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Creation
Doctrine of Days
Science
and the Word of God
Scientific Laws and the Universe
Doctrine of
Days
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Word format)
Introduction
The Hebrew word yom,
meaning- ‘day,’ is used in the Bible in
three ways. The word
h(me/ra (hemera)
is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew yom.
A ‘principle of interpretation:’ The
context of the Scripture always determines
the meaning of the word or phrase in
question.
Body
1. The day which is
shorter than twenty-four hours.
A. The “day of salvation”
describes that moment when an individual
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. 2
Corinthians 6:2 tells us that it is God who
say’s, “At the acceptable time I listened
to you, and on the day of salvation I helped
you.” Paul then goes on to say in the
same v., “behold, now is ‘the acceptable
time,’ behold, now is ‘the day of
salvation.’”
B. The “Day of Christ”
refers to the Rapture of the Church which
will be instantaneous, “in the twinkling
of an eye.”
1) 1 Corinthians 15:52
says, “in a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet
will sound [cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16],
and the dead [in Christ] will be
raised imperishable, and we [living
Church Age believers] shall be changed
[a)lla/ssw
(allasso), from allos- ‘another;’
means- exchange one thing for
another, transform; our immediate
context {vv. 50-57} supplies what is to be
exchanged, and what we are to be transformed
into: from ‘perishable’ to ‘imperishable,’
‘mortal’ to ‘immortal,’ a physical body for
a resurrection body].”
2) Paul used this
phrase twice in his letter to the Church at
Philippi. First, in Philippians 1:10, where
he say’s, “so that you may approve the
things that are excellent, in order to be
sincere and blameless until the
Day of Christ.” Then in
Philippians 2:16, “holding fast the word
of life, so that in the Day of Christ
I may have cause to glory because I did not
run in vain nor toil in vain.”
C. The “day of wrath”
occurs when the unbeliever is judged by
Jesus Christ at the Great White Throne
Judgment and cast into the Lake of Fire
{Rev. 20:11-15}.
Romans 2:5 says, “But
because of your stubbornness [resulting
from arrogance; sklerotes lit. means-
‘hardness;’ it indicates that stage
of reversionism where because of one
negative decision after another so much scar
tissue has accumulated in the soul that
objective thought and evaluation of
Truth is no longer possible] and
unrepentant heart [unwillingness to
‘change your mind’ about the Person of Jesus
Christ] you are storing up wrath for
yourself— in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of
God.”
2. The day which is
longer than twenty-four hours.
A. The “Day of
Redemption” refers to the believer in
eternity in a resurrection body. Paul uses
this phrase in Ephesians 4:30 where he
say’s, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of
God, by whom you were sealed for the day
of redemption.”
B. The “day of the Lord”
can have one of two meanings depending on
the context:
1) The combined period
including the Tribulation, Second Advent,
and Millennium, approximately 1,007 years;
or
2) Any one segment of
the Tribulation, Second Advent, or
Millennium {Isa. 13:6; Joel 1:15; 2:1; Zech.
14:1; 1 Thes. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10}.
C. The “day of God”
refers to eternity. In 2 Peter 3:12 the
apostle Peter, addressing believers in Asia
Minor under intense pressure and
persecution, wrote that they ought to be
“looking for and hastening the coming of the
day of God, on account of which the
heavens will be destroyed by burning and the
elements will melt with intense heat!”
3. The twenty-four
hour day, which is a solar day.
A. The six days of the
earth’s restoration which were literal
twenty-four hour days {Gen. 1:3-31}.
B. The Sabbath, a special
day of rest and worship in the dispensation
of Israel. In Exodus 20:10 the Lord
commanded the nation of Israel saying,
“but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the
LORD your God [shabbath- ‘cease
and desist work, rest and relax’]; {in
it} you shall not do any work, you or your
son or your daughter, your male or your
female servant or your cattle or your
sojourner who stays with you.”
C. The Lord’s Day {not the
Sabbath} in the dispensation of the Church
is Sunday, the first day of the week. The
apostle John recorded, that he “was in
the Spirit on the Lord’s day [the day of
Christ’s resurrection], and I heard
behind me a loud voice like {the sound} of a
trumpet,” Revelation 1:10.
