7 Days of Creation?

I titled this post with a question because this was the biggest question I had about scripture. I found myself at a cross roads. I couldn't deny God's presence in my life. From how God has been with me my whole life to knowing that I needed Jesus to die for me as the perfect sacrifice that is necessary to pay for my sins. This new understanding filled me with joy, excitement, energy, and purpose.

From being a total skeptic to basically a new believer, I was frustrated with where I stood in my faith. I believed that I needed Jesus but I still had trouble believing I needed the bible. My view of scripture was a pile of words that, if you really wanted to, you could skew the words to say what ever you really wanted to say. 

I remember exactly where I was, I was in my car after my shift outside the farm I worked at when I cried out to God "IF YOU WANTED ME TO BELIEVE YOUR WORD WHY DID YOU START IT WITH SUCH A LIE!!"

I could not get over the seven day creation. Our day today is literally defined by the earths rotation with the sun and clearly this wasn't the case for the first three days because the sun wasn't created until the forth day. Every angle I looked at this story I could not wrap my head around what I already knew. 

While I was Lamenting to God I couldn't help but notice this voice in the back of my head repeating over an over "Look at it backwards". At first I thought I needed to go to bed, It was four in the morning (I worked night shift), but I was intrigued by the thought non the less. So I humoured the thought by looking at the seven days in reverse. I through the process of elimination was the best strategy to dissect what the scripture says. 

“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Genesis 2:2-3 NIV

Day seven is when God rested. This one was an easy one to eliminate because nothing was affected by the absent of God's rest. 

“And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.” Genesis 1:24-31 NIV

Day six is when God created land creatures finishing with mankind. By removing mankind nothing is affected. some might argue that the world would be better off without us. But because God planned it this way mankind was the final creation. So far the process of elimination is working. 

Next we remove the land animals. This one I thought was interesting. The truth is if there were no land animal life on earth, plant life would still exist. Sure some land animals help plants grow but the existence of plant life is not dependant on land animals. If plants were removed land animals would not be able to exist. From the oxygen that plants produce to consuming plants to gain energy and growth. I watched a documentary on what it would look like if we could see the earth develop the way science suggests and they concluded animal life did start in the water and birds only consume plants and sea life. So in conclusion if land animals were removed all the previous creations would still exist and would not be affected.

"And God said, Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that move about in it, according to its kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day." Genesis 1:20-23 NIV

Day five is when all the sea creatures and birds were created. again I thought that this order had a similar coincidence. Sea life isn't dependant on birds but birds can be dependant on sea creatures. So by the same process of elimination everything created before this is still not affected.  

And God said, "Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark scared times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good . And there was evening and there was morning—the forth day. Genesis 1:14-19 NIV

I thought this little process of elimination would end here. Little did I know where it would take me. On the forth day God created the sun and the moon. As I started to think about it, what I know about the the sun and the moon is that without them life on this planet would not exist. It would be to cold to sustain life and earth would just be another space rock. But with the process of elimination life actually hasn't started yet. All life is created after this day. (to note God placed in the Land seeds that could produce life but they were not yet alive see Genesis 2:5). This literally blew my mind. I had never thought of it that way before. This process of elimination was still working. 

And God said, " Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning—the third day. Genesis 1:9-13 NIV

On the Third day God created the land and the seeds that hold the life of plants. at this point we have removed mankind, followed by land animals, followed by birds and sea creatures, and lastly by the creation of the sun and the moon. At this point earth is a big floating rock in space made up of all the known elements that we know of today. If you do not know anything about elements they are categorized on the periodic table by each elements atomic mass. The beginning starts with the most basic known element, Hydrogen on the top left side of the chart. The really amazing things about elements is the only difference is the amount of protons, neutrons, and electrons which effects the weight, charge, and molecular state a particular element can have. What is amazing is the land and seeds that we see today can be broken up into these elements. Now knowing that heavier elements consist of more protons, neutrons, and electrons by removing them from existence the lighter elements still exist. An example with numbers might help. If I had a chart that was a list of numbers from 1-100 and removed 100 from the chart the rest of the numbers still exist. But if I remove 1, all of the numbers don't exist because 2 is really two 1's. So by removing the heavier elements on this big floating rock the lighter elements still exist. And again mind mind is blow leaving all of the previous creations unaffected. 

And God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water." So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault "sky." And there was evening and there was morning—the second day. Genesis 1:6-8 NIV

On the second day God created matter. Like I explained earlier matter is the collection of protons, neutrons, and electrons coming together to make something of substance. by removing matter we still do not affect what was created before this which is energy. 

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and he the darkness he called "night." And there was evening and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:3-5

On the first day God created energy. At this point when I realized this I started to cry in my car. It finally made sense to me. At that moment I knew I could trust the bible because God helped me see what I thought I would never be able too. That he did create the world the way his word has told us. 

This topic is one that becomes a heated one quickly even more so for believers whether the world is young(thousands of years) or old(billions of years). The best way I can explain this is with an analogy. Imagine if someone made two people dinner. The one making it bought the ingredients, prepared it, cooked it, then served the same meal to both of them. Both of them loved the meal. One says to the other "That meal was so good, it must of been slow cooked in the oven." The other responds, "No way! The meal came way to fast to be cooked in the oven, it clearly was cooked in a microwave!" The truth is it doesn't matter how it was cook but rather that it even was in the first place. So let's enjoy all the creation around us, loving every part of it!

Ryan Heath