Introduction
The topic of creation and humanity is debated by Christians and non-Christians. Modern scientists can claim that the age of the universe is billions of years old and back up their claims with a dating system that cannot be proven. The Bible expresses that God is the creator and humans were fashioned by Him. There are different and varying views of creation, and as Christians, the Bible must be analyzed to examine the truth behind creation.
Creationism: Six Literal Twenty Four Hour Days
Creationism is the view that states the universe, including Adam and Eve, were created in six literal, twenty-four hour days and is the view that agrees with Scripture. The Hebrew word for day is yom, and when analyzing the context of Scripture, it can be concluded six literal, twenty-four hour days of creation of the earth. The Bible makes this argument clear in describing a day as “evening and morning” (Genesis 1:5-2:3). Pastor Mark Driscoll, in his article, “Answers to Common Questions about Creation,” gives support to this view, quoting Exodus 20:8-11 many times in the article. Scripture is clear that God made everything in six literal, twenty-four hour days and rested on the seventh.
The article provided six different views of creation and Creationism is the one that best defines what is written in Scripture. This solidified my conclusion that the universe and everything created was made in six days. For example, the Gap Theory explains that there were two creations. First, the earth was created and then a cataclysmic event happened and it was destroyed. God, then, re-created the earth. Driscoll offers that God declared his creation to be “very good,” which could not be said if evil had previously plagued the world.
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...t warns against this in Scripture. Jesus said, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8). As Christians, we need to put the Bible as the absolute source of authority, as it is God’s Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 states: “All Scripture is inspired by God.” If all Scripture is inspired by God, then everything in it is absolute truth, including creation. If we mix Scripture with evolution, then the Bible is not authoritative.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Bible tells us that creation happened in six literal, twenty-four hour days, and God rested on the seventh. It is impossible to determine the age of the universe as the Bible does not give us that information. The book of Genesis is intended to show us that God is the creator of all things, and to show us His glory. With the biblical account of creation, the Bible refutes evolution.
Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy lay out four possible ideas as to what the creation story in Genesis of the Bible means and how we should interpret it in terms of the age of the earth. The first interpretation they propose is the Young Earth View, which suggests the Earth was created in the recent past and is the most commonly accepted reasoning for the timing by most Christians. It states that each day is a twenty-four hour period because of the use of the Hebrew word “yom” which is used solely to refer to a twenty-four hour period. The second option they offer is the Day Age view which paints the Earth as being created throughout different ages of time and each “day” of creation being within a different age until it got to the 6th day where God created man and thus began the story of Adam and Eve and the progression of the Bible from there. The third possibility they consider is the Restoration View which touches on God restoring a fallen creation and Adam and Eve being the second creation after a time of darkness. This fallen creation is said to be the time described in the Old Testament as the battle between God and Satan, and the eventual fall of Satan into the darkness of the void. The last viewpoint and the one in which this paper will lend its focus, The Literary Framework View, which says that the timing of the events in Genesis do not need explanation or a literal interpretation of the chronology, but rather are there to show the power of a single God in bringing order from nothing and setting up the story for which the Bible is based upon. The Literal Framework model makes the most sense for three reasons, the fall of Satan is not chronologically placed within the creation s...
... My friend, who claims to believe in Confucianism, answered my first question with a smile. Although he thinks that the evolution makes more sense than creation, he refused to admit that man and apes share a common ancestor, because not only he wants to believe in higher power, but also wants to value human life. A short time of doubt in evolution, a short period of wondering of higher power gave me an opportunity to explain the problems with evolution. My friend always respected my faith even though he was an unbeliever, so I was able to tell him that both evolution and creation worldview greatly depends on one’s faith, and that the evolution is not as scientific as he thought. When Bible makes sense to them, they believe in God and the rest of the Bible.