D. Living ‘one day at a
time’ in the spiritual life of the
Christian. Paul wrote in Romans 14:5-6,
“One man regards one day above another,
another regards every day {alike.} Let each
man be fully convinced in his own mind. He
who observes the day, observes it for the
Lord.…”
E. The “all the day”
concept of learning doctrine daily— Psalm
119:97.
1) Psalm 119 is a
textbook on living in the Word of
God, every second, every moment, every hour
of every day. The writer of the 119th
Psalm is a captive on the slave-march to
Babylon after the siege and destruction of
Jerusalem in 586 BC.
2) V. 97 begins the
mem (
m
) section of this acrostic poem. The mem
pictures water; and no one can appreciate
more keenly than a desert people how
precious is water. It is the difference
between life and death.
The mem represents not
only life-giving salvation, but the
cleansing of confession and the refreshment
which comes from the study of the Word.
All spiritual thirst is quenched in
Christ, who said in John 7:37, “If any
man is thirsty, let him come to Me and
drink.”
3) As the captive
turns his burning soul to thoughts of the
mem, he immediately recalls one of the
first Psalms he learned as a child: Psalm
1. At this gateway to the book of praises,
God makes a promise to every thirsty
soul. He say’s, “How blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the
wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners,
nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his
delight is in the law of the LORD, and in
His law he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree {firmly} planted
by streams of water, which yields its fruit
in its season, and its leaf does not wither;
and in whatever he does, he prospers,”
Psalm 1:1-3.
4) In Psalm 119:97
this Jewish captive of the Chaldeans cries
out to his God, “O how I love Your
law [he uses ’aheyv, a word that
speaks of the love of a husband for a wife,
of God for His chosen people, about the love
of a very close friend, someone with whom he
is comfortable and compatible; he feels this
way about the Word because it is God’s
Word; the point is that God has one basis
for evaluating our love for Him— our
attitude toward His Word and our application
of it to life; cf. principles below]! It
is my meditation [‘meditation’ comes
from a word that means ‘to say something
over and over again;’ hence- reflection,
devotion, study] all
the day [this young man knows
that he must come back to the living water
of the Word time and time again for
nourishment, for refreshment, and for
strength].”
a. If we truly love
Him, we will cling to and dedicate ourselves
to His Word.
b. If we have no
dedication to the written Word, then we have
no real love for the Living Word.
Science and the
Word of God
(click here to view in
Word format)
1. The pre-chaotic earth was the headquarters for
Satan during the angelic revolt.
2. The fall of Satan and the resultant Angelic
Conflict led to the desolation of planet
earth.
A. The earth became an empty
wasteland {tohu- waste, desolation +
vohu- empty, void}; there was no
life.
1) Genesis 1:2 says,
“And [a disjunctive clause, lit.-
but] the earth was [Hebrew verb
hayah in the Qal perfect- ‘became’]
formless and void [tohu wavohu
depicts the result of divine judgment],
and darkness was over the surface of the
deep [in judgment God extinguished the
lights of the universe, the ‘arena’ of the
Angelic Conflict].…” An absence of
light means an absence of heat.
2) In Isaiah 45:18
the prophet writes, “For thus says the
LORD, who created the Heavens [bara
means- bring into existence by divine
command; creatio ex nihilo; used
twice in Genesis 1 to indicate the distinct
creation of both the universe and the human
soul from nothing] (He is the God
who formed the Earth [verb yatsar
is used for forming something as a potter
molds clay; describes the restoration of the
earth after the chaos of Genesis 1:2] and
made it [asah generally means-
‘make;’ here, lit. ‘restored it from
existing material’], He established it
and did not create [bara]
it [originally] a waste place [tohu],
{but} formed [yatsar] it to be
inhabited).…”
B. For an unknown period of time, the
earth was covered by an ice pack. The ice
pack resulted from the darkness freezing the
waters because of a complete absence of
heat— Genesis 1:2.
3. Neither science
nor the Bible provides precise data for
determining the age of the earth. Methods
such as carbon and radiometric dating for
measuring geologic ages are based on widely
divergent and speculative interpretations of
data which cannot be verified.
4. The very reason
for the Bible is to communicate God’s plan,
purpose, and will {including certain
spiritual phenomena} to mankind.
