SAM ELLYSON
Old Earth Genesis Interpretations
How and Why Do Biblical Scholars Seek To Squeeze
Billions of Years Into the Creation Account?
The Authority of God’s Word Under Attack
Genesis 3:1 (ESV) — 1 Now the serpent
was more crafty than any other beast of the
field that the Lord God had made. He said to
the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You
shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The Consequences:
The fall of mankind / Death / Adam is rejected as king
Why do seemingly well meaning people subtly
attack the authority of God’s Word?
1 Samuel 15:3 (ESV) — 3 Now go and strike Amalek and
devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare
them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox
and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
1 Samuel 15:9 (ESV) — 9 But Saul and the people
spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen
and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was
good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was
despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
1 Samuel 15:14
13!
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you
to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”
14!
And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my
ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?”…“I have obeyed the
voice of the Lord…”
23!
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as
iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the
Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
24!
Saul said to
Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment
of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and
obeyed their voice.
The Consequences: Saul rejected as king
“First, the age of the earth, considered in isolation, is neither here
nor there. The issue is always what God said, and not how old
something is. …So the issue is not age, or day, or young, or old,
but rather the substance of what God actually said. Whatever He
actually revealed should be what we use as the foundation
for all our subsequent thought. After we have our foundation,
we may incorporate truth from other sources — natural revelation
included — but we must take care that we never privilege what
we think we know over what God actually told us.”
By Doug Wilson—2014 Seven Theses on the Age of the Earth
Mark 7:8–13 (ESV) — 8 You leave the commandment of God
and hold to the tradition of men.” 9 And he said to them, “You
have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to
establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father
and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must
surely die.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother,
“Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”!’ (that is,
given to God)— 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything
for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by
your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things
you do.”
The Consequences: Parents suffer / Hell
Different Interpretations of Genesis
Literal 6 Day Creationism
The Gap Theory
Theistic Evolution
The Day-Age Theory
Progressive Creation
Framework Hypothesis
All these accommodate
for billions of years
Approximate Age of the Earth (Biblical Genealogical Perspective)
Before Adam - 5 Days
Adam to Abraham - 2000 years
Abraham to Jesus - 2000 years
Jesus to Present - 2000 years
Total - 6000 years
Timeline of Different Genesis Interpretations
Calvin & Luther 6 Literal Days
1600 ad 18001785 1850
1924
6 Literal Days
Traditional View
4OO ad Augustine - Allegorical View
Martin Luther
“When Moses writes that God created heaven and
earth and whatever is in them in six days, then let this
period continue to have been six days, and do not
venture to devise any comment according to which six
days were one. But if you can’t understand how this
could have been done in six days, then grant the Holy
Spirit the honor of being more learned than you are.”
John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion
“For it is not without significance that He divided the
making of the universe into six days, even though it
would have been no more difficult for Him to have
completed in one moment the whole work together in
all its details than to arrive at its completion by a
progression of this sort.”
Timeline of Different Genesis Interpretations
Calvin & Luther 6 Literal Days
1600 ad 1800
1785: James Hutton, Geologist,
Uniformitarianism,
1785
1830-1833: Charles Lyell,
Geologist, "Principles of Geology"
Gradualism
1823: George Stanley Faber Day Age Theory
1850
1924: Dr. Arie Noordzij
Framework Hypothesis
1814: Thomas Chalmers Gap Theory
1859: Charles Darwin,
Origin of Species - Evolution
1924
1877: John W. Dawson,!
Theistic Evolution
The Origin of the World
6 Literal Days
Traditional View
1994: Hugh Ross,!
Progressive Creationism
4OO ad Augustine - Allegorical View
13.8 Billion years ago God began to create
Creation
Process Begins
Adam & Eve
Creation
“It is good”
Adam & Eve
Death before sin
Death after sin
Approximately 6000 years to the present
Old Earth
Young Ear th
Old Earth Views & The Flood
No Flood (allegorical)
Local Flood
Tranquil Flood
The Bible Describes a Global Flood
Genesis 7:17–24 (ESV)
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up
the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased
greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the
waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the
whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains,
covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth,
birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all
mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life
died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man
and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out
from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24
And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
What if Noah had interpreted God’s Word allegorically?
Genesis 6:17–18 (ESV) — 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of
waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath
of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18
But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come
into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with
you.
Genesis 6:22
Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Local Flood
Problems with a local flood view
1. Why build a boat? Noah could just move.
2. How can water be above all the mountains
3. What is the promise of the rainbow? No more local
floods?
4. What about the comprehensive language in Gen. 7
5. Why do we have sea fossils in South Dakota?
The Problem with a Tranquil Flood view
Different Interpretations of Genesis
Literal 6 Day Creationism
The Gap Theory
Theistic Evolution
The Day-Age Theory
Progressive Creation
Framework Hypothesis
All these accommodate
for billions of years
Framework Hypothesis -1924: Dr. Arie Noordzij—1954 Meredith Kline
Meridith Kline-Speaks to the purpose of his article…
Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony
“To rebut the literalist interpretation of the Genesis creation
week propounded by the young-earth theorists is a central
concern of this article.!.!.!. The conclusion is that as far as the
time frame is concerned, with respect to both the duration and
sequence of events, the scientist is left free of biblical
constraints in hypothesizing about cosmic origins."
Meredith G. Kline, “Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 48 (March 1996): 2. Italics added for emphasis
Has Science Proved the Earth is Old?
BY HENRY M. MORRIS, PH.D. * !|CR
SUNDAY, MARCH 01, 2009
"But science has proved the earth is old," they still insist, "and we dare not alienate the
academic community by insisting on a literal Genesis." No, "science" has not proved the
earth is old! The oldest written records we have, apart from the Bible, are in Egypt and
Sumeria, and these only go back a few thousand years. The great fossil "record," instead
of displaying vast ages of evolution, really shows the remains of a worldwide hydraulic
cataclysm. Nowhere in the fossil record are there any genuine evolutionary transitional
forms between kinds, and certainly no one has ever observed true evolution taking place
in all recorded history. Furthermore, many geologists now recognize that all formations
were laid down very rapidly. Uniformitarian speculation applied to a few radiometric
decay systems may suggest great ages, but other more reasonable assumptions applied to
scores of other global processes indicate much younger ages.”
In any case, the only way we can know anything about the date of creation (and remember that the word "science" means knowledge!) is for God--who was there--to tell us when He did it. And, of course, He has told us, in His inspired Word. The question is, do we really believe what He says?
