Did Jesus say He created
in six days?
by Ken Ham, AiG-US Executive Director
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.
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
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
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.* 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?
*Even if
someone is convinced that God the Father was the speaker in Exodus
Comment RKM: Please read: Is Jesus Yahweh, God Almighty?