Genesis in the modern world is a highly criticised text, and frequently the most misunderstood, most people do not realise that it is composed of three separate books with two creation stories if we employ source division. (J.ROGERSON P63). Often these two texts are interpolated rendering our own distorted views. In there simplest form they tell a story of the creation of the world and the earliest history of humanity, they then go on to tell the destruction of the world from a flood then the story of Jacob and his ancestors who came to be named Israel. Modern archaeology has given us a different perspective of Genesis, for many science has proved it wrong, especially creation, John Calvin a great systematic protestant thinker said "Gen 1 did not reflect physics and astronomy. The account was solely for the benefit of ancient Hebrew observers whom had no understanding of science". This point was overlooked (j.rogerson),a century ago our understanding of Genesis was very different we did not have the knowledge concerning ancient times as we do now. Wiseman highlights four points which brought about critical theories 1) Theories conceived in an age of ignorance towards earlier civilisations. 2) Literary assumptions made when they knew nothing of earlier systematic writings. 3) Many scholars assumed the oral tradition was the only form of communication during the days of the Patriarchs. 4) Saturated speculative theories concerning "myth and legend" generally now abandoned but not ignored. Scientific discoveries such as Darwin’s theory of natural selection 1859-70 and geology in the 1820’s have challenged earlier perceptions of the creation accounts. A biblical reconstruction of chronology was made of genesis concluding a figure...
A matter that weighs heavily between the science world and the biblical world is the meaning of the ?days? of creation in Genesis 1. Are God?s creative days to be taken as long periods of time, eons, or short periods of time, i.e. 24 hours? We will examine the biblical evidence for possibly applying a long-term definition to the word, ?day? in English, yom in Hebrew, and see that in the Bible; it is all a matter of timing. Remember the article by Pinnock; we must not let our long-standing presuppositions fog our objective look at the issue.
This is because though if one opens their Bible to Genesis 1, it will say ‘And there was evening and morning the xth day’ but the Hebrew only says evening morning xth day and lacks ‘and there was’. The Hebrew also lacks any word to indicate a long but closed period of time aside from yom, as olam or qedem refer to indefinite periods of time. The appearance of evening and morning also do not indicate a solar day as in Psalm 90:6 which refers to the life cycle of grass, which takes weeks or months not a day. The fact that yom appears with a number is also not conclusive as in Zechariah 3:9-10, which obviously refers to a period of time as people would not invite their neighbors over for just one solar day. If God wanted to indicate a solar day more clearly He could have said that He did x in the morning and y in the evening. He also would not refer to a supposed week as one day, which indicates that the days of creation are actually ages. Since the Bible establishes long indefinite periods of time, we can look to science and gather that they may have been millions or even billions of years. This also does not limit God, as He could have done the major events of creation in a day, but He indicated in His word that He did not. Another strange view still held my most Christians in the United States, is that the Sun was created on day four
Instead of focusing on an old-earth or new-earth perspective, it interprets Genesis 1 as topical and poetical, where each of the days describes parallelism in the way the world was created. The days of creation are connected together in a poetic manor. “For example, day one describes the creation of light while day four describes the creation of the light-bearers (Young 16).” By viewing Genesis as a poetic account instead, this theory adopts the benefit of time not being an issue. Evolution, the geologic timescale, and radiometric dating can all be completely accepted from a scientific perspective. This theory has minimal controversy. This theory asserts that the reader should not be concerned about how long it took God to make the sky, but rather to just appreciate that He did so. Another major advantage of this belief system that out of the theories I have discussed, this one is by far the most adaptable. No matter what science has found out or will find out about the origin of the world, this theory can be interpreted as truth. Because of this, the Framework theory does not offer a solid foundation for those who believe in literal interpretation of scripture, and can easily seem justification to the changing world and continuous scientific discovery. Some may believe that
For centuries, the battle has been raging between science and religion over the question of how man came into being. The two opposing forces have clashed countless times in history, with such violent conflicts as to result in bloodshed and death. Probably the most controversial issue debated by the two sides is the creation of everything in the universe, from stars and planets to plants and people. Christians use the Bible, specifically the book of Genesis, to support their belief of creation, while scientists support their ideas with observational data and mathematical calculations. Although the Bible provides a credible explanation for the origin of Earth and its life forms, the scientific perspective of creation presents a thorough explanation of the beginnings of the Earth and man with more information and evidence.
