Creation

The word used in the Hebrew scriptures which is translated as 'day', yom , has indeed a variety of meanings according to context. Included in these is an indefinite period of time. When it is qualified by 'evening and morning' it can only mean a day of 24 hours as we know it today. This is even acknowledge by those who do not believe the account to be true, and re-interpret it due to their beliefs, to be the original and intended meaning. The days, in their intended meaning are not symbolic but literal, even though they are given a different meaning due to extra-Biblical beliefs about origins.

Christians believe that the world was created by the word of God. Since God is almighty He can use any means He wishes to bring something into being such as the forming of Adam from the earth, although Adam, like all other humans, was obviously much more than earth. Basically God spoke and it happened. Although obviously all the incredible detail such as in the DNA sequence, for example, was in the mind of God when He spoke, since, if He had to spell out every detail, the creation would not be finished yet and we would not be here. (this latter thought being the personal view of the poster of this answer - there probably being a number of different Christian views as to what 'the word of God' in relation to the creation actually means).

Hebrews 11:3

3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Heb 1:1-3 "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, Has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself made purification of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"

Heb 1:10-12 "And, You, Lord, in the beginning have laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the works of Your hands. They shall perish; but You remain: and they all shall become old as does a garment; And as a vesture will You fold them up, and they shall be changed; but You are the same, and Your years shall not fail."

GENESIS:

Heaven and Earth, formless and unfilled and dark and deep and watery, with the Spirit of God moving; to the left and right, to the top and bottom, to the front and back, and then residing in the centre; the Love In God's Harmonic Tones produced LIGHT; it was good, and with its division, then came night; and the evening and the morning were the first day ever, as intergalactic dimensional duration began with the first seven days of the space/time continuum.

1. Light, with Day and Night spoken into being
2. Sky spoken into being
3. Land, Sea, and Plants spoken into being
4. Sun, Moon, and Stars spoken into being
5. Animals of the sea and air spoken into being
6. Animals of the land, and Man in the image of God spoken into being
7. Rest taken by God at the end of a very creative week

How long is a day? For us, one complete rotation of our planet counts as a day.

How loudly did God speak? An immeasurable volume.

While the bible uses the term "7 days" to explain the time period Jehovah used to create the earth, these are simply symbolic days. The Hebrew word translated 'day' has a variety of meanings, including 'a long time; the time covering an extraordinary event.' The term used allows for the thought that each 'day' could have been thousands of years in length.

*All information comes from a book called "Reasoning from the Scriptures," published in 1989 by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.

As has already been stated we do not know just how long God took to gather all of the matter together, not that it matters. The fact that God was able to command the intelligence which matter had, to form the earth and the seas is in accord with gospel principles.

According to Genesis, the world was created by the Word of God. The words "And God said let there be..." are repeated throughout the general account in Genesis chapter 1. Thus, the God who can call things into existence merely by speaking them (obviously as an expression of His thought and intention of how they were to be, with all their incredibly complex constituent parts, DNA etc.) is indeed almighty and to be both feared and praised.

Genesis 1

God, who existed before all else, created the heavens and the earth and all that dwell therein. Here is the scripture for the creation story from the book of Genesis in the Bible: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning-the first day. 6 And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning-the second day. 9 And God said, "Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear." And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters he called "seas." And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning-the third day. 14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. 16 God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day. 20 And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth." 23 And there was evening, and there was morning-the fifth day. 24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [b] and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image,

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." 29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning-the sixth day.

Genesis 2

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested [a] from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

The Christan's Belief's of how the world began is almost in your question word Christan begins with the word Christ as in Jesus Christ in the belief Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth and were given the commandment to multiply ..."have many children" and till the earth meanwhile Jesus Christ Was creating the universe it was described that it happened over the space of seven days but days to us may be different to them it could have been seven years !on the seventh day he rested earning the name Sunday the day of rest

another response:

A great many educated Christians find no contradiction between their faith in the Creator God and scientific explanations of the universe and the evolution of life.

Creationists insist that Genesis must be taken as literal fact, or you cannot be called 'Christian'. As a Christian and as someone who has been involved in scientific research and education all his working lfe, I find this offensive.

Genesis, in the original Hebrew, is an allegorical Hebrew poem - it contains much truth about human/God relationships, humanity's sinful nature, our tendency to reject our own Creator and so on. But not even the ancient Jews accepted Genesis as fact. Even Paul, in his letters, who quoted parts of Genesis involving Adam, used the terms allegorically. The number of cases Jesus himself referred to Adam, or to Genesis, is precisely zero.

Yet there are those who insist that Genesis should be taken as literal fact, despite the Jewish and Christian traditions, and despite the original Hebrew poetic nature, and despite its literal acceptance flying in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence that simply does not suppoer a literal interpretation of Genesis. This does more harm than good, as it brands Creationists as crackpots, and rightly so, but, in doing so, brands all Christians - especially the majority who take a much more informed view of Genesis - as crackpots too, which is wrong.

Most Christians accept the Big Bang, the formation of the stars and planets and evolution as would any other person. The evidence is plain to see. However, within that evolution, they also believe in a God who set that evolution in motion, by creating the universe with a unique set of values and constants that enables life to exist. Moreover, they believe in a God who is still at work in Creation, maintaining it through love.

