SIX DAYS - REALLY!

If a small nation like Israel could defeat its enemies in just six days (June 6-10, 1967), why is it so hard to believe the Creator of the Universe could create all that there is, in just six days? Ironic, isn't it, that the longer man believes the Universe has been "perculating," the "smaller" their opinion of God! Either the Bible is literally accurate, or its "Author" is a deceiver, and that just cannot be!  God's Word says:

“For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:11).
God says that His work of creation happened in six days. Does He really mean what He says? Does He mean “six days” or does He mean something else? Can we take Him at His Word?  How would a child understand this verse?

Today many teach that these six days of creation cannot refer to literal 24 hour days, but instead must represent long ages of time which would then correspond with the vast geologic ages theorized by evolutionary scientists and scholars. 

But does normal interpretation allow for such a non-literal approach? How would Moses and the people of his day have understood Exodus 20:11 and Genesis chapter 1? The rules of language and word usage demand that we understand these as literal 24 hour days.

Dr. John C. Whitcomb, a pioneer in the modern creationist movement, has mentioned the following significant points among others:

1)        When a numerical adjective is attached to the word “day” (and there are two hundred known cases of this in the Old Testament) the meaning is always restricted to twenty-four hours (i.e., “first day,” “second day,” etc.). See a precise parallel in Numbers 7:12-78.

 

2)        When the plural form (“days”) appears in the Old Testament (over seven hundred times) it always refers to literal days. See Joshua 6:14 (“six days”) where it is quite obvious that literal days are in view.

 

3)        A creation “week” of six indefinite periods of time would hardly serve as a valid or meaningful pattern for Israel’s cycle of work and rest, as explained by God at Sinai in the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:9-11). How inconsistent to say that God worked six long ages (Exodus 20:11) to serve as a pattern for man to work six literal days (Exodus 20:9)! I’m not sure most men in the work force would want each work day to be equivalent to a long period of time, though this non-literal way of understanding “days” might appeal to them when it comes to their vacation weeks! [John C. Whitcomb, The Early Earth (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids:, revised edition, 1986), 28-30.]