6 days

[revolutionist90]

I've been ruminating over how the earth was made in six days. I know that God can do all things despite human perceptions of time so creating the earth within 6 days is plausible but I often wonder if the term "day" which is a 24 hour system is an allegorical or figurative concept that was used to conform to our own limited understanding of time. This thought came up because I wondered why would a completely timeless, omniscient being who does not see time like humans conform to our human understanding of a day which is 24 hours. My thought process is that God does not view time because he is outside of time so thus it would be strange to conform to hours which is said in the Bible. In result of that hypothesis, the first people which are Adam and Eve is plausible because they came from the Earth that God created and it is stated how he created them but the animals, flora and fauna are not so specific. So could it have been that the 6 "days" were actually more than days and were actually completely absent of time (our understanding of time) and it was authored as being 6 days to 1) illustrate the power of God to do such things and 2) the author was guided by the Lord to put the creation into this specific time frame? Another thing is that a day to the author, depending on what time period the bible was written, might not have been in a 24 hour system that has been known but instead an entirely different system. So the actual animals, flora and fauna were going through a genetic process (our own understanding of evolution) as the Lord began to create the perfect world for humanity. When Adam and Eve were created (quite specifically labeled in the bible) all of the animals, flora and fauna were finishing the perfection and thus Adam could name them. Of course this discounts the whole "humans came from Apes" theory but I believe that theory should be discounted anyways because it has been shown that many animals (even insects) share similar genetic variations with humans so that everything is connected. If everything is connected then that means we have the same creator or creation process. Does this hypothesis makes sense? I don't want to discredit the bible because I am just a human with my own limited understanding. I hope this makes sense lol...

[Guest]

Even A Child Knows

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:5

What A Day Is

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20:11

~

Now If You Are Talking About Mondays

Maybe Then You Might Have The One Day Of The Week (The 2nd Day)

That Often Seems More Allegorical Or Figurative To A Billion Years Rather Than To God's Day-Stamp In Genesis

[Qnts2]

I'm playing with theories.

Gen 1:³ Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

Ok, on the first day, God created the concept of a day. It started in the evening.

Gen 1:¹⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; ¹⁵ and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. ¹⁶ God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. ¹⁷ God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

But it wasn't until the 4th day that God created the stars, sun and moon, and set them to 'govern' the day time and night time. So, a day as we know it did not start until the 4th day. Does that mean the first 3 days were Gods timing, meaning he provided the dark and light to make days in an undetermined amount of time and the days starting on the beginning of the 5th day were based on the movement of the earth relative to the sun? A 24 hour day?

Vegetation was created the 3rd day. I don't know that plants mind being in light for extended timeframes, but I do think plants are bothered by extended darkness as they need light, so how long could the time from the creation of plants to the end of the 4th day when the sun and moon were controlling light/time (24 hours) and the plants survive? I don't know.

Gen 1:¹¹ Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. ¹³ There was evening and there was morning, a third day.

Looking at this, I think it was probably a literal 6 days. After all, how long would it take God to speak things into existence. I suspect it would take no time at all.

Edited April 4, 2013 by Qnts2

[Guest]

But it wasn't until the 4th day that God created the stars, sun and moon, and set them to 'govern' the day time and night time. So, a day as we know it did not start until the 4th day. Does that mean the first 3 days were Gods timing, meaning he provided the dark and light to make days in an undetermined amount of time and the days starting on the beginning of the 5th day were based on the movement of the earth relative to the sun? A 24 hour day?

Yeap~!

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. Genesis 1:5

One Revolution Per Day

And the evening and the morning were the third day. Genesis 1:13

And Before The Sun And The Moon

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Genesis 1:16-19

And He'll Do It Again Without The Sun And The Moon And All Those Stars

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. Revelation 22:5

Sorry Earth Lovers

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Revelation 21:1

[gdemoss]

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Hbr 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Exd 20:11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exd 31:17 It [is] a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

It is impossible to conclude this as fact via our natural minds.

1Cr 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

The truth must be discerned via the Spirit. God must reveal it unto us or we can't even know.

