Literal 7 Day Creation

QUESTION: Some scientists think that the story of creation can be confirmed if one of God's days is actually 750,000 year long. Is this true?

ANSWER SUBMITTED BY ERIK NEILSON:

This is a commonly discussed issue that concerns the origins of life as we know it. To answer this question completely we'd half to delve into the realms of astrophysics, biology, chemistry and beyond. For the sake of this post we will break it down a little more simply.

First we need to understand that the two primary camps concerning the origins of life are the creationists and the naturalists. Creationists are those who believe that life on earth was created by a powerful and intelligent being. This is primarily a religious view though some scientists are open to the idea of intelligent design. Naturalists (also referred to as evolutionists) are those who believe that life simply originated by natural process over millions and millions of years. This is primarily a scientific view though some Christians believe that God started the evolutionary process; that view is called Theistic Evolution.

Many scientists are closed to the possibility of intelligent design and many Christians are closed to the idea of any kind of evolutionary process. We can't possibly discuss all the ins and out of that here. But, some people of faith with scientific minds have proposed a kind of blending of the two camps. How do they blend the millions of years that scientists believe are necessary for evolution with the Biblical notion of a 7 day creation? They suggest that the 7 days described in Genesis are not literal 24 hour time periods, but symbolic of longer time frames. These people often cite 2 Peter 3:8 which says, "that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day." While I understand the sentiment here, I can confidently say that Peter wasn't writing this passage regarding the creation-evolution controversy!

So how should Christians think about this creation vs evolution issue? The simple answer is that we should think carefully and critically about this complicated issue. Name calling, insults, and worn out cliches don't really help bring clarity! Here's some food for thought:

Many Christians have simple faith regarding this issue and have no trouble trusting the Biblical account of 7 literal days. I myself believe that if God can raise the dead back to life that he would have no problem creating the heavens and the earth! (Gen 1:1) For some people faith in God is all they need to believe in the literal 7 day creation account of Genesis 1 & 2.

Other Christians have trouble accepting things so easily and wrestle with what they've studied in the various scientific disciplines. While I believe in the 7 days of creation many Christians do not. Let me be quick to point out that this is not a salvation issue. People can be right/wrong on this issue and still go to heaven.

There are intelligent and informed people on both sides of this issue and there are no simple answers to the myriad of questions that arise when we're discussing this. While we may not ever get people to agree on all the critical points of this multifaceted issue we shouldn't simply ignore it. Being able to answer people's questions and objections on this topic may effectively remove the last barriers to their saving faith in Jesus.

If you really want to study this issue more there are some great resources I'd be happy to recommend.