Creation (part 2)

Article 6 - Creation

6-1 The triune God, according to His sovereign will, created out of nothing and out of things that He had made, by immediate and mediate action, the worlds and all that is in them.1 He is the Governor and Upholder of the creation by His wisdom and by the word of His mighty power.2

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters (Gen.1:1,2). (See also Gen.1:3-2:3). By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible (Heb.11:3). 2 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col.1:16,17).

The Chief Concern

Faithful exegesis and interpretation of the bible.

The bible is God’s inerrant word and therefore holds the highest authority in answering time and space.

Scripture must bear guiding weight in assessing all matters related to creation.

Scripture is the authority for life and conduct.

Arguments for an Old Earth

The book of Genesis

Genesis was not written to teach us the age of the earth, so it cannot legitimately support a young or old-earth view.

What is made clear in Genesis 1 is that the universe is the product of God’s word.

The Meaning of the Word Day

The Hebrew word yom can reference

a 24 hour period of time

Leviticus 22:29–30 ESV

And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten on the same day; you shall leave none of it until morning: I am the Lord.

an unspecified period of time

Ecclesiastes 7:14 ESV

In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him.

In Genesis 1

It is not conclusive that day is to be understood to reference a 24 hour period of time. It does refer to the daylight hours: God called the light day, and the darkness He called night (Gen. 1:5)

We Know More Now

Ecclesiastes 1:5 ESV

The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.

We are not required to believe that the sun revolves around the earth to believe this verse.

This verse is written from the perspective of the observer, and contributes to the argument that man’s effort is futile in that it is always subject to God’s sovereignty.

New insight, that scientific development has provided us, enables us to better understand the nature of the universe.

and there was evening and there was morning, the first day (Gen. 1:5)

This does not require us to conclude that the days be 24-hour days.

This may be the author’s way of telling the reader that the first day or period of time occured, and the beginning of the next creative day had come.

In addition, the first 3 days could not have been marked with morning and evening as caused by the sun and moon because these 2 lights were not created until day 4.

The bottom line, the references to evening and morning in Gen. 1 do not refer to the ordinary days as we know them now.

Another possibility for the young-earthers (Gap Theory)

Perhaps we are meant to understand the days mentioned in Genesis 1 as literal 24 hour days, but many millions of years could have existed between each day.

Science (taken from “A Matter of Days” by Christian Astronomer Hugh Ross)

Expansion rate of the universe

Astronomers can measure the distance from earth to various stars and galaxies, and the speed at which they are moving away. These 2 values enable them to back up the process to find how long the universe has been expanding. Ross claims the average of 3 such measurements taken is 13.79 billion years.

Ice Layers

“Scientists have drilled deep into the ice layers in the central parts of Antarctica and northern parts of Greenland. They have found that three ice cores from Antarctica . . . provide a continuous record of the past 800,000, 720,000, and 420,000 years, respectively.”

Continental Separation

There are 2 methods that are used to determine how long ago the continents separated

Take samples from the crust of the Atlantic Ocean at the edges of the continent.

Measure the distance from a point on the North American coastline to the corresponding point on the African coastline.

The samples taken from the the crust of the Atlantic Ocean show a maximum of 180 million years worth of crust. This suggests that the continents separated about 180 million years ago.

The distances between a point on the North American coastline to a corresponding point on the African coastline is 3,480 miles. If we divide 3,480 miles by 180 million years it yields an average rate of 1.2 inches per year.

Long-term precise satellite “measurements of the relative positions of North America and North Africa document a current spreading rate of approximately 1 inch per year, a value in remarkable agreement with the radiometrically determined rates.

This confirms that the continents began to move apart 180 million years ago.

Arguments for a young earth

Argument #1: Genesis 1:1-2:3 places the creation of humanity within the firs week of creation. The most natural reading of of this account points to a young earth.

The Hebrew word yom (day), along with the mention of light and darkness, day and night, and the one week structure strongly suggests that the communicator of this revelation was portraying the equivalent of 24 hour days.

God built Israel’s patters of life upon a 6 + 1 pattern of the creation week. It would appear that this would require that the people of Israel possessed a 24 hour day understanding of each day.

Israel’s call to keep the Sabbath is grounded in God’s original workweek, which, again, seems best to understand days as 24 hour periods.

Exodus 20:11 ESV

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.

Argument #2: The linear genealogies in Gen 5 & 11 point to a recent humanity.

The specificity of the ages of the people mentioned in these genealogies counters the Gap Theory.

The reason for the presence of specific ages in these genealogies is to show that God has preserved the line of the Messiah in every generation.

Leaving out generations would have gone against this purpose

Adding the ages in the genealogies points to a humanity approx. 6000 years old.

Argument #3:Scripture portrays the suffering and death of living creatures, including animals, as part of the curse, so millions of years of animal death and suffering pre-fall seems unlikely.

The principal consequence of the fall was human death both physically and spiritually. (see Gen. 2:17; 3:16-19; Rom. 5:12)

Humanity’s sin in the Garden had negative impact on the created world at large:

Genesis 3:14 ESV

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

Genesis 3:17–19 ESV

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Romans 8:20–21 ESV

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

In light of negative impact of the fall of man on the earth and the fact that animal death is often associated with curse, animal death would not have existed before the fall.

Old-earth creationists struggle to clarify what actually changes in the non-human world at the curse, for they believe an extended period (even millions of years) of animal suffering and death already existed pre-fall. In contrast, Scripture points to God’s curse of the world as a decisive turning point and then commonly associates animal death with curse.