Pastor Dave Ginter
 
Response - and I apologize this was so long in coming:
Good Christians support multiple views of Creation. Some of these views create more problems than necessary for both the Christian and the scientist, both of whom strive to be true to facts.

Creation Introduction
The three creation accounts of the Bible (Genesis 1, Genesis 2, and Psalm 104) emphasize most strongly the who of creation. To a significant degree they explain the how of creation. And to a much lesser degree they discuss the when of creation. – Hugh Ross, Creation and Time

Two Major Christian Divisions:
Young-earthers: They interpret the two Genesis accounts of creation literally and attempt to blend the two stories; the "day" mentioned in Genesis 1 is thus a standard 24 hour day, and creation was completed in 6 normal days. In their view, most sedimentary rocks are the products of the Noahic flood. Most believe that the earth is less than 10,000 years old; some hold to 4004 BCE as being the year of creation.

Old Earthers: They believe in the "indefinite-age theory." They do not assign a specific length to a Genesis "day", but believe that God created the earth and its life forms in the sequence specified in Genesis, over billions of years. Each "day" refers to an era of hundreds of millions of years duration. They accept various indicators that the earth has been in existence for billions of years. However, they reject biological evolution.

Here are several additional explanations:
1.      God individually created each species, in an order of His choice.
2.      God guided evolution. (It has been argued that He does this continuously; or intermittently; or in detail; or only by providing Purpose.)
3.      God infused humanity with souls, but did not have to disturb his Creation in order that we be brought about.
4.      God set Creation into motion, and it has run its (intended) course.
5.      The Universe simply runs its course, and that Purpose is for humans to make. This is best represented in an atheistic evolutionary view.

Six Day/24 Hour Creation View
Based on the Bible, it took 7 days to complete the entire creation event, not millions/ billions of years.  Based on the Bible, He created all living creature on day 5 and 6, it does not state that He created a single cell ameba and it evolved into man over millions of years.  This is not the same as evolution.  The fact that some are now willing to say that perhaps there's some divine force out there that got the whole thing rolling in no way reconciles these two events.  The sad fact is it's not the evolutionists making that statement as much as the theologians saying "if you agree God was involved, I'll agree he used evolution to make it happen."

Day/Period View
The Hebrew uses two different words meaning “day”. One word means a literal 24 hour period. That is the only thing this word can mean. The other word (yom) means an undetermined period of time, maybe 24 hours or 24 years or 24 million years ( “A day with the Lord is the same as a million years…). In Genesis, yom is specifically used.

Intelligent Design Theory
Intelligent Design Theory (IDT)—also called Design or the Design Argument—is the view that nature shows tangible signs of having been designed by a preexisting intelligence. IDT holds that design is empirically detectable in nature, and particularly in living systems. It has been around, in one form or another, since the time of ancient Greece.

Gap View
They believe that after God created "the heaven and the earth" as described in Genesis 1:1, there was a very long time interval - sufficient to accommodate many geological ages. The earth apparently existed for billions of years without light from the sun, moon and stars. Some believe that their light was obstructed by an overcast situation which God removed on the fourth day. They maintain that the conventional translation of Genesis 1:2 ("And the earth was without form and void..") is in error. A better translation is that "the earth became waste and void", perhaps because of some unspecified cataclysmic judgment of God before the first humans were created. Verse 3 and following then describes how God reclaimed creation. Jeremiah 4:23-26; Isaiah 45:18; and Ezekiel 28:12-15 may have echoes of this interval. This belief can be traced back into Jewish second century CE writings.

Theistic Evolution
 (Also called process creation, and multiple creation.) This is similar to naturalistic evolution. The universe is over 10 billion years old; the earth is over 4 billion years old. Species developed in increasing complexity as observed by science. Followers of this belief system state that new species evolve by natural processes. God is seen as performing a supervisory function, intervening as needed, nudging evolution to make certain that it progresses in the right direction.

Conclusion
So which view is correct? Give me a break! I’m old, but I still am not THAT old!   I was NOT there at the time of creation. So I do not know for certain. I have no problems with those who hold 6 Day24/Hour or Day/Period views. Let me ask, does God need a 24 hour day to create? Couldn’t God have zapped everything into existence in a nanosecond? How powerful is God? Obviously, the God of the Bible did not need time. But God in some sense used time to create. For me, the Day/Period view of creation fits the Biblical text the best.

You do not have to sacrifice your brains on the altar of faith. That is NOT historical nor Biblical Christianity.

 


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