God commanded killing?

I came across a thread in an Atheists debate Christians group on FakeBook that was getting a lot of comments.  The opening post included a thumbnail (which I’ve included here) that began, “The Bible commands us to: Kill witches, kill adulterers, kill blasphemers,...” followed by about a dozen other alleged commands, and concludes with “Kill anyone who kills anyone.”  The seeming point of the thread was to make the Bible look like a “bad” book and…  well, I’m not sure what else.  Actually, I’ve never really understood this kind of argument.  Is the Atheist trying to say that there is no God because He’s mean?  That sounds non sequitur to me.  

I’ve written before about how unbelievers reject God because they have a wrong idea about who He is.  They create this false idea in their heads about how God should act if He were real and, since God doesn’t act that way, He must not be real.  But they’re not rejecting the true God; they’re rejecting a straw god of their own making.  I get the impression that’s what’s going on here.  The atheist who posted this is trying to suggest that the Bible isn’t true (or God isn’t real) because a “true” Bible wouldn’t have passages about killing witches!  

If we look carefully at the list, we see that some of the criticisms are misrepresentations of what the Bible is saying.  Nowhere does the Bible say, “Kill non-Hebrews,” for example.  Deuteronomy 20 is actually talking about specific peoples occupying the land God has promised to the fledgling nation of Israel.  The same list also cites Deuteronomy 20 as saying to “Kill all males after winning battles.” In other words, they are taking 2 passages describing one particular event, and claiming the Bible commands these to be universal rules.  Also, the list has “Kill gays” and “Kill men who have sex with other men” and even cites the same passage for both (Leviticus 20:13).  These are exactly the same things so why are they on the list twice?  It looks like items are being reworded, reinterpreted, and rewritten simply to bulk up the list.  It’s like highschool kids who fill up their research papers with nonsense sentences simply to reach the required word count.  In this case, the author of the list is padding the list simply to make the Bible sound worse than it actually is. 

It’s hard to take arguments like this seriously because atheists lack credibility.  They have a worldview that is built upon billions of years of death and struggle.  “Survival of the fittest” is the unofficial motto of evolution and killing off the “undesirables” in a tribe or village isn’t really any different than predators picking off the weakest members of their prey.  If the universe were all there is, the universe doesn’t care what happens.  It’s only because there is a Christian worldview,  one that values human lives above animals because we are made in God’s image, that criticisms like this have any weight at all.  In other words, it’s only because the Bible is true that these claims seem horrific!  Ironic, huh?

But what about these claims?  Do they contradict the idea of a loving God?  Do we hide from them and hope no one finds out about them?  Do we say, “that's the Old Testament so it’s not true anymore?”  No, no, and no.  What we should do is seek to understand God better and stand boldly on His word.  The answers to these criticisms are right there in the Scriptures and it is our job as Christians to be ready to respond when unbelievers speak them.  In this post, I hope to point to a few passages that might shed light on this subject.

1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love.  Some people seize upon this verse and others to try to portray Him as some namby-pamby kind of god.  They try to make God seem like a hippy whose only response to sin is pacifism.  If an earthly judge freed murderers because he “loved” them, we’d be outraged.  He would be an unjust judge.  If that’s what unbelievers think about God, then it’s no wonder they reject Him!  

The Bible also tells us about God’s wrath.  Romans 2:5-6 warns us, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds:”  How frightening is the thought of standing before an angry God, knowing I am guilty of my sins!

You see, God is not only love, He is also just.  He is also patient and long-suffering.  He is merciful and good.  He is perfect in all of His ways.  The creatures around the Throne don’t sing, “Love, love, love.”  They don’t sing, “Wrath, wrath, wrath.”  They sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty” (Revelation 4:8).

Let’s get to the real meat of the issue: The penalty for witchcraft is still death.  The penalty for adultery is still death.  The penalty for blasphemy is still death.  The penalty for lying or stealing or looking at porn or cheating on your taxes is death. Need I remind you that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)?  It is the only penalty for sin and it has been that way for the entire history of man. But here’s the good news: “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  In this single verse, we see the love of God, the wrath of God, and the mercy of God.  Praise Him!!

