Come to Moses for the Story

From Moses we know that 6000 years ago the world did not exist. But of this no philosopher can in any way be persuaded….But all these [philosopher’s] disputations, though subtle and clever, are not to the point in question.…Equally useless is it to consider Moses in the beginning of his [Genesis] history as speaking mystically or allegorically.…Moses spoke literally and plainly and neither allegorically nor figuratively; that is, he means that the world with all [original] creatures was created in six days as he himself expresses it.…Let us come at once to Moses as a far better teacher, whom we may more safely follow than we may philosophers, who dispute without the Word about things they do not understand.

--Martin Luther (Luther on the Creation: A Critical and Devotional Commentary on Genesis, H. Cole, trans. J. N. Lenker, ed. 40-43).