Origins Quest
  • Home
  • Life Did Not Begin by Itself
  • The First Three Days of the Earth
    • Reconciling Science and the Bible >
      • Precise Science Confirms the Bible
      • Moses Foresaw Three Discoveries >
        • First Discovery >
          • Mass and Weight of Energy
          • Transformations and Materialization
          • Different Kinds of Rays and Materialization in Empty Space
          • Was Energy the Source of Material
        • Second Discovery
        • Third Discovery >
          • The First Light
          • Separating Light from Darkness
        • Early Ideas about the Beginning
        • An Up-to-Date Ancient Cosmology
        • The Confirmation
        • A Challenging Question
      • Cycles of Darkness and Light >
        • Teaching Children
        • The Idea the Word “Day” Expresses >
          • A Day, Not “The First Day”
          • Not “Literal, 24-Hour Days”
        • How Long Did the First Three Days Last?
        • The Earth’s Rotation and the First Two Days
        • The Duration of the First Day
        • The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
      • Was There a Beginning? >
        • An Uncreated, Unchanging Universe
        • Evidence for a Beginning >
          • Elements in the Stars
          • Natural Radiation from Space
          • Stars Consume Their Fuel
        • Cosmology and Relativity
        • Instability, Determinism, Uncertainty, Predestination >
          • Instability
          • Stability and Determinism
          • Predestination, Indeterminacy, Uncertainty
        • Einstein, Science, and Philosophy
        • Predestination versus Timely Intervention
    • Simple Elements and Morning Stars >
      • First Evening: Energy and Particles >
        • The Energy of Different Kinds of Rays
        • The Most Energetic Rays
        • Natural Particle Production >
          • Simulating the Process
          • Particles from Darkness
        • Darkness in the Bible >
          • Why Darkness Comes First
          • Isaiah’s Insight on Darkness and Light
      • First Morning—Simple Elements >
        • Doppler Shift, Expansion, and Cooling >
          • The Beginning of Nucleosynthesis
          • Four Forces
          • Forces Present in Empty Space
        • Nucleosynthesis >
          • The First Elements
          • The First Halt in Nuclei Production
          • Insufficient Complexity
        • The First Light Was Good >
          • The Immediate Cause of the First Light
          • Forming the Light
          • The Confirmation of Darkness and Light
    • Stars that Formed Complex Elements >
      • Second Evening—Expansion >
        • The Expanding Universe >
          • The Giant Atom that Exploded
          • Expansion, Not a “Big Bang” Explosion
          • Expansion Preserves Order
        • Expanding Now But Later What? >
          • Expanding but Uncreated
          • Continuous Creation
          • The Cyclic Version of Continuous Creation
        • The Expanding Universe Prevails
      • Second Morning—Heavy Elements >
        • Heat and Light Make Heavy Elements >
          • Differences in Stellar Composition
          • Nuclear Binding Energy
        • Energy from Fusion and Fission >
          • The Proton-Proton Reaction
          • Nuclear Stability
        • Different Kinds of Fission
        • Burning Helium and Heavier Elements
    • Forming the Sun and Earth >
      • Third Evening—A Dusty Yellow Star >
        • Supernovas Begin the Third Evening
        • Extraterrestrial Water
        • Lighting the Sun’s Fire
        • The Carbon to Oxygen Reaction
        • The Darkness of the Third Evening
      • Third Morning—The Earth Forms >
        • The Search for a Planet Suitable for Life
    • How Does God Create? >
      • Conditions at the Very Beginning >
        • Creation from Nothing
        • Can We Create Energy? >
          • God Works to Create Energy
          • The Work Necessary to Create the Universe
        • Denial of Creation
        • The Simplest Explanation
        • Creation in a Singularity >
          • Can We Investigate the Instant of Creation?
          • The First Light Has Fluctuations
      • The Next Three Days >
        • Structure in the Genesis Narrative >
          • Examples of Parallelism
          • Parallel Structure in the Creation Narrative
        • Day Four >
          • Not All Stars Formed on the Fourth Day
          • When Did the Stars and Sun Start to Shine?
          • Signs for Animals and People
      • What Is the Origin of the Universe?
    • Appendices >
      • Appendix A
      • Appendix B
  • Design or Luck?
    • Creative Design >
      • Darwin and Adaptive Variation >
        • Finches and Form Adaptation
        • Adaptive Behavior and Structure
        • Intelligence and Autonomy
      • Biological Structure and Reproduction
      • Adaptive Form
      • Darwin’s Idea Extrapolated to Darwinism >
        • The Development of the Sciences
        • Contrasting Darwinism and Thermodynamics
        • Darwinism Today
      • The Limits of Automatic Design
    • Why Aren’t All Darwinists Rich? >
      • Automatic Design: Artificial and Natural >
        • The Automatic Lens-Design Program
        • Company Top Secret
        • Comparing Evolution and Lens Design
        • My Colleagues’ Reaction
      • Conclusion: Darwinism Doesn’t Work >
        • Can Design Be Automatic?
        • Darwinism and “Automatic” Design
      • How Far Can Small Steps Take Us? >
        • Small Improvements Are Merely Engineering
        • The Vastness of Hyperspace
        • Primordial Alphabet Soup >
          • Wide Coding Overcomes Noise
          • DNA is a Natural Language
          • Common Ancestry
          • Accepted Words Span the Space
        • Is Creative Design Consistent with Darwinism >
          • Engineering Design
          • A Challenge for Darwinists
    • Thermodynamics >
      • Thermodynamics, Information, and Creation >
        • The First Law of Thermodynamics
        • The Second Law of Thermodynamics >
          • Entropy
          • Perpetual Motion
        • Information and Order >
          • Entropy, Probability, and Information
          • Multiplying Probability and Adding Entropy
          • Probability and Information
        • Structure, Design, Intelligence, and Creativity >
          • Structure and Breakdown, Death and Decay
          • Perfection and Beauty
      • Earth-Sun Thermodynamics >
        • A Simple Example of a Thermodynamic Process
        • The Example Applied to the Sun and Earth
      • Another Error about Thermodynamics >
        • A Darwinist Argument about Thermodynamics
        • Sunlight and the Earth’s Temperature
        • What Makes Sunlight Suitable?
      • The Night Sky Is Dark >
        • Olbers’ Paradox
        • A Black Forest and the Stars >
          • Seeing to the Far Limit of the Universe
          • The Limit of the Known Universe
          • Ordinary Darkness
      • A Planet Suitable for Life
      • The Thermodynamics of Life >
        • Living Organisms and Heat Engines >
          • The Thermodynamics of Life without Sunlight
        • Entropy, Thermodynamics and Prigogine >
          • Darwinism and Thermodynamics
      • Thermodynamics and the Universe >
        • Formless and Dark but Energetic and Orderly >
          • Entropy and Penrose
        • Creative Agencies and Their Characteristics
    • Complex Order, Life, Intelligence >
      • Random Action and Complexity
      • Does Matter Organize Itself?
      • Complexity Can Be Specified
      • Information and Physical Laws
      • Did Our Life Begin Elsewhere?
      • Discovering Alien Life Will Change Nothing
      • Creative Design Suits the Universe for Life
    • The Quest Continues
  • Creationism that Scientists Can Accept
  • About
  • Contact
  • DVD
  • Booklet

The Next Three Days

We have devoted a chapter each to the evenings and mornings of the first three days of Genesis Chapter 1.  Now what about days 4, 5, and 6?
The Duration of a Usual Day
The Bible does not say when God created the universe. It was about 6 000 years ago plus three days that lasted 13 820 million years. God governed directly the first three days. He took charge of separating the light from the darkness. The light of the third day came from the Sun. The Sun had to be formed and functioning before it could begin governing on the fourth day.
The Bible says nothing about how long the darkness lasted or how long the first stars and the Sun shone before God commissioned the Sun to govern. Therefore, we cannot find out from Genesis how much time there was between the creation of the universe and the creation of Adam and Eve. All we know is that it was six literal, Biblical days consisting of cycles having first a dark phase and then a lighted phase. The duration of the cycles depends on the positions of the observer and the source of light. The narrative of the first three days is about the Earth as a whole. The narrative of the fourth, fifth, and sixth days is from the standpoint of an observer on the surface of the Earth, because the Sun and Moon were to give light on the earth. Not even God could have made the same observations from the beginning, because until the Earth formed it did not have a surface. In the middle of the narrative the standpoint shifts to the specific location where God intended to create human beings. God chose a sunset in that location as the beginning of the fourth day. On that day, God delegated governing authority to the Sun.
Nowhere in the account of the first three days is there any indication of the duration of those days. Only later do we find the determining factor for the duration of a day on the earth. It applies from the fourth day on. The narrative of the fourth day mentions sunlight incident on the surface of the Earth.
