The Creation
The sources used here for most of the old-earth creation stances are works of Hugh Ross and the Reasons to Believe website. Young-earth creation material will be sourced mostly from works of Jason Lisle and the Biblical Science Institute with possible help from the Institute for Creation Research and Answers in Genesis.
- In the Beginning - Gen 1 - There are many interesting points in this very first chapter. Heaven and earth are created, but earth is formless and dark, so may have started with a thick atmosphere blocking out sun. Then, Let there be light, and first morning, so perhaps God had started the earth rotating - note: early rotations may or may not have been 24 hours. Vss 6-8 sound like God may have been starting up a hydrological cycle. Vss 14-17 lights appearing in the sky may indicate a thick atmosphere clearing. Creatures start appearing in roughly the order science says they should - birds and fish, then land mammals. Finally God creates man in His image. Image of the Creator?
- Young-Earth vs Old-Earth - Strangely to me at least there is a very divisive spirit among Creationists. I say strange to me because for myself and I think others back when I was young looked at having two possible counter frameworks to evolution as simply twice as good! Generally both sides believe in some kind of special creation of mankind over the evolution explanation, but they differ on whether the days of creation in Genesis 1 actually represent vast amounts of time or the literal 7 days. Old-Earth Creationists would say the word for day there could be taken as various meanings as we might talk about a 24 hour day or we might say something like 'back in the day' or 'in the day of such and such'. So a day could mean longer periods of time. Young-Earth Creationists would argue there's no indication in the context that day there means anything else but 24 hour day, and that there's no reason God couldn't do the creation in that time period.
- Universalism vs Catastrophism - Universalism posits that changes - earthly, astronomical, or other - tend to occur gradually and at mostly consistent rates, so this position tends to go hand in hand with evolution theory. Catastrophism says that while changes can occur gradually at times, at other times events accelerate them such as major flooding, earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, etc. - and so fits better with Creation. Catastrophism has been evidenced many times by such things as finding fossils laying vertical across many layers of horizontal levels in canyons that according to universalism had been laid down over millions of years of time, and observations after volcanic eruptions where similar layers were formed after mere hours and days.
- Starlight Problem? - The supposed problem of starlight is one for young-earth creationism, because how can light from stars millions or billions of light years away be seen by us in only 6000 years since creation? Some answers have been proposed but later disproved or considered to be unlikely from a God who does not send confusion (I Corinthians 14:33). It was suggested that stars and galaxies are actually closer than 6000 light years, but it can be proven using parallax that even just our own galaxy extends beyond that distance. It was suggested that beams of light were created already reaching earth but that would lead to confusion of not being able to tell what is actually happening in space. Other proposed answers included one suggesting light traveled faster in the past so was able to reach us by now. This seems like a good possibility but light speed that has occured in the past (measured by reflection) has been measured to be the same speed. Another idea was gravitational time dilation which is a phenomena where physical processes slow in a gravitional field. This idea suggests our solar system would be near the center of the universe creating a sort of gravity well in our area of space resulting in possibly millions of years passing for the rest of the universe while only thousands passed for us. However the time dilation would only be a few percentage points so not enough to account for million or billions versus thousands. Many of these and other ideas since suffer from being possible, but likely? The problem is continually being worked on. One promising possibility comes from the idea of simultaneity or of two things happening or so perceived at the same time. Einstein discovered that motion affects both the rate of time passage and length in the direction of motion. These effects are almost unnoticeable until approaching the speed of light. For the speed of light spontaneity becomes relative to the observer. So if correct all this leads to the possibility that the speed of light can effectively be instant for light coming (at least being visible) to the observer and slower moving away. Therefore whenever the instant was of a star's creation an observer could immediately see its light.
- Humankind - 2 origins? - The question comes up of why there are two creation accounts of man (end of Genesis 1 and beginning of Genesis 2). A simple answer is that the first one is at the end of a broader picture of the various species being created, while the second one is focusing down on just mankind's story. It's been suggested the first account may include the neanderthals and denisovans. However it was found that the diet of neanderthals was almost only herbivores that were on land, while humans ate a much wider variety including birds, fish, etc. And in that first passage in Genesis 1, God specifically grants that creature that kind of variety of food, at least among the green plants to start with.
