I would agree with Vesuvius that this was originally an allegory which has been taken too literally by some.

I believe the allegory is hinting at the major seven phases of any natural cycle.

Any cycle (from a mystical point of view) has three increasing phases, three decreasing phases and one "mystical" phase where the cycle transforms its nature and thereby transitions into the next cycle up (or down).

God resting on the seventh day is a symbolic hint about that transitory nature in preparation for the start of the next cycle.

Hence we get the number 7 permeating subtly in so may ways throughout our society

• Seven days in a week
• Seven colours in a rainbow
• Seven notes in an octave (the eighth note is the first of the next octave)
• Seven planets in the original concept of the solar system

Those are just a few examples off the top of my head. A quick internet search revealed more examples at this website and I'm sure there are many, many more.

There are even more interesting examples in a book I read long ago called Self-Mastery and Fate With the Cycles of Life.

In it there are ideas put forward that there are seven phases to a day, seven years in each new phase of your life (Shakespeare agreed with this one) and seven phases to each personal year starting from your birthday.

This last one I still find interesting to observe in people today. The last 52 days before your birthday (which is 365/7) is usually a time of transformation (often unsettling) as your life transitions into the next solar year (starting on your birthday).

In my younger days, I would get so wrapped up in this seven phases stuff that I would write computer programs (this was in the early days of home computing) to try and help me calculate all the relevant cycles.

But honestly it is much easier to just feel good and allow good things to flow regardless of the various cycles...your intuition takes care of stepping between the various natural cycles and providing optimum times to do things.

To give you a quick answer to your question, Yes the earth was created in six literal 24 hour period day and God really did rest on the seventh.

The following is the extended answer...

When reading Genesis 1, do not try to read to much into it or allegorize it.

Within the biblical context, in this particular case, it explains itself without the need to be interpreted by anyone.

Let me illustrate.

When reading the account in Genesis 1, it is perfectly clear about the length of time that the 'day' actually was.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

1:13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

The biblical day begins at sundown to sundown. Approximately 6:00PM to 6:00PM. Today, our days are calculated from 12:00AM to 12:00AM. There's a 6 hour difference.

This cycle of "evening and the morning were the ..... day", has continued till this day. This is stated in 2 Peter 3:4 which says, "And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." This includes how a day is calculated.

It establishes the fact that the 24 hour day cycle continues today as it did yesterday.

Concerning the expression found in 2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Notice the words “as”. That is a simile or a comparison. A simile is a figure of speech consisting of a comparison using the words like or as.

The verse is not saying that a day is a thousand years or that a thousand years is a day. If this were the case, every passage that would have a day or year reference in it would be totally out of wack. Then nothing would make sense.

Example:

Jesus prophesied that He would be in the belly of the earth for three days. Does anyone interpret that as 3000 years?

Messiah's reign is to be for 1000 years or could it be just as easily be reduced to mean one day?

Revelation 2:10 ...Will they have tribulation for ten days or 10,000 years?

Revelation 11:3 Are the two witnesses to prophecy for 1260 days or 1,260,000 years?

Revelation 11:9 Are the two witnesses to remain dead for 3.5 days or 3500 years?

Remember a golden rule when the reading the bible (or anything for that matter), Keep bible verses in their context. A verse taken out of context becomes a pretext.

The context of 2 Peter 3:1-10 is about the second coming. Peter reminded the believers of the first century that “scoffers” would arise in the last days saying, “Where is the promise of His [Jesus’] coming?” Peter wanted the church to know that “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise [of a return], as some count slackness, included in his message was the fact that the passing of time does not affect God’s promises, specifically the promise of His return.

Then, when you get to Genesis 2:2 it says, "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."

The definition of the word rest you are thinking of and the actual meaning of the word rest in the text are two different things.

You're thinking God had to 'rest' because he got tired. or as the definition continues to say, "as to refresh oneself, as by sleeping, lying down, or relaxing. To relieve weariness by cessation of exertion or labor. "

You are assuming this definition into the text. This is where it becomes confusing when applying that meaning to the word rest. Your knowledge of God is such that He is Almighty, Powerful, Strong, never slumbers nor sleeps, etc. In your logical thinking, if he had to 'rest' (as by your definition) it would somehow contradict who the person of God represents.

Rest in the passage actually means that God ceased, stopped what he began to do or as it is written in the verse, 'God ended his work which he had made'. That's all that the word implies.

Consider this definition to the word rest. It concords with the recorded text. God ended his work which he had made

REST, n. 1. Cessation of motion or action of any kind, and applicable to any body or being; as rest from labor; rest from mental exertion; rest of body or mind. A body is at rest, when it ceases to move; the mind is at rest, when it ceases to be disturbed or agitated; the sea is never at rest.

Another dictionary defines the word as cessation or absence of motion: to bring a machine to rest to cease from motion, come to rest; stop. to stay as is or remain without further action or notice: to let a matter rest, as in this case cessation of creation.

I hope this helps you get a clearer understanding.

The story of the seven days would almost certainly have to be regarded as an allegory, since our best science says that the age of the earth is about 4.54 billion years, and that plants, animals, and man appeared over vast time periods within this cosmological time frame.

