(All verses quoted are from NKJV if not otherwise mentioned)
There is
more than one interpretive theory about the creation story narrated in the Book
of Genesis. Many of them are trying to explain the creation process,
accommodating it with geological and scientific discoveries. Science claims
that the universe is millions or billions of years old, while the Bible claims
a younger age for the earth. So different theories are developed to incorporate
scientific theories. They have the support of some Bible scholars, study
Bibles, and seminaries. However, conservative theologians dismiss all these
theories for a literary seven-day creation story as described in Genesis 1 and
2.
In this
study, we will discuss four main theories: the Gap Theory, or the Ruin and
Reconstruction Theory; Progressive Creationism, or Day-Age Creationism;
Theistic Evolution; and Young Earth Creationism.
Gap Theory
Ruin and reconstruction theory
One of the most popular theories for interpreting the creation story in Genesis is known as the Gap Theory or the Ruin and Reconstruction Theory. The theory reconciles the creation story in Genesis with the long geological ages.
Since
the 18th century, geologists have been publishing evidence to prove that the
world is approximately 4.5 billion years old. To accommodate this long period,
the Gap theorists presuppose a gap of unmeasured period in between Genesis 1:1
and 1:2. During this gap of millions of years, the earth has formed into the
present state. Thus, the creation story and geological discoveries complement
each other.
The three basic tenets of the gap theories are:
1. They believe in a literal
interpretation of Genesis. They are opposed to Darwinian evolutionary theory.
2. They agree with the geologists
that the earth is billions of years old. They disagree with the young age
theory that the earth is only more than 6,000 years old.
3. The origin of most of the
geologic strata and other geologic evidence belongs to the gap between Genesis
1:1 and 1:2.
Their
theory can be summarized in the following way:
The Gap
theorists hold that Genesis 1:1 describes the original creation of the universe.
Something went wrong after the original creation. So God recreated the earth. Verse
2 describes the condition of the earth before God recreated it. The recreation
process of the old earth starts with verse 3.
Genesis
1:1 describes the creation of a perfect heaven and earth in a dateless past.
Satan dwelled in the garden of Eden somewhere on that earth. That prehistoric
earth was composed of many precious minerals (Ezekial 28). It was also
populated by a race of “men” without any souls. But at some point, Satan
rebelled against God by desiring to become like God (Isaiah 14). Thus, because
of Satan, sin entered the universe, and God judged the earth with a flood. This
flood is called the “Lucifer’s Flood,” named after the fallen angel, which is
indicated by the water in Genesis 1:2. Light and heat from the sun were
removed, which caused a global ice age.
All the
plant, animal, and human fossils on earth today date from “Lucifer’s
Flood." But they do not bear any genetic relationship with the plants,
animals, and fossils living on earth today.
Perfection
then chaos
According
to the Gap Theory, the formless and void state recorded in Genesis 1:2 is in
direct contrast to the perfect initial creation in Genesis 1:1. Everything that
God made was beautiful, complete, and perfect; there was no sin anywhere.
Something happened between the first two verses of Genesis to cause the earth
to become desolate and uninhabitable. Verse 2 assumes that a great catastrophe
occurred that caused the earth to become chaotic through God’s judgment. The
cause of the judgement is the rebellion of Satan or some pre-Adamic race that
sinned. All the inhabitants of the earth were judged by God, leaving behind
fossil remains. This chaotic state could have lasted millions of years.
The
successive six days of creation started after the chaotic period. God began a
re-creation or restitution of the former perfect earth. So the six-day creation
is the reconstruction of the earth, not the original creation. This re-creation
happened only a few thousand years ago and was accomplished in six literal
twenty-four-hour days. Consequently, Genesis 1 speaks of creation, judgement,
ruin, and recreation.
Those
who hold to the Gap Theory are not Darwinian evolutionists. They accept the
Bible literally as well as the conclusions of modern science about the ancient
age of the earth. The Gap Theory provides a solution to the conflict that
exists between the Bible and science about age and fossils. Both the long age
of the earth and the ancient fossils are accommodated into the Bible creation
story by the gap theory.
