Biblical defense of old earth creationism

A Biblical defense of old earth creationism

 

¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

⁹And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

¹¹Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹²The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

 

In the usual young earth creationist position, each of the creation “days” is typically a literal, 24 hour day.  The phrase, “and there was evening and there was morning – the first day”, is taken to indicate that we are talking about a 24 hour day.  This is a concrete, simple, straightforward reading of the text, and therefore it has great appeal.  It is the interpretation that most evangelical Christians believe.  If one then adds up the years in the genealogies that follow, one gets a creation date of around 4000 B.C., or about 6000 years ago in round numbers.  While many young earth creationists think that God began creating things about 6000 years ago, some think that there are gaps in the genealogies, and that the universe may be older, perhaps up to around 300,000 years old.

 

There is a problem with this interpretation (and with most interpretations) that has been recognized since ancient times.  The Sun, Moon and stars do not appear in the creation story until the fourth day.

 

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and toseparate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.  Gen 1

 

This being the case, how is it that “days”, and “evenings and mornings” occurred before then?  The Sun, Moon and stars were given to “separate” the day from the night, to “give light” on the earth, to “govern” the day and night.  What gave light for the first three days?  What was different about a day and an evening on those first three days?  Hugh Ross has an answer from an old earth perspective, but from ancient times, this has been an enigma.  Young earth creationists sometimes say that the light of the glory of God supplied light on the first three days.  Did His light only shine on one side of the Earth?  What is the Scriptural evidence for this?  How might we resolve this question?

 

In what follows, an interpretation of these verses of Genesis 1 will be given from an old earth creationist perspective.

 

Let us begin at the “beginning”:

 

¹In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

1.      There was a beginning of all that was created. 

2.      God created (bara, to create, to bring into existence).

3.      God created everything – the heavens and the Earth. From an old earth creationist perspective, the “heavens” includes the sun, other stars, galaxies, the space that they exist in, and time itself.  Spiritual beings were also created.

4.      God is not part of what was created.

5.      This appears to be a point of view from high above the earth, where everything can be seen.

6.      From an old earth perspective, this is a good fit with the Big Bang theory.  Note that the Big Bang did not create anything – God did.

 

¹In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.  Heb 1

 

            Note that God is a triune being.  The church has long understood “God” in Gen 1:1 to refer to God the Father.  This can be seen from the first line of the Apostle’s Creed, which says, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth…”  The Holy Spirit is spoken of as also being active in creation, as He is mentioned in Gen 1:2 below.  The Son of God was also involved in creation, as shown above (and similarly see also 1 Cor 8:6 and Heb 2:10).

 

²Now 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

 

At this point, the earth was in a disordered state, dark, and covered with water and above that, dust and gas.  The sun already existed, but sunlight could not reach the water, being blocked by dense dust and gas.  The dust and gas included water vapor, water droplets (clouds), and/or tiny water/ice crystals (like tiny hail) depending on the altitude.  This is in agreement with conventional science.  Importantly, the point of view has shifted down to the surface of the waters.  That’s why it is now dark.  It was dark there before, but the point of view was from high above the earth in vs 1, so the heavens were “in view”. 

 

¹Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

² “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?

³ Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

⁴ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand.  ⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?

⁶ On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—

⁷ while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

⁸ “Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, ⁹ when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness.  Job 38

 

This describes a very early stage of creation, similar to the state early on the first day.  The stars already existed at this time, in agreement with the interpretation above for the “heavens and earth”.  Clouds were like a “garment” over the sea, and caused “thick darkness” to cover the waters.  This implies that the sun already exists, since clouds caused the darkness.  The angels have been created.

 

³And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.  ⁶And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.  Gen 1

 

“Let … be” is haya  (to be, to become, to exist, to happen).

“Made” is asa, to fashion or make. 

 

These verses are not indicating the original creation of light, but that as dust and gas began to clear above the earth somewhat, some light from the Sun could penetrate to the surface of the ocean.  Imagine a very overcast day, when you can tell that it is daytime, but cannot see the Sun or tell where it is.  Thus, the sky changed from being opaque to being translucent (like several layers of waxed paper), but it is not yet transparent (like window glass or the sky today).  At this point, the atmosphere has cleared somewhat, and there is a separation of the expanse, or sky, from water below (the ocean) and water above (thick clouds).  Note that clouds consist of tiny droplets of water.  

