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I hear this a lot, that according to those who follow the Bible with extreme faith, that each word of the Bible is taken literally. A very good example is the number of days that God took to create heaven and Earth. Six, in fact. Resting on the seventh.
But what exactly is a day, according to Biblical terms. Days, months, years, weeks, hours, minutes… those are all human constructs. Time didn’t exist until someone decided that there were sixty seconds in a minute and sixty minutes in an hour. And twenty four hours in a day. And so on and so forth. When the solar system was created (I’ll leave it at solar system, because I don’t want to have more than one discussion at a time), according to the Bible it took six days. According to human thought, which is limited in it’s concepts, six days is one twenty four hour period six times. However, the concept of time hadn’t been fully thought of until much, much later. So, as far as anyone is concerned, a day could very well be something like the Jurassic Period. Or the Mesozoic Era.
Science shoots the theory of the Earth only being 4 or 6 thousand years old (or ten thousand at the outset) out of the water. The fact that we have proof that many civilizations existed thousands of years before what many fundamentalists believe is a contradiction. It’s a fact that humans migrated, built cities and civilizations almost one hundred thousand years ago.
But what if days, as described in the Bible, are in fact a period of a few million years? And what if, in fact, God’s resting on the sixth day is in fact what is happening now at this very point. We, meaning humans, were given the ability to think and even hypothesis on things like this, so why don’t we often do that instead of blindly follow something. Do you think we’ll just end up insulting God (which, quite frankly, I don’t think we as an insignificant species within the vast expanse of the universe)? I honestly don’t think we can.
Turn the Page 
MackQuigley
December 29, 2011 at 4:34 pm
Do your “random rants” help you avoid thinking about your pressing need to repent and trust Christ?
Tim
December 30, 2011 at 7:34 am
I don’t really feel I have a “pressing need” to repent, because honestly I don’t see a need to repent. My actions are in no way harming anyone at all, and any discussions I hold in the afterlife are between me and God, and not really anybody else’s business.
MackQuigley
December 30, 2011 at 2:17 pm
“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” 2 Peter 3:8. “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” Psalm 90:4.
“Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.” John 11:9.
So, the light of this world is a normal 24 hour day, but that doesn’t govern how God necessarily counts time.
And “Day” is a named location too, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” Genesis 1. That location is called the 3rd heaven and we are under it, our universe enclosed like a small bubble under a vast dark sea. We are in the Night.
Get born again and you will one day see the Day with the saved in Jesus Christ.
“Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” 1 Thess. 5:5.
Read the Authorized Version carefully and you’ll learn a lot … maybe more than you want to know.
Tim
December 30, 2011 at 2:41 pm
I have, actually. A lot. And I have learned a lot from it, a lot more than many other people know about. But I’m also not in the habit of taking things on blind faith. What I do believe in is that we do not know the answer to everything, but that shouldn’t stop us from keeping an open mind about things. Also, the verses you picked would have taken place well after the final creation of the planet. It’s also been proven that the calendar itself has evolved over thousands of years. At one point we only had ten months in a year. Measurements of length even changed. One unit of measure in one place was different from another (example, the British length of one foot was actually a different length than the French unit of measure for several decades, because it was based on the length of the King’s foot for each country).
A lot of what is written in the Bible is filled with metaphor, and can’t be taken as their literal explanation. We perceive things differently now than we did a thousand years ago. Even the English language has developed since that time (when the Bible would have first been written, English did not exist). There are theologians who have said the the translation of the Bible from its original language is not perfect.
It’s a guide, as close to an historical document as could be considering the time it was written. But we as a species have learned a lot since then. We’ve also forgotten a lot since then as well.
My only one wish is that I hope people aren’t hoping to save me, for whatever reason or other. I personally don’t need saving. Ideas will come and go, but I have to keep my mind open to all things. Find parallels in them. Twenty years ago, I thought a lot differently than I do now. I took things without question. I also learned that there is evidence to support a lot of things in the world that contradict the supposed theory that Earth is only 6 or 7 thousand years old. It’s a lot older. And our concept of time never came into thought until only a few thousand years ago.
MackQuigley
December 30, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Mankind hasn’t improved one bit since Cain bashed Able’s brains out – they just use M16’s and AK47’s now. Improved technology isn’t an improved nature. We can just travel further and kill each other faster using machines.
Yes, of course the earth is older than 6,000 years. Who didn’t know that except a Bible-rejecting “young earth creationist”? There is a long gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 – and that old world was flooded out – as Peter stated “Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:” 2 Peter 3:6. That’s the reason why Mars looks the way it does – and it has nothing to do with Noah’s flood.
So the YEC’s problem wasn’t taking the bible too literally – it was a failure to read and believe the English text literally. For example, the word “created” is not the same as the word “made” – as any child knows who is told by his mother to go make his bed in the morning. Just because Leviticus 21:11 says, “in six days the LORD made heaven and earth,” doesn’t mean he created them in 6 days. He created them in Genesis 1:1 and the verses that follow are sequential … each one starting with an “And” … including verse 2!
God is waaaaay ahead of the “scientists” and “theistic evolutionists”.
You can trust the AV text in English because the same God who spoke the worlds into existence promised to preserve his words and empowered his church with the Holy Ghost to provide the translation (Hebrews 11:5, Psalm 12:6-7).
Don’t let a few misguided “young earth creationists” or a bevy of destructive “theologians” or a hoard of so-called “scientists” shake your faith in God’s infallible word that he gave us in English.
If you trusted Christ 20 years ago then renew your faith in him … “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;” Hebrews 12:14.
Tim
December 30, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Who said my faith is shaken?
And, to be honest, I don’t pay attention to the “young earth creationists” because they will often have no clue of what they say.
As for the translations of the Bible, even some of the most respected theologians have admitted English can’t translate ancient Hebrew exactly.
offshore bank account
December 31, 2011 at 4:16 am
Young earth creationism directly contradicts the scientific consensus . A joint statement of InterAcademy Panel on International Issues (IAP) by 68 national and international science academies lists as scientific facts that: (a) the universe is between 11 and 15 billion years old while the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and has undergone continual change; (b) life appeared on Earth at least 2.5 billion years ago and has subsequently taken many forms, all of which continue to evolve. These facts have never been contradicted by scientific evidence and have been independently established by many different scientific disciplines including paleontology , and the modern biological and biochemical sciences which continue to confirm the evolution of life from a common primordial origin with increasing precision.
Tim
December 31, 2011 at 9:27 am
Whole heartedly agreed.