- The Flood - The Flood is an example of the above catastrophism in action. Creationists differ in whether they believe in a worldwide flood or a local flood. Of course a local flood would still be an event affecting the 'world' of the locals there, but I tend to think from the flood legends of civilizations from all over the world that it was a worldwide event. We can look at it scientifically from whether we find what we would expect to see if it did occur. Here are some things we might expect to find: strangely located sea creature fossils in places well above sea level - check! ex. seas creature fossils found in Grand Canyon layers thousands of feet above sea level; very large areas of sediment layers laid down rapidly all over the world - check! found on every continent; extreme amounts of missing time between fossils of tracks and fossils of the creatures that made them - check! differences in time that according to Universalism would be millions of years between the creatures and their tracks.
- The Probability Problem - This one is more of a problem for evolution. It has been shown mathematically the unlikelihood that many of evolution's supposed mechanisms could bring together even the basic building blocks of life. Evolution is even more unlikely to result in complex systems like human life is dependent on - nervous, circulatory, pulmonary, etc. Such systems require a high degree of ordered events to occur for them to even possibly develop individually, much less organize into a living human on their own randomly. Nature on its own tends toward disorder, yet natural selection is invoked as being what drives changes into resulting in these systems. But natural selection could only affect what is reproduced, not arranging materials randomly from the start. Equivocations are also made that probabilities don't matter 'post hoc' - when a possible arrangement has appeared because it is indeed one of the possible arrangements. But this ignores that if the arrangement results in a highly complex organized lifeform that it is an highly unlikely result and indicative of the intent of an Arranger. Probability issues also exist in the area of astronomy - ex. the unlikelihood that the earth would be in its exact position (both in our solar system and in our galaxy) and conditions (many factors here - tempurature, gravity, atmosphere, etc.) to support life.
- Evolution's History of Lies and Frauds - Proponents of evolution have a long history of coverups, ignoring facts, and outright deceptions. Probably the biggest overall intellectual dishonesty is their refusal to consider the possibility of creation because it is 'supernatural' or beyond natural causes. This just serves to hide biases against theistic explanations. It's one thing if a person doesn't believe in a possibility, but to deny one that does have evidence to support it and certainly appearances of design based on one's biases is distinctly unscientific. And there are many examples of evolutionists trying to pass off fraudulent evidence to support their positions. In trying to produce the missing links in human evolution hoaxes have included: Piltdown man, Java man, Nebraska man and Orce man that all turned out to be regular humans or parts of animals. The Neanderthal was advertized to be somewhere between ape and human is now found to be mostly humanoid with similar intelligence and abilities as humans. The infamous Haeckel drawings were of supposed embryos that showed evolutionary development when it was believed 'Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny', but even though it was known that these drawings (and data) were completely fake, they remained in textbooks for a century! A recent fraud (1999) came from China where bones of dinosaur and bird were put together to claim a new type of intermediate ancestor was found. Similarly there was a claim of a brontosaurus find that was actually two other sets of bones put together. Yale was found to alter DNA hybridization data to further a claim that human and chipanzee DNA is more alike.
- Dimensions - Some wonder how God can be working in our lives in the present and yet see what's in our future and still leave us with freedom of choice over our own directions. I think considering different dimensionalities may be an answer or at least a way to demonstrate how things might work with God interacting with us and our world. I used to draw cartoons for my university's paper and have also dabbled in creating games where usually a 'world' is created for the game characters and objects to exist in. My cartoons would exist in a 2D world where the character (cartoon of the school mascot) wouldn't be aware of me of course but I could look down and see and create his actions through the strip of panels. My pencil or pen would actually touch and alter his world although my total being existed beyond it. The case of making a computer game may shed even more light. In that case, while I'm existing in 3D world, I create the 2D world (or 3D but 2D in the sense it's on a screen) for the game's characters and objects. I decide what physics will operate in their world and how that will affect them. I could even possibly give the non-player characters AIs with even some particular leanings built in for personalities and make it so they could 'decide' what they'll do - how they might 'want' to attack or help my character, etc. Of course the real God can imbue us with real individual intelligences and personalities, but you can see the analogy.
Reliability of scripture
A couple of good sources I used for this area are Evidence That Demands a Verdict by the Mcdowells, and articles by Jason Lisle on the Biblical Science Institute website.
