o insist that all of Adam?s experiences in Genesis 2:15-22 could have been crowded into the last hour or two of a literal twenty-four-hour day.? (12) Adam, in apparent agreement with Archer?s conclusion, exclaims in Genesis 2:23, ?This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh...? The word ?now? in this passage is the Hebrew happa?am usually translated ?now at length? or ?at last.? This term would be appropriate after a long wait or a lengthy search, but perhaps not if Eve had been presented to him only a few hours after he was created. Day of Rest Even if a 24-hour period could be construed for any one of the first six days of creation, it might not work for the seventh. Here again, Scripture would have to contradict Scripture just to fit an unjustified presupposition. The New Testament refers to the Lord in His rest continuing from the end of creation on through both the Old and New Testaments. In Hebrews 4:3, ?For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.? According to Archer ?...that seventh day, that ?Sabbath rest,? in a very definite sense has continued on right into the church age. (13) If the seventh day, the Lord?s day of rest, is a long period of time encompassing thousands of years as implied by Scripture, then consistency should demand that the first six days be given similar treatment - that is, ages or eons, but perhaps not 24-hour periods. A passage in Exodus has usually been used as a proof text to bolster the 24-hour day definition, but here again the Bible seems to e uncooperative. ?Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in si...
