Light Breaking Into the Darkness at CreationBible World
1:5Genesis 1:5
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
The verse marks the first of six plain, literal days made of evening and morning, not vast ages of thousands or millions of years. On that day the Father and the Son began the mighty work of making the world, bringing forth the earth exceedingly beautiful and perfect from the Creator's hand. Those six days of work crowned by a seventh day of rest measured off the first weekly cycle and set the pattern for every week, giving the reason man is to labor six days and keep the seventh as holy rest. To stretch the days into long ages to make room for the earth evolving from chaos by natural causes rests on mistaken inferences from nature and destroys the force of God's Word and of the Sabbath command. The same Word that called the world into being still carries creating power to transform the nature and recreate the soul in the image of God when received into the heart.
The Literal First Day
The first day was an ordinary, plain, literal, definite day made of evening and morning, like every other day since that time, and not a vast indefinite period covering thousands or millions of years. The same is true of each of the first six days of creation week, with each successive day consisting of the evening and the morning like all other days that have followed. There were no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos.
The day made by evening and morning began the numbered days of creation, setting the pattern that runs through six days in which God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. Evening and morning marked each day to the sixth day when everything was very good. At the close of each day the record gives the result of the Creator's work for that day.
On each of the six days God produced some new portion of His work, so each day is counted as a generation of the heavens and the earth. The six days of work plus the seventh day of rest measured off the first weekly cycle. The six days were God's choice for making the world, for He could have spoken the world into existence in one day.
The verse records the first day of the mighty, wondrous work of creating the world done together by the Father and the Son. The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful like a noble palace with pure and healthful air. Its surface was diversified with hills, mountains and plains and regularly dispersed rivers and other waters, with the hills and mountains regular and beautiful rather than high and ragged. The bare high rocks were hidden beneath the surface answering as bones to the earth, and the hills, mountains and plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, which angels beheld and rejoiced over.
The creation week was only seven literal days, six days of work and one day of rest, and the world is now only about six thousand years old, with the rest day no indefinite period either. Bones of men and animals, instruments of warfare, and petrified wood found in mountains and valleys, much larger than those now living, belong to the state of things before the flood when men, animals, and trees were larger. They show the great changes that took place in the earth at that time, whose time is learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history proves nothing about time. Just how God accomplished the work in six literal days was never revealed to mortals and belongs with the secret things that belong to God, which human science cannot search out, and His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence.
Trusting and Living Creation
Genesis 1:5 belongs to the literal Mosaic record of creation, the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and its purity was preserved through all the ages by a divine hand and mind. It shines with bright rays into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate, beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens. It gives a history of the human race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride, and the Word of God alone gives this authentic account of the creation of the world. It presents in plain Scripture facts sufficient evidence for faith and makes known God as the living maker of the heavens and the earth.
Those facts of creation are pillars of the Christian faith, part of God's holy Word handed down at cost of suffering and blood. They are within reach of all, to be accepted with implicit confidence as the guide of life. To reject them wholly or in part, to cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths as evidence of wisdom and independence, is infidelity prevailing to an alarming extent not in the world merely but in the church. Such a course shows the Bible is but little valued and that agencies are uniting against truth and righteousness.
Interpreting the days as long ages to accommodate the claim that millions of years were required for the earth to evolve from chaos rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature. That interpretation produces only a supposed conflict between science and revelation, and undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. Each successive day consisted of evening and morning like all other days that have followed, proving there were no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos. Accounting for creation by natural principles apart from God's word puts men on a boundless ocean of uncertainty.
What God has revealed is to be accepted over human reasoning that explains creation as the result of natural causes and over the suppositions of geologists that dispute, oppose, and contradict the plain record. Conjecturing beyond that record is innocent only when it does not contradict Scripture. Faith must not rest on mere suppositions about what God has not revealed while calling His revealed word unreliable. It is inconsistent to oppose investigation of what He has revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while eagerly receiving mere suppositions about what He has not revealed.
The first day, made by evening and morning, began the numbered days of creation and originated the week at creation. It set the sample for every week to the close of time, measuring off the weekly cycle of six days for labor and the seventh for rest. God employed the first six days in the work of creation and then ended His work, rested on the seventh day from all His work which He created and made, blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and set it apart for the use of man in commemoration of that rest. On each of the six days He produced some new portion of His work, so each day is counted as a generation of the heavens and the earth.
This order proclaims God's will to all the earth that six days are for work and the seventh day is holy. God commanded men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of that first week. The Sabbath command from Sinai points back to that example as the reason man is given six days to labor and must refrain from labor and keep the seventh as rest, which makes the reason for the Sabbath beautiful and forcible. To make the days indefinite vast periods destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, obscures what God made plain, and impeaches His wisdom in dealing with mortals.
