As we continue our discussion of various alternative interpretations of the creation account of Genesis 1,

we turn today to a view that I'm calling Days of Divine Proclamation Interpretation.

This is a different title than on your outline, Days of Divine Proclamation Interpretation. This is a different title than on your outline,

Days of Divine Proclamation Interpretation. And I'm using this title to comprise

two different interpretations of Genesis 1. The first being Days of Divine Fiat and the second days of divine revelation. You'll remember

that when we studied Creatio X. Nihilo in Genesis chapter 1, we noticed that we seem to have

in that chapter two different sorts of creation, creation

by God's Word and then creation by God's action.

And these two traditions seem to be interwoven rather like a braid throughout the six

creative days of Genesis chapter 1.

Now the element that is common to both of the views that we're considering today is that

the six days are days of divine proclamation only, not days of divine working. They differ in whether the divine

proclamation occurs before or after the accomplishment of that proclamation. So the first view,

the divine fiat interpretation interpretation holds that at some point in the

past, God made a series of divine proclamations over six consecutive 24-hour days. He said,

let there be blank. And the word in Latin for this is fiat. Fiat looks,

let there be light. And so these fiats or proclamations were then subsequently fulfilled, perhaps over very long ages, subsequent to the

six days of divine proclamation.

So on day seven on this view, God does not cease, rather, from working as on the traditional interpretation. Rather, he ceases from proclaiming.

Now, the days of divine revelation view differs in that it holds that the seven days of divine

proclamation that are spoken of in Genesis

1 are not days prior to the origin of things, but rather later days during which God revealed

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