EAST Podcast: Creation Part 1 – Young Earth View

 

The Bible repeatedly holds up a few key events as evidence of the divine power and sovereignty of God. One of these events is the creation of the world (Isaiah 40:26, Psalm 33:6-9, Romans 1:20).

Throughout history, Christians have strongly affirmed that God created the world by his command, out of nothing. And indeed, affirming that God is the one who created all things is a core tenet of the Christian faith.

Recently though, debates have emerged over exactly how God created the world. Beginning with Darwin’s theory of evolution and continuing with modern scientific assertions that the earth is around 4.54 billion years old, Christians have been confronted with a continuous attempt by the scientific community to explain the origin and nature of the world on purely naturalistic terms, without any reference to God.

In light of the evidence compiled by scientists in support of an old earth, many believers have begun to wonder exactly how God created the world. Did he create the earth in six, 24-hour days? Or did he take longer? What actually happened in the creation?

Some believers have affirmed that the earth is indeed very old, and this is consistent with the Genesis account. Other Christians have argued that the earth is young and the proper way to read the first book of the Bible is to conclude that creation took place in exactly six days. While Old Earth and Young Earth Christians agree on the fact that the Bible should be our authority and that God did indeed create all things, they have significant differences on their understandings of exactly how God created.

In order to help the church better understand this issue, EAST will host a seminar where advocates of different views can discuss their beliefs. As part of that effort, I recently sat down with Dr Mark Harwood of Creation Ministries International. Dr Harwood holds a Young Earth view and in the podcast that we recorded, I enjoyed hearing his well thought out reasons for holding this view. I didn’t agree with everything that he said, but I certainly appreciated his humble attitude and commitment to the Bible.

In the future, I look forward to sitting down and recording another interview with an Old Earth advocate. I am sure that we will have a great discussion when proponent of both of these views sit down to talk at the EAST Creation Seminar on 13 April.

 

Watch and listen to EAST Theology Talks podcast with Dr Mark Harwood as interviewed by Mr Matthew Winslow, EAST Resident Faculty (see below or click here).

Part 2 (Old-Earth View) of the podcast may be found here.

Text above by Mr Matthew Winslow, and graphic design by Rev Jonathan Yao.