And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
On the first literal day of creation God brought forth light, pronounced it good, and divided the light from the darkness to separate day from night. That day was the first of seven literal days in which heaven and earth and all that is in them were made, measured off as the pattern for every week to the close of time and for man's six days of labor followed by Sabbath rest. The account is the authentic history of the race, preserved in purity and shining with light where human research cannot penetrate, and it is not to be stretched into vast indefinite periods to accommodate science. The same creative energy is still in the Word of God to recreate the soul in His image, while the division itself gives regular hours for work and for sleep that are broken only at peril of health.
First Day's Dividing Work
On the first literal day God did the first work of creation that He pronounced good, generating a new portion of His work that day and giving its productions at the close of the day by pronouncing the light good and dividing the light from the darkness. Each day of the first literal week brought forth some new portion of His work in this same generative manner, with its productions given at the close of each literal day. The dividing keeps day separate from night, giving regular hours for work and regular hours for sleep.
The creating of the world was the mighty, wondrous work the Father and the Son had contemplated and then engaged in together. The earth came forth from God's hand holy, exceedingly beautiful, beautiful and orderly like a noble palace with pure and healthful air. Its surface was diversified with hills, mountains and plains and with rivers and other bodies of water regularly dispersed, with bare rocks hidden beneath as bones to the earth. The hills, mountains and plains were regular and beautiful in shape rather than high and ragged, and were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than now, at which angels beheld and rejoiced.
God made the world in six days though He could have spoken it into existence in one day. Just how God wrought in creation He has never revealed to mortals, and His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence, which human science cannot search out or explain from natural causes. What God spoke created His works in the natural world, and His creation stands as a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure. Nothing He made is useless, since tares exist only because the curse brought sowing by the enemy.
Literal Week and Sabbath
Genesis 1:4 belongs to the six days in which heaven and earth and all that is in them were made, finished with the evening and morning of the sixth day when the work was ended. It is part of the literal Mosaic record of creation, which does not describe an evolution of the earth from chaos over millions of years. That record shows creation to be the work of God and not the result of natural causes, against which human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists are accepted even by professed Christians in opposition to plain Scripture fact. The supposed conflict between science and revelation over creation comes from inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature, and changing the meaning of the days to accommodate the Bible to science undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. It is inconsistent to reject what has been revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while accepting mere suppositions about what has not been revealed in creation.
The creation week was only seven literal days that were made very plain, with six literal days of creation work followed by a literal day of rest. The world as now is only about six thousand years old, and earthly findings and claims that the world existed tens of thousands of years do not change this. The days were not six vast, indefinite periods covering thousands or even millions of years, and the rest day was not another indefinite period. Just how the work accomplished in those six literal days was wrought has never been revealed to mortals, and the creative works are as incomprehensible as existence itself. Bones, petrified wood, and other relics showing much larger men, animals, and trees belong to the time before the flood and to the great changes that then took place, and the time of their existence can be learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history can prove nothing.
The first week originated at creation and was measured off as the sample and first cycle for every successive week to the close of time, originating the weekly cycle of seven literal days. The six days employed in creation include the day on which the light was divided from the darkness, with some new portion of the work generated or produced each day and its productions given at the close of each literal day. Pronouncing the light good and dividing the light from the darkness belongs to that daily generative work of the first literal day of the first literal week.
With the evening and morning of the sixth day the work was finished and ended, and God rested on the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it because He had rested from all His work which He created and made. In this He set it apart as a day of rest for man and thus proclaimed His will for the Sabbath to all the earth. The first six days of each week are given to man for labor because the same period was employed in creation, and on the seventh day man is to refrain from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest after the six days. This makes the reason stated in the Sabbath command beautiful and forcible.
To turn the days into indefinite periods makes obscure what was made plain. It makes the fourth commandment senseless and destroys its force and its claims. It strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It charges God with commanding men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. Even when held by those who profess to believe the record of creation, it is the worst kind of infidelity, infidelity in disguise.
Trusting Record Living Light
Genesis 1:4 belongs to the authentic account of creation found only in God's word, which came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth and has been preserved in its purity through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand. Its light shines into the far distant past where human research cannot penetrate, beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, and it alone gives the history of the human race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Bones, petrified wood and other relics showing much larger men, animals and trees belong to the time before the flood and to the great changes that then took place in the earth, and the time of their existence can be learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history can prove nothing.
