In the beginning...
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ית בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ So begins Holy Scripture in the Hebrew Text, in English "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis begins with two creation stories that seem to be complimentary. This week our church is hosting its Summer Art Camp and creation will be the main theme of it. In connection with that I will be preaching on the first of the creation stories next Sunday. As I do from time to time, I thought I would address some things related to creation that won't fit neatly into one sermon.
One of the questions that many ask in considering the Genesis 1 creation account is when? How old is the earth? Bishop James Ussher in the Church of Ireland back in the mid 1600s is famous for dating creation to 4004 BC. He did this by simply adding up the ages of all the ancient patriarchs mentioned in the genealogies of Genesis, and by assuming the days of creation in Genesis 1 were twenty-four hour solar days. Some Christians today (most prominently Ken Ham with Answers in Genesis) still hold to an earth that is only a few thousand years old. In reality both of the assumptions Ussher used are faulty. Genealogies in the Bible commonly skip generations and are seldom the complete family tree that we might like. Also, it is very clear in a straightforward reading of Genesis 1 that the "days" were not intended to be sequential 24 hour solar days. In fact we find light and dark, and the term "days" before we have the creation of the celestial bodies. In short, the Bible, accurately interpreted, is conspicuously silent on the age of the earth. Modern astronomy and geology estimate that the earth is very old, perhaps as much as 4.5 billion years old. When simple observation seems to imply an earth and universe that is incalculably old, and it takes great mental gymnastics to make scripture and observation point to a very young earth, I think it is a greater disservice to God and the Bible to try to believe that people lived with dinosaurs than it is to believe in a creation that is billions of years old.
In my opinion the most artful and appealing reading of Genesis is something referred to as the "framework hypothesis." According to this interpretation, the six days of creation aren't consecutive at all, but are two sets of three. Days one and four relate to each other. Day one creates light and dark, while day four elaborates on that by describing the creation of the sun, moon and celestial bodies. Day two had separation of the waters and while day five describes creation of sea creatures. Day three describes formation of dry ground and plant life while day six deals with all the animal life and finally creation of mankind.
What is most clear from this creation story is not a mechanism of how, or a statement of when, but a resounding emphasis on the who of creation and the orderliness thereof. Read the first chapter of Genesis with emphasis on each time it says, "and God made" or "and God saw" or "and God said." Like a reverberating timpani, the word God resounds, seldom even using the pronouns "he" or "him." The cosmos, the earth, plant and animal life, human life at the apex of creation are not haphazard accidents, but come from the creative energy and will of the Almighty. Genesis 1 portrays God as presiding over a primordial chaos ("in the beginning the earth was formless and void and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep...") and bringing order to it. The witness of scripture as a whole is that God created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), and church doctrine teaches creation ex nihilo, even though this isn't explicitly stated in Genesis 1.
I would also like to point this out about the created order of Genesis 1. The world with its oceans, mountains, plant and animal life was good. Humanity was very good and created in God's image. Sometimes Christians are dangerously close to the ancient heresy Gnosticism than they are to orthodox doctrine when they create a physical/spiritual dualism that equates to evil and good. The created order is not evil, our physical bodies are not evil, nor are they a prison for our souls. In fact Paul himself said that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit of God in 1st Corinthians 6. All this was pronounced by God himself as good. If God says it's good, then who are we to say it isn't? The physical order is not inherently evil, was created good, and is to be valued by Christians. In fact, this is one of the Biblical bases for a healthy environmentalism. The original order, created good by God, but ruined by the fall in Genesis 3 will be restored and perfected at the End, as shown in Revelation 21. What we believe about creation, connects to what we believe about Christ's resurrection, to what we believe about his ascension, to what we believe about our own resurrection, to what we believe about the ultimate end of the cosmos.
One of the questions that many ask in considering the Genesis 1 creation account is when? How old is the earth? Bishop James Ussher in the Church of Ireland back in the mid 1600s is famous for dating creation to 4004 BC. He did this by simply adding up the ages of all the ancient patriarchs mentioned in the genealogies of Genesis, and by assuming the days of creation in Genesis 1 were twenty-four hour solar days. Some Christians today (most prominently Ken Ham with Answers in Genesis) still hold to an earth that is only a few thousand years old. In reality both of the assumptions Ussher used are faulty. Genealogies in the Bible commonly skip generations and are seldom the complete family tree that we might like. Also, it is very clear in a straightforward reading of Genesis 1 that the "days" were not intended to be sequential 24 hour solar days. In fact we find light and dark, and the term "days" before we have the creation of the celestial bodies. In short, the Bible, accurately interpreted, is conspicuously silent on the age of the earth. Modern astronomy and geology estimate that the earth is very old, perhaps as much as 4.5 billion years old. When simple observation seems to imply an earth and universe that is incalculably old, and it takes great mental gymnastics to make scripture and observation point to a very young earth, I think it is a greater disservice to God and the Bible to try to believe that people lived with dinosaurs than it is to believe in a creation that is billions of years old.
In my opinion the most artful and appealing reading of Genesis is something referred to as the "framework hypothesis." According to this interpretation, the six days of creation aren't consecutive at all, but are two sets of three. Days one and four relate to each other. Day one creates light and dark, while day four elaborates on that by describing the creation of the sun, moon and celestial bodies. Day two had separation of the waters and while day five describes creation of sea creatures. Day three describes formation of dry ground and plant life while day six deals with all the animal life and finally creation of mankind.
What is most clear from this creation story is not a mechanism of how, or a statement of when, but a resounding emphasis on the who of creation and the orderliness thereof. Read the first chapter of Genesis with emphasis on each time it says, "and God made" or "and God saw" or "and God said." Like a reverberating timpani, the word God resounds, seldom even using the pronouns "he" or "him." The cosmos, the earth, plant and animal life, human life at the apex of creation are not haphazard accidents, but come from the creative energy and will of the Almighty. Genesis 1 portrays God as presiding over a primordial chaos ("in the beginning the earth was formless and void and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep...") and bringing order to it. The witness of scripture as a whole is that God created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), and church doctrine teaches creation ex nihilo, even though this isn't explicitly stated in Genesis 1.
I would also like to point this out about the created order of Genesis 1. The world with its oceans, mountains, plant and animal life was good. Humanity was very good and created in God's image. Sometimes Christians are dangerously close to the ancient heresy Gnosticism than they are to orthodox doctrine when they create a physical/spiritual dualism that equates to evil and good. The created order is not evil, our physical bodies are not evil, nor are they a prison for our souls. In fact Paul himself said that our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit of God in 1st Corinthians 6. All this was pronounced by God himself as good. If God says it's good, then who are we to say it isn't? The physical order is not inherently evil, was created good, and is to be valued by Christians. In fact, this is one of the Biblical bases for a healthy environmentalism. The original order, created good by God, but ruined by the fall in Genesis 3 will be restored and perfected at the End, as shown in Revelation 21. What we believe about creation, connects to what we believe about Christ's resurrection, to what we believe about his ascension, to what we believe about our own resurrection, to what we believe about the ultimate end of the cosmos.
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