The Westminster Confession of Faith IV.1, the Larger Catechism 15 and the Shorter Catechism 9 all state that God created “the world and all things therein… in the space of six days,” but the question arises as to how one should understand “in the space of six days,” whether literally or otherwise.  As noted elsewhere, the common way to teach Genesis 1:1-2:3 is to jump right into discussing this question.  I think there are more fundamental truths in the creation account that are key in laying the groundwork for a biblically Christian worldview and which should take priority over this question. Nevertheless, the question remains the question of how to rightly understand the Days of Creation, and that is important because it affects how we view the reliability of Scripture.

Although the question of the length of the Days of Creation is now a major issue in Christian circles, historically it did not come on the scene until the mid-seventeenth century, which is relatively recent.  This came about with the development of the scientific method and the subsequent European Enlightenment, when critics of Christianity began dismissing the faith because it was purportedly incompatible with a “scientific” understanding of creation and the world.  By the late nineteenth century, and especially after Charles Darwin posited naturalistic evolution, questions about the Genesis creation account have become intertwined with those regarding the inerrancy of Scripture.  For this reason, conservative Christians have consistently affirmed that the Genesis account is both truthful (because it is Scriptural, assuming the infallibility of Scripture) and historical.  These two criteria are essential to any orthodox biblical understanding of the creation account.  So, beyond this, how are we to understand the Days of Creation and is there any way to narrow the range of views to just one or two? In light of these criteria, conservative Christians have put forward six interpretive positions to explain what is meant by the “Days of Creation” in Genesis. [1] Let’s take a look at these, at a brief synopsis of the history of interpretation of this passage, and at how understanding epistemology can help us interpret this passage.

[1] The Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) both have produced study committee reports on the Days of Creation that go into detail on the description of and arguments for the respective positions.  The PCA report can be found at https://www.pcahistory.org/pca/digest/studies/creation/report.html and the OPC report is at https://opc.org/GA/creation.html.  Both reports were undertaken because the denominations needed to determine what positions could be considered acceptable for ordination candidates to hold in subscribing to the Westminster Standards.  Neither denomination rules out any of these positions or advocates one as preferred.