IowaGO! 2024: Six Litteral Days

Yesterday was the first day of the Iowa State Fair and the first day Tulip Gospel Outreach launched the IowaGO! project, grabbing the batton and finishing the race that Roger Bishop and G.A.R.B. started in 2001 who passed it on to Answers in Genesis in 2015. Everything remained the same as it was: the feel of the booth, the look, the videos played on the televisions, and the tracts; all were as they always had been, to the glory of God. It was electric as usual, and busier than normal especially for the first day.

As with every year I started my day, and spent most of the day, tattooing kids, teens, and adults in the corner of the booth. A couple (I couldn’t tell if they were brother/sister, husband/wife, or boyfriend/girlfriend) came into the booth and started a conversation as I was giving her a tattoo. It went something like this.

Looking at the tattoos, she says, “You know, I keep telling him he needs to believe that God created everything in six litteral days, and not millions of years, but he won’t listen.”

“It’s not that I’m not a Christian if I believe in millions of years,” he said. “I still believe in God, I just find that Jesus was making an analogy when it comes to the days.”

Confused at his response I probed him more about what he said as he explained in more detail. “So, you don’t think that God meant the Hebrew word, ‘yom’ to be a litteral 24-hour day? At least in this context?”

“No, I think it means a larger period of time.”

I picked up my Bible and turned to Genesis chapter one. As I was flipping there I asked, “So what makes a day — a day? The sun rising and setting in one cycle maybe? Does that seem fair?” He nodded and agreed that a day was one sun rise and setting cycle. So I started reading:

“God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” (Genesis 1:5 NKJV)

“And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.” (Genesis 1:8 NKJV)

“So the evening and the morning were the third day. … So the evening and the morning were the fourth day. … So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. … Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:13, 19, 23, 31 NKJV)

You get the point. To his amazement, he never saw that before. Even though he’s a Christian who believes in Jesus, he still has to wrestle with the fact that he doesn’t believe God’s Word from beginning to end. In his mind there are inconsistancies in the text when it comes to science. He’s not the only one. In the same day I talked to flat-earthers, atheists, and a guy who clamied dinosaurs aren’t real until I took him to the last few chapters in the Book of Job.

“I’m a Christian and believe in the Bible, but…” is a mouthful. It implies a contradiction between what a person believes and the Bible’s teachings. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV) God’s Word is infallible and is supposed to change us, not the other way around.