This post was
originally going to be a response to Tim Challies’ blog post “Why I am a six day
creationist” but soon outgrew the size of a comment, so I decided to make it a
post in its own right. If you haven’t read Tim’s post then you really should (here)
because it is great to see someone taking a view on a big topic and being willing
to defend it.
It prompted me to
think about my own view, and whilst I have a viewpoint on creation, it is not
one I would go to the stake for or argue with people of differing views over, so
my considered opinion for this post is “I am just a creationist”. There are
three main reasons why this is the position I take:
1.
I don’t
know enough about Hebrew (or even Greek) to make a decision on the issue of how
you translate “day” in Genesis chapter one. Some people argue that the obvious
reading is day, as in 24 hours, whereas others fiercely argue for six “periods
of time” of unknown length. I personally do not know which is right, or even
the more likely, and so am not willing to build my beliefs on my guess on this
issue.
2.
I don’t
know enough about science to claim to prove or disprove anything. Again there
are people on both sides who say that scientific evidence can prove one way or
the other in the young or old earth debate. Can fossil fuels only exist because
of a sudden worldwide flood (see Genesis 6) or did they form over the 65
million years since the dinosaurs walked the earth? I don’t know and so am not
willing to pin my opinion to either side.
3.
I wasn’t
there. This seems to me to be the only way to conclusively know exactly how
creation happened, and especially how long it took.
The bottom line is I
don’t think it matters. The Bible says God created the heavens and the earth and
that’s good enough for me, because my salvation doesn’t depend on when that was
or the length of the process. (A quick caveat here: this is not the (only) line
I would take in an evangelistic discussion with someone who felt the answer was
important to their accepting the gospel.)
Essentially, I’m happy
for people to form their own opinions on this and I don’t want to accuse anyone
who asserts that God is creator of being wrong. If God wants to create everything in
144 hours then He can. If He wants to do it in 6 billion years He can. And if He
wants me to know which one, if that’s an important issue, then He’d tell me.
Because He hasn’t then I will just say “I’m a creationist”.
