Genesis 1-2:1
The greatest miracle in the Bible, or rather, in the history of the universe is laid in front of us within these texts. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Frankly I have never been presented with an explanation that made more sense.Though, Genesis 1 has been examined, dissected and scrutinized more than any other texts, ever.
In the first creation day, God created light and separated it from the darkness; dubbing the light 'day' and the darkness 'night'. However I must indicate that at this point the sun did not exist. Therefore the earth could not rotate around it, which is our only measurement of a day. Since the instrument of measure is absent, it is virtually impossible for us to state confidently the days were 24 hours long.
During the second day, God separated the waters of heaven from the waters of the earth. While not necessarily important to us right now, but this seems to imply that there is water in Heaven. An interesting observation, I think.
I do call verses 11-13 the attention of the reader. God let the land produce vegetation; the seeds of every plant produces vegetation of the same kind, and then that day ended. This indicates that trees and plants not only grew, but multiplied naturally, and those offspring grew as well, all through the course of a single day. Since this is not reflective of our understanding of a day, I think, there are three alternatives.
1) God accelerated the growth of the vegetation.
2) God, in His nature, is outside of our understanding of time, and therefore performs outside of it.
3) The 24 hour cycle has not yet been placed, so a single day could easy be hundreds or thousands of years.
I am personally inclined toward option 2.
God created the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day, definitively putting the 24 hour cycle in place. However, God, still working outside our understanding of time was not necessarily limited by it.
During the fifth and sixth day, God created fish, birds, and every animal. It does indicate that at this point, the species were defined. My understanding of this text rejects the ideology of evolution. However, there is a manner of understanding which evolution aligns. With the 24 hour cycle not hindering the earth until day four, there could potentially be hundreds of millions of years unaccounted for. This interpretation has been around for hundreds of years. But I am still inclined to reject it on a basis external to the Bible. It is my opinion that God created chicken and the chicken created the egg.
In verse 26, still during the fifth day, God said, "Let us create human beings, in our image." There is something peculiar about this sentence. Throughout all of the other verses, God said, "let the water, let the earth, let the land," but never referred to Himself.
I think this change of format was intentional. God wanted us to understand that we are made in His image.
Further, God did not say "Let them be made in my image," but in 'our' image. However it is quite clear that God is the only present being, and He did not create anything like Himself. The only explanation at this point is that God has a plural amount of personalities, or faces, if you will. All of them encompassing one Entity.
To support this, verse 27 states "So God made human beings in His image." God wanted us to understand the doctrine of the 'trinity,' but clearly, also wanted us to understand that He is one.
God also wanted human beings to understand that they had dominion of the earth, as He stated in verse 28. He dedicated every fruit bearing plant to their nourishment.
God blessed the seventh day, as He finished His work, then blessed it and declared it holy. However, it was not indicated that the sun had set on this day. This could be for one of two reasons.
1) There was no longer any reason to chronicle the life of the sun.
2) The sun was purposefully not mentioned to indicate that God is still resting; we are still in the seventh day.
I personally favor the second option.