Taken from another thread. http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8004
In regards to long ages. You may find this interesting.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i4/years.asp
In regards to "firmament"Reverend Jeremiah said:Genesis 1:6-10
"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
This is the origin of that strange structure in the sky that the bible refers to as the firmament, or "Heaven". Strange that he should create the "Heaven" twice, because he has already made it in Genesis 1:1. Apparently there was water which needed dividing, and that is why the sky is blue... becuase the firmament has divided the waters above, from the waters below. And that is also where the rain comes from. As strange as it may seem to todays thinking, this does seem to have a good base to it, because if you do not understand that water evaporates and then rains back down again, this explanation would definitely stick. God made the solid sky in one day (read; ONE DAY, not millions, he specifically says that the evening and the morning were the second day.) The firmament IS NOT the dry land, god mentions dry land in these verses, and they are NOT called the firmament. The firmament IS the sky, IS the "Heaven".
Genesis 1:14-18
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good."
Those lights in the firmament are permanently "set" into this solid structure, which spins around our fixed planet. And yes, God says that the moon gives off its own "lesser light" instead of reflecting the light of the sun. Well...God thinks that its good.
Still dont beleive that heaven means the solid sky called the firmament, checok this verse out that has god "opening the windows of Heaven"..LOL
Genesis 7:11-12
"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights."
WOW, 600 YEARS OLD! I think its safe to say that Noah is just as mythical as the "windows" in the sky / Heaven that were opened to let the rain fall down to flood the Earth.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/modules.php?name=Read&itemid=2168&cat=12The Hebrew raqia (the firmament of the KJV, ASV, RSV, et al.) means an expanse (Davidson, 1963, p. DCXCII; Wilson, n.d., p. 166), or something stretched, spread or beaten out (Maunder, 1939, p. 315; Speiser, 1964, p. 6). Keil and Delitzsch offered this definition in their monumental commentary on the Pentateuch: to stretch, to spread out, then beat or tread out...the spreading out of air, which surrounds the earth as an atmosphere (1980, 1:52). In an article discussing the firmament of Genesis 1:6-8, Gary Workman observed that this word is an unfortunate translation because it not only is inaccurate but also has fostered unjust criticism that the Bible erroneously and naively pictures the sky above the earth as a solid dome (1991, 11[4]:14). Strictly speaking, of course, firmament is not actually a translation of raqia at all, but rather, more accurately, a transliteration (i.e., the substitution of a letter in one language for the equivalent letter in another language) of an unfortunate translation. Allow me to explain.
The Septuagint (a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek produced by Jewish scholars in the third centuy B.C. at the behest of the Egyptian pharaoh, Ptolemy Philadelphus, for inclusion in his world-famous library in Alexandria) translated raqia into the Greek as stereoma, which connotes a solid structure (Arndt and Gingrich, 1967, p. 774). Apparently, the translators of the Septuagint were influenced by the then-popular Egyptian view of cosmology and astronomy [they were, after all, doing their translating in Egypt for an Egyptian pharaoh] that embraced the notion of the heavens being a stone vault. Unfortunately, those Hebrew scholars therefore chose to render raqia via the Greek word stereomain order to suggest a firm, solid structure. The Greek connotation thus influenced Jerome to the extent that, when he produced his Latin Vulgate, he used the word firmamentum (meaning a strong or steadfast supportfrom which the word firmament is transliterated) to reflect this pagan concept (McKechinie, 1978, p. 691). In his Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, Old Testament scholar W.E. Vine stressed:
While this English word is derived from the Latin firmamentum which signifies firmness or strengthening,...the Hebrew word, raqia, has no such meaning, but denoted the expanse, that which was stretched out. Certainly the sky was not regarded as a hard vault in which the heavenly orbs were fixed.... There is therefore nothing in the language of the original to suggest that the writers [of the Old TestamentBT] were influenced by the imaginative ideas of heathen nations (1981, p. 67).
Raqia denotes simply an expanse, not a solid structure (see Harris, et al., 1980, 2:2218). Furthermore, the actual substance of the expanse is not inherent in the word. Numbers 16:38 juxtaposes raqia and pahim (plates), suggesting literally an expanse of plates. Here, plates specifies the actual material involved in the expansion. In Genesis, heavens, not solid matter, is given as the nature of the expanse (Genesis 1:8,14,15,17,20). The original context in which raqia is used does not imply any kind of solid dome above the Earth. The Bible equates firmament with the heavens (Psalm 19:1), even using the compound firmament of heaven (Genesis 1:14-15,17). God provided the correct definition on the second day of creation when He called the firmament Heaven (Genesis 1:8). It was described further when Isaiah said that the Lord stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in (Isaiah 40:22). Heavens always is dual in the Hebrew and, in general, refers to the heights above the Earth. As such, there are three particular applications of the word in Scripture. There are the atmospheric heavens (Jeremiah 4:25), the sidereal heavens (outer space) where the planetary bodies reside (Isaiah 13:10), and the heaven of Gods own dwelling place (Hebrews 9:24). As the context requires, firmament may be used in reference to any one of these. Birds are said to fly in the open firmament of heaven (the atmospheric heavens, Genesis 1:20). The Sun, Moon, and stars are set in the firmament of heaven (the sidereal heavens, Genesis 1:17). And the psalmist spoke of Gods sanctuary as being in the firmament (Psalm 150:1). R.K. Harrison, writing on the word firmament in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, observed:
The relationship of the firmament to the concept of heaven can be clarified if the firmament is identified with the troposphere, and then by thinking of the celestial heavens either as a topographic dimension beyond the firmament itself, or as the designated abode of God (1982, 2:307).
In regards to long ages. You may find this interesting.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v20/i4/years.asp