How Long Did It Take God To Create The Heavens And The Earth?

By Pastor Bruce K. Oyen

Email: bk_oyen@hotmail.com

       Here is an interesting subject to consider: how long did it take God to create the heavens and the earth? To answer the question, let me quote the fourth commandment, found in Exodus 20:8 - 11. In these verses God told the people of Israel these things: ⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

     In these verses the people of Israel were told to work six days, and rest one day. The reason given is this: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."

     Everyone correctly understands that the six days for work were 24 hours long. But some persons say the six days of creation were of unknown length, and they say they were certainly long periods of time. So, they believe the six days for work are literal days as we know them, but the six days of creation were not literal days. But is that what a straight-forward reading of Exodus 20:8 - 11 leads us to believe? Of course not.

     Those persons who say the six days for work differ from the six days of creation would have us believe Exodus 20:8 - 11 should be understood this way:  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days (which are 24 hours long) you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day (which is 24 hours long) is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days (of unknown length, and maybe millions of years) the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day (which is of unknown length, and maybe was millions of years). Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day (which is 24 hours long) and hallowed it."

     Now, I ask the question again:  Is that what a straight-forward reading of Exodus 20:8 - 11 leads us to believe? Of course not. Therefore, why do some Christians interpret the verses in this manner? It is because we have been told for so long that evolution is a fact that some have accepted it as such, and have, therefore, had to make the Bible compatible with it. In other words, the plain teaching of the Bible has been altered to make it acceptable to scientific evolutionary theory. But it should be the other way around. That is, since the Bible is infallibly true, scientific theory must be altered to conform to the facts of Biblical truth.
     If we believe, as we should, that Jesus Christ is Lord, we must accept his view of this subject. And in Mathew 19:4 he plainly affirmed the historicity of the Genesis account of creation. In doing so, he said God created man  male and female. He did not say they evolved as male and female. Therefore, we conclude that mankind was miraculously created on the 6th, 24-hour day of creation, just as we read in the first chapter of Genesis..

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved." It was taken from this website: www.biblegateway.com.