Occasionally, Scripture alludes to or
comments on what we classify as scientific
subjects, e.g., in Psalm 8:7-8; and Job 14:9
and 11. The principle: The infallibility
of Scripture extends to every subject
touched in the Bible, not just spiritual
truth.
5. The Bible was not
designed to be a scientific textbook.
Actual scientific data recorded in the Bible
is limited, but accurate.
6. No conflict exists
between what the Bible says in the original
languages and the correct
interpretation of natural phenomena by such
sciences as cosmology, biology, geology,
astronomy, chemistry, anatomy and
anthropology.
7. God originates and
sustains all the laws and phenomena which
science seeks to categorize and classify.
8. Whenever
scientific speculation contradicts the
Bible, such speculation is inaccurate.
Two principles:
A. Whenever a conflict exists between
scientific explanations or interpretations
and what the Bible says, the Bible is always
right!
B. Whenever a conflict exists between an
historical interpretation and what the Bible
says, the Bible is always right! In other
words, where the Bible comments on science,
science must agree with the Bible;
the Bible is not required to agree
with science.
Scientific Laws and the Universe
(click here to view in
Word format)
1. The preservation
of the universe and the earth including the
human race, animal and plant life, and the
stability of our environment and atmosphere,
depends exclusively on the
omnipotence and immutability of Jesus
Christ.
A. In Colossians 1:16-17 Paul said,
“For by Him [Lord Jesus Christ] all
things were created, {both} in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or
authorities— all things have been created
by Him and for Him. And He is before
all things, and in Him all
things hold together.”
B. Hebrews 1:3 tells us, that Jesus Christ
“is the radiance of” God the Father’s
“glory and the exact representation of
His nature, and upholds all things by
the word of His power.…”
2. The term
‘scientific laws’ is a misnomer. Scientific
laws, as such, do not exist because science
neither advances nor enforces these laws.
E.g., in chemistry each time certain
elements are combined, certain results
always occur. This phenomenon is more
accurately termed a divine law, not a
scientific law.
3. So-called
scientific laws are based on the statistical
assumption that the universe, which operates
according to a fixed norm, will continue to
do so. Science can observe, classify,
describe and apply these normative
operations, but it is powerless to
control them. A distinction must be
maintained between illegitimate scientific
speculation and the legitimate observation
and classification roles of science as part
of the naming task God gave Adam.
Notice how in Genesis 2:19-20 Moses said,
“And out of the ground the LORD God formed
every beast of the field and every bird of
the sky, and brought {them} to the man to
see what he would call them; and whatever
the man called a living creature, that was
its name. And the man gave names to all the
cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to
every beast of the field....”
Principle: Only God {specifically, Jesus Christ} in His
sovereignty can guarantee the continuation
of these phenomena.
4. The universe with
its current laws of operation will not
always exist as it does at the present
time.
A. Peter in 2 Peter 3:10 say’s, “But
the Day of the Lord [which refers
here to the end of the Millennium, and
therefore the end of human history] will
come like a thief, in which the heavens will
pass away with a roar and the elements will
be destroyed with intense heat, and the
earth and its works will be burned up.”
And in v. 12 he adds, “looking for and
hastening the coming of the Day of God
[a reference to eternity], on account of
which the heavens will be destroyed by
burning and the elements will melt with
intense heat!”
B. The apostle John spoke in Revelation
20:11, of how he “saw a Great White
Throne [for the judgment of unbelievers
after the end of human history]
and Him who sat upon it [ / Lord Jesus
Christ], from whose presence Earth and
Heaven fled away, and no place was found for
them.”
5. Known ‘scientific
laws’ and phenomena which man has been able
to observe, classify and apply depend
entirely upon the faithfulness of God.
Jesus Christ at the present time ensures the
perpetual function of every bona fide
scientific law— Colossians 1:17.
Again, in 2 Peter 3:4-5, Peter quotes the
false teachers as “saying, ‘Where is the
promise of His coming [‘His return’ at
the 2nd Advent]? For {ever}
since the fathers fell asleep, all continues
just as it was
from the beginning of creation.’ For when
they maintain this [false teachers of ch.
