Creation Moment 7/13/2020 - Calvin's View of Genesis 1

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day... Exodus 20:11

"Some professing evangelical Christians accuse creationists of taking a naïve literalistic view of Genesis, and claim that

creationism is a 20^th century aberration.

Nothing could be further from the truth.
A straightforward view of Genesis was the view of Moses (Exodus 20:8–11),
the Apostle Paul (Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21–22,45; 1 Tim. 2:13–14)
and the Apostle Peter (2 Peter 3:3–7),
and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Matthew 19:3–6; Mark 10:6–9; Luke 17:26–27).

Calvin believed that:

• The earth is ‘young’:

  ‘They will not refrain from guffaws when they are informed that but little more than five thousand years have passed since the creation of the universe.’

• God created in six consecutive normal days:

  ‘Here the error of those is manifestly refuted, who
  

  

  maintain that the world was made in a moment. For it is too violent a cavil to contend that Moses distributes the work which God perfected at once into six days, for the mere purpose of conveying instruction. Let us rather conclude that God himself took the space of six days, for the purpose of accommodating his works to the capacity of men.’
  ‘I have said above that six days were employed in the formation of the world; not that God, to whom one moment is as a thousand years, had need of this succession of time, but that he might engage us in the contemplation of his works.’

• The day-night cycle was instituted from Day 1 — before the sun was created [commenting on ‘let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3)]:

  ‘Therefore the Lord, by the very order of the creation, bears witness that he holds in his hand the light, which he is able to impart to us without the sun and the moon. Further, it is certain, from the context, that the light was so created as to be interchanged with the darkness … there is, however, no doubt that the order of their succession was alternate …’

   God created Adam and Eve directly [commenting on Gen. 5]:
  

  ‘… [Moses] distinguishes between our first parents and the rest of mankind, because God had brought them into life by a singular method, whereas others had sprung from previous stock, and had been born of parents.’"

   CMI