- Uniqueness - The Bible is unique in many ways. It was written over a length of time of about 1500 years. It was written in three different continents. It had over forty authors from a wide range of backgrounds and professions such as rulers, commanders, judges, prophets, shepherds, doctors, fishermen, tentmakers, etc. It was written in three languages. It contains a number of types of literature such as historical, wisdom, poetic, letters, songs, etc. In other major religions' scripture grace or salvation depends on someone's works or how good they are, but the Bible teaches grace is freely given dependant only on faith.
- Authenticity - The Bible is the most authentic writing from ancient times based on number of manuscripts we have and time between the first writing and oldest manuscript available. For the second most authentic, the Iliad, we have over 600 manuscripts, and time between writing and oldest manuscript we have is about 500 years. We have thousands of Old Testament manuscripts with time between oldest and writing as little as around 200 years. For the New Testament we have about 25000 manuscripts with time between oldest and writing of as little as under 100 years for some of its entire books!
- Translations - Most Bible versions are translated directly from Hebrew and Greek manuscripts to English or another modern language. There has been a long line of translations made in the common language of the time so more people could read it - Septuagint (Old Testament in Greek), Latin Vulgate, down to early Old English versions such as Wycliffe, Tyndale, and the King James Version. Since the translation efforts involved humans, some small errors snuck in although nothing affecting a major doctrine. But an early edition of King James did get out missing a 'not' thereby telling its readers, 'Thou shalt commit adultery', probably why this version caught on so well.. 8^D . The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 with it's much older documents provided much verification and clarification, so in modern times newer translations have come with large teams of advanced scholars and in modern English for much easier reading. Bible Hub has a good selection of versions - BSB is my favorite - along with Bible study tools.
- Accuracy - There is some necessary sense of circular reasoning involved in determining accuracy of ancient works as knowledge of ancient events depends on the documents themselves. But there are ways to come to decisions by. Less authentic documents can be judged by more authentic ones and along with that giving more creedence to accounts related closer to the time of the event. If there is only one account of an event it can be given creedence based on the likelihood that someone with more accurate knowledge could have disputed it at some point. External historians ex. Herodotus and Josephus and others have verified some things in the Bible, although these may be examples of less authenticated works used to verify a more authenticated work.. There are a number of things in the Bible once thought to be myth or legend that were later discovered to be real or true by archeology - the Hittites, Sodom and Gomorrah verified to have been destroyed by fire, battles of Jericho, Ai, and more.
- Formal vs Dynamic Equivalence - These are the two main approaches used in Bible translation. Formal Equivalency aims for accuracy of each word translated so tends to produce better word for word translation but possibly not convey the meaning of a phrase or sentence as it was intended. Dynamic equivalency aims at getting the meaning of phrases and sentences across in the language being translated to, but may not be using the same words as in the original which may be problematic when a particular word used is important. Most translations do use both approaches trying to use the right approach in the right situations but just differ in which way they lean more. The BSB version is roughly in the mid range between the two approaches.
- Inspiration - The idea that God inspired the writing of the books of the Bible through the men that wrote them assures us that the message coming through to us is what God intended for us. II Timothy 3:16 tells us all the scripture is inspired by God and therefore good for us to use for learning, teaching, correcting ourselves, etc. Inspired by God means God-breathed so from the mouth of God. Another verse illuminates this further II Peter 1:21 which tells us the writings were not by human will but the writers being moved by the Holy Spirit with the meaning for moved here being carried along similar to how a current or wind directs a ship. Most interestingly it can be seen that God did not override the individual personalities of the writers but rather used them in showing a unified message coming through a wide variety of perspectives. An issue some may have is the work itself saying it is inspired, but if looked at as God's signature or byline to identify what is his work, actually all works do that to identify the author.
