>>

How Long is One Day?

Interestingly, we have people in churches everywhere that are having a difficult time understanding how long ONE DAY is and of how many hours it consists.

Unfortunately, much to their shame, this is a product of false teaching that has crept into the church over the last few decades.  There has been an attempt to "spiritualize" the entire Word of God and in so doing, much false doctrine, false teaching and false hope has been spread as a result.  All logic, common sense and reasoning has been rejected in an attempt to project a "spiritual only" meaning in to the Word of God. 

The primary verse of scripture used by those who cannot understand the concept of "A" (singular) day is 2 Peter 3:8:

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

People constantly read this as: "One day IS EQUAL TO one thousand years", however, this is NOT the correct interpretation of this verse! 

While teaching from the 20th Chapter of the Book of Revelation, I had a lady during a Sunday School lesson morning make an attempt to argue the point that 1,000 years didn't really mean 1,000 years, it meant it was "just a time period", she the proceeded to lecture me on how 2 Peter 3:8 stated the 1,000 years is a day theory. As we look closely at this matter, examine your own beliefs to see what you believe.  If you really believe that Peter's statement is literal and that 1 day is literally equal to 1,000 years, then you must find support for that belief throughout the Word of God.  Ask yourself: Is there any other place in the bible that supports this theory?

Let me show you how fallacious it is to believe that 2 Peter 3:8 is a mathematical equality statement.  If we are to believe that one day is EQUAL to one thousand years, then we must also believe:

1.  The World was created in 6,000 years, not 6 days

2.  In Joshua chapter 10, the sun stood still for about 1,000 years, not just one day like the bible says.

3.  Jonah was in the belly of the whale for 3,000 years, not 3 days

4.  Jesus was dead and in the tomb for 3,000 years, not 3 days

5.  When it rained upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, it really wasn't 40 literal days, it was 40,000 years. 

Do these things sound ridiculous to you?  It's because they are ridiculous statements.  To believe the 1 day=1,000 years theory, you must also believe that the bible means 1,000 years each time you read of an event that happened in one day.   

Friend, this is a theory that is proposed by EVOLUTION, and it is not contained in nor supported by God's account of Creation.

In Genesis chapter 1, we read that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Evolutionary theory, as taught in public schools and advocated by many books and magazines, claims the world is billions of years old.

Obviously Genesis and Evolution conflict on the age of this world. Many Christians have tried to blend the two in a position that is often called the "Day/Age Theory." The point made is that perhaps the days of creation were not really literal 24-hours days; instead they must have been representative of a period of thousands or even millions of years or "ages" of time.

Evolution is an un-provable, unscientific speculation of ideas presented by an atheist man in a feeble attempt to offer an alternative explanation of the origin of life.

Evolutionary theory is based on the assumption that one day we will prove its truth. The Bible, however claims to be truth and challenges its readers to prove or disprove the Words contained therein.

Proof is offered throughout the book with the accuracy of its information, the complete and accurate fulfillment of its prophecies, and the miracles supporting the teachers of the Word. One has only to briefly examine the fulfillment of events predicted in the Bible to understand that the Bible is 100% accurate and truthful as it is written!

Why would anyone wish to water down Truth with speculation or supposition?

If we cannot accept that the world was created in six literal days, then can we really accept the virgin birth of Jesus? Can we believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ? Can we accept any of the promises of God concerning salvation, redemption or eternal life? 

If we can accept these things as facts, why is Genesis chapter 1 any different?

If the early chapters of Genesis are just an allusion to something else or if they are only a fable, then where do the real events and people begin in the Scriptures?

Was Adam the first man, who was created shortly before Eve, or was Adam only the starting place for the written record of mankind?  Is the bible true on this account of Adam and Eve?  Do you believe this story? 

If this is a fable or if it has some underlying spiritual meaning, then what does this make the passages based on this event, such as Romans 5:14, I Corinthians 15:21-22, or I Timothy 2:13?

If Eve was not the first to sin, then what do we do with Paul's proof in I Timothy 2:14? Was Enoch truly the seventh descendant from Adam as Jude claims in Jude 14 or was he 7,000 generations later, or perhaps 70,000 or more generations?

Who was the first real person in Christ's lineage in Luke 3:23-38? Was there really a universal flood as Peter refers to in II Peter 3:5-7?  Will there be, as Peter stated, a time when the will one day end by fire?

We can clearly see that much of our Bible rests on the validity of the early chapters of Genesis. If the early chapters of Genesis are not factual, then what part of the Bible can we claim is true?  Are we going to pick and choose which parts we like, which ones we agree with and accept, then reject the rest?