[revolutionist90]

Yom the Hebrew word translated “day” in Genesis 1 has been a matter of controversy for centuries. Not all Christians or Jews believe it to be a literal 24 hour day. Such a day requires the revolution of an earth in relation to a Sun which was not created until yom four. Therefore, what a yom can imply prior to there being such the Sun is one of best guess only. Most of the early church fathers for example believed each yom to be 1,000 years and later Rabbis like Maimonides also question the 24 hour concept based purely on the language itself.

Moses (who wrote the book) uses this word in a number of ways. For example in Genesis 4:3 he says in the process of time (yom) Cain brought forth the fruits of the ground as an offering…here Moses uses this word to imply a complete growing season (see Genesis 40:4 for a season as an indiscriminate period of time). In Genesis 18:11 he uses it to represent old age (a general term different for different individuals). It is old age in Genesis 21:2 and 7. In 47:28 it is the entire age of Jacob (his whole life span). Genesis 43:9 and 44:32 has it as “for ever”.

In Genesis 1:5 "And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." Here, Moses uses Yom to indicate a 12-hour period, while in Genesis 1:14 "And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for DAYS, and years." Here, Moses uses Yom to indicate 24-hour days, but in Genesis 2:4 whenn it says "...in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." Moses uses the same word “Yom” to indicate the entire creative week.

Elsewhere in the Torah Moses uses the word for an epoch, forever, always, eternity, and so on.

So to begin with (no pun intended), the cycle moves from evening to morning (thus dark to light not light to dark). Secondly we have discovered the reflection of a primordial “light” that existed before stars and moons and it is visible at 3 degrees Kelvin everywhere in the entire universe. So this explains the “Light” (and God said, “Let there be Light and there was light”) and this was day one (not the same wording as “the first day” which is not in the text).

Therefore day one could be any non-definitive length of time (chronos time). Before this, time did not exist and directly after this there was no sun of moon so measuring a day is a matter of what that represented to God at that time. It is not until after suns and moons represent cycles to created man that we would measure this as 24 hours (notice I said “We” would measure it so).

Now as for the word “yom” translated “day”? It is also written that a day unto the Lord “is as” 1,000 years unto man. It has been rightly pointed out that 1,000 is often used symbolically in the Bible as an uncountable number. To man at that time this is what the term represented. Ancient Hebrew did not fathom in terms beyond this. This is why the Scriptures do not mention millions or billions only 1,000s of 1,000s, 100s of 1,000s, 10,000 x 10,000, etc.! This led early Rabbis and the earliest Church fathers to reckon the first six days as 6,000 years not six 24 hour days, but in fact it could have been much longer (see “the Age of the Universe” by Schroeder).

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (1980, Moody Press)

"It can denote: 1. the period of light (as contrasted with the period of darkness), 2. the period of twenty-four hours, 3. a general vague "time," 4. a point of time, 5. a year (in the plural; I Sam 27:7; Ex 13:10, etc.)."

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (symbols omitted)

from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figuratively (a space of time defined by an associated term), [often used adv.]:--age, + always, + chronicles, continually (-ance), daily, ([birth-], each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, end, evening, (for)ever(lasting), ever(more), full, life, as long as (...live), even now, old, outlived, perpetually, presently, remaining, required, season, since, space, then, (process of) time, as at other times, in trouble, weather (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), whole age, (full) year (-ly), younger

Not definitive but worth considering I must say…

Just some thoughts

Love

Brother Paul

Thanks! I understand the other posters comments and I'm not questioning Genesis. I am just questioning the "day" definition.

[Guest]

I speak a lot to this on my blog here at Worthy. The subject is the age of the earth, and the implications of that age, but about 1/3 of the way down that page, I address the length of a day. Too much to post here, but if you want to check it out you may at:

http://www.worthychat.com/blog/107/

[Taker]

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.

2 Peter 3:8

[Gandalf]

God does not experience time as we do. IMHO all of our human debates about "days" just make Him laugh.

[John S]

To God, a day can be a 24-hour period or it can last for 1000 years, a million years, or even a billion years.

In my opinion, we are currently in the 6th day with the 7th day still to come.

When Jesus Christ returns and Satan is bound for, at least, 1000 years, then God will FINALLY be able to rest.