A Thousand Times, No
It is almost comical to ask if God could create the cosmos in such a short time span as recorded in Genesis 1. It would be more appropriate to ask, “In spreading His creative work over six 24-hour days, why did God take so long?” The answer is in God’s establishment of the human economy.
There is no cosmological explanation for a 7-day week. A day is based on Earth’s rotation, a month on the lunar cycle, and a year on Earth’s revolution around the Sun. The best secular explanation for a 7-day week is a quarter of the lunar cycle, but this answer is wanting.
Throughout time, civilizations attempted 5-day, [1] 6-day, [2] 8-day, [3] 9-day, [4] 10-day, [5] and 13-day [6] weeks. Amazingly, though, most of them eventually returned to a 7-day week. Again, the only explanation is this is the created human economy given to us by our Creator in the first week of history.
The only reason for any Christian attempting an alternate explanation is an effort to delegitimize the historical narrative of Genesis 1. In an attempt to make the creation days figurative instead of literal for the purpose of inserting evolution’s required billions of years, an appeal is often made to II Peter 3:8, which says, “ But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
This one passage is used as an excuse to say the days of Genesis 1 represent eons of time. Not surprisingly, the natural reading of this passage never comes close to achieving such an understanding. One must be purposely seeking a billions-of-years agenda to find such a meaning.
This sad undertaking lends itself to absurdity. The argument is that the word “day” in Genesis 1 is not 24 hours, but an extensively long period of time, culminating in an allegorical week that actually represents a cosmic history of 13.797 ± 0.023 billion years. [7] If, as the argument maintains, “day” represents a long period of time and II Peter 3:8 is the passage that explains this, then Peter would actually be saying, “ with the Lord a long period of time is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a long period of time.”
Oh, the ensuing foolishness when one attempts to infuse man-made excuses with Biblical Truth (Romans 1:22).
The context, as established in verses 3-4, is preparation for combating the arguments of scoffers in the last days. One of those arguments, according to verse 4, is uniformitarianism – a commonly used argument of evolutionists. Note then what Peter establishes as facts in verses 5-6, “ 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded by water. ”
In a powerful lesson for us today, Peter emphatically defends the Christian faith by going back to the beginning – by establishing the Genesis record as historical fact!
Peter unequivocally and unapologetically defends Genesis 1-9 as factual history in I Peter 3:5-6, 20-21 and II Peter 2:5-9, 3:5-6.
Therefore, knowing Peter holds steadfastly to the historicity of Genesis, consider verses 8-9 in context, “ 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” He adds in verse 15, “ and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation ”.
The context has nothing to do with cracking the interpretive code of Genesis 1, but everything to do with illustrating God’s patience and longsuffering to save people!
In fact, there is a reason Peter specifically uses “ a thousand years ”. One thousand was the largest number for which there was a Roman numeral (Roman numeral M). [8] Today, the largest named number is centillion (1 with 303 zeroes). [9] If Peter were to compose his letter today, he might write, “ with the Lord one day is as a centillion years, and a centillion years as one day.”
Peter wrote precisely what the Lord inspired as a message of encouragement. It is a message that despite the horrors, pains, and sufferings of this world, the Lord has not given up on us! He has not yet ended this existence because He has not yet quit in the Kingdom mission of saving lives.
Regarding II Peter 3:8, the late Dr. John C. Whitcomb elegantly stated, “Note carefully that the verse does not say that God’s days last thousands of years, but that ‘one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.’ In other words, God is completely above the limitations of time in the sense that he can accomplish in one literal day what nature or man could not accomplish in thousands of years, if ever. …the verse reveals how much God can accomplish in a 24-hour day, and thus sheds much light upon the events of Creation Week.” [10] Amen.
For the longsuffering
patience of our Lord, we praise His holy name.
[1] Iceland, Indonesia, Korea
[2] Akan (Ghana)
[3] ancient Rome, Celtic nations
[4] Baltic nations, Wales
[5] China, Egypt, France (1793-1802)
[6] Aztecs, Maya
[7] Evolutionary conclusion in the Planck Collaboration.“ Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters”. Astronomy & Astrophysics , 16 July 2018. Tables 1 & 2, pp. 14-5. Accessed 2/10/2020, https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/387566/387653/Planck_2018_results_L06.pdf/38659860-210c-ffac-3921-e5eac3ae4101
[8] Roman Numerals 500-1000 Chart, accessed 2/10/2020, https://www.romannumerals.org/chart-500-1000
[9] Merriam-Webster Table of Numbers, Denominations above One Million, accessed 2/10/2020, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/number#table
[10] J.C. Whitcomb, Jr., Th.D. “The Science of Historical Geology”, Westminster Theological Journal 36:1 (Fall 1973), p. 68.