- False claims of Bible being copied from myths - Occasionally the claim is made that parts of the Bible are copied from other cultures' myths. Some examples of claims of some accounts in the Bible being taken from others' myths are the Fall, the Flood, and the story of baby Moses. The claim of Pandora's Box being connected to the Fall of mankind in Genesis is an example of there being not much similarity between the accounts but the possibility that they may refer back to same event. The case of the Gilgamesh Epic being compared to the Biblical flood is one where there are some similarities but seems more to refer back to possibly a human shared memory of a great flood having occured which shows up in many civilizations' legends. The story of Sargon's birth, infant river trip and adoption is very similar to Moses and supposedly occured before Moses, but the written accounts of it were not until well after those of Moses so it could be claimed that Sargon's story was take from the Bible rather than the other way around. So most of these seem to be cases of referring back to shared events or their stories actually being copied from the Bible. It's also been claimed that Jesus was a copy of other myths - Osirus/Horus, Mithras, Attis/Adonis, etc. In all these cases the majority of the supposed similarities are not even in the original writings of these characters, and the claims that they were like Jesus postdate Jesus by 100 or more years so indeed these additions to their legends copied Jesus' story, not the other way around.
- Correct Canon? - The question sometimes arises of whether the canon - set of works accepted as legitimate - for the Bible is correct or has been arrived at correctly. This seems a legitimate question as the Bible does not include some works that may seem worthy. Protestants don't include the Apocrypha although it has value in at least a look at the 'silent' 400 years between the Old and New Testaments, and some books even referenced in the Bible are not included. It is said what is included in the canon is not only determined by humans but discovered to belong there. Criteria for this includes much of the above - authenticity, accuracy, and inspiration. But also considered is internal and external consistencies, internal referring to agreeing with books already in the canon and external agreement with external knowledge that is considered correct. So reasons why some works aren't there may be lack of or questionable manuscripts, disagreement with doctrines of canonical works, innaccuracies found, etc.
Doctrinal Issues
For this section a great reference is The Theology Program by C. Michael Patton which aims to give students theological and doctrinal information of a seminary-like course of study without the rest. This material can be found on Amazon here, and at the Credo Course website here.
- Nature of God - God created everything and is transcendant - existing outside of His creation in timeless eternity - and yet Immanent - able to come into His creation and work there. Some characteristics of God - omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, eternality, immutability, sovereignty, righteousness goodness, love, grace. Some arguments for God's existence: cosmological - must be an Uncaused Cause and an Unmoved Mover, ontological - the greatest conceivable being must exist, teleological - must be an Undesigned Designer (Psalms 19:1, Romans 1:20), moral - must be an absolutely good Moral Lawgiver (Romans 2:14,15).
- The Holy Spirit - Deity indicated by names given - Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Counselor/Helper, called God (II Corinthians 3:17-18, Acts 5:3-4), can be blasphemed (and in this case unforgiveable). As a Person, has own intelligence (I Corinthians 2:10-13), manifests emotions (Ephesians 4:30), demonstrates own will (I Corinthians 12:11, various places in Acts), humbles self for Christ to get the attention (John 15:26, 16:13-14). Holy Spirit is humbled in being least: known, worshipped, individualized.
- Jesus Christ - Fully man and Fully God in one eternal person. He was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) possibly so he would not have imputed or inherited sin so therefore could be a unblemished sacrifice, and/or to become the second Adam. It is important that Christ is fully human in order to experience and overcome the same temptations we go through - both to come through the experience as the perfect sacrifice for us and also to provide us with an example to go through our lives with. (Hebrews 4:15)
- Trinity - One God eternally existing in three persons each fully God, and coequal and coeternal - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. None of the three are made or created, but while the Father is made of none, the Son is begotten, and the Holy Spirit is proceeding. As put in the Athanasian Creed, it is a Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity. The Father is God, The Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Descriptions of God in both oneness and plurality are found in both Old and New Testaments.
- Sin - Sin is usually thought of as in one of two terms - having to do with the Fall, or one's own personal sin. Sin associated with the Fall is broken down into further concepts - original sin, imputed sin and inherited sin. Original sin refers to the first sin itself, imputed sin refers to the guilt and condemnation from that sin which is imputed to man (also called imputed guilt), and inherited sin refers to sinful nature passed on from generation to generation. However the aspects of sin found in original sin seem to still be the general aspects of sin humans have dealt with since. The temptations of Christ in the gospels accounts correspond how the serpent tempted Eve - temptation to doubt and question what God has said, temptation to put God to a test, and temptation of particular food to sate a hunger or for its appeal for personal gain.