Now, I know what the skeptics are saying: what about the list?  What about killing false prophets?  To that I would ask, where are all the true prophets?  Where is Moses and Daniel and Jeremiah?  In case you haven’t noticed, they’re dead too.  Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”  So, yeah, the Israelite armies killed all the Amorites and Hittites but all the Jewish soldiers are dead now too.  All the prophets are dead.  Samson and all the other Judges are dead.  David and Solomon and all the other kings of Israel are dead.  

Do you see where I’m going with this?  Hebrews 9:27 tells us that it is appointed unto men to die and afterward is the judgment. God is the author of life so it is His right to decide when we die.  Some people die very old and some die very young.  Some die peacefully and some die violently.  When and how they die might vary but just as all have sinned, so all die.  The mortality rate among humans is 100%. When you think about it, it's sort of silly to say that there's anyone who doesn't deserve to die. If everyone dies, then how can we say that a rebellious son or an adulterer isn't worthy of death?

No sin is “trivial.” The list might dismiss blasphemy, sexual immorality, and rebellion as harmless but any transgression of the law earns God's judgment and the wages of our sin is death. Nobody is stoned anymore but we all have the same destiny - a grave. We all also have the same opportunity - salvation through His Son. When we stand before God in judgment (and we all will), I'm going to receive mercy because I have believed in His Son. Others are welcome to tell God He's being unfair.

Why do bad things happen? The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares

If you've read my blog for a while, you will know that I talk a lot about the creation account in Genesis. I do this because I think it's important. It's important in a lot of different ways but perhaps it's most important to understand how Genesis is foundational to the gospel. There are some compromising Christians who “reconcile” their interpretation of Genesis to fit with secular science. This usually takes the form of theistic evolution. That is, they say God created us via evolution. He also created the universe over billions of years via the Big Bang. Now, since these interpretations aren't compatible with a plain reading of Genesis, the genre of Genesis is assigned to the category of metaphor or – even worse – to myth.

One problem that I see with theistic evolution is that it would mean the world is the way that God intended it to be. Death, therefore, is not the judgment for sin; it is the tool by which natural selection drives a species to evolve. Millions of years of struggle and death and struggle and death is how God turned microbes into men. It was His plan all along.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that theistic evolutionists see death as part of God's plan. Here's a quote I've used before made by a self-proclaimed theistic evolutionist who used to frequent my blog. While commenting on John 12:24, The Paleobabbler said:

Jesus describes a process of change, the bringing about of something new. This can be applied to Christ himself, where his death on the cross changed everything and brought about new life - this alone should be ample reading for seeing the death in the John verse as intended. Evolution by natural selection is a process which involves death, but it does not stop there. The death is instrumental in bringing about change, in bringing about new life. It is an act of redemption, which is small in scale compared to Christ on the cross, yet large in scale with regards to cosmic history. Many scientifically minded theologians have noted that evolution is a cruciform process. It redeems death into new life. What better way for Christ to create?

By the way, The Paleobabbler’s post has since been deleted.  It seems all of his posts about Christianity have been deleted.  Instead of a “theistic evolutionist,” perhaps now he’s simply an “evolutionist.”  I might say that’s interesting but not surprising.  Regardless, I don’t intend this post to be about him so back to my point in citing him.

I must say that I rejoice in knowing that Jesus died to give us life. However, when I look around at the world we live in, I see hunger, famine, disease, and misery everywhere. When tragedies like tsunamis or earthquakes kill thousands of people, it's sad. Yet theistic evolutionists would have us believe these things have been happening for millions of years and it's how God intended it! How awful it is that they would malign the character of God this way. Such a view of God seems ineffective in winning people to Christ. It seems to me that a skeptic would rightly ask, “if there is a God, then why are these bad things happening?” As I was doing a Bible study on the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13:24-30), I saw that Jesus had already brought up that question and answered it.

