WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT CREATIONISM? (READ GENESIS 1:1)
It may be Christianity’s most controversial subject: creationism. Within the body of the Christian church, there are at least ten different views on the subject of creationism. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and because of that, many Christians have trouble deciding what they actually believe about the Bible’s accounts in Genesis 1 and 2.
Some Christians regard science as the enemy of religious faith. I believe that both the Bible and science are complementary disciplines that enhance our knowledge and application of both. There are two types of divine revelation:
- General Revelation (that of which nature speaks)
“What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:19-20).
- Special Revelation (the Bible).
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (II Peter 1:21).
Though they operate in different areas, both are truths that come from God and can be understood properly when we understand their scope and limits.
I’d like to outline the ten theories about the Bible’s creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 and give you resources that will help you determine where you stand on this important issue.
In general, there are ten positions on the understanding of Genesis 1 and 2. They are,
- Young Earth Creationism
- Progressive Creationism
- Theistic Evolution
- Framework Hypothesis
- Functional Ontology
- Hebrew Poetry
- Historical Creationism
- Co-Adamism
- Pre-Adamism
- Mytho-History
Young Earth Creationism
YEC is the belief that God created the universe, earth, and all life within a literal six days of 24-hour periods as recorded in Genesis 1. YEC believes that the universe is 6,000 to 10,000 years old. Young Earth Creationists believe that God created all life according to its own kind and that evolution as a theory of origins is unable to explain the variety and complexity of life. This view is predicated on supernaturalism, that is, the belief that a supernatural intelligence outside of creation is responsible for designing and creating all things.
Young Earth Creationists often encounter difficulties convincing nonbelievers of their views due to the ongoing discoveries of modern science. For example, modern science teaches that the universe is around 13.8 billion years in age, evidenced by the great distances of galaxies from one another and the speed of light being a fixed constant. Thus, light from those galaxies reaching Earth would take millions or billions of years to reach us. There are many scientific theories and discoveries that would seem to contradict the YEC view. However, leading YEC organizations regularly publish articles and magazines refuting the anti-supernatural viewpoint of creation, using current scientific discoveries and reinterpreting some of those discoveries to defend their position.
There are many organizations publishing from a YEC view. Some of these include Answers In Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Truth In Genesis, Creation Ministries International, Creation Moments, and True Origin.
COULD GOD HAVE CREATED THE WORLD INSTANTLY OR OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME?
Progressive Creationism
Progressive Creationism (PC) affirms that God created the universe, the earth, and all life on earth, but it denies the teaching of evolution. In this way, PC is similar to Young Earth Creationism. However, its most significant difference is that Progressive Creationists believe God created the universe over billions of years rather than in six 24-hour periods. This is also known as the Day-Age Theory, that the six days of Genesis 1 refer to ages of time, not literal 24-hour periods. Progressive Creationism gives credence to the Big Bang theory, noting that scripture says God stretched out the universe in Isaiah 42:5.
Progressive Creationists believe that dinosaurs and other life forms lived in the geologic ages before the creation of Adam and Eve. This makes some PC adherents believers in what is called the Gap Theory. Gap Theory stipulates that there was a gap in time of an undefined duration between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. It was during this time that the dinosaurs rose and persisted for millions of years until the world was re-created by God into what we know now. Some believe that another advanced civilization existed during this period, but all evidence of their existence has been lost to the eons. This is a form of pre-adamism, which will be discussed later. Most PC adherents do not hold to the gap theory and it is largely discredited.
According to Young Earth Creationists, Progressive Creationists have a significant problem to work out. That problem is death. YEC holds that there was no death before the fall of Adam and Eve. Therefore, there could have been no animal life dying for millions of years before Adam and Eve arose. However, I think YEC creationists read too much into scripture on this point.
The scripture does not say there was no death before sin. It only says there was no human death because of human sin. Clearly, other forms of life, other than man, could die before the fall. If sinless Adam picked an apple off the tree and ate it, what would happen to the apple? It would die. If an animal fell off a high cliff, would it just pick itself up and go on? I doubt it. If a seed were planted in the ground, the seed would die, and a new life would begin from that death. God created predators. What did fish eat? Consider also that if other forms of life could not die but continued to reproduce (as they were designed to do), the earth would eventually be overrun, and nothing could survive. Thus, death would result anyway.
Finally, the scripture only describes man as designed to live forever. Nothing else in creation is described in this way. It is, therefore, an assumption placed upon scripture that there was no death elsewhere in creation. I’ve written about this in my article, The Case For Death Prior To The Fall, which can be found at guywithabible.com.
Organizations holding the PC view include: Reasons To Believe, Old Earth Ministries, and Intelligent Design, advocated by the Discovery Institute, may be classified as one form of the Progressive Creationist view.
