İzlediğiniz için teşekkür ederim.
In Genesis 2, God assigns humanity the task of joining in his mission.
is based on a literal interpretation of Genesis 1, and I put literal in quotation marks,
but that Christians historically have never interpreted Genesis in the so-called literal method advocated by some young earth proponents.
Let me just say on this point, in America, there are certain creationists who hold that to hold to creation one must believe that the earth is only 10,000 years old or less.
And this has caused great harm to the creationist movement in America, and I want to respond at this time to their arguments.
So first...
And this imagery is found throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation.
So the six days of Genesis 1 are the account of God establishing his kingdom by inaugurating the world as his temple.
So, second, Genesis 1 presents God's inaugurating his temple in six days, or six episodes.
So first, we see in Genesis 1, where God creates the heaven and the earth, because it says,
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
This verse teaches that God created without the use of any pre-existing materials, without any opposition, and by the mere power of his word.
Now, this is very important, because this is radically different from all other ancient creation stories from the surrounding area that was held by the pagans.
The Babylonians, the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Assyrians, the Canaanites, the Egyptians, all had creation stories.
But all those stories were filled with warfare, conflict, and opposition.
The creator deity in those stories was not transcendent.
He was not sovereign, nor was he necessarily good.
Moses is letting us know that the God of the Bible is fundamentally different from the pagan gods of the surrounding cultures.
So that was verse 1.
God created the heavens and the earth.
But verse 2 then says that the earth was without form, and it was void.
In other words, it was unformed and unfilled, and it was disordered.
This disorder is not to be understood as evil or demonic, but it was untamed and unruly.
So how are we to understand the disorder of the original creation?
I think that a good analogy would be, it would be like a room of unruly school children.
They're not evil, but they're not organized either.
So the notions of unformed and unfilled provide the theological framework for the next 28 verses about the six days of creation.
And so that's the third thing that we see.
From verse 3 through 31, God establishes the world as his cosmic temple in six days or episodes.
First, God fills and forms and fills that which he has created.
In the first three days, God forms the world.
In the last three days, God fills the world.
Days 1, 2, and 3, God forms the water, the sky, and the land.
In days 4, 5, and 6, God fills the water, sky, and land.
And then he establishes order over that which he has created, because it says, and God separated.
This separation process, God separates and divides the day from the night, the waters and the land, the fish from the fowl.
God advances his kingdom by establishing order.
And then the next thing Moses presents to us is that God establishes his sovereignty over that which he has created.
Because it would then say, and then God called.
Now, by calling or naming, he named a created item.
God gave it a function and established his authority over it.
When he calls the light day, and then he calls the darkness night.
God is establishing his divine authority.
This process of naming is the establishing of God's kingdom and temple.
We will see this again in Genesis 2, where God calls upon Adam to name the animals.
And by Adam naming the animals, Adam is establishing his authority, our humanity's authority, over the animals of the earth.
Next, we see where God, the Bible presents God's actions in exalted prose, in a highly sophisticated presentation.
So Moses is going to use the repetition of certain phrases to emphasize the power, majesty, and wisdom of God as he works.
The emphasis is on God's sovereign actions and thoughts using key words and expressions.
Moses uses these phrases over and over in order to make a point.
The four-fold formula is announcement, commandment, report, and then evaluation.
First, we have the announcement.
Each day begins with, and God said.
These brief statements by God then drive the narrative.
And then the second is the commandment.
Let there be, or an equivalent.
For God to speak is for God to act.
And his actions are irresistible.
Then there's the report that we read.
And it would say, and so God made, or its equivalent.
Everything Moses is teaching us exists by God's express will, purpose, and word.
And then there would be the evaluation, is the fourth thing.
And God saw that it was good.
Because creation satisfies God's purposes, it has value.
Along with God's evaluation came his blessing.
So, the Bible distinguishes between God's creative episodes by calling them days.
Now, soon I will discuss theological reasons for understanding the days non-literally.
Let me briefly list some exegetical reasons for viewing the seven days as something other than 24-hour periods.
First, the day yom, or day, is used in at least three different ways in Genesis 1 and 2.
In chapter 1 and verse 5, God calls the light day, referring to daytime.
In chapter 2 and verse 4, Moses uses the expression, in the day, referring to an indefinite period of time.
And then the third, at the end of each of the seven creative periods, the word is used again.
And often it does mean 24-hour periods, but not always.
And then the second reason is because of the ordination of the sun and the moon on the fourth day.
And this is verses 14-19 of chapter 1.
They were not given the task of determining days, hours, weeks, and months until the fourth episode or the fourth day.
This requires that at least the first three days are not literal 24-hour days.
And then the third thing we see is the refrain that's repeated evening and morning.
It does not refer to 24 hours.
The refrain does not even refer to daytime.
Rather, the refrain refers to nighttime.
Here we have accommodated imagery of God resting.
And I'll explain this further.
In the evening, after working all day.
