Goodbye, friend of many, friend of mine

About this time yesterday at lot of folks gathered at the Autry Funeral Home in Jacksonville, Texas to say good-bye to an old friend, Campbell Barnwell Anderson III. Many did not know his first name was Campbell, or that he was the third. (And I guess I only knew because of the genealogist in me.) He was better known as Barnwell, C. B., Elder C. B. Anderson, or Rev. C. B. Anderson. To me he was usually “Brother Anderson,” unless I was addressing a letter to him in which I used “Elder” (which he preferred over “Reverend”). Brother Anderson was someone I knew most of my life – in early life because he was a shape note singer and we attended lots of those singings! I really came to know him, though, as an adult who not only had singing, but also preaching and history in common as well. We would compare notes when able, and he graciously agreed to read and write the Foreword for my book Materials Toward a History of Feet Washing among the Baptists. 

Brother Anderson was a Christian gentleman, a powerful preacher, a scholar, and a lover & teacher of history (at Jacksonville College). He was a man of gargantuan labour under difficult physical adversity. He was afflicted with polio at the age of four. He attributed this to God’s Providence to make him who he was to be. In 1957 he and his wife left their native land to move some 450-500 miles to attend the BMAA Seminary in Jacksonville – doubtless unknowing that they would spend the rest of their lives there.

Three of his co-labourers – Edwin Crank, David Moore, and Wayne Thomspon – spoke at the service. We sang five of his favorite songs (though he had many more favorites). We began with Amazing Grace and concluded with How Firm a Foundation. In between, we sang We’re Marching to Zion (Robert Lowry), Someone to Meet Me (Marty Phillips), and I Can Hear Them Singing Over There (Albert E. Brumley).

His body was laid to rest in the Resthaven Cemetery, to await its resurrection. One former student wrote on his celebration wall – “While we plod through this world discovering how the cow ate the cabbage, Brother Anderson has shed those braces and is walking freely down the streets of gold.”

Remember his wife, Sister Annabelle Anderson, as she finishes life’s journey without her constant companion of the past 63 years.

A note from his obituary: “Rather than customary condolences, gifts may be made to Texas Southern Gospel School of Music, 305 Trailwood Drive, Crockett, TX 75835; Jacksonville Baptist College 105 B.J. Albritton Drive Jacksonville, Texas 75766; or a charity of your choice.”

The Intermediate State

The intermediate state: What happens in the time between physical death and physical resurrection?

In theological terms this time or period between physical death and physical resurrection is often referred to as “the intermediate state” – though as a term that is not found in the Bible. According to Dictionary.com, intermediate means being situated between two points, stages, things, persons, etc. State means the condition of a person or thing, as with respect to circumstances or attributes. For purposes of biblical discussion, the “intermediate state” is the time and nature of existence of a believer between his or her death on earth and the bodily resurrection. The intermediate state refers to a person's existence between his physical death and his future resurrection.

The intermediate state encompasses the following biblical truths:

• Believers will experience a resurrection of the body.
• Believers die physically before the time of the future resurrection.
• Believers will exist “in between” these two points in time.

Most Bible-believers agree on the general concept of an intermediate state, but may have many questions of how born again believers exist during that time, that is, this intermediate state. Where will they be? What will they look like? What will they do? God’s word is not explicit on the matter, leaving the focus of the believer elsewhere. Yet his word does give us basic information that satisfies our curiosity and assures us that the deceased ones in Christ have an existence that is pure and secure.

Where are the saints?

They are with God. When the body returns back to the earth, the spirit returns to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Death, for the Christian, is a departure from the body and ushering in to the presence of our Lord (Philippians 1:23). Jesus promised the repentant thief on the cross “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:42-43). When he was stoned to death, Stephen expected the Lord Jesus to “receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). To be absent from the mortal body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

What is the nature of the saints existence?

