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Season 2 of Spirit-Led Hope looks at the origin story of our universe and life from both the naturalistic and Christian perspective. One area of debate between the two perspectives is that Genesis describes Creation as taking place in six days. On the other hand, scientific naturalism proposes that the universe began billions of years ago. In this episode, Glenn discusses four different ways that Christians often deal with this vast difference.
This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ .
Mentioned in this episode:
The Science of God—The Convergences of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, 1997 Gerald L. Schroeder
Answers in Genesis
https://answersingenesis.org/
Reasons to Believe
https://reasons.org/
Send a text to Spirit-Led Hope!
Season 2 of Spirit-Led Hope looks at the origin story of our universe and life from both the naturalistic and Christian perspective. One area of debate between the two perspectives is that Genesis describes Creation as taking place in six days. On the other hand, scientific naturalism proposes that the universe began billions of years ago. In this episode, Glenn discusses four different ways that Christians often deal with this vast difference.
This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ .
Mentioned in this episode:
The Science of God—The Convergences of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, 1997 Gerald L. Schroeder
Answers in Genesis
https://answersingenesis.org/
Reasons to Believe
https://reasons.org/
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:
THE CREATION DILEMMA OF TIME
In prior episodes we compared the sequence of the Genesis Creation account to the current account offered by naturalism. In that process, we found many similarities between the two accounts, to the point where some people might even wonder why the Biblical account is treated so poorly when modern science seems to support it.
If you have been following this season, you already know the answer. The big difference between the two accounts is time. Genesis breaks down the sequence of Creation into six days. The naturalistic account says the universe began billions of years ago. There is quite a gap between 6 days and over 13 billion years! It is this massive differential in time that often causes scorn and even contempt for the Genesis account.
In this episode, which might run a little longer than normal, I am going to present four different ways in which Christians often manage this discrepancy in time. I have decided that I am not going to champion any one of these beliefs, even though I certainly have my own opinion. This is an area of disagreement within the Church. The reality is that over the centuries Christians have come to different conclusions on this issue.
Brilliant men and women have tackled the time-issue and come to different understandings, without sacrificing the rest of Scripture. I believe it is important for each Christian to come to their own conclusion, and be able to, in some way, defend or share what they believe.
To do that, we each need to be like my young friend Zach. At the time I am recording this, Zach is 10 years old, and Zach never tires of asking me scientific questions. I believe his last question was something like, “If particle accelerators had a chance of creating miniature black holes that could the destroy the earth, why did we go ahead and make them?” Yep, that is the type of question I get from Zach. Zach, if you are listening, I apologize if I did not remember the question word for word.
But here is my point, we should not be afraid to be like Zach…we should not be afraid to ask serious questions about what is written in Genesis. God is not afraid of our questions. The problem is that we are often afraid of the answers!
I believe that many Christians have a fear that if they dig into the Creation account it will somehow be proven wrong by modern day science. And this can create an internal dilemma. Especially in the United States, we are raised to place an incredible trust in science. But for the Christian, there is also a greater requirement to accept the Bible as the inerrant and inspired word of God. This is where the dilemma comes in…people may feel that they have no choice but to believe in either the Bible or in science. And parallel to that, a naturalist who begins a journey towards God, may feel that it requires abandoning the intellect.
Fortunately, no one needs to be torn between the two, because there are ways to resolve the time discrepancy, and that is what we are going to look at next. Even though I said that I am not going to champion any single viewpoint, I am going to point out areas of concern for each approach, especially the first approach which we will talk about now.
The first approach to resolve the time issue is to consider the Creation account an allegory that was never meant to be understood as a purely factual account. With this approach, the use of days is more of a poetic construction than a statement for the passage of time.
If you take this approach, then time is not a factor at all and there is no conflict with the naturalistic time frames. With this method, Genesis is conveying key principles and ideas without appealing to specific details, and time drops out of the equation.
While I do see the appeal of this approach, I believe caution, extreme caution, is in order. And here is why…Jesus, the Apostles, and the Old Testament writers, did not speak about Genesis allegorically but looked at the Creation events as factual. There really was a beginning, there really was an Adam, there really was an Eve created for Adam. Jesus believed this and I think it is important to believe what Jesus believed.
In fact, the need for Jesus to go to the cross is founded on the sin of Adam. If Adam is just a metaphor or a poetic construction, then Christianity itself is based on a fabrication.
Certainly, there is an undeniable poetic element to Genesis Chapter 1, but it would be a mistake to use that as a reason for allegorizing all of it. If you do this, there is a very real risk of turning the Creation account into a story more like a myth. There is also a risk of diminishing the rest of Scripture which refers to Creation.
If you take this approach, you must be very, very, careful, and clear about what you really mean. If not, you will quickly run into problems somewhere else in your understanding of the Bible and Christian theology.
The second approach is to accept what Genesis says about days at face value. If you take this literal approach, you most likely believe that the universe and life were created within 6 days with each day being 24 hours long…as we understand hours today. With this belief, you automatically must take the approach that the Earth is much younger than that presented by naturalism.