I strongly encourage you to read the parable for yourself (of course, I strongly encourage everyone to read all of the Bible. Often). Here's the dilemma: a landowner sowed wheat in his field. When his workers were sleeping, an enemy sowed tares (weeds) among the wheat. When the plants began to bear seed, the tares became apparent. Then the workers asked the landowner the million dollar question (v. 27):

“Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?”

Wow! That's the same question everyone asks God now. “God, if you made everything, where do the bad things come from?” It's a legitimate question. I believe it's perhaps among the most important questions Christians must be prepared to answer if they seek to evangelize in this modern world. The “problem” of evil is a major stumbling block preventing people from coming to a saving knowledge of Christ.

How does theistic evolution answer that question? Very poorly, I think. People who subscribe to TE would have to say that bad things happen because God always intended them to happen. Death was the plan all along. But the landowner in the parable correctly pointed out that this wasn't the plan. He didn't want there to be tares in his good field of wheat. He explained to the workers, “An enemy has done this!”

When God created everything, it was all “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  There was no death and God never intended for things to die. It was only through Adam's disobedience that death entered into the world. And now, death has also passed on to all men because all have sinned (Romans 5:12).  Death is the penalty for sin (Romans 6:23). Death is an enemy that God will abolish when He restores His creation (1 Corinthians 15:26).

Our beliefs have consequences. The understanding of our origins directly impacts our understanding of the gospel. The word translated as “gospel” in the Bible literally means, “good news.” What is the good news? When someone dies, do we comfort their loved ones by saying, “Sorry for your loss but that's just the way God made things”? That doesn't sound like good news. This is not how God intended it.

In John 8:44, when Jesus was confronting the Pharisees, He has this harsh condemnation:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

We have brought His judgment through our own disobedience.  We have willingly believed the enemy and have allowed him to draw us away through our own lusts (James 1:14).  Bad things happen because we have chosen to do bad things and we receive the just recompense of our own sins.  God didn’t do this - the enemy has done this.  

God intended there to be no death. But God is not only just but He is also merciful.  When men disobeyed God and earned death, He sent His Son to pay the penalty for our disobedience.  He also has a plan to fix everything that sin has spoiled and in the new creation.  At that time, there will be no more death or curse or tears (Revelation 21:1-4).

Now that sounds like good news! 

Some comments on the creation week: Day 5

A while back, I taught a short series on creation for my Sunday school class. It was supposed to last for the summer and I had planned on covering several topics like the role of creation in evangelism, various ways some Christians reinterpret Genesis in order to fit it with popular scientific theories, and how to answer some of the more common objections people raise against creation. One lesson I had planned was to cover the days of the creation week, giving a short description on what happened each day. However, there were so many questions asked and such interest shown that the single lesson I had planned ended up being stretched over 5 lessons.

It was during that time that I realized that, even though the language of Genesis 1 is straightforward and easy to read, many Christians don't stop to consider the full impact of what is happening on each day – not so much from a spiritual perspective but rather from a physical one. To that end, I thought it would be worthwhile to have a short series of posts, each covering one day of the creation week. This isn't meant to be a treaty on the subject. Instead, I hope to simply open a few eyes to the realization that what is being described were real events that literally shaped the world. Even so, the posts will be a little longer than usual.  I apologize in advance and only say that I will do my best to make them worth the while to read.

In this post, we’ll be looking at the events of Day 5.

Genesis 1:20-23, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

The creation of marine life and flying creatures occurred on Day 5. The verses are self explanatory for the most part but there are a few points I want to address.

V. 20, And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

I find it interesting that the order of creation of living things precisely matches the order of creation of the inanimate things. God first created water, the sky, and finally the land. He then populates these realms with marine life, flying creatures, then terrestrial animals (on Day 6). I’m not sure if there's anything especially significant about this order but the fact that He created life in the same order He created the primitive elements suggests it was not merely coincidence.

Another thing about the order is that the revealed order of created animals differs from secular theories. Evolutionists, for example, believe dinosaurs evolved into birds. Here, we see that birds appeared before dinosaurs. Evolutionists also believe that life began in the sea and evolved onto land. However, Genesis tells us that terrestrial plants were created before marine animals. Marine mammals would also be included in the creation event of Day 5 so we see that some mammals were created before terrestrial dinosaurs. I could cite many more examples but it’s clear from the few I’ve cited here that the creation account in Genesis and the order of creation according to evolution differ on several points.