The saints in this intermediate state do not yet have their resurrected bodies, and are not in their mortal bodies. They are “disembodied” – absent from the body, the spirit removed from the mortal dress as the person might be in a state of undress – Paul says “naked” that is, without the mortal body (2 Corinthians 5:3-4).[i] The saints in the intermediate state are not asleep or unconscious,[ii] but remain conscious. The conscious state of the disembodied saints suggests a “body” of some kind – probably a figure of speech necessary for human compression. In Luke 16:19-30 Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man are all identifiable in their own persons.[iii] They are described as sentient beings, seeing (v. 23), hearing (vv. 24-30), speaking (v. 24), and feeling (vv. 24-25), with eyes (v. 23) and fingers (v. 24). The description of the martyrs in Revelation 6:9-11 is of “souls.” These souls were conscious, had memory of past events on earth, and cried to the Lord “with a loud voice.”

What do the saints know, and what are they doing?

Do those who are already in heaven know what is happening on earth? Saints in heaven are not sitting around watching the goings-on of earth as if it were some popular television show. Hebrews 12:1 says we are “compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.” This has been interpreted as if deceased saints were “leaning over a cloud” watching everything we do. However, that takes the verse out of context. This statement refers, rather, back to the witnesses’ testimony left to us on earth by the saints highlighted in Hebrews 11.

Nevertheless, the Bible reveals the saints presently in heaven have some knowledge of things on earth. Those in the intermediate state see and/or know about things that are happening on the earth – at least those things that God wants them to know. In fact, how could God exert sovereign rule over all the earth and his saints who are with him in heaven not have some knowledge of it? Saints in heaven rejoice over repenting sinners, according to Jesus in Luke 15:7, 10: I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. In heaven they are advised of the fall of Babylon the great, and rejoice (Revelation 18:20). Those in the intermediate state praise and extol the mighty works of God, as in Revelation 19:1-4: “I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand...Alleluia.” Those in the intermediate state seek God’s just resolution of sin and evil (Revelation 6:9-10). They eagerly await the resurrection and gathering of all saints (2 Corinthians 5:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16). Death is a “gain” and “far better” – they are happy and at rest (Philippians 1:21-23; Revelation 14:13).

Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

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[i] Hymn III of Charles Wesley’s Funeral Hymns, of 1759 uses the term “disembodied saints.” “And let this feeble body fail, And let it droop, or die, My soul shall quit the mournful vale, And soar to worlds on high: Shall join the disembodied saints, And find its long sought rest, (That only bliss for which it pants) In my Redeemer’s breast.”

[ii] The sleep is the sleep of the mortal body, not the spirit (1 Corinthians 15:50-55; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15).

[iii] That is, they knew each other.

History in Genesis, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Breaking Faith -- "The culture war over religious morality has faded; in its place is something much worse."
• Christians, If We Hate Hollywood So Much Maybe We Should Actually Stop Watching Its Filth -- "Hollywood is a cesspool of filth and stupidity…Last night, the industry…also handed an award to “Call Me By Your Name,” a romance about a grown man and a teenage boy."
• Divine Order in a Chaotic Age: On Women Preaching -- "Our culture today does not embrace divine order in either scriptural form or natural form. Our culture is anti-order."
• Genesis: Bible authors believed it to be history -- "In chapter 3 of his Gospel, Luke traces Jesus’ lineage from Mary all the way back up to Adam. There is not the slightest hint of a break showing where historical characters end and mythical figures begin…"
• Genesis: Real, Reliable, Historical -- "This downgrading of the early chapters of Genesis has coincided with the rise of uniformitarian philosophy as the cornerstone of modern geology and of evolution as the core of modern biology."
• How Oxford and Peter Singer drove me from atheism to Jesus -- "Christianity, it turned out, looked nothing like the caricature I once held."
• How Should We Interpret the Bible, Part 1: Principles for Understanding God’s Word -- "In this postmodern age, bizarre interpretations are accepted because people believe they have the right to decide for themselves what a passage means."
• How Should We Interpret the Bible, Part 2: Is Genesis 1–11 Historical Narrative? -- "...the New Testament treats Genesis 1–11 as historical narrative. At least 25 New Testament passages refer directly to the early chapters of Genesis, and they are always treated as real history."
• Is Genesis 1–11 Actual History? -- "The early chapters of Genesis contradict ancient history as portrayed in public schools, television, and movies."
• Statistical Determination of Genre in Biblical Hebrew: Evidence for an Historical Reading of Genesis 1:1–2:3 -- "Is Genesis 1:1–2:3 an historical narrative (with the plain sense of its words corresponding to reality and the sequence of events portrayed correlating with real time) or an extended poetic metaphor?"
• The Intellectual Origins of the 1644 London Baptist Confession -- "According to Glen Stassen, the Particular Baptist framers of the 1644 Confession are indebted to Anabaptist theologian Menno Simons…"
• The LGBT Lobby Has Been Trying To Exact Revenge On A Chicken Restaurant For Seven Years. This Is Not Normal. -- "I have often said that the LGBT lobby is the biggest bully in America. This is why. It is not just that their activists are aggressive, and often underhanded and deceitful — like when they seek out Christian business owners to entrap and sue — but that they are so unbelievably petty and vengeful."
• The One Big Problem with “Science Vs. The Bible” Thinking -- "Certain statements made in the Bible about “first things” preclude the possibility of biological evolution–at least if the Bible is structured with the intent to communicate clearly to those who read it."
• Why Should Genesis 1 be considered History? -- "Even in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah provides more than sufficient evidence that the theology and history of Genesis are inseparably joined."
• Wild raccoon moves into German zoo - and keepers can't kick him out -- "Keepers, who have nicknamed him Fred, have seen him getting along with the seven other raccoons in residence, the publication reported."

