God created the earth in seven days?

Here is my thought on the subject(it's been awhile since I have read the bible) but I remember something to the effect of 'for God, a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day'.

Following this line of thought, why couldn't the 7 days have been 700,000 years or even 7 million years. Wouldn't that make both creationism and evolution valid?

Please correct me if I am way off base but this has just been something lingering in my thoughts for a long time.

Thanks

Originally posted by Anjin
Here is my thought on the subject(it's been awhile since I have read the bible) but I remember something to the effect of 'for God, a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day'.

Following this line of thought, why couldn't the 7 days have been 700,000 years or even 7 million years. Wouldn't that make both creationism and evolution valid?

Please correct me if I am way off base but this has just been something lingering in my thoughts for a long time.

Thanks

There's many interpretations on this subject.

Two things I would point out:

1. These are not 24 hour Earth Days. They may or may not be the 1000 earth years = 1 divine day. Remember the Sun is not created till the Fourth Day.

2. Everything was created old. Adam, the animals, the trees, the planet, all are matured. For some reason people dont like that but its pretty clear in the Bible about it.

These might be helpful. The links mostly involve time dilation and creation. Which is another angle Israeli physicists came up with. Some deal with evolution and the earth being created old.

www.myjewishlearning.com...

www.aish.com...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...

en.wikipedia.org...


www.amazon.com...

www.aish.com...

Here's my take on it:

The bible is supposed to be the word of god, an infallible and perfect being.

If god meant something other than days, he would have said so. He said days.

Therefore, if one is taking the bible as anything more than a series of allegorical tales and myths, then one would have to take the bible at its word, and the world was created in seven actual days.

Which means that either god was lying, or god is not perfect. Or, the thing that Occam's Razor leaves us with after exploring all of the preceding: there is no god, not one like in the bible.

Take your pic. I choose C. but without the qualifier -- my choice reads "there is no god."

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
Here's my take on it:

The bible is supposed to be the word of god, an infallible and perfect being.

If god meant something other than days, he would have said so. He said days.

Therefore, if one is taking the bible as anything more than a series of allegorical tales and myths, then one would have to take the bible at its word, and the world was created in seven actual days.

Which means that either god was lying, or god is not perfect. Or, the thing that Occam's Razor leaves us with after exploring all of the preceding: there is no god, not one like in the bible.

Take your pic. I choose C. but without the qualifier -- my choice reads "there is no god."

Actually Moses wrote Yom which was translated into Day.

Here is a link to an orthodox rabbi's take on it.

judaism.about.com...

This doesnt apply here but why do you think a Supreme Being couldn't be deceptive?

Just thought you might like to know that 'god' supposedly created the world in SIX days and not seven - he had a beer and a BBQ on the Saturday with his mates. Though you religionites would have knew that.

Anyway just why the hell would it have taken 6 days anyway?? - he builds the rest of the universe in 1 day but takes 5 to piss about with the earth, seems a bit odd.

As to the 'days of creation' being anything other than a normal day is completely unfounded when all other references to a day, including the words 'evening'and 'morning' (which is made clear in genesis to describe a day) were refering to a normal day.


G

reply to post by Anjin

God created the earth in seven days? Here is my thought on the subject(it's been awhile since I have read the bible) but I remember something to the effect of 'for God, a day is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day'.

The scripture you are remembering is 2 Peter 3:8.

God tells us that we are now living in the 2nd earth age. Our earth is billions of years old, as shown by scientist but this present age began about 14,000 years ago.

Gen.1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2.And the earth was (became) without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

The word "was" could also have been translated "became" and many Bibles footnote it as such. So...There was an age before, the one is which dinosaurs roamed earth. Satan rebelled in that age and God destroyed it, not the earth but that age.

This present age began in the 2nd half of vs. 2 - And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep.

That was the beginning of "day one" and "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). On the 6th day, or 6,000 years from the beginning of this age God created mankind. He rested on the 7th, formed Adam on the 8th which brings us to 8,000. Christ was born 4,000 years later and there has been 2,000 years since His Advent. All that shows that our earth age is about 14,000 years of age - but our earth is much, much older.


............Whirlwind

I think part of the problem is God didn't create the Earth in 6 days, he merely filled it with things. The Earth was created at some indeterminable time before in Gen 1:1. It never says where this is in relation to the rest of the Creation story, it merely says "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." The rest of creation doesn't happen until after God is hovering over the depths of a watery and formless world.

I do believe it was a literal 6 days though, in which he created night and day, dry land, and life.

Originally posted by Taliesin
I do believe it was a literal 6 days though, in which he created night and day, dry land, and life.

So why piss about with Earth for 5 days creating trees and what not but take 1 day to create the rest of the universe (all the stars and probably planets and the galaxies that we can and can't see - billions and billions of them). Seems a bit odd don't you think? If it took 1 day to create the earth then you would think it would take 1 day to create each and every planet.


G

reply to post by Anjin


Can I just state I'm no exert but it has to be a day = 24hrs.
If not, adam and eve would have been thousands or millions of years old at the end of the 7th day seeing they were made on the 6th day?

I believe MajorMalFunction got it mostly right but a little wrong. The bible is the word of God. The bible says days so its days. But the bible in Genesis said that 6 days he created and the seventh he rested. So six DAYS it was. And rested 7 DAYS.

2 Peter 3:8 is not talking about the creation. It's a statement meaning that God is eternal. He exists outside the boundaries of time.

The creation story says many times that "the evening and the morning were the first day" Second day etc...

What is doesn't say is "and the 1000 evenings and 1000 mornings equal the first day.

Seems simple enough.

The first day could have been billions of years old before God created Light.
If God only made dark matter, first, And did everything He wanted to with that, it still would have been included in the first day. The official day, according to the Bible, starts with the dark part and goes through the light part. It ends when the next dark approaches.

cant be literal 24 hour days.

gen 1:5 god makes the the distinction between night an day in the first day... a day inside a day. so the creation day is different from a earth 24 hour day.

gen 2:4 all the creation days are referred to as one day. ¨in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,¨

¨yohm¨ (was mentioned earlier thank you) can represent different lengths of time.

¨day¨ can also mean a season. zech 14:8

a thousand years liken to a day. pss 90:4, 2 pet 3:8,10

so a creative day in no way has to be limited to a actual 24 hour period. ¨yohm¨ is liken more to a period of time.

the other thing about the genesis account that people forget is point of view. it was written from the point of view of someone standing on earth watching creation.

verse 3 ¨let there be light¨ is not necessarily from an absolute point of view. it may be that as the earth formed, the atmosphere did not allow light to penetrate it. some emphasised bible state that the light would have been a gradual one over time. some state that the hebrew hints at a diffused light like though clouds on an overcast day.

My faith doesn't hinge on this aspect. I'll be able to ask God to give me a"play-by-play" recap someday in heaven.

The Good News of our Lord and Savior has nothing to do with the days of creation.

Let's focus on winning souls for the Lord, minor issues like these can be answered by God in heaven, these answers don't save ANYONE.

Originally posted by NOTurTypical
Let's focus on winning souls for the Lord, minor issues like these can be answered by God in heaven, these answers don't save ANYONE.

true, but for me it strengthens my faith alittle when i peer into these little nooks and crannies of god´s word.

the thing is, sometimes things are difficult to translate. to an ancient jew, it would have been everyday language, but for us sometimes its alittle harder. i find that when i honestly look into questions like these, it helps me delve alittle bit deeper into god´s world. it also gives me appreciation for just how accurate the bible really is.