Bible Questions & Answers Archive 

 Is a Day in Creation a 24 Hour Day?
By Dr. Max D. Younce
0018

 Question 

Is a day in Genesis One a day of 24 hours as we know it today? Is there any proof to substantiate a 24-hour day? I would appreciate any information you can give me on this subject.

 Answer 

The main reason a 24-hour day in Genesis has been questioned is to fit in the evolutionist's theory of evolution. Therefore allowing millions of years for man and animals to evolve. I will list just a few of the many reasons why a day is 24 hours, and not a geological age of 500,000 years as many so-called scientists speculate.

1. Proof by Biblical Context: In Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31 the Lord says "and the evening and the morning" were the first day, second day, third day, and etc. He did not say the evening and the morning were a geological age. I think God knows the difference between a geological age of 500,000 years and 24 hours, don't you?

2. Proof as Spoken by Christ: In John 11:9, about 2,000 years ago, Christ made it clear that a day is composed of 24 hours, just as it has been from God's creation. "Jesus answered, are there not twelve hours in the day..." Do not 12 hours in the daytime and 12 hours in the night time make a 24 hour day? I believe it does.

3. Proof by the Flood: Approximately 1600 years after Creation, the earth was destroyed by a universal flood. At this time God used years, months, days and numbers, just as we have today, to tell us when the rains of the flood began. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, seventeenth day of the month, the same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." (Genesis 7:11).

"And the rain was upon the earth forty days (12 hours) and forty nights (12 hours)." Therefore forty, 24 hour days just as we have today.

4. Proof by Botany:

A. In Genesis 1, God said he created man on the sixth day. If a day is as the evolutionists claim, you would have 250,000 years of total darkness and 250,000 years of light. Can you explain how all the animals, plants, and human life could survive for 250,000 years in total darkness? There would be no fruits, vegetables, trees, etc., as nothing would be able to grow without sunlight.

B. Plants and animals have a balance in nature, and both are essential to each other for the survival of both. You see, animals take in Oxygen and give off Carbon Dioxide; while plants take in Carbon Dioxide and give off Oxygen. One cannot survive without the other producing what it needs to survive.

Notice carefully Genesis 1:11,12. God created all vegetation on the third day. In Genesis 1:21-25, God created on the fifth day all of the sea creatures and land animals that require the Oxygen produced by the vegetation. Plants need Carbon Dioxide to live, which is given off by the animals. Since the evolutionists claim a day is 500,000 years, they disprove their own claim. Agricultural Science proves that vegetables, trees, etc., could not survive even for a short period of time, let alone 500,000 years without animals. The evolutionist refuses to even believe true scientific findings; yet, they want you and I to believe them. How preposterous!

5. Proof by Contradiction. Any evolutionist, who believes in the geological age theory of Creation, presents himself as God and denies the true God of Creation. Here is the proof. In Genesis 1:26-31, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. God then rested on the seventh day. After the seventh day, we have the record of Adam and Eve being in the Garden of Eden. If a day is a geological age of 500,000 years, then Adam would have had to be over 500,000 years old when he died. BUT God says in Genesis 5:5 that the day-age theory is a LIE because... "...all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years (930 yrs.)."

6. Proof by Interpretation. Whenever a number appears before the word "day" in the Bible, it is always, without exception, a 24 hour day. For a start, look up Numbers 7:12,18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60, 66, 72, and 78. Those who claim the day-age theory deny the God of Creation and true Agricultural Science. They are, in a very subtle way, trying to magnetize anyone they can toward their evolutionary beliefs. Much more could be said--I hope this will suffice.