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 20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. — Genesis 1:20-23 
Here is …

Based on my latest post, Geocreationism and Concordist Theory (Part 4) - What does “literal” literally mean?, I believe I am headed down what some would consider a dangerous path… concluding that Moses wrote things in the scriptures that were not true.  With most people, I am sure this hits a nerve (hey, it hits a nerve in me!) However, this does not worry me.  The reason is because Moses’s misperceptions are not God’s message.  Moses, as we all do, had an understanding of the world that served as a framework and backdrop for the story that he lived out. Naturally, what God …

One of the cornerstones of Young Earth Theology is that Genesis 1 is written in simple language that anyone can understand.  This argument comes in several different forms:
“Genesis 1 is written so simply, that even a child can understand.”

“God made sure Moses wrote Genesis 1 so that the Children of Israel would understand it.”

“God wants us to come to Him ourselves (without a moderator), and so He made Genesis 1 easy to understand.”
…therefore, the world was created in 24-hour days, because its simple language makes that fact clear.  Well, the fact is that it only seems clear because it’s what the church by and large already believes.  If the church believed the world was old, and were well-versed in the geological evidence for the Genesis 1 …

In my post, Genesis 1:5b - What is a Day?, I explain how a day in Genesis 1 is defined by when Jesus (at Creation) intentionally experienced evenings and mornings.  However, I have received numerous responses of the following form: that “yom”, the word for day, always means 24-hour days, because its use in other scriptures are always meant to be treated as 24-hour days.  Therefore, the argument goes, creation days, which use the same word “yom”, must by necessity be 24-hour days.  In conclusion, I am twisting scripture to mean something it does not.  Naturally, I disagree.

Following are the scriptures people primarily use to argue for a meaning of 24-hours …

“And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night.  And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” - Genesis 1:5

This is the first sunset and sunrise that God experienced on the earth.  We know it was a sunset/sunrise because the context is day and night, the establishment of the light side of the earth’s sky and the dark.  We know it was God experiencing it based on the supposition that Jesus witnessed creation, because the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters with Jesus, and because Jesus was God’s instrument of creation.  However, the creating of light in the sky surely took more than one solar day, so how could this be Jesus’ …

Genesis 1:1 - “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

When God created the heavens, exactly what did He create?  Both young and old earth theologies generally interpret this to be a reference to something physical, as opposed to the Heavenly dimension.  This leaves two possibilities for interpretation: 1)The skies, which could include the entire atmosphere or only the firmament, 2)The celestial bodies.

The Skies
The idea that “heavens” refers to the sky, is based on the events of Day 2, when God created the firmament (i.e., the space between the oceans and the clouds), and called it “heavens”.  From a literary perspective, this is a perfectly acceptable interpretation.

The Celestial Bodies
The possibility that “heavens” refers to the celestial bodies is based on …

In the creation account of Genesis 1, God makes several creative pronouncements:
“Let there be light” - Day 1 - Genesis 1:3
“Let there be a firmament…” - Day 2 - Genesis 1:6a
“…let it divide the waters from the waters” - Day 2 - Genesis 1:6b
“Let the waters … be gathered … into one place” - Day 3 - Genesis 1:9a
“…let the dry land appear” - Day 3 - Genesis 1:9b
“Let the earth bring forth grass…” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:11
“Let there be lights in the firmament…” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:14
“…let them be … to give light on the earth” - Day 4 - Genesis 1:15
“Let the waters abound…” - Day 5 - Genesis 1:20a
“…let birds fly above the …