WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:29.980 İzlediğiniz için teşekkür ederim. 00:30.000 --> 00:59.980 İzlediğiniz için teşekkür ederim. 01:00.000 --> 01:29.980 İzlediğiniz için teşekkür ederim. 01:30.000 --> 01:39.080 In Genesis 2, God assigns humanity the task of joining in his mission. 01:39.080 --> 02:09.080 02:09.080 --> 02:15.860 is based on a literal interpretation of Genesis 1, and I put literal in quotation marks, 02:15.860 --> 02:25.900 but that Christians historically have never interpreted Genesis in the so-called literal method advocated by some young earth proponents. 02:25.900 --> 02:40.160 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. 02:40.160 --> 02:49.380 And this has caused great harm to the creationist movement in America, and I want to respond at this time to their arguments. 02:49.380 --> 02:51.380 So first... 02:51.380 --> 03:21.380 03:21.380 --> 03:30.740 And this imagery is found throughout the Bible, from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation. 03:30.740 --> 03:41.220 So the six days of Genesis 1 are the account of God establishing his kingdom by inaugurating the world as his temple. 03:41.220 --> 03:50.880 So, second, Genesis 1 presents God's inaugurating his temple in six days, or six episodes. 03:50.880 --> 03:58.220 So first, we see in Genesis 1, where God creates the heaven and the earth, because it says, 03:58.740 --> 04:02.700 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 04:02.700 --> 04:15.340 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. 04:15.340 --> 04:27.620 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. 04:27.620 --> 04:37.680 The Babylonians, the Babylonians, the Sumerians, the Assyrians, the Canaanites, the Egyptians, all had creation stories. 04:38.140 --> 04:43.760 But all those stories were filled with warfare, conflict, and opposition. 04:44.900 --> 04:49.340 The creator deity in those stories was not transcendent. 04:49.340 --> 04:53.540 He was not sovereign, nor was he necessarily good. 04:53.540 --> 05:03.860 Moses is letting us know that the God of the Bible is fundamentally different from the pagan gods of the surrounding cultures. 05:04.420 --> 05:06.000 So that was verse 1. 05:06.300 --> 05:08.260 God created the heavens and the earth. 05:08.740 --> 05:14.320 But verse 2 then says that the earth was without form, and it was void. 05:14.820 --> 05:19.620 In other words, it was unformed and unfilled, and it was disordered. 05:19.620 --> 05:29.620 This disorder is not to be understood as evil or demonic, but it was untamed and unruly. 05:29.620 --> 05:34.920 So how are we to understand the disorder of the original creation? 05:35.520 --> 05:40.960 I think that a good analogy would be, it would be like a room of unruly school children. 05:41.540 --> 05:44.960 They're not evil, but they're not organized either. 05:44.960 --> 05:58.460 So the notions of unformed and unfilled provide the theological framework for the next 28 verses about the six days of creation. 05:59.280 --> 06:00.860 And so that's the third thing that we see. 06:01.460 --> 06:10.200 From verse 3 through 31, God establishes the world as his cosmic temple in six days or episodes. 06:10.200 --> 06:17.840 First, God fills and forms and fills that which he has created. 06:18.320 --> 06:21.220 In the first three days, God forms the world. 06:21.520 --> 06:24.160 In the last three days, God fills the world. 06:24.740 --> 06:30.540 Days 1, 2, and 3, God forms the water, the sky, and the land. 06:31.400 --> 06:37.160 In days 4, 5, and 6, God fills the water, sky, and land. 06:37.160 --> 06:45.500 And then he establishes order over that which he has created, because it says, and God separated. 06:46.020 --> 06:56.780 This separation process, God separates and divides the day from the night, the waters and the land, the fish from the fowl. 06:57.320 --> 07:01.320 God advances his kingdom by establishing order. 07:01.320 --> 07:09.940 And then the next thing Moses presents to us is that God establishes his sovereignty over that which he has created. 07:10.380 --> 07:13.140 Because it would then say, and then God called. 