Why? Because the Bible contains genealogies which begin with Adam, and many of these scriptural lists of descendants include the ages of the people listed. This approach has a long history going back all the way to the 1600’s when Bishop James Ussher used these genealogies to place a definitive date on Creation. Based on Ussher’s calculations, and many others like it, Christians believing in a young Earth often say that the Earth was created by God less than 10,000 years ago.
In fact, a Gallup poll in 2019, I do not know if there has been one more recent or not, but a Gallup poll in 2019 showed that 40% of Americans believed in what might be called strict creationism with God creating the Earth less than 10,000 years ago. I do suspect those numbers are dropping, but that is certainly a high percentage. 40% is a lot of Americans.
This is what I was taught, as a child in Sunday School, although I do not remember anything being said about the implications of six Creation days and the age of the Earth. I do remember teachers and others basically saying, “The Bible said it, I believe it. If the Bible says Creation took six days, then six days it is.” I do remember that.
If this is the approach you take, then I understand your heart and desire to please God by your faith in what has been written. At the same time, I want to prepare you for what you will hear if this is your approach. Because, the reality is, it is this approach that has the greatest conflict with naturalism and scientific investigation. As I have said before, just because this interpretation of the Bible does not agree with science does not mean it is wrong.
Naturalists will be quick to point out how modern scientific measurements have made belief in a young Earth and six literal Creation days antiquated and untenable. So, if you believe in the literal six days of Creation, you will need to decide how to answer your friends, or family, or classmates, or coworkers, or anyone asking, when they want you to justify your beliefs.
There are Christian ministries focused on giving sound reasons for believing in six literal days of Creation and a young Earth. One of the most well-known is “Answers in Genesis”, and I will include a link to their website in the episode notes.
Ministries like “Answers in Genesis” attempt to use science to refute science. This approach gained traction in the 60’s because of Henry Morris. Dr. Morris had a PhD in hydraulic engineering, and he is often called the “father of creation science.” Creation science proposes that events like Noah’s flood dramatically changed the Earth which gives the appearance of old age. In other words, Dr. Morris believed naturalists looking at the age of the Earth failed to consider the effects of a global flood…and improperly assigned an old age to the Earth. And certainly, not taking a global flood into account can alter the way the data is viewed.
However, the appearance of old age is often challenged by naturalists. While Dr. Morris looked at the age of the Earth, modern telescopes and astronomical measurements point to the extreme age of the universe, not just the Earth. Now, could God have made everything in a way that looks old? Of course, he could have. But this raises many philosophical questions. For example, if God made the earth and universe appear old, but it is not, is God lying to people who are legitimately studying his creation? This is the type of question that will be asked of you if you believe in a young Earth.
If you have come to a place where your personal belief is that Creation occurred in six 24-hour periods, and that the Earth is young, then you will either need to stand on faith in what is written in the Bible or be able to present reasons for your belief. If you decide to use creation science, then please use good science. Because you will already be criticized for opposing the naturalistic scientific view, if you use bad science then you will only increase the criticism. Fortunately, poor science is avoidable.
My intent here is not to discourage anyone from a literal interpretation of Genesis. If you are consistent in how you view the Bible and supporting creation science, you are in the company of billions of people who share, and have shared, this belief. But I do want you to be aware of where we are in our culture today, the new information presented by science, and counterarguments you will hear.
The third approach to solving the time issue is to look at the Hebrew word, “yom,” which is the word we translate as “day” in the Creation account. Because ancient Hebrew had so few words, many words could take on multiple meanings. And this is the case for “yom.”
What you will find is that “yom,” in addition to meaning a literal 24-hour day, can also mean a long period of time. Using this interpretation of “yom,” conflicts about time between modern naturalism and the Bible, are gone. Any disagreements with naturalism then tend to become more about the existence of God. Naturalists are not able to easily ignore a Christian who believes in an old Earth, which is now possible with this interpretation of Genesis.
Just like the literal 24-hour view, there are Christian ministries that believe in long time periods for Genesis. An example would be “Reasons to Believe.” Again, I will list their website in the episode notes.
In this Season, I have mentioned a few times that Christians are divided over how they interpret the first two chapters of Genesis. And it is how to view time that is in the forefront of disagreement. There is no shortage of books and arguments written to support how the Hebrew word for day should be interpreted.
It should surprise no one that Christians believing in a young Earth argue that “yom” can only be interpreted to mean a 24-hour period as we know it. And it should be no surprise that Christians believing in an older Earth have their arguments showing that “yom” can mean a very long period.
I am not going to try and settle that debate here. I have read multiple books and word studies by young-Earth Christians, old-Earth Christians, and non-Christian Hebrew scholars. And the answers vary. There is a tendency for people to believe what they want to believe. I am not a Hebrew scholar so I must decide who I think is the most accurate…and most likely, you need to do the same. Historically, Christians throughout the centuries have landed in different places.
As a side note, there are some reasons you might accept sort of a hybrid belief. With this, you may see Genesis as a pattern for our 7-day week, including a Sabbath, but then allow the days to be long when you talk about the science. Again, this is an area among Christians that is vigorously debated. I believe there is room for disagreement. That said, it is important that whatever you believe, you should be consistent in your arguments and make sure that what you believe does not undercut the rest of Scripture.