Lying to yourself

“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself, and in his vices reaches complete bestiality, and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea--he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility.”

-- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Joy in Heaven over a Repenting Sinner

“Joy in Heaven over a Repenting Sinner,” by Isaac Watts, is a 3-stanza Long Meter hymn related to the biblical texts of Matthew 18:12-14 and Luke 15:7-10. I found it in William Gadsdy’s Selection, No. 422. According to Hymnary.org, it has been published with the tunes Effingham, Stanfield, and others. I was impressed by the text and used it with my tune Archibald (see below), written in memory of Archibald Newton Whitten, compiler of the Harp of Ages.

1. Who can describe the joys that rise
Through all the courts of Paradise,
To see a prodigal return,
To see an heir of glory born?

2. With joy the Father does approve
The fruit of his eternal love;
The Son with joy looks down and sees
The purchase of his agonies.

3. The Spirit takes delight to view
The holy soul he formed anew;
And saints and angels join to sing,
The growing empire of their King.

Click on image to see larger version

At it again

Early this month the Student Government Association of Trinity University recommended in a resolution that Chick-fil-A be removed from the campus. Similar to the rhetoric of the city council, Trinity’s SGA emphasizes “Trinity is a university that emphasizes its commitment to diversity and inclusion.” Chick-fil-A supports such heinous organizations as the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes! The SGA hopes you will not notice their dirty little secret. Their diversity excludes those who are too diverse for their adamantine attitude, and their inclusion only includes those whom they approve.

How diverse is that?

Words, and more words, again

Some more words and their definitions:

• autoschediaze, verb, intransitive. To do something hastily and without preparation; to extemporize, improvise.
• avuncular, adjective. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an uncle.
• blue-john, noun or adjective. Milk, that is becoming soured. Often applied to skimmed milk. Compare blinky.
• bonification, noun. The action or an instance of making something good or better; amelioration, improvement; (in later use) spec. the reclamation of land for the purpose of cultivation, construction, etc.
• Interweb, noun. The Internet or the World Wide Web.
• materteral, adjective. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an aunt (particularly, maternal aunt; not in common use).
• Moaning Minnie, noun, colloq. A siren or klaxon, esp. (now hist.) an air-raid siren.
• ojek, noun. A trader who transports goods using a bicycle (a borrowing from Indonesian).
• Pax Romana, noun. Originally, a state of relative peace maintained throughout large parts of the Roman Empire. Now also in extended use: a widespread (esp. international) state of peace maintained under any jurisdiction.
• pungitive, adjective. That pricks or stings; sharp to the senses; fig. (chiefly Sc.) keen, biting.
• roxy, adjective. Of fruit: overripe, almost rotten.
• scrithe, verb, intransitive. To stride; move forward.
• scribblemania, noun. Intense enthusiasm or mania for writing.
• scutchell, noun. A narrow lane or passageway between buildings or hedges. Also: a narrow passage inside a house.
• twitchel, noun. A path between hedges.
• sprucify, verb, transitive. To make neat, trim, or attractive in appearance; to smarten; to spruce up.

