toldailytopic: Are the 6 days of creation in the book of Genesis a literal 6 days?

[Nathon Detroit]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for February 28th, 2013 06:00 AM

toldailytopic: Are the 6 days of creation in the book of Genesis a literal 6 days?

Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
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[chrysostom]

I don't believe they are
nor
do I believe it is important

 

[bybee]

I don't believe they are
nor
do I believe it is important

I agree.
I have no quarrel with those who do find it important, but, I like to save my energy to deal with those subjects which have to do with salvation.

 

[chrysostom]

I agree.
I have no quarrel with those who do find it important, but, I like to save my energy to deal with those subjects which have to do with salvation.

I can't question that

 

[noguru]

I agree.
I have no quarrel with those who do find it important, but, I like to save my energy to deal with those subjects which have to do with salvation.

My only issue is that those who find it important often seem to ignore reality in defense of that which they find important. That leads to negligence. Which in turn can lead to malice in an attempt to defend such negligence.

 

[chrysostom]

My only issue is that those who find it important often seem to ignore reality in defense of that which they find important. That leads to negligence. Which in turn can lead to malice in an attempt to defend such negligence.

and that leads to people like you who believe it is important to believe that it is not important

 

[Stripe]

I agree. I have no quarrel with those who do find it important, but, I like to save my energy to deal with those subjects which have to do with salvation.

The history of the world as penned by God all points to the means of our salvation. If we allow distortion of the truth that points to His salvation, the message is lost.

Six days means six days. People who insist otherwise have got something other than God's word at heart with their teaching.

 

[Paulos]

The history of the world as penned by God all points to the means of our salvation. If we allow distortion of the truth that points to His salvation, the message is lost.

Six days means six days. People who insist otherwise have got something other than God's word at heart with their teaching.

Versus:

What one believes about origins has no effect on our salvation.

 

[Rusha]

Yes, six days is literal.

 

[Buzzword]

My only issue is that those who find it important often seem to ignore reality in defense of that which they find important. That leads to negligence. Which in turn can lead to malice in an attempt to defend such negligence.

This.

Ignoring scientific reality, literary context, literary genre, cultural context, and historical context isn't the best witnessing technique.

The Hebrew creation myths were structured as POETRY, and passed down ORALLY.
The writing style (once someone finally wrote them down after who knows how many centuries) is more in keeping with the folklore traditions of Native American tribes ("this is why things are the way they are") than with any kind of factual accounts ever.

Treating a myth as if it were a factual account, and making it an excuse to have shouting matches, just screams to the rest of the world that Christianity is trapped in the past, a relic from a barbaric age instead of a path to freedom from the barbaric impulses which plague all of humanity through our animalistic instincts.

"Wherever the poetry of myth is interpreted as biography, history, or science, it is killed."
-Joseph Campbell

 

[skramltrebor]

the reason it is important is the Bible says it is so. if the Bible cannot be trusted on this subject then what subjects can it be trusted on.

 

[Delmar]

Yes, six days is literal.

I find it interesting that you would have a dog in this hunt.

 

[oatmeal]

The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for February 28th, 2013 06:00 AM

toldailytopic: Are the 6 days of creation in the book of Genesis a literal 6 days?

Take the topic above and run with it! Slice it, dice it, give us your general thoughts about it. Everyday there will be a new TOL Topic of the Day.
If you want to make suggestions for the Topic of the Day send a Tweet to @toldailytopic or @theologyonline or send it to us via Facebook.

Question?

does divide = create?

does said = create?

does call = create?

does "let there be" = create?

does "gather together" = create?

does appear = create?

does all the words in the scriptures have same meaning?

Is there a reason God uses such variety of words in the scriptures?

Does God have a useful vocabulary when it comes to describes ideas, events, people, etc.

Does God know what he is talking about?

Which of those six days does God use the word create to describe what he was doing?

Was there literally six days of creation or did God not create on some of those days?

oatmeal

 

[Nick M]

I have no quarrel with those who do find it important, but, I like to save my energy to deal with those subjects which have to do with salvation.

If you don't believe God when he says he created the world in six days, why do you believe him about other things?

 

[Delmar]

The history of the world as penned by God all points to the means of our salvation. If we allow distortion of the truth that points to His salvation, the message is lost.

Six days means six days. People who insist otherwise have got something other than God's word at heart with their teaching.

Versus:

What one believes about origins has no effect on our salvation.

I am fully on board with Stripe on this one.

I do agree that there are a great many devoted, saved Christians who do not believe in a six day creation and even many who believe God caused creation to happen through evolution.

Still

I believe that this belief has caused generations of people to doubt that the Bible is true!

 

[CabinetMaker]

I don't believe that six days is literal. I absolutely believe that God created the universe and all that is in it. So saying that if we don't believe in a literal six days casts doubt on the rest of the Bible is a red herring. God created, we just differ on how long He took to create.

But as Stripe pointed out, what we believe about how long it took God to create has nothing to do with our salvation.

 

[Nick M]

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70975

These are not things you must believe correctly to become saved. But, believing these things is proof that you are not saved. Faith is the evidence of someone who believes God. It is what you say that you believe that proves who you are.

If you believe the following and teach it to others, you have never believed the Gospel.

1. If you believe and teach that becoming like Jesus is a process

2. If you believe and teach that the Holy Spirit gives you the power to stop sinful behavior and that you must continue to strive to be more like Jesus.

3. If you believe and teach that Christians must continually confess sin to be forgiven

4. If you believe and teach that behavior is the evidence of salvation.

...more later

The more is right on this one. It isn't a requirement per se, but if you don't believe God, then you don't believe God. It is evidence that somebody does not believe God.

 

[Rusha]

I find it interesting that you would have a dog in this hunt.

I don't insofar as the way others do.

 

[Nick M]

I don't believe that six days is literal.

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.

What else could he have possibly meant? What else could he have meant when he said the evening and the morning were the first day?

 

[CabinetMaker]

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.

What else could he have possibly meant? What else could he have meant when he said the evening and the morning were the first day?

I believe he was speaking metaphorically to bronze age sheep herder named Moses who had no concept of numbers beyond a large herd or of space and galaxies and stars. I believe that we were created in God's image and as such, we have the capacity to understand God's creation. Science does this. It observes what God created and learns the rules God laid down for creation to follow. We can use those rules to make our lives more comfortable, easier and worse as well. Right now, it looks like God took His time creating the universe. He created it in the order that He described it to Moses which is remarkably consistent with what the Big Bang Theory would predict. Believing that creation took billions of years in no way threatens my belief that God was the one creating.