Supporting Old-Earth Creationism

Christians around the world believe in all types of different things. The beliefs I’m arguing in this essay will certainly be radically different than the majority of Christians. Therefore, to introduce myself, I believe that the bible cannot always be interpreted literally. In Matthew, Jesus calls us to gauge out or eyes and to cut off our hand if either were to cause us to sin. Obviously he doesn’t want us to literally do that. Otherwise, if he did, we’re all disobeying him. Thus, we have to dig deeper to find what God is saying, or to find different ways of interpreting what we are reading.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth”. Every Christian can quote this biblical fact. I believe this is indeed a fact; how else can you explain the beautiful, intricate, and glorious, wonders of this earth and into outer space? In my believing of this, I can’t help but wonder, what was it like? What is the truth? How old is the earth? How does this work, how does that happen? None of these answers are for sure, and will never be known until God chooses to reveal them to us in this life, or the next. Nonetheless, contemplating the possibilities is an exciting thing to do.

I humbly admit that both sides of “old Earth, young Earth” argument are plausible. I am merely presenting my beliefs, and supporting my side of the argument. The most common belief among Christians is “Young Earth Creationism”. This believes that the earth was created approximately seven thousand years ago, and that everything was created in six day time period. This essay, however, supports the Old-Earth Creationism belief system. This system is more compatible with modern science, and has several different paths of beliefs. I strongly lean towards the interpretation defined as “Day-Age Creationism”. After much reading and study, I have formed and refined my opinions.

Modern science is compelling. Fossils and rocks being discovered that are claimed to be millions of years old. How can we explain them? Rocks and land formations have certainly taken a long time to form what we see today. Genesis 1:2 states: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” From this we can conclude that before everything was created something else had already begun to take place. God was at work beforehand.

God cast Satan down from Heaven, “But you are brought down to Sheol to the far reaches of the pit”, as states in Isaiah 14:15. He had fallen from grace “in the beginning”, and since the serpent tempted Adam and eve, this must have occurred before the fall of man. Psalms 104:30 says “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground”. So God was renewing the face of the earth, as he hovered over the waters. As you can see, God was working and shaping the universe before the “Days of creation”. Even more so, we do not know how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden before the fall of man. With this being true, it allows for the theories of rocks and land formations being millions of years old to be legitimate.

How do we explain the fossils of animals and plants that are claimed to be millions of years old? First off, we must note that the sun, moon, and stars were created on the fourth “day”. This means that we cannot assume the days that are mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis are referring to typical twenty-four hour time periods. In fact, In Hebrew the word used is “yom”. Yom can also be referred to as a period of time, with a beginning and an end, with no distinction of how long in between. Thus these six “days” could have been six ages, or eras, with thousands or millions of “years” within each. So when God created the land and vegetation in “age three” there could have been a significant amount of time before he created the sea and air creatures in “age five” and the land creatures in “age six”.

Furthermore, there could have been an extended amount of time between the creation of beasts and man. What could have protected man from the massive dinosaurs? Could man have lived safely while dinosaurs roamed the earth? It is certainly a possibility that beasts lived and died before man even came into being. Sin brought death to humanity. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that beasts could not eat meat, there is no specific prohibition from it. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, which was specifically placed, and called a paradise. It was set apart from the rest of the world. There is no reason for us to assume that death amongst animals is out of question beyond the garden. God’s creation was perfect and good. He designed everything specifically: spiders and snakes with venom to subdue their prey, lions and dinosaurs with massive teeth to eat their prey. Why would the spiders weave webs to capture plants? Why would dinosaurs need carnivorous teeth to devour trees? With this added to the theory of day-age earths, ecosystems could have flourished and developed in a beautiful and natural way before God even placed Man on the earth.

As I’ve said, exploring the possibilities is exciting. Certainly there are many different ways that things can be viewed. God can do anything he wants. God could create another story in a whole other universe that we will never see or know of. There could be a world that’s lives we’ll never imagine or be able to comprehend. God creates life and ends life. He can do anything to bring glory to him. These are my beliefs. It is important to note that in the end none of it really matters. Our views of creation don’t affect our eternities with God, and don’t change the fact that Jesus died on the cross for us. Whether the earth is seven thousand years old, or four billion, God created it, and that is a fact we can rest assured in.

Time Machines

Oh If I had a time machine, I’d try to go and fix everything.
Wouldn’t it be neat if life worked that way?
My sin brings me down, and it keeps on pressing into the ground.
The things I love and the things I do bring me to a halt.
And more than half the time, it’s my entire fault.
I want to warn my past self, the pain sin can bring
I want to see if my future self can continue to sing
Sing, to you:

[Chorus]
God, it’d be crazy to forgive me
Nothing I’ve tried has worked,
It’s all left me with a guilty conscience
It’s so hard when a rock can start an avalanche.
And I can’t do anymore pretending, this is killing me
Can I please go into your presence?
Can you come and satisfy me?

