Q: How long were the creation days? I have a friend who believes that each day was a literal 24 hrs long, a "morning and an evening", and he feels that we question God's power if we don't believe that he created everything in one literal week. How do you answer? Are there any scriptures that help us understand this?
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A: There are many who believe that God created "the heavens and the earth" in six literal days. When the Bible says after each day that "there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day... a second day... a third day;" etc., they understand that to mean literal 24-hour days as we know it. If that seems unreasonable to many others, they also point to Jesus' words when he said that "with God all things are possible." Evolutionists on the other hand scoff at that idea, as they in turn point out that the universe, including our earth, is billions of years old. (Gen. 1:1-2:5) 

Years ago I had the opportunity to discuss this subject with a person who, like your friend, was convinced that each creation day was a literal twenty-four hours in length. This man was an elder in his church. To make his case, he quoted Jesus as saying that "with God all things are possible." I pointed out that in the context Jesus was replying to the question, "Who can be saved?" when he answered that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God, for "with God all things are possible." (Matt. 19:16) I invited him to consider how this simple fact is also relevant when we consider the length of the six creation days.
 
I began by pointing out that according to the creation account in Genesis, the heavens and the earth (the universe) were already in existence when God said regarding the first day: "Let light come to be." (Gen. 1:1-5) How long did it take for there to be light? Twenty-four hours, as the person claimed? Sure, I allowed that God could have simply hit the light switch and have the light turn on instantly. And if he wanted to on the second day, he could just as easily and quickly have caused a division of the waters, to have waters on the earth and waters above the earth, with the "expanse" in between, which he called "Heaven" in which the birds would later fly. (vs. 6-8) If the third day also amounted to a literal twenty-four hours, then that would have been a little more awesome, considering that God not only made dry land appear, but then also caused grass and vegetation (including the flowers) and all sorts of trees to sprout out of the ground. Imagine the sight! Whereas it takes years for a tree to grow, here they would have been popping out of the ground all over the earth in a matter of hours. Of course, we have to allow that since all things are possible with God, he could have planted full grown trees. (vs. 9-13) And what about the fourth day? God cleared the water canopy above the earth to allow the sun, moon, and stars to become visible on earth; which had until then only been translucent enough to enable light to reach the surface of the earth, like on a cloudy day today, to make the growth of all sorts of vegetation possible. Like the first day, this too he could have accomplished with the flick of a switch or the snap of his finger. (vs. 14-19) On the fifth day God said: "'Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.' So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that scurries and swarms in the water, and every sort of bird—each producing offspring of the same kind." (vs. 20-23; NLT) In order for all this to have been accomplished within twenty-four hours―the waters teeming with life and the skies filled with birds of every kind―God would have had to create every bird individually, because in order for them to produce offspring "of the same kind" it takes time to lay their eggs, incubate them until they hatch, and then feed and care for the little ones until they are ready to fly off on their own. If he had created them individually in one day, then each bird would have been a separate species, unrelated one from the other. (Gen. 6:19,20; 7:1-3)

If someone wants to argue that God created all these things in five literal earth days of twenty-four hours because all things are possible with him, well, he could have done so had he chosen to do so. But God was not in a hurry! (2 Peter 3:8) Consider all the things that transpired on the sixth day as proof, at least in regards to the sixth day, that it could not possibly have been a mere twenty-four hours in length, but must have been much, much longer, for it involves also the man who was created on the sixth day; and unlike God, not everything is possible with man. And if the sixth day was not twenty-four hours long, then what can we conclude about the other five days? Please consider:

God created the great variety of land animals on the sixth day, before he created man. (vs. 24,25) If this was a literal day of twenty-four hours, what time was it when God began creating the animals? If we use our reckoning of when a new day begins, he would have started his creation of the animals right after midnight, right? Some believe that this would have been Friday morning. Might we assume that he completed their creation within three hours or so? After all, he needed time to also create the man Adam next. What hour of the sixth day would it have been when God "formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life"? (Gen 2:7; ESV) After Adam comes to life, God gives him the command regarding the forbidden tree, not to eat from it. (vs. 15-17) Then God brings the many variety of animals to the man in order for him to name them. How much time would that have taken? (vs. 19,20) Furthermore, God concludes that "it is not good for the man to continue by himself," and so he decides "to make a helper for him, as a complement of him." (vs. 18, 21-23) Adam is a mere few hours old and already he is lonely. Hence God has "a deep sleep fall upon the man and while he is sleeping, he takes one of his ribs and proceeds to build the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman and to bring her to the man." Imagine all this taking place within a few hours. Upon being introduced to his wife, Adam exclaims: "At last ["finally", ERV)], here is one of my own kind—Bone taken from my bone, and flesh from my flesh. ‘Woman’ is her name because she was taken out of man.” (vs. 21-23; GNT) Does the time line of all this make any sense if it all happened on the same one day of twenty-four hours? Would Adam have exclaimed, "at last," when he was given a wife, when he was not yet a day old?

Although "with God all things are possible," as Jesus said, the same cannot be said of man. Adam could not possibly have done everything we are told about him within one twenty-four hour period. To claim otherwise is to make a mockery of God's Word. No wonder so many have come to view the Bible as a book of myths and fables, although our everlasting life depends on accepting it as it truthfully is, "the word of God." (John 17:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 3:16) Was I able to convince that man that the six creation days were not six literal 24 hours long, but of much longer duration? He promised that he would write to the head office of his church to get a clarification on some of the points I had made. I hope he followed through on that promise.

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