Advocates of Gap theory
The idea
of Gap theory can be traced back to the writings of the Dutch theologian and
systematizer of Arminianism, Simon Episcopius (January 8, 1583, Amsterdam,
Dutch Republic [now in the Netherlands]- April 4, 1643, Amsterdam).
It was
first advocated by Thomas Chalmers (pron. Chahmerz, 1780–1847), a notable
Scottish theologian and the founder and first moderator of the Free Church of
Scotland, in 1814. The theory became popular because modern science calculated
the age of the earth to be millions of years old.
In the
twentieth century, the theory was popularised by the Scofield Reference Bible,
which included the theory in its footnotes. Bible students were struggling to
defend their faith in creation against the new geological discoveries that were
claiming long ages for earth. So, the interpretation supported by Scofield
became immediately popular. Rev. William Buckland, a geologist and Dean of
Westminster, was a proponent of the Gap Theory (March 12, 1784, Axminster,
Devonshire, England—August 15, 1856, London). Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible
and the Newberry Reference Bible also support this view.
Chalmers’
writings give very little information about the gap theory. Many of the details
were obtained from other writers. One of them is Hugh Miller, a 19th-century
geologist. Hugh Miller (October 10, 1802, Cromarty, Cromartyshire,
Scotland—died December 24, 1856, Edinburgh) was a self-taught Scottish
geologist, writer, folklorist, and evangelical Christian. One of his books on
geology is Footprints of the Creator (1849). He disproved the theory of
evolution. Miller held that the Earth was of great age and that it had been
inhabited by many species that had come into being and gone extinct. He
accepted the view of Thomas Chalmers that Genesis begins with an account of
geological periods. He believed that the “day” in Genesis 1 is not a 24-hour
day. He argued that Noah's Flood was a limited subsidence of the Middle East.
Another
19th-century writer to popularise the gap theory is G.H. Pember, through his
book Earth’s Earliest Ages, first published in 1884. George Hawkins Pember
(January 1, 1837–January 1, 1910), who was known as G. H. Pember, was an
English theologian and author who was affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren.
Arthur
C. Custance, a 20th-century writer, also published an academic defence of the
gap theory in his book Without Form and Void (published by Arthur C. Custance,
Brookville, Canada, 1970). Custance was a Canadian physiologist and writer,
best known for his advocation of gap creationism.
Scofield
Study Bible explains the intention of the gap theory as to “Relegate fossils to
the primitive creation, and no conflict of science with the Genesis cosmogony
remains”. Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible expects that, “When men finally
agree on the age of the Earth, then place the many years (over the historical
6,000) between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, there will be no conflict between the Book
of Genesis and science.”
Interpretations
The gap
theorists have their own arguments to prove their theory. We will discuss their
three or four arguments.
The
Hebrew Conjunction “Waw” in Genesis 1:2
Gap theorists
argue that the first word in Genesis 1:2 is the Hebrew word “waw”. It is a
conjunction, which means "but." The author is emphasising that the
earth was created perfect, but something happened that caused it to become
formless and void.
Genesis 1:1-2 (KJV)
1 In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.
2 And (but) the earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV)
1 In the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth.
2 Now (but) the earth was
formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit
of God was hovering over the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 (but) The earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face
of the waters.
The
Earth Became Void
Genesis
1:2 says that “The earth was without form, and void”. The Hebrew word for “was”,
is “hayah”. The word also means, became or had become. Thus, the sentence may
be read as “The earth became without form, and void”, meaning that it
was created perfect, and something happened so that it became “without form,
and void”. The perfect earth became desolate and uninhabitable.
In other
places, like Genesis 2:7, 10; and 3:22, the verb “hayah” is translated as
“became” or “had become." Hence, the translation of the verb in this
manner is consistent within the context of the creation account in Genesis.
The verb
hayah occurs 27 times in the first three chapters of Genesis. The Greek
translators of the Septuagint rendered hayah in 20 instances as "became.”.
Genesis 1:2 The earth was (became - hayah) without form,
and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became (hayah) a living
being.
Genesis 2:10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it
parted and became (hayah) four riverheads.
Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become (hayah)
like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and
take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"
Not
created in vain
Isaiah
45:18 clearly states that God did not create the world in vain. The Hebrew
phrase translated “in vain” is “lo tohu”. “Tohu” (to'-hoo) is the word
translated “without form” in Genesis 1:2.
Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is
God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not
create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: "I am the LORD, and
there is no other.
If God
did not create the world in vain, then it seems logical to assume that at some
point in the earth's past, it became desolate. Nothing chaotic could come from
a perfect God. A judgement from God befell the earth, which left it in a
chaotic condition.
Gap
theorists also quote passages from Isaiah 24 and Jeremiah 4 to support their
point of view.
Isaiah 24:1 Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it,
distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants.
Jeremiah 4:23-26 I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form and
void; and the heavens had no light. . . I beheld, and indeed there was no man,
and all the birds of the heaven had fled. I beheld, and indeed the fruitful
land was a wilderness, and all its cities are broken down at the presence of
the Lord and His fierce anger.
The
original creation
Many gap
theorists point to Ezekiel 28:13–15 as a description of the original creation
before the desolation of Genesis 1:2. The passage speaks of Satan dwelling in
Eden, the Garden of God, before sin had infected it.
Ezekiel 28:13-15 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious
stone was your covering: the sardus, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and
jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your
timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were
the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy
mountain of God; you walked backed and forth in the midst of the fiery stones.
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was
found in you.
This is
a description of the original perfection before God judged the world.
Disagreements with the Gap Theory
Not the
historical view
Though
many true Christians accept the Gap theory, conservative and traditional
theologians disagree with it. Their first objection to the theory is that it is
not the historical view of the church. Neither the Jewish, Roman Catholic, nor
Protestant theologians support this theory. The historic view is that Genesis 1
and 2 are the accounts of God's original creation of the universe, and no verse
supports a gap during the process.
No verse
of the Scripture teaches that there was an old earth. Genesis 2:2–3 sums up the
previous chapter of God's creation. These verses affirm that everything was
created within six days, not before. Exodus 20:11 repeats the same idea.
Genesis 2:2, 3 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had
done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested
from all His work which God had created and made. (NKJV)
Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth,
the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the
LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
These
verses speak about the creation, not the re-creation, of the earth. God
completed his creation of heaven and earth within six days.
No
direct statement of judgment
Scripture
does speak of God's judgement on the rebellious angels and the curse that came
upon the earth because of Adamic sin. The earth suffered punishment during the
evil days of Noah. But there is no direct or implicit statement anywhere in
Scripture about a divine judgement that occurred between the first two verses
of Genesis. No verse says that a judgement fell on the earth before the
completion of six days of creation.
No death
before Adamic sin
If the
Gap theory is correct, millions of living creatures that lived on the old earth
before Genesis 1:2 were destroyed by God’s divine punishment. Satan also fell
into sin during the gap. So, it must be assumed that death came to the world
before Adamic sin. But the scripture says that death is the result of sin. Sin
entered this world only when humans chose to rebel against God. There was no
sin or death before the fall of Adam and Eve.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world,
and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.
1 Corinthians 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the
resurrection of the dead.
The
Bible also says that the whole creation on earth is groaning for redemption.
Romans 8:20-22
20 For the creation was
subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in
hope;
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth
pangs together until now.
Sin
brought death not only to humans but to all living creatures in the world. The
Bible affirms that creation was made subject to futility. That means the
creation was not created to futility, but they became subjected to futility.
Was or
became?
Genesis 1:2 The earth was (hayah) without form, and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face
of the waters.
The
Hebrew word used for “was” in “The earth was without form and void” is hayah
(haw-yaw). The word means: was, has been, happened, come to pass, came, became,
and pertained.
The Gap
theorists read the verse as: “The earth became without form, and
void," in the sense that the earth was created perfect, but because
of some calamity, it became “without form, and void.”.
In some
instances, the Septuagint (Greek) translators have rendered the verb hayah as
"became." But they did not render it as “became” in Genesis 1:2. They
translated “hayah” in Genesis 1:2 in Greek as "was." They understood
the verse as “The earth was without form, and void.”.
Without
form and void
Genesis 1:22 The earth was (hayah) without form, and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face
of the waters.