Milton: This is true Liberty

John Milton:

This is true Liberty when free born men
Having to advise the public may speak free,
Which he who can, and will, deserv’s high praise,
Who neither can nor will, may hold his peace;
What can be juster in a State then this?

Corporate Church, Consumer Membership, and other links

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

• Authority and Its Abuse -- "Abusive authority is the improper use of authority. Like all sin, it’s a distortion."
• Barr laid it on the line with the simple question the Russia Hoaxers can’t answer -- "Attorney General William Barr scares the wits out of the Democrats who bet their party’s political future on removing President Trump from office."
• Corporate Church, Consumer Membership -- "From what can be observed by the statisticians and researchers, it is attracting a lot of marginal members out of existing churches into the larger ones, because a larger gathering produces a large enough offering to pay for the smorgasbord of services provided to keep the people who have been attracted to the church."
• Democrat lawmaker verbally assaults elderly woman praying outside Planned Parenthood -- "A homosexual pro-abortion member of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives [verbally assaulted] an elderly Catholic woman praying in peaceful protest outside a Planned Parenthood abortion mill in his district, calling her an “old white lady” who was doing something “disgusting”."
• Georgia Gov Brian Kemp Signs Bill Banning Abortions When Baby’s Heartbeat Begins -- "The Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act...recognizes that science tells us that children in the womb are living, distinct human beings that are worthy of full legal protection."
• Gushee faults evangelicals for using ‘selective literalism’ to harm gays -- "Gushee...in his 2014 book Changing Our Mind chronicled how after decades of defending the traditional evangelical position he came to believe that someone can be both Christian and gay..."
• Gravestone Cleaning 101 -- "While some of this damage cannot be reversed, in other cases, preservation and prevention can make all the difference."
• Hundreds of California parents protest after LGBT curriculum passes school board -- "Parents opposed to the curriculum urged the district to try another program, saying the K–5 students were too young to learn that historical figures identified as LGBT."
• Instant Archives -- "The free Portal to Texas History website contains nearly 12 million digitized historical documents for research."
• Once Abused by the Church, Now I Love the Church -- "We were only allowed to read the pastor’s writings...He was dictatorial, manipulative, and spiritually abusive."
• Pete Buttigieg doesn’t get to make up his own Christianity -- "There is no place in His entire biblical narrative where He defines us by our desires. All of us, however, are known by our choices."
• Russian Interference -- "Tumbleweeds—stray pests from Siberia and icons of loneliness—sometimes gang up on civilization."
• The Christian Heart of Modern Medicine -- "The French Atheist philosopher Michael Onfray in his book ‘In Defence of Atheism’ argues that the whole of Western medicine is shot through with a Christian worldview and that this needs to be eradicated."
• The Injustice of Social Justice -- "The besetting sin of pragmatic, style-conscious evangelicals has always been that they shamelessly borrow fads and talking points from the unbelieving world."
• The Liturgical Nature of Cultus -- "The term “cultus” grew from this original Latin source alongside “culture,” and referred to the public acts of worship performed by a religious community."
• Time Magazine and the Buttigiegs: masterful Rockwellian deception -- "The cover photo is a carefully posed illusion. The story on the pages inside the magazine is nothing more than a fawning 4,000-word footnote to the TIME cover."
• ‘Why is my teenage girl picked on for NOT being gay or trans?’ A disturbing look at how teachers and pupils have turned tolerance on its head -- "By trying to stop the small number of transgender pupils being bullied, are the rest of the class suffering?"
• Why New Testament Polity Is Prescriptive -- "Today many evangelicals assume that the Bible does not prescribe a normative pattern of church polity. This is a natural—and convenient—assumption..."

Biblical timeline from creation

The following is my approach to the biblical timeline of history and roughly estimating the age of the earth – adding and comparing the ages of the patriarchs, reigns of the kings and other dates mentioned in the Old Testament. It begins from biblical creation and does not correlate it to historical BCE dating. There are some variations from my previous A Biblical timeline from creation and maybe from Biblical timeline from Creation to Christ. I decided to repost it since I discussed the seven days of creation.

