"For in six days the Lord made the heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day..." (Exodus 20:11). "...The works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Hebrews 4:3).
Frequently man will try to harmonize the Genesis account of creation with the theories of evolution with the assumption that the "days" of creation were, in reality, long geological ages, and not ordinary days of twenty-four hours each. It is not possible to force the Mosaic account of creation to conform with the theories of evolution.
All available evidence shows that the days of creation were not long periods of time, but regular days of twenty-four hours.
The "days" of Genesis 1 are divided into light and darkness, exactly as is the characteristic of the day known to us. "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day" (Gen. 1:4-5). This simple statement is decisive of the matter. Of what was the first day composed? Evening and morning. Into what was it divided? Light and darkness.
Whenever the Hebrew word for "day" (yom) is preceded by a numeral it always means a literal day. Thus when we read of the "first day," or the "third day" it is not possible for it to be other than in literal sense.
When God commanded His people to observe the Sabbath day, He gave this reason: "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day..." (Ex. 20:11). The Hebrews were to pattern their week after the creation week. The same terminology is used for both weeks. Did the Jews think they were to work six vast eons of time, and then rest one vast eon of time? Obviously not. Why should it be assumed that God did?
The first man Adam was created the sixth day (Gen. 1:26-31). While we don't know how long Adam lived in Eden. We know he lived there through the seventh day, and into at least a portion of the eighth day. If these days were vast eons of time, we have the interesting situation of Adam having lived in a portion of one age, through the whole of another age, and into at least a part of a third age, in which case he was many million years old (Gen. 5:5). Of course it is not possible for such a view to be true.
There can be no question but that the "day" in Genesis 1 meant just what it does today. The time required for one revolution of the earth on its axis. If one accepts the fact of God's absolute power, there is no reason to try to stretch the creation process into long eons of time. We should simply take God at His word!
"If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Peter 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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