People often ask me if I believe that the creation narrative in Genesis chapters 1-3
is to be thought of as literal. Did it really happen the way it is written in six 24 hour periods? My answer is that I do, indeed, believe it to be a literal telling of the creation and fall of mankind. I believe in a real single set of first parents, Adam and Eve. I believe in the talking snake and the fall of man from an incredible, intelligent, Godlike being to the savage, brute that lived in corruption and killed one another without regard. I believe that Adam’s offspring degenerated into the cave man, not the other way around.
Then people ask me if I think it is necessary to hold these views in order to be in right relationship with God. My answer is decidedly, “No I do not.” I think we believers are going to sit around the campfire in Heaven and compare notes on why we got that “B minus” on our term papers. “Well, I got that right, but I missed that one by a mile ?”.
I am not smart enough to know everything nor arrogant enough (although I once was) to think I do. God will not judge us on what we know, but on how we love one another. James tells us that the demons have a lot of knowledge and it terrifies them, but it will not save them. Satan has more first-hand knowledge on this subject than we could ever have in this life, but it does nothing useful for him.
James 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. NASB
So you ask me, “Is doctrine important?” and I quickly will tell you that I believe it is. We act and live within the framework of what we believe. For instance, Paul says that if we do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead, it would be foolish to be a Christian.
1 Cor 15:13-19 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. NASB
For this reason, I have tried to study diligently, “rightly dividing the word of truth” in order to understand as best as I can what God is teaching me in His word; i.e., the Bible.
2 Tim 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. KJV
Heb 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow , and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. NASB
They say that “inquiring minds want to know.” I know that God reveals Himself to those who seek Him and that God hides His truth in plain sight so that noble people will search it out.
Prov 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. NASB
Jesus teaches us that heavenly truth is a like a treasure and those who search for it and pay the price to find it are enriched in the end.
Matt 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field. NASB
Eph 6:13-17 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. NASB
Paul tells the Ephesians that the scripture is the sword of the Holy Spirit. In this passage, he is instructing them to gear up for the battle of living a Christian life by putting on a suit of spiritual armor so we can “resist in the evil day” and to “stand firm” in our faith. He tells us we need to gird our loins (control our passions) with truth and to protect our spiritual torso wherein lies our vital organs with righteousness. The word “righteousness” means “right relationship” and defines how we are to relate to God and to people. We should protect our feet with the Gospel of peace; i.e., endeavor to walk in peace with all men, whenever possible.
Our faith is the shield by which we ward off the attempts of the Devil to kill us and salvation protects us like a helmet from the lethal and irretrievable head wound. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God; i.e., the scriptures, and is the only offensive weapon mentioned. With it we can cut through the maze of confusion and the thickets of mistruths that grow up around us. If we do not wield the sword of the Spirit, God’s word, we will eventually be overcome by ever growing tentacles of the world, the flesh and the Devil to capture us, incapacitate us and crush the breath of God right out of us until we are spiritually dead.
But can I, you say, a common layman, understand the Bible when I study it? The answer is, “Yes, you can,” if you will seek its wisdom prayerfully and diligently. James teaches that “any man” can learn the wisdom of God if he asks with a sincere heart and some faith.
James 1:5-8 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, 8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. NASB
James 4:2-4 You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. NASB
We have not because we ask not, James says. We ask and do not receive when our motives are wrong. We are wrongly motivated when we seek knowledge for pride sake or to use as a weapon against others. We are rightly motivated when we seek knowledge to better understand our Father and to better know how to please and serve Him.
Biblical knowledge and right theology can be learned and verified by using some simple principles to guide our study. First, we should study prayerfully asking the Holy Spirit to teach us truth. We do not apprehend spiritual truth in our brains. We get the knowledge of God by revelation. We use our brains to search for God, but revelation is a gift that allows us to see and understand spiritual things in our hearts (such as life after death).
Before about 1900, almost all scientists and learned men gave God credit for their discoveries. George Washington Carver said that God showed him over 200 uses for the peanut. Marconi said, when the invented the telegraph, “What God hath wrought (made).”
