The Importance of Six-Day Creation

Genesis 1:1-2:3 explicitly states that God created the world in six days. A straightforward reading of the Biblical text leads one to believe that the days of creation were six, literal, twenty-four-hour days. Each day is numbered (the first day, the second day, etc.); each day is elucidated by the phrase, "And the evening and morning were the . . . day"

Many of the world's religions include some story of creation in their mythology simply because where we come from has a direct bearing on how we must live.

The issue of six-day creation is creating much discussion throughout the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Therefore, be it resolved that Westminster Presbytery declares to the world, our denomination, other presbyteries and particular churches, and the various seminaries from which most of our teaching elders graduate, its position that the Bible and our standards teach a six-day creation; with day defined as an approximately 24-hour period of time.

The editor of the Chalcedon Report was my pastor for several years. In conversation with him, I made many allusions to the convoluted path I followed in arriving at my current understanding of Creation and Beginnings. When he planned an issue of the Report devoted to Creation, Pastor Sandlin asked me for an account of that path.

As Reformed Christians we have a special stake in the creation/evolution debate. With our high view of Scripture we are pre-committed to the integrity of the word of God in all areas of life.

In 1985 the Eureka Classis of our denomination adopted two resolutions regarding the length of days in Genesis one.

The focus of this article is on the work and discipline of the church, i.e., the local congregation in relation to the six-day literal understanding of the creation account.

The hydroplate theory is an alternate explanation of both the events of the Noahic flood, the present-day geological features of the world, and the actual mechanisms that operated then and continue to do so now. It directly challenges the current plate tectonics model of large-scale geology, and it suggests a major revamping of the geological events associated with the flood that God sent upon the world in light of a hard-line exegetical approach to the text of Genesis.

Does an official retirement from the ministry mean the end of that ministry? Not so for the King who calls to serve him. His Word-Commandment renews, reconstructs and re-dedicates to himself every "inch" over which he claims absolute do-minion. In time, and out of time, while "officially active" or "officially retired," we remain his witnesses.

Urban Nations began in good, New York fashion. Immigrants were "in our faces" and we knew we had to do something about it, something honoring to God, something whereby Christ's claims and Kingdom might be extended. But what?

During most eras of Christian civilization, people have seen their age as the peak of history and of culture, and with some measure. However cruel and brutal an era may seem in retrospect, its basic direction and impetus have been usually promising.

Recently, when our daughter Sharon North was here for a week, and all five children together with us, they were recalling my father and his delight in them.

Here is what I really need to know and I learned it all, well, you know where.