rbutterworth@watmath.UUCP (Ray Butterworth) (08/24/84)
>Scripture says that God created everything in 6 days, and on the 7th >he rested (see Gen.2:1,2). Now I have a question to pose. In the light >of the following scripture, How long were the 7 days spoken of in >these verses (paraphrased): "Paraphrased"? Either the Jehovah's Witnesses have rewritten a lot of their bible since my 1961 edition or you have a vivid imagination. Lets look at the references in reverse order: >1 Cor.15:24,28 - God comes out of his rest upon completion of > Jesus' rule. This quote does concern the completion of Jesus's rule, but it nowhere mentions that "God comes out of his rest". The word "rest" or anything like it is never used. >Heb.4:9,10 - Entering into God's rest requires resting from our own > works of self-interest. True, but here "God's rest" refers to our reward in the afterlife. The gift might be God's, but the rest itself would be ours. The quote nowhere states or implies that God himself is resting. >Heb.4:6-8; Ps.95:7-9,11 - God's "day" of rest continued past > Jesus' day on earth. The first quote is again using the expression "rest" to indicate the end of our work on Earth; it never refers to a "day" of rest (perhaps that's why you quoted the word?). The second quote says "... they shall not enter into my resting place." Again there is no reference to a "day". "They" refers to sinners who won't receive God's reward, namely resting in the place provided by God. This does not mean that God is resting there now. >Gen.2:2,3; Heb.4:3-5 - God's sabbath "day" (7th creative "day", or > rest "day") began at the close of earthly creation. True, but as in the other cases there is nothing to indicate that this rest has continued until the present time. >Ps.90:4; 2 Pet.3:8 - A "day" of God's may be an very long time. The first quote is "For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past", the second is "one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day". These are describing attributes of God's perception of time: a thousand years ago is as easy to remember as yesterday; he can see as much detail in one day as anyone else could in a thousand years; and a thousand years are just a small time compared with his infinite life. In all cases, the "thousand" is just meant as a large number to create the impression; it is not intended to be taken as an exact measurement (or the second quote would be self contradictory). We commonly say that one human year is equivalent to seven dog years, but that doesn't mean that in one year a dog experiences over 2500 sunrises. >Gen.2:4 - A "day" can mean a period of time. True, "in the day that" or "in the day of" are common English expressions just as they were in Hebrew. So what is being spoken about here is just a general time period, not refering to the explicit "days" of creation. The gist of the argument seems to be that God's rest was one of the seven days of creation, that rest is still in progress, and since everyone agrees that man has been around for at least 6 thousand years, it must be true that the first six days of creation were also at least six thousand years long each (thereby providing time for dinosaurs, fossil-fuels, etc.). Well supposing we ignore all my arguments above and accept that God is still resting. This does not imply that the seventh day is still in progress though. I mean I could rest today (Friday) an continue resting for 72 hours, but it would then be Monday, not "still Friday". Instead of looking at quotes scattered throughout the Bible, why not look at the original description of creation to answer your question: "How long were the 7 days spoken of in these verses?". "And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day." "And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day." ... "And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day." So it looks like at least the first six days were each an evening and a morning, which certainly sounds like what we normally call a "day", not some time period of several thousand years (or will you now argue that the term "evening" really means 3000 years?).