According to the biblical description, on the third day of the act of creation, God created the earth. And in seven days he created the whole world and man. This act is one of the founding tenets of the Jewish and Christian faith.
The story of how God created the earth and heaven is found in the first book of the Bible called "Genesis". But the interpretations of it among believers and non-believers are very different from each other. About this, as well as in detail about how many days God created the earth, man and the world around us, we will talk further in the article.
About a literal reading error
He who reads the Holy Scriptures without thinking much about its essence, that is, trying to take it literally, can come to great bewilderment. John Chrysostom wrote about this. This is what the clergy are talking about today.
They warn that analyzing biblic altexts are necessary taking into account the fact that the Bible is not a textbook and does not present scientific truths. It has a religious look as well as an allegorical aspect.
Taking into account these remarks, we will try to consider chapter 1 of the biblical book "Genesis", which tells how much God created the earth, sky, man, plants and animals. While the narrative is fairly simple in form, its content is not always easy to understand.
Creation: The First Three Days
The first chapter of Genesis begins with God first creating the earth and the heavens. And this picture looked like this: the Earth was empty and waterless, there was darkness over the abyss, and the Spirit of God was flying over the water. Then the following happened.
On the 1st day, God willed that there be light, and it appeared. This pleased the Almighty, and he divided the light and the darkness. He called the light day, and he called the darkness night.
On the 2nd day, God commanded that a firmament be formed in the middle of the expanse of water, and it separated the water that was above the firmament from that which was under it. And the firmament was in the middle of the water, and was called the sky.
The story of the third day of creation tells how God created the earth. The water that was under the heavens flowed in one place, and dry land appeared, which God called earth. Then the Creator issued a command that the earth should grow all kinds of greenery and grass, yielding seed according to its kind and likeness, as well as fruitful trees. And it all happened.
Creation of luminaries and animals
On the 4th day, the Lord created luminaries in the firmament of heaven, so that they would illuminate the earth. And also to separate day from night, produce signs, mark times, days and years.
On the fifth day, at the direction of the Lord, the water produced reptiles, birds that flew over the earth, along the firmament. Then God created big fish and all sorts of animals.
Having considered what the Scripture says about how God created the earth, sky, stars and planets, birds and animals, let's move on to the creation of man.
In the image and likeness
And God decided to create man in his own image and likeness. And he made him ruler over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air. And also over beasts, cattle, over all the earth and creeping reptiles on it. And the Almighty created a man and a woman and, having blessed them, commanded that they be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and rule over the animal world.
After six days, the Almighty looked at everything he had created and decided that it was very good. At the beginning of the second chapter of Genesis, it is said that on the seventh day the Creator rested, that is, he rested from his work. He blessed the seventh day by making it holy.
Having outlined the biblical events that tell how God created the earth and the world around it, as well as man and animals, let's move on to the question of interpreting the act of creation.
Creation from nothing
When reading the ancient narrative, at first glance it may seem that it contradictsmodern concepts related to science. But, as already mentioned, the Bible is not a textbook on any natural science discipline. And it does not describe how God created the earth in terms of physical, scientific.
But, as noted by the fathers of the Christian Church, there is one of the important religious truths in it, saying that it was God who created the world and he did it out of nothing. It is very difficult for human consciousness to understand this truth, based on its life experience, because creation is beyond our experience.
Even among the ancient philosophers, there were opinions that the Creator and his creation are one and the same, and the world is an emanation of God. He "poured out" into this world, thus forming physical reality. Thus, God is everywhere - this is the opinion of the pantheists.
Other philosophers - dualists - believed that God and matter existed in parallel, and the Creator created the world from eternal matter. Atheists, on the other hand, deny the existence of God in principle, they argue that there is only matter.
We will consider the explanation of the supporters of the first of the above versions.
1 day is like 1000 years
According to the story of the Holy Scriptures, God created the earth, the whole world, the Universe from nothing. He did this through his Word, Almighty power and Divine will. The act of creation is not instantaneous, one-time, it proceeds in time. Although the Bible refers to 7 days of creation, a day here is not equal to 24 hours, our earthly day. Here we are talking about other time periods. After all, as mentioned above, the luminaries appeared only on the fourthday.
The second epistle of the Apostle Peter says that the Word of God proclaims to us that the Lord has 1 day as 1000 years, and 1000 years as 1 day. That is, God is outside our understanding of time, so it is not possible to judge how long the act of creation took place.
However, the following is clear from the biblical texts. In the Revelation of John the Theologian, the Lord himself says: "Behold, I make all things new." That is, the act of creation is not finished yet, it continues in an invisible and incomprehensible way for us. God maintains with his energy the structure of the Universe in a state of balance and vitality.
