Did Jesus Say He Created in Six Days?

A rather vehement “old-Earther” wrote recently and claimed: “a twenty-four [hour] understanding of the creation days was never stated explicitly by Jesus . . . .” Well, did Jesus anywhere clearly state that the Earth was created in six ordinary (approximately 24 hours each) days?

When confronted with such a question, most Christians would automatically go to the New Testament to read the recorded words of Jesus to see if such a statement occurs.

Now, when we search the New Testament Scriptures, we certainly find many interesting statements Jesus made that relate to this issue. For instance:

1. “But from the beginning of the creation ‘God made them male and female.’” (Mark 10:6). This makes it clear that Jesus taught the creation was young, for Adam and Eve existed “from the beginning”—not billions of years after the universe and Earth came into existence.

2. “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” (John 5:45-47). In this passage, Jesus makes it clear that one must believe what Moses wrote. And one of the passages in the writings of Moses in Exodus 20:11 states: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” This, of course, is the basis of our seven-day week—six days work and one day rest. Obviously, this passage was meant to be taken as speaking of a total of seven literal days based on the Creation week of six literal days of work and one literal day of rest.

In fact, in Luke 13:14, in his response to Jesus healing a person on the Sabbath, the ruler of the synagogue, who knew the law of Moses, obviously referred to this passage when he said, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” The Sabbath day here was considered an ordinary day, and the six days of work were considered ordinary days. This teaching is based on the law of Moses as recorded in Exodus 20, where we find the Ten Commandments—the six-day Creation week being a basis for the Fourth Commandment.

One could consider many more passages that certainly imply that Jesus taught that He created in six days, but are there any explicit passages?

I believe there are. However, one has to approach this issue in a slightly different manner. Why just go to the New Testament to try to find out if Jesus stated He created in six days?

Why not the Old Testament? After all, Jesus is the second person of the Godhead, and has always existed.

Why just go to the New Testament to try to find out if Jesus stated He created in six days?

First, Colossians makes it clear that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was the one who created all things: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven, and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).

We are also told elsewhere in Scripture how Jesus created: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth … For He spoke, and it was done” (Psalm 33:6,9).

As well as this, we know that Jesus is in fact called “the Word”: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (John 1:1-3).

So Jesus, who is the Word, created by speaking everything into existence.

Now, consider Exodus 20:1: “And God spoke all these words, saying . . . .” Because Jesus is the Word, this must be a reference to the preincarnate Christ speaking to Moses. As we know, there are a number of appearances of Christ (“theophanies”) in the Old Testament.

John 1:18 states: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” There is no doubt, with rare exception, that the preincarnate Christ did the speaking to Adam, Noah, the patriarchs, Moses etc.

Now, when the Creator God spoke as recorded in Exodus 20:1, what did He (Jesus) say? As we read on, we find this statement: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day . . . .”

Yes, Jesus did explicitly say He created in six days.1 Not only this, but the one who spoke the words “six days” also wrote them down for Moses: “Then the Lord delivered to me two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly” (Deuteronomy 9:10).

Jesus said clearly: He created in six days! And He even did something He didn’t do with most of Scripture—He wrote it down Himself. How more authoritative can you get than that?