The following “Question“ was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and “Answered“ by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Nelly Kaye of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, from the tape, GC 1301-E, titled “Bible Questions and Answers Part 7.“  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.

Question

Were the seven days of creation literal twenty-four hour days?

Answer

Now this is a common question because we are involved in struggling along the way here with the world trying to tell us that we came from monkeys and so forth. And always they tell us that the world has to be so many millions and billions of years old. And the geological age, I don’t know if you have ever seen a geological age chart, but this is the way it kind of goes:

About twenty billion years ago was the origin of the elements, the stars and the galaxies (now that is conjecture because no one was around obviously to observe that).
About five billion years ago the earth and the solar system.
About three billion years ago the evolution of replicating chemicals, or life.
About one billion years ago the evolution of multicellular life.
About six hundred million years ago the evolution of complex marine invertebrates.
About three hundred and fifty million years ago the evolution of marine vertebrates and land plants.
About two hundred and fifty million years ago the evolution of amphibians and insects.
About two hundred million years ago the evolution of reptiles and flowering plants.
One hundred million years ago the evolution mammals and birds.
Fifty million years ago the branching of evolutionary ancestors of apes and men.
Three million years ago the evolution of modern man.

Now that is a very, very late dating, but that’s kind of the way it is. Sometime twenty billion years ago something happened and "poof" the whole thing started. Now that is totally, absolutely out of whack with the Scripture. It really couldn’t be much clearer than it is.

If you look with me at Genesis, chapter one, you will find that the earth was created in seven days. Are they twenty-four hour days? Let’s find out.

The first day is indicated in verse three, “And God said , Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Now whatever that first day was it had an evening and a morning. It seems to me that the only thing with one evening and one morning is a twenty-four hour day. And God makes that clear all the way down the line.

In verse eight, “And the evening and the morning were the second day.” In verse thirteen, “And the evening and the morning were the third day.” And verse nineteen, “And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.” Verse twenty-three, “And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.” God is talking here about evening and morning, and evening and morning makes twenty-four hour day.

There is no reason to feel that we have to try to harmonize this evolutionary monstrosity with the Scripture. The Bible claims the earth was created in six days, the seventh day God rested. Now that’s all we really need to know. But I would just draw your attention to Exodus 20:11, which is God’s own commentary on the creation, and this is what He says. Verse nine - “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” Does that mean six literal days or does that mean six years, or six decades, or six million, billion, trillion, geological ages? Oh, no. It means six days. You work for six days, you get a day off. “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God,” don’t do any work, nor your son or your daughter, your manservant or your maidservant, your cattle your stranger and so forth. Why? “For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day…” You see the parallel there demands a six day creation to equate it with a six day working and one day off Sabbath. It’s clear.

The Hebrew word yowm for days, always in the plural form means a literal day. Never an indefinite period. Always a literal day. But the reason that evolutionists need twenty billion years is that they can’t figure out how come things got the way they are. Because they don’t want to believe in God. And they can’t say God created man, they don’t want to give God that right, so they have to get man to evolve and that takes a long time. Incidentally, the ordinals, the ordinals you know are first, second third, the ordinals, the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, are used in connection with a given day. The word day is used at least fourteen hundred and eighty times in the Old Testament and always with an ordinal the meaning is a twenty-four hour day. Never anything else.

So, we believe the world was created in twenty-four hour days, six of them. And you know I would rather believe the Bible than try to figure out some ridiculous other thing to explain it. It’s simple to me. And I believe that man is probably somewhere around ten thousand years old, isn’t that something? So is the earth. Because man was only made six days later.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's “MacArthur’s Questions and Answers“ by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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