One of the first questions many people bring up when confronted with the subject of Creation, is the issue of the days. It is very common for people, even Christians, to think that the days are not regular days, but rather a long period of time. However, this is usually influenced by previous thinking, and not an unbiased look at Genesis 1.
It is obvious that many words have more than one meaning. Even the word day can be used regarding a literal 24-hour day, the daylight part of a day, or an historical era. For example, we have often heard the phrase "Back in my father's day" or used the word day, meaning the part that is light, in contrast to the night. However, when you read Genesis 1 without any previous ideas, the passage clearly indicates that these days are literal, 24-hour days. Let's take a look at why this is so.
First, the Hebrew word for day, Yom, can have several meanings. However, looking at Genesis 1, each time Yom is used, it is prefaced by and/or followed with a number and the phrase "the morning and the evening". Now, this may not seem important, but let's look at the other instances where Yom is used in the Bible to get an accurate meaning of the word. Excluding Genesis 1, Yom is used with a number 359 times. Every time, it means an ordinary day! Do you really think God changed the meaning of the word for this one instance, and every other of the 359 times, it means a literal day? That's not all though. Outside of Genesis 1, Yom is used with the word morning or evening 23 times. Additionally, morning and evening are used without the word Yom, but in relation to each other, 38 times. Every single one of these 61 times, it is referring to an ordinary day. And, excluding Genesis 1, the word Yom is used with night 53 times, and guess what? Each time it means a literal day!
Just by looking at the context, and comparing Scripture with Scripture, it is clear that in Genesis 1, the Creation was completed in 6 literal, ordinary days. Not 6 long periods of time, or 6 eras, but 6 24-hour days. There are over 470 instances where the word Yom is used with other words or phrases that appear in Genesis 1, and each of these are referring to an ordinary day. Why would people try to change the meaning only in this single chapter? Because they want to fit God's Word into their beliefs, rather than adjusting their beliefs to fit with God's Word! Why would you want to change the infallible Word of the infallible God, and follow the fallible words of fallible men?
Next week we'll continue with common objections to the 6-Day Creation, but for now I'll leave you with this quote from Charles Spurgeon, the "prince of preachers".
"We are invited, brethren, most earnestly to go away from the old-fashioned belief of our forefathers because of the supposed discoveries of science. What is science? The method by which man tries to conceal his ignorance. It should not be so, but so it is. You are not to be dogmatical in theology, my brethren, it is wicked; but for scientific men it is the correct thing. You are never to assert anything very strongly; but scientists may boldly assert what they cannot prove, and may demand a faith far more credulous than any we possess. Forsooth, you and I are to take our Bibles and shape and mould our belief according to the evershifting teachings of so-called scientific men. What folly is this! Why, the march of science, falsely so called, through the world may be traced by exploded fallacies and abandoned theories. Former explorers once adored are now ridiculed; the continual wreckings of false hypotheses is a matter of universal notoriety. You may tell where the learned have encamped by the debris left behind of suppositions and theories as plentiful as broken bottles."
