Faith Response: Interpreting Genesis and Creation

Faith Response: Interpreting Genesis and Creation

Gregory Boyd and Paul Eddy lay out four possible ideas as to what the creation story in Genesis of the Bible means and how we should interpret it in terms of the age of the earth. The first interpretation they propose is the Young Earth View, which suggests the Earth was created in the recent past and is the most commonly accepted reasoning for the timing by most Christians. It states that each day is a twenty-four hour period because of the use of the Hebrew word “yom” which is used solely to refer to a twenty-four hour period. The second option they offer is the Day Age view which paints the Earth as being created throughout different ages of time and each “day” of creation being within a different age until it got to the 6th day where God created man and thus began the story of Adam and Eve and the progression of the Bible from there. The third possibility they consider is the Restoration View which touches on God restoring a fallen creation and Adam and Eve being the second creation after a time of darkness. This fallen creation is said to be the time described in the Old Testament as the battle between God and Satan, and the eventual fall of Satan into the darkness of the void. The last viewpoint and the one in which this paper will lend its focus, The Literary Framework View, which says that the timing of the events in Genesis do not need explanation or a literal interpretation of the chronology, but rather are there to show the power of a single God in bringing order from nothing and setting up the story for which the Bible is based upon. The Literal Framework model makes the most sense for three reasons, the fall of Satan is not chronologically placed within the creation s...

... middle of paper ...

...’ ‘story,’ or ‘parable,’ and not as a straightforward record of events of creation.” The idea that the creation story is a literal twenty-four hour day is not the important part of the story, it is just a story to introduce the idea that the world was created by God. Faith is defined by dictionary.com as belief that is not based on proof. We are asked in the bible to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). The fact that The Bible was written with the inspired words of God to tell us the creation story as a means to show the awesome power of a Creator is all that we need to consider. The difference between the days being literal twenty-four hour periods, or ages of time, or dark void of time falling between all don’t matter in the grand scheme of our walk with God. All that we need is to have faith that God is our Creator and the Bible tells us his story.