One of the more obscure teachings of the Church is that we are living in the 8th day of creation since the resurrection of Christ1 . It is associated with the fact that most important events in early Christianity happened on the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day (first day of the week). The resurrection, many apparitions of Jesus and the ascension occurred on the eighth day. And the early Christians used to meet on the eighth day to break bread. This obviously figurative description of our current time enables us to entertain the possibility that God did not create the world in 6 literal consecutive 24 hour periods as maintained by some creationists2. The biblical narrative of creation itself opens up the door to a non literal interpretation of the six day creation event. For example, the Sun, moon, and stars do not appear until the fourth day (Gen 1:14-19); after the formation of land and plants. Because of this, the person who wrote Genesis 1 would have had to find alternative ways of determining morning and evening other than the rising and setting of the Sun especially for the first three days of creation.
But scientific advances and measurements also present us with an interesting progression of events in relation to the creation of the universe. A progression which with a little effort can be aligned to the creative narrative, resulting in a remarkable harmony between what science suggests and what the authors of Genesis tell us.
If we were to take the scientific (astrophysical and geological)3 narrative of the evolution of the universe as True and we sent a Prophet (from a distant age – with limited ‘scientific’ knowledge) to see and describe this process. Our Prophet would begin in the primordial soup, a dark dense cloud of quantum particles with no form. A description similar to Genesis 1:2; ‘The Earth was without form and void” – This description and the subsequent narrative tells us that the Earth also includes everything in the sky; the Sun, moon, and stars so that the question of ‘heaven’ being in the ‘sky’ is meaningless.
The next significant thing our Prophet would see would be the first light that emerged from the universe. This would be the; “Let there be light” moment. A moment in cosmic history about 380,000 years after the big bang when light emerged from this primordial soup of particles. Today this is called the cosmic microwave background radiation. This is the first day of creation.
The next thing our Prophet would see would be the expansion of the universe, an expansion that had been invisible before the emergency of light. An expansion that created a vault or hole inside the cosmic waters over which the Spirit of God was hovering. If our Prophet was having this vision from a perspective that was ‘earth’ bound, he would miss out on perceiving the formation of the ‘stars’ since the atmosphere was cloudy. This is the second day of creation.
Our Prophet would now begin to witness the formation of land as volcanic eruptions created land and seas emerged. Then primitive plant life would follow. The biblical narrative is very descriptive but the geological record is a little more reserved. What was prevalent in this period are the precursors of modern day plants, primarily cyanobacteria (tiny organisms which create oxygen). At this point in the history of the earth the atmosphere was cloudy and the sun, moon, and stars were not visible to an observer. We have now moved from the astrophysical to the geological evolution of the Earth. This period includes the Hadean and Archean periods which lasted from about 4.4B years until about 2.4B years ago. The third day of creation.
The next significant event would be the appearance of lights in the sky; the Sun, Moon, and Stars. This happened about 2.4B years ago and lasted about 200m years, it created seasons and a climate and was caused by the Oxygen created by the cyanobacteria (plants). It is referred to as the Great Oxidation Event. This is the fourth day of creation. I think it is beyond a random coincidence that the biblical narrative places the Sun, moon, and stars as appearing on day four after ‘plants’ which would make them appear. Its an inverted account, stars form before the earth. The earth (planet) itself is the result of the remnant of stars; but from an Earth bound perspective, stars appear later. The Earth does not form in a star filled sky.
On the fifth day, starting from about 2.4 billion years to about 300 million years ago. Life emerges in the oceans and insects begin to fly. Our Prophet would see the “Let the waters teem with living creatures and let birds fly in the sky. Birds do not emerge early in this period. But biblical Hebrew does not differentiate flying insects from flying birds. In the geological record this period covers the Proterozoic and early Paleozoic (up to Devonian, the age of the fishes) periods. This would be the fifth day of creation.
Finally, land animals began to appear about 300m years ago. This is also when birds appear in the geological record. Following the Genesis narrative, this period only ends after the creation of Adam. If we are to use the clue of farming by the sons of Adam (Gen 4). We can put this period to end about 23,000 years (Earliest evidence of farming4). The fossil evidence suggests a much earlier date, 50,000 or 300,000 years ago. This would be our sixth day; “let the land bring forth creatures according to their kind” and let us create man in our image and likeness. Our Prophet has now reached recorded history, his work is done and he can wake up from his vision and begin re-telling his majestic and incredible narrative.
A conceptual framework showing the timeline of creation of the universe. click on the image to enlarge for a better view
Looking at the days of creation as figurative rather than literal opens up a new meaning for the seventh day. God having brought creation to perfection can rest from his creative work. He blesses the day making it perfect and holy. It should be an “age” in which there is no suffering, no death. An age in which Adam (humanity) is supposed to live trusting in God’s providence and goodness. From this perspective, re-reading Exodus 20:9-11, we notice that the Sabbath is to be kept holy by resting from the toil of the other six days. And we can notice that this toil to which mankind is enslaved is the result of the disobedience of Adam. A disobedience which brought restlessness, suffering, and death into an otherwise holy, perfect, and beautiful day. A day without sorrows. This new situation contradicted the good work that God had labored to accomplish, a good which God would one day come to remedy.
If we take another step back, we can notice that in the Biblical narrative of creation God says the word and it happens so. He commands the dry land to appear, the sea and the land to bring forth creatures and they obey like they are listening to a Master. All of nature (except humans who are given freedom so they can love) obey the voice of God. In the Gospels, people will marvel and say even the winds obey him (Mt 8:27, Mk 4:41, Lk 8:25). From the perspective of the observer who is not hearing God speak (like a geologist, looking for evidence after the fact), things would seem to evolve (on their own) from simpler to more complex forms.
Now we can enter the Eighth day of creation when God heals the wounds wrought on nature by the disobedience of Adam. And he will do this the way he did on the first six days of creation; by saying the word. The only difference is that unlike the rest of creation, human beings who need healing must believe him and choose to do as he has said and says (the way Mary advises the servants at the wedding feast).
And he has spoken through the Prophets giving us the commandments and in the Gospels showing us the way to being restful (shoulder my yoke and learn from me, … and you will find rest Mt 11:29). But he is still speaking, his work is not over as long as the world remains wounded. And we who are in need of healing, must make the effort to pay attention to him to what he says. And we must keep praying;
that our Souls may be healed
Say the word
that our families may be healed
Say the word
that our communities may be healed
Say the word
that our enemies may be healed
Say the word
that our country may be healed
Say the word
that the world may be healed
NOTES
- The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ’s Resurrection. the seventh day completes the first creation. the eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. the first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first CCC 349, also see 1166 ↩︎
- Groups such as creation.com, https://gc.adventist.org/official-statements/affirmation-of-creation/ ↩︎
- Geology refers to the study of the rocks of the Earth and how they have been transformed over the ages. It was geology that gave birth to the theory of natural evolution. Astrophysics looks at the how the world works at the scale of the universe and at the scale of sub-atomic scales. It is due to this branch of science that we believe that the universe was created 13.7B years ago in a Big Bang ↩︎
- Origin of cultivation and proto weeds long before Neolithic farming. Snir et al, 2015. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422 ↩︎