07:13.920 --> 07:18.440 Now, by calling or naming, he named a created item. 07:18.780 --> 07:22.720 God gave it a function and established his authority over it. 07:23.180 --> 07:27.400 When he calls the light day, and then he calls the darkness night. 07:27.400 --> 07:30.940 God is establishing his divine authority. 07:31.660 --> 07:37.440 This process of naming is the establishing of God's kingdom and temple. 07:37.580 --> 07:44.100 We will see this again in Genesis 2, where God calls upon Adam to name the animals. 07:44.600 --> 07:54.720 And by Adam naming the animals, Adam is establishing his authority, our humanity's authority, over the animals of the earth. 07:54.720 --> 08:06.100 Next, we see where God, the Bible presents God's actions in exalted prose, in a highly sophisticated presentation. 08:06.440 --> 08:16.900 So Moses is going to use the repetition of certain phrases to emphasize the power, majesty, and wisdom of God as he works. 08:17.440 --> 08:22.640 The emphasis is on God's sovereign actions and thoughts using key words and expressions. 08:22.640 --> 08:28.600 Moses uses these phrases over and over in order to make a point. 08:28.600 --> 08:35.600 The four-fold formula is announcement, commandment, report, and then evaluation. 08:36.400 --> 08:38.000 First, we have the announcement. 08:38.720 --> 08:41.620 Each day begins with, and God said. 08:42.240 --> 08:45.940 These brief statements by God then drive the narrative. 08:46.660 --> 08:48.960 And then the second is the commandment. 08:48.960 --> 08:51.140 Let there be, or an equivalent. 08:51.780 --> 08:55.000 For God to speak is for God to act. 08:55.520 --> 08:57.860 And his actions are irresistible. 08:58.680 --> 09:00.500 Then there's the report that we read. 09:00.880 --> 09:03.640 And it would say, and so God made, or its equivalent. 09:04.500 --> 09:11.240 Everything Moses is teaching us exists by God's express will, purpose, and word. 09:11.800 --> 09:14.480 And then there would be the evaluation, is the fourth thing. 09:14.800 --> 09:17.200 And God saw that it was good. 09:17.200 --> 09:22.320 Because creation satisfies God's purposes, it has value. 09:22.900 --> 09:26.500 Along with God's evaluation came his blessing. 09:27.200 --> 09:34.760 So, the Bible distinguishes between God's creative episodes by calling them days. 09:35.400 --> 09:40.680 Now, soon I will discuss theological reasons for understanding the days non-literally. 09:40.680 --> 09:49.500 Let me briefly list some exegetical reasons for viewing the seven days as something other than 24-hour periods. 09:50.020 --> 09:55.620 First, the day yom, or day, is used in at least three different ways in Genesis 1 and 2. 09:56.500 --> 10:01.920 In chapter 1 and verse 5, God calls the light day, referring to daytime. 10:01.920 --> 10:11.280 In chapter 2 and verse 4, Moses uses the expression, in the day, referring to an indefinite period of time. 10:11.280 --> 10:18.520 And then the third, at the end of each of the seven creative periods, the word is used again. 10:18.520 --> 10:22.800 And often it does mean 24-hour periods, but not always. 10:23.620 --> 10:29.500 And then the second reason is because of the ordination of the sun and the moon on the fourth day. 10:29.500 --> 10:33.680 And this is verses 14-19 of chapter 1. 10:34.340 --> 10:42.080 They were not given the task of determining days, hours, weeks, and months until the fourth episode or the fourth day. 10:42.700 --> 10:48.580 This requires that at least the first three days are not literal 24-hour days. 10:49.200 --> 10:53.980 And then the third thing we see is the refrain that's repeated evening and morning. 10:54.740 --> 10:56.820 It does not refer to 24 hours. 10:56.820 --> 10:59.560 The refrain does not even refer to daytime. 11:00.360 --> 11:02.920 Rather, the refrain refers to nighttime. 11:03.920 --> 11:08.840 Here we have accommodated imagery of God resting. 11:09.340 --> 11:10.600 And I'll explain this further. 11:10.600 --> 11:14.000 In the evening, after working all day. 11:14.400 --> 11:21.580 As I will explain further, this imagery lets us know that we should not interpret this literally. 11:22.440 --> 11:26.280 And then the fourth thing is the seventh day has not ended. 11:26.820 --> 11:30.300 According to John's Gospel, chapter 5 and verse 17. 