So how could there be water before the so-called first day? This would appear to be a mistake in the Bible if we are actually talking about H2O (something God created). The only possible explanation is God made water elsewhere in the universe before He created Earth. How would you explain the use of the word day, which I know for a fact is totally wrong? And how do you explain water being the first thing God created - which also cannot be correct?
You missed my point. I did not say God created water first. I said, there is water in Genesis #2 before the Creation account begins in verse #3.
So then where did the water come from?
I am saying that there could have been a flood which destroyed the earth--or is you prefer, 'a mass extinction" and the water we see in verse #2 is what was left of that flood.
That is not a mistake at all. The simple fact is that God has not given us all the details that we demand to know.
It could also mean that the "Gap Theory" is correct after all and a lot of time transpired between the 1st and 2nd verses of Genesis.
It could also be that the water was from melting ice in a global ice freeze.
Again, those are NOT mistakes, they are just not things we are told about.
You see, the Bible contains the story of Creation but it is NOT about creation.
The Bible contains geology, but it is not about geology.
The Bible contains biology, but it is not about biology.
The Bible contains politics, but it is not about politics.
The Bible contains history, but it is not about history.
The Bible is all about the relationship between God and man and how man can get to God.
You asked about DAYS.
Proponents of Old Earth Creation believe the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God and believe the Genesis creation account to be historical narrative—
not myth, allegory, legend or poetic expression. While YECs believe a “plain reading” of the English translation of Genesis 1 necessitates belief that God created the world in six 24-hour days some six to ten thousand years ago, OECs believe that textual and grammatical nuances of the original Hebrew suggest six long epochs of time. Indeed, OECs contend a
literal reading of the Biblical creation accounts in Hebrew provides certain exegetical clues pointing to prolonged creation “days.”
Biblical Hebrew has a very limited vocabulary (approximately 3,100 words) compared to the English vocabulary (estimated to be 1,000,000 words). Hebrew words often have several literal meanings. Linguistic scholars acknowledge the Hebrew word
yôm (translated “day” in English) has several
literal meanings:
1). a period of daylight,
2). 12-hour day,
3). 24-hour day,
4). time,
5). period of time with unspecified duration,
6). and epoch of time.
While modern English has numerous words to describe a long time-span, no word in biblical Hebrew adequately denotes a finite epoch of time other than
yôm.
A Biblical Case for Old-Earth Creationism
None of this approaches the idea of a "MISTAKE". It comes under the heading of,
"we just do not know".