Good question. The main thing to understand is the centralised worship as a microcosmic “mountain of God.” When you see de-Creation language, it is the end of a Covenant – until of course we do get to the end of the age. Stars are governors. Mountains are altars. Swarms are armies. In Revelation, “men” are Jews.

What the Covenant Creationists won’t get is that this process beings with the physical cosmos as “house” and whittles its way down to one man, Jesus, as “house”. Then it works its way back out again to the physical cosmos as a renewed “house”.

See A New Heavens and a New Earth:
http://www.bullartistry.com.au/wp/2009/08/01/a-new-heavens-and-a-new-earth/

Seriously, the physical world is symbolic in nature. Everything speaks because everything is Word. Joseph and Daniel were real people but they were also symbols of the coming Christ.

So the material world of Genesis 1 has symbolic significance. The 7 speeches concerning the construction of the Tabernacle in Exodus 25-31 follow the same pattern. The Tabernacle is a new world in miniature. Christ is now the Temple. He is the new world in miniature. As His body we will construct a new world by doing His will on earth as it is in heaven.

We can’t say Genesis 1 isn’t history just because it follows a symbolic pattern. Israel’s history itself follows this pattern, with their greatest kings at the centre as the “governing lights.” What do these liberals have to say to that? Is the story of David and Solomon a polemic against the Gentile kings of the day? Even the various sections of their stories follow the same structure (although they also allude to many of its occurrences since Genesis 1. A lot gets built upon that foundation along the way.)

Hope that helps.

Further, I’m really not in expert in this topic to fully debate it. I’ve ocme to the conclusion based on the evidence I understand, but I feel my conclusion is my own (which is why I tend not to get into serious discussion.) I almost feel it isn’t worth talking about, especially since i agree with you (and others) on so much else. I don’t think it is a fundamental issue. But if you’d still like to go at it, this high school student wouldn’t say no.