Hi. I'm new here. Its great to see a plurality of thought on this site as I read through some of these poss.
Since this is a thread on theistic evolution and the nature of God I thought I would add some of my own philosophical thoughts to the discussion as it relates to the purpose of time in Genesis 1.
This is not a disavowing of or even an argument against the reality that evolution may be the ordained manner of development that God instituted, rather I will be elaborating on the biblical perspective of what God's word relays about God and us and how then we might view the Genesis 1 account.
First, I firmly believe that God has not done anything by accident and that his creations are not incidental but rather all aspects of his creation serve a designed purpose.
I believe Genesis describes a literal 6 days for several reasons, but I beg your patience as I lay out my reasoning in not one single thought but rather a series of connected ideas.
1. I believe creation (like Adam himself) was made mature and had all the appearances of age (evolutionary or not). That seems obvious but it is a weak argument in and of itself against the idea of theistic evolution and that days in Genesis 1 might represent some larger amount of the passing of time.
Thus, if we are going to debate scripture's intent or meaning of these days then let scripture be our guide on their purpose.
2. Scripture elsewhere and in many places infers that the entire point of time is the focus on God's steady and methodical self-revelation to his creation, so that at the appointed time Christ might come in context of multi-generational experiences and in witness to this self-revelation as the fullest expression of himself. Scripture further points out that this self-revelation is what was intended before the foundations of the world were laid and was indeed the mystery hidden since the foundation of the world. Scripture further emphasizes that everything that happened in the OT was done and recorded for our sake, so that in Christ we might finally understand. Christ himself teaches his disciples how the law and the prophets all pointed to him. This fact further also indicating that God did not intend that the OT people and NT people would be saved differently but rather all in Christ. (Gal 4:4, Eph 1:9, Rom 15:4, Gal 3:7-29, Heb 11:39-40, Eph 3:9-10, Matt 25:34, Luke 24:27, Matt 13:34, Heb 9:23-28, Is 40:21, Rev 13:8)
2a. How it applies to Genesis 1 - From a biblical perspective, this makes millions of years of an evolutionary timeline perspective of Genesis 1 (wherein mankind is not present) to be superfluous to the purpose of time itself (to reveal God to man). If one is even to argue that the science (or occurrence) of evolution over those previous millions of years could in some way display God’s glory from a Romans 1 perspective then again God could simply have made his creation mature in order to reveal such “glorious” things and it would not require millions of years for us to observe it. Its superfluous to His purpose since we weren’t there anyway – we can still study it now with no detrimental impact by him making creation mature/old. So I repeat, if evolution were to actually have occurred, it would represent millions of years wherein God is not recorded as revealing or pointing toward the pinnacle purpose of his creation and that of time itself. You have to argue (hopefully with scripture) something then about the nature of God, to explain the off-kilter balance of billions of years of silence and then millenia of purpose.
3. Additionally, any time we are reading Hebrew writing (particularly true in the Pentateuch) we must understand that repetition is a tool intended to focus the reader’s attention on important details. The first chapter is laying forth for us the idea that God is ordered, planned, and purposeful. We see contrasted against chaos and formlessness these ideas repeated 1st day, 2nd day, 3rd day, 4th, 5th, 6th, evening and morning, evening and morning, evening and morning…So too from scripture we know God had a purpose before he began and that he is not only creating the objects of that purpose but he is establishing the medium or environment in which his purpose will unfold – physical creation and time itself. The latter is often overlooked but this is critical to understanding the Bible as it records God’s self-revelation. Time is created as the environment or medium through which he chooses to reveal himself to the objects of his creation.
So, I believe Genesis 1 is literal and it is so, for a redemptive supporting purpose. It is setting the stage for his book that each new day God will reveal something more of himself than the day before; and indeed will reveal something more to us of our brokenness that we didn’t know the day before (or generation before).
4. To begin to bring my point to a close, this idea is concluded as we move into Genesis chapter 2 where the 7th day is introduced, that final day of REST. Of course, this day pictures for us rest, and throughout the bible in time, we see this theme develop from references to a day of rest, to a land of rest and ultimately pointing us to our complete rest in Christ and then our final rest in the new heavens and new earth. This new heaven and new earth is the conclusion of time as we know it (no more darkness - no more evening and morning). Time exists to serve God’s purposes and the end of the ages inaugurates the timelessness of eternity. Here in these verses we have the beginning and the end of the time established.
Finally, we see time not only as the tool of God’s self-revelation as we observe and learn from past generational growth in knowledge, understanding, and faith through a myriad of people, laws, circumstances, sins, temptations, and difficulties, but we also see time’s usefulness in unfolding in our life our own personal growth and sanctification as the Holy Spirit not only reveals more of God’s character to us but also more of our deep need.
Genesis 1 sets the stage that time is important to us, as his creation, in understanding Him, our brokenness, and his purpose. If His ways are truly high above our own this should not be hard to grasp. So, if we are integral to his purpose then having millions of years of evolution where God is not revealing himself and humanity is not present, it seems once again counter to his purpose when rather he can simply create a mature creation while simultaneously establishing the progression of time in 6 days as the environment for the flourishing of his self-revealing purpose.