How Long Were the Six Days of Creation?

The Bible begins by telling us that God created the universe in "six days" and rested on the "seventh day." But most scientists (even some with Judeo-Christian beliefs) are convinced the earth is billions of years old. Genesis 5 and Luke 3 (at least seem to) suggest that Adam and Eve were formed only a few thousand years ago. How do we resolve this apparent problem? Is it possible that God created the earth up to billions of years before He created Adam and Eve? Is that the only possible explanation? Progressive creationists say it is.

If in fact God created the earth up to billions of years before He created man, then the "six days" of creation cannot be literal 24-hour periods. We are forced to interpret those "days" allegorically. I do not believe anybody has the right to interpret a biblical passage allegorically unless the context obviously calls for it. A day plainly indicates an actual 24-hour period in every other Bible passage (with the only possible exception being the third "day and night" of Christ's burial). Therefore, it only makes sense to assume actual 24-hour periods in Genesis 1.

Progressive creationists argue that the Hebrew term yom translated "day" in Genesis 1 can mean an indefinite time period. That may be true, but it depends on the context. Verses 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31 make the term definite: yom is a 24-hour period in this account. Besides, even if the six-days of creation were not literal 24-hour periods, they still cannot possibly be thousands (or millions) of years long. Adam was formed on Day 6 (Gen. 1:23-31), lived through Day 7 (2:1-3), and lived 930 years (5:5).

The fourth commandment given in Exodus 20:8-11 also implies the six days of creation were literal 24hour periods:

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (NIV, emphasis added).

The six days on which man is commanded to work, and the six days of creation certainly seem to be the same length of time: six 24-hour periods.

If the earth is less than 10,000 years old, then what leads the majority of scientists to believe it is over 5 billion years old? First of all, scientists are human, and dating methods have flaws. Even if that were not true, there are still at least two possible solutions:
(1) The global flood in Noah's time may have caused major changes in the earth's topography, giving it the appearance of greater age;
(2) Since God created Adam and Eve with adult bodies, He may have created an "adult earth" that bears the appearance of greater age likewise.

Most well-known progressive creationists teach that long before the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, animals had already been dying for up to billions of years. They also teach that Adam and Eve would have died physically even if they had never fallen into sin because the fall resulted in spiritual death only. None of this is biblical, but not all progressive creationists agree with it.

I firmly believe that this view of creation and the age of the earth is the one most faithful to Scripture. There are other Christians who believe in the "Age-Day" theory, the "Revelation-Day" theory, or the Gap theory. With all of them I agree to disagree because I consider this a peripheral Christian debate.