Ancient Understanding

Job 38:4-5
“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?”

One of the reasons given by theistic evolutionists for why they cannot accept that Genesis 1 teaches a 6 x 24-hour creation is that they do not believe God could have communicated how He had made everything to an ancient people. Their understanding would not have been sufficient for modern scientific concepts. One commentator says, “We gain nothing by bringing God’s revelation into accordance with today’s science. In contrast, it makes perfect sense that God communicated his revelation to his immediate audience in terms they understood.”

The idea is that God actually made life by evolution, but ancient people would not have been able to understand these concepts, so God explained to them the six days scenario instead.

Creation science historian Dr. Terry Mortenson has shown that this presupposition is not correct. He showed that words, concepts and categories were available in ancient Hebrew thought to explain an evolutionary process. Since God is truth, He would have used such language if that indeed were what had happened. Mortenson suggests that an evolutionary Genesis could have read like this:

“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, he expanded a small grain of dust and said, ‘Let there be light.’ And it eventually became so. From this grain of dust, over many great ages he formed the stars and then the sun and finally, after a long age, the earth and the moon.”

God tells the truth, and we can trust what He says.

creationmoments.com/sermons/ancient-understanding

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