God's great work of creation is the reason for the institution of the Sabbath and is to be told to children on Sabbath walks in the fields and groves amid the beautiful things of nature. When the earth came from His hand it was holy and beautiful, every flower, shrub and tree answering its Creator's purpose, everything upon which the eye rested lovely and filling the mind with thoughts of God's love, every sound music in harmony with God's voice. Sin afterward marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience. Though marred with the curse, the earth still reveals God's goodness and bears witness of the Creator, testifying to His forbearance and love in the green fields, the lofty trees, the glad sunshine, the clouds, the dew, the solemn stillness of the night, the glory of the starry heavens, the moon in its beauty, every drop of rain and every ray of light.
The world was called into existence by the Word of God, and the creative energy that made the world is still in that Word. That Word imparts power and begets life, and every command is a promise bringing the life of God when accepted by the will and received into the soul. That life transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life so given is sustained by every word from the mouth of God. Since mind and soul are built up by what they feed on, a person can choose to feed on the Scriptures and let its topics shape the character.
The creation account is to be the chief study in schools, to carry students' minds higher than many now think possible. It trains the understanding to grasp the truths of divine revelation and the important truths that concern eternal life, and trains heart and mind to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. In it is held converse with patriarchs and prophets, and is learned what redemption cost Christ, 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.
God set day apart for work and night apart for sleep, and this order must be kept with regular hours for each, broken only in a case of life or death. Turning night into day and day into night by working day and night to exhaustion is poor policy that spends strength never recovered, breaks down health, and makes the overworker helpless and a burden on others. God's taking six days to make the world gives the example against rush and hurry and overstraining pressure. It teaches the duty to stop when nature says stop in order to keep the mind healthy, work with efficiency, and preserve powers with strength in reserve.
God spoke, and His words created His works in the natural world. His creation is a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure, and nothing He made is useless. The curse has caused tares to be sown by the enemy. Rational beings 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 that His perfection might be revealed in human beings.
The verse marks the first of six plain, literal days made of evening and morning, not vast ages of thousands or millions of years. On that day the Father and the Son began the mighty work of making the world, bringing forth the earth exceedingly beautiful and perfect from the Creator's hand. Those six days of work crowned by a seventh day of rest measured off the first weekly cycle and set the pattern for every week, giving the reason man is to labor six days and keep the seventh as holy rest. To stretch the days into long ages to make room for the earth evolving from chaos by natural causes rests on mistaken inferences from nature and destroys the force of God's Word and of the Sabbath command. The same Word that called the world into being still carries creating power to transform the nature and recreate the soul in the image of God when received into the heart.
The Literal First Day
The first day was an ordinary, plain, literal, definite day made of evening and morning, like every other day since that time, and not a vast indefinite period covering thousands or millions of years. The same is true of each of the first six days of creation week, with each successive day consisting of the evening and the morning like all other days that have followed. There were no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos.
The day made by evening and morning began the numbered days of creation, setting the pattern that runs through six days in which God made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. Evening and morning marked each day to the sixth day when everything was very good. At the close of each day the record gives the result of the Creator's work for that day.
On each of the six days God produced some new portion of His work, so each day is counted as a generation of the heavens and the earth. The six days of work plus the seventh day of rest measured off the first weekly cycle. The six days were God's choice for making the world, for He could have spoken the world into existence in one day.
The verse records the first day of the mighty, wondrous work of creating the world done together by the Father and the Son. The earth came forth from the Creator's hand exceedingly beautiful like a noble palace with pure and healthful air. Its surface was diversified with hills, mountains and plains and regularly dispersed rivers and other waters, with the hills and mountains regular and beautiful rather than high and ragged. The bare high rocks were hidden beneath the surface answering as bones to the earth, and the hills, mountains and plains were adorned with plants and flowers and tall, majestic trees many times larger and much more beautiful than trees now are, which angels beheld and rejoiced over.
The creation week was only seven literal days, six days of work and one day of rest, and the world is now only about six thousand years old, with the rest day no indefinite period either. Bones of men and animals, instruments of warfare, and petrified wood found in mountains and valleys, much larger than those now living, belong to the state of things before the flood when men, animals, and trees were larger. They show the great changes that took place in the earth at that time, whose time is learned only from the inspired record, since geology without Bible history proves nothing about time. Just how God accomplished the work in six literal days was never revealed to mortals and belongs with the secret things that belong to God, which human science cannot search out, and His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence.
