[WMSCOG] Day One: Creation of Light

Let There Be Light–In Six Day Creation in the Book of Genesis, on the first day, God created light. As we have already seen in another post, this creation is not a literal creation, but a parable. Therefore, we must understand the Six Day Creation figuratively.

On the first day creation, there are two important questions we must understand. First, when was the first day creation? When did God start his creation work? And second, what is the light that God created on the first day?

Genesis 1:3 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.

The Beginning

Let There Be Light–Then let us first think about the beginning of the creation work? To understand the time of beginning, we have to have a certain standard so that we can count days or years. The creation of light, heaven, mountains, rivers, oceans, animals, and birds—all these things cannot work as standard because the bible does not specify the exact time of the creation of those things. And we cannot date the time of the start of the creation through these things.

But God allowed one creation through which we can count the date of the creation, that is, the creation of the man. With the creation of Adam, God started to count their exact ages so that we can date back to the time of creation. Many scholars worked on this and they unanimously agree that the creation of Adam took place about 6000 years ago, or around B.C. 4000. (Click HERE to find out more.) According to this calculation of the time, from the Creation of Adam to the time of Jesus’ coming, the Old Testament period was 4000 years. And From Jesus to present, it is about a little more than 2000 years.

Scientific Complications

Let There Be Light–Therefore, according to the biblical explanation, this heaven and earth have been created in no more than 6000 years ago. However, it is now commonsensical that this earth itself—let alone, the solar system and the whole universe—is far older thank this explanation. We can find scientific explanation about the creation of the earth and life in it in many different places like this one.

This news article explains that the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago. (Wow!) And the first life appeared 3.8 billions ago; the first human species or Homo sapiens, 0.2 million years ago. It means that the first man Adam was created scientifically 200,000 years ago, not 6000 years ago. Therefore, if we try to understand the bible through this scientific perspective, the bible and its description of the creation is nonsensical. For this reason and many others, people tend to dismiss the idea of Six-Day Creation as myth.

Parable of Six Day Creation

Let There Be Light–However, the Six Day Creation should be read as parable like most of other words of God in the bible. The bible says that Jesus did not say anything without using a parable. (Matthew 13:34) It means God is using parables to teaching spiritual things by using the physical things. Just like the Lamb of God, the living water, the temple of God, etc, the Six Day Creation is also a parable.

Through the Six Day Creation as model, God is showing us the whole history of God’s salvation work of six thousand years.

2 Peter 3:8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

In the bible, even the numbers are also figurative and parabolic. For example, one day in the bible can represent one year prophetically. (Ezekiel 4:6) Likewise, prophetically one day can be read as “one thousand years”. In this sense, the Six Day Creation in Genesis represents “the Six Thousand Year’s Plan of God for our Salvation”.

Day One: Let There Be Light

Let There Be Light–This salvation work of God started with the creation of light in the time of Adam about six thousand years ago. The light God created on the first day was not the physical light or the sun that gives light to the day. But it was the spiritual light. Then what is the meaning of light?

Paul explains the spiritual meaning of the Six Day Creation and let us know the meaning of the light. Then what is the light God created on the first day?

2 Corinthians 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” (Genesis 1:3) made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Paul says that the light shone into the world was symbolically “the light of the gospel” or “the light of the KNOWLEDGE of God’s glory”. Even though there were biological humans living on the earth even before Adam, spiritually they are not considered as “spiritual man”. It was because they did not have “knowledge” of God through “the gospel”.

When God first appeared to Adam and gave his words (the spiritual light), finally the first man in the spiritual sense came into existence. From this first man Adam, God started his salvation work.

Conclusion

Let There Be Light–Up to the time of Adam, the whole world was under deep darkness without light. People did not have any knowledge of God and the words of God. They were living under a deep spiritual darkness. They were living their life like animals without the hope for the spiritual world.

However, when finally God revealed his existence to Adam and Eve, the light of life and the light of God started to shone into the world through the gospel. From this moment, the Six Day Creation of God came to be known in the human society. And with the knowledge of God and his words as light, the human society started to wake up from the deep sleep and darkness.

This was Day One of the creation work of God. And Day One expands from the time of Adam to the time of Noah for about 1656 years.