Speculating on the Time Order of Creation: Young or Old? Tofflemire 2013
This essay will explore the time order of creation and touch on the old universe-earth vs. the young. The great apologist, Dr. Wm. Craig, recently favored the Old Earth view, saying that insisting on a young earth and universe can be a stumbling block for college students and professors(1). Most scientific evidence points to an old earth and universe. In a recent debate of a young earth and old earth astronomers (Dr. Faulkner and Dr Ross), Dr. Ross won, by consensus of the judges(2). However, a young universe and earth is possible and is supported by a straight forward reading of scripture. Still there may be there is a hidden meaning in Genesis 1 to allow for an old universe and earth.
As a stating point, it is important to consider one’s view of inerrancy of the scriptures. Erikson(3) gave 3 classical views of inerrancy: Absolute inerrancy, Full inerrancy and Limited inerrancy. Absolute inerrancy holds that scientific and historical details are true in an exact manner. Full inerrancy holds that the scientific and historical details are true in an approximate phenomenological way. That is to say the writers made statements as to the way they appear to the human eye, using human language. Limited inerrancy holds the Bible true in its salvation doctrines but may be in error in its historical and scientific statements. I hold the Full Inerrancy view as do most protestant denominations, and try to remain consistent to it. Nevertheless this question arises: What if the great bulk of science and common logic goes against a common view of a section of scripture? One must also recognize that miracles are possible and God can do anything. Some discussions of miracles indicate that God has a major purpose for miracles that violate natural laws(4). He may not do miracles for no purpose or take lightly the violation or suspension of natural laws. One can easily see the purpose for the resurrection of Christ. What would be the purpose of violating many natural laws of physics and biology in the creation process? Wouldn’t it make sense he would use intelligent and optimal design, order and common sense in creation, although many steps are still miraculous? A danger here is making creation too naturalistic, which removes many miracles.
It could be that creation is partly a mystery as God wants us awe struck by this. Many authors state that The Bible and early Genesis is not intended to be a detailed scientific account of creation, and in this brief account some details are left out(5). A number of authors rightly classify Genesis as an historical narrative and not poetry(6). Nevertheless as Craig has pointed out, Gen. Chap 1 language is quite grand with many “and God said” statements; and is different than a straight history as in Acts, for example. In my view the grand language is comparable to John Chap1:1-18, which may have some deeper hidden meanings. For example it could be the “Word” in vs. 1(In the beginning was the word) is a type for Jesus. In my view the following important science is not specified in Genesis. When an how were all of the following created?: Energy, elementary particles and matter, protons, electrons, atoms, molecules, viruses, bacteria, algae, fungi, worms, DNA and RNA, the N, S and C cycles. Also we know that bacteria and worms help make the top soil fertile. On what day were viruses and elementary proteins created as they are not clearly plants or animals?
I believe God is a God of logic, order and mathematics. He is also a God of the highest morals and love. He created time and is still in complete control of it, and uses it for his purposes. God can step outside of time, space and order if He chooses (7,8). God can use numbers with symbolic meaning in scripture(9). Most of the creation probably has order and follows the laws of physics and biology which God also created. There is a danger here of making creation too naturalistic, and removing miracles.
Gen 1:1 says “In the beginning God created the heavens and Earth.” Here heavens come before earth. It is possible as Ross suggests that Gen. 1 is written from a view point or perspective of an observer on earth and what he would see; as the Bible is intended for man. What an observer in deep space would see might be different. Logic and order to me involves creation of energy and elementary particles first, before water and before earth. It would be nonsensical to me to create water and earth first and then bulk of elementary particles later. Preceding all of this, God may have had a plan, even a mathematical pan incorporating all the laws of physics. E= MC2 of Einstein is a basic equation relating energy and matter. Einstein also says the universe has a space time fabric. The Bible says God stretched out space like a fabric or tent. Gen. 1:3-4 says that light was created and separated, Gen 1:6 talks of expanse being separated. There is general consensus that the universe is expanding. Is it possible that in Gen.1:2 that waters is a type for matter and elementary particles while also being the oceans on earth? We know that at some time the elementary particles had to be created by God.
