Creationism vs. Evolutionism: Go!

This debate is as old as the hills. On one hand, you have those Christians who say "The Bible says its a day, dagnabbit, it's a day!" On the other hand, there are those Christians who suggest that a day in the Hebrew represents only a period of time, not necessarily a 24 hour period. And that to God, one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is but one day. Then there are those, on the third hand, who are not Christian and will point to the scientific problems of the Creationist view as evidence of their rejection of God and the whole shabang.

So what is the real beef? Who is right and who is wrong?

I'd suggest they all are. "What? Do you have a fourth and totally new option?"

Yes, and no. Yes, because it is a different way of looking at this issue. And no, because it isn't new. Allow me to explain.

First, the concept of evolution has only been around for almost the last couple hundred years of human history. Before that, it was commonly accepted among the Church Fathers and others that the day in Genesis meant a literal day. But they did so without attempting to prove that point or that the text in the Scriptures in any way actually hinged on that point.

The Church for the first several hundred years of its existence, for about 95% of its existence, simply accepted that what Genesis 1 meant when it said a "day," that what it meant was a day.  But they couldn't prove that anymore than I can now.

So the default viewpoint was that since it wasn't a key part of the Scripture or the creation story, they failed to focus on it. The real answer is they, and I, accept that it is a real day, upon which we may find out once in heaven that it wasn't for all we know, or that it was; but that the point of the Genesis story wasn't to tell us how God created the world, but simply that He did, and why He did, and His relationship to it and us.

In other words, it isn't important. I know people want it to be, for various reasons. The most common reason is where it concerns the "infallibility" of Scripture. The argument goes something like this: every word of the Scripture is "God breathed" and therefore if one part is shown to be in error (if a day is not a day), then the whole message of the Bible falls apart. It is for this reason that atheist and agnostics like to point out the inconsistencies of the Bible. Meanwhile, you'll have Christians doing backflips to reconcile those inconsistencies.

The problem is in their defintion of "God breathed," which comes from 2 Timothy 3:16, which says in full context:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. (2 Tim:3:16-17)

The "and" after that first phrase in the Greek denotes something more along the lines of "therefore." It is a cumulative "and." So what follows is showing the purpose of what exactly it is God-breathed to do. That is, it is God-breathed so that it can be effective in doctrine, instruction in righteousness. And ultimately, to make one fit for God's purposes, to accomplish His good works through us.

Now, we know that the Bible is primarily about our relationship with God, how it was lost, and how we can get it back. It isn't intended to be a science text-book. Especially in an age when people's languages tended to think in concrete and not abstract terms. That's why a day in the Hebrew literally means a period of time. There is no way to know exactly how long that period of time was, nor is it critical to the Genesis story to know. It could be 24 hours, or 5 minutes, or 1000 years. Unless you were there, you can't know.

And even if it did mean 1000 years, that is a reasonable period of time that the Hebrew word for "day" could mean. So, it would literally be what the Bible says. And that, my friends, is why you don't see any of the Church Fathers pulling their hair out over this issue. They accept it as written, and if they are wrong, they will be happy to accept that is the case. Until then, it says a day, so that's all we can say about it. That's because any change in this reality will not shake my faith in God, will not affect my salvation, will not change what I believe about this. And no, it will not shatter my faith in God's Word, because all it means is I didn't interpret the Scriptures accurately on that one minor point.

Since the point of Genesis wasn't to tell me how God created the world, or even in what order He did it in, I'll leave that information in God's capable hands and move on. If it was all that important for my salvation, I would have expected Him to make it clear like a science textbook would have.

So next time you find yourself in one of those debates, I would suggest leaving them to hash out the finer details of their minor doctrine. I'll focus on myself, my sins, because those will affect my salvation. Much more than whether the abstract debate on whether one day in Genesis is a literal 24 hour period or not will ever have.