In the creation account spelled out in Genesis, the word used for “day” is the Hebrew word “yom.”  This is where Progressive Creationists first point in their arguments for long “ages.”  Here’s the rub when it comes to the scrutiny of Genesis 1: there is only one real interpretation for the Hebrew word “yom” during the creation account.  It either means long age or one rotation of the earth around its axis.  Grammatically speaking, it could be either.  However, if we were to read this chapter with no outside influence, even in the original language, we would naturally understand it as meaning a literal 24-hour “day”.  The fact is the rest of Scripture views it that way.  Even the Creator, Jesus, who was not only there but authored the creation event, obviously interprets Genesis 1 as a literal day.  Consider the following:

1. What does the Hebrew word “yom” mean?  It is defined to mean a literal 24-day or to describe a longer, undetermined length of time.  Genesis 35:3 for example, “the God who answers me in the “day” of my distress.”  However, if the “yom” in Genesis 1 is supposed to be understood to mean something longer than a normal day with and evening and morning, it would be the only occurrence in Scripture that:
   1. Wasn’t in a defining or prepositional phrase (e.g., “in the day of” or “at the age of fifty”)
   2. Was accompanied by an ordinal (e.g., …evening and morning, the “first” day)
2. At the end of the first day and at the end of every subsequent day of creation, God defines exactly what a day is: “and there was evening and morning, the first day.”
3. On day four of creation we get further clarification for what a “day” constitutes: “the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night…and there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.”
4. God spoke in Exodus 20:8-11, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh.”  God himself is drawing a direct parallel between our workweek and his.  With no distinction between the “yom” of creation and the “yom” of man’s workweek.  God also wrote with his finger in Exodus 31:17, “It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.”
5. Christ and the Apostles believed there were people on the earth from the beginning (not billions of years after the beginning):
   1. Jesus told the Pharisees in Mark 10:6, “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.”  Not billions of years after the beginning of creation.
   2. Jesus says in Luke 11:50-51, “…so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Able to the blood of Zechariah…”  Jesus obviously believed his first prophet, Able, was there at the beginning – the foundation of the world.  Not billions of years after it had been set into motion.
   3. Jesus also said of Satan in John 8:44, “He was a murderer from the beginning,” making reference to Cain’s murder of his brother Able.
   4. Jesus prophesies about the tribulation in Mark 13:19, “For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of creation that God created until now.”  According to Jesus, there has been some measure of tribulation since the beginning.  If man didn’t enter the picture until billions of years after the beginning, then what was the object of this tribulation?
   5. Paul writes to the Romans in 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world.”  First, for the attributes to have been perceived from creation there must have been someone to perceive them.  Secondly, this is another passage that supports the idea that the creation is there to point us to God.  Why have it sit undergoing mindless processes for billions of years before man is on the scene to marvel at it?
   6. I Peter 1:20 and Revelation 13:8, 17:8 speak of the Lamb that was slain or the names that were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from the foundation of the world.  What purpose could God have in billions of years of death and decay before his redemptive plan for man was set into motion.  The elect were obviously elected from the foundation, why wait?

In conclusion, if pagan philosophies since ancient Israel have battled against the God of the Bible with this idea of timeless matter and processes, don’t you think that Jesus and the Apostles would have been careful to not to misrepresent the creation account?  In fact, they were very clear.  By their own testimony they believed that man and the fall happened from the beginning of creation – not thousands of millions of years after it.

Any one of these evidences unaided presents a weak case for a young earth.  However, combined as a body of evidence, it is difficult to ignore.  If there is some other reason for the universe to have existed for billions of years it is perplexingly hidden from us in Scripture.

 

Other articles in this series:

Is Young Earth Doctrine Important?

Historical Reasons for a Young Earth

Theological Reasons for A Young Earth