Let’s take the analogy of a watch and watch maker. In making a complex digital watch, it is logical to first have plan and design- before making any parts. One might even make the case-holder for the watch early on, as this would hold the parts so they don’t stray beyond their favored location as they are being assembled. Could this be the space-time fabric or dark energy or mater?
In the case of living organisms, it would be logical to have plan for the complex proteins, DNA and RNA before making plants and living creatures. It is logical that the smaller simpler living things would be created before the bigger more complex ones, as the bigger ones are dependent on some of the smaller ones. Selling’s book- Earth’s Catastrophic Past(10) is noted. He is a young earth creation geologist. The oldest rocks- Precambrian-contain Stromatolites fossils of cyanobacteria, blue green algae(pg 325,450, 633, 678). His figure 23b shows that fossils of conifers appearing in the Paleozoic and flowering plants not until the Mesozoic period. So how then can all plants be present in one 24hr day? Fig 23a shows fossils of insects paralleling that of land plants. Could it be that the DNA bank for all plants were created on day 3, but some did not appear until later? Snelling also claimed the Mesozoic is post flood and the pre-Cambrian pre flood. So again how could all plants be fully developed on one day, when some are pre flood and some post? This is a puzzle. Perhaps as Rana(11) suggests the heavy asteroid bombardment of earth at 4.4-3.8 Gyr. destroyed all land plants(if any), but the algae in previously buried ocean rocks remained as the Precambrian evidence of plants. Perhaps as a side note in Gen. 2:5 is referring to a 2nd phase of plant growth, as there were no shrubs of the field early on in day 3. There had to be grass when Adam named the livestock Gen. 2:20. There may have been some shift in plants after the curse in Gen. 3: 17, as now we have thorns and thistles.
Whiddon provided a grammatical interpretation of the Hebrew on Genesis (12). He claimed that the words “God created” and the phrase “let there be” have different meanings in Hebrew and that “let there be” can imply development over time. Ross in The Genesis Question agreed(13). The phrase let there be is used on days 1,2,3,4 in Genesis Chap. 1.
Let’s shift to Day 4. H. Ross claims in A Matter of Days (13, p.227-38) that day 4 of Gen.1:14-18 can be interpreted as follows: As the earth’s atmosphere cleared, the sun and stars could now, for the first time, be visible from earth. He also noted as an astronomer that there is evidence that space, mater, energy and some form of time were all created initially and the earth later. In the book- Why the Universe is the Way it I, 14- Ross makes the case in chap 2 that the mass of the universe, of the sun and their ages and expansion rate of the universe are all necessary for life on earth. Humphreys is creation physicist who claimed on pg 34 that on day 2, the expanse was created and separated. This would fit with the stretching of the heavens. He also noted time dilation(15). He has also offered possible view that the earth was created out of a white hole below an event horizon that would dilate time(16). Time dilation is a scientific principle. It was also noted that God is in control of time(7). In Gen. 1:14 it states “They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and yrs” So it is possible that time that we now use, started, from an earth perspective, on day 4. Also we don’t know for sure the speed of rotation of the earth(the basis of a day) on days 2-3. It is possible that days 5,6,7 were 24 hr days as we have a week established in Gen. Chap. 2. The unity of the 7 day week can be maintained, if time is not defined until the end of day 4.
I don’t agree with Rana(11) on the age of birds, fish and animals being millions of yrs old or man being 100,000 yrs. Making man this old would invalidate the biblical genealogies. Freeman made a good case (18, p.203-4) in Coming to Grips with Genesis that the biblical genealogies are valid and do not contain gaps. He noted the oft repeated argument that “When X had lived Y yrs. and fathered Z, should be interpreted that X had lived Y yrs. and became the father of someone in the list of descent to Z” is false, based on clear hermeneutics(p.303). Thus the fossils of the moving life could all be young and most buried in the world wide flood. More details on the flood being world wide are found in Snelling(10) and were summarized by Tofflemire (19). The scriptural support is very strong on the flood being world wide. I remain open minded to more findings. The details of creation remain not fully understood and a mystery. The book Evidences for God and His Creations (19) and the web site: http://creationaoplogetics.net discusses these topics further.