Changing the meaning of the days to accommodate the Bible to science undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. The supposed conflict between science and revelation over creation comes from inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature. The great facts of creation are pillars of the Christian faith presenting the living God as maker of the heavens and the earth, to be received with implicit confidence as the guide of life rather than spiritualized and explained away. Sufficient evidence has been given upon which to base faith in the account, leaving men without excuse.
These facts are practically rejected wholly or in part by a large share of the professedly Christian world who regard such confidence as weakness and caviling at Scripture as wisdom and independence. They receive human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists in opposition to plain Scripture fact, count the word unreliable on the merest pretense, and turn from plain precepts to infidel fables under an effort to obscure the law and especially the fourth precept, so that in the last days faith will be almost destitute. It is inconsistent to reject what God has revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while accepting mere suppositions about what God has not revealed in creation. The record is to be the chief study in schools, to carry the minds of students higher than now thought possible and to train heart and mind to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth.
There readers hold converse with patriarchs and prophets and learn what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life that a people might stand before Him redeemed from every common, earthly thing and renewed in the image of God. Education is a failure unless the understanding grasps its truths of divine revelation and eternal life and the heart accepts the gospel, since accepting common ideas and absorbing time and attention in commonplace trivial matters dwarfs and enfeebles the mind and loses power of growth. The creative energy that called the world into existence is in the Word of God, and that Word still imparts power and begets life, with every command a promise that accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life thus imparted is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Rational beings alone should not cause confusion in the world but should live to God and honor Him, for God and Saviour is all-wise and all-sufficient and came to this world so His perfection might be revealed in people.
Sin marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience to God. Yet though marred with the curse the earth still reveals God's goodness, with the glad sunshine and every ray of light shed on an unthankful world, the green fields, lofty trees, clouds, dew, solemn stillness of night, glory of the starry heavens and beauty of the moon all bearing witness of the Creator and testifying to His forbearance and love. Turning night into day and day into night breaks God's division of light from darkness and is poor policy that never pays, spending strength that is never recovered and leading to breakdown, invalidism and helplessness. God's taking six days models steady labor that stops when nature says stop and preserves powers, keeping regular hours for work and regular hours for sleep and departing from them only in a case of life or death.
On the first literal day of creation God brought forth light, pronounced it good, and divided the light from the darkness to separate day from night. That day was the first of seven literal days in which heaven and earth and all that is in them were made, measured off as the pattern for every week to the close of time and for man's six days of labor followed by Sabbath rest. The account is the authentic history of the race, preserved in purity and shining with light where human research cannot penetrate, and it is not to be stretched into vast indefinite periods to accommodate science. The same creative energy is still in the Word of God to recreate the soul in His image, while the division itself gives regular hours for work and for sleep that are broken only at peril of health.
First Day's Dividing Work
On the first literal day God did the first work of creation that He pronounced good, generating a new portion of His work that day and giving its productions at the close of the day by pronouncing the light good and dividing the light from the darkness. Each day of the first literal week brought forth some new portion of His work in this same generative manner, with its productions given at the close of each literal day. The dividing keeps day separate from night, giving regular hours for work and regular hours for sleep.
The creating of the world was the mighty, wondrous work the Father and the Son had contemplated and then engaged in together. The earth came forth from God's hand holy, exceedingly beautiful, beautiful and orderly like a noble palace with pure and healthful air. Its surface was diversified with hills, mountains and plains and with rivers and other bodies of water regularly dispersed, with bare rocks hidden beneath as bones to the earth. The hills, mountains and plains were regular and beautiful in shape rather than high and ragged, and were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees of every description many times larger and much more beautiful than now, at which angels beheld and rejoiced.
God made the world in six days though He could have spoken it into existence in one day. Just how God wrought in creation He has never revealed to mortals, and His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence, which human science cannot search out or explain from natural causes. What God spoke created His works in the natural world, and His creation stands as a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure. Nothing He made is useless, since tares exist only because the curse brought sowing by the enemy.
Literal Week and Sabbath
Genesis 1:4 belongs to the six days in which heaven and earth and all that is in them were made, finished with the evening and morning of the sixth day when the work was ended. It is part of the literal Mosaic record of creation, which does not describe an evolution of the earth from chaos over millions of years. That record shows creation to be the work of God and not the result of natural causes, against which human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists are accepted even by professed Christians in opposition to plain Scripture fact. The supposed conflict between science and revelation over creation comes from inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature, and changing the meaning of the days to accommodate the Bible to science undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. It is inconsistent to reject what has been revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while accepting mere suppositions about what has not been revealed in creation.