Trusting and Living Creation
Genesis 1:5 belongs to the literal Mosaic record of creation, the most comprehensive and most instructive history possessed by men. That history came fresh from the fountain of eternal truth, and its purity was preserved through all the ages by a divine hand and mind. It shines with bright rays into the far distant past where human research seeks vainly to penetrate, beholding the power that laid the foundation of the earth and stretched out the heavens. It gives a history of the human race unsullied by human prejudice or human pride, and the Word of God alone gives this authentic account of the creation of the world. It presents in plain Scripture facts sufficient evidence for faith and makes known God as the living maker of the heavens and the earth.
Those facts of creation are pillars of the Christian faith, part of God's holy Word handed down at cost of suffering and blood. They are within reach of all, to be accepted with implicit confidence as the guide of life. To reject them wholly or in part, to cavil at the Scriptures and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths as evidence of wisdom and independence, is infidelity prevailing to an alarming extent not in the world merely but in the church. Such a course shows the Bible is but little valued and that agencies are uniting against truth and righteousness.
Interpreting the days as long ages to accommodate the claim that millions of years were required for the earth to evolve from chaos rests on inferences erroneously drawn from facts observed in nature. That interpretation produces only a supposed conflict between science and revelation, and undermines and destroys the force of the word of God. Each successive day consisted of evening and morning like all other days that have followed, proving there were no long ages in which the earth was evolved from chaos. Accounting for creation by natural principles apart from God's word puts men on a boundless ocean of uncertainty.
What God has revealed is to be accepted over human reasoning that explains creation as the result of natural causes and over the suppositions of geologists that dispute, oppose, and contradict the plain record. Conjecturing beyond that record is innocent only when it does not contradict Scripture. Faith must not rest on mere suppositions about what God has not revealed while calling His revealed word unreliable. It is inconsistent to oppose investigation of what He has revealed in the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation as too obscure to understand while eagerly receiving mere suppositions about what He has not revealed.
The first day, made by evening and morning, began the numbered days of creation and originated the week at creation. It set the sample for every week to the close of time, measuring off the weekly cycle of six days for labor and the seventh for rest. God employed the first six days in the work of creation and then ended His work, rested on the seventh day from all His work which He created and made, blessed the seventh day and sanctified it and set it apart for the use of man in commemoration of that rest. On each of the six days He produced some new portion of His work, so each day is counted as a generation of the heavens and the earth.
This order proclaims God's will to all the earth that six days are for work and the seventh day is holy. God commanded men to observe a week of seven literal days in commemoration of that first week. The Sabbath command from Sinai points back to that example as the reason man is given six days to labor and must refrain from labor and keep the seventh as rest, which makes the reason for the Sabbath beautiful and forcible. To make the days indefinite vast periods destroys the force of the fourth commandment and makes it senseless, obscures what God made plain, and impeaches His wisdom in dealing with mortals.
God's great work of creation is the reason for the institution of the Sabbath and is to be told to children on Sabbath walks in the fields and groves amid the beautiful things of nature. When the earth came from His hand it was holy and beautiful, every flower, shrub and tree answering its Creator's purpose, everything upon which the eye rested lovely and filling the mind with thoughts of God's love, every sound music in harmony with God's voice. Sin afterward marred that perfect work, and thorns and thistles, sorrow and pain and death are all the result of disobedience. Though marred with the curse, the earth still reveals God's goodness and bears witness of the Creator, testifying to His forbearance and love in the green fields, the lofty trees, the glad sunshine, the clouds, the dew, the solemn stillness of the night, the glory of the starry heavens, the moon in its beauty, every drop of rain and every ray of light.
The world was called into existence by the Word of God, and the creative energy that made the world is still in that Word. That Word imparts power and begets life, and every command is a promise bringing the life of God when accepted by the will and received into the soul. That life transforms the nature and recreates the soul in the image of God, and the life so given is sustained by every word from the mouth of God. Since mind and soul are built up by what they feed on, a person can choose to feed on the Scriptures and let its topics shape the character.
The creation account is to be the chief study in schools, to carry students' minds higher than many now think possible. It trains the understanding to grasp the truths of divine revelation and the important truths that concern eternal life, and trains heart and mind to preserve purity by daily supplies from the fountain of eternal truth. In it is held converse with patriarchs and prophets, and is learned what redemption cost Christ, 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.
God set day apart for work and night apart for sleep, and this order must be kept with regular hours for each, broken only in a case of life or death. Turning night into day and day into night by working day and night to exhaustion is poor policy that spends strength never recovered, breaks down health, and makes the overworker helpless and a burden on others. God's taking six days to make the world gives the example against rush and hurry and overstraining pressure. It teaches the duty to stop when nature says stop in order to keep the mind healthy, work with efficiency, and preserve powers with strength in reserve.
God spoke, and His words created His works in the natural world. His creation is a reservoir of means made ready for Him to employ instantly to do His pleasure, and nothing He made is useless. The curse has caused tares to be sown by the enemy. Rational beings 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 that His perfection might be revealed in human beings.