- Salvation - The study of salvation is called soteriology. Salvation in Christian terms may be defined as both an event and a process of being saved from the consequences of one's sin both 'original' and personal which separate us from God, so that we can be in a right relationship with God both now and for eternity. Note: It's a process not in that one might be caught dying with an incomplete salvation - I believe one can possibly be saved at the last minute and that there is a particular moment (event) of salvation for a person if they are sincerely coming to God - but rather that while one is still alive here on earth, one continues to work out their salvation (Philippians 2:12) continuing to confess and repent of sins and grow more in obedience. I see it as similar to a cascading effect - one comes to God confessing the need for salvation, receives grace and salvation, then proceeds continuing to repent turning away from sins and toward obedience more and more while a desire grows to do the works discussed in Ephesians 2:10 and as James points out in James 2 become evidence of faith. When new sins and temptations come, we can confess those to God as well (I John 1:9) and continue repenting from them. Some passages that indicate the security of our salvation - John 10:28-29, and Romans 8:35-39. These verses indicate the need for Jesus - John 14:6 and Acts 4:11-12.
- The Church - The term Church is used to refer to different things - building or institution, a congregation or group of people, representing a particular doctrinal position, etc. There are many scriptural references to what church may be. I Peter 2:9 refers to a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation with verse 10 calling it a new people of God, and back in verses 4-5 a spiritual house. Later in chapter 5 verses 2-4 it's God's flock. Acts 20:28 also refers to it as a flock while Ephesians 2:20-21 refers to it as a holy temple although the building up of it is in a spiritual sense so like the spiritual house idea back in I Peter. Colossians 1:18 refers to it as the body of Christ (or the body He is the head of) where Revelation 19:7 and 21:2,9 call it the Bride of Christ. So it seems an exact meaning for church depends on context or what a speaker is trying to convey at a particular time.
- Life After Death - After death the Christian belief is generally that a person goes in one of two directions depending on their decision during life to or not to accept and follow Jesus for salvation (Matthew 25:46). Since there is a resurrection still to come for the body some time in the future, it's considered the spirit that goes to one of these two places directly after death while the body is 'asleep' (Ecclesiastes 12:7). When it comes time for the bodily resurrection, again it will be to one of two directions as before (Daniel 12:2). Believers will receive a new and spiritual body (I Corinthians 15:42-44) to spend in eternity in Heaven with God in (John 14:2).
- Signs - At the end of the book of Mark, there are some verses that have been controversial (Mark 16:17-18). Some manuscripts conclude Mark earlier in the chapter with verse 8. Some believe such gifts no longer continued after the time of the apostles. Those believing this are called cessationists. Someone believing the signs stopped after the apostles but that God might possibly use them again is called a soft cessationist. Those believing that gifts continue still to this day are continuationists. Someone believing that spiritual gifts are still available today but not in full agreement with Charismatic/Pentacostal positions would be an open but cautious continuationist.
- Calvinism vs Arminianism - For those that already know about this subject, here is a present. For the rest of you, Calvinists and Arminians differ in their beliefs on salvation. The short explanation is Calvinists believe that one's salvation is more determined by God ahead of time, while Arminians believe salvation is based on the believer's decision. The long explanation is there are five points about salvation they differ on. These are sometimes called the five points of Calvinism but actually these are the five points the Arminians responded to the Calvinists with that they disagreed on. The five points are often remembered by the acronym TULIP. T is for Total depravity of a human's spiritual condition which technically both sides agree on, but while Calvinists hold this makes mankind unable to choose salvation themselves, Arminians believe man still has the free will to do so. U is for Unconditional election with Calvinists saying God chooses a man according to His will regardless of the man's faith while Arminians believe in Conditional election with God's choice dependent on His foreknowledge of the man. L is for Limited atonement Calvinists say is referring to the scope of Christ's sacrifice being for the elect to secure their salvation while the Arminians believe in Unconditional atonement for all although salvation will just go to those who believe. I is for Irresistible grace which Calvinists say can't be resisted by the elect thereby guaranteeing they are saved, while Arminians counter with Resistible grace meaning that an individual could resist God's grace. P is for Perseverence of the saints by which the Calvinists say the truly saved cannot lose their salvation while Arminians think it is possible to lose one's salvation - some Arminians do believe in Perseverence of the saints.