The Fourth Day of Creation Sun Moon and Starsby Dani
1:19Genesis 1:19
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
The evening and the morning were a literal ordinary day like every other day since that time, not a vast indefinite period. On that fourth day God made the glad sunshine and the moon in its beauty and the glory of the starry heavens. It stands as one of six literal days in which heaven and earth and sea and all in them were made, forming the first week of seven literal days that is the sample for every week to the close of time. To make those days indefinite destroys the force of the fourth commandment and strikes at the foundation of the Sabbath, which rests on God's example of working six days and resting on the seventh. This account is the authentic history of creation preserved in its purity from the fountain of eternal truth, to be accepted with implicit confidence as plain fact giving evidence for faith in the living God.
Fourth Day Creation
The fourth day consisted of evening and morning like every other day since that time, which proves it was a literal ordinary day and not a vast indefinite period covering thousands or millions of years. It was a literal day closed by evening and morning, one of seven literal days making up the first week measured off as the sample for successive weeks to the close of time. What is said of the fourth day is said in substance of each of the first six days of creation week, and stands in harmony with itself and with the teaching of nature.
At the close of the fourth day, as at the close of each day, is given the result of the Creator's work. Each day was called a generation because in it was generated or produced some new portion of the work, and at the close of that day were given the productions of the work. The fourth day is one of the six literal days in which were made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, ending on the sixth day with everything very good and the heavens and earth finished. It was one literal day in a creation week of only seven literal days, with the world now only about six thousand years old, not six vast indefinite periods plus another indefinite period. Wonderful things found in the earth used as evidence that the world has existed tens of thousands of years do not prove a greater age, but are accounted for by the much larger size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and by the great changes that took place in the earth at the flood.
The Father and the Son were engaged together in the mighty wondrous work of creating the world of which the fourth day is one part. On the fourth day were made the glad sunshine, the moon in its beauty, and the glory of the starry heavens. By that work the earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful and holy and beautiful, not as one extensive plain but diversified with regular and beautiful hills, mountains and plains, with rocks beneath the surface, with waters regularly dispersed in rivers and other bodies of water, adorned with plants and flowers and tall majestic trees larger and more beautiful than now, with pure and healthful air, like a noble palace at which angels beheld and rejoiced.
The earth was made by speaking and commanding it to stand fast, for with power to call unnumbered worlds into existence no long time for evolution from chaos was required, and the Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos. Though the world could have been spoken into existence in one day, six days were taken to make it, and the fourth marks the fourth of those six days. Just how that work was accomplished in six literal days has never been revealed to mortals and cannot be explained from natural causes or searched out by human science. The creative works and ways and thoughts are as incomprehensible and unlike man's as existence itself, for ways are not as man's ways and thoughts are not as man's thoughts.
Trusting Creation Record
The closing formula of the fourth day belongs to the authentic account of creation found alone in God's Word. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, with its purity preserved through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand. It is the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men, unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Its bright rays shine into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate, giving the history of the race and beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens.
The great facts of creation presented by the inspired writers, including the fourth day, are pillars of the Christian faith. They were handed down at great cost and are within reach of all, to be really accepted with implicit confidence as the guide of life. They are plain Scripture fact giving God's work of creation as evidence upon which to base faith in the living God who made heaven and earth.
To reject those facts wholly or in part is infidelity. To cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths, to count God's Word unreliable on the merest pretense, and to turn by vain reasoning what He gave to establish faith in inspired history and to lead men to exalt Him into a curse of unbelief, shows that His holy Word is but little valued. That infidelity prevails to an alarming extent not in the world merely but in the church.
The assumption that the days were vast, indefinite periods covering thousands or even millions of years is made to allow the millions of years required for the evolution of the earth from chaos and to accommodate the Bible to science. That assumption contradicts the literal interpretation of the Mosaic record of creation. It rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature, creates a supposed conflict between science and revelation, and undermines and destroys the force of the Word of God.
