The six days of creation

“God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening , and there was morning – the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.” Genesis 1:31-2:1
The first chapter of Genesis is one that many people try to ignore or allegorise. They do this to try and make the Biblical account marry up with the theory of macro-evolution and the idea that the earth and everything in it must have been formed over millions of years. But there is really no need to do this at all – and those who try end up contradicting both the Bible and evolutionary theory (plants being created before the sun, birds being created before reptiles, etc.). Also, a proper understanding of the Hebrew text reveals that these ‘days’ are to be interpreted as literal, 24-hour periods, not ‘geological ages’ or thousands of years (a la 2 Pet. 3:8). This is because of the construction: the Hebrew does not say ‘first day’, ‘second day’ etc. It says ‘day one’, and every other place in the Scripture, it is clear that this construction refers to a literal 24-hour day. Then we also have Ex. 20:11, where God says the Sabbath (resting on the seventh day) is because God rested on the seventh day – and the same word is used in both cases.
When it all boils down, it’s not hard at all to believe that God could do it. After all, He can do anything. So why not create the entire universe from nothing, in just under a week? It may interest you to note that the early church fathers also struggled with the idea of a six-day creation. They couldn’t understand why God would take so long.