Light before the Sun?

On this episode of [email protected] Eric answers the question, how it was possible to have “light” before the “sun”.

Question: Please help me understand how the Earth had light before we hear about the sun and moon coming into existence. Love your ministry keep it up! – Brian

Thanks, Brian! We appreciate your support.
At first glance, this seems to be a contradiction. And, because of this “apparent” contradiction, skeptics or even friends of mine who are proponents of Old Earth Creationism have used this to say we can’t accept the creation narrative in Genesis as written. We have to “reinterpret” it. So let’s look at the text and see what it says before we choose a position:

Genesis 1:3-5 says,

3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Then in verses 14 – 19 it describes day 4 of creation this way:

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

So where is the contradiction? In order to see a contradiction, you would have to assume that either Day 1, implies the creation of sunlight and therefore the sun already existed for three days before it was created on Day 4, or you have to assume that no “light” could exist without the sun that was made on Day 4, and so one of the days of creation in Genesis can’t mean what it says. However, these apparent contradictions require you to read into the text, things that aren’t in the text.

Watch the video above to learn the truth.

If you have questions, send them to [email protected] and we would love to answer them!

Thanks for reading,