All right, I do want to say a couple more things about this approach where the days of Genesis are viewed as long periods of time. What I have noticed is that most people taking this approach are very scientifically oriented. I know this is a generalization, I know that, but this has been my experience. Certainly, you will see this if you go to the “Reasons to Believe” website. These are typically men and women who know science well enough that they can converse with naturalistic scientists on equal footing. This is extremely valuable to the Body of Christ.
My caution to anyone taking this view, is that there is a tendency to interpret the Bible through the lens of science. In other words, science is used to prove the Bible. And this is easy to do. In this Season of the podcast, I know that I have probably sounded that way, because it is exciting to see how scientific discoveries align with this incredible ancient spiritual text. But at the end of the day, we need to realize that the Word of God stands on its own. And we need to make sure that we are interpreting the world through the lens of the Bible, not science.
The fourth way of solving the time dilemma may sound like science fiction to you if you are not scientifically inclined. But bear with me, and I will try to make it understandable. The fourth way recognizes that six 24-hour days may be equivalent to billions of years. Yes, I just said that.
The reasoning goes something like this…the Bible looks and counts forward from the beginning of time and the scientific account looks backwards. This difference is incredibly significant.
When presenting the scientific perspective of the Big Bang, we mentioned that space itself is expanding. Here is the key point, when you stretch out space, you stretch out time. When God dictated the Creation account, the perspective he used started at the beginning of time and moved forward from there. But as God was creating everything, based on what we observe today, space was expanding. When we look back in time, we can only see it through the lens of an expanding universe, and this makes everything look older.
Let me give you an example that I hope gives you a feel for how this works. This is a contrived example, but hopefully you will understand the principle involved.
Imagine that I am going to drive across the country in a very special type of car. This car begins moving very slowly but continuously goes faster and faster. In other words, it is accelerating. And here, we are ignoring speed limits, stop signs, or anything like that. In fact, we are talking about the way most of wish we could drive!
As I get ready to leave, my dear wife tells me that she will miss me. But she promises that every morning when she gets up, she is going to mail me a love letter. Now, the way she is going to mail it is by special courier. And this courier has another special type of car that is faster than anything else in existence, but it travels at only one speed.
I get in my car, wave to my wife, and start driving. After I have been driving for one day, my car is still moving slowly, and the courier is so fast, that first thing in the morning I get my love letter. And this makes me happy because I am picturing my lovely bride thinking of me as she wakes up.
On the second day of my trip, I do not get my love letter until much later in the day. And this makes me sad, because I believe my wife did not think about me until later in the day.
On the third day of my trip, I do not get any letter at all. In fact, I do not get a letter until two more days have passed, and now I am depressed because my wife stopped sending me love letters first thing every morning. She is no longer thinking about me. Or at least, that is what I think.
But in my depression, I start doing some calculations. Because my car is going faster and faster, I am covering more distance every day. This means that it takes longer and longer for the courier to catch up to me. When I take the speeds and accelerations into account, I find that my wife has indeed been sending me a love letter every morning when she gets up. But her daily letters get stretched out over an increasing amount of time from my perspective. Because of this, I see her days as much longer. Her daily letters eventually turn into weeks. She has kept her promise, but at first glance it does not look that way to me.
This, of course, is just a story, but it accurately shows how two people can experience a radically different perspective of time, and get this, both are correct.
This fourth way of solving the time dilemma takes an approach using the same principle as our example. But here, time is stretched out not by an accelerating car, but by an accelerating and expanding universe. Depending on your assumptions and how you do the math, six days from one perspective can equal billions of years from another perspective. If you take this approach, both the Bible and science are in full agreement about the passing of time. There are two different values, but both are correct.
If you want to read more about this, you can check out the book “The Science of God” by Gerald Schroeder. You will also find this reference in the episode notes.
And here might be a good time to mention that just because I am including a resource in the show notes, it does not mean that I fully support everything said by that resource. Gerald Schroeder, for example, is a Jewish physicist. He is not a Christian and so he entertains beliefs contrary to many things that I believe. But he also knows Hebrew, science, and has a deep reverence for the Hebrew Scriptures, which include Genesis.
With all the references I mentioned, it is important for you to do your own critical thinking and decide where you are going to land with regards to the time dilemma.
Before we close, I should mention that my cautions about using this approach of time equivalency are like those with treating the days as long periods of time. Here again, we must remember to view the world through the lens of the Bible, not science.
Let us wrap up this episode. I know that was a lot of information to take in, but I think it is important to have at least a small glimpse of how Christians manage the time dilemma. I have purposely left it up to you to do your own study. This is because, as I have already said, Christians through the centuries have come to different conclusions about the time factor, as well as the way God created everything. There is room for a variety of beliefs.
In our next episode we are going to look at how to share our belief in Creation and theorize why the Creation account in Genesis is so short.
As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com.
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As we end this episode:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
Answers in Genesis: https://answersingenesis.org/
Reasons to Believe: https://reasons.org/
The Science of God—The Convergences of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom, 1997 Gerald L. Schroeder
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