When God presented the account of how he created the world and universe in Genesis, he gave an explanation that was straight forward and easy to understand. We, of course, have no idea of what processes took place when he spoke or when he stretched his hands. But he gave an account that indicated the work was accomplished in a period of what we know was six days. He makes it very clear in the 10 Commandments that they are 24-hour days (Exodus 20:11). It takes no theological training for the average person to see what he is saying.
In addition, the Bible contains genealogies that run from Adam and Eve to Jesus that allow for the calculation of years since creation, which would put the date at approximately 4000 B.C.
However, man is never satisfied with a straight forward explanation. His intellect tells him that this is impossible. Even Christians doubt the six-day account! And to whom do they go to come up with an alternate explanation? Atheistic philosophers and scientists. So we have fine Christian men who accept the evolutionary time frames and they pass it on to future generations.
Let’s go back to 1926. The Southern Baptist Convention accepted the declaration that the first chapter of Genesis teaches that man was a special creation of God, and rejects every theory, evolution or other, which teaches that man originated in, or came by way of, a lower animal ancestry.
R. H. Pitt, revered editor of the Religious Herald from 1906-1937, leaped in with this statement: “There isn’t an intelligent Baptist 21 years old … who would be willing, if he stopped to think about it, to give his approval of the declaration … that the first chapter of Genesis is literally true. If the first chapters of Genesis are to be taken as literal history, then, of course, the world was made in six days. That is what the record says. No intelligent person in full age in our time believes that the world was made in six days.”
Admittedly, Virginia Baptists were the most liberal of all Southern Baptist states, but this was outright apostasy. I don’t believe it represented the rank and file of Virginia Baptists, but maybe Rev. Pitt would not include them in the “intelligentsia” for whom he wrote. This was nearly 90 years ago and it’s been downhill ever since.
Let’s move to a more recent Baptist pastor and theologian, the late Cecil E. Sherman. Dr. Sherman was the first national coordinator for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and was a professor at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond.
In a sermon at First Baptist Church in Asheeville, N.C., (Jan. 19, 1975) Dr. Sherman said: “Here is what I think: I think the theory of evolution is the best explanation for the way life appeared on this earth. … I hold to the theory of evolution for an explanation of the sequences or process by which life came to this planet.”
In a 1996 book, Defining Baptist Convictions, Dr. Sherman, still upholding evolution, said, “Either the Bible was wrong, Darwin was wrong or there had to be a new reading of the Scriptures.”
Let’s look at a current conservative theologian, R. C. Sproul. In his book Now, That’s a Good Question, Dr. Sproul laughs at the creation date of 4004 B.C. He says “I thought it was funny because there was a man by the name of Archbishop Ussher a couple hundred years ago who, in reading the genealogies in the Bible, calculated an average lifespan of all those mentioned in the genealogy and came up with a highly speculative figure of 4004 as the date of creation.”
Dr. Sproul believes in the six-day account of creation and he says evolution is unmitigated nonsense. He states he is neither a young nor old earth proponent. Recently he indicated because of scientific revelation he leaned to an old earth. While not adopting the evolutionary billions of years of history, he certainly distances himself from the young earth position.
Another great Christian, James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family who believes the Bible is literally true, has made the statement as follows: “I’m not sure whether Genesis refers to six 24-hour days or six ‘eons’ or periods of time. For example, a ‘day’ is defined as one revolution of the earth on its axis, with light from the sun shining on the entire sphere in a 24-hour period. But the sun was not created until the fourth day, so was the first ‘day’ really a day? I don’t know.”
No wonder people find it hard to trust the Bible when fine men like Rev. Pitt and Dr. Sherman dismiss the historical account and Dr. Sproul and Dr. Dobson cast doubt. The real tragedy is that even conservative pastors have been intimidated and don’t preach what they really believe. Even worse are the Christian college and seminary science and religion department professors. Everyone knows the public school and university agenda is to teach atheistic evolution, but you would expect a seminary and a Christian college to be faithful to the biblical account. In a 2011 published account, the America’s Research Group found evidence that vast majority of the seminaries and Christian colleges were already compromised.
Thankfully there are still qualified men with credentials that believe in the literal six days of creation that took place 6,000 years ago. A book, In Six Days, gives the testimony of 50 Christians with Ph.Ds and their detailed, scientific reasons of why they believe in the biblical account.
My take is that more Christian students are eventually compromised in their relationship with the Lord by their teachers and professors who state evolution is a fact. It does not help that many pastors do not seem to have a firm biblical understanding and are in essence compromised themselves.
In the final analysis no one really knows what happened long ago. But the best evidence we have for a six-day creation and a young earth is the Holy Bible with its creation account and the genealogical record. The best evidence for aeon days and old earth is the atheistic evolutionistic theory and its claim of billions of years.
Greene Hollowell, Richmond, Va.