At Woodland we believe that God created all things. But we do not hold to one “official” perspective on how and when God created.
The fundamental purpose of the Genesis creation texts (Genesis 1-3) is to proclaim that God is the Creator. These texts state the following biblical truths:
- There is only one eternal Creator-God
- God created all things out of nothing, by the power of his word.
- The creation itself is good, though it is affected by sin
- Man and woman are created with equal value and dignity in the “image of God”
These truths are both clear and important. We hold them to be dogmas of the Christian faith.
Because the questions of how and when God created are not as clear or central to the Christian faith, and because there are differing views in the Christian community, we hold these to be opinion level issues.
How God Created
The Bible does not tell us in a precise and detailed manner how God created. Within our community, at least three different views may be held on whether, or to what degree, God used evolution to create life:
- Fiat Creation – God created everything by a series of direct, supernatural acts within seven 24-hour days. Evolution did not play any significant role in creation.
- Progressive Creation – God directly created the first member of each “kind” of life-form. Then, over a long period of time, the various sub-types developed through micro-evolution.
- Theistic Evolution – Simple life-forms evolved into complex life-forms, just as modern science says (macroevolution), but God directed the whole process.
When God Created
Within our community, at least four different views may be held concerning how long God took to create:
- Young Earth view – The “seven days” of creation represent seven 24-hour periods. Thus, the creation is relatively young.
- Day-Age view – The “seven days” of creation represent seven long periods of time. Thus, the creation is very old.
- Restoration (or Gap) view – The original creation (Genesis 1:1) is very old, but it became corrupted by Satan and was judged by God (Genesis 1:2). Then, God recreated the world more recently (Genesis 1:3 and following, which includes the “seven days”)
- Literary Framework view – The author never intended to tell us the age of the earth. The purpose in Genesis 1 is to proclaim there is only one Creator-God. The “seven days” of creation are a literary device used to convey this theological truth in a way that ancient people would understand. It is not fair to force the Bible to answer modern-day, scientific questions that it was never meant to answer.
Recommended Resources
- “The Genesis Debate,” in Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy
