"DAY" (to Yoel)

David Court (hoover1@NETCOM.CA)
Fri, 30 May 1997 21:40:28 -0400 (EDT)

>>(DAVE 5/21) Ian: I noticed on an earlier post that you challenged someone
>>to discuss the concept of "day" in Genesis. I don't know if I have much to
>>actually debate here, but it is of interest to me to discuss it and learn a
>>bit more about it.
>>
>>I don't know if the "day" mentioned in Genesis is an actual 24 hour period
>>or something longer. I know many have submitted that Peter's reference in 2
>>Peter 3:8 means that the "day" in Genesis is 1000 years, but I don't think
>>that is an appropriate conclusion to make just from this passage.
>
>yoel-
>True- It doesn't say "the day in genesis is as 1000 years." This verse is
>one that many Christians take the LITERAL (actually not literal, since it
>says "a day is AS/LIKE (NIV) 1000 years" NOT "a day IS 1000" years. If I
>say I am LIKE my brother, it may mean I look like him, I act like him, but
>it does not mean that I AM him.)
>
>(DAVE 5/22) Yoel: Agreed. When I read this verse in Peter, I take it to
>have some kind of connection to the Genesis day only in the sense that a
>"day" to God is (or could be) a long time, and is not confined just to our
>perception of "day".
>
>Yoel
> Many Christians conveniently grasp onto
>this verse to explain various Biblical and intellectual conflicts like the
>supposed 6 day creation of the world (oh well, maybe it was 6000 YEARS), or
>Jesus' coming soon ("since with the Lord a day is as 1000 years, 2000
>constitutes "soon)". I have heard Christians who believe in evolution use
>this verse to explain that evolution is consistent with the Bible.
>
>(DAVE 5/22) Yoel: Agreed - I have too. I know several who believe in the
>7000 year "creation" and that 2000 AD is year 7000. I subscribe to what
>occurred in each "day" of Genesis, but do not know HOW it occurred (ie
>evolution?) or how long it took to occur.

yoel-
Dave, why do you want to force yourself to believe that it occurred? You
are an intelligent man!

(DAVE 5/30) Yoel: I am not forcing myself to do anything - this is what I
believe happened - I don't think anybody here is disagreeing with me when I
say that the earth and all we know was formed as Genesis describes - the
only difference is that I think someone or something did it, and you think
it just happened on it's own - but what actually happened in the days as
Genesis describes, we both subscribe to.

Dave-
I have often used the example of,
>say, you asking me over for dinner. You could invite me over at 7:00 pm
>this evening. At that precise moment, I show up. The fact that I have
>appeared at 7:00pm IS the primary issue. As to HOW I got there, or how long
>it took me, these are only secondary issues. I view creatuion in the same
>manner - I believe there was a creator (primary) whose methods and time
>frames (secondary) are pretty well unknown to me. In this regard, the issue
>of evolution is only a secondary one - as a result, I neither think it
>supports or detracts from my belief system and faith - it very well could be
>the/a method of creation.

yoel-
Or maybe evolution happened without a creator.
Or maybe evolution happened with another creator than the one you presently
believe in.
Or maybe evolution happened with the creator you believe in but certain
things you believe about him are wrong.
Or maybe evolution didn't happen at all. Creation happened, but by a
different creator.

There are lots of possibilities

(DAVE 5/30) Yoel: Agreed.

Yoel]
- above are some of them which are believed
by different people I have met. The only reason you wish to leave an open
door in Genesis is so that you can hold on to your chosen book (which you
presently believ in) and still maintain your intellectual integrity.

(DAVE 5/30) Yoel: No, not at all. I have no motivation or inclination to
"hold on to a book" - I honestly believe we had to have been created. And I
believe I have a relationship, and know, that creator. So, the account in
Genesis represents the truth to me - I don't understand what it means
completely (which is why I'm discussing it), but it is the account of what I
believe happened. My "intellectual integrity" matters little to me in
relation to the pursuit of truth - it (or any other kind of self glorifying
pursuit like it) will only get in the way anyway - as it has with many of
the participants on this list.

Regards - continued on page two.

Dave.

"I study to be little. You study to be great. I creep; you strut
along...Do not seek to be something. Let me be nothing, and Christ be all
in all."
- John Wesley writing to Francis Asbury