SOME CHRISTIANS BELIEVE THAT GOD USED EVOLUTION TO CREATE LIFE. WHAT DO YOU THINK, IS IT POSSIBLE?
Theistic Evolution
Theistic Evolution (TE) is defined simply as the belief that evolution was the process God used to create life on Earth. Most TE adherents also believe in the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe, though these two theories are not necessarily tied together.
There are problems with Theistic Evolution. First, the evidence for evolution is not as prevalent as some TE adherents believe. The archeological record does not contain varieties of forms demonstrating a gradual evolution from one form of life to another subsequent form of life. If evolutionists are correct and various forms of life have lived on the earth for millions of years, the obvious question becomes, “Where are they?” Theistic Evolutionists have yet to provide a persuasive answer to this dilemma.
Second, Discovery Institute has pointed out quite convincingly that meaningful information cannot be produced unaided by non-intelligence. The complexity of meaningful information in DNA, across thousands of species, could not have written itself. The point of evolution is that such meaningful biological information came from non-intelligence through time and chance. This does not seem to be a persuasive argument, as there are no other examples in history of intelligent and meaningful information coming from non-intelligent sources.
One Christian website providing information on Theistic Evolution is: BioLogos.
Framework Hypothesis
In the Framework Hypothesis, the six-day structure of creation is seen as a literary device—a framework designed to organize the account topically and theologically, not chronologically. It presents God as a wise and orderly Creator who brings form and fullness to creation. The days of creation are arranged into two parallel sets of three days, each with a specific function:
Days 1–3: Realms/Forming
- Day 1: Light and darkness (time/day-night)
- Day 2: Sky and waters (space/weather)
- Day 3: Land and vegetation (habitat)
Days 4–6: Rulers/Filling
- Day 4: Sun, moon, stars (to govern Day 1 realms)
- Day 5: Birds and fish (to fill Day 2 realms)
- Day 6: Land animals and humans (to inhabit Day 3 realm)
This structure emphasizes order and symmetry, rather than a step-by-step chronological progression. The Framework Hypothesis maintains that Genesis 1 is not intended to teach scientific facts about the age of the earth or the process of creation. Instead, it reveals who God is and why the world exists—with an emphasis on God’s power, purpose, and sovereignty.
THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN FOR US, BUT NOT TO US. ITS ANCIENT AUDIENCE THOUGHT DIFFERENTLY THAN WE DO. DOES THAT COLOR OUR INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE?
Functional Ontology
This is a view of creationism advocated by John Walton, professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, in his book, The Lost World Of Genesis One. Essentially, Walton argues that Genesis 1 should be interpreted from an Ancient Near East (ANE) perspective, and that the creation events in Genesis 1 are functional in nature rather than material. Material Ontology advocates that the creation of the universe came from nothing and that God created all things. YEC and PC are forms of Material Ontology. Functional Ontology argues that the six days of creation in Genesis are not primarily about creating the material world.
Walton’s argument is that the six creation days are functional in nature, that God was assigning a purpose to each of the created things, because in ANE culture, things did not achieve full reality without being assigned a function. He argues that God was creating a sacred space in Eden, that is, a cosmic temple, which is also mimicked by other ANE cultures.
Walton’s case is an interesting one because he strives hard to interpret Genesis 1 through ANE perspectives, which, admittedly, Genesis 1 was written under.
A site providing insight into Walton’s views: Biologos.com. Other sites commenting on Functional Ontology include: First Things. A summary of Walton’s views can also be found at Bibleinterp.com.
Hebrew Poetry
According to this view, Genesis 1 is a form of Hebrew poetry designed to show its readers that the God of the Bible was greater than the so-called gods of Babylon, Canaan, and Egypt. Thus, Genesis 1 is not a scientific statement, but a theological statement. In this view, Genesis 1 is not to be taken literally, but figuratively. This is an intriguing concept in that Moses’ writings clearly demonstrate the fallacy of worshipping gods that do not really exist. Idolatry is a major theme in the Pentateuch. At the writing of Genesis, the Israelites were still entrapped in the worship of idols, and sometimes syncretized their belief in Yahweh with Egyptian idolatry. Moses is therefore showing the Israelites, through his account of Genesis 1, that the true God is higher than the false gods of Egypt.
While I find this an interesting perspective, there are roadblocks to the Hebrew Poetry View. First, Genesis 1 may have poetic elements, but it does not seem, from my perspective, to present itself as a form of poetry that is non-literal in its meaning. Moses wrote the Genesis accounts as a pattern for everything else that is to follow in Israelite history. If Genesis 1-11 is poetic in the sense of myth, then Israel has no basis for its religion, founded upon an actual history of events, which could throw the Judea/Christian worldview into the realm of fantasy.
Second, other scripture refers to Adam and Eve as historical, not mythological (I Chronicles, Jesus, Paul, etc); therefore, why would the creation account, which is directly tied to Adam and Eve, be a poetic myth when Adam springs from the literal context of that very story?