The Sun could not shine on the earth until the Earth was formed and had a surface. The Sun began fulfilling this function soon after both the Sun and the Earth formed. Later, the Sun supplied the light the plants needed on day three. The Sun began fulfilling all three parts of its commission on the fourth day.
On the fourth day God delegated to the Sun the function of separating the light from darkness. He gave the Sun governing authority. Having received this task and commission, since then the Sun has ruled the day with rigor and precision, producing night and day in 24-hour cycles.
Days one, two, and three include events in the realm of physics, except for the appearance of vegetation at the end of the three days. Day four is about astronomy with the unaided eye from the surface of the Earth somewhere between the polar circles. Days five and six are about zoology and anthropology.
Days four, five, and six of the creation narrative are about the Sun, Moon, stars, animals, and the first human couple. Certain historical misinterpretations of the fourth day, and of the concept of a day, have led to endless arguments and confrontations. These problems evaporate when we make the simplest and most literal interpretation of the narrative.
For centuries people have asked about the source of the light of the first three days, if the Sun was created on the fourth day. We have already seen the answer. Science has now confirmed that the first light shone out of the darkness long before any stars were formed. The first light was the light of the first morning, the bright phase of the first day. Far from making an absurd, obvious mistake, Moses was right when he spoke of the first light shining long before the Sun was formed.
With this encouragement, let’s examine the narrative of the fourth, fifth, and sixth days, to see how the remaining problems may be resolved.
Structure in the Genesis Narrative
Previous
Home
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Life Did Not Begin by Itself
  • The First Three Days of the Earth
    • Reconciling Science and the Bible >
      • Precise Science Confirms the Bible
      • Moses Foresaw Three Discoveries >
        • First Discovery >
          • Mass and Weight of Energy
          • Transformations and Materialization
          • Different Kinds of Rays and Materialization in Empty Space
          • Was Energy the Source of Material
        • Second Discovery
        • Third Discovery >
          • The First Light
          • Separating Light from Darkness
        • Early Ideas about the Beginning
        • An Up-to-Date Ancient Cosmology
        • The Confirmation
        • A Challenging Question
      • Cycles of Darkness and Light >
        • Teaching Children
        • The Idea the Word “Day” Expresses >
          • A Day, Not “The First Day”
          • Not “Literal, 24-Hour Days”
        • How Long Did the First Three Days Last?
        • The Earth’s Rotation and the First Two Days
        • The Duration of the First Day
        • The First Three Cycles of Darkness and Light
      • Was There a Beginning? >
        • An Uncreated, Unchanging Universe
        • Evidence for a Beginning >
          • Elements in the Stars
          • Natural Radiation from Space
          • Stars Consume Their Fuel
        • Cosmology and Relativity
        • Instability, Determinism, Uncertainty, Predestination >
          • Instability
          • Stability and Determinism
          • Predestination, Indeterminacy, Uncertainty
        • Einstein, Science, and Philosophy
        • Predestination versus Timely Intervention
    • Simple Elements and Morning Stars >
      • First Evening: Energy and Particles >
        • The Energy of Different Kinds of Rays
        • The Most Energetic Rays
        • Natural Particle Production >
          • Simulating the Process
          • Particles from Darkness
        • Darkness in the Bible >
          • Why Darkness Comes First
          • Isaiah’s Insight on Darkness and Light
      • First Morning—Simple Elements >
        • Doppler Shift, Expansion, and Cooling >
          • The Beginning of Nucleosynthesis
          • Four Forces
          • Forces Present in Empty Space
        • Nucleosynthesis >
          • The First Elements
          • The First Halt in Nuclei Production
          • Insufficient Complexity
        • The First Light Was Good >
          • The Immediate Cause of the First Light
          • Forming the Light
          • The Confirmation of Darkness and Light
    • Stars that Formed Complex Elements >
      • Second Evening—Expansion >
        • The Expanding Universe >
          • The Giant Atom that Exploded
          • Expansion, Not a “Big Bang” Explosion
          • Expansion Preserves Order
        • Expanding Now But Later What? >
          • Expanding but Uncreated
          • Continuous Creation
          • The Cyclic Version of Continuous Creation
        • The Expanding Universe Prevails
      • Second Morning—Heavy Elements >
        • Heat and Light Make Heavy Elements >
          • Differences in Stellar Composition
          • Nuclear Binding Energy
        • Energy from Fusion and Fission >
          • The Proton-Proton Reaction
          • Nuclear Stability
        • Different Kinds of Fission
        • Burning Helium and Heavier Elements
    • Forming the Sun and Earth >
      • Third Evening—A Dusty Yellow Star >
        • Supernovas Begin the Third Evening
        • Extraterrestrial Water
        • Lighting the Sun’s Fire
        • The Carbon to Oxygen Reaction
        • The Darkness of the Third Evening
      • Third Morning—The Earth Forms >
        • The Search for a Planet Suitable for Life
    • How Does God Create? >
      • Conditions at the Very Beginning >
        • Creation from Nothing
        • Can We Create Energy? >
          • God Works to Create Energy
          • The Work Necessary to Create the Universe
        • Denial of Creation
        • The Simplest Explanation
        • Creation in a Singularity >
          • Can We Investigate the Instant of Creation?
