Christians: How could Earth only be 6000 years old?

[tumbleweed41]

What was the length of the Biblical Day spoken about in the creation story in Genesis?

Genesis 1:4 And God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness
Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night . And the evening and the morning were the first day

vai·yik·ra e·lo·him la·'o·vr yo·vm, ve·la·cho·shech ka·ra la·ye·lah; vay·hi-e·rev vo·ker yo·vm vay·hi- e·chad.

God (e·lo·him) called the light Day (yo·vm) and the darkness he called Night(la·ye·lah). And the evening (e·rev) and the morning (vo·ker) were the first day (yo·vm).

ויקרא אלהים ׀ לאור יום ולחשך קרא לילה ויהי־ערב ויהי־בקר יום אחד׃ פ

yo·vm-[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva]day, time, year

1. day (as opposed to night)
2. day (24 hour period)
   1. as defined by evening and morning
   2. as a division of time
3. a working day, a day's journey
4. days, lifetime (pl.)
5. time, period (general)
6. year
7. temporal references
   1. today
   2. yesterday
   3. tomorrow

My understanding is that [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]yo·vm, as used at the end of Genesis 1:5 [FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Geneva]refers to the time between morning and evening as is laid out in the beginning of Genesis 1:5.

Only once in the Torah is the period between the Evening and the Morning referred to as being longer than a typical 'day'. And that is specifically stated as G-D having "moved the suns shadow back ten steps" in Isaiah 38:8.[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

 

[sniper762]

we could NOT still be in the day of rest during paul's time, for moses said god "rested", past tense, completed, already done.

even if one was to count the day of rest as from then until now (app. 6000 years), the previous 6 days of creation equalling 36,000 years is still a big difference from the scientific claim of 4.5 billion years old.

you cant differenciate the length of the seventh day with the previos 6, they are equal.

 

[waitasec]

it's really simple...
once rational and logic are thrown out the window...anything is possible, anything and everything.
if one solution answers the big question, then it not an answer... because it sets up more questions.

instead of accepting bronze age thinking of how to approach the mysteries of the world for that time...it is applied as if it were truth for today, when in fact it was truth at one point until proven false by progressive thinkers, free thinkers and skeptics...

 

[Where Is God]

If the Bible didn't mean 24 hours in its very first statements, why wouldn't it just clarify?

Or better yet, if you believe in the Bible's truth, why do you have to make stuff up to justify it?

 

[outhouse]

If the Bible didn't mean 24 hours in its very first statements, why wouldn't it just clarify?

well it does clarify, it clearly clarifies a day is a 24 hour day.

let those who think different refute this

A Day Is A Day


1) If a day is an era, why are an evening and a morning even mentioned? Actual days must be intended, otherwise, men who lived hundreds of years, e.g., Seth and Noah, would really have lived millions of years. If a day is an era, then a year must be tremendously long, perhaps encompassing hundreds of millions of years;
2) If a day is an era, then much of the Old Testament becomes chaotic. For example, in each of the following verses the same Hebrew word “yom” is employed: “And the flood was forty days upon the earth” (Genesis 7: 1 7), “And he [Moses] was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights” (Exodus 34:28), and “Thus I fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights...” (Deuteronomy 9:25). If “yom” means era instead of a 24-hour period, Moses was “there with the Lord” for a VERY long time.
3) If a day means more than 24-hour period, then how are we to interpret the following verses, as well as scores of others. “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath. . . . in it thou shalt not work... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth… and rested the seventh day” (Exodus 20:9-11).
4) Genesis 1:16 (“And God made two great lights: The greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night”) states the sun rules the day and the moon rules the night. This obviously is referring to time as we know it, time with days that are 24 hours long with daylight ruling half of each.
5) Adam was made on the sixth day (Genesis 1:26-31) which was supposedly thousand of years long. This was followed by the 7th day which was also thousands of years long. Following the 7th day, Adam fell into sin and was expelled from the Garden. This would mean Adam lived thousands of years, which is false, since he died at age 930 (Genesis 5:5).
6) Genesis 1:5 surely spoke of literal day and literal night, and the inference from the statement, “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” is that it was a literal day of evening and morning, 24-hours. There is no Biblical evidence that the days of this chapter were longer periods.
7) If we do try to buy into what the Jehovah’s quote as “a day can be a thousand years” even this isn’t sufficient enough time. For the earth is at least 4.6 billion. The biblical passages concerning time should’ve read that days can be like MILLIONS of years. Obviously, their claim falls apart under mathematic speculation.
For those of you Christians who are STILL clinging to the idea that evolution can be reconciled with the bible, take a little advice from one of your own brethren on the matter. The following is a CHRISTIAN AUTHOR who admits that the word yom does mean a 24 hour period in the creation account:
"The Hebrew word for ‘day’ is ‘yom’ and this word can occasionally be used to mean an indefinite period of time, if the content warrants. In the overwhelming preponderance of its occurrences in the O.T., however, it means a literal day… Still further, the plural form of the word (Hebrew 'yamim') is used over 700 times in the O.T. and always, without exception, refers to literal ‘days.’"