Three Views of Creation

Timothy Eimer | April 2009

Growing up in an independent church in the 1970’s, I was taught there are two views about how the universe came about- the godless evolutionary view and the correct Christian view.  The correct Christian view was scientific creationism; my church taught no other Christian view.   When looking for a job as a science teacher in 1986, no Christian school would have hired me unless I subscribed to scientific creationism, but nagging doubts about the entire issue caused to me to research the topic further.  In most academic circles today, conservative Christians recognize three major views of creation.

Let us first dwell on the major doctrines that unite us before drawing distinctions about the minor issues dividing us.  The book of Genesis begins by telling us that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  This simple statement brings all Christians together to agree on one truth; God is the Creator.  Nehemiah 9:5-6 says, “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.  You alone are the Lord.  You made the heavens, even the highest heavens and all the starry host, the earth and all that is in it, the seas and all that is in them.”   John 1:3 proclaims Jesus as creator of all things, and Psalm 139:13 talks about the intimate relationship God has with us as our one and only Creator.  Christians are creationists.  We believe God created the universe and everything in it. 

Modern science, though not all scientists, rejects Creationism; it does not believe God created the universe.  Modern science extols naturalism.  Naturalism proclaims random chance as the force that brought the earth and universe into existence.  No one created the universe; there is no plan for it, and stars, planets, bacteria, and humans are just accidents.  Christians are united by our resolute rejection of naturalism.

When I teach my views of creation unit to my middle school students, I stress that only one or two pages of an average Bible talks about how God created the universe, but nearly 1,000 pages of the Bible tells us about God and how we can have a relationship with Him.  Many Christians get into heated arguments about how God created the universe and lose sight of the many doctrines that unite us.  How God made the universe is just not that important or else God would have devoted much more of the Bible to the topic.  As we explore this issue, we would do well to heed Paul’s admonition in Philippians 2:2, “make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”

With the goal of unity in mind, here is a summary of the major views of creation.  The most prevalent, American view is called scientific creationism.  This view became popular in the 1970’s after two men, Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb, published a Book called The Genesis Flood.  Today, many Christian schools and churches still hold to this view.

Scientific creationism maintains a completely literal interpretation of the creation accounts written in the first two chapters of Genesis.  This view believes the earth and universe to be only 6,000 years old.  In the year 1650, a bishop named James Ussher used Genesis genealogies to calculate the exact date of creation, October 23rd, 4004 BC.  Many scientific creationists hold to this date as the “birth of creation.”  Scientific creationism proposes a global Genesis flood that created most of earth’s landscape.  According to this view, Adam and Eve were real people, and their sin brought death to all creation as well as humans.

A major problem with scientific creationism is its interpretation of the Bible, especially the book of Genesis, as a science textbook even though Genesis was written 1,000 years before science began.  This view appears highly scientific, but major flaws riddle their explanations of science data.  The view also has difficulties with adequately reconciling the stark differences between the two creation accounts in Genesis one and two.

In the 1840s, progressive creationism took root among believers.  Progressive creationism does not hold to a strictly literal interpretation of the first two chapters of Genesis.  This view maintains that harmony exists between God’s specific revelation, the Bible, and His general revelation, creation.  The Bible was never meant to be read as a modern science textbook.  In this view, each day of creation is equated to a long period of time, and represents a specific portion of God's creative work which may overlap the other days of creation.   It holds to a universe billions of years old created by the Big Bang, but the view denies the process of evolution as the origin of species.  God created species over long periods of time, and these species evolved minor changes through microevolution.  This view maintains that God created a literal Adam and Eve, but the Genesis flood was a local flood and did not cover the entire Earth.  It also believes animals died before humans sinned.

Progressive creationism matches the evidence of modern science far better than scientific creationism, but a major criticism of the view is that it equates science with the authority of the Bible.  They also interpret some parts of Genesis in a way that a casual reading of the book does not allow.  For example, the Bible states that the flood covered the entire earth.  It also proposes that God created the death and pain of animals before sin, which is unpalatable for many Christians.

The final view, theistic evolution, is similar to progressive creationism, but it maintains that God used evolution to create all the living things on earth including humans.  God “fully gifted” creation to evolve living things.  This view believes the creation stories have a deeper, more powerful meaning than a literal interpretation allows for, and the stories were intended to contrast the Hebrew God with the finite gods of neighboring cultures.  This view argues that allegory was at the center of the educational system of ancient cultures, and the modern, literal focus of historical documents was not the focus of ancient people.  Most adherents to theistic evolution do not believe Adam and Eve were real people.  They believed God breathed a soul into humans that evolved.

The main problem with theistic evolution is that the Bible clearly teaches that Adam was a real person and sin came into the human race because Adam and Eve sinned.  Another problem is that evolution has significant flaws as a scientific theory, and theistic evolution must contend with those flaws.

Two other common views are the gap theory and intelligent design.  The gap theory proposes that a gap of time billions of years long occurred between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.  The theory claims the original earth was ruined, perhaps by the fall of Satan, and later, God repaired it during the six 24-hour days of creation.  Intelligent design is a broad belief that the universe displays overwhelming evidence of design unexplainable by random chance.  This philosophy can be incorporated into any of the major views.

The intent of this article was to serve as a starting place for a far more thorough and widely argued discussion within the Christian school community.  Ignoring this topic because it is a flashpoint of contention or dogmatically teaching only one view is a disservice to our students.  In future years, they will minister side by side with committed Christians who hold all three views, and they should be educated in the diversity of interpretations of the Genesis creation story within God’s kingdom. 

Tim Eimer is a Science teacher at Phil-Mont Christian Academy in Erdenheim, Pennsylvania.