How long is a "day"??
"And there was evening and there was morning--the first day." Genesis 1:5
The Bible teaches that each creative day in Genesis
1 was a day as you and I know it, consisting of 24 hours. All six of
these days
were consecutive days, with no time between each day. This would mean that
God did all of His creating in 144 consecutive hours.
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Question: Can’t “day” mean ‘a period
of time’,
and therefore not represent a 24 hour
period, but millions, or even billions of years?: [Day-Age theory]
Answer:
1) The
Hebrew word “yom”, which is used here, can
indeed mean an indefinite period of time. However, in Gen 1 it is preceded
by an
ordinal
(i.e. first, second,
third, etc). In these cases, ‘yom’ means a 24 hour period.[When
I say, “I’ll be there in a minute!”you might presume that
I mean some indefinite length of time, but if I said, “I’ll
be there in exactly 60 seconds”, there would be no misunderstanding
as to what I meant. That is what God is doing here!!]
2) Before “the first day” it says, “there was evening and morning”. These are designations of time. This terminology was used even before the 4th day, when the Sun and Moon and stars were made. These were made to mark off time periods that already existed (Gen 1:14). Once the Sun was made, it becomes clear that “evening and morning” means “24 hours”
3) In Exodus 20:8-11, God correlates our “day”[which
lasts 24 hours] with His creation “day”. That makes each creation
day 24 hours. This is key!! Now I know Mondays at work seem long, but
it really isn’t millions
of years long!!!
Exodus 20: 8-11:
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six
days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is
a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you,
nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals,
nor the alien within your gates. For in six days
the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but
he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the
Sabbath day and made it holy.
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Question: What about Psalm 90:4 or 2 Peter 3:8??? Couldn’t each day
then be 1,000 years [or more]?
"...with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years
are like a day." 2 Peter 3:8
Answer:
1) First of all, you still have a problem, because that would put the creation
of the world at 6,000 years, still vastly less than that needed for evolutionary
processes. Case in point: it has been approx 6,000 years since Adam; what
evolution of new species has been observed since then?
2) Secondly, why not use 2 Peter 3:8b; “A thousand years are like a
day” and change each creation day to only being 0.237 seconds!!!!!!
It seems that 2 Peter is being twisted (see 2 Peter 3:16) to try to lengthen
the days. Why not use it to further shorten them? :o)
3) Thirdly, Peter is discussing how God is "above time", he is not defining
what the Hebrew word "yom" means when it is preceded by an ordinal.
The point to Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 is to show that God is not like man
in that He is not bound by time, nor is He a prisoner of it. After all, He
created time! And 2 Peter’s passage is especially intended to help
us to define what “slow” is. We think that if Jesus tarries for
2,000 years, then He is slack in keeping His promise. But what we consider
slow, or slack, is not how we should define “slow”. We do not
decide what “slow” is….God has determined the Day, and
it will come to pass when it is time, NOT when we decide. So to take this
passage as fodder for a long creation day is to clearly be using it not for
what it was intended for.
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