Edison tried dozens of materials to find an element that would burn but not be immediately consumed in the light bulb. One day he figured it out, but it was not because he grew brain cells the night before. It was revelation; i.e., the “aha phenomenon,” eureka, even if he did not credit God for it. Some of the most brilliant men on earth fail to “get” God, but the simplest person can and often does have real understanding.
Heb 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. NASB
We must approach God always with faith in his goodness and His willingness to reveal Himself to us. God wants us to seek Him and to find Him.
Next, we need to study with others who know the way. People get into trouble when they do not submit their understanding for testing. I do not mean that you cannot study alone at home. We can and should do that. I mean that you should test your revelation with others.
What does the rest of the Bible say on this subject? Am I reading this in context? How does it square with other biblical truth? What has the church historically taught on this subject? What do the scholarly commentaries say on the subject? What would my Bible teacher or my pastor say about my new understanding? God put us together in a body for safety and assisted living. Test what you are learning to make sure it is right and reasonable.
1 John 4:1-2 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. NASB
1 Thess 5:21 But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; NASB
1 Thess 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. NIV
If we fail to study because it seems difficult or because we are afraid we might make mistakes, we are like the unprofitable servant that Jesus condemned for laziness and fearfulness. We can know God’s truth if we seek Him correctly and for the right reasons. We are called to it as believers.
Let’s get back to the creation story. I have been asked why I believe it to be literal. “You are a rational person and reasonably intelligent,” they say. “How do you deal with the intellectual challenges of applied science, anthropology, cosmology and astronomy? It is a fair question and I have answers that work for me. Maybe they will help you as well.
First of all, no matter what we think we know about the universe, we know that we do not know it all. In every theory offered to us there are huge holes and unanswered questions.
Scientists and evolutionists offer us incomplete explanations and ask us to take it on faith
that the unanswered questions will eventually be solved in favor of their theory. However, history tells us that scientists and philosophers are forever discovering that their previous theories were incomplete or just plain wrong. No harm, no foul. Readjust and go forward.
Secondly, if there were absolute knowledge available concerning the creation of the universe, I could not know it all anyway. I am too busy living to master the minutiae it would entail. Ultimately, I would understand the basics and trust the “big brain” people who focus on those things to know the rest. Do you know the tax code in depth or do you trust your accountant (who also does not know it in depth, but he is ahead of you ?)?
Do you understand all of medicine or do you trust the doctor to advise you (same qualifier). How about gardening, investing, etc.? Ultimately, having done a reasonable amount of study, I have to rely on the greater understanding of others. The trick is to pick the right doctor, the right tax accountant, etc.
In my search for the right biblical experts, I have read, listened to and studied with many brilliant scholars. Some have liberal interpretations and some have conservative interpretations, but they all have PhDs. Based on my study, I find that I agree with the liberals on some things and the conservatives on others. But I have decided to go along with the teachings of Jesus on everything.
The men and women of the Old and New Testaments also had a viewpoint on the creation story. All of them were closer to the event and many of them died to defend their beliefs, so I have to think they were sincere and well-intended. All of them had proven revelation from God about some things, so I have to give them some credit of their beliefs in other areas.
My study shows me that there were a great number these folks who believed in a literal creation as told in Genesis. They did not relate to it as allegory. They did not treat it as metaphor. They dealt with it as fact. These include: Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Deborah, Ruth, David, Isaiah, Ezra, Nehemiah and countless others.
More to the point are the New Testament writers who speak and write as if the story of creation as told in Genesis was literal. These include Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter,
Jude, Paul the Apostle and Jesus. Given a choice between aligning my belief system
with modern scholars from Harvard and Yale or siding with John, Paul and Jesus, I am siding with the latter group. In the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, I believe in the literal interpretation of Genesis.
But you say there seems to be clear scientific evidence that contradicts the literal story. Let’s talk about that. For me to hold a theory with intellectual integrity, it is not necessary that I absolutely know it is true (it is, after all, a theory), it is only necessary to know that it can be true. So let’s address the issue of the 100,000s of years implied in scientific data. I do not deny that the data is there, but I do not think it necessarily always means what they say it means. Let me explain.
