Introduction

  • Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
  • God reveals Himself in two ways:
    • The book of scripture
    • The book of nature
    • Psalms 19:1-4, 7, 8; II Timothy 3:14-17; II Peter 1:16-21; Romans 1:18-20
    • If those two do not agree, something is wrong with our understanding!

Patristic (early church fathers’) interpretations

Epoch day view

  • 1 creation day = 1000 years
  • Taken from II Peter 3:8

Allegorical / figurative day view

  • “How could creation take place in time, seeing time was born along with things that exist?” – Clement of Alexandria

24-hour view

  • 1 creation day = 1 literal 24-hour day

Modern interpretations (late 1700s+)

Concordist

  • Old earth
    • Gap view
      • Popularized by the Scofield Reference Bible. God creates the world, Satan destroys it, then God recreates it.
    • Day-age view
      • Days of creation are long but finite periods of time.
    • Intermittent day view
      • Each “day” of creation is a 24-hour period followed by an extended, finite period of time.
    • Days of divine fiat view
      • The six days of creation are the days that God commanded things to come into existence. Then God caused the different parts of creation to come into an existence over an extended period of time.
  • Young earth
    • 24-hour view
      • Creation days were literal 24-hour days.
    • Mature creation view
      • 24-hour literal days, but created to look fully mature.

Non-concordist

  • Framework view
    • Seven days is a figurative framework around what really happened.
  • Analogical days view
    • Seven days are God’s work days. The length is not specified and are not important.
  • Functional cosmic temple view
    • Creation is talking about the functions God created – not the material things.
  • Historical creationism view
    • Genesis 1:1 refers to the creation of the universe and all that is in it. Genesis 1:2-2:4 describes God’s work of preparing a land that would eventually be promised to Abraham and his descendants.
  • Days of revelation view
    • The Genesis 1 account is a series of statements telling man what God had done in ages past to create the universe and earth. The six days of creation are the time God took to tell man about how He created the universe, not the time it took for it to actually happen.