And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Genesis 1:5
In Genesis chapter one God says on six occasions: “And there was evening and there was morning.” In Genesis 2:2 God says that “He rested on the seventh day.” In the 20th chapter of Exodus God declares His ten commandments to all humanity. In verses 8-11 He states, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work … for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” Clearly God is speaking of a 24 hour period of time, a day as we know it today.
Expanding the length of a Biblical day became a serious consideration only after the advent of modern geology in the early 1800’s. Known as the Day-Age Theory, its intended purpose was to harmonize the Genesis creation record with the teachings of modern geology. The days of Genesis evolved into incomprehensible periods of time consisting of millions and billions of years. Unfortunately, some Bible teachers chose to interpret Scripture using the speculations of individuals who were looking for a reason to eliminate the Creator of Scripture.
Those entrusted with teaching the Word of God must trust in its accuracy and remember what God declares, “Behold, the wise men have rejected the word of the Lord, and what kind of wisdom do they have?” (Jeremiah 8:9)
Accepting the Day-Age Theory requires the following:
1. The Genesis Flood must be downgraded to a local flood, rather than a world-wide event. If the Flood was world-wide then the earth’s scarred crust would date to this more recent catastrophic event, rather then to events occurring over multiple millions of years of time.
2. Man’s rebellion against God, and its by-product death, came into existence at some point prior to the creation of Adam. Therefore death did not originate with Adam’s sin, but rather at some point in the distant past.
3. Although God stated on seven different occasions that His creation was “good,” this did not apply to all creation. The reason for the days of Genesis to be turned into ages of multiple millions of years is to accommodate the geological column of modern geology. Within this column is a record of death that predates the creation of Adam.
4. Lucifer, who became satan, rebelled against God at some point prior to the Genesis record of creation, although the Scriptures state regarding him: “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond … was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there … You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.” (Ezekial 28:12-15)
5. God’s meticulous genealogical record of humanity from Adam to Jesus Christ must be made meaningless with regard to dating God’s creation.