Moving on then, another important concept is also introduced on this day. We know that God has already created plants. However, in verse 20 we read, “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.” We see similar wording in Genesis 2:7 when God creates man, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” So Day 5 also marks the creation of the first “living” things.”

It's surprisingly difficult to define exactly what makes something alive but most definitions include having metabolic function. According to modern biology, plants are living. However, the Bible does not recognize things like plants as living in the same sense as an animal or person lives. God intended plants to be food for man and the animals. Yet the Bible also says there was no death before sin so the plants eaten did not “die” in the Biblical sense.

Living animals are described with the Hebrew word nephesh (נֶ֫פֶשׁ‎ nép̄eš). Wikipedia actually has a reasonably accurate (not entirely accurate) article talking about the biblical concept of nephesh life. Certainly the Bible draws a clear line between plant and animal life. However, it's somewhat more difficult to classify other types of life. The Wiki article seems to suggest that fish and reptiles don't possess nephesh life but they seem to ignore the very passages they cite. Fish would be included among the marine animals created on Day 5. Many scholars believe that the “creeping things” created on Day 6 means reptiles – which are noted for having a sprawling gate. So the Bible seems to include both of these groups among living creatures.

Does the Bible regard insects as being alive? What about microbes? When we consider the role of things like bacteria in the decomposition of plants or the digestion of food, it's likely that things like bacteria, viruses, etc, are not alive in the biblical sense. Some people neither include insects with animal life since the Bible does not include them anywhere in the description of living animals on days 5 or 6.

In our modern world, I don't see a strong need to be able to rigidly draw a line between the living and nonliving. Death has reigned since the Fall (Romans 5:17) and now every living creature will die. What is important to understand is that death is not the tool God used to create everything (as is suggested by theistic evolution). Also, we should understand that God will restore His creation to what it was before the Curse (Revelation 21:3-4), thus there will someday no longer be death.

V. 21a, And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: 

Just as plants were created in kinds, we see now that living things are also created according to their kinds.  The use of the word “abundantly” suggests that not only were there many “kinds” but also a large population of each kind. God likely didn't create only two (male/female) of the “dolphin-kind,” for example. Having a large, untainted gene pool of each kind guarantees the potential for lots of diversity among its descendants. Of course, during the Flood, each kind suffered a sort of bottle-neck so the variety we see among kinds today is likely dwarfed by the variety possible at the creation.

It should be noted that marine life would include the different classes – reptiles, fish, and mammals. The same is true of winged animals. Besides birds, winged creatures would include mammals (bats) and reptiles (pterosaurs). God created these animals according to their method of mobility rather than class.  That is, God created some mammals now (those that swim) but would create other mammals later (those that would live on land).  Again, we see the order of the appearance of these creatures differs between creation and evolutionary theories.  Evolution proposes that mammals evolved on land first as tiny, rodent sized creatures, then evolved back into the oceans as whales, dolphins, manatees, et al.  

V. 21b, and God saw that it was good.

As God created these kinds of swimming and flying creatures it was “good” each step of the way. The chronic use of this phrase seems to reduce the idea of theistic evolution to absurdity. According to TE, there were millions of years of death and struggle and death and struggle of creatures evolving until man finally appeared. Such a theory contradicts the clear words of the Bible that the creation was “good” every step of the way.

V. 23, And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Finally, we see the familiar phrase “evening and morning.” All of the sea creatures and all of the flying creatures were created in the span of a single, ordinary day. An evening and morning can only mean a single rotation of the earth – not the millions or billions of years theorized by evolutionists.

