What is Creationism?

Creationism is the idea that everything was created by God. Creation is not in conflict with established scientific fact. The claims of many uninformed Bible readers and teachers are not in line with what the Bible says. For instance some think the Bible says that the earth was created in 6 24 hour days. Scientific research shows that the earth is billions of years old so there seems to be a conflict between the Bible and scientific fact. Is there? Not at all. If we read the Biblical account in Genesis carefully we can see there is no conflict between the Bible and science. First we must remember the Genesis account was not written to show the “how” of creation. Rather, it covers major events in a progressive way, describing what things were formed, the order in which they were formed and the time interval, or “day,” in which each first appeared. Keep in mind that Genesis account describes things as they would have been seen by human observers had they been present. The Genesis creation account lists 10 major stages in this order: (1) a beginning; (2) a primitive earth in darkness and enshrouded in heavy gases and water; (3) light; (4) an expanse or atmosphere; (5) large areas of dry land; (6) land plants; (7) sun, moon and stars discernible in the expanse, and seasons beginning; (8) sea monsters and flying creatures; (9) wild and tame beasts, mammals; (10) man. Starting with the Genesis account we read “Now the earth proved to be formless and waste and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep; and God’s active force was moving to and fro over the surface of the waters.”—Genesis 1:2. This describes the earth before the first "day" began. This leaves the time it took to make the earth unstated, it could very well have been billions of years, the Bible account simply does not say how long. How long is a Genesis "day"? As used in Genesis a day could be a very long time. Genesis chapter 1 uses the expressions “evening” and “morning” relative to the creative periods. Does this not indicate that they were 24 hours long? Not necessarily. In some places people often refer to a man’s lifetime as his “day.” They speak of “my father’s day” or “in Shakespeare’s day.” They may divide up that lifetime “day,” saying “in the morning [or dawn] of his life” or “in the evening [or twilight] of his life.” So ‘evening and morning’ in Genesis chapter 1 does not limit the meaning to a literal 24 hours. “Day” as used in the Bible can include summer and winter, the passing of seasons. (Zechariah 14:8) “The day of harvest” involves many days. (Compare Proverbs 25:13 and Genesis 30:14.) A thousand years are likened to a day. (Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8, 10) “Judgment Day” covers many years. (Matthew 10:15; 11:22-24) It would seem reasonable that the “days” of Genesis could likewise have embraced long periods of time—millenniums.
By: Tetrion

Date of comment: Sun, Apr 29th 2012