It is possible that the prokaryotes appeared first on Day 3 as the fossil record indicates. Algae in the oceans could have added more oxygen to the atmosphere as indicated by Rana (11) in his book, The Origins of Life. Bacteria could have aided the soil. The N, S, Carbon cycles could have been put in place. Pollination of flowering plant is a problem without insects, as they do 80% of plant pollination. It would make sense that the base biomass and base of food chain would be in place before the top grazers. In my paper on numerology there is some indication of a completion on day 4 as the earth is now ready for advanced life and a speeding up of time. As a confirmation of the base biomass the following Appendix was compiled from Wikipedia:
In summary, most scientific evidence points to an old earth and universe. A straight forward view of Genesis 1 suggests a 6 day 24 hr. creation. This has prompted innovative interpretations of Gen. 1 to find a solution to maintain historical accuracy of the scriptures. This paper is also such attempt. In this approach the days 1,2,3,4 can be long periods of time due to the use of the phrase “Let there be” on these days. The papers on Time and Numerology also support the approach(7,9)
Appendix
The prokaryotes are a group of organisms whose cells lack a membrane-bound nucleus. The organisms whose cells do have a nucleus are called eukaryotes. Most prokaryotes are unicellular organisms, although a few such as myxobacteria have multicellular stages in their life cycles[1] or create large colonies like cyanobacteria. In other words, all their intracellular water-soluble components (proteins, DNA and metabolites) are located together in the same area enclosed by cell membrane, rather than separated in different cellular compartments. Prokaryotes include two major classification domains: the bacteria and the archaea. Bacteria and archaea reproduce through asexual reproduction, usually by binary fission. The oldest known fossilized prokaryotes were laid down approximately 3.5 billion years ago, only about 1 billion years after the formation of the Earth's crust. Even today, prokaryotes are perhaps the most successful and abundant life-forms. Eukaryotes only appear in the fossil record later.-. The oldest known fossil eukaryotes are about 1.7 billion years old.
Archaea have an independent evolutionary history and show many differences in their biochemistry from other forms of life, and so they are now classified as a separate domain in the three-domain system. In this system, the phylogenetically distinct branches of evolutionary descent are the Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryota. Archaea use a much greater variety of sources of energy than eukaryotes: ranging from familiar organic compounds such as sugars, to ammonia, metal ions or even hydrogen gas. Salt-tolerant archaea (the Haloarchaea) use sunlight as an energy source, and other species of archaea fix carbon. Initially, archaea were viewed as extremophiles that lived in harsh environments, such as hot springs and salt lakes, but they have since been found in a broad range of habitats, including soils, oceans, marshlands and the human colon and navel.[2] Archaea are particularly numerous in the oceans, and the archaea in plankton may be one of the most abundant groups of organisms on the planet. Archaea are now recognized as a major part of Earth's life and may play roles in both the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle
Cyanobacteria also known as blue-green bacteria, blue-green algae, and Cyanophyta, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis.[3] The name "cyanobacteria" comes from the color of the bacteria (Greek: κυανός (kyanós) = blue).
The ability of cyanobacteria to perform oxygenic photosynthesis is thought to have converted the early reducing atmosphere into an oxidizing one, which dramatically changed the composition of life forms on Earth by stimulating biodiversity.
Phytoplankton (from Greek phyton, or plant), autotrophic, prokaryotic or eukaryotic algae that live near the water surface where there is sufficient light to support photosynthesis. Among the more important groups are the diatoms, cyanobacteria, dinoflagellates and coccolithophores.