If the creation did not take place in six 24-hour days, then did it actually rain 40 days and night at the start of the flood? Was Jonah truly in the belly of the great fish for just three days? Was Jesus' body in the tomb for three days? If we cannot accept that the world was created in six days, then we cannot prove that ANY use of the word "day" in the Bible was just a single 24-hour period. 

In Matthew 19:4 and mark 10:6, Jesus himself stated that Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of creation.

What is the beginning?  Six days from creation?  Would that be "at the beginning"?  Is "from the beginning" a few days, a few years, a few thousand years?  Can you honestly claim that many millions of years later is anywhere near the beginning?  Thus an additional theory of relativism must be introduced in order to coincide with the evolutionary beliefs.  Relatively speaking, 1 million years is "near the beginning" when compared to 100 billion years, isn't it?   This is the thought process that evolutionists have attempted to introduce into science and ultimately into Christianity itself.

If each day of creation was actually an age of thousands or millions of years, then we run into many problems. 

For example, if plants were created on the third day and this day were thousands or perhaps millions of years long, then all plants would have had to exist and reproduce for millions of years before the bee, or moth, or butterfly was created.  How then, did flowers or fruit trees survive without any means of pollination or fertilization?  Did they exist for thousands or millions of years without sunlight?  When the sun was created on the fourth day, did it shine for a thousand years before the moon took it's turn?  

How much of the sixth "day" did Adam and Eve live? Was it 900 years?  700 years?  300?  Even if they were created on the last literal day of the sixth "age" as has been suggested by some, then they would have had to live thousands  or perhaps millions of years through the seventh "age" (day) in which God rested.  We can know this is true because the fall of man did not occur until after that "7th day" in which God rested.  If that day is equivalent to thousands or millions of years, how old was Adam when the fall occured?

Does this mean that Adam was more than 930 years old when he died? If a day was about a thousand years, then Adam, must have been 1,930 years old at his death! Do you think that Satan would have truly waited thousands of years to cause the fall of God's creation?

How did Adam and Eve keep from having a child for a thousand years? Or do you propose that they had the ultimate birth control methods in the beginning?  Perhaps Eve used "the pill"?   I read that God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.  I wonder how long he waited for them to begin this? 

Do you truly doubt that God could have created this world in just six 24-hour days?

If you cannot believe this, then can you truly believe that God had the power to raise the Christ from the dead on the third day?  Do you believe God has the power to save you?  Do you believe God has the power to raise YOU from the dead in the resurrection?

It is true that the Hebrew word "yom," which is translated as day, can sometimes refer to a general period of time, when it is used in phrases such as "in Abraham's day" or "in his grandfather's day".   In these types of cases, the phrase is properly stated as "in the 24-hour days that Abraham lived".

When "yom" is preceded by a number, the word "yom" always refers to a 24-hour period.

In Genesis chapter 1, "yom" is referred to as the "first day," the "second day," the "third day," and so on.

How, then, should we understand the word "yom" as applied to creation?  The complete answer is found in Genesis 1, back at the beginning and in one final passage also written in 2 Peter 3.  Examine these scriptures:

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.

Genesis 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Genesis 1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Genesis 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Genesis 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The remaining passage tells us: 

2 Peter 3:4 "...all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

Notice that when God established the week for the Israelites, He gave them the six days plus the Sabbath day and compared it to the six days of creation plus the seventh day in which God rested (Exodus 20:9-11).

Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

I tend to believe God at his Word and I believe the phrase "the evening and the morning" refer to one day equivalent to 24 of our modern hours.  Do you? 

The passage of 2 Peter 3:8 is speaking of "time" from the beginning of the chapter.  It speaks of the last days, of scoffers who mocked of the second coming and ridiculed concerning the "time".  Peter reminded them of times past and the times to come.  When examined in it's context the passage is very simple to understand:

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Let me tell you at this point that MOST people DO NOT READ the passage as it is written and this is where people get into trouble!

Read the passage again carefully, this time with BOLD emphasis on what it says.

2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

One day is with the Lord as a thousand years!   The passage does not state "One day WITH" the Lord is as a thousand years.  The difference?

"One day is" WITH THE LORD as a thousand years means God has no concept of time.  He is timeless and eternal.  One day is nothing and a thousand years is nothing! 

How have you been reading that passage? Look at it one final time: 

One day with the Lord is as a thousand years..... (the way it is normally quoted) 

One day is with the Lord as a thousand years..... (the bible)

Isn't it amazing how A ONE WORD misquote can change the meaning?  Now what will you believe?  Will you believe the Word of God AS IT IS WRITTEN, or will you believe the Word of God as you WANT IT TO BE written?

Α Ω