The
phrase, “without form and void” is rendered in the NIV and NLT as “formless and
empty”. In the Amplified Bible, it is “formless and void or a waste and
emptiness." In Hebrew, it is “tôû wa bôû (to'-hoo waw bo'-hoo). The Gap
theorists see a divine judgement in these words, whereas the conservative
theologians do not find any sign of udgment. The traditional theologians argue
that the context of Genesis is not one of judgment. The term denotes God’s
unfinished creation. The earth as and when it was created was not filled with
light or any living creatures. On the first day, the water covered the land
mass, and there was no dry land. The earth had been neither formed nor filled.
Hence, the earth was empty.
Genesis
1:1 is a general statement about the whole creation. The creation work started
with creating “the heavens and the earth”. The rest of Genesis 1:2–2:3 unfolds
the sequence of God’s creative work, starting with a “formless and void” earth.
Angelic
rebellion
We have
no clear proof about the time of the angelic rebellion. Peter 2:4 and Jude 6
speak about the rebellion of some angels. But these verses do not mention the
time of their rebellion.
2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast
them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved
for judgment;
Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left
their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the
judgment of the great day;
The
angelic rebellion is a real thing happening, but its timing is not explicit. It
might have taken place in the heavenly places in between Genesis 2 and 3. And
there is no mention in Scripture that God judged the earth because of the
angelic rebellion.
Progressive Creationism
Day-age creationism
Another
interpretive theory about the creation story of Genesis is known as Progressive
Creationism or Day-age creationism. It is also an attempt to harmonise modern
science with the Bible. Whereas traditional creationism holds that God created
heaven, earth, and everything on them within six-24 hours days, the progressive
creationists believe that the creation was completed over a period of billions
of years. The theory precedes Darwinian evolutionary theories, which became
popular only in the 19th century.
Progressive
Creationists ascribe a long, indefinite period to the word “day” in the
creation account. They argue that “day” in Genesis 1 is not a 24-hour day. During
a long period of millions or billions of years, God created the world through
numerous progressive processes. Their main tenets are as follows:
• The “Big Bang” was God’s way of producing stars and galaxies through
billions of years of natural processes.
• The earth and universe are billions of years old, not merely
thousands of years old.
• The days of creation were overlapping periods of millions and
billions of years.
• Death and bloodshed have existed from the very beginning of creation
and were not the result of Adam’s sin. Man was created after a vast history of
earth, life, and death.
• The flood of Noah was local, not global, and it had little effect on
the earth’s geology.
Progressive
creationism opposes atheistic evolutionism, theistic evolutionism, and young
earth creationism. They agree with the current scientific view that the
universe is 13.7 billion years old and the earth is 4.5 billion years old.
They
profess faith in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible. They believe
that the Genesis 1 and 2 accounts of creation are historically and
scientifically accurate. But they interpret the 24-hour day of creation as
millions or billions of years. This is called Day-Age interpretation. Many of
them also believe that the days in Genesis 1 are consecutive days with definite
beginning and ending times.
Science
has discovered the fossils of many species that lived millions of years ago.
Some of them belong to human-like beings, collectively called hominids. These
hominids that existed over the past several million years are said to be
soulless creatures and were essentially animals. God gave the gift of an
eternal soul only to the first human, Adam. Adam is said to have been created
roughly 50,000 years ago. This contains the duration of the first few chapters
of Genesis in tens of thousands of years.
Progressive
creationists believe that the fall of humans, as recorded in Genesis 3, was a
literal and historical event. Genealogies in Genesis say that Adam was created
only 6,000 years ago. But progressive creationists believe that Adam might have
been created about 50,000 years ago. The genealogies in Genesis contain gaps
and omissions. It does not record the name of every single individual in the
family tree.
Though
they agree that the flood of Noah was a real happening, they consider it a
local flood instead of a global event. Geological discoveries also show no
evidence of a global flood event.
The progressive
creationists take both the Bible and science (mainly geology and astronomy) as
reliable sources of knowledge about the origin of the earth and the universe.
God has written two “books” for our instruction, the book of nature and the
book of scripture. Since God is the author of both “books,” they must agree
with each other when properly interpreted. Galileo also had this same belief.