The time given in the inspired record is the only way to learn the time of relics found in the earth. Geology alone cannot prove it, and natural principles and natural causes cannot explain it. What God has revealed there is plain and to be believed, and it stands against human reasoning accepted even by professed Christians and against the suppositions of geologists that contradict and dispute this history.
Wonderful things found in the earth, used as evidence that the world has existed tens of thousands of years, do not prove a greater age. They are accounted for by the much larger size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and by the great changes that took place in the earth at the flood. The fourth day was one literal day in a creation week of only seven literal days, with the world now only about six thousand years old.
Satan hates and obscures this revelation of God as Creator in order to lead men into rebellion and infidel fables. Just how God wrought in creation is not revealed, and that work cannot be explained from natural causes nor searched out by human science, for His ways are not as man's ways and His thoughts are not as man's thoughts. In the last days faith will be almost destitute as men receive human reasoning in opposition to what is revealed and rest faith on the suppositions of geologists instead of on what is revealed. It is inconsistent to declare what God has revealed, including the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, too obscure to understand and investigate, while accepting mere suppositions about what He has not revealed.
Sabbath and Daily Life
The first week measured off by God, including the fourth day closed by evening and morning, is the sample for successive weeks to the close of time, originating the weekly cycle of seven literal days with six for labor and the seventh for rest. Six days, including the fourth, were employed in the work of creation, and upon the seventh God rested and blessed and set it apart, so the first six days of each week are given for labor because God employed the same period in creation. At the close of the fourth day was given the result of the Creator's work, and each day was accounted a generation because in it God generated or produced some new portion of His work.
The fourth day belongs to God's great work in six literal days in which He made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, ending on the sixth day with everything very good and the heavens and earth finished. Then God ended His work, rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it because He rested in it from all His work which He created and made. This proclaimed His will that the seventh day is holy and to be kept from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest, as a sign and perpetual covenant because He worked six days and rested and was refreshed on the seventh, with God pointing back to His example on those first seven days as the reason for observing the week.
To make the days vast indefinite periods instead of seven literal days destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, obscuring what God made very plain and striking at the foundation of the Sabbath. God commanded men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of creation, and to command a literal week in commemoration of indefinite periods is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. To profess belief in the record of creation while holding that view is infidelity in disguise.
Though sin marred God's perfect work and brought thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death, the glad sunshine, the moon in its beauty, and the glory of the starry heavens made on that day still bear witness of the Creator and reveal His goodness, forbearance, and love. The fourth day of God's great work, when the earth came holy and beautiful from His hand, gives the reason for the institution of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath parents should walk with their children amid nature and use these created things to teach them about the Creator and the way of salvation.
God's deliberate use of six days when He could have spoken the world into existence in one teaches against working day and night to exhaustion and turning night into day and day into night. It requires keeping regular hours for sleep and work, stopping when nature says stop and letting the rest go undone until it can be done without exhaustion. Departure from regular hours is permitted only in a case of life or death.
The creation account, including the fourth day, part of the authentic record preserved through the ages in its purity by the divine Mind and Hand and found alone in God's Word, is to be the chief study in schools. It carries minds higher to comprehend important truths concerning eternal life and preserves heart and mind in purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. Education is a failure unless the understanding grasps such truths of divine revelation and the heart accepts the gospel, rather than absorbing time and attention in commonplace trivial matters that dwarf and enfeeble the mind and destroy power of growth. Through it converse is held with patriarchs and prophets and is learned what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life so that a people might stand redeemed from every common earthly thing and renewed in the image of God.
The world was called into existence by creative energy in the Word of God, and that same energy remains in the Word to impart power and beget life. Every command is a promise that, accepted by the will and received into the soul, brings the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature, recreates the soul in the image of God, and sustains the life imparted by every word from the mouth of God. Creation is a reservoir of means ready for instant use to do His pleasure in which nothing made is useless, though the curse caused tares to be sown by the enemy. Rational beings should live to God and honor Him, choosing topics of thought that build mind and character, while the all-wise and all-sufficient Saviour came to reveal His perfection in humanity.