The creation week was only seven literal days that were made very plain, with six literal days of creation work followed by a literal day of rest. The world as now is only about six thousand years old, and earthly findings and claims that the world existed tens of thousands of years do not change this. The days were not six vast, indefinite periods covering thousands or even millions of years, and the rest day was not another indefinite period. Just how the work accomplished in those six literal days was wrought has never been revealed to mortals, and the creative works are as incomprehensible as existence itself. Bones, petrified wood, and other relics showing much larger men, animals, and trees belong to the time before the flood and to the great changes that then took place, and the time of their existence can be learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history can prove nothing.
The first week originated at creation and was measured off as the sample and first cycle for every successive week to the close of time, originating the weekly cycle of seven literal days. The six days employed in creation include the day on which the light was divided from the darkness, with some new portion of the work generated or produced each day and its productions given at the close of each literal day. Pronouncing the light good and dividing the light from the darkness belongs to that daily generative work of the first literal day of the first literal week.
With the evening and morning of the sixth day the work was finished and ended, and God rested on the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it because He had rested from all His work which He created and made. In this He set it apart as a day of rest for man and thus proclaimed His will for the Sabbath to all the earth. The first six days of each week are given to man for labor because the same period was employed in creation, and on the seventh day man is to refrain from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest after the six days. This makes the reason stated in the Sabbath command beautiful and forcible.
To turn the days into indefinite periods makes obscure what was made plain. It makes the fourth commandment senseless and destroys its force and its claims. It strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It charges God with commanding men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with mortals and impeaches His wisdom. Even when held by those who profess to believe the record of creation, it is the worst kind of infidelity, infidelity in disguise.
Trusting Record Living Light
Genesis 1:4 belongs to the authentic account of creation found only in God's word, which came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth and has been preserved in its purity through all ages by the divine Mind and Hand. Its light shines into the far distant past where human research cannot penetrate, beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens, and it alone gives the history of the human race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride. Bones, petrified wood and other relics showing much larger men, animals and trees belong to the time before the flood and to the great changes that then took place in the earth, and the time of their existence can be learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history can prove nothing.
Changing the meaning of the days to accommodate the Bible to science undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. The supposed conflict between science and revelation over creation comes from inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature. The great facts of creation are pillars of the Christian faith presenting the living God as maker of the heavens and the earth, to be received with implicit confidence as the guide of life rather than spiritualized and explained away. Sufficient evidence has been given upon which to base faith in the account, leaving men without excuse.
These facts are practically rejected wholly or in part by a large share of the professedly Christian world who regard such confidence as weakness and caviling at Scripture as wisdom and independence. They receive human reasoning and the suppositions of geologists in opposition to plain Scripture fact, count the word unreliable on the merest pretense, and turn from plain precepts to infidel fables under an effort to obscure the law and especially the fourth precept, so that in the last days faith will be almost destitute. It is inconsistent to reject what God has revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while accepting mere suppositions about what God has not revealed in creation. The record is to be the chief study in schools, to carry the minds of students higher than now thought possible and to train heart and mind to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth.
There readers hold converse with patriarchs and prophets and learn what redemption cost the One who was equal with the Father from the beginning and sacrificed His life that a people might stand before Him redeemed from every common, earthly thing and renewed in the image of God. Education is a failure unless the understanding grasps its truths of divine revelation and eternal life and the heart accepts the gospel, since accepting common ideas and absorbing time and attention in commonplace trivial matters dwarfs and enfeebles the mind and loses power of growth. The creative energy that called the world into existence is in the Word of God, and that Word still imparts power and begets life, with every command a promise that accepted by the will and received into the soul brings with it the life of the Infinite One, transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life thus imparted is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Rational beings alone should not cause confusion in the world but should live to God and honor Him, for God and Saviour is all-wise and all-sufficient and came to this world so His perfection might be revealed in people.
Sin marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience to God. Yet though marred with the curse the earth still reveals God's goodness, with the glad sunshine and every ray of light shed on an unthankful world, the green fields, lofty trees, clouds, dew, solemn stillness of night, glory of the starry heavens and beauty of the moon all bearing witness of the Creator and testifying to His forbearance and love. Turning night into day and day into night breaks God's division of light from darkness and is poor policy that never pays, spending strength that is never recovered and leading to breakdown, invalidism and helplessness. God's taking six days models steady labor that stops when nature says stop and preserves powers, keeping regular hours for work and regular hours for sleep and departing from them only in a case of life or death.