Since we are the “Worldview Warriors,” our number one aim is to instill in people a “worldview” that is consistent with the teachings of Christianity. One of the most foundational issues concerning worldview is the topic of origins. Most people are familiar with the “Creation vs. Evolution” debate. What may be confusing to some people is what is meant by “Creation.” That is what I will be discussing in this post.
The simplest way to explain the term “Creation” is that it implies that there was a “Creator.” This is where the topic of Creation becomes unexpectedly complicated. Those that believe in a Creator can typically be broken down into two camps: 1) Creationists and 2) those who believe in “Intelligent Design.” Despite how the media portrays the two camps, Creationism and Intelligent Design are two different concepts.
To make a long story short, Intelligent Design does not promote a specific God and does not acknowledge one specific creation account. It actually does not intend to prove that a god is the Creator, but that someone or something designed life and maybe the universe.
Creationism is most easily defined as the belief that the God of the Bible created the universe and everything in it according to the method he used in the book of Genesis. It can be broken down into two groups: Old Earth Creationists (OEC’s) and Young Earth Creationists (YEC’s).
OEC’s are broken down into two main groups: Those that believe in “Gap Theory” and those that believe in “Day Age Theory.” Gap Theory typically teaches that there is a “Gap” of millions and possibly billions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. Day Age Theorists believe that each day in Genesis is actually representative of an age in history or a long span of time (the days of creation are therefore meant to be poetic). These two perspectives have reinterpreted Biblical information based on the beliefs of popular science. YEC’s do not allow such leeway.
YEC’s believe that Genesis should be understood literally, as it is written and in its context. Because of that, they base their scientific interpretations off of the Bible. For instance, they believe that the “Geologic Column” was a result of Noah’s Flood and that fossils are animals that were caught in it and covered by mudslides. The term “young earth” is derived from the belief of YEC’s that the world is only 6,000 years old. This belief is a result of a literal reading of the genealogies provided throughout the Bible.
My posts will be from the perspective of a Young Earth Creationist because I believe in the YEC model of creation and, more importantly, the authority of Holy Scripture above all other authorities, including popular scientific interpretations. There are many strange ideas about YEC that I think need to be debunked and unpacked. Some of the most popular misconceptions about YEC’s are that they believe that the world is flat, that dinosaurs never existed, and that the entire universe revolves around the earth. I assure you that very few YEC’s believe in such teachings and that the origins of those teachings are not Biblical. I hope you all join me in my next post as I will seek to explain why it is more theologically beneficial to believe in a young earth.
9 comments:
Great post, Bill! Very informative and easy to understand. Welcome aboard the blogging team! :)
You missed out two important forms of OEC:
1) Progressive Creationism, which suggests that God created new forms of life in a gradual way.
2) Intelligent Design Creationism (a form of Progressive Creationism) that makes many of the same old creationist arguments, but renames God 'the Intelligent Designer', and attempts to dress these arguments up to sound more 'sciencey'.
Thanks for such a great post! This topic is very close to my heart, and I believe it to be of utmost importance. Many people (I would daresay most people) do not know the difference between these views or are unaware that some of them even exist.
As a young earth creationist, I was also unaware that there were so many misconceptions of YEC... No one really believes that the Earth is flat.
Few (if any) YECs believe that the Earth is flat, but a fair number believe in Geocentricity -- that the Sun revolves around the Earth, and cite the Bible as the basis for this belief (as Martin Luther did).
Hrafn - Please site whom you are referring to re: Geocentricity. Not Martin Luther, but people that you are claiming that live today. Thank you.
Very good article. Precise and informative in explaining the different positions on creation.
I Apologize, I've been having difficulty responding to the comments that have been posted. Technical difficulties. Hopefully I will be able to keep up with them better in the future.
Now that I know how to respond to you all, I'm gonna make this brief: Thanks for your posts! I will be posting more on the topic of geocentricity in the future. It's not an immediate concern right now, but we will get there. Blessings!
Thank you for your post. I am an OEC. I would like to find out what you as a YEC believe about people who are OEC. Do you think that an OEC is truly a Christian? How important is this area of theology? I have heard some YEC proponents say that if one believes the Earth is old, the can not be a Christian. I think the age of the Earth is a secondary doctrine and being either Old or Young Earth does not affect one's salvation.
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