Was the Earth Created in Six Days of Twenty-four Hours?

T Was the Earth Created in Six Days of Twenty-f our Each? Hours rHE recent cleavage of Chris- tianity along the line of Modernism and Fundamen- talism has revived interest in the long-discussed question of the age <By story because of certain findings of science, while the Fundamental- ist continues to accept it irrespec- tive of scientific discoveries. The Latter-day Saints are more of the earth, more particularly the -UK. rKJ^DllKlUJx. J. x\AA_J. than passively interested in this question, particularly in view of the fact that the biblical account of creation is repeated, nearly verba- tim, in two of our recent scriptures, specifically, the Book of Moses and did not come from the sun, and the Book of Abraham. Accord- therefore, the "days" were not so- "W- lt 1S apparent that if the lar days. Moreover, in the second biblical account is abandoned as chapter of Genesis (verse 4) the unsound, the others are likely to entire period of creation is spoken fal1 under the same criticism, per- of as a single day. haPs even more severe, for the Then, too, the Modernist turns writings of Moses and Abraham to the field of geology in further arre purported to be an outgrowth justification of his claims that the °f modern revelation, and there- earth is extremely old, and, indeed, k ,.,-. it cannot be denied that his con- clusions are here perfectly secure, for the geologist has overwhelm- ingly proved that the earth has been many millions of years in process of creation. time involved in its making. The t>. . n /> />/i j -,, Modernist regards the account of Deseret Professor of Geology creation outlined in the first chap- of University of Utah ter of Genesis as largely figurative and without foundation in histor- ic fact, while the Fundamentalist accepts it as a literal representation of what actually occurred. The six creative periods, ordinarily in- terpreted as days of twenty-four hours each, are especially objec- tionable to the Modernist. On the other hand, he is not particu- larly opposed to the order of cre- ative events mentioned in the biblical narrative, since it closely coincides with the chronology re- vealed in the geological record. The Fundamentalist, however, holds that the earth was created in six days of twenty-four hours, and regards the scriptural statement as sufficient justification for this con- clusion. the scientific time. discoveries of our TySINTERESTED onlookers *** quite generally regard the at- titude of the Modernist as equiva- lent to a denial of the biblical story, since the account, as it stands alone, is not readily adaptable to more than one interpretation, namely: that placed upon it by the Fundamentalist. Six creative periods are distinctly mentioned, each characterized by light and darkness — day and night. "And God called the light Day and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Genesis 1:5. The Modernist, however, has the following scriptural argument in his favor: Inasmuch as the sun did not come into existence until the fourth day (Genesis 1), it is evident that the light referred to on the first three days, at least, HTHUS, the Christian world is confronted with a curious con- dition: The Modernist justifies himself in denying the scriptural The Author TT is instructive to observe, how- ever, that the entire discussion is an outgrowth of the inadequacy of man's understanding, and per- haps also of the incompleteness of the biblical narrative. Thanks to modern revelation, the problem is in no sense disconcerting to the Latter-day Saints, for recent scrip- tures, which, by the way, appeared before the conflict between Mo- dernism and Fundamentalism arose, offer a complete solution for it. Moreover, if Christianity had been willing to accept these modern scriptures, the conflict with all its misunderstandings and bitterness could have never arisen. The Book of Abraham, for ex- ample, recites the account of crea- tion essentially the same as record- ed in the first chapter of Genesis, except that the various "days" are designated as "times." Then, af- ter recounting God's admonitions to Adam in the Garden of Eden concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Abraham paren- thetically remarks that "as yet the

The Improvement Era for October, 1930 805 Gods had not appointed unto Adam his reckoning." (5:13) In other words, the entire work of creation had been completed before the present system of measuring time was introduced. The conclu- sion is certain, therefore, that the six "days" mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis, also in ifhe Book of Moses and the Book of Abraham, could not have been days of twenty-four hours dura- tion. TN connection with the scripture last cited, Abraham makes it clear that the "day" referred to by Deity within which Adam would die, if disobedient, was a period of a thousand years, but he furnishes no clue concerning the length of the "days" mentioned in connection with the creation of the earth, except that they were not days twenty-four hours long. The planet Kolob is described