If you and a team of medical experts
gave Adam a physical the day after you positively knew that he was created by God, your best instruments and scientific tools would tell you that Adam as a 20+ year old adult mail, who had all of his adult teeth and showed clear evidence of normal maturation in all systems. He has measurably been through childhood and puberty, evidencing all of the expected signs of that maturity. Yet you know for a fact that God made Adam out of clay yesterday.
This is the principle of “implied time.” Something measures out that it has been around awhile. So it is with the creation. If God did create it in one day, it would be embedded with implied time. The light from the star that is 100,000 light years away would have been created “already on the way.” In fact, it would be impossible to create anything “ex nihilo” (out of nothing) without it naturally having implied time and implied history.
So bring on your carbon dating. It does not shake my belief. I will grant you
that it may indeed accurately measure age in carbon-based entities, but I will tell you that it is measuring an “implied” age.
Then we look at the fish teeming in the water. If God created them, would he have created only one of two or would he have created thousands, even millions of them at one time? He would have created a fish, his daddy, his granddaddy and all other relatives in one moment. In other words, God would have created developed ecosystems if He created anything at all. This is known as creation in volume.
We also see that God would have created in motion. The scriptures tell us that he spread out the stars at creation. The word means “flung out.” God would have created planets in rotation and starlight in motion on its way to the eyes of man on earth.
It is not necessary for me to have absolute proof of this. It is only important for me to understand that it is possible, even reasonable. It may not work for you, but it works for me. And remember, you cannot guarantee the accuracy of other theories either.
Everyone agrees that there is evolution within a species, it does not follow that there is, therefore, evolution between species. Animal husbandry and human biology proves evolution within species, but there are great gaps and huge holes and stacks of conflicting data for evolution between species. For example, if it is normal and natural
for evolution to occur between species, then why does it not still occur? Where is the evidence of species today that are in transition to another species? Why did it stop?
Evolutionists often claim that we are made up of pieces and parts that are simple building blocks, but science is identifying neural motors, for instance, that are complex but irreducible. They seem to have been created as complex engines. I do not mind people holding opposing theories about the origin of the universe or the species, but I reserve the right to hold biblical theories that are different from theirs.
My third major reason for holding to the literal nature of Genesis and Revelation (including the Millennial Reign of Christ upon the earth after the Second Coming)
is strategic. History demonstrates that when people surrender Genesis and Revelation, they eventually give up the Gospels as well. It is like a cabbage. If you allow the outer edges to rot, you will eventually have rot in the center.
Theorists who have historically denied the historicity of Genesis and Revelation, almost without fail, eventually deny the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, even the historicity of Jesus and Paul. All you have to do is to review the growing literature coming out the Jesus Seminar and the search for Historical Jesus to see where these “scholars” have landed.
Finally, I hold to the literal 6-day creation, the talking snake, and other features of an historic Genesis because I believe God has revealed it to me. and to millions before me down through the ages. Like every other human being that has come to know God, “I was blind but now I see.”
My entire relationship with God and my belief in a literal Heaven are based in faith and founded on that revelation. One is no harder to believe than the other and no easier to prove than the other. For me, these principles flow together, come from the same pool of knowledge and provide a rational whole from which to operate as I seek God going forward. For I am still seeking, still searching, still learning and capable of changing my mind if the evidence warrants it.
We must all be honest brokers of the truth. I cannot hold to a doctrine just because my parents did or because I always have thought of it that way. I used to think that I was saved by works, but I have come to see that I was mistaken about that. I used to think
that we were saved by the accuracy of what we know, but now I realize that all salvation is based on relationship and that all relationship is based in trust. I used to think that Jesus was an only child, but now I see that He had physical brothers and sisters.
I do not believe the same as I did decades ago and I expect to learn some new things going forward. I have not arrived. In everything, it is about progress, not perfection. Would I be okay if I found out that the Genesis creation story was a metaphor and not literal at all? The answer is, “Yes, I would be okay.” I would have to go back to the drawing board and rearrange a few pieces, but I have had to do that every time I get a new insight in God.
1 Cor 13:9-13 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. NASB
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. NASB