AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF GENESIS (PART 6)

Theological Bites

Our perception of the creation account depends on how we appreciate Scripture. To some, scripture is self-explanatory and needs not to be interpreted while to others, there must be an effort of interpreting the literature before us. The reformation (not all) looks at Genesis chapters 1-11 as literal while other Christians like myself look at the Bible as a literature piece of the historical revelation of God to the world.

Lester wrote:

“Genesis 1:3 does not begin to describe the creation of the universe in a logical, scientific sequence. The cosmos in Genesis lacks anything that relates to the big bang, expansion, novas, neutron stars, or even a solar system with planets circling the sun. There is nothing here that demonstrates that the author of Genesis has any knowledge or consciousness of the rest of the universe. Rather, in brilliant and wonderful Hebrew prose, the text plays on the theme of “darkness” in Genesis 1:1: “Let there be light,’ and there was light.” The expression in Hebrew is simple, yet graphic.” (Lester L. Grabbe: FAITH AND FOSSILS: The Bible, Creation, and Evolution: Pg. 15)

To my school of thought, the creation account(s) is not about How God created the universe but about the fact that he created it. We ask questions like Was there a Garden of Eden, did the man Adam and his wife Eve exist and therefore all races came from them? Were the six creation days literal? Are the floods in Genesis 6-8 universal? Etc. How each response to these questions demonstrates their approach to scripture?

The Observation of Genesis 1-3

According to (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/evangelical-interpretations-genesis-1-2/) there are different kinds of interpretation of the creation account in Genesis 1 and here are some as paraphrased:

• Literal Six Days (Young Earth Creation=YEC): Creation occurred about 6000yrs ago, during six day-hour Days in the order described.
• Gap Theory: Earth was created Long ago (Genesis 1:1), became formless and empty (Genesis 1:2), and was restored about 6000yrs ago during six 24-hour Days.
• Day-Age Theory: Creation occurred over Billions of years each ‘day’ of Genesis 1 corresponds to along epoch. Events occurred in the order given in the text but stretched out over a long period. The day-age theory appeals to the fact that the Hebrew word for day (yôm) can sometimes designate a period other than a 24-hour day (Genesis 1:5; 2:4; Deuteronomy 32:35). Accordingly, the “days” of Genesis 1 may be long periods (akin to geologic ages).
• Progressive Creation: According to Wikipedia, this is the religious belief that God created new forms of life gradually throughout hundreds of millions of years. As a form of old Earth creationism, it accepts mainstream geological and cosmological estimates for the age of the Earth, some tenets of biology such as macroevolution as well as archaeology to make its case. In this view, creation occurred in rapid bursts in which all “kinds” of plants and animals appear in stages lasting millions of years. The bursts are followed by periods of stasis or equilibrium to accommodate new arrivals.
• Revelatory Days: the six days in Genesis 1 were six days of Moses’s life, during which God successively revealed the various acts of creation. The days were 24-hour days of revelation to Moses, not 24-hour days during which God made the world.
• Literal Days with Gaps (The Intermittent-Day Theory): each of the six days were 24-hour days, but that there were possibly large time gaps between them. The works of God and the scientific accounts for the past fit into these gaps. 
• Mature Age Creation: Adam and Eve were created mature, rather than with a process of gradual growth behind them. Likewise, might it be that the entire universe was created coherently mature? So, just as Adam might have had an apparent age (when scientifically examined) of 25 years, the entire universe might be created mature with an apparent age of 14 billion years.
• The Analogical-Day Theory (Religion-Only Theory): The analogical-day theory says that the days of Genesis 1 are God’s workdays. They are cycles of work and rest, analogous to the cycles of human work and rest in the daily cycle of human life. That analogy is the basis for the Sabbath observance outlined in Exodus 20:8–11. Within the six days of Genesis 1, the focus on labour and rest is the point. Accordingly, we do not know how long the days were if we import some modern measuring apparatus, such as a watch. This equates this theory to that of Religion-Only Theory that argues that Genesis 1–2 are not about particular ways in which God created and formed the world but are only a religious statement about who established the world and why. The Bible is about who and why, while science is about how.
• Framework Hypothesis: According to Herman Hanko Genesis 1 is a literary framework, through which the work of creation is described, is merely a device to give some rather general ideas about the origin of this world without in any way giving us information on the length of time in which God’s work of creation was done, in what order God created the creatures belonging to creation, and how God created them. The days are not literal days but are a device used which points us to two groups of three, two triads set over against each other. There is a relationship between the two triads and a correlation can be found between day one and day four, day two and day five, day three and day six. What Genesis 1 is trying to teach us is not how God created the world, not in how much time he created the world, but only that the creation is divided into three separate spheres each with its rulers. There is the sphere of space, which is ruled by the sun, moon, stars, and planets. There is the sphere of the sea, which is ruled by fish and birds. There is the sphere of dry land which is ruled by animals and man. That is about as much as the creation narrative tells us.

We must not look to Genesis 1 to learn how God created things or in how much time He created things; we look at the creation account to confirm one truth, and that is: God is the origin of all creation. Most of the above theories developed from reading the Biblical creation account are concerned with HOW and WHEN yet the message of the book is WHO and which ‘WHO’ serves as WHERE as well. God is the Origin of everything and he is where everything is and has its being. Next, in these introductions, we will look at the Question of God.

God bless you,

I invoke TRUTH, WISDOM and FAITH (2Tim 2:7)

Priest M.I.T White (+256-775 822833)

iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24)

Questioning to Believe and Believing to Live