TOWARD A BIBLICAL TIMELINE FROM CREATION
ASC = after sixth-day of creation
Event	Day/Year	Biblical Reference/s
Creation	Day 1	Genesis 1:1
Creation of Adam	Day 6	Genesis 1:26-31
Death of Adam	930 ASC	Genesis 5:5
Translation of Enoch	987 ASC	Genesis 5:23-24
Death of Seth	1042 ASC	Genesis 5:8
Birth of Noah	1056 ASC	Genesis 5:28-29
Death of Enos	1140 ASC	Genesis 5:11
Death of Cainan	1235 ASC	Genesis 5:14
Death of Mahalalel	1290 ASC	Genesis 5:17
Death of Jared	1422 ASC	Genesis 5:20
Birth of Shem	1558 ASC	Genesis 11:10
Death of Lamech	1651 ASC	Genesis 5:31
Death of Methuselah	1656 ASC	Genesis 5:27
Flood	1656 ASC	Genesis 7:11
Birth of Arphaxad	1658 ASC	Genesis 11:10
Tower of Babel	1757-1996	Gen 10:25; I Chron 1:19
Death of Peleg	1996 ASC	Genesis 11:18-19
Death of Nahor	1997 ASC	Genesis 11:24-25
Death of Noah	2006 ASC	Genesis 9:29
Birth of Abram	2008 ASC	Gen 11:32, 12:1-4; Acts 7:2-4
Death of Reu	2026 ASC	Genesis 11:20-21
Death of Serug	2049 ASC	Genesis 11:22-23
Death of Terah	2083 ASC	Genesis 11:32
Calling of Abram	2083 ASC	Genesis 12:1; Acts 7:4
Birth of Ishmael	2094 ASC	Genesis 16:16
Death of Arphaxad	2096 ASC	Genesis 11:12-13
Birth of Isaac	2108 ASC	Genesis 21:5
Death of Salah	2126 ASC	Genesis 11:14-15
Death of Sarah	2145 ASC	Genesis 23:1-2
Marriage of Isaac	2148 ASC	Genesis 25:20
Death of Shem	2158 ASC	Genesis 11:11
Death of Abraham	2183 ASC	Genesis 25:7
Death of Eber	2187 ASC	Genesis 11:16-17
Birth of Jacob & Esau	2168 ASC	Genesis 25:26
Marriage of Esau	2208 ASC	Genesis 26:24
Death of Ishmael	2231 ASC	Genesis 25:17
Marriage of Jacob	2252 ASC	Genesis 29:20-28
Birth of Reuben	2252 ASC	Genesis 29:32
Birth of Joseph	2259 ASC	Genesis 30:22-24
Jacob leaves Laban	2265 ASC	Genesis 31:41
Joseph sold to slavery	2276 ASC	Gen 37:2,28
Death of Isaac	2288 ASC	Genesis 35:28
Death of Jacob	2315 ASC	Genesis 47:9,28; 49:33
Death of Joseph	2369 ASC	Genesis 50:22,26
Birth of Moses	ca 2433	80 years before the Exodus
Moses flees Egypt	ca 2473	40 years before the Exodus
The Exodus from Egypt	2513 ASC	Gal 3:17; 430 from calling of Abram
The Wandering	2513-2553	40 years in the Wilderness
Death of Moses	2553 ASC	Deuteronomy 34:5-7
Entrance into Canaan	2553 ASC	Joshua 1:1-2
Time of the Judges	ca 450 yrs	Acts 13:20; circa 450 years
Saul made King	2949 ASC	I Samuel 10:20-24
David made King	2989 ASC	II Sam 2:4; 5:4; I Kings 2:11
Solomon made King	3029 ASC	I Kings 2:12
Temple began	3033 ASC	I Kings 6:1; 480 after the Exodus
Temple finished	3040 ASC	I Kings 6:37-38
End of Solomon's reign	3069 ASC	I Kings 11:42
Kingdom divided	3070 ASC	1st year of Rehoboam
Calling of Isaiah	3290 ASC	Last year of Uzziah
Captivity of Israel	3317 ASC	II Kings 18:10-12
Captivity of Judah	3449 ASC	II Kings 25:1-21 (70 years)
Decree of Cyrus	3519 ASC	2 Chron 36:21-23; Isaiah 45
Ezra 1-6	3519 ASC	Ezra 1:1-3
Haggai and Zechariah	3539 ASC	Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1
Esther	3575 ASC	Esther 1:1-3
Ezra 7-10	3601 ASC	Ezra 7:1
Nehemiah	3614 ASC	Nehemiah 1:1
Coming of Jesus	4002 ASC	Dan 9:24-27; 483 from Cyrus decree

24 Hour-Days

The word “day” is used three ways in the Bible – (1) a 24 hour cycle (day & night, an entire revolution of the earth); (2) the period of time between sunrise and sunset (i.e. daylight); or (3) some unspecified period of time (i.e. figurative). This introduces the possibility that the days of creation – those seven days mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis 1:1–2:3 in theory might be any one of these three.[i] Which is biblically correct?

Reasons that the first seven days are 24-hour periods

• “Day” in the Bible sometimes means indefinite, undefined, or prolonged periods (Cf. 2 Tim. 4:8). However, in all five of Moses’s books (the Pentateuch) when “day” is used with a numerical adjective,[ii] its meaning is restricted to a literal 24-hour day (Cf. Exod. 12:15; Lev. 23:5; Num. 29:17; Deut. 5:14). Genesis chapter 1-2 is no exception.
• The specific mention of evening and morning indicates that the Bible is speaking of 24-hour days. The writer’s intent is to describe these days just like any other days. Evening and morning is meaningless if referring to some unknown length of time. Bible days began at sunset rather than at midnight as our days (Cf. Gen. 1:5; Exod. 12:18; Lev. 23:32).
• If one interprets the evening as the first half of an extended period of time – say, 1000 years, for example – and the morning the second half, then an evening lasted 500 years and a morning 500 years. The evening is darkness and the day is light (Gen. 1:4-5). What happened to the plants created on the third day when the 500-year evening of the fourth day came? The same goes for the animals, and so on.
• Gen. 1:14 ties the work of the “lights in the firmament of the heaven” not only to the division of day and night, but also to dividing time into years. If normal units of time are not referenced, the text becomes obscure and abstruse.
• Adam was 930 years old when he died (Cf. Gen. 5:5). If Genesis Chapter 1 days were 1000-year periods, Adam would have been over 1000 years old on the second day of his existence and over 2000 by the time he died – since he was created on the sixth day. 930 years old becomes meaningless, whereas the writer clearly intends to convey chronological/genealogical history. The first seven days were the same kind of days Adam lived all of his life, and by which the days of his life were counted. If each day of Adam’s life were 1000 years, Adam would have been around 334,800,000 years old when he died![iii]
• Why would it take God 6000 years to create the world? God did not need 1000-year days – the theistic evolutionists need that length of time to explain their views. The Genesis account tells of a God who spoke and things came into existence. None said these days were ages before the scientists said the earth was billions of years old. The motive behind lengthening the first seven days is make the Bible conform to science – to fit the belief that the earth if billions of years old. Many scientific theories oppose God’s Word. No proven scientific fact disagrees with the Bible. Should scientists ever arrive at the truth, they will find Bible-believers are already there! 
• Man’s six work days correspond precisely to God’s six work days. Man’s day of rest corresponds to God’s day of rest. Man’s seven-day week is the same as God’s seven-day week. See Exodus 20:8-11. The first seven days are the same kind of days as our 24-hour days – the first week a week by which all weeks thereafter are patterned. The truth is plain and simple in Genesis, if we have eyes to see and are not searching for something else.
• Jesus and his disciples accepted Genesis 1 and 2 as plain, simple, straightforward history. When Jesus taught concerning marriage, he went back to “the beginning of creation” (Mark 10:6). God made them male and female.” When he spoke of “that tribulation” he made comparison to real history – “the beginning of the creation which God created until now” (Mark 13:19). When Paul sought to explain the origin of sin (Rom. 5:12-14) or the fact of the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45), he rooted his argument in real biblical history. Over and over the biblical writers, in both Old and New Testaments, accepted the creation account as written, without excuse.

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[i] This writing is a revision of 7 things about the first 7 days from February 2013.

[ii] That is, “first day” (Gen. 1:5), “second day” (Gen. 1:8), “third day” (Gen. 1:13), “fourth day” (Gen. 1:19), “fifth day” (Gen. 1:23), “sixth day” (Gen. 1:31), “seventh day” (Gen. 2:3).

[iii] 930 years X 1000 year-days X 360 days in a year equals 334,800,000 years.