And There Was Light

Chapter One, An Introduction
I want to address this book to all the Bible Believers in the world who hold to the creation scenario of Bishop Ussher (1581 – 1656), those who believe that his conclusions concerning the recent date of the creation of the earth and universe is taught in the literal understanding of the words in the book of Genesis and is to be accepted as the truth. In recent decades, a division has intensified among the churches over this issue. There are some that believe with Bishop Ussher that the creation occurred about 6000 years ago, or to put it more exactly, 9 A.M., Sunday, October 23rd, 4004 BC, (according to the proleptic Julian calendar). We can refer to these people as YECs (Young Earth Creationists). Ussher’s date of creation has been accepted by many Christians for the last 300 years since most every edition of the King James Bible has printed Bishop Ussher’s chronology in the margins of the Bible beginning in 1701 A.D.
However, in our day, there are a growing number of Bible Believers that have accepted the overwhelming volume of data and facts that irrefutably demonstrates the universe, and all that is in it, was created a very, very, very, very long time ago, perhaps going back billions of years. Now, please don’t misunderstand my intent. If God had wanted to, He could have created the universe and all that is in it in six seconds, six days, six years, or six million years. However, the evidence shows that God took His time and He does not owe us an explanation. I plan to shed light on this subject in some detail, that will hopefully be easy to understand and yet conclusive with the evidence. So let’s begin; “Let there be Light!”
When we speak to an individual about the things of God, or truths taught in the Bible, we too often have to confront the loud voices crying out that all must believe in a 6000 year old creation because God says so. This ongoing friction causes the enquirer to turn away from Scripture and all that teach it because he knows that he cannot accept a 6000 year old creation of the universe and still remain faithful to his common understanding of the world around him. How many souls have been turned away from Christ because they were taught that they must believe in a young earth in order to be a true believer? You can’t demand that an individual throw out his brains just to become a Believer in Christ. I personally know some individuals that gave up on believing the Bible because some well-meaning Christians told them that they must believe everything the Bible literally says, principally a six day, 144 hour creation about 6000 years ago.
Hermeneutical principles (the principles of Biblical interpretation) have many times been violated when interpreting Genesis, chapter’s one through eleven. Let me ask the reader this simple question: how can one share the message of God as found in the Bible, when he/she must also defend the false teaching of a creation in 4004 B.C.? The idea is ludicrous, leading to ridicule and laughter because of the absurdity of the claim. Centuries ago, when the world was not brought up in the knowledge of science (as it is today), a claim of an instant creation might not have sounded so absurd because the population believed in daily miracles and spirit possessed trees, animals, clouds, and such things. Moses wrote the first book of the Bible to an audience that knew nothing about the physical nature of the universe. The ancients believed that the earth was flat and fixed (i.e. it didn’t move). Read 1 Samuel 2:8; 1 Chronicles 16:30; Psalm 93:1; 104:5; for Biblical evidence. If you believe in a literal, word for word interpretation of these verses, then you are a ‘fixed earther’.
Today, we know that the earth does move (about 67,000 miles per hour around the sun). Does this mean that God lied and the Bible has errors in it? No, not if we realize that God was speaking to a very primitive (by our modern scientific standards) people. He was merely speaking to them according to their intellectual understanding of the heavens and the earth, so therefore the Bible speaks the truth according to the audience to whom it was written.
I believe in the verbal, plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, commonly known as the Holy Bible. These words, “verbal, plenary inspiration,” mean that all the words, and every word, of the Bible in its original language, as written, is totally ordained by God. It was written to an ancient people of an ancient culture in a setting in which they could understand. I believe that God transmitted the Scriptures through His chosen agents, whether apostles, prophets, kings, or men of God-pleasing character. Although errors in the written transmission of the Scriptures have occurred throughout the centuries, God’s Holy Word has still been preserved to better than one part in ten thousand; accuracy unrivaled by any other piece of ancient literature3; and no doctrine of Scripture has been lost or compromised.
However, in every case, the Scriptures were spoken or written in the common language of the day in which they were written and in a culture totally foreign to us in the 21st century. Let it be added that men of the 21st century may find it difficult to understand fully the historical, social, political, geographical, scientific, and religious environment of those days as these things were understood by the people of the Old and New Testament. When reading the Scriptures, it becomes clear that much of what it contains is the history of God’s people and their struggles. The Bible is a major treatise concerning the nature and character of the true and only God, the creator of the universe, and we can also add that the Bible is actually a collection of historical and theological books written to His people over many centuries.
I believe it is safe to say that the Holy Bible is not, and was never intended to be a science textbook, despite what some may have considered scientific truth, such as a “flat earth,” as was held by the Church for millenniums based on a common interpretation of Scripture. Another example of the Bible being understood as a science text was the Church’s teaching that the heavens, including the sun, revolved around the earth. This teaching was based on their faulty interpretation of the Scriptures. Galileo was put under “house arrest” for the last years of his life because he taught that the earth and other planets revolved around the Sun. For a time, he was under the sentence of death if he did not stop teaching this so-called heresy. He relented in the face of the threats of excommunication from the Church. He didn’t like the idea of going to Hell even though he knew that the earth revolved around the Sun. Before his death, Galileo wrote a pamphlet outlining the truth of the motion of the heavenly bodies which was published upon his death.
Let me add this thought: we should never be upset about the Bible not being what it never claimed to be. The Bible does not claim to teach science. Don’t go to the Bible seeking scientific axioms. Be satisfied with this simple truth: God created it all, in His time, in His way, according to His purpose, and using His methods, period. Finally, the Bible does not provide an answer for all of man’s questions. Ask yourself this important question, “why did God author the first chapters of Genesis?” Was it to describe how He made everything; or was it to proclaim that He, the only true God was the creator of all that exists? The fact that God is the creator of all that exists is my argument for those who suppose God was describing the methods of creation and not the fact of creation