I could find no organization online advocating this perspective. However, I do provide two links from the author who originated this argument: The Meaning Of Creation, by Conrad Hyers, and The Fall And Rise Of Creationism by the same author. Here’s a Preach It Teach It link with a good synopsis of the view. If you have links to others who advocate this view, please contact me and I will post those links in this paragraph.
Historical Creationism
Historical Creationism is a term coined by John Sailhamer in his book, Genesis Unbound. Sailhamer argues that the Genesis 1 account is a historical event in real history, but that what is described is not a 6-day account of the creation of the universe, but instead a description of God preparing the land and location for Eden, which is also the Promised Land of Israel, later revealed in Genesis. In his view, the creation of Genesis 1:1 took place in the ancient past, possibly over billions of years, and the rest of the account is the preparing of the promised land for habitation over a literal six-day period.
Sailhamer spends significant time providing corroborating evidence from elsewhere in scripture to advocate that Genesis 1:1 is not a chapter or book heading, but is a straightforward, overarching statement of the creation of the universe and that the following account is of God systematically preparing the land for Adam’s habitation.
Sailhamer makes a significant and persuasive argument that the literary context of Genesis contains striking parallels in the creation account with accounts of Abraham, Jacob, and Israel. He believes that geographically, Eden and Israel are in the same location. Eden had forbidden fruit and the tree of life, and God told Israel not to destroy the fruit trees when entering the land. Both Adam and Israel were exiled east.
God walks in the garden and also dwells in Israel in the Tabernacle/Temple. A flaming sword prevents entry to Eden, and a pillar of fire lights the way for the sons of Israel. The pattern of events found in Genesis is the framework for the rest of the Old Testament’s accounts of how God deals with Israel.
There are no organizations dedicated to advocating Sailhamer’s view. But there are a few websites that comment on it, as well as his book advocating for the position: Genesis Unbound, Desiring God’s advocacy of Genesis Unbound, and Probe Ministries’ review of Genesis Unbound.
WHERE DID CAIN GET HIS WIFE? MIGHT GOD HAVE CREATED OTHER PEOPLE AT THE TIME HE CREATED ADAM AND EVE?
Co-Adamism
This is the view that God created other peoples on the earth other than Adam at the time of creation. However, Adam was the first elect man, living under a covenant with God. In this sense it is not required that Adam be the first biological human, but that he be the first covenantal human.
While co-adamism doesn’t express any views about the age of the earth, it does present solutions to the controversies of where Cain found his wife, and what peoples could have occupied the city he built in Genesis 4.
Co-adamism is not widely held by most of the church today.
Pre-Adamism
Pre-Adamism is a theological and sometimes scientific theory suggesting that human or human-like beings existed before the biblical Adam. It is distinct from co-adamism in that it places pre-adamic beings entirely before Adam, rather than alongside him. Though not widely held in mainstream creationism today, pre-adamism has been part of theological discussions for centuries and has taken different forms, both orthodox and controversial. The gap theory might be considered as one form of pre-adamism.
Mytho-History
The most recent development in creation theories is that held by William Lane Craig in his book, “The Quest for the Historical Adam.” Craig argues that Genesis 1–11 is mytho-history—a literary genre that combines mythological elements with historical core truths. He does not read the creation account as literal in the modern scientific sense but as theological narrative.
Craig defends the historicity of Adam and Eve. Drawing from both theological concerns and scientific anthropology, he identifies Homo Heidelbergensis (who lived about 750,000 to 200,000 years ago) as a plausible candidate for the first true humans—Adam and Eve—endowed with rational souls and moral responsibility by God. He concedes that evolution may be a valid view for guided creation, but is critical of unguided evolution.
Conclusion
What is interesting to note is that all of the views presented here, with the exception of Young Earth Creationism, leave room for an ancient cosmos and earth. While most American Christians subscribe to Young Earth Creationism, when you combine adherents to the other nine views, along with views outside of evangelical Christianity, and the church around the world, the great majority of people adhere to some form of Old Earth perspective. This actually makes Young Earth Creationism the minority view.
Application
Look for the view that best fits your understanding of scripture, but keep an open mind. It’s a sign of spiritual maturity when we are open to changing our views based on what the evidence would seem to tell us.
You may have some confusion on this issue. That’s okay. There has been no universal agreement on creationism since the inception of the church. Your salvation isn’t based on what you believe about creation. Living with some indecision is okay.
Not everyone agrees about creationism, therefore be gracious to others who hold opposing views. Some creationist leaders aren’t known for their graciousness. You don’t have to be one of them.
This article is not meant to be an exhaustive review of creation theories. But it does provide a general look at the overarching issues that pervade the ten views. Use the resources listed here to continue your own study.
Someone you know may need to read this. Please share.
