ok, so in my last post one of the criteria the pastor search committee is using is someone who holds to creation in six literal 24 hour days. I'm not opposed to that position--I grew up with it--but the more I read Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 and try to make sense of them together the more it seems that from the text, (1) not all the days could have been literal 24 hours, and (2) the length of the days isn't the point, and doesn't matter much at all as long as other essentials are still held.
(1) Could day six have been 24 hours? According to chapter 1, God created all the land animals on this day, and then created man, male and female, in his image. According to chapter 2, God creates Adam, and then forms all the animals and birds, and brings them to Adam to be named. Only after showing Adam his uniqueness in contrast to all the animals does God create Eve for Adam. How long did this naming take? According to chapter 1 Adam and Eve are both created in day six, and in chapter 2 the naming process is between Adam's creation and Eve's creation.
Genesis says that the animals reproduced after their own kind, and science defines a species as a group of organisms which can naturally reproduce. The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Global Biodiversity Assessment estimates the number of described species at approximately 1.75 million, and some scientists think this may be only 10% of the total biodiversity. If you leave out plants, fungi, bacteria, and fish there are about 1 million different known species. Genesis 2 says that God brought all the birds and land animals to Adam for naming before He created Eve. How long did this naming take Adam? Naming 1 million kinds/species of animals in 24 hours requires naming 278 per second (1,000,000 kinds / 3,600 seconds)-that's incredibly fast. Perhaps the day was much longer--God made the sun stand still in the valley of Ajalon--but if we allow this then day six is no longer 24 literal hours.
Also, in reference to day seven the refrain "and there was evening and morning, the nth day" is absent, indicating perhaps that the seventh day never ceased. The book of Hebrews seems to confirm this when it speaks of believers entering into the eternal sabbath rest of God.
It seems, then, from the text of Scripture, that day six was probably longer than 24 hours, and that day seven is eternal and never ceased. Is there anything in the Genesis text that requires us to insist on six literal 24 hour days?
(2) The reason that Moses doesn't insist that the six days are 24 hour days is that he's not at all concerned with the length of the days, but with other themes, such as God creating sovereignly, by the word of his power in the space of six days (regardless of their length), as the great King who does the impossible through the Word (the Son) by the powerful agency of the Spirit; that man is created male and female in the image of God, that he is given dominion, that woman is complementary and suitable to man, that its not good for man to be alone, that there is a rich biodiversity in creation... The historicity of the creation narrative is crucial (both chapters one and two are real, history--if you'd been in the garden with a camera you'd have seen Adam, all the animals, and then Eve, as real people and the very first two people from whom the entire human race is descended).
I could go on, but it seems that a fixation of the hourly length of the days is almost trivial when its clearly not the point of the text and nor is clear in the text. Please let me know if I've misread or misunderstood the text.
I'm quite disappointed that the pastoral search committee at my church considers the length of the days a one of the "dealbreaker" issues in evaluating potential candidates. Perhaps a better issues to look at from the opening chapters of Genesis is how these chapters impact their understanding of the roles of men and women before God and in relationship with each other.
What would you think of these as intial screening criteria for a pastor of a PCA church--i.e. those which a ministerial data form (a pastor's "resume") would have to meet to warrant a more in-depth look?
belief in:
These are the criteria which the search committee at my church has used, and I'd be interested to hear what you think of them.