11:30.300 --> 11:33.380 In Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 3-11. 11:33.860 --> 11:37.420 God is presently enjoying his Sabbath rest. 11:38.020 --> 11:41.860 This means that the seventh day has lasted for thousands of years. 11:42.340 --> 11:47.020 And therefore cannot refer to a literal 24-hour day. 11:47.020 --> 11:55.160 And then humanity is the crowning feature of creation in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 1. 11:55.620 --> 11:59.360 On the sixth day, God does something truly unique. 12:00.020 --> 12:02.920 He makes beings that can reflect God's nature. 12:04.160 --> 12:07.800 The text says, man and women are created in God's image. 12:08.160 --> 12:12.140 It says, let us make man in our image after our likeness. 12:12.140 --> 12:14.300 Man and women are given authority. 12:14.840 --> 12:17.640 Let them have dominion is what the text says. 12:18.200 --> 12:23.160 Humanity is given the task of managing God's creation on earth. 12:23.620 --> 12:26.280 And then man and woman are given a mandate. 12:26.660 --> 12:29.820 Where God says to them, be fruitful and multiply. 12:30.620 --> 12:35.500 Adam and Eve were commissioned to expand the Garden of Eden. 12:35.500 --> 12:40.340 So that the blessings of God's kingdom would extend to the entire world. 12:40.960 --> 12:45.960 The commission is made even more explicit in Genesis chapter 2. 12:46.860 --> 12:48.420 That brings up my third point. 12:48.840 --> 12:52.260 And where I want to focus my talk for the remainder of my time. 12:52.600 --> 12:55.260 And I am paying attention to the time that I have allotted. 12:56.440 --> 12:57.580 The third point. 12:57.940 --> 13:01.960 We must interpret the days of Genesis 1 non-literally. 13:01.960 --> 13:09.080 The biblical doctrine of God requires that we interpret the days of Genesis 1 as an accommodated language. 13:09.900 --> 13:16.440 Recently, I spoke on a university campus in which I presented an old earth interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2. 13:17.000 --> 13:24.040 A student asked, why shouldn't we believe that Genesis 1 is referring to six literal 24-hour days? 13:24.540 --> 13:26.780 Shouldn't we interpret the Bible literally? 13:26.780 --> 13:38.240 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. 13:39.140 --> 13:49.520 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. 13:49.520 --> 13:57.760 The Bible almost always presents God's actions in analogous and anthropomorphic language. 13:58.340 --> 14:02.480 This is a crucial point that needs to be explained further. 14:03.120 --> 14:03.780 What do I mean? 14:04.360 --> 14:09.820 The Bible teaches that God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. 14:10.160 --> 14:12.280 Now, what is the definition of omnipotent? 14:12.620 --> 14:15.140 That means that God is all-powerful. 14:15.140 --> 14:19.600 The definition of omniscience means that God is all-knowing. 14:19.600 --> 14:24.480 The definition of omnipresence is that God is everywhere present. 14:25.440 --> 14:33.780 So, the Bible also presents God in anthropomorphic, accommodated, and an analogous matter. 14:34.580 --> 14:42.140 When God presents God acting, or the scripture presents God acting, it generally does so using accommodated language. 14:42.140 --> 14:49.460 This is clearly evident in Genesis, especially in the creation account of Genesis 1 and 2. 14:49.460 --> 14:59.940 Well, I need to explain further, what do I mean by, what are the definitions of anthropomorphism, accommodation, and analogy? 15:00.500 --> 15:09.900 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. 15:09.900 --> 15:15.440 Sometimes the Bible presents God as thinking, deciding, or changing his mind. 15:16.080 --> 15:22.980 Or the definition of accommodation, where God provides his revelation in terms that the original audience could understand. 15:23.500 --> 15:25.760 Now, this is an accommodation to limitation. 15:26.440 --> 15:34.940 It is not an accommodation to error, because the Bible is inerrant and has no errors in it at all. 15:34.940 --> 15:37.320 And then the definition of analogy. 15:38.060 --> 15:41.440 God reveals himself to us through the use of similarities. 