Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the Literal Week

Like the Sabbath, the week had its beginnings at creation, and it has been preserved through Bible history. God Himself measured off the first week, which consisted of seven 24-hour days. Six days were used in the work of creation, and on the seventh God rested, then set it apart as a day of rest for humanity. “‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ... 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.’” (Exodus 20:8-11). BOE 45.1

This reason appears beautiful and ordained when we understand the days of creation to be literal. The first six days of each week are given to us for work, and on the seventh day we are to rest from our work to recognize and honor the Creator’s rest. BOE 45.2

But the teaching that the events of the first week required thousands upon thousands of years is godlessness in its most subtle and dangerous form. Its real character is so disguised that it is held and taught by many who profess to believe the Bible. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psalm 33:6). The Bible does not recognize long ages in which the earth slowly evolved from disorder. Of each successive day of creation, the sacred record declares that it consisted of the evening and the morning, like all other days that have followed. BOE 45.3

Geologists claim to find evidence from the earth that it is very much older than the Bible teaches. Bones of men and animals much larger than any that now exist have been discovered, and from this many conclude that the earth was populated long before the time brought to view in the record of creation. Such reasoning has led many professed Bible believers to adopt the position that the days of creation were vast, indefinite periods. BOE 45.4

But apart from Bible history geology can prove nothing. Relics found in the earth do give evidence of conditions differing from the present in many respects, but the time when these conditions existed can be learned only from the Inspired Record. In the history of the Flood inspiration has explained that which geology alone could never discover. In the days of Noah, men, animals, and trees many times larger than now exist were buried and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the inhabitants perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history. But many today, with their false reasoning, fall into the same error as did the people before the Flood—the things that God gave them as a benefit they turn into a curse by making a wrong use of them. BOE 45.5

There is a constant effort to explain creation as the result of natural causes, and even professed Christians accept human reasoning in opposition to Scripture facts. Many oppose investigating the prophecies, especially Daniel and Revelation, declaring that we cannot understand them. Yet these very people eagerly receive the suppositions of geologists in contradiction of Moses’ account. Just how God accomplished the work of creation He has never revealed to us; human science cannot search out the secrets of the Most High (see Deuteronomy 29:29). BOE 46.1

Those who leave the Word of God and try to account for His created works on scientific principles are drifting without chart or compass on an unknown ocean. The greatest minds, if not guided by the Word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to find the relationship between science and revelation. Those who doubt the records of the Old and New Testaments will be led to go a step further and doubt the existence of God. Then, having lost their anchor, they are left to beat about on the rocks of falseness and deceit. BOE 46.2

The Bible is not to be tested by human ideas of science. Skeptics, through an imperfect comprehension of either science or revelation, claim to find contradictions between them; but rightly understood they are in perfect harmony. Moses wrote under the guidance of the Spirit of God, and a correct theory of geology will never claim discoveries that cannot be harmonized with his statements. BOE 46.3