Light before sun? Explanation 1: Metaphor

14And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky  . . . . 19and there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.  Genesis 1:14, 19  NIV

One of the explanations of the sun’s creation on day 4 is that the whole creation story, as well as most if not all of the Bible, is metaphor—to be read and interpreted as literature not as history.  A lot of people believe this; a lot of others take issue with it.  Once again I turn to Lennox.

Of course the Bible is full of metaphor, he says.  When Jesus says, “I am the door,” does he mean a literal wooden or metal door?  Of course not.  He is using a metaphor.  But he uses it to represent an actual spiritual reality.

Look at Psalm 104 for another example.

1  Praise the LORD, my soul.  . . . .

2  The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment:

     He stretches out the heavens like a tent

     And lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters . . . .

5  He set the earth on its foundations;

    It can never be moved.

If we had been considering creation in the 17^th century, the question at hand would be whether or not the earth was fixed and immovable as the Bible says, or rotating around the sun as scientist Galileo was claiming.

Nowadays Christians who believe the Bible also have come to believe that the earth is rotating.  How can this be?  Although this verse can be interpreted to mean the earth is not moving at all, explains Lennox, it doesn’t have to be interpreted that way.  There is room for metaphor.  In the same way that Jesus represents the door to relationship with the Father, the earth represented as stable in its situation.