As I will explain further, this imagery lets us know that we should not interpret this literally.
And then the fourth thing is the seventh day has not ended.
According to John's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 17.
In Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 3-11.
God is presently enjoying his Sabbath rest.
This means that the seventh day has lasted for thousands of years.
And therefore cannot refer to a literal 24-hour day.
And then humanity is the crowning feature of creation in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 1.
On the sixth day, God does something truly unique.
He makes beings that can reflect God's nature.
The text says, man and women are created in God's image.
It says, let us make man in our image after our likeness.
Man and women are given authority.
Let them have dominion is what the text says.
Humanity is given the task of managing God's creation on earth.
And then man and woman are given a mandate.
Where God says to them, be fruitful and multiply.
Adam and Eve were commissioned to expand the Garden of Eden.
So that the blessings of God's kingdom would extend to the entire world.
The commission is made even more explicit in Genesis chapter 2.
That brings up my third point.
And where I want to focus my talk for the remainder of my time.
And I am paying attention to the time that I have allotted.
The third point.
We must interpret the days of Genesis 1 non-literally.
The biblical doctrine of God requires that we interpret the days of Genesis 1 as an accommodated language.
Recently, I spoke on a university campus in which I presented an old earth interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2.
A student asked, why shouldn't we believe that Genesis 1 is referring to six literal 24-hour days?
Shouldn't we interpret the Bible literally?
I answered that typically we should interpret the Bible literally unless the biblical text under consideration itself gives us good reasons not to do so.
Genesis 1 and 2 provides us not with just good reasons, but compelling reasons for interpreting the six days as longer than normal 24-hour periods.
The Bible almost always presents God's actions in analogous and anthropomorphic language.
This is a crucial point that needs to be explained further.
What do I mean?
The Bible teaches that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent.
Now, what is the definition of omnipotent?
That means that God is all-powerful.
The definition of omniscience means that God is all-knowing.
The definition of omnipresence is that God is everywhere present.
So, the Bible also presents God in anthropomorphic, accommodated, and an analogous matter.
When God presents God acting, or the scripture presents God acting, it generally does so using accommodated language.
This is clearly evident in Genesis, especially in the creation account of Genesis 1 and 2.
Well, I need to explain further, what do I mean by, what are the definitions of anthropomorphism, accommodation, and analogy?
Well, the definition of anthropomorphism is that God in the Bible is sometimes described in human terms so that we may understand what he is doing.
Sometimes the Bible presents God as thinking, deciding, or changing his mind.
Or the definition of accommodation, where God provides his revelation in terms that the original audience could understand.
Now, this is an accommodation to limitation.
It is not an accommodation to error, because the Bible is inerrant and has no errors in it at all.
And then the definition of analogy.
God reveals himself to us through the use of similarities.
For example, the Bible describes God as our rock, our shield, our fortress.
These are analogies.
God is not made out of stone or metal.
God is spirit.
Well, here are some examples of anthropomorphism, a combination and analogy, in Genesis and in the writings of Moses concerning creation.
For example, when God brought the animals to Adam, it says,
God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them.
Now, remember, God is all-knowing.
A literal interpretation would imply that God didn't know what names Adam was going to give the animals.
Therefore, we do not.
Christians have never interpreted this verse literally.
Another example in Genesis is when God spoke to Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it says in Genesis 18,
Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave,
I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.
And if not, I will know.
Now, remember, God is present everywhere.
A literal interpretation would imply that not only did God not know what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah,
but that he was absent from those cities.
Therefore, Christians have never interpreted these verses literally.
Or, again, when it speaks of God's refreshment on the seventh day.
Exodus 31.
This will be the sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth,
and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
My young earth creationist brethren want to say that this verse teaches that God created in six literal days.
But we do not interpret this verse literally.
Because, remember, God is all-powerful.
God is never fatigued.
He is never tired.
The expression, refresh, means caught his breath.
A literal interpretation would imply that God was tired and needed to regain his strength.
Therefore, a literal interpretation is not acceptable.
God's activities during the seven days of Genesis 1 and the human work week have many similarities.
But they also have many differences.
God only worked one week.
We work many weeks.
His creative activity was different.
We create using pre-existing materials.
God created out of nothing.
Moses makes an analogy in Exodus.
But the prophet was not teaching that God created in a literal week.
So, how would we conclude?
We have seen that the Bible presents God as one who is on mission.
This mission begins in Genesis 1 where God inaugurates the universe to be his temple.
God's activities are presented as seven days or seven episodes.
In Genesis chapter 2, God assigns humanity the task of joining in his mission.
But in Genesis 3, humanity fails miserably.
The remainder of the Bible is the account of God completing his mission and redeeming humanity in the process.
The New Testament repeatedly refers to Jesus Christ as the second Adam.
When the Bible presents God in action, it nearly always does so in an accommodated, analogous language.
For this reason, it is theologically essential that the days of creation in Genesis 1 be interpreted in non-literal terms.
Thank you so very much.