2-3], it escapes their notice that by the
Word [logos] of God [Jesus
Christ: Jn. 1:1-3] {the} Heavens existed
long ago and {the} Earth was formed out of
water and by water.”
6. The reason for
preserving the universe is to resolve the
Angelic Conflict in human history and to
bring “many sons into glory,” Hebrews
2:10.
7. When God destroys
the present universe at the end of the
Millennium {2 Pet. 2:10-12} only those
indestructible things of eternal value will
survive:
A. Our salvation through faith alone in
Christ alone. Paul said in Romans 8:38-39,
“For I am convinced that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other created thing, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God
[the motivation for the sacrifice of His
perfect Son in our place], which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
B. The infallible Word of God.
1) Isaiah 40:8 says,
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but
the Word of our God stands forever.”
2) Jesus said in
Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and Earth will
pass away, but My words shall not pass
away.”
C. The divine historical record of
believers who lived in the light of Bible
doctrine— Psalm 69:28; Philippians 4:3; and
Revelation 3:12.
V. 12 of Revelation tells us, that “He
who overcomes [the believer who
executes God’s Protocol Plan, the hero of
faith in the Angelic Conflict], I will
make him a pillar in the temple of My God
[the mature believer will have the
record of his life inscribed forever on a
pillar in the heavenly temple; the ‘temple
of God’ is the eternal record center in the
future; it provides the historical textbook
of the true heroes of history in the
same manner that Egyptian, Greek, Assyrian
and Babylonian temples had the great deeds
of great people {like rulers, warriors and
leaders of men} inscribed on their pillars],
and he will not go out from it anymore; and
I will write upon him [1] the name of
My God, and [2] the name of the city
of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes
down out of Heaven from My God, and [3]
My new name [which is ‘King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, the bright Morning Star;’ the
three names are a ‘coat of arms’ of heavenly
glory for the Spiritual Warrior— the Order
of / Morning Star].”
D. Eternal blessings, both those conveyed
to winner believers and those forfeited by
loser believers. 1) We see from 1
Corinthians 3:13-14, that “each man’s
work will become evident; for the Day
[of judgment for believers; Bema
Seat: 2 Cor. 5:10] will show it, because
it is {to be} revealed with fire; and the
fire itself will test the quality of each
man’s work. If [when: 1st
class condition] any man’s work which he
has built upon it [foundation of faith
in Christ: v. 11] remains, he shall
receive a reward.”
2) Ephesians 1:3
says, “Blessed {be} the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly {places} in Christ [the
very position of our ‘spiritual blessings’
makes them immutable].”
3) In 1 Peter 1:3-4
Peter writes, “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
according to His great mercy has caused us
to be born again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to {obtain} an inheritance
{which is} imperishable and undefiled and
will not fade away, reserved in
Heaven for” us.
E. The resurrection body of every
believer. In 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 Paul
say’s, “So also is the resurrection of
the dead [believer]. It is sown a
perishable {body}, it is raised an
imperishable {body}; it is sown in dishonor,
it is raised in glory; it is sown in
weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown
a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body. If there is a natural body [‘and
there is,’ you’re in it], there is also a
spiritual {body.}”
He goes on in v. 50 to “say this, ...that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God; nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery
[something never before revealed until
the CA]; we shall not all sleep but we
shall all be changed, in a moment, in
the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet;
for the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised imperishable and we shall be
changed. For this perishable must
put on the imperishable, and this mortal
must put on immortality. But when this
perishable will have put on the
imperishable, and this mortal will have put
on immortality, then will come about the
saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed
up in victory.’”
8. Jesus Christ holds
the universe together by the power of His
Word— Hebrews 1:3. Simultaneously, He
postpones eternity to give the human race
ample opportunity to appropriate the grace
of God.
2 Peter 3:9 says, that “The Lord is not
slow about His promise [v. 4; 2nd
Advent: the return of the Righteous King to
take vengeance on His enemies], as some
count slowness, but is patient toward you,
not wishing for any to perish but for
all to come to repentance [a
change of mind about Jesus Christ].”
This opportunity begins at the moment of
faith in Christ and continues throughout the
believer’s life in order to resolve the
Angelic Conflict and glorify God for all
eternity.
