It starts from the very beginning of the Bible where it describes the creation of the Earth in 7 literal days. I've tried very hard to find a way to reason around this but there is no way it is true unless this is intended to be poetic. "There was evening and there was morning" cannot be an accurate description of reality unless the writer received visions of a single day in between vast expanses of time. That would be totally rational. Or perhaps all of time is happening at once and the writer is trying to describe "God time" but a human can only understand it sequentially so he mentally divides it into 7 evenings and mornings witnessed in the vision. That is also very reasonable.
I do not have enough of a background in history or ancient literature to understand this style of writing. If it is meant to be a purely literal read then there is no hope...the Bible is either an ancient fairy tale or God is a deceiver (not supported by scripture). I would prefer not to jump to either conclusion but....
Let's assume that Chapter 1 really is intended to be a literal description of reality over the course of a single week. Why would God make it totally impossible for us to verify this? 100% of evidence in nature supports an old Earth. Only people with zero scientific training or highly dishonest former scientists will say otherwise. So it would prove that God is a deceiver only out to test for blind faith. He would trick our eyes with such intensity that only those who can somehow get locked into psychological confirmation bias will be able to find salvation.
This is NOT consistent with the rest of the Bible. God does not create FAKE universes to test the faith of humanity. That is an incredibly cruel thing to do. Salvation is already difficult even if you don't have to question the accuracy of the Bible.
I don't know where to go with this. We cannot prove without a doubt that Genesis had poetic elements. There is no disclaimer at the bottom of the ancient text stating "this is a poem yall!". The author's intentions are mysterious. The only thing that we can determine with certainty is that God is described as the creator. If that was the ONLY intention for that passage then we are in the clear for all of this. The Bible is not required to give a detailed account of all creation. An abbreviated summary finished off with evening-morning period divider would work just fine but there is no way to know if this was intended.
If God loves us why can't he at least make chapter 1 a bit easier? Don't you think it is pretty essential to start off on the correct footing if you want someone to believe that Jesus died and came back to life to save your soul?
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I have no idea what part of the forum this should go in but my faith is pretty weak so I'm putting it here
Hey bro, I have just two pieces of info to help you today, plus can I remind you of Matthew 13:24-30? Just stay patient - ask and it will be given, seek and you shall find. This is the last hour, and we know it is the last hour because many antichrists have come. They went out from us so that it can be made manifest that they were not of us.
Now, the two pieces of info are this: in Genesis 1, the original writing does not say "it was finished on day one", "it was finished on day two", "it was finished on day three", etc. It says that on the first day, God was ..., on the second day He was ..., on the third day, ... etc. I have attached a really good little article that I found on CF a while back, that I share quite a bit, so I made it into a pdf that can be printed as a little four-page booklet.
The other thing is, more directly what you asked, consider John 11:6-10. There's a spiritual concept of day and night, light and dark, just as there is spiritual concept of sheep and shepherds, mountains and trees etc. People's behaviours are essentially spiritual, so when we see that all the people are in good spirits, it's easy to walk around without stumbling. When we see that people are grouchy all around, it is more likely that something can go wrong (Proverbs 29:11). Thus, the greater light rules in the daytime, whereas the lesser light rules the night time. Crave for the pure spiritual milk (Hebrews 5:11-14).