Some comments on the creation week: Day 1

INTRODUCTION

A while back, I taught a short series on creation for my Sunday school class. It was supposed to last for the summer and I had planned on covering several topics like the role of creation in evangelism, various ways some Christians reinterpret Genesis in order to fit it with popular scientific theories, and how to answer some of the more common objections people raise against creation. One lesson I had planned was to cover the days of the creation week, giving a short description on what happened each day. However, there were so many questions asked and such interest shown that the single lesson I had planned ended up being stretched over 5 lessons.

It was during that time that I realized that, even though the language of Genesis 1 is straightforward and easy to read, many Christians don't stop to consider the full impact of what is happening on each day – not so much from a spiritual perspective but rather from a physical one. To that end, I thought it would be worthwhile to have a short series of posts, each covering one day of the creation week. This isn't meant to be a treaty on the subject. Instead, I hope to simply open a few eyes to the realization that what is being described were real events that literally shaped the world.

Because they were real events, understanding the days of the creation week helps us understand science. Rather than reinterpreting Scripture in order to make it fit with secular views of our origins, we can use the clear meaning of the words in Genesis to gain an appreciation of the physical processes that were occurring.

As I go through this series, I may mention popular reinterpretations of Scripture but they won't be my focus. I've written before about some of the most common ways Christians interpret Genesis in order to reconcile the Bible with science. In this series, I won't spend much time rebutting alternative interpretations but will present the most obvious meaning (as determined by a plain reading of the text) as the correct meaning.

It's my plan to spend a single post addressing each day of the creation week. The only exception to this might be the sixth day, where I may spend an extra post covering some of the events described in Genesis 2. I'm also going to try to post twice per week so this won't be stretched out over months. Even so, some of these posts will be longer than usual.  I apologize in advance and only say that I will do my best to make them worth the while to read.

If you’re ready, let’s get started!

DAY ONE

Genesis 1:1-5, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

When some people think of the first day of the Creation Week, they only think of God creating light.  How many times, after someone changes a light bulb, have you heard them say, “And God said, ‘Let there be light”?  It’s become rather cliché and it’s certainly no longer clever.  Even so, perhaps this is why some people only remember the creation of light.  

We can see here there is actually a lot more going on. Let's break it down, verse by verse:

v. 1a, In the beginning

First we can see when God created - “in the beginning.” We have to ask, “the beginning of what?”  The answer seems obvious but we seldom stop to think about it. This is the beginning of time! 

Critics have sometimes suggested the universe is “infinitely old.”  They want us to believe that, somehow, time doesn’t have a beginning.  There is a host of problems with believing in an infinitely old universe but I’ll have to save that discussion for another post.  For now, I’ll just say that time is a property of this universe and it has passed unceasingly since the creation.  In Genesis 1:1, we can see when the clock started ticking.  

v. 1b, God created the heaven and the earth.

The term “heaven” can have several meanings depending on its context. It sometimes refers to the sky and other times to the abode of God. Here, I believe “heaven” clearly refers to space. Before God created everything, He needed a place to put it. Space isn't something that always existed and God simply put the earth and stars into it. Space itself was created. Before this moment there was no space.

Immediately after creating space (or perhaps simultaneously with it), God creates the earth. We know that the sun, moon, and stars are created later so, at this moment, the earth is the only matter in the entire universe.

We can see from this short, simple verse the very profound and fundamental creative act of God. He began the creation in a very logical and orderly way. He created time, space, and matter.

v. 2a, And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 The Hebrew word translated here as “without form” is tôhû (תּהוּ) which, from what I’ve read, is a seldom used word – not just in the Bible but in Hebrew in general. We're not entirely sure what is meant by the term and Brown-Driver-Briggs says the primary meaning is hard to grasp (that is, it's hard to grasp the meaning; not that it means “hard to grasp”).  Since I can’t read Hebrew, I looked up the Greek word used in the Septuagint.  It literally means, “unseen,” possibly a reference to the fact that it was dark.

Certainly the earth lacked any features. There were no mountains, no valleys, and certainly no living things. There was not even land. The wording here creates a distinct impression namely that the earth then was empty and did not resemble the present earth in any way.

We see from the last sentence that the earth initially was only water.  We see that dry land will be created later.  So the biblical account is in stark contrast to secular theories which assert that the earth was initially hot rock.  