          • The First Light Has Fluctuations
      • The Next Three Days >
        • Structure in the Genesis Narrative >
          • Examples of Parallelism
          • Parallel Structure in the Creation Narrative
        • Day Four >
          • Not All Stars Formed on the Fourth Day
          • When Did the Stars and Sun Start to Shine?
          • Signs for Animals and People
      • What Is the Origin of the Universe?
    • Appendices >
      • Appendix A
      • Appendix B
  • Design or Luck?
    • Creative Design >
      • Darwin and Adaptive Variation >
        • Finches and Form Adaptation
        • Adaptive Behavior and Structure
        • Intelligence and Autonomy
      • Biological Structure and Reproduction
      • Adaptive Form
      • Darwin’s Idea Extrapolated to Darwinism >
        • The Development of the Sciences
        • Contrasting Darwinism and Thermodynamics
        • Darwinism Today
      • The Limits of Automatic Design
    • Why Aren’t All Darwinists Rich? >
      • Automatic Design: Artificial and Natural >
        • The Automatic Lens-Design Program
        • Company Top Secret
        • Comparing Evolution and Lens Design
        • My Colleagues’ Reaction
      • Conclusion: Darwinism Doesn’t Work >
        • Can Design Be Automatic?
        • Darwinism and “Automatic” Design
      • How Far Can Small Steps Take Us? >
        • Small Improvements Are Merely Engineering
        • The Vastness of Hyperspace
        • Primordial Alphabet Soup >
          • Wide Coding Overcomes Noise
          • DNA is a Natural Language
          • Common Ancestry
          • Accepted Words Span the Space
        • Is Creative Design Consistent with Darwinism >
          • Engineering Design
          • A Challenge for Darwinists
    • Thermodynamics >
      • Thermodynamics, Information, and Creation >
        • The First Law of Thermodynamics
        • The Second Law of Thermodynamics >
          • Entropy
          • Perpetual Motion
        • Information and Order >
          • Entropy, Probability, and Information
          • Multiplying Probability and Adding Entropy
          • Probability and Information
        • Structure, Design, Intelligence, and Creativity >
          • Structure and Breakdown, Death and Decay
          • Perfection and Beauty
      • Earth-Sun Thermodynamics >
        • A Simple Example of a Thermodynamic Process
        • The Example Applied to the Sun and Earth
      • Another Error about Thermodynamics >
        • A Darwinist Argument about Thermodynamics
        • Sunlight and the Earth’s Temperature
        • What Makes Sunlight Suitable?
      • The Night Sky Is Dark >
        • Olbers’ Paradox
        • A Black Forest and the Stars >
          • Seeing to the Far Limit of the Universe
          • The Limit of the Known Universe
          • Ordinary Darkness
      • A Planet Suitable for Life
      • The Thermodynamics of Life >
        • Living Organisms and Heat Engines >
          • The Thermodynamics of Life without Sunlight
        • Entropy, Thermodynamics and Prigogine >
          • Darwinism and Thermodynamics
      • Thermodynamics and the Universe >
        • Formless and Dark but Energetic and Orderly >
          • Entropy and Penrose
        • Creative Agencies and Their Characteristics
    • Complex Order, Life, Intelligence >
      • Random Action and Complexity
      • Does Matter Organize Itself?
      • Complexity Can Be Specified
      • Information and Physical Laws
      • Did Our Life Begin Elsewhere?
      • Discovering Alien Life Will Change Nothing
      • Creative Design Suits the Universe for Life
    • The Quest Continues
  • Creationism that Scientists Can Accept
  • About
  • Contact
  • DVD
  • Booklet