Why wouldn't a literalist believe that, when the Bible itself gives no reason to believe otherwise? It's not that long ago when that was the official dogma. Bishop Ussher in the 17th century calculated the first day of creation to be 23 October 4004 BC using that assumption, it was incorporated into a 1701 edition of the Bible and presented as a fact. He also calculated that Adam and Eve were driven from the garden on 10 November 4004 BC, and the Ark landed on 5 May 2348 BC. It's only the advance of science that's made it necessary to reinterpret the days of creation metaphorically, when it became clear that the world is much older than that..
Dexter, you are quite observant most of the time. The dating you gave does seem to point to those two dates being accurate for the events listed.
Even with your disdain for the Bible would you really expect the term 'day' be taken to mean 24hrs. That definition of day didn't even come into being until "day 4".
Even in the 2nd chapter it gives generations of the Earth when it starts to describe most of the events from the previous chapter, as a literalist I also have to take that word into consideration. A day of creation is the same as a generation of the earth. Doesn't that point to a different length of time than 24 hrs? The 1,000 years for a day doesn't apply to this, it is meant for something else.
God wasn't on the earth when He created it but He was somewhere. If that somewhere has something called a 'day' then that is what the word was referencing. If on Earth as in Heaven has real meaning then where He was has something called a day.
What about when time is up for Christ's absence at the end of one day and the beginning of the Day of the LORD which actually lasts forever (once it begins)?
How long was His day of rest, after all the creation all He gets is a couple of hours off? Did Satan mess with Eve at the beginning or the end of that day?
If God took the whole 6 billion years it still wouldn't be an issue since He would have been there the whole time, 1 whole week for 7 full days when stationed in Heaven which is not on the same time-scale that we are.
There is something called a new earth supposedly coming, it will even have a place called New Jerusalem which looks quite different from 'our' Jerusalem. When people are going out into this new world will they be allowed to use any names that are now only applied to places on this world?
The question about time where God was when He was creating is the important question of this post, could their 'day' be at a different (time) scale than what a day on earth is?
