BY SAMANTHA BEE
BERRIEN SPRINGS— Dr. Wayne Bingham, a professor of church history in the Seminary, is concerned. Momentum has built to modify Fundamental Belief 6: Creation to include the phrase “six, literal, consecutive, 24-hour days”. Conservatives are rejoicing, seeing this as a way to strengthen the Adventist Church’s literal interpretation of Genesis 1. But Dr. Bingham sees trouble.
“Saying six, literal, consecutive, 24-hour days isn’t specific enough,” says Bingham. “The days are literal, but what about the hours in those days? We all know those can be understood symbolically, like in Revelation 8:1. Liberals are going to seize that and dance with it. Twenty-four hours could be much longer time periods. This means that evolution will still reign in our universities! You know, I think what happened at the GC was another liberal attempt to write a loophole in our Fundamental Beliefs.”
Bingham’s solution is to replace the phrase “24-hours” with “86,400-seconds.”
“There's no such thing as symbolic seconds,” says Bingham, “because seconds are not even mentioned in the Bible! Defining creation in this way leaves no place in our church for those who doubt the view of creation that Adventists have always believed in. God created the earth in six, literal, consecutive, 86,400-second days. What a message to take to the world.”
