THE DAYS OF GENESIS: Why I Believe They Were 24 Hours

Let me say this at the beginning, so there is no misunderstanding: you are not saved by how you interpret the days of Genesis chapter one. Salvation rests on Christ alone — His cross, His resurrection, His mercy, His grace; not on your chronology of creation. Good and faithful people disagree on the length of those days, and the unity of God’s people does not depend on absolute uniformity on this point.

Yet, for my part, I believe the days of Genesis were normal, literal, 24-hour days — evenings and mornings, suns rising and setting, rhythms that mirror the days we still live in. And I believe this not because I distrust science, but because I trust Scripture and I trust the plain, logical way God ordered His world.

The Text Reads Like Ordinary Days

Every day in Genesis 1 ends with the same refrain:

“And the evening and the morning were the first day…the second day…the third day…”

This is the language of ordinary human experience — rhythm, sequence, boundaries. If God wanted to communicate eons, eras, or ages, the Hebrew language had ways to say that. Instead, the text chooses the cadence of sunrise to sunrise.

Moses did not describe ages of indeterminate length; he described days that any Israelite farmer could understand.

The Photosynthesis Problem: Plants Cannot Wait Millions of Years

Now here is where my conviction grows even stronger.

Scripture says vegetation appears on Day Three, but the sun, the greater light that rules the day, is not placed until Day Four.

If these “days” represent millions of years, we immediately hit a scientific wall:

• Plants depend on photosynthesis.

• Photosynthesis requires sunlight — steady, sustained, measurable sunlight.

• Without sufficient light, plants cannot live, let alone flourish.

• No plant can sit dormant for millions of lightless years waiting for a sun to turn on.

Evolutionary timeframes demand long ages; Genesis presents days that depend on God actively sustaining what He creates. The text makes perfect sense with literal days; it makes no sense with geologic ages.

One does not have to reject science to see this — one only has to acknowledge the simple, observable biology of how plants live.

A 24-hour night is harmless to a plant.

A million-year night is extinction.

But in literal days, the sequence is elegant, natural, and orderly: God creates vegetation, and a day later He ordains the light-bearers that regulate life on earth.

This is not a scientific contradiction — it is a divine choreography.

A Logical, Coherent Reading

A literal reading of Genesis 1 requires no twisting, no mental gymnastics, no manipulating the text or the science. The evening–morning structure fits. The biological requirements fit. The narrative flow fits.

The literal-day view is not naïve; it is coherent.

God is not bound by natural processes, but He is not irrational either. If He tells us how He ordered creation, the simplest reading is often the truest one.

Conclusion

And now, let me end where I began — with what matters most.

Your standing before God does not depend on whether you see Genesis 1 as literal days, literary structure, or long epochs. You are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, not by the length of the creation week. We can reason together, study together, and even disagree together, because the unity of the Spirit is bigger than the timing of the cosmos.

I believe the days were 24-hour days. I hold it with conviction, but not with pride. And if you hold another view, I can still call you my brother or sister — because our hope is not in the days of creation, but in the Lord of all creation.

That is the truth that saves, sustains, and unites us.

BDD