Podcast Episode 7: When did it all begin?

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Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
-Genesis 3:22-23

We began this series on the Creation several weeks ago, and I said then that I would like to get back to the question of whether there was a literal six-day Creation or not. As we end the series, I would like to address it.

Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of time to address it fully, so we’re going to try to get to the root of the issue here. The Bible does describe, very specifically, a six-day Creation. There’s not much wiggle room in the words it uses. Even if you were to use the Hebrew word of “day” as an indefinite period of time, you still have the definite time distinctions when we learn that “there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

So you can believe that, or you can believe that this section of the Bible is poetical, rendering the great Creation of the universe into more common and immediate wording. Finally, you can believe that the Creation account it just wrong. As for me, I believe the Bible is true, and, in this case, literally true.

Why do I believe the six days are literal? For a very simple reason, really. The Bible tells us that death came about because of the Fall. So if the Fall happened millions of years after the Creation of the world, then how could there have been death?

Honestly, we don’t have the time it would take to go through the evidence. There are plenty of good websites that address the science in all of this. But science is secondary for me. I have faith in God, and that changes everything.

C. S. Lewis once wondered if Hamlet could have possibly known anything of Shakespeare. The only way it could have happened is if Shakespeare had written himself into the play. There is no other way.

Let us speculate more. What if Hamlet had taken it upon himself to discover the origins of his world. Would he have come to the conclusion that a playwright in England had dreamed it all up, or would he have arrived at some scientific explanation? In truth, he would have arrived at whatever conclusion Shakespeare wanted him to find.

Hamlet, trapped within a play, could not have possibly stepped out of the play and seen the workings of the real world except by the whim of Shakespeare. It seems equally absurd that someone, trapped within space and time as we are, to look at this same space and time and declare he has proof that there is no God. It would be like Hamlet declaring that there is no Shakespeare.

Ultimately, for me it does not come down to evidence. I have met God, and He has never misled me. Science is great and wonderful. I do not want to come across as some anti-science nutjob, because I’m not. I love science, but it has historically been wrong on nearly every topic. So it tries to tell me today there is no God, when only a few centuries ago it was telling me that sick people needed to be drained of blood. God has never been wrong, never misled me, and I believe.

In our case, our Author did step into our earthly drama. He came first through prophets who declared and wrote down His Words. Next He came as a man, Jesus. We can know Him. We can talk to Him, and we can read His very Words. He has told us who He is so that we can know Him. So we can be saved. In His death He is able to pay the price for our sins. If we repent and believe in Him, He will save us.

It’s not about science. It’s about someone who invented science for our benefit, but remains outside of it. Try talking with Him. If you are really ready to know Him, then just ask Him to teach you about Himself.