Answers for Kids: Why Do We Believe Genesis 1:1?

Six Days

Exodus 20:11 says, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day…” From this verse, it seems clear that God created all things in just six normal-length days, doesn’t it? And yet, there are many who say that God created over millions of years, or that He used the process of evolution to bring about the universe we see today.

So, why do we believe that, according to Genesis 1, God created in six normal-length days? To understand the answer to this, we need to learn some Hebrew–the language Moses used to compile the book we call “Genesis’, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we understand what Moses originally wrote, because those are the words God inspired.

The Hebrew word for “day” is <wy (pronounced “yom”). This word can have many meanings–a period of daylight, time, a specific point in time, a year, or a period of 24 hours (actually, much like the word “day” in English). Yom is the word used in Genesis 1 when God describes what He created on each day.

So, how do we know which definition of yom Moses meant in Genesis 1? The meaning depends on the context–the words surrounding yom. When the phrase “evening and morning” or a number is used with yom, throughout the Old Testament, it refers to a “period of 24 hours’–a normal-length day, not “time” in general, or a “year”, or “millions of years”.

Both “evening and morning” and a number are used with yom in Genesis 1 (look up verses 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31), so we know it refers to a day of regular length. It is as if God wanted to remove any doubt, so he defined the word yom all six times He used it.

Because of the words of Scripture, we can be confident that God didn’t take millions of years, or use evolution, but created the universe in six real days, and rested on the seventh.

So how old is the Earth?

By carefully studying the genealogies (lines of descent) given in the Bible (see Genesis 5 and 11, for example) and a few other carefully chosen Bible dates, we discover that the universe is around 6,000 years old–not “billions of years’!

Which came first?

God tells us in His Word that He created, and what He created, in six ordinary-length days in the beginning.

Some people believe that the order of the Creation recorded in Genesis is similar to the order of “creation” held by those who accept that the Earth is millions or billions of years old.

Is this really true, though? Check out the following pairs of pictures. Can you tell which came first according to the Bible, and which came first according to those who believe in evolutionary long ages?

As you can see, it is simply not possible to combine a belief in “millions of years” with the Biblical account–the true record of history.

6 DAYS . . . REALLY!

Click above to see a full size illustration (warning, large file, 88k) about the 6-day creation.

Think about it!