The six of creation in Genesis 1 have always the issue of debate. The issue is were these days a literal six days or not. The word day in Hebrew could mean more than a 24 hour period. Some scholars take the verse "one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8), indicating that each day of creation took 1,000 years to complete.
Mark Driscoll writes two reasons why the six days of creation are a literal 24 hour period:
First, each day is numbered so that there is a succession of days. Further, each day is described as having a morning and evening, which is the common vernacular for a day. These details in Genesis 1 clearly indicate that the days are literal.
Second, in Exodus 20:8-11, God says:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
God says that he made creation in six days and on the seventh day he rested. Additionally, his work and rest are to be the precedent for us; his example explains why God's people in the Old Testament had a seven-day week with a Sabbath day.
Source: Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe
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