Do you believe that God created the world in 6 literal 24-hour days?

Question

Or do you believe that the evening and morning mentioned on each day of creation in Genesis 1 refer to long periods of time?

Answer 1

Were the six days of creation literal 24-hour days, or were they geological ages?

Or were they days of "dramatic vision" during which the creation account was revealed to Moses?

No scientific evidence has ever refuted the concept that they were literal solar days. The expression "the evening and the morning" points to 24-hour days.

Everywhere else in the OT these words mean normal days. Adam lived through the seventh day and died in his 930th year, so the seventh "day" could not have been a geological age.

Wherever the "day" is used with a number in the OT ("first day," etc.) it means a literal day. When God commanded Israel to rest on the Sabbath day, He based the command on the fact that He had rested on the seventh day, after six days of labor (Exo_20:8-11). Consistent interpretation here requires the same meaning of the word "day."

As far as the Bible is concerned, the creation of the heavens and the earth is undated. The creation of man is undated also. However, genealogies are given, and, even allowing for possible gaps in the genealogies, man could not have been on the earth for the millions of years demanded by evolutionists.

We learn from Joh_1:1, Joh_1:14, Col_1:16, and Heb_1:2 that the Lord Jesus was the active Agent in creation. For the inexhaustible wonders of His creation, He is worthy of endless worship.

Answer 2

First and foremost, it most certainly was not 6 straight 24 hour periods. It may be that it was six 24 hour periods spread out over billions of years. Like painting a picture, you do a little work now, wait to let the paint dry then do a little bit more later
When we look at the days of Genesis, we must first define what a day is. By our reckoning, a day is approximately 24 hours and is measured from sunrise to sunset. The kicker, though is that the sun is not created until the fourth day!

“God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.”

So obviously the bible does not speak of the same kind of days that we are acquainted with.
Let us also not forget that the first five books of the Bible were written by Moses. And as wise and great as Moses was, he understood very little about geological processes, quantum dynamics or astrophysics. So when Moses was inspired to write Genesis, it was done in “baby talk” so that even the simplest person could understand the greater meaning.
This is a classic example of not getting bogged down in the details. Those who insist on fighting over evolution and such are seeing the trees, but not the forest.
Most likely God’s activity in the Creation was to declare the primal laws of physics and then set the big bang(if you will) in motion on the first day. Then He waited a few billion years—letting the pot simmer, so to speak--to act again. When He did, it was the second day, so on and so forth.
I do not state that this is exactly what happened. It is sheer speculation in an attempt to resolve certain apparent inconsistencies in the Book of Genesis.
What is more important is what came after and what is yet to come. These things you will find in the New Testament, not the Old Testament.
To clarify, the six "days" represent the six times that God took action, not 24 hour periods (as explained earlier)

Answer 3

I personally do not believe the universe was fashioned by a supernatural being, whether in six 24-hour days or six longer periods *called* days. Genesis is a creation myth, one of many conceived by ancient peoples to explain what they had not the scientific knowledge to understand at the time.

Answer 4

NO, of course not. I believe it took longer then a day. I think more each day was a 1000yrs.
God has no time table, so the six days could took as long, as a million yrs.
But to be logical. I think a 1000yrs is reasonable. But to put a time frame on it. I think God mad it simple, for man. So it wouldn't sound illogical.
Because Gods knowledge, is far above mans. So which would be more believable to man.
I tihnk God said 6 days,
so Man can have a time table to base their findings on. But yes, i could agree, that themorning, of the first day lasted longer.
It may have took the mornning, of the first day, a 1000yrs or more. As well as the night.
And God made a, reasonable assumption for man. So they can base their day and nights on.

Answer 5

I believe we evolved over a long period of time. I don't believe in Creationism at all. The book Finding Darwin's God might interest you. It's written by the professor of Biology at Brown University, he writes Biology textbooks. I saw him give a speech in person the other day about Evolutionism and Creationism.

Answer 6

I believe that it was done in six periods. Whether or not they were 24 hour periods or not, I am not certain. There is a scripture that says a "day for the Lord is worth a thousand years", so the Lord's time frame may be a bit different than ours.

Answer 7

I am not a literal Creationist.

I believe in Gods Awesome power, and that 7 days could have been a metaphor, and it took much longer, or that 7 days to God could be thousands upon thousands of years for us, OR that it is possible God could have pulled it off in the 7 literal days.

Truth is, I dont know for sure, but I have an opinion. I could be wrong too. Regardless, I believe God did it, I just dont know exactly how.

Answer 8

No to both.
There is no evidence of any kind that either version of the genesis myth is real in any way.
There is a mountain of verified evidence, in all branches of science, that shows it's absolutely incorrect.

The only reasonable conclusion one can reach is that genesis is indeed a myth, and has nothing to do with reality. Anyone who believes otherwise is either ignorant or irrational. They're free to believe it if they want to...but it's still ignorance or irrationality (or both).

Peace.

Answer 9

Astounding how ignorant some people can be... wait, I mean how ignorant Xians are. 6 days, whether 6 days or 6 years or 6 thousand years. They are all wrong. We are looking at billions and billions of years. Please read a book in your lifetime instead of just believing what your mommy told you about god and creation.

Answer 10

There is NO DOUBT amoung Biblical scholars that the Genesis 1 text is referring to a literal 7 days, approx 24 hours each.

However, in my mind there is little DOUBT that is not actually HOW it occured.

Genesis 1 is not meant to answer the WHEN and HOW questions but rather the WHY and WHO questions of Creation.

I am a Christian.