How do we understand Genesis 1?
So far in this series we have seen two reasons for the apparent conflict between science and faith. First, science and the Bible have different agendas (‘how?’ versus ‘why?’). Second, the issues are not as clear-cut as people on both sides like to think. As a result, the debate tends to be viewed in very polarised terms. Either God created everything in six twenty-four hour days, or the universe and life came into existence by chance and have steadily evolved.
Polarisation is a mistake
There are at least three reasons why this polarisation is a mistake.
First, the issue is not as simple as this. There is a vast range of answers from both Christians and scientists. We shall look at some of the Christian answers shortly.
Second, many Christians believe that there is only one allowable answer. If we’re told that there are only two options and one of them is opposed to God, the other one must be right. Those holding to a different opinion end up branded as heretics!
We are bogged down in controversy instead of focusing on the central issues. We fight battles that don’t need fighting and miss superb opportunities for meaningful dialogue with those who aren’t Christians. Sadly, we fight these battles thinking we are doing evangelism when in fact we are merely making a hoop for people to jump through. A former colleague heard one well-known exponent of the Six Day Creationist position saying that if you do not believe this particular view of Genesis 1, you cannot be a Christian! That is adding to the gospel and is untrue!
How to understand the Bible
When we study any passage of the Bible we need to take into account the type of literature we are dealing with, its structure, words etc. We also need to take into account the historical context (including the culture) in which it was first written. A basic principle of biblical interpretion is that we must correctly understand God’s word in its original context before we can correctly understand it for today. Until we can answer, ‘What was God’s original intention in this passage?’ we cannot safely answer, ‘How is this relevant to me in my world?’ The answer to the first question for Genesis 1 is not as straightforward as we might imagine.
Five possibilities
We’ll come back to these issues in the next article. For now it’s enough to say that the complexity of some of the issues concerning Genesis 1, has led to Bible-believing Christians holding a range of convictions about what this crucial passage is saying. There are at least five approaches to understanding this chapter among Christians who believe the Bible to be God’s authoritative word.
- Six Day Theory: The Genesis 1 account is exactly what happened – God created the world in six literal days and rested on the seventh. If you do some sums based on various biblical genealogies, you arrive at an age for the earth of a few thousand years. In the 1600s, Archbishop Ussher gave a date for creation of 4004 BC but most people would now suggest an age of 10,000 years or so.
- Gap Theory: Some people accept the scientific view that the earth itself is extremely old but believe that the rest of creation took place in six days. They note that there could easily be a gap of indeterminate time between verses 2 and 3 (though some put gaps in various other places).
- Days = Ages Theory: Psalm 90:4 indicates that God’s view of the passage of time is not like ours. Hence, some argue that, if each day represents an age of time, there is no difficulty in accepting much of the scientific evidence concerning the age of the earth, fossils etc. The order in Genesis 1 is, in fact, very similar to that in the fossil record. Most people adopting this position would think in terms of six acts or phases of creation rather than evolution.
- Days of Revelation Approach: There were no human eye-witnesses to the Creation so, presumably, God later revealed it to someone (the traditional view is that it was Moses). Those who adopt this position suggest that God revealed his Creation over six days, and on the seventh established the Sabbath principle.
- Literary structure approach: Those who hold this position don’t think that Genesis 1 is addressing the question of timescales at all. It’s agenda is solely theological and the days are used as a literary device to establish the Sabbath principle among other reasons.
With evangelical Christians holding to each of these positions, we should, at the very least, show humility to each other and not insist that everyone sees it in a certain way – even if our own mind’s are made up.
We have often missed the point of these wonderful early chapters of Genesis. Since science and the Bible have different agendas, we are mistaken to make Genesis answer scientific (‘How?’) questions. Its purpose was not scientific but theological. It does answer ‘Why?’ questions – theological questions of metaphysics (that beyond the physical world) and significance.
Imagine receiving a letter written in a foreign language which you don’t recognise. You could get scientists to analyse the paper, ink, handwriting etc. but you need someone who can read the language to tell you what it means. The scientific approach to the letter misses the point – it never discovers what the author is communicating.
It’s similar with the early chapters of Genesis: science has its ideas about how the universe and life – including us – came into existence. But that fails to answer some of the most fundamental questions of life: Who are we? Why are we here? Where are we going? These are the kind of questions the Bible is interested in and, as we shall see in a future article, Genesis introduces the answers.
These posts may be related:
- Handling Genesis What is the purpose of Genesis 1? I said in the previous article that we are mistaken to go to Genesis 1 with a scientific agenda - to ask scientific...
- Big Questions What really matters in the science-Christianity debate? Planet Earth may have had its 6000th birthday in the last few years. In 1650, Archbishop James Ussher calculated its age by adding...
- The Message What does Genesis 1 say to us today? The writer of Genesis would have been very aware of various creation stories believed by the surrounding pagan nations in the Ancient...
- Ten Things You Need to Know About the Creation-Evolution Debate – further reading Further reading on the Creation-Evolution [...]...
- Ten Things You Need to Know About the Creation-Evolution Debate 1 Writing anything on creation and evolution within these pages feels akin to sticking a sign on my back reading, ‘Kick me!' I'm exposing myself to attack from one side or...
