Brad Alles

Continuing to follow the literal Genesis account of creation (Genesis 1:1-2:3), which is what Professor Barr said the text is intending to convey, the sequence of days and their created elements are as follows. On day one, God made a watery, formless mass along with light, but this light was not the sun. (More on that later.)

On day two, God formed the earth entirely out of the water and added an atmosphere that separated either clouds or a possible extra layer of water vapor above this watery planet. Some creationists believe that this extra atmospheric layer would provide certain benefits to life on the planet. It would create a greenhouse effect for a warmer climate all over, and block harmful radiation for longer life. This would explain why people in the Genesis genealogies lived so long before the Flood—the environment was much different (and better!) than it is today.

On day three, God made land and plants. On day four, God made the sun, moon, and the stars. Recall on day one, God created light. It was not the sun; the Hebrew word is simply “light”. What was this light? No one knows. But on day four, God forms the sun. Notice how God created the sun after the plants had already been created on day three. Why did God do that? Perhaps it was to show that God gives life, not the sun. Many cultures later would worship the sun and have their “sun-god”; however, God gives life, not the sun, and possibly this is why the sequence is plants on day three and then the sun on day four.

On day five, God made fish and birds. And finally, on day six, God made land animals as well as Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1:26, the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, spoke when “they” said, “Let us make man in our image and in our likeness.” The phrase, the “image and likeness of God” means Adam and Eve were made righteous and holy. They were made in God’s spiritual image, not physical appearance, since God is a spirit as Jesus said in John 4:24.

On the seventh day, God rested from his creative work. The word doesn’t mean He was tired; He was just finished! He also made it holy, and proclaimed later that Israel should not work on the Sabbath—“for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested” (Exodus 31:17). Here’s another verse that speaks of a literal six-day creation. And this is why we have seven-day weeks even today!