Obst 515 Db1

View of Creation

I hold to the Historic Creationism view of creation. I believe the six days of creation are literally six, twenty-four hour days. Specialized expressions such as light and darkness, day and night, and evening and morning, appear to require this interpretation. The use of numerical adjectives with yom, throughout the Creation account, also appear to require this interpretation. These arguments provide good reason to accept the normal understanding of “day” in Genesis 1.

The article further contributes to my understanding of the debate over Creation when it brings up Exodus 20:11. Exodus 20:11 buttresses the Historic Creationism theory, asserting that within “six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. (KJV)”

Furthermore, the author notes that God commanded Israel to imitate the pattern He set in Genesis 1 by working six days out of the week and resting on the seventh (Ex. 20:8-11; 31:12-17) (Driscoll, 93). In my humble opinion, this is one of the strongest arguments in favor of the six days of creation being literal twenty-four hour days. I do not believe God would have instructed Israel to imitate the Genesis 1 pattern if it was not the pattern He had used for Creation.

Influence of Genesis 1-3

I firmly believe that whenever possible, the Bible should be interpreted literally. There are a couple details in Genesis 1-3 that have influenced me to utilize a literal interpretation. First, in Genesis 1:14 (ESV) we read, “And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.’” No one questions that the “days” and “years” referred to in this passage are literal. It is unnatural to suppose that the author suddenly shifted from speaking about ages to normal days, while using the same word for each....