carpentersson wrote:We believe and it is evident from reading the bible that the God of creation is a God of order and not chaos.
Therefore His account of creation in Genesis should be ordered and not confused as your idea suggests.
If the genesis "days" are literal 24 hour periods, then why "call" them day and "call" them night?
If the genesis "days" are literal 24 hour periods, then why always say "there was a morning and there was an evening"?
What would be the purpose of such wording to explain something so commonly understood as a regular day?
The creation "days" are clearly marked by a coming of light and a coming of darkness, distinctly separate periods "called"
"days" by a timeless Creator. I think Hugh Ross and others have it right, these are God's days and not men's days.
Which part of my statement suggests chaos? maybe the word impact? sure, initially it brings to mind destruction and a massive energy release, but what is the ultimate result? 2 planetary bodies become 1, all elements necessary for life are gathered and sorted onto it, remenants become the moon to stabalize and balance our orbit as well as give us tides. It also gave the planet the right mass and enough Iron to make our planets core "live" thus giving us our magnetosphere which protects our water, atmosphere and life from solar radiation. It is very orderly and done very purposefully. This is all stuff that happenes before the Bible starts. It's not really my idea, just the best one I've ever heard. I believe you are right, they are not man's days, they are God's creation days
....here's just a few reasons why
"Day" is an english word. Genesis was written in Ancient Hebrew and its word for day has several meanings including: span of time from sunset to sunset, span of time from sun up to sun down, span of someones lifetime, span of a reign of a king, age, Eon or any span of time with a beginning and an end in which something of importance occurs. Even in modern English we use "day" this way figuratively.
God called the LIGHT day and the DARKNESS night. Its a general statement and is not applied to people, times, or the earth. The sun, moon, stars and their purposes are not revealed until later, so how can you tell a reader about 24 hours, sunrise and sunset before there is a sun to see? In the scriptures it acctually says evening came first, then there was morning. Evening for ancient hebrews was both the beginning of one day and the end of another and morning was the beginning of "the light or warm hours". So no matter how you look at it, it doesnt refer to a beginning and then an end of a 24 or 12 hour day. you either have a beginning and a half way point or a beginning and another beginning if you try to read it literally and in that order.
Genesis chapter 1 is also a hebrew poem. Every reliable biblical and hebrew language/cultural scholar that ive asked or read about has confirmed that for me. it explains the different writting styles from chapter 1 to chapter 2, it explains the pattern and repetition of verses still evident in other translations and it explains the figurative useage of the words. Throw in the fact that at the end of the account it says that this is the story of the earth, its creation and all life in the "day" god created it. So now all those 6 days happened in one day and the logic for day soley referring to 24 hours is shattered. The original text acctually never says (a) (the) first day. It reads "...came to be morning, time span one"
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