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So, there we have it at this point you have reached the point where the first 3 days of creation have been described. God has created light, the heavens above, the oceans and the dry land, and all different kinds of plants and vegetation. So, in these three opening days God takes thing from the chaos of verse one to the created order of verses 2 and 3. Now some point out that a solar day cannot have begun until the fourth day. So, there are aspects of the poetic aspects of this text that lead some to interpret what is called the day age theory or the or the revelatory day interpretation of these opening verses of the Bible. The problem with that view is that later in Exodus Ch 20 Moses will say God made the earth in six days, not God revealed the earth in six days. I personally believe if you handle this passage of scripture like any other, you are likely to reach the view that these must something similar to our current 24-hour day. There are 4 reasons why I believe it to be so.

 1                  The normal meaning of the Hebrew word translated day is usually always referring to a 24-hour period of time. (That’s not my opinion, that the opinion of the Hebrew professors)

2                  In the Old testament when the word day is used to indicate an a longer period of time, an era, and not a single day, it does not have a number in front of it. (Notice in this passage each day is named signally, the first day, the second day, etc).

3                  With the adding of the expression evening and morning to each phrase is seems to add extra conviction to the fact that this is referring to a 24-hour day.

4                  Finally, Verse 14 also places days these days within the context of a 365-day year. Therefore, it cannot be referring to a longer period of perhaps 1000’s of years. (Let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years). 

 Furthermore, several New Testament passages of scripture which refer to this text seem to take it literally assuming it is referring to individual 24-hour days.  Like II Cor 4:6, 2 Peter 3:5 Acts 4: 24 It seems to me that little in the text of Gen Ch1 implies that these are revelatory days in which God gradually showed his creation day by day because throughout the passage it says God “made”, not God showed. Therefore, taking Genesis Ch 1 at face value it seems to me to be talking about 24-hour days. But I know other Christians who I respect who believe otherwise.  Christians for 1000’s of years have believed in what is called a direct creation. God spoke, and it came into being and Christians historically have always believed in the fact that God creates with what is sometimes referred to as “apparent age”. Understanding that means that the any scientific understanding does not necessary contradict with Genesis chapter 1.

The current standard scientist model says that the universe is billions of years old because the speed of light determines that we can see distant objects like planets and stars and galaxies being millions of light years away. Does that not contradict what the Bible says? I don’t believe this fact contradicts what Genesis says at all. Let me explain why. The bible simply says, “God said, let there be light”. As I already said God created everything in the universe by the power of His spoken word and it was immediate. This is a very important concept, because the bible is not contradicting the fact that the stars and planets are billions of light years away. It simply suggests that God created them that way. God created them – in their places – exactly as we see them – with apparent age. God created all of it, like that, from the beginning.  As a matter of fact, that is the way God always creates And we shall see that very clearly illustrated for us in the next Podcast when we look at Gods continuing creative power as described in the next verses from Genesis, we are going to look at next time.