The evening and the morning were a literal ordinary day like every other day since that time, not a vast indefinite period. On that fourth day God made the glad sunshine and the moon in its beauty and the glory of the starry heavens. It stands as one of six literal days in which heaven and earth and sea and all in them were made, forming the first week of seven literal days that is the sample for every week to the close of time. To make those days indefinite destroys the force of the fourth commandment and strikes at the foundation of the Sabbath, which rests on God's example of working six days and resting on the seventh. This account is the authentic history of creation preserved in its purity from the fountain of eternal truth, to be accepted with implicit confidence as plain fact giving evidence for faith in the living God.
Fourth Day Creation
The fourth day consisted of evening and morning like every other day since that time, which proves it was a literal ordinary day and not a vast indefinite period covering thousands or millions of years. It was a literal day closed by evening and morning, one of seven literal days making up the first week measured off as the sample for successive weeks to the close of time. What is said of the fourth day is said in substance of each of the first six days of creation week, and stands in harmony with itself and with the teaching of nature.
At the close of the fourth day, as at the close of each day, is given the result of the Creator's work. Each day was called a generation because in it was generated or produced some new portion of the work, and at the close of that day were given the productions of the work. The fourth day is one of the six literal days in which were made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, ending on the sixth day with everything very good and the heavens and earth finished. It was one literal day in a creation week of only seven literal days, with the world now only about six thousand years old, not six vast indefinite periods plus another indefinite period. Wonderful things found in the earth used as evidence that the world has existed tens of thousands of years do not prove a greater age, but are accounted for by the much larger size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and by the great changes that took place in the earth at the flood.
The Father and the Son were engaged together in the mighty wondrous work of creating the world of which the fourth day is one part. On the fourth day were made the glad sunshine, the moon in its beauty, and the glory of the starry heavens. By that work the earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful and holy and beautiful, not as one extensive plain but diversified with regular and beautiful hills, mountains and plains, with rocks beneath the surface, with waters regularly dispersed in rivers and other bodies of water, adorned with plants and flowers and tall majestic trees larger and more beautiful than now, with pure and healthful air, like a noble palace at which angels beheld and rejoiced.
The earth was made by speaking and commanding it to stand fast, for with power to call unnumbered worlds into existence no long time for evolution from chaos was required, and the Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos. Though the world could have been spoken into existence in one day, six days were taken to make it, and the fourth marks the fourth of those six days. Just how that work was accomplished in six literal days has never been revealed to mortals and cannot be explained from natural causes or searched out by human science. The creative works and ways and thoughts are as incomprehensible and unlike man's as existence itself, for ways are not as man's ways and thoughts are not as man's thoughts.
Trusting Creation Record
The closing formula of the fourth day belongs to the authentic account of creation found alone in God's Word. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, with its purity preserved through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand. It is the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men, unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Its bright rays shine into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate, giving the history of the race and beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens.
The great facts of creation presented by the inspired writers, including the fourth day, are pillars of the Christian faith. They were handed down at great cost and are within reach of all, to be really accepted with implicit confidence as the guide of life. They are plain Scripture fact giving God's work of creation as evidence upon which to base faith in the living God who made heaven and earth.
To reject those facts wholly or in part is infidelity. To cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths, to count God's Word unreliable on the merest pretense, and to turn by vain reasoning what He gave to establish faith in inspired history and to lead men to exalt Him into a curse of unbelief, shows that His holy Word is but little valued. That infidelity prevails to an alarming extent not in the world merely but in the church.
The assumption that the days were vast, indefinite periods covering thousands or even millions of years is made to allow the millions of years required for the evolution of the earth from chaos and to accommodate the Bible to science. That assumption contradicts the literal interpretation of the Mosaic record of creation. It rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature, creates a supposed conflict between science and revelation, and undermines and destroys the force of the Word of God.
The time given in the inspired record is the only way to learn the time of relics found in the earth. Geology alone cannot prove it, and natural principles and natural causes cannot explain it. What God has revealed there is plain and to be believed, and it stands against human reasoning accepted even by professed Christians and against the suppositions of geologists that contradict and dispute this history.