The Original Context Summary: Genesis 1: 1- 32 is the story of Creation. It is defined as either a Historic and/or poetic narrative. The narrative was written to tell the story of how God had created the world we live in today. “Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath” is the chapter title and it goes on to give details of what was created on each of the six days. Each day the world had gotten better and more useful. The first day god created the earth and made day and night. The second day he made the sky. The third day he separated the land and sea. The fourth day God created the Sun, Stars and Moon. The fifth day God created animals for the sea and air. The last day was the sixth day and god created animals for the dry land as well as the first
We humans have always thought of ourselves as being unique, whether by divine sanction or by a self-established belief in superiority. For some, this understanding is intimately tied to the traditional tenets that have long been held as fact, having only recently been challenged. For modern Christians, the literal interpretation of the Bible=s account of creation has come under attack by the development and widespread acceptance of Darwinian evolution. To some, undermining the credibility of Biblical creation directly calls into question the Bible=s authority on its moral teachings. As Ken Ham, from the WGBH Boston Video Evolution Series: What About God? states, AYwhat it [the Bible] says is what it meansYit relates to the authority of scripture and the gospelsYso, if the Bible got it wrong in astronomyYgeologyYbiologyYthen why should I trust the Bible when it talks about morality and salvation? [i]@ It is no wonder with sentiments like these that the backlash against evolution has been so strong and lasting; nonetheless, it has not been until the last few decades that such a debate has moved from the pulpit to the laboratory. With a more educated and well-informed army of Christians, who believe in creationism, the scientific evidence for evolution has now come under assault. With creationists and intelligent design advocates like Henry M. Morris and Michael J. Behe respectively, the attack on Darwin is no longer argued as religion versus evolution per se, but rather one Alegitimate@ scientific theory against another.
For centuries people have believed in Creationism which is the idea that the Earth, its inhabitants, and everything in the universe was created and governed by a supernatural power. According to Branch and Scott, the biggest influence on this idea is the Bible and more specifically the Book of Genesis which presents “creation ex nihilo (“from nothing”), a world flood, [and] a relatively recent inception of the Earth” (27). Branch and Scott are of course referring to the Judeo-Christian biblical creation stories of “Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, the Flood and Noah’s Ark” which, in the seventeenth-century Europe, were “generally considered to by literally true” (Park 24). From these stories the idea that except for the “great flood, the Earth and its inhabitants were pretty much the same now a...
The information presented in evolution studies must be viewed with an open mind since there is no definite proof or law of evolution. The dilemma boils down to science vs. religion. God has been our creator since beginning of time, but the discoveries of recent science are sudde...
I personally believe in the Young-Earth Creation at the same time not holding fast the first day mentioned in Genesis, including Genesis 1:1-2. There may have been a time difference from Genesis 1:1-2 through Genesis 1:3; however, there is no evidence that states the same. This should not be, however, discordant issues for Christian believers since those who hold the first verse is a different time period, are still being faithful to the scriptures. This allows for what Driscoll and Breshears misname “Historical Creationism.” It is the Young-Earth creationism that is connected to a long line of scholarly interpretations that span centuries’ and have dominated the field. It rather seems unfair for Driscoll to label his view as ‘historic’ when nothing could be further from the truth. Young-Earth view by far is the most accurate view to the reading of Moses’ account of Genesis 1-3.
There is much debate over how old the earth truly is. If the creation story is taken literally, the earth could be as young as twenty-five thousand years old. If creation is taken metaphorically, the earth could be four to fifteen billion years old. However, it is not essential which theory one believes, what matters is that God created all of it. This informs Christians that God created the universe; this is the most basic affirmation of Genesis. There is no room given for any other creative power. Through God’s spoken word, the universe was created. Our Christian worldview emphasizes that God is in full control and the origin story clearly shows this. God as creator shows that he has sovereign control. Whether aspects of evolution exist or not, we accept that God is in full control because of what is included in Genesis 1. The objective of Genesis 1 and the story of the origin of the universe is not meant to satisfy our curiosity about science, it is meant to reveal to us the true nature of God. Science attempts to inform the secular worldview while Scripture is able to inform the Christian
The Bible has been at the center of many highly controversially issues over the last 2000 years. Believers and non-believers alike have been debating whether it is the true word of God, or just a collection of stories and myths. At the forefront of this debate is the issue of creation. Many Christians believe that God created the world in 7 literal, 24-hour days. Using this theory, they would say the earth is roughly 6000 years old, but there is also a minority who believe in an old earth and that the creation story in Genesis 1 should be taken figuratively. Those who believe that the creation story is written in figurative language hold a variety of different beliefs on the issue, but at the center of their argument is the statement that: “Genesis 1 should not be taken literally, and that there is no way the earth is only 6000 years old”. In order to understand both sides, the true meaning of the Biblical text must be understood.
In the scripture, God formed the universe in six days. This is evident by the words that are used. For example, in the scripture, Moses uses the word “Yom” to mean day. This word is also used at other occasions in the Bible and it literally means the twenty-four-hour day. This thus gives an assurance that