Even using the concept of the time scale of Kolob, would God have really rested on the 7th day?

Question

Gramps,

Did God really rest on the seventh day? I was reading the Pearl of Great Price and it clearly said that Heavenly Father used reckoning of Kolob (1000 earth years=1 Kolob day) to create earth–Abr 5:13. That means that it took 1,000 years to make earth fully, with man in it. But since Adam was created on the sixth “day” and he lived 930 years, then God didn’t really rest because he was in contact with Adam. I don’t know, could you help me figure this out?

Sphelele

Answer

Dear Sphelele,

What is not quite so apparent in reading the scriptures about the creation is that the word “day” may be equally interpreted as the word “time.” The Hebrew word from which the word “day” is translated in our English Bibles, is “Yowm,” which means either day or time or year. The context in which this word is used in the creation account is the word “time,” not the word, “day.” This is established by the wording of the creation account in the Pearl of Great Price, Chapter 4, where the word “time” is used in place of the word “day” in Genesis—

8 And the Gods called the expanse, Heaven. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and this was the second time that they called night and day.

13 And it came to pass that they numbered the days; from the evening until the morning they called night; and it came to pass, from the morning until the evening they called day; and it was the third time.

19 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that it was night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that it was day; and it was the fourth time.

23 And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and it was the fifth time.

31 And the Gods said: We will do everything that we have said, and organize them; and behold, they shall be very obedient. And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and they numbered the sixth time.

32 And the Gods said among themselves: On the seventh time we will end our work, which we have counseled; and we will rest on the seventh time from all our work which we have counseled.

So the word, “day”, even with the reckoning of Kolob, may not mean 1000 years, but just a period of time, as for instance in Job 29:2—

Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me.

Concerning the age of Adam, he lived for 930 years from the time the biblical record began. But Adam was born on a terrestrial world. He helped in the organization of this earth, and according to Brigham Young, he brought the plants and animals to this earth from other worlds, “and brought a wife with him and stayed here.” After they partook of the forbidden fruit the earth was transformed from a terrestrial to a telestial world, and they were changed to a state of mortality. When the Lord said, In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, Gen. 2:17, we may again use the term in the time that thou eatest thereof. So we have no specific recorded information at all of the true age of Adam.

Gramps