Wonderful things found in the earth, used as evidence that the world has existed tens of thousands of years, do not prove a greater age. They are accounted for by the much larger size of men, animals, and trees before the flood and by the great changes that took place in the earth at the flood. The fourth day was one literal day in a creation week of only seven literal days, with the world now only about six thousand years old.
Satan hates and obscures this revelation of God as Creator in order to lead men into rebellion and infidel fables. Just how God wrought in creation is not revealed, and that work cannot be explained from natural causes nor searched out by human science, for His ways are not as man's ways and His thoughts are not as man's thoughts. In the last days faith will be almost destitute as men receive human reasoning in opposition to what is revealed and rest faith on the suppositions of geologists instead of on what is revealed. It is inconsistent to declare what God has revealed, including the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, too obscure to understand and investigate, while accepting mere suppositions about what He has not revealed.
Sabbath and Daily Life
The first week measured off by God, including the fourth day closed by evening and morning, is the sample for successive weeks to the close of time, originating the weekly cycle of seven literal days with six for labor and the seventh for rest. Six days, including the fourth, were employed in the work of creation, and upon the seventh God rested and blessed and set it apart, so the first six days of each week are given for labor because God employed the same period in creation. At the close of the fourth day was given the result of the Creator's work, and each day was accounted a generation because in it God generated or produced some new portion of His work.
The fourth day belongs to God's great work in six literal days in which He made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, ending on the sixth day with everything very good and the heavens and earth finished. Then God ended His work, rested on the seventh day, and blessed and sanctified it because He rested in it from all His work which He created and made. This proclaimed His will that the seventh day is holy and to be kept from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest, as a sign and perpetual covenant because He worked six days and rested and was refreshed on the seventh, with God pointing back to His example on those first seven days as the reason for observing the week.
To make the days vast indefinite periods instead of seven literal days destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, obscuring what God made very plain and striking at the foundation of the Sabbath. God commanded men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of creation, and to command a literal week in commemoration of indefinite periods is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. To profess belief in the record of creation while holding that view is infidelity in disguise.
Though sin marred God's perfect work and brought thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death, the glad sunshine, the moon in its beauty, and the glory of the starry heavens made on that day still bear witness of the Creator and reveal His goodness, forbearance, and love. The fourth day of God's great work, when the earth came holy and beautiful from His hand, gives the reason for the institution of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath parents should walk with their children amid nature and use these created things to teach them about the Creator and the way of salvation.
God's deliberate use of six days when He could have spoken the world into existence in one teaches against working day and night to exhaustion and turning night into day and day into night. It requires keeping regular hours for sleep and work, stopping when nature says stop and letting the rest go undone until it can be done without exhaustion. Departure from regular hours is permitted only in a case of life or death.
The creation account, including the fourth day, part of the authentic record preserved through the ages in its purity by the divine Mind and Hand and found alone in God's Word, is to be the chief study in schools. It carries minds higher to comprehend important truths concerning eternal life and preserves heart and mind in purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. Education is a failure unless the understanding grasps such truths of divine revelation and the heart accepts the gospel, rather than absorbing time and attention in commonplace trivial matters that dwarf and enfeeble the mind and destroy power of growth. Through it converse is held with patriarchs and prophets and is learned what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life so that a people might stand redeemed from every common earthly thing and renewed in the image of God.
The world was called into existence by creative energy in the Word of God, and that same energy remains in the Word to impart power and beget life. Every command is a promise that, accepted by the will and received into the soul, brings the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature, recreates the soul in the image of God, and sustains the life imparted by every word from the mouth of God. Creation is a reservoir of means ready for instant use to do His pleasure in which nothing made is useless, though the curse caused tares to be sown by the enemy. Rational beings should live to God and honor Him, choosing topics of thought that build mind and character, while the all-wise and all-sufficient Saviour came to reveal His perfection in humanity.