Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Six Equals Six

[To those whom reject the literalness of "day" in Gen1]
How many days was Jonah in the belly of the “big fish?” Was it three years,.. three thousand years, maybe,..  or was it three literal 24hr/day periods of time? If you say three literal days; I’m compelled to challenge that interpretation since the challenge is made against the literalness of “days” in Gen1.

“Well, “ one may say, “We know that the three days Jonah was in the big fish are literal because Jesus said that He would be in His tomb three days just like Jonah was in the big fish.” That persuasive argument is based on the Principle of Association; which basically means that when a “subject” of a particular topic is compared with a different “subject” of the same topic –then the subjects are related by Association. The contexts dictate whether the subjects are opposite one from the other or synonymous-ly complimentary. I.e. the “topic” of discussion here is “days.” The “subjects” are: “Jonah in the big fish” compared with “Jesus in the tomb.” The question to be answered is: Are these two subjects contrasted against each other as opposites or correspondent conveying direct parallelism according to surrounding contexts? Obviously, Jesus was not in the tomb for any amount of time other than three literal days so the contexts ABSOLUTELY dictates that the three “days” Jonah remained in the “big fish” were literal days.

My contention is that God has done PRECISELY the same thing to teach us that the days of Creation were literal 24hr/day time periods. As if the *express and explicit* conveyance of “there was evening and morning, the [first, second, etc.,] day wasn't enough to convey the literal meaning of each “day”; God employs Association in Ex20:9-11. Here, God directly PARALLELS our workweek with His own work in Creation:
--> Exo 20:9  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
       Exo 20:10  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
       Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

…and for those who IMPOSE a previous creation which preceded Gen1:2- note especially that God *expressly and explicitly* conveyed that from Gen1:1-Gen1:26{e.g. vs11: “…**heaven and earth,** the sea, **and all that is in them,..**”} EVERYTHING was started and completed within six days.

So then, just as we compared the contexts of “Jonah in the big fish” and “Jesus in the tomb” and discovered the PARALLELISM conveys three LITERAL days; let’s discern if the same thing is done with “Creation” and “the workweek.”--> “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work … For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,..” Hmmm, seems to definitely be a DIRECT parallelism virtually echoing Jesus parallelism of His death and resurrection with Jonah in the belly of the big fish”
--> For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
[The similarities of Association are striking; are they not?]

I have a couple of questions now:
1) Why is “day” in Gen1 the ONLY occurrence of “day” that is debated as to its literalness?
2) What pure-ly *biblical* reference -e.g. a passage void of commentary; could even lead someone to question the literalness of “day” in Gen1?

In conclusion, it has often been punned:
Girl: “Wow, I can’t believe that God took so long to create everything.
Boy: “You mean billions of years?”
Girl: “No, I mean six days,..”
[God could’ve easily done it instantly with one snap of His finger :) -but God had plans to replicate our own workweek to parallel His own work in Creation]

How many days do you want to work? Six = Six