How Long Is A Day?

I recently learned of a new twist to creation that is passing among our
brethren. I was talking with another preacher and he informed me that some
are now questioning whether the days of creation are not really longer
periods of time. This is not really something new. Several years ago I was
talking with a teacher at a local elementary school. She told me that her
church taught them that each day of creation was 1,000 years long.

Why would people believe that the days of creation were not actual days? Some
have given in to a compromise with evolution. I remember hearing as a child,
that the Catholic church thought it possible for Adam and Eve to have been
created as apes! This is a compromise of creation with evolution. Jesus
dispels this theory: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read,
that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female ..."
(Matt. 19:4) Jesus indicated to the Pharisees that God made Adam and Eve as
male and female, not as apes. God himself said, "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness ..." (Genesis 1:26) Unless we are willing to
believe that God is apelike, then we can see how silly this idea is.

As to length of time, there is no other indication that it was anything but a
day. Again, let us consider the scriptures. "And God said, Let there be
light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God
divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
day." (Genesis 1:3-5) God declared a day and night. He declared a morning and
evening. There is no indication of this being anything other than a literal
day. God provided common words for us to understand.

Moses was the writer of Genesis, as he was inspired by God. Moses also was
the writer of Exodus. In Exodus 20, we have an account of God providing
Moses with the 10 commandments which were written on stone. Notice what
Moses has to say about God providing the Sabbath as a day of rest for the
people of Israel. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: But the
seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in
six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in
them is, and rested on the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the
sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:9-11) The Hebrew word here for day
is YOM, and it simply meant a single day. The same word is used in
Genesis 1:3-5. Moses was commanded by God to teach the people to set aside
one day a week to honor God, not one thousand years.

God, as the Almighty, can create everything in an instant. He created all
things in their adult form (as Adam and Eve) so that they could begin the
process of reproduction. Maybe this is why theistic-evolutionsists have
such difficulty. They want to believe the Genesis account, but their data
suggest the world is older than they think the Bible teaches. They neglect
to consider the power of God. Let us not make the same mistake. [JW]