May 12

Part 6: The Days of Creation

Todd Pruitt |Series: Genesis |Genesis 1:3-13


The Bible’s creation account is remarkably brief and spare of details. Its purpose is not to present an exhaustive account of the making of the cosmos. Such an account would be massive and beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Therefore, we should not expect to have all of our questions answered about “the how” of all God’s works in creation. For instance, we are not told whether God employed any secondary means in creating the world. Was everything brought about by supernatural fiat or did God also employ ordinary providences as well? We should also not try to force contemporary scientific canons on the Genesis account as though the inspired writer was addressing only 21st century readers.

That said, what we are told in the Genesis account is to be understood as a record of actual events. The creation account is not poetry but history written in what many commentators have called “elevated prose.” We are intended to understand that the origins of the universe are supernatural. What is more, God structured the days of creation such that they are filled with meaning. It is hard to imagine that the riches of truth mined from the account of God’s ordering of and acts within the creation days would be merely a literary technique untethered from actual facts.

The creation of the man and woman was direct and supernatural. Adam and Eve were the progenitors of the human race. Our first parents “fell” as a result of their rebellion against God. By God’s own design the fall into sin radically impacted the entire created order (Romans 8:20). As a result of the man’s sin, decay and death entered into the created order and paradise was lost. As our representative head, Adam’s sin has been imputed to all of his progeny (Romans 5:12ff). These facts are affirmed in the New Testament and portrayed as vitally important to our understanding of the gospel.

While Bible believing Christians may not always agree on every interpretive detail concerning the creation days, we must agree on those points which Scripture makes clear. Affirming the historical reliability of God’s supernatural creation of the universe, the special creation of mankind, a real paradise, a real fall, and death as the result of sin are fully affirmed throughout the Scriptures. Indeed, the Biblical meta-narrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation rests in part upon our affirmation of the reliability of the Genesis account.


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