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From Eternity Past

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Chapter 9—The Beginning of the Literal Week

Like the Sabbath, the week originated at creation, and it has been preserved through Bible history. God Himself measured off the first week. It consisted of seven literal days. Six days were employed in the work of creation. Upon the seventh God rested, then set it apart as a day of rest for man. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11. EP 65.1

This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the days of creation to be literal. The first six days of each week are given to man for labor. On the seventh day man is to refrain from labor in commemoration of the Creator's rest. EP 65.2

But the assumption that the events of the first week required thousands upon thousands of years is infidelity in its most insidious and hence most 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 were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:6. The Bible recognizes no long ages in which the earth slowly evolved from chaos. 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. EP 65.3

Geologists claim to find evidence from the earth that it is very much older than the Mosaic record teaches. Bones of men and animals much larger than any that now exist have been discovered, and from that it is inferred 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. EP 65.4

But apart from Bible history geology can prove nothing. Relics found in the earth do give evidence of conditions differing in many respects from the present, 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 fathom. 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 antediluvians perished by a flood. God designed that the discovery of these things should establish faith in inspired history. But men, with their vain reasoning, fall into the same error as did the people before the Flood—the things which God gave them as a benefit they turn into a curse by making a wrong use of them. EP 66.1

There is a constant effort to explain creation as the result of natural causes, and human reasoning is accepted even by professed Christians in opposition to Scripture facts. Many oppose the investigation of the prophecies, especially Daniel and the Revelation, declaring that we cannot understand them. Yet these very persons eagerly receive the suppositions of geologists in contradiction of the Mosaic record. Just how God accomplished the work of creation He has never revealed to men; human science cannot search out the secrets of the Most High. See Deuteronomy 29:29. EP 66.2

Those who leave the Word of God to account for His created works on scientific principles are drifting without chart or compass upon an unknown ocean. The greatest minds, if not guided by the Word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to trace the relations of 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 upon the rocks of infidelity. EP 66.3

The Bible is not to be tested by men's 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 reconciled with his statements. EP 67.1