Galileo
di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei, commonly referred to as Galileo Galilei or
simply Galileo, was an Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and
mathematician (February 15, 1564, Pisa [Italy] - January 8, 1642, Arcetri, near
Florence). He made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion,
astronomy, and the development of the scientific method.
Disagreements
The
Progressive Creationist's theory is not supported by sound hermeneutic
principles and the teachings of the Christian Church from the time of the
apostles.
The
Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20:8–11 clearly states that the divine week was
the pattern for man's week and that all "days" were of equal
duration.
Exodus 20:8-11
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In
it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male
servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is
within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the
sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD
blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Conservative
theologians disagree with the theory that Adam and Eve were created after
millions of years of major disasters that befell animals, including disease,
famines, volcanic destruction, hurricanes, tornadoes, asteroid impacts, supernovas,
etc., cascading the extinction of many animals.
Conservative
theologians also disagree with the theory that death existed prior to humans’s
fall. The progressive creationists are undermining the Biblical teaching that
death is a result of sin.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world,
and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned
All, the
“proofs” for Progressive Creationism come mainly from the field of science, not
from the simple teachings of the Bible. Each creation "day" is an
undefined time necessary for the successive appearance of forms of life in the
fossils that record millions of years apart. They accept the sequence of events
in Genesis 1. But when applied to evolutionary theory and the scientific
invention of fossils, this argument raises some stubborn difficulties. To
mention only two:
1. Plants are created on the third day, although the sun is not created
until the following "day"-millions of years later.
2. Birds, as well as fish, are created on the fifth day, before land
animals. It does not concord with the fossil record.
Romans
8:20–22 say that "the whole creation “groans and labors with birth pangs
together until now" and is in "the bondage of corruption". It is
because "ccreation was subjected to futility." It happened “not
willingly," nor by any inherited design defect. It is subjected to
futility “because of Him (God) who subjected it” by the curse against Adam's
rebellion. That means there was no curse or death in the animal kingdom before
humans fell in the Eden.
Romans 8:20-22
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because
of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with
birth pangs together until now.
Theistic Evolution
Theistic
Evolution is a liberal theology that often rejects the Genesis creation story.
The only active role for God is that He started the “Big Bang” and occasionally
intervened in the natural processes.
Asa Gray
(November 18, 1810, Sauquoit, New York, U.S.– January 30, 1888, Cambridge,
Massachusetts) was one of the first advocates of theistic evolution, which
holds that natural selection is one of the mechanisms with which God directs
the natural world. Gray was an American botanist, an excellent writer of
philosophical essays, biographies, and scientific criticism. He was a close
friend of Charles Darwin, the author of The Origin of Species (1859). Though
Gray was a devout Christian, he supported Darwin’s theories. Gray did accept
natural selection as the cause of new species, but he did not believe it to be
the only cause of variation. He believed that variation was caused by some
inherent power imparted in the beginning by divine agency.
“Asa
Gray Award”, the highest award granted by the American Society of Plant
Taxonomists was established in 1984, in recognition of his achievements in the
field of botanical taxonomy.
What is
theistic evolution?
Theistic
evolution, also known as “Evolutionary creationism”, is the belief that God
creates and acts through the laws of nature. They also believe that God creates
biological complexity on Earth through the mechanisms and processes of
evolutionary biology. The theory rejects Young Earth Creationism. Theistic
evolution is taught in many mainline western Protestant seminaries.
Atheistic
evolution presumes a naturalistic origin of life, that life emerged naturally
from pre-existing, non-living things, under the influence of natural laws. Atheistic
evolution does not profess that there is a God. But they explain the origin of
life through natural laws.
However,
Theistic evolution professes that there is God, but He was not directly
involved in the origin of life. God created the building blocks and natural
laws with the eventual emergence of life in his mind. However, at an early
stage, He stepped back and let His creation take over. He let it do what it was
designed to do, and life eventually emerged from non-living material.
God
continually intervened in the creation process to perform miracles to bring
about the origin of life. He led life step by step from primaeval simplicity to
contemporary complexity. God actively intervened in mutation and natural
selection.
