In a variety of ways, certain skeptics of the Bible attempt to take some of the simplest teachings of the Bible and complicate them to mean something they do not, and they seek to use their so-called “scholarship” to convince individuals that their conclusions are sound. This is true of a variety of Bible teachings, but consider for a moment the days of creation.
On the very first page of the Bible, readers learn about the creation of the universe and everything in it. The Bible plainly teaches that all of this transpired over a period of six days. Unfortunately, those who consider themselves “to be something” take the simple and argue that it is not so simple. Attempts have been made to identify the “days” in Genesis 1 as long eons of time and not actual 24-hour, literal days. But read the text for what it says.
In verse 5, God defines what a day is. “So the evening and the morning were the first day.” The Bible uses these words numerous times in a literal way just as we use them today. A “day” is made up of two parts: evening (a time of “darkness”) and morning (a time of “light”). A simple, unbiased Bible reader will understand this to be a 24-hour day.
Verse 5 also begins to number the days—“the first day,” “the second day” (1:8), “the third day” (1:13), etc. Except in areas of figurative, prophetic language, when “day” is preceded by a numeral in the Old Testament, it is always a 24-hour period. God was numbering the days for us.
In verse 14, God distinguished the word “days” from the word “years.” If the “days” of creation were actually “years” (as some suggest), then what does the word “years” mean? These words are used in the very same way that we use them today. If not, the passage is nonsensical.
If there was eons of time after the creation of the grass, herbs and trees on the third day, how did those plants and vegetation survive the years upon years of darkness (with no light) and the eons of time before insects were created to pollinate them? They could not have survived.
The text in Exodus 20:8-11 is God’s clear commentary on the creation. It is so easy to understand. “Remember the Sabbath day” (a 24-hour period). “Six days you shall labor,” for six 24-hour periods. “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” which is a 24-hour period. Having used the word “day” three times with a literal, 24-hour meaning, God then says, “For in six days the Lord made” everything. Those were six, literal, 24-hour days. The Bible makes that very plain! Only man could try to make that complicated!
There are no eons of time in the literal, 24-hour days of creation! The Bible makes that so simple to understand!