Why is the topic of creation important? Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and it begins with the story of creation. There is a sense in which if one can show that the first verse of the Bible is trustworthy, then perhaps the rest of it is worthy of further consideration. Further, Jesus comes to fix Eden, which further reinforces the foundational nature of this matter.

Creation Texts

There are several passages in the Bible on creation, the best-known ones being Genesis 1:1–2:3; 2:4–3:24.[1] These creation texts display unity in their most common central assertion: Yahweh, the one true God, created all that exists. However, there is diversity in 1) the means God used to create, 2) the order of events in creation, and 3) the length of time that transpired in creation, and Christians have different opinions about the specifics. There are some core facts for those who hold the Bible in high esteem, including that 1) God created all things good, 2) God created Adam and Eve as the first human beings, and they sinned.

The Different Views

Christians hold different positions about the details of creation. The three main ones are: young-earth creation,[2] progressive or old earth creation,[3] and evolutionary creation or theistic evolution.[4]

Explaining the Models

Young earth creationism is basically the view that the best interpretation of the Bible is that God created in six consecutive literal 24-hour days and that the genealogies in the Bible have minimal gaps, such that when one adds up the genealogies, creation occurred around 6000 years ago as measured by clocks on earth.[5] The young-earth creationist also usually affirms a global flood at the time of Noah,[6] and there was no vertebrate animal death before the fall of the historical Adam.[7]

The old earth position basically says that the Bible need not be interpreted as in six consecutive literal 24-hour days about 6000 years ago. Instead, the days of the creation texts could be metaphorical, or there could be gaps before or after literal days, or the days could be ages, such that big bang cosmology, while not necessarily correct, is nonetheless compatible with the Bible (this view usually holds that big bang cosmology is roughly correct, but not biological macroevolution).[8]

The evolutionary creation position says that, in some manner, God used evolution (understood in the sense of macroevolution).[9] Be that by directing each step of the way or having planned how it would all work out by itself from the start.[10] In brief, this view basically affirms the general scientific views on cosmology and biology, and thinks that they are compatible with the Bible.

Evaluation

Creation is an important matter, but what is central to Christianity is Jesus – his death and resurrection. Yes, the two issues are connected, and if a person wants to be a Christian, they have to believe that God is the creator. However, given that Christians take different views on the details of creation, one need not hold to a particular position before coming to Christ. Instead, as part of Christian discipleship, as one grows in knowledge as a believer, one can seek to further understand how God created.

The Creation of Abstract Objects

A commonly overlooked part of the question of creation is not only how God created concrete objects (like particles, planets, and people—as overlined above) but also God’s relationship to abstract objects, that is, non-spatiotemporal, non-causal entities such as propositions or numbers or values like love. Since the doctrine of creation is the view that everything that exists and is distinct from God is created by God, what about abstract objects? A book such as Beyond the Control of God? Edited by Gould discusses some of the different views, including 1) platonic theism that at least some abstract objects exist and are independent of God; 2) theistic activism locates the abstract objects within the mind of God as created, and thus dependent, entities; 3) divine conceptualism, which “identifies abstract objects with various constituent entities of the divine mind which are uncreated yet dependent upon God;”[11] and 4) nominalism, which takes an anti-realist view to abstract objects, meaning there are only concrete objects, no abstract objects. So it is worth considering the place of abstract objects in creation.

Conclusion

As finite beings, we should attempt to rightly understand both general and special revelation and should humbly accept all Christians. The young-earth, old-earth, and evolutionary creation are distinct positions, and creation need not be a barrier for one being a Christian (unless the skeptic can show that all of these positions are wrong; however, that is beyond the scope of this short article), but I think there are good reasons for thinking one of these positions is true. So we can rejoice that God is our loving creator and sustainer, and he will make all things new.