Bacteria perform many important functions on earth. They serve as decomposers, agents of fermentation, and play an important role in our own digestive system. Also, bacteria are involved in many nutrient cycles such as the nitrogen cycle, which restores nitrate into the soil for plants. Unlike eukaryotic cells that depend on oxygen for their metabolism, prokaryotic cells enjoy a diverse array of metabolic functions. For example, some bacteria use sulfur instead of oxygen in their metabolism.
Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in the reproduction of plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. In spite of a common perception that pollen grains are gametes, like the sperm cells of animals, this is incorrect; pollination is a phase in the alternation of generations. Each pollen grain is a male haploid plant, a gametophyte, adapted to being transported to the female gametophyte, where it can achieve fertilization by producing the male gamete (or gametes, in the process of double fertilization).
Abiotic pollination refers to situations where pollination is mediated without the involvement of other organisms. Only 10% of flowering plants are pollinated without animal assistance. The most common form of abiotic pollination, anemophily, is pollination by wind. This form of pollination is predominant in grasses, most conifers, and many deciduous trees. Hydrophily is pollination by water, and occurs in aquatic plants which release their pollen directly into the surrounding water. About 80% of all plant pollination is biotic. Roughly 200,000 varieties of animal pollinators are in the wild, most of which are insects.
Insects (from Latin insectum, a calque of Greek ἔντομον [éntomon], "cut into sections") are a class of invertebrates within the arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. They are among the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species and representing more than half of all known living organisms. The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants.
The term worm refers to an obsolete taxon (vermes) used by Carolus Linnaeus and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck for all non-arthropod invertebrate animals, Currently it is used to describe many different distantly related animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body and no legs. Most animals called "worms" are invertebrates,
Worms live in almost all parts of the world including marine, freshwater, and terrestrial habitats. Some worms living in the ground help to condition the soil (e.g., annelids, aschelminths). Many thrive as parasites of plants (e.g., aschelminths) and animals, including humans (e.g., platyhelminths, aschelminths). Several other worms may be free-living, or nonparasitic. There are worms that live in freshwater, seawater, and even on the seashore. Ecologically, worms form an important link in the food chains in virtually all the ecosystems of the world. In the United States
References Cited:
3. Erickson, M. J. Introducing Christian Doctrine, Grand Rapids, MI., Baker Book House Co. (2001
- Branch, Craig Miracles ARC.apolgetics, Veritas: Miracles, Journal of the
- Geisler, N.L. and Turek, F. I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be and Atheist Crossway Books,
- Wilkinson, B.H. and Boa, K.(2002) The Wilkinson and Boa Bible Handbook. Thomas Nelson Publishers.,
- Tofflemire, T.J. Time use in the Scriptures and a Summary article on Time, see web site 2011, web site http://creationapolotetics.net
- Ganssle, Gregory “God and Time” Areopagus Journal, Vol. 11 | Num. 1,2011 p.16-21
- Tofflemire, T.J. Can Numerology aid in Interpretation of the Days and Aspects of Creation? 2012 web site http://creationapolotetics.net
- Snelling, A. Earth's Catastrophic Past, Geology, Creation & the Flood, Vol 1-2 ICR 2010
- Rana, F. and Ross, H. Origins of Life, Navpress,
- (Whiddon, Andy Essay on Genesis: http://www.aboutgenesis.com/id2.html)
- Ross, H. The Genesis Question, Navpress, Colorado Springs, Co. 2001, A Matter of Days
- Ross, H. Why the Universe is the Way it Is. Baker Books,
- Humphreys, R. D. ‘New time dilation helps creation cosmology’ Jour. of Creation 22(3) 2008 http://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j22_3/j22_3_84-92.pdf
- Starlight and Time 1994 Humphreys, R. D. Starlight and Time, DVD Creation Ministries International. 2007.)
- Rana, F and Ross, H. Who Was Adam, NavPress,
18. Freeman, Travis R. http://creation.com/the-genesis-5-and-11-fluidity-question, and in Chap.10-Mortenson, T., Ury, T. Coming to Grips With Genesis, Master Books, Green Forest, Ak. 2008
19. Tofflemire T. J. Evidences for God and His Creations, Author House, 2012
