; half way across this field of light it was apparently noon; and at the eastern extremity of the light, where it touched the western verge of darkness, it was in appearance the twilight of evening; and at the same moment at the point midway between the eastern and the western bounds of the darkness it was like midnight. But there was only one of these points at which the time of day was exactly what it seemed to be, and this point is the day line which the Spirit of God established for the reckoning of time at the moment when light was created. This can be shown very clearly.

In order that twelve hours of daylight should follow at that meridian where the twilight of morning first existed, it was necessary that one half of the globe to the east of this line should be lighted up, so that the revolution of the earth to the east should give just that period of daylight to fill out the second division of the first day of time. But was it not at that very moment midnight in the middle of that field of darkness, and noon at the middle of that field of light, and evening at the eastern verge of that light, as it was morning at the twilight on its western edge? It may seem so to the reader before he gives the subject thought. But in order that it should be noon in reality at the middle of that field of light it was necessary that some six hours of daylight should have existed already. But instead of this, one instant before, it was at that point profound darkness. Also it was then only twelve hours from the creation, whereas the first day should be eighteen hours old before noon could exist at any point. And as to the middle of that field of darkness, time could not be noted there as midnight at the point when God lighted the other side of the globe; for the first day of time was then twelve hours old instead of being only six. Again, in order that it should be rightly called evening at the eastern edge of the field of light, it was necessary that some twelve hours of daylight should have existed prior to the shades of evening coming on. Yet only one moment before the first existence of twilight at that point, there was the total darkness of original night. And moreover, if it were in reality evening on the eastern edge of the field first covered by the light, it would make the second day commence when the first day was only twelve hours old.

But how about that line, or tract of our earth's surface, where the western edge of the light first mingled with the darkness? We have marked this point as the place of the morning twilight, and as the place of that line by means of which days are counted in Gen. 1. We have seen that every other point, when light was created, the apparent time of day was not such in reality. How was it at this point? Certainly it had the phenomena of morning; for it was there twilight with darkness on the west, and daylight on the east. But that it should be morning in reality, it was necessary that it should have been preceded by twelve hours of darkness, and that it should be succeeded by twelve hours of light. And this was the precise truth concerning this day line of Gen. 1, the standpoint of the Holy Spirit in the counting of the days of that chapter. Time thenceforward is measured by the several phenomena of day passing that line. In six hours from the creation of light it is noon at this line, and it is such in reality; for the first day of time is then eighteen hours old, and the middle of the field of light is then exactly over this remarkable line. And from this line, whence morning had set out on the circuit of the globe six hours before, noon now starts on the same ceaseless journey. In six hours more the twilight of evening comes at this day line, or transition point, and now the first day of time being twenty-four hours old, and the twilight of evening standing just over the day line, the first day of time here closes, and the second day comes on, following in the train of evening twilight that at this point begins to make that circuit of our globe which it has continued to this day.

In former articles it has been shown that it requires just forty-eight hours for each twenty-four-hour day to make the circuit of the globe. We have also seen how that two days are at the same time going round the world, with the exception of one single instant each twenty-four hours when evening has carried the commencement of day completely round the world and it is just ready to close at the point where it first set out. This circuit of day, and this day line where each day begins earliest of all, are necessary

consequences of the fact that God did not cause the day to begin at the same instant the world over. We have in this article examined the remarkable manner in which the first day of time commences the circuit of the globe. We have reached the point where the twilight of evening sets out from the day line, carrying with it the commencement of the second day of time. It will require twenty-four hours for evening thus to make the circuit of the globe, bearing in its train the second day of time, and as the second day thus advances, the first day retires before it.

The first evening began without twilight, and began at the same instant the world over. In six hours from that point it was midnight everywhere; for half of the first twelve-hour division of day was passed. In twelve hours it was the twilight of the first morning at the day line, and from this moment the phenomena of the natural course of day begins at this line, as we have seen; for here the reckoning of time on the first day is correctly indicated by the appearance of the heavens, whereas such is not the case elsewhere. In eighteen hours from the creation it was noon at the day line, and then this line was just midway of that field of light. And in twenty-four hours from the creation, the time for the evening of the second day had come, and at the day line it was evening twilight. The evening which marks the commencement of the second day could not come till the first day was twenty-four hours old, and at that very point it was at that time evening at the day line, and nowhere else, and from that point evening sets out on its first circuit of our globe.

The fact that evening, by God's wise arrangement, begins each day, and that every evening since the creation of light has first begun at the day line and thence gone round the world, shows that the second day was like all the days that have been since, in that it did not begin at one moment the world over. And as that day began only as evening advanced westward round the world, it is evident that the first day of time, like all days since, had twenty-four hours in which to retire before its successor, as that successor advanced round the world in the train of evening.

In some respects the first day of time was unlike the days which have since existed. But as the earth had then no inhabitants there was no chance for any one to be confused or perplexed at the phenomena of the first day. As it requires forty-eight hours for each day to come on the earth, and to retire from off it, so did it require that space for the first day of time. It is plain, therefore, that at the day line, each day passes under the rod of the Lord, so to speak, that it may be counted. When the first evening and the first morning (for these two terms which mark the beginning of the two twelve-hour divisions of the day are put for the two entire periods of twelve hours) have passed the day line, the first day at that point has expired, and the second day has commenced. But the second day requires twenty-four hours to follow the course of evening around the world, and the first day uses that period of time in retiring before it. In other words, twenty-four hours must elapse after the last moment of the first day has passed the day line in its westward flight, before it has completed its withdrawal from the earth, the second day at the same time following close behind it. And so each day is counted at the day line as its successor comes on to take its place; but it still occupies twenty-four hours more in giving place to that successor by retiring before it.

Those who deny that the Spirit of God had a line or standpoint at which it counted the days in Gen. 1, and affirm that each day ended when the evening and the morning had each time ended to all the world, have never thought that evening does not exist at the same moment the world over, so that it is impossible to begin and to end the day at one instant to all the world. Nor have they ever thought that as evening is constantly on the wing around our world, if there were not some point, the passing of which divided one day from another, the reckoning of the days of the week would be a thing impossible.