Answer:

At a time before the creation of man, it must of been very beautiful for the angels to shout for joy and the future headquarters of the Kingdom of God:

4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.

5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

6 On what were its footings set,

or who laid its cornerstone-

7 while the morning stars sang together

and all the angels[a] shouted for joy?

The full Creation story may be read in the opening chapters of Genesis for your reading pleasure. As God is perfect, just imagine all physical life as being brand new and expertly designed for its own unique physical beauty.

One Answer:

According to the Bible, one thing would be the fact that mankind is 'made in God's image', with the potential for possessing God's attributes of love, justice, wisdom and power.(Genesis 1:27)(Job 35:11)

Animals are 'instinctively wise' (Proverbs 30:24), but man has the ability to love, plan, dream, reason, make moral choices...choosing right or wrong, show honesty, kindness, compassion, altruism. Other creations bring glory to their creator by their beauty, complexity, intricate design and amazing inborn abilities, but human beings, everywhere on earth, WORSHIP. It's another human characteristic that separates us from the rest of creation...the need to look to a higher power for direction. (Jeremiah 10:23)(Matthew 6:33)

ANOTHER ANSWER:

Man seems to have decided itself that we were made in God's image, though it seems quite blatantly obvious that humans, who are respectively destroying the planet and its resources, who are so flawed that some manage to bite the side of their own face, are not made in God's image, the creator of heaven and earth. In my opinion, what differs humans from other beings is our arrogance and attitude that we are better than other creatures, that manage to live in harmony, due to our intelligence that is causing us to destroy the world.(comment by Paddywag)

One thought:

According to the Bible, In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them........ and Adam lived on hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters.(Genesis 5:4)

Another thought:

Three Sons, No Daughters

Uranus Day: 17 hours, 14 minutes, and 24 seconds.

Uranus Year: 84 Earth years.

Helpful?

The creation account in Genesis 1 is a "refurbishing" of the earth, that somehow came into a state of ruin following its original creation. It says that "in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth." It doesn't say "WHEN" He did that... nor how long it took Him to do it.

Then it says that "the earth WAS without form, and void." The word "was" is a form of the verb "TO BE," a "state-of-being: - is, are, was, were, am, become, became - and the translators had to choose the form of it that they thought best for what they considered to be the best contextual agreement.

The word they chose, "was," makes the account sound like God threw together a random blob of matter sometime way back when and called it the heavens and the earth. And that along with everything else... the earth, too, was less than perfectly made... a formless wasted mess, which this imperfect God had to come back later to correct, beginning in verse 3.

If God didn't make the universe "perfectly" the very first time around... then He isn't worthy to be called God. In which case, there is no God, and man and the universe is a colosal cosmic evolutionary accident afterall.

As it turns out, the very same "verb" form is used to describe the creation of Adam, where the translators decided to use "BECAME" instead of "was."

"...and man BECAME a living soul." (Gen.2:7)

It's logical to say that "man WAS a living soul, because he BECAME that way... and equally logical to say: "...the earth WAS without form, and void, because it BECAME that way..." sometime after it was created perfectly in the beginning.

All of this notwithstanding... the reality is that when God said, "Let there be light..." He wasn't creating the earth from scratch... from newly formed compacted matter. The earth was already made... in verse one, in the beginning [whenever that was]. The earth subsequently came into a condition of ruination and became totally covered by water [???perhaps to put out a fire??? See Luke 10:18]:

"...darkness was upon the face of the deep [an ocean-covered planet]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Gen.1:2)

Genesis recounts the RE-make of the earth that was wasted and destroyed by something. An earth whose foundation and orbit was intact. It speaks of six 24-hour days of refurbishing to establish a breathable atmosphere, the topographical raising of landmasses, the planting of vegetation and making a variety of living creatures... all in preparation for the creation of man, whom God made specially in His image.

The very first verse of Genesis 1, however, doesn't say how long it took God to make the universe and the earth "originally"... "in the beginning."

Time is physical. It's measured by the incremental "movements and orbits of the planets and stars."

Time didn't begin until the universe was made and set into motion... like a precision-made clock.

In the beginning, there were no "days"... no "hours"... no time. There was only "eternity"... the humanly inconceivable "absence of time."

In the Genesis account... God RE-created the earth in six days [not on a particular day]... six 24-hour days measured by the movements of the stars in a ticking universe that was already in existence.

In the beginning, however... before something later ruined God's perfect creation... we aren't told how long the original creation took. Our own human experience with making things [God gave man a spark of His creatability] reveals to us that it takes time to "ideate" and come up with a thought of something we need or would like to have. Time to formulate it in our mind. Time to put it onto paper... or into a computer program. Time to design, research and develop it. Time to prototype it and put it into production.

The infinite and intricate and lovingly thought out designs in nature reveal the perfection of our Creator. The perfect design of nature surpasses the best efforts of man to duplicate it, every time.

It stands to reason that the universe or the earth wasn't made on a particular day. It took God SIX days to RE-make the earth that was already in existence and in a state of disrepair.

We can learn so much from creation stories, especially from ancient civilizations. such as their mind set and how it changed over time, but we can also learn the many lessons and morals that are hidden in these creation stories.

Another Answer

We can also learn about the nature and attributes of God. For example He is all powerful, all knowing, God is everywhere all the time..