I’ve told myself I get what I deserve
Yet, I still weep at the slightest consequence.
The sin I sweep under the rug has become too much
To what extent is your forgiveness?
From east to west doesn’t seem quite far enough.
My weakness it embarrassing.
How can you be so forgiving?

God, it’d be crazy to forgive me
Nothing I’ve tried has worked,
It’s all left me with a guilty conscience
It’s so hard when a rock can start an avalanche.
And I can’t do anymore pretending, this is killing me
Can I please go into your presence?
Can you come and satisfy me?

"Come now, let us reason together,
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more."

You make beautiful things

Well...I'm back! It was an amazing week in Louisville Kentucky at the LIFE conference of 2010. I absolutely loved it, and to write a blog talking about every little thing I loved would...well...take a very long time. So I'll do my best to touch on the subject!

First off, it was a BLAST. The activity hall was filled with dozens and dozens of things to do. I especially loved the soccer cages, the punching and jousting moonwalks, and just about everything in there was awesome...I didn't even get around to doing it all! The pre-sessions were tons of fun. We did a choreographed dance that we did at the baseball game, which was tons of fun. There was tons of good music played while everyone danced, waiting for the session to start.

I also saw some amazing bands. Hawk Nelson was definitely the most fun to watch. I had the privileged of being right up against the stage. Reached up, and Jason (the lead singer) fist bumped with me, he got up right in our faces, and we crowd surfed him. People would throw things on stage, and Jason would wear it...except for the pants someone threw, which was rather humorous. I've never seen someone so engaging with the crowd, it was so much fun!

I also saw Kutless. This was actually the band I was looking most forward to seeing...however it turned out disappointing. We went to a baseball game (we were originally going to six flags...but six flags closed down, sadly) and Kutless played in the OUTFIELD. We weren't even allowed to be on the field with them. So it was hard when we could hardly see them...and it was also 100 degrees outside. Along with all of this, the heat put the instruments out of tune, and was hard to hear the guitar and vocals.

Trace Bundy was amazing, and I got to be super close to him, even had a picture with him. There were other small bands and acts that were cool to see on stage. I got the signatures of all the bands...I think that covers the entertainment aspect!

The main part of LIFE: God! Each morning and night there were sessions. Speakers such as Francis Chan and Derwin Gray spoke. I was moved by their powerful messages that God spoke through them. They were not only inspiring, but hilarious! There were seminars in the afternoons that you could choose to go to. There were several choices, each with different topics for people to meet their spiritual desires. It was very hard to get into seminars because there were 6500 kids trying to get to them.

There were several things that stuck out to me...in a message by Francis Chan, he at one point brought out his daughter, a cute ten year old, and held her. He stood there and looked around, and then asked, "Is this what your prayer life looks like?". Are you clinging on to God? Are you holding around his neck? If you let go, who knows what happens. Never let go of God, is what I got from that. I need to hold on to him, hug him around the neck. He asked us a question in a latter message, "Do you really want to give up everything God offers for FRUIT?" FRUIT! That's all the world is. It rots, and dies. You eat it, and it's gone. We often ridicule Adam and Eve for doing this...but we do it just as easily every day!

Derwin Gray spoke so powerfully in his messages. In one of the seminars he talked about doubt. He said something I didn't expect, and that "doubt" can be our friend. It can make our faith stronger. I struggle with doubt often...but I have to realize, God speaks the loudest when he is silent. Faith in God cannot be based on emotions. It must be based on a choice. Our feelings don't determine the presence of God.

The worship was amazing. While songs often were repeated a lot, which disappointed me, there is nothing like worshiping God amongst 6500 other teenagers. God was truly present, as we all humbly and honestly worshiped God. One of the more powerful songs sang "You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust, you make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us". That line stuck me so hard, almost as hard as the bass of the drums did standing next to the stage, as I stood there hands held high. God is beautiful, and makes beautiful things. I need to live my life to the fullest extent for his glory. When that many people are earnestly singing to God, there's only one thing that could make it more amazing, and that is with glowsticks.



Another thing that was unforgettable was the "Project Experience". We walked through this "tour" which allowed us to see the darkness of the world. Facts that we don't want to know. 1 child dies of starvation every 5 seconds. In thailand 10-12 year old girls service men 10-30 times a day. Right next to this, 12 billion dollars is spent on pornography in the United States, and 30 billion dollars was spent on ice cream last year...when the cost to cure world hunger is 135 billion dollars. This walk through the sufferings of other people's lives was a wake up call to how lucky I am. Even living in Mongolia when I witness people's hard lives, I hadn't seen everything.

That was such an amazing experience...and was beautiful. The whole week was beautiful. I spent it with awesome friends, awesome youth leaders, and an awesome God. I never want to forget it, and I pray the memories will stay in my head forever.