15:42.080 --> 15:47.880 For example, the Bible describes God as our rock, our shield, our fortress. 15:48.540 --> 15:49.940 These are analogies. 15:50.580 --> 15:52.800 God is not made out of stone or metal. 15:53.320 --> 15:54.820 God is spirit. 15:54.820 --> 16:06.980 Well, here are some examples of anthropomorphism, a combination and analogy, in Genesis and in the writings of Moses concerning creation. 16:07.640 --> 16:13.160 For example, when God brought the animals to Adam, it says, 16:13.300 --> 16:20.640 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. 16:20.640 --> 16:22.920 Now, remember, God is all-knowing. 16:23.460 --> 16:29.140 A literal interpretation would imply that God didn't know what names Adam was going to give the animals. 16:29.700 --> 16:30.760 Therefore, we do not. 16:30.940 --> 16:33.940 Christians have never interpreted this verse literally. 16:35.360 --> 16:40.340 Another example in Genesis is when God spoke to Abraham about Sodom and Gomorrah. 16:40.880 --> 16:42.920 And it says in Genesis 18, 16:42.920 --> 16:49.060 Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 16:49.500 --> 16:54.340 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. 16:54.600 --> 16:56.420 And if not, I will know. 16:56.700 --> 16:59.780 Now, remember, God is present everywhere. 17:00.480 --> 17:05.940 A literal interpretation would imply that not only did God not know what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, 17:06.180 --> 17:08.080 but that he was absent from those cities. 17:08.260 --> 17:12.580 Therefore, Christians have never interpreted these verses literally. 17:12.920 --> 17:17.780 Or, again, when it speaks of God's refreshment on the seventh day. 17:18.300 --> 17:19.140 Exodus 31. 17:19.800 --> 17:25.700 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, 17:25.880 --> 17:28.300 and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed. 17:28.660 --> 17:35.520 My young earth creationist brethren want to say that this verse teaches that God created in six literal days. 17:35.680 --> 17:37.980 But we do not interpret this verse literally. 17:38.320 --> 17:40.320 Because, remember, God is all-powerful. 17:40.780 --> 17:42.240 God is never fatigued. 17:42.240 --> 17:43.460 He is never tired. 17:43.460 --> 17:46.820 The expression, refresh, means caught his breath. 17:47.660 --> 17:52.760 A literal interpretation would imply that God was tired and needed to regain his strength. 17:53.200 --> 17:56.400 Therefore, a literal interpretation is not acceptable. 17:57.000 --> 18:02.800 God's activities during the seven days of Genesis 1 and the human work week have many similarities. 18:02.800 --> 18:04.860 But they also have many differences. 18:04.860 --> 18:06.360 God only worked one week. 18:06.360 --> 18:07.420 We work many weeks. 18:07.420 --> 18:09.840 His creative activity was different. 18:09.840 --> 18:13.020 We create using pre-existing materials. 18:13.680 --> 18:15.340 God created out of nothing. 18:16.020 --> 18:19.080 Moses makes an analogy in Exodus. 18:20.280 --> 18:25.820 But the prophet was not teaching that God created in a literal week. 18:25.820 --> 18:28.340 So, how would we conclude? 18:28.340 --> 18:34.860 We have seen that the Bible presents God as one who is on mission. 18:35.640 --> 18:41.960 This mission begins in Genesis 1 where God inaugurates the universe to be his temple. 18:42.680 --> 18:47.460 God's activities are presented as seven days or seven episodes. 18:47.460 --> 18:55.040 In Genesis chapter 2, God assigns humanity the task of joining in his mission. 18:55.040 --> 18:59.480 But in Genesis 3, humanity fails miserably. 18:59.940 --> 19:06.960 The remainder of the Bible is the account of God completing his mission and redeeming humanity in the process. 19:06.960 --> 19:12.180 The New Testament repeatedly refers to Jesus Christ as the second Adam. 19:12.640 --> 19:19.740 When the Bible presents God in action, it nearly always does so in an accommodated, analogous language. 19:19.740 --> 19:28.740 For this reason, it is theologically essential that the days of creation in Genesis 1 be interpreted in non-literal terms. 19:29.620 --> 19:30.680 Thank you so very much.