The "Biblical" Views of Creation {Nathan Warren}

I am planning (Lord willing) on writing a series of blogs about Creation. This is merely the foundation that must be laid in order to understand any future blogs. There are a lot of sincere God loving people that are sincerely wrong, or just uninformed when it comes to creation. I believe that God created our world and the scientific laws that govern it. Therefore I believe the TRUE science will agree with the Bible 100% of the time. There are those out there that are more or less scared of science, because to them Science=Evolution. However when properly understood not only do we realize that evolution is only a theory, but there is absolutely NO evidence to support it. One thing you must understand is that science is always changing that is why they are called theories because they can not be proven. Only once they are proven do they become laws, yet even those are not set in stone. I was reading recently about the recent discovery of neutrio's that supposedly travel faster than light! If this is proven then what was once the most concrete law of physics Einstein's E=MC2 no longer applies.

“In Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which underpins the current view of how the universe works, nothing can travel faster than light -- 300,000 kms, or 186,000 miles, per second -- because its mass would become impossibly infinite. Einstein's theory has been tested thousands of times over the past 106 years and only recently have there been just slight hints that the behavior of some elementary particles of matter might not fit into it.” (Reuters: Robert Evans)

On the contrary after thousands of years God's word has stood the test of time. It is the battle of all men through out all ages to trust in the minds of men or the word of God. Science at one time said the earth was a disk, in Isaiah 40:22 the Bible says it is a sphere. Science used to say there was roughly 1,000 stars, in Jeremiah 33:22 we find the stars are innumerable. Science at one point bled people if they where sick, in Leviticus 17:11 we find that life is in the blood. These are but a few of instances when the Bible was way ahead of science.

Moving on to the purpose of this post the theories of creation, all of which are based on the Bible (kind of). Some theories are guilty of more eisegesis (interpretation of the Bible by reading into it one's own ideas) than others, and of course there is one that is not theory, but is truth but that is for another day.

The Theories:

The Gap theory: also referred to by such synonyms as the Ruin-and-Reconstruction Theory, the Pre-Adamic Cataclysm Theory, and the Restitution Theory, is generally attributed to the writings of Thomas Chalmers, a nineteenth century Scottish theologian. In recent years, the Gap Theory has undergone an “evolution” of its own, and for that reason is not easily defined. There are several variations, and its defenders do not agree among themselves on strict interpretations. However the widely held view among gap theorists today is that the original creation of the world by God, as recorded in Genesis 1:1, took place billions of years ago. The creation was despoiled because of Satan’s rebellion against God, resulting in his being cast from heaven with his followers. A cataclysm occurred at the time of Satan’s overthrow, and is said to have left the Earth in darkness (the “waste and void” of Genesis 1:2). [NOTE: It is alleged by some Gap theorists that the cataclysm occurring at Satan’s overthrow terminated the geologic ages, after which God “re-created.” It is alleged by others that the cataclysm occurred first, and then was followed by the geologic ages, after which God “re-created.”] The world as God had created it, with all its inhabitants, was destroyed, which, it is claimed, accounts for the myriad fossils present in the Earth. Many holding to this theory place the fossils of dinosaurs, so-called “ape-men,” and other extinct forms of life in this gap. Then, God “re-created” the Earth in six literal days. By way of summary, then, the “gap” between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 contains the story of an original creation, a judgment, and ruination, while the verses in Genesis 1:3 through the remainder of the chapter record the story of the Earth’s re-creation.
(apologeticspress.org)

Theistic Evolution: covers a broad range of ideas. Generally, it takes the position that evolution happened, but that a Creator or intelligence was somehow involved in the process. Most theistic evolutionists believe in some direct acts of a Creator. There is a difference regarding the number and the extent of the Creators direct acts. Writer Batsell Barrett Baxter provides a working definition of theistic evolution: The theistic evolutionist holds a position somewhat between that of the absolute evolutionist and the creationist. He believes that God created the materials of our universe and then guided and superintended the process by which all life has evolved from the very simplest one-celled form on up to the sophisticated forms which we know today. Evolution was Gods method of bringing about the present development though originally the materials were created by God (Batsell Barrett Baxter, I Believe Because, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House: 1971, p. 159). Theistic evolutionists generally side with atheistic evolution teaching that mankind slowly evolved from primitive life forms by means of animal evolutionary stages through long ages. They teach that a race of subhuman men lived thousands of years before Adam was born. God then selected Adam from among this race, breathed the breath of God into him, and thus, rendered him no longer an animal but a man. Then God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden. Hence, Adam was spiritually, but not physically, the first member of the new human race.
(blueletterbible.org)

Day Age theory: The Day Age model is a specific version of the Theistic Evolution the passage found in 2 Peter 3:8 (one day is with the Lord as a thousand years) is one of the most often quoted passages used in the discussion of the Day Age model.


Progressive Creation: Also called “process creation” is the belief that God created the heavens and the earth over a period of billions of years, not the six 24-hour days that is the basis for the traditional creationism view. Progressive creationists can be liberal or conservative in their theological belief system, but they generally agree on the following. 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 the vast majority of earth's history of life and death had already taken place. The flood of Noah was local, not global, and it had little effect on the earth's geology, which shows billions of years of history.
(gotquestions.org)

Literal Six Days: The days of creation were 24-hour periods and the creation was approximately 6,000 years old. This 6,000 year time-frame was based on compilations of the Genesis genealogies done by Archbishop James Ussher and theologian John Lightfoot around A.D. 1650. Based on the ages of patriarchs in the genealogies, both Ussher and Lightfoot concluded the universe, earth, and life were created in 4004 B.C.
(godandscience.org)



Look for the next blog: The Limestone Cowboy; and the journey through the gap of creation