We also learn from this verse that God was actively involved in the creation. Yes, He spoke and it happened but He did not speak from a distance; He was there, hovering over the face of the waters. This is not a case of God nudging the universe in a certain direction and then letting physical laws take over.

v. 3, And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 

As mentioned above, many people seem to think the creation of light marked the beginning of the creation. We have seen that much has already happened before this point. The first day began in darkness and now it is light so the day is about ½ over.

The Bible doesn't mention the source of this light. We know that it cannot be the sun since the sun will not be created until day 4. Some have suggested that God Himself was the light but I am skeptical of that claim; if God were the light, then where was the light just a few minutes earlier? The Bible does attest that in the new creation, there will be no more need of the sun because the Lamb will be the light (Revelation 21:23). However, Revelation 21:25 tells us that there will neither be any more night so we cannot draw an exact parallel between this light and the light of the Lamb in Revelation. Since the Bible is silent on the source of this light, we cannot be dogmatic in our speculations. Suffice it to say this was a temporary source that God used to mark the passage of days until the sun was created on day 4.

It's interesting that God created a light that specifically is not the sun. Even the ancients understood that the sun gave light so if Genesis were truly the product of human imagination, it's rather incredible to believe someone would think to separate the creation of light from the creation of the sun. Some might argue this is evidence of a divine revelation for Scripture.

v. 4a, And God saw the light, that it was good:

Several times during the creation week, God pauses to reflect on His creation. Each time, He sees that what has been created is “good.” The fact that God continuously affirms that each created thing is “good” flies in the face of theistic evolution (TE). According to TE, the world was created over billions of years of death and destruction. According to this belief, the world has been bad, bad, bad, on its way to finally being, “very good.” The Bible attests over and over that everything was initially “good.”

But what does it mean to be “good”?  Here’s a good thought exercise: Ask someone to explain what makes something “wrong” without appealing to any higher power.  Most people find it very difficult.  They usually only list examples of things that are wrong (i.e., something is wrong if it’s unfair, unjust, or immoral).  That doesn’t really explain what makes something wrong.  Why is it wrong to be unfair, for example?

I once heard Dinesh D’Souza give the best explanation; he said, “Something is wrong if it’s not the way it ought to be.”  In a universe without God, there is no way things “ought to be” - there is only the way things are.  However, God created the universe the way it ought to be!  The light is good because God commanded that it be part of His perfect universe.  

Are you ready for a dose of irony?  Good and evil only exist because God exists!  

v. 4b-5a, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

Many people are aware of the Jewish practice of demarking days.  While most westerners believe the next day begins at midnight, Jews believe the next day begins at sundown.  The Sabbath (Saturday), for example, begins at sundown on Friday night.  This practice goes all the way back to the first day which began in darkness, then became light.  It’s seldom mentioned now, but this method of reckoning is further evidence that the ancient Jews believed the days of Genesis to be literal, ordinary days.

Moving on, there are some other things we can glean from this verse.  The presence of night and day strongly suggests that the earth has already begun rotating. Therefore, we can assume that physical laws – like gravity – have also already been created. Nobel laureate, Dr. Stephen Hawking, once said that because physical laws like gravity exist, then the universe could create itself out of nothing. It's rather laughable that such an intelligent person could make such a contradictory statement. How could there be any physical laws before the universe was created?

Physical laws are only our descriptions of the way matter behaves. Matter exhibits gravity. Just like matter cannot create itself, neither can gravity create itself. Science can only presuppose gravity existed in the creation; secular scientists really have no more explanation for the origin of gravity than they do for the ultimate origin of matter. They can only appeal to poofery.

v. 5b, And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Each day of the six creative days is punctuated by this phrase. Since God created light on the first day, we can know how much time has passed. It was an evening and a morning – an ordinary day. The presence of the term “evening and morning” leave little wiggle room for anyone wishing to reinterpret the word “day.”

God could have created the entire universe in a single moment. God could have stretched the creation out over billions of years. Yet for whatever reason, God chose to create the universe in the way He did – over six ordinary days.