by Abraham as being "set nigh unto the throne of God" with a period of revolution equivalent to a thousand years upon the earth, but he gives no information con- cerning the period of revolution of the planet upon which Deity resides, which might or might not be a measure of the term "day" as employed in the three accounts of creation. In the light of the following, however, even this would be of doubtful value. The illuminating statement is recorded in the fortieth chapter of Alma, verse twelve, that "all is one day with God, and time only is measured unto men." To Deity, then, time is not divided into pe- riods of equal or even unequal duration — this is done only by man. To Him eternity is one day; in fact, to God there is no such thing as time — a condition extremely difficult to understand by finite man, but none the less true. INCIDENTALLY it is interest- ing to note that the revelation of God concerning the non-exist- ence of time antedated scientific discovery fully two thousand years. Today the world is agog with the statement of Einstein that time does not exist, whereas, the Latter- day Saints have known this since 1830, the year of the publication of the first edition of the Book of Mormon. There are ample reasons for be- lieving that the throne of God is therefore, that periods of darkness continuously illuminated, and, upon it are unknown. Such being the case, "all is one day with God." Speaking of New Jerusalem, the writer of the Book of Revelations says: "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof * * * And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no night there." (12:23, 25) In retrospect, it is not unreason- able to assume that whenever Deity completed a considerable part of the earth, he called his labor a "day," that finite man might in part understand his message, but with no thought that the term would be applied to the revolutions of the earth which was not yet completed. Deity states that reve- lations are given unto his servants "after the manner of their lan- guage, that they might come to understanding." (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 1:24) H"HE Latter-day Saint has no part in the controversy concerning the origin of the earth. He knows that God is eternal, that he is the creator of the universe and that to him there is no such thing as time. He knows that God is om- nipotent, that he works by natural principles, and, therefore, that the truths of science are equally as sacred as those of the Written Word, for both proceed from the same source. No, the earth was not created in six days of twenty-four hours each. When viewed in the light of modern revelation, the biblical account of creation is not out of harmony with the findings of ge- ology. There can be no conflict between these two great records, since both came from the Creator to his children. The dimness of man's vision, influenced at times by his unwill- ingness to part with coveted tra- dition, is the basic factor in all problems where the truths of the- ology and the truths of science appear to be at variance. A Spiritual Philosophy of Life (Continued from page 803) lasting good of all. This calls for appreciation of spiritual values, for faith in fellow-men and good will toward all, for courage to contend for the right under all conditions, and for willingness to give freely of time, thought, and energy to worthy public causes. The advancement of the state will depend upon general response of its citizens to this call, under leadership of the most socially far- sighted, unselfish, and morally courageous of their numbers. THE disposition to work for the larger whole must be extended to the community of nations. No state, however powerful, can live apart from other nations. Ameri- ca's ultimate and highest interest is not in its monopoly of material resources and its possibility of mil- itary domination of the world, but in the ultimate highest good of all mankind with insecurity and injustice to none. What is said here of the principles by which American policies should be de- termined is, of course, true of each and every nation. Thus all na- tions, working in cooperation, may the more readily realize their ideals. "Vf ACGREGOR'S son was stolen during the war between the Scottish clans, and made to ex- change clothes with a peasant boy. He unconsciously revealed his iden- tity, however, even in peasant's clothes, by the way in which he used the things of the palace. The question to be decided was, which of the lads is MacGregor's son? And this was the method of dis- covery. Both lads were brought to the palace and watched. The peasant boy threw himself down to sleep upon the straw bed in the servant's apartment, for such was his wont; but MacGregor's boy spurned the bed of straw and chose the best couch in the palace. Everybody said, as they looked upon the sleeping boy, "That is MacGregor's son." »>■ ^e^^o» «► A MAN is like a bit of Labrador spar, which has no luster as you ■*■ *■ turn it in your hand until you come to a particular angle; then it shows deep and beautiful colors. — Emerson. . .