Consider this. Why would God have given us the means to discover, with confirmable scientific means such as radiometric dating, such facts? Wouldn't that seem like a cruel joke if it is wrong?

God has given us some of the most profound observations imaginable. For instance, scientists predicted that, if the Big Bang theory was correct, there should be an observable level of cosmic background microwave radiation; echoes of the Big Bang. This radiation has been observed, and agrees precisely with what we know about the age of the universe and how it is evolving.

The seven day allegory provides some of the most profound spiritual insights, the most obvious of which is, we need to rest after we have worked. It is also a guideline for how much rest we should have, relative to the amount of work we do. That rest should be our opportunity to renew ourselves spiritually.

Now, lets remember that God said a day was like an thousand years and a thousand years like a day. Also that in the spirit world time does not exist. So, in realization I think it could have been 6 days, 6,000 years for time was brought about with the sun, moon, and the stars without them there is no time. Time was create for our physical world as we are physical human beings and spirit beings as well. I think that is an question that no one knows the correct answer to but God himself and it may not be for us to know. There was no time when he was creating the world now after the moon, stars, and sun got create did God use time or not? I don't know. But if we are to know than someone will find and know the answer. This is just my assumption of an answer.

It was an day of rest because he had completed what he want to do and so he rested on the 7th day or the next 1000years. He said now this is good. I believe infinite intelligence can do whatever it wants to do and how ever it wants to do it for it is all power filled full of love for us.

Psalm 90v4 and 2Peter 3Chapter 8Verse look it up in the bible for backing up my 1000 years statement:

In the esoteric studies the earth is represented as a cube, if we take any cube we see it has six sides and those six sides can extend to infinity and if we go to the center point of those six sides we come to rest at the seventh point center.

The six sides are up down, front, back, right and left, all are directions and motion but center is the beginning point the rest point. The center point is the source point from which all existence emerges forth, everything that exist came from it's own center point, even as scientist say the big bang started at the center point then exploded to the six directions.

Here is some interesting info on this subject. I guess you will have to form your own opinion. Frankly, I do not think anyone knows the whole truth.

ARGUMENT FROM DESIGN

Bertrand Russell said during a conversation, "The universe is just there, and that's all." By this remark he meant that the eternal universe was the explanation of everything. Nevertheless, the Big Bang demonstrated that the universe was not the explanation of everything, that it required an Agent outside of its confines and that all materialistic philosophies postulated in the course of thousands of years have been in error.

Atheists like Lucretius, Marx or Russell contended that the universe had an eternal existence and that it was not designed. This is the natural consequence of their philosophy, for those denying God's existence are obliged to accept that the universe is the outcome of the concatenation of coincidences.

Yet, the phenomena occurring during the process of the Big Bang demonstrate that the universe is the product of a conscious Power. Had the Big Bang explosion been of greater or lesser intensity, the universe would not have formed, while all the critical values subsequent to it, from the ratio of matter and antimatter to the arrangement of entropy in the origin of the universe, point to a design behind it. All the critical values in matter owe their existence to the properties immanent in it. This is a sign that matter was a product of creation and all the process in the universe is the outcome of a design.

END OF THE UNIVERSE AND SUMMARY

We have seen that the universe is expanding. Under the circumstances, one of two scenarios is to occur. Either the universe will go on expanding, its end resolved in the Big Chill as a consequence of the "cold death" or, when the expansion reaches a certain point, the gravitational force will start the shrinking process, the collapse referred to as the Big Crunch. In case of such a collapse, given the fact that the universe is no longer, time also will be obliterated and universal time will come to an end. Those who have discussed the philosophical consequences of the Big Bang have pointed to the origin of the universe, but have only superficially touched upon the apocalyptic issue.

Before science demonstrated the fact that the universe had a beginning and will have an end, atheists insisted that the universe was eternal. In the face of their own end in death, at least some of these atheists sought some limited consolation in the idea of an eternal existence of the universe. While passing judgment on the history of philosophy, the Big Bang also undermines this atheistic argument.

To summarize, the Big Bang theory invalidates all materialistic philosophies in five important points. Those who have built up their system of creeds, behaviors and morals within the framework of these philosophies should subject them to a revision. The five points in question are:

1-The universe is not eternal. The materialistic philosophies that postulate the universe and matter as the only substance have been invalidated.

2-The formulas of the theory of relativity have linked the universe and time; thus, the demonstration that the universe had a beginning is also a demonstration of the beginning of time. The materialist thinkers who perceive of time as an eternal and independently-existing entity are in error.

3-Processes that followed the Big Bang prove that there is a design in the universe. The materialist philosophy that denies the intervention of a conscious Creator has lost its validity.

4-Materialism imagined a universe and matter, steady and incorruptible and not subject to erosion by time. The actual evolutionary processes in the universe have proved that the reverse was true. The expansion, entropy, the conclusion reached about the prospective extinction of stars and light show that the only thing that never changes is continuous and uninterrupted change.

5-The universe has an end; it had an origin and will die like all other living things. This basic axiom of materialists has also been disproved.

(( And Indeed We have created the heavens and earth in six days and nothing of fatigue touched Us )) The Glorious Qura'n.