By David Graieg 30 July 2022

[1] These belong to different genres including creation poems (cf. Job 26:7–13; 38:4–11; Prov 3:19–20; 8:22–31; Ps 8:1–10; 33:6–9; 74:12–17; 89:5–12; 104:2–32); narrative (cf. Gen 5:1–2; 6:7; 14:19, 22; Exod 20:11; 31:17; Deut 4:32; 2 Kgs 19:15; 2 Chron 2:12; Neh 9:6); poetry (e.g., Ps 19:4; 24:2; 65:6; 95:5; 96:5; 102:25; 115:15; 119:90; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 136:5; 146:6; 148:5); wisdom literature (cf. Job 4:17; 9:8; 32:22; 35:10; 36:3; Prov 14:31; 17:5; 22:2; Eccl 12:1); prophecy (cf. Isa 37:16; 40:12, 22, 26, 28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7, 12, 18; 48:13; 51:13; Jer 5:22; 10:12; 27:5; 32:17; 51:15; Amos 4:13; 9:6; Jon 1:9; Zech 12:1); and also in the New Testament (cf. John 1:3, 10; 17:5; Acts 4:24; 14:15; 17:24; Rom 4:17; 11:36; 1 Cor 8:6; Eph 3:9; Col 1:16–17; Heb 1:2–3; 11:3; Rev 4:11; 10:6).

[2] Two of the main websites defending the young earth position are: Creation Ministries International, http://creation.com/ and Answers In Genesis, https://answersingenesis.org/

[3] Probably the leading website supporting the old earth view is Reasons to Believe, https://reasons.org/

[4] Probably the best website advocating evolutionary creation is BioLogos, http://biologos.org

[5] It is generally not known, but the young earth position holds that the earth and stars were created say 6,000 years ago, but some preliminary studies are suggesting that it is possible that depending on where you put a clock to measure the time, different answers will effectively be given. A clock placed on earth on the first day of creation would indicate that the earth is 6,000 years old from that clock’s perspective. However, if the universe were like a gravitational well with our galaxy being at the bottom of it, then a clock placed near the top of the gravitational well would indicate that from its perspective, the earth and the stars were 13 billion years old. See Hartnett, Starlight, Time and the New Physics.

[6] Cf. Batten, ed., “Was the Flood Global?,” 149–158.

[7] Cf. Smith, “Cosmic and Universal Death from Adam’s Fall,” 75–85.

[8] The nuance of the term progressive creation is that it argues that life did not all evolve from one act of God, but rather at various times, God progressively created different things such that one might say there was an age of the dinosaurs, then it progresses to the creation of homo sapiens, etc.

[9] The term evolution can be used in several ways, including: 1) biological change and diversity; 2) life forms came from earlier ones (descent with modification); 3) genetic variation and natural selection (microevolution); 4) common ancestry – a tree of life (macroevolution); and 5) naturalistic/atheistic evolution: that the universe and all life came without God. Even young-earth creationists endorse the first three senses.

[10] In comparison, the naturalist/atheist evolutionary position argues it was all non-teleological; that is to say, it was by chance.

[11] Gould, Beyond the Control of God?, 5.

Bibliography

Answers In Genesis. https://answersingenesis.org/

BioLogos. http://biologos.org

Creation Ministries International. http://creation.com/

Smith, Henry B. Jr., “Cosmic and Universal Death from Adam’s Fall: An Exegesis of Romans 8:19–23a.” Journal of Creation 21, no. 1 (2007): 75–85. https://creation.com/cosmic-and-universal-death-from-adamarsquos-fall

Batten, Don ed. “Was the Flood Global?” Pages 149–158 in Creation Answers Book. 8^th ed. Eight Mile Plains, QLD: Creation Book Publishers, 2019. https://dl0.creation.com/articles/p157/c15796/chapter10.pdf

Gould, Paul, ed. Beyond the Control of God?: Six Views on the Problem of God and Abstract Objects. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.

Hartnett, John. Starlight, Time and the New Physics: How We Can See Starlight in Our Young Universe, 2^nd ed. Atlanta, GA: Creation Book Publishers, 2010.

Reasons to Believe. https://reasons.org/

A Christian Perspective on Creation