I used to be quite confused about this too at first about how long as a day in Genesis ... but a particular peice of information changed my thinking into beleiving that this was indeed a 24-hour day ...
This is an interesting topic, but this is my view...
On day 3 if i remember correctly, God created the plants and tree's etc etc, and he created the Sun on day 4 ... now if these dasy were not 24-hour days ... how possibly can the plants and tree's survive?
It had to be 24-hour days
heres some interesting peice of information ...
Q: Tuesday night in my seminary Bible class this came up. There are evangelical textual critics that maintain that there is not textual support for the word "day" in Hebrew to mean a 24 hour period. I thought this was strictly a liberal point of view but apparently some real conservative scholars have this view as well. What are your thoughts and opinions.
A: The word "day" (yom in Hebrew) is used the same way that our word "day" is used. It has a very specific meaning of 24 hours, but then is also used in a figurative sense of Bill Clinton's day, day of the Nazis, to indicate a period of time. Phrases in the Bible that use this sense are "day of the Lord," " King Solomon's day," etc.
The argument for Genesis 1 meaning a literal day is that:
It is the most natural and common meaning of the word "day."
The phrase "and there was evening and morning, one day" certainly shows a literal day is intended. (The Jewish day was marked as beginning with sundown.)
Adam's age given in Genesis 5:3,5. The age of Adam is given from when he was first created. If day six (when he was created) and day seven (when God rested) were geological ages or long periods of time then the math is way off.
Exodus 20:8-11 where God interprets the days of the creation week as being normal 24 hour days.
The nature of the Genesis passage which is given as straight history, not poetry (compare with Jesus' reference to Genesis 1 & 2 which shows he viewed it as historical -- Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-8). If Genesis 1 was in Hebrew poetic style then we would have reason to view the "days" as symbol or poetic, but Genesis is straight history throughout.
You can be a person who believes in the Bible as God's Word and believes that Genesis is historical and believe that the days in Genesis 1 are geological ages, not 24-hour days. There are many conservative scholars who hold to a non-24 hour day view of Genesis 1. We have many Christians in our church body who believe this way. I don't think this is the most natural meaning of the text and I suspect that in most cases this is an attempt to mesh Genesis 1 with the present scientific view.
from http://www.new-life.net/faq002.htm
I personally beleive that God created everything in a literal day, a 24-hour period.
heres some more interesting information for those who would like to change their views and beleive in a 24-hour literal creation ...
Quick-read this article:
The Bible says God created the universe in six days. Some people think that the “days” were long periods of time. But the clear meaning of the creation days is that they were literal, ordinary, 24-hour days. Nothing else.
The Book of Genesis in the Bible says God created the universe, and everything in it, in six days. Some people have tried to harmonize this description with the theory of evolution by suggesting that the “days” in Genesis must have been long periods of time, or ages.
But the Bible has its own amazing way of showing that the long “ages” idea is wrong. The days were real, ordinary, solar days of around 24 hours each.
Here is why:
Reasons why the
days were 24 hours
Genesis 1:14 says God created the lights to divide day from night, and to be for signs, for seasons, for days, and for years. If the days are ages, then what are the years?
If a day is an age, then what is a night? The concept becomes ludicrous when you try to stretch the length of a day.
Whenever the word “day” in the Bible is limited by a number (such as the first day, the fourth day, the sixth day) it always means a 24-hour day.
Whenever the word “day” is used with the phrase “evening and morning,” it always means an ordinary night-day cycle.
Among the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel, recorded in Exodus 20, God said that His creation in six days followed by a day of rest was to be the pattern for the Israelites' working week: six days of labor followed by a day of rest. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work …,” God said, “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.”
Some people think that a day may mean a thousand years, because the Apostle Peter said that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8).
But Peter did not say a day is a thousand years, but it is as a thousand years. He is saying that God is outside time, that a thousand years are no more significant than a day in God's eternal scheme of things. People who say Peter meant that a day is a thousand years are ignoring the second part of Peter's statement, which says a thousand years are as one day. How could we count how many days are in a thousand years if a day only means a thousand years? It becomes silly when you try to force a meaning that wasn't intended.
Not an indefinite period either
The passage about a day being as a thousand years has also been said to mean that a day is simply a long period of time. But that makes nonsense of Peter's statement. It would mean that Peter was saying that “a long period of time is a thousand years.” See how ridiculous things get when you stray from the straight meaning of Scripture?
The clear meaning of the days of creation is the obvious one: that they were literal, ordinary, 24-hour days. Nothing else.
IMHO i beleive these were 24-hour periods of time. Pleae tell me Aineo what you think of this information I beleive with all my heart that God can create everything in 6 literal days, and even instantly if he wants to. But there is a prophetic meaning the creation account for people to figure out with help by the Holy Spirit
Amen. Kind regards,
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