The Days of Creation - Literal or Figurative?
All stories have beginnings. The origin of the world is no exception. But what that beginning looked like, who was involved, and how long it took are questions that seem to be beyond any semblance of agreement. The camps are divided between those who say the universe was an uncaused accident, and those who say it was the intentional work of an intelligent, personal, creator. Those who line up on the side of a creator are further divided by His means of creation, and the length of time He took to create. This paper is designed to look at that second question, providing an analysis and evaluation of the views concerning the length of the creative days. Are they to be interpreted as seven, literal, 24 hour periods that we are familiar with today? Or do we understand Genesis 1 as speaking of seven undisclosed, but presumably long, periods of time?