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The Beginning of the Literal Week
Like the Sabbath, the week had its beginnings at creation, and it
has been preserved through Bible history. God Himself measured off
the first week, which consisted of seven 24-hour days. Six days were
used in the work of creation, and on the seventh God rested, then
set it apart as a day of rest for humanity. “‘Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy. ... For in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh
day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.’”
(
Exodus 20:8-11
).
This reason appears beautiful and ordained when we understand
the days of creation to be literal. The first six days of each week are
given to us for work, and on the seventh day we are to rest from our
work to recognize and honor the Creator’s rest.
But the teaching that the events of the first week required thou-
sands upon thousands of years is godlessness in its most subtle and
dangerous form. Its real character is so disguised that it is held and
taught by many who profess to believe the Bible. “By the word of the
Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath
of His mouth” (
Psalm 33:6
). The Bible does not recognize long ages
in which the earth slowly evolved from disorder. Of each successive
day of creation, the sacred record declares that it consisted of the
evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed.
Geologists claim to find evidence from the earth that it is very
much older than the Bible teaches. Bones of men and animals much
larger than any that now exist have been discovered, and from this
many conclude that the earth was populated long before the time
brought to view in the record of creation. Such reasoning has led
many professed Bible believers to adopt the position that the days
of creation were vast, indefinite periods.
But apart from Bible history geology can prove nothing. Relics
found in the earth do give evidence of conditions differing from the
present in many respects, but the time when these conditions existed
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