Creation Science Rebuttals

By Greg Neyman

© Old Earth Ministries

    This question was published in Dr. John's Q&A by John Morris in May 2006.  The point of this article is that the word translated day in Genesis, "yom", should be interpreted to mean a 24 hour day.  Morris says that God goes out of his way to make sure that it can only be interpreted that way.  Old earth creationists do not see it this way.

     I agree that a plain reading of scripture, by the average person, would yield an interpretation of 24-hour days.  And, this is perfectly acceptable.  If one wants to believe it happened in six 24-hour days, they are free to do so.  However, a scientist, reading the same text, would see it differently.  Thus, the Bible is "many things to many peoples."  It can be interpreted in different ways based on the person's knowledge.  Fortunately, the main theme of the Bible, that of salvation in Jesus Christ, is unaffected by the interpretations of Genesis.

    However, the science of Genesis is not in question here...it is the Hebrew word yom.  Old Earth Ministries has an excellent study of the word yom, and you may find it useful.  You can interpret yom in many different ways, from a 12-hour period all the way to infinite time (eternity).  For more, see Word Study: Yom. 

     Morris would argue against using these alternate interpretations for the creation days.  However, the arguments he uses are based on rules of Hebrew interpretation that were devised by young earth theologians.  Thus, the rules were created to support a position.  For instance, the rules of an ordinal with the word day, and the rule of the "evening/morning" construction, were both devised to support the young earth position.  Old earth theologians see these differently, and do not recognize these artificially created rules.

     Another claim of the young earth creationist is that in the Ten Commandments, there is a reference in Exodus 20 that clearly indicates God created in six days, followed by a day of rest.  However, in our study of Exodus 20, there is no reason why this must represent 24-hour days during the creation.  Couple this with Hebrews 4, which indicates that God's day of rest is still ongoing today, and there is no support for the young earth claim.  God is merely giving us a pattern of 6 workdays and 1 rest day.  The pattern is still intact if this is six long periods of time, and 1 long period of time. 

     Morris concludes by saying that "Christians need to allow the unchangeable Scripture to define its own terms and not rely on the temporal musings of men."  I agree that the Scriptures are unchangeable.  However, man's interpretations of the Scriptures are changeable.  We have a much better understanding of our world today, than they had over the last several thousand years.  The world is clearly old.  Old earth creationism, therefore, re-interprets the meaning of Scripture, without changing the Scriptures themselves. 

     Furthermore, Morris says not to rely on the "temporal musing of men."  Young earth creationism is also a "temporal musing of men," just like old earth creationism.  Morris is in no position to claim a superior interpretation.  We are all fallen, sinful men, trying to understand the Scriptures as best we can. 

     Morris has presented no valid evidence in this article in support of his young earth position.  There are no problems with interpreting the word yom as long ages in the creation account, and there are no valid arguments against such an interpretation.

Dr. John's Q&A #209, published on the web at https://www.icr.org/article/when-day-not-day

     If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth.  Click here for more.

    Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism?  Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life?  If you are a young-earth creationism believer, click here.