Theistic
evolutionists agree that geological fossils record long epochs of time. Since
man does not appear until late in the fossil record, they believe that many
creatures lived, died, and became extinct long before humans’ arrival. This
means that physical death, at least for animals, existed before Adam and his
fall.
They
agree with progressive creationism or the day-age theory, which interprets the
length of the “days” in Genesis 1 as an indefinite period of a million years.
Theistic
evolutionists accept the order of the Darwinian timeline that the stars, our
solar system, earth, plants and animals, and man evolved consecutively. But
this timeline conflicts with a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation
account. For example, Genesis 1 says that the earth was created on day one, and
the sun, moon, and stars were not created until day four. Theistic
evolutionists explain that the wording of Genesis suggests the sun, moon, and
stars were created on day one, but they could not be seen through earth’s
atmosphere until day four, leading to their placement on day four.
A
literal reading of Genesis shows that birds were created with sea creatures on
day five, while land animals were not created until day six. But according to
the Darwinian timeline, birds evolved from land animals. Theistic evolutionists
stand by the Darwinian timeline.
Catholic
church and theistic evolution
The
Catholic Church accepts evolution as a scientific hypothesis. In 1950, Pope
Pius XII declared that the teachings of the church on creation could coexist
with Darwinian evolution. In 1996, Pope John Paul II called evolution
"more than a hypothesis." Pope Francis has also said that Darwinian
evolution is real, but he believes in a divine creator. The Church, under no
circumstances, permits belief in atheistic evolution.
The
church’s position is that if various life forms developed over the course of
time, they did so under the impetus and guidance of God, and their ultimate
creation must be ascribed to him.
The
Catholic Church allows for the possibility that man’s body developed from
previous biological forms under God’s guidance. But God alone created the human
soul; it did not evolve.
The
Church has infallibly determined that the universe is of finite age-that it has
not existed for all eternity. But it has not been defined whether the world was
created only a few thousand years ago or whether it was created several billion
years ago.
Young Earth Creationism
Young
Earth Creationism is the belief that the eternal, self-existent God created the
universe, the Earth, and all life on Earth in 24 hours-six days, approximately
6,000–12,000 years ago. It is a belief commonly shared by Christians and Jews.
To the 18th century AD, the belief of the Church was that creation began
4,000–5,000 years before Christ.
Young
Earth Creationists believe that Noah’s flood was global, and it happened about
2,300–3,300 years before Christ. The surface of the earth was radically
rearranged by the flood. All land animals and birds outside Noah’s Ark and many
sea creatures perished and were buried in the flood sediments. Most of the rock
layers and fossils were caused by the flood, while some were deposited before
the flood and some were produced in postdiluvian, localised catastrophic
sedimentation events or processes.
The
tenets of Young Earth Creationism can be summarised as follows:
Young
earth creationists believe in a literal interpretation of the early chapters of
Genesis. Young Earth Creationism views Genesis as a historical record of what
happened, not an allegory or metaphor.
They
interpret the words day, evening, and morning literally, not as symbols or
metaphors. The Hebrew word used for “day” in Genesis 1:5 is “yôm” (yome). It
always means, in the Old Testament, a literal day of 24 hours. It is used in
the same sense in relation to the movement of the heavenly bodies in Genesis
1:14.
Genesis 1:14 Then God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament
of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and
seasons, and for days and years;
The days
of the Jewish workweek are the same as the days of Creation Week.
Exodus 20:9, 11
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea,
and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Young
earth creationism keeps the creation of the plants, sun, and animals in the
biblical sequence.
Romans
5:12 says, “sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread
to all men, because all sinned,”. It means that death did not exist prior to
Adam. There was no animal or human death before the Fall of Adam and Eve.
Coram Deo
The
Bible is reliable and infallible. It presents an accurate account of the
creation. The Bible is compatible with science. Not a single word in the Bible
has ever been disproven by confirmed facts. Our interpretations of Scripture
may lack proper understanding. But the Word of God itself is never wrong. The
Bible is God’s living word, given to us by the Creator of the universe. He is
the only witness to the creation of the universe. His description of creation
has not been threatened by any evolutionary theories.
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