 

An important issue is the meaning of the word day (yom).  There was some discussion in class about the two instances of “day” in vs 5, and the meaning of “night”.  I would suggest that both old and young earth creationists might say that the first instance of “day” and also the word “night” in vs 5 refer to approximately 12 hour periods.  However, from either a young or old earth perspective, the second use of “day” in vs 5 has a different meaning.  From a young earth perspective, it means a 24 hour period.  From an old earth perspective, it means a very long period of time.  Thus, from an old earth perspective, the evening and morning has a broad or poetic sense of an ending of the first period of time and the beginning of the next.

 

For those who are into more technical issues, an old earth perspective would recognize that, at a very early stage in the history of the earth, it was struck by a large object, similar in size to Mars.  This smashed the earth, and most of the debris settled back into the current planet earth, and other debris stayed in orbit around the earth, forming the moon.  The moon was very close to the earth at that time, and would have looked gigantic in the sky if the sky had not been full of debris.  The earth was spinning very rapidly after the collision, about every two hours.  It has been slowing down ever since as it transfers its “spin” (angular momentum) to the moon, making it orbit farther and farther out from the earth.  This outward motion of the moon can be measured today using laser beams reflecting from reflectors left at several places on the moon by the Apollo astronauts.  Intensive studies of lunar soil the astronauts brought back confirm this history, as well as other astronomical studies. Thus, at an early stage, one might say that the first instance of “day” and “night” in vs 5 actually refer to about one hour periods of time, both of which were slowly getting longer, and the second instance of “day” in vs 5 refers to a very long period of time.

 

⁹And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. ¹¹Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹²The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

 

There are many issues to address.  For example, from an old earth perspective, bacteria existed in the sea and then on land for over a billion years before complex plants and animals existed.  There is some speculation that they may have been created in Gen 1:2, when the “Spirit of God was hovering over the waters”.  Or, perhaps Scripture simply does not tell us when bacteria were created.  In any event, complex plants came later.

 

Again from an old earth perspective, the earth was more highly radioactive at this time than it is today.  This caused heat to be generated deep in the earth which caused magma flows to develop, which in turn drove what geologists refer to as plate tectonics.  This pushes one plate against another, causing one to be pushed down, and the other to be pushed up on top of it, causing mountains to form.  Thus, large amounts of dry land appeared.  Over the past 4.6 billion years, most radioactive isotopes with half lives less than roughly 100 million years have basically disappeared from the earth.  The exceptions are those that continue to be created from the decay of other radioactive isotopes with very long half lives.  However, there is still enough radioactivity in the earth to drive plate tectonics.

 

¹⁴And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years,¹⁵and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. 

 

From an old earth creationist perspective, the sun, moon and stars appear because the sky has now mostly cleared of clouds, and these celestial objects can now be seen.  From ancient times, people have wondered what it meant for there to be “days”, and “evening and morning” during the first three days, when the sun appeared to be created on the fourth day.   I think that some young earth creationists have now adapted a somewhat similar explanation, while still maintaining that all of creation happened within a few 24 hour days.

 

What are some things that young and old earth creationists agree on?

The earth and universe was created by God.  God is not part of the creation.  The Big Bang did not create the universe.  God created space, time, matter and energy.  He also created spiritual entities (angels, our spirits…). 

Both sides believe that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

Both sides (YEC and OEC) agree that the word “day” (yom) can have various meanings in the Bible, including a long period of time.

 

Having said that, very many old earth creationists believe in progressive creation.  That is, God created one species after another over a long period of time.  For example, they believe in the literal, special creation of Adam and Eve.  These old earth creationists believe that natural, or Darwinian evolution has been minor, despite billions of years.  Another category of old earth creationists believe that God used or guided evolution in some way.  Some of them also believe in the special creation of Adam and Eve.

 